Section V: Reflective Monitoring and Evaluation

Step One
Through my ESL coursework, my perspective on teaching CLD students and creating
meaningful lessons and assessments for those students has positively changed. Before beginning
the coursework, I had little experience with working with English Language Learners and I did not
have knowledge on instructional practices that support English language acquisition for CLD
students. For example, before taking ESL Linguistics, I had no idea how language was really
developed. Even though I am bilingual, I never really understood how language acquisition
happened nor did I know the technical differences between my two languages (English and
Greek). Since taking the Linguistics course, I now understand how CLD students acquire their
second language and I now know more about the role their native language plays in acquiring
English. I also became more aware of the importance of culturally relevant language use is in the
classroom. I had briefly heard this in one of my undergraduate education courses, but it was
something I didnt give much thought to. As I reflected on my own teaching practices, I realized
that I used a lot of English colloquialisms and slang that could make the instructions I verbalized
difficult for CLD students to follow. Since reflecting and realizing this, I have become much more
aware of what and how I am phrasing instructions in my classroom and I have done more to
ensure that my teaching practices create a classroom that is linguistically open for all of my
students.
Furthermore, I now create lesson activities and assessments that are based on my
students biographies. As a Social Studies teacher, I knew the importance of connecting the
Social Studies content to my students daily lives, which included connecting the content to their
cultures, as a means of making the content engaging and meaningful. However, I never thought
about the language aspect of my students biographies before taking the various ESL courses.
Now when planning lessons, I find artifacts and sources that relate to my students biographies
as a whole, not just pieces of their biographies. This has allowed me to bring in primary source
resources that are in a students L1 for example and we have worked as a class analyzing the
primary sources texts using the original source and a translated source. This has brought about
engaging and meaningful student collaboration for both my CLD student and their peers. I have
then been able to create meaningful assessments based off of these lesson activities that have
provided more accurate insight into the performance of my students.
Now that I am more aware of the linguistic and cultural biographies of my students, I
realize that a lot of the biases and even lack of understanding came from the fact that I havent
really been exposed to working with CLD students in both my educational (practicum
placements/student teaching placement) and professional career. The school I am currently
teaching in has zero students currently in the schools ESL program, and has 3 CLD students in
the building (all three have been exited from the ESL program at our school and another school
within the past three years). When I started my ESL studies, I had no idea who the ESL
coordinator was for our building until I started asking around. I also was unaware that one of my
students was a CLD student who was in our schools ESL program. I had that student in my class
for a whole semester before I knew that they were not a native English speaker. I had assumed
that this student was a native English speaker because I did not notice any language discourse

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issues, and I assumed that he was a native English speaker because of my socialization in a
diverse community that included members of various cultural groups but being diverse did not
equal being a non-native English speaker. Since this time, this student has been exited out of the
ESL program. However, if I had been more aware of this students biography from the beginning I
could have created and used lesson strategies that better incorporated this students cultural
biography and native language to enhance their English language acquisition. Although I had
assumed that this student was a native speaker and I didnt do more to create meaningful
assessments and lessons based on their culture and linguistic needs, I have learned from this
experience and I have adjusted my teaching practices so that I am creating lesson activities and
assessments that meet the needs of all of my students biographies.

Step Two
Throughout my ESL coursework, I have been able to reflect on many questions I have
held about teaching CLD students and educational policies in relation to ESL programs. Even
though many of my questions have been answered through my reflective practices and course
work, there are still two questions I want to investigate further. As an educator who thrives on
expanding my own knowledge, I have read a lot and discussed with colleagues about how former
educational policies like No Child Left Behind have had negative effects on English Language
Acquisition programs/Bilingual programs, and the cultural bias it exemplified in its assessment
practices. Even though Common Core is the main educational policy at play today, I am still
curious about what the lasting effects of No Child Left Behind are in relation to English Language
Acquisition programs, and I want to know more about what effects the Common Core standards
are having on those programs and how ESL educators can continue to serve the needs of our
CLD students while following the educational policies at play. Another question I still have stems
from my experiences working in a small rural community with little to no diversity, especially
when it comes to languages. There is a lot of research that shows that the development of a
students L1 is a major factor in their English language acquisition, however, in my school, many
of my colleagues do not support the use of a students native language in the school. There are
also very few members of the staff who have practice in creating lessons and assessments that
are culturally relevant for CLD students, which also causes issues when there are CLD students in
our building. Many of the staff members in our building have not been exposed to diverse
cultures and languages because most of them have not left the town we work in most of the
staff (85%) are natives to the town and only left when they went to college (but many of them
lived at home while attending college so they were not fully immersed in the college
community). Finally, most of my colleagues have not studied in ESL/ELL related coursework nor
have they attended professional development that addresses how to effectively teach CLD
students.

