Teaching Portfolio

Teaching Portfolio

Alicia Anderson

Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education with ESL Endorsement

Table of Contents

Self-Introduction3

Language Literacy Autobiography4

Weekly Reading Responses and Peer Responses………………………………………………………7

Mini-Interview Project…………………………………………………………………………………………….25

Thematic Unit………………………………………………………………………………………………………….30

Teaching Philosophy……………………………………………………………………………………………….46

Research Abstracts………………………………………………………………………………………………….47

Final Reflection………………………………………………………………………………………………………..52

Self-Introduction

This document is an introductory discussion post written on 1/24/13. Writing this introduction was meant to introduce myself to my classmates and professor for my C&T 820 course. The introduction gave background knowledge on my past education and language development as well as including my interests and aspirations for the future.

Hi my name is Alicia Anderson. I am from Prairie Village, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City. My first language is English. I am familiar with Spanish and Mandarin. In high school, I took four years of Spanish, and have visited Mexico two times. In the summer of 2011, I studied abroad in China where I took a three-week course introducing the Mandarin written and spoken language. I attended and graduated from the University of Kansas from 2008-2012. I have a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education. I am currently in my 5th year at KU working on my Master's Degree and ESOL endorsement. In my 5th year, I have student taught in KCK in a Kindergarten classroom where 6 students were ELL's. My hobbies include running, watching TV and movies, hanging out with my friends, cooking, and babysitting. My career goal is to obtain a full-time elementary teaching position in a general education classroom. I would like to complete my Master's Degree within the next few years and work on a specialization in teaching and researching literacy. From this course I would like to learn more about ELL's struggles with learning English and ways to help them improve their literacy.

Language Literacy Autobiography

This document is a narrative written about my personal views on language learning and teaching. This was written 2/10/13. The purpose of the language literacy autobiography was to explore my past experiences with language both first and second. Exploring my own experiences is important in realizing what language learning and teaching entails and to grow as an educator.

The Ups and Downs of Language Learning: Language Autobiography

I am the youngest of an older brother and sister. Growing up, I did everything how my older siblings did. In fact, I didn’t even talk until I was two years old. Instead, my sister would speak for me. I remember my mom telling me stories about my silent infant years. She told me I would point to the things and my sister would say, “Mom, Alicia wants more water”. My delay in speaking language did not transfer into my desire to read and write. When my siblings were attending school and receiving homework, I would create my own. I would pretend to read and write using memory and scribbles. My sister and I would pretend we were teachers or owners of a restaurant, creating lessons or menus. We enjoyed any type of imaginative play including pretending to read.

As we both became educated on how to read and write our imagination turned into dedication to complete homework. In my early years of schooling, writing was simple and celebrated creativity. My teachers used poetry, pen pals and read alouds bringing excitement to books and literature. I still have pictures from a poetry recital in the third grade and letters from a seventh grade pen pal. Outside of school, I wrote in diaries and read for enjoyment. Looking back, there is not one bad experience I had with reading or writing. I was doing activities that were engaging and surrounded literature with positives.

My first bad experiences came in high school. I was no longer reading and writing for enjoyment, but rather for a grade. The hour I took English was the worst part of my day. I never completed the readings of Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby and To Kill A Mockingbird. I often refused to do writing assignments, leaving my mother to complete a few for me. I cheated on vocabulary tests being unmotivated. To me all of these encounters of literature would not benefit me in my future. I was not reading or writing outside of school instead I was watching television.

On the other hand, I did have one successful experience in high school. It was my twenty page senior paper. At the time, it seemed like a daunting task, but when I finished it was my greatest accomplishment. This sparked a new interest in what literature could offer. I began reading freely outside of school, developing an interest for fantasy and adventure novels. I found the difference from hating English courses at the beginning of high school to appreciating English courses at the end were differences in teaching. Most of my teachers showed a lack of passion until my senior year. My teacher exhibited a passion as if he lived and breathed Shakespeare. That passion translated into me.

Taking that passion into college wasn’t easy. I was bogged down with meticulous textbook readings and pointless writings. I found myself entering that phase of hating reading and writing again. In fact, throughout my first years of college I rarely ever completed the required textbook readings and wrote papers the night before they were due. It wasn’t until I began taking my education courses when I found interest again. The topics were important for my future as well as intriguing. I even found myself reading fictional books outside of school about education.

Overall, my English language learning has had a bunch of ups and downs. I believe when I am interested in a topic as well as influenced by people, reading and writing becomes enjoyable for me. When I am reading and writing to earn a grade, it becomes daunting.

Further, I have had two foreign language and literacy experiences that have helped shape my language learning. The first experience was in high school, learning Spanish. The second was studying abroad in China, learning Mandarin. Both of these experiences sparked my good and bad feelings about language learning.

My foreign language learning began in elementary school and continued through high school. In elementary school, we learned simple phrases and played vocabulary games. The years I attended elementary school were the beginning of the increase of Spanish speaking immigrants coming to America. This placed an importance on learning a foreign language, especially Spanish. Also, my elementary school had an ESL program. I was able to interact with ESL students. One of my friends was an immigrant from Mexico. She moved to America for her parents to work and for her education. Attending birthday parties and play dates at her house exposed me to the Spanish community. This interaction provided me with a strong interest in learning the language. I wanted to communicate with her family and understand the Mexican culture.

