Describe the Program/Site Visited
My target teaching level will be EFL in college level in Taiwan. The English that Taiwanese colleges teach is as easy as the middle school ELD program, or maybe easier. I may start to teach middle school and high school level in Taiwan before I get my doctoral degree.
Cucamonga Middle School located in Rancho Cucamonga near Ontario Mills serves grades 6-8 in the Central Elementary School District. In addition, this is a nice and friendly school. I did my field work here for three weeks from Monday to Friday this summer. Moreover, the school has received a Great Schools rating of 7 out of 10 based on its performance on state standardized tests. I did the teacher interview in their EDL (English Development Program).
Donna Chadwick is the teacher for the ELD classroom. It is a pull out class. School pulls out thirty-three students from Grade 6-8. Moreover, she is an hour-by-hour part time teacher in CMS. She has taught in CMS for three years. Mrs. Chadwick is a very professional and experience teacher. She had already worked as a teacher for thirty years. She had taught in many schools such as Arroyo K-6 and Oaks Middle school.
Mrs. Chadwick graduated from Cal Poly Pomona in 1968, then worked for a master degree in Education. In addition, she had a credential in elementary education. She began teaching in 1970 at an elementary school with migrant farm workers who had no education. Then she went back at night to get a master degree in learning handicapped while teaching during the day. Also she had an LH(learning handicapped) at San Bernardino State University.
I do really like the way she teaches. She cares about students and she finds lots of resource. For example, she went to the Cucamonga Public library to lend eleven books to show the power of poems. She also did the teaching plan before the tri-semester based on the High Point Curriculum. And she will write daily agenda on board for students who had hard time to pay attention in class.
Talk about her teaching style. She is strict, patient, and helpful. She needs to be strict because she just has forty-five minutes for a class. She always wants her students feel successful and happy to learn English but not too competitive.
Why students need ELD class in CMS? There are some students who just moved to the United States from Mexico, Thailand and other countries. As a result, they need English as a second language to catch up to the regular class. There is a placement test which can sort students into five levels. Students who sorted in the first three levels need to go to ELD class everyday for an hour.
The results from the California English Language test are just the placement for pulling out students from the regular classroom. They sort ELD students into three classes: Grade 6, 7, 8. It is obvious that students are at mixed levels of English ability in the same classroom. Some of them had the ability to speak in fluency English but they cannot read and write.
There is a daily placement for ELD students called “Diagnosis and Placement Inventory”. That is a text to exam students’ ability about English vocabulary, reading and writing.
From Placement to Instruction
Mrs. Chadwick thinks about the question “How do teachers make use of initial placement data to meet students’ instructional needs?” for couples minutes. She said she will care about “what group they should be”. ELD students should be sort in right levels but not place them with age. In fact, there are no more funds for the CMS ELD students. They may have no more ELD class after 2010 February.
Curriculum and Instruction
The ELD program used Hampton Brown’s High Point series. As you can see from the textbook pictures, there are three levels and one more beginning level (purple). There are five units in each book and many readings and discussion questions in the textbooks. The textbook comes with workbook and activity book. Moreover, there are some good High Point Reading Series.
Program Critique
The program delivers daily review. Sometimes students have homework to do, others the practice in class. There are eight special aid students in the ELD class. For example, Jessica moved to the United States four years ago and she still has hard time to be in class and do any homework. Some of them are non-function students. Moreover, some of 8 grader student think they shouldn’t be in the ELD class.
There are numerous suggestions that CMS ELD program can be improve. First of all, there should be enough funds for teachers for the whole years/day. She paid by three hours and work over six hours a day. Second, ELD students need more class time to study English. Last but not least, Regular class teachers should meet ELD teachers and have some information transition.
References:Cucamonga Middle School Website: http://www.csd.k12.ca.us/cucamonga/
Textbook (High Point) Website: http://www.hbhighpoint.com/
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