PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
(Teaching English as a Second Language, MA)
APLNG 595: Internship | Fall, 2013
This course provide opportunities to practice teaching methodologies in a one-on-one tutoring environment by tutoring ESL students for academic writing. Each tutoring intern is required to fulfill a total of 1500 minutes of tutoring sessions along with the submission of tutoring reflection after each session and a final reflection paper. I was assigned to have 12 mandatory tutoring sessions with one tutee, appointement-based tutoring sessions with two other tutees, and attending one group tutoring class session in an ESL 015 classroom.
" During the course and during the progress of tutoring, a lot of the ideas and concepts I had about tutoring have been reshaped. ... I had a great opportunity to think of a tutor's role and a teacher's role. As a teacher, I used to lead the class most of the time and needed to pose certain authority to guide the entire group of young students. The individual relationship helped me to realize the amount of impact I might have on the tutee and helped to reflect on to my next action.
... Through the entire semester of tutoring, I reshaped my beliefs and instructional skills. As a person and as a teacher, I now have greater insights of how to view students, effectively teach students, and build relationships with students." - From Final Course Reflection "Multiple Roles Taken in Teaching" |
APLNG 586: Analyzing Classroom Discourse | Spring, 2014
This course introduced me to basic concepts of research methodology: Conversation Analysis (CA). The course provides multiple opportunities to observe, discuss, and analyze classroom interaction by using CA methods. I was able to obtain deeper understanding of the key concepts of CA especially in classroom interaction; learn the basic skills of transcribing classroom interaction with CA conventions; and lead data sessions for more efficient CA data analysis.
" The entire process of transcribing, analyzing, and leading a data session motivated me to observe classroom interaction in a different point of view, and helped me to realize the value of cooperation. ... The data session my partner and I led together was an interesting experience to get different perspectives and ideas. I learned how important it is to work together for transcribing and realized how much more details I can find by looking closely to the interaction.
... My partner and I worked together transcribing part of the data, which gave both of us a good idea of the classroom setting, the teacher's character, and the classroom's dynamics. For each word, each intonation, and each transition, my partner and I stopped, repeated, said the same word out loud to each other, and discussed what would be the best choice of convention to represent that particular part. We were able to reach an agreement after a discussions and move on to the next part of the data; when the transcribing was done individually, the decision-making process was even harder. Also, it was interesting to receive various opinions from a group of people, which suggested more possibilities to explore. "
... My partner and I worked together transcribing part of the data, which gave both of us a good idea of the classroom setting, the teacher's character, and the classroom's dynamics. For each word, each intonation, and each transition, my partner and I stopped, repeated, said the same word out loud to each other, and discussed what would be the best choice of convention to represent that particular part. We were able to reach an agreement after a discussions and move on to the next part of the data; when the transcribing was done individually, the decision-making process was even harder. Also, it was interesting to receive various opinions from a group of people, which suggested more possibilities to explore. "
- From Post-data Session Reflection "Cooperative Thoughts Opening to Discovery"
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APLNG 597A: Exploring L2 Classroom Practice | Maymester, 2014
Auditing this course in May contributed greatly to develop hands-on teaching practices and combine pieces of knowledge and teaching experience into one merging philosophy. Deeply rooted to Humanism, the course provided multiple opportunities to plan and design classroom activities that could help students to be more motivated in L2 classroom and connect with the teacher and peers. The course is mainly ran by activity leading and reading discussion, which allowed me to connect theories, practices, and pedagogical beliefs. I led two activities in this course from Ways of Doing: Students explore their everyday and classroom practices (Davis, Garside, & Rinvolucri, 1998) and adapted many activities in my actual course teaching during summer, 2014. The portfolio I created as a final product of this course has become a useful resource to brainstorm and design lesson plans.
Activity 1: My name's ... and I ...
This activity was developed to become a very useful activity on the first day of class to not only familiarize each student's name but also to know and understand each other in a more personal level. Students do not only introduce their names, but express the meaning and their feelings about their names and further introduce themselves.
This activity was developed to become a very useful activity on the first day of class to not only familiarize each student's name but also to know and understand each other in a more personal level. Students do not only introduce their names, but express the meaning and their feelings about their names and further introduce themselves.