Step Three
There are many ways I am planning on addressing the questions in Step Two in the
future. I plan to continue to research the effects of No Child Left Behind and Common Core on
ESL education, attend professional development workshops and conferences, collaborate with
colleagues, and continue to scaffold instruction for my students.

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 Recently, I read The Great Civil Rights Movement and the New Culture Wars by Joel
Spring. Within that article, Joel Spring briefly touches upon the negative effects No Child Left
Behind has had, and this is the article that my question really stemmed from. This article has
provoked me to do more research on the lasting effects of NCLB. I am also very curious about
the effects Common Core has been having on those programs. Since I have only been teaching
using the Common Core standards, I am more familiar with how they are used in the classroom
than I am with previous education standards. Therefore, plan on continuing researching
Common Core in relation to English Language Learners and compare the effects it has had to the
effects of NCLB. With researching the effects of Common Core, I also want to continue to
research better ways to use Common Core standards with CLD students. There is a book that I
found that I would like to read called Navigating the Common Core with English Language
Learners by Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypneski. The book discusses how you can use the
Common Core standards to promote higher order thinking for CLD students in meaningful and
effective ways. My goal is to have a better understanding on what the lasting effects the
changing educational policies and standards have on English Language Acquisition and how I can
use that research to better my own teaching practices.
I also plan on addressing my questions by attending professional development and
collaborating with my colleagues. As I have started researching these questions, I also started
researching available professional development opportunities for teaching and working with CLD
students. I havent found any upcoming conferences near where I live, but there are online
courses and conferences through TESOL. I plan on attending some of these online sessions in the
near future to expand my knowledge and get a better understanding on how the change in
standards have been effecting ESL education. Collaborating with my colleagues, especially those
who are more familiar with ESL education is another way I plan on addressing my questions. I
plan on discussing changes in ESL curriculum practices with my districts Curriculum Coordinator
and ESL Specialist. When discussing the changes, I also want to discuss what type of curriculum
resources in native languages our district has for our CLD students and how they have been used
in the classroom previously. Also, since I have many coworkers who are apprehensive with CLD
students using their native languages in school and they do not understand how to create
assessments that are culturally relevant and meaningful for our CLD students, I want to use PDC
time to discuss the research explaining the benefits of native language development and use in
schools for CLD students as they develop their English language skills. I want to be an advocate
for CLD students both in my district and out, and I hope that by using PDC time to discuss this
research and show the benefits to my coworkers, they will be more open and understanding of
the blogographies of our CLD students.
Finally, I plan on continuing my scaffolding/differentiated instruction for my students in
the classroom, even as policies shift nationally. Based on the research I have already completed
and the coursework I have completed, I know the importance of creating and using activities and
assessments that fit the unique needs of my students. Students should be the center of focus
when planning curriculum and lessons, and they need to have an active role in planning their
education. Through researching the effects NCLB and Common Core have on ESL education, I
can have a better understanding on how I can scaffold instruction in my classroom to counter
the effects on the small scale. Additionally, by collaborating with my colleagues, I hope that they
will also use scaffolding techniques that benefit CLD students when they are in their classes.

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Since I teach at the secondary level I do not have my students all day, it is important that as a
grade level team and school wide team we are working together to create biography driven
instruction for our CLD students in our building, especially since we do not have a full time ESL
teacher or specialist in our building. I hope that through continuing my research, attending
professional development, and collaborating with colleagues, I will have more answers for my
questions.

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