As I continued to develop my Spanish speaking skills in high school, I became more fluent. I wanted to find more opportunities where I could speak Spanish inside and outside of class. Unfortunately, those experiences were limited to my two vacations to Mexico. The vacations only offered a few immersive encounters when I had to speak Spanish to communicate. The locals were surprised when I could respond and carry on a choppy conversation with them. I learned that I was far from fluency. Traveling to Mexico was a great experience, but it was also discouraging. I felt the schooling I had received did not prepare me for the immersion I had experienced in Mexico. I found that it was tough to become fluent in a language without the opportunity and need of communicating in that language. However, not continuing my Spanish learning is one of my biggest regrets in regards to my language learning. Looking back, I enjoyed dissecting the language and learning how the language was spoken.

My second foreign language experience was very different than my Spanish learning. I did not actively take courses to learn Mandarin, learning Mandarin was chosen for me. I was immersed into the language when I studied abroad in China. My study abroad program took place in a university setting where I took classes to learn Mandarin and the history of Chinese education. Many of the Chinese students and our teachers at the university were fluent in English. This was encouraging for me because the Mandarin language is very complicated.

The language class I took everyday for two weeks focused on speaking and writing the language. In those two weeks, I was taught a whirlwind of instruction that didn’t seem to make sense. I gained a new appreciation for the Chinese students and effort they put into learning their language. They spend hours a day practicing and learning each stroke in each character of the language while also learning English. I find myself comparing their intense learning back to my years of hating language learning. However, my experience with learning Mandarin was exciting.

The learning of Mandarin was exciting because the language is unique and was different than any other experience. I was immersed into the culture, forcing me to apply what little knowledge I had to communicate. This was both thrilling and frustrating at times, but gave me a true opportunity to learn from my mistakes. Another fascinating aspect was the amount of Chinese people who could speak English. I would speak with them in English, and then they would help me with my Chinese. Having a bilingual teacher to learn from was a great experience. That experience is what made me regret not continuing to learn Spanish.

My language autobiography began with silence and ended with a realization. Throughout that time, I experienced up and downs with hating and enjoying literacy. I have learned from my language learning and hope to translate what I learned into teaching. I want to display a passion for learning literacy in my students as well as continue my own literacy education.

Weekly Reading Responses and Peer Responses

This document displays weekly reading reflections and peer responses of scholarly articles from 1/30/13-4/30/13. The document also include the references of the scholarly readings. This document is evidence of critical reflection of timely pedagogical issues in the field of language learning and teaching as well as constructive feedback of peers. It is evident of my meta-cognition skills used to analyze key topics in order to learn and grow.

2/3/13

References:

Kubota, R. (2001). My experience of learning to read and write in Japanese as L1 and English as L2. In D. Belcher & U. Connor (Eds), Reflections on multiliterate lives (pp. 96-109). Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.

Steinman, L. (2007). Literacy autobiographies in a university ESL class. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 63(4), 563-573.

Reading Response:

Kubota’s story about her development of writing in her L1 and L2 intrigued me. I began to think of my own writing experiences and found some similarities and differences. I discovered that in my early years of elementary school was loved to read and write. As the years went on, I found myself enjoying reading and writing less and less. I searched for a reason for the change, and I blame the years of English I had in middle school, which consisted of boring textbook reading and lack of motivated teachers. Kubota’s story intrigues me by the amount of writing done and the different types of writing done in her L1. Also, the fact that listening to English songs deepened her interest in learning to write was surprising. Including varies and many types of writing in classroom is important as well as drawing on music or drama to enrich the writing are two important things I drew from Kubota’s story.

After reading about Steinman’s intention and rationale for students to develop a literacy autobiography, I began to think of the pivotal moment I had in my writing. My moment came in my senior English class while writing an 18 page paper comparing and contrasting two novels. Thinking back on that writing experience allowed me to realize my writing abilities did not change, but were enriched by my learning. Further, I considered the time when I was learning to write Mandarin. My teacher began to use a contrastive analysis feature to show similarities and differences between Mandarin and English, well more differences. Just as Steinman’s students showed an appreciation for their W1, I began to do the same.

Lastly, the most meaningful point I took away from Steinman’s rationale was the ending quote. I believe that each student’s first language and traditions should not be replaced by the second, but rather a second language should be used to deepen the first. This past semester, I student taught in a Kindergarten classroom that had six English Language Learning students. I would encourage the ELL’s to speak their first language with their parents, check out books in their first language, and write using their first language at home. I believe these aspects are important for ELL’s to do because they will begin to realize those similarities and differences between their L1 and English, which will allow them to develop in both languages.

Response to Peer:

After reading Kubota's story I began to think of my own reading and writing experiences. It was neat to hear how you related so closely with her development of her L2. I also took Spanish throughout high school, taking a few trips to Mexico. I agree 100% with the importance of having meaningful immersion for L2 learners because I felt my interactions in Mexico were more worthwhile than my Spanish classes in America. Also, I believe that offering multiple means of communication for L2 learners is important. Kubota mentions how English music really inspired her to learn the language. I think music or drama or even television could be a useful tool for L2 learners to begin to immersethemselvesinto a language. However, it is important for them toreceivemeaningful and academic communication opportunities as well.

2/10/13

References:

Diaz-Rico (2008) CH. 1. Who are English learners and their teachers? (pp. 1-21)