" In the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) perspective, this activity allow the class to share unknown information. In the Sociocultural Teaching (SCT) perspective, the activity helps students to be aware of the fact that there are different backgrounds for different names. In the perspective of Humanism, talking about their names can be personal, which also allows changes for students to express their feelings about their names as well. "
-From Final Course Portfolio "Day 4/ 3.12: My name's ... and I ... Reflective Notes"
-From Final Course Portfolio "Day 4/ 3.12: My name's ... and I ... Reflective Notes"
Activity 2: Feel-think-do
This activity became a very useful evaluation tool after completing major assignments in ESL 015 classes. Students were allowed to reflect and evaluate the assignment itself and also their feelings toward the assignment. They express how they feel about the assignment, which provides an opportunity to share and express feelings that also creates great classroom rapport; they critically evaluate the assignment and articulate their thoughts about the assignment that makes students valuable members to the classroom and also providing an opportunity to improve future assignments in the class.
This activity became a very useful evaluation tool after completing major assignments in ESL 015 classes. Students were allowed to reflect and evaluate the assignment itself and also their feelings toward the assignment. They express how they feel about the assignment, which provides an opportunity to share and express feelings that also creates great classroom rapport; they critically evaluate the assignment and articulate their thoughts about the assignment that makes students valuable members to the classroom and also providing an opportunity to improve future assignments in the class.
APLNG 583: Methods of Language Assessment | Fall, 2014
This course provided a great opportunity for me to consider other social, institutional, and cultural aspects in teaching in general -- also associated with the instrument of language assessment and language testing. In relation to various theoretical approaches, I was able to view and evaluate language assessment in different aspects: within types, purposes, objectives, grading methods, etc. I had opportunities to get hands-on practices on developing different types of assessment and developed a demonstration test as a final project in this course.
Written Assignment #4
The task of this assignment was to consult the California English Language Development Test Web site (http://celdt.cde.ca.gov/) and evaluate the CELDT in terms of content validity, face validity, and authenticity.
The task of this assignment was to consult the California English Language Development Test Web site (http://celdt.cde.ca.gov/) and evaluate the CELDT in terms of content validity, face validity, and authenticity.
" In a particular aspect, CELDT shows high content validity based on the fact that it is testing exactly what has been claimed. ... The face validity of CELDT is difficult to be justified when testing a massive number of students in one particular period of time, and then providing an overall scoring report after taking the test. ... The test items include certain authentic components such as the speaking domain itself and the inclusion of visual components. "
- From APLNG583 Written Assignment #4
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Demonstration Test: ESL Library Quiz
The final demonstration test allowed me to consider various factors when developing an instrument for language testing. I designed a test to assess students' ability of recalling information after the two library session they usually have with a librarian in the ESL 015 course at Penn State. I designed the assessment with considerations to the course objectives, my decision of the form of this assessment (formative assessment), and domain of knowledge being tested (reading and writing skills).
The final demonstration test allowed me to consider various factors when developing an instrument for language testing. I designed a test to assess students' ability of recalling information after the two library session they usually have with a librarian in the ESL 015 course at Penn State. I designed the assessment with considerations to the course objectives, my decision of the form of this assessment (formative assessment), and domain of knowledge being tested (reading and writing skills).
" The purpose of this test mostly lies on formative assessment and is also oriented to be a criterion-referenced test. ... The test will mostly assess students' reading and writing skills in order to test students' grasp of the content knowledge. The test will be distributed in a form of take-home quiz, allowing students enough time to explore and research for their own purpose of using library resources. Items will contain multiple choices, fill-in-the-blank, picture-cued, True/False, matching, short paraphrasing, and outlining questions.
... A grading rubric is created to establish boundaries of possible answers, and to allow possibilities of giving partial points while hollistically grading written responses. The rest of the items will be graded by the correctness of the answer, with distributed points written in parentheses next to each item. The points each student obtained will be added into a total score at the end. Feedback will be provided after the test with each student's grade and marginal comments for short writing answers if necessary. "
- From Demonstration Test "ESL 015 Library Quiz"
... A grading rubric is created to establish boundaries of possible answers, and to allow possibilities of giving partial points while hollistically grading written responses. The rest of the items will be graded by the correctness of the answer, with distributed points written in parentheses next to each item. The points each student obtained will be added into a total score at the end. Feedback will be provided after the test with each student's grade and marginal comments for short writing answers if necessary. "
- From Demonstration Test "ESL 015 Library Quiz"