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Entry 1: Course Introduction

Welcome everyone!

My name is Savannah Block and this is my first entry blog for Spring semester. I am majoring in Human Development and Family Studies with EC-6 Generalist Certification. I am in my second semester of student teaching first grade at Foster Elementary in Humble ISD. I look forward to seeing everyone's vlog posts as well as sharing mine. Below is a link for my Vblog Entry 1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEke0mst16E&feature=youtu.be

VBlogEntry1

Comments

  1. marinaFebruary 3, 2019 at 12:17 PM

    Hi Savannah!
    My name is Marin Velazquez. It was nice getting to know you from your video! I to am in a primary grade level, I love Kindergarten. I like it for the same reasons you do, the innocence and the independence a lot of people might not know they have until they work with that age. I think it's cool you don't speak another language just because being at the University of Houston are bilingual. In fact, according to Ortega, Human language
    manifests itself in spoken, signed and written systems across more than 6,500
    languages documented to date. The fact that you still show interest in cultures makes you stand out and it helps me install trust in your knowledge of being understanding with our ELL's. Thank you for sharing your video!

    Ortega, L. (2014). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.

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    1. Savannah BlockFebruary 10, 2019 at 11:02 AM

      Hi Marin! Thank you for commenting. I also like Kindergarten and I agree that they are a lot more independent than people may assume. I appreciate your comment about installing trust in me being understanding of ELLs, and I believe that it is really important for us to do that as teachers. I find it really interesting to look at ELL students in the younger grade levels. In our reading, Ortega looked at a study in which researchers discussed it children or adults were better in second language learning. After completing over 18 studies, they found that younger learners are actually more successful than those that are exposed to a second language at an older age (2013, p. 17). This made me consider our kindergarten and first grade ELL students. Being exposed to languages at an age that is so long is actually really beneficial for them.

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    2. Savannah BlockFebruary 10, 2019 at 11:04 AM

      Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.

      Delete
  2. SLA: Rodriguez.Selena.-Spring19February 3, 2019 at 6:27 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. SLA: Rodriguez.Selena.-Spring19February 3, 2019 at 6:29 PM

    a. Hello Ms. Savannah Block. It’s wonderful to meet you! I also would like to teach younger children in grades Pre-K and Kindergarten. I have also worked with students from various grades as a tutor and teacher’s assistant. It is a challenge to help students who are behind, but very rewarding when they start to show improvement. As a native Texan and as a person who works in an airport, I have also been surrounded by people from many different countries each with their own unique language. I enjoy learning about new cultures as well. In middle school I took German language class, and did very well. I loved learning German, and enjoyed speaking to my German teacher in German. Also from middle school through high school, I tried to learn Spanish. For some reason Spanish was difficult for me to learn compared to German, and I struggled to maintain a good grade in Spanish class. Just like you though, I plan on continuing to learn Spanish to help my future ESL students. Just like Ortega said, “most children grow up speaking two or more languages simultaneously” (Ortega, 2013, p. 4), and I feel that it is my duty as a teacher to help my future ESL students to the best of my ability.

    Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.

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    Replies
    1. Megan ProulxFebruary 8, 2019 at 1:38 PM

      Hey Selena, I was reading your comment to Savannah and was very interested in some things you shared. I'm interested to know more about your experience learning German in middle school. First of all I think that's so awesome that your middle school offered more opportunities for learning a second language than just Spanish. My middle school only offered Spanish, which I did love taking, and my high school only offered Spanish and French, where I continued my Spanish classes for 2 more years. What surprised me is that you said you took German in middle school and did very well, and that you actually loved learning it and enjoyed speaking in the language with your German teacher! Unless you knew German before taking it, that success is amazing, because according to Ortega, "At three hours a week by nine months of school a year, students enrolled in a foreign language in school may experience as little as 540 hours of actual instruction and L2 exposure over five years. By contrast, in the same chronological time window, learners in L2 environments may accrue about 7,000 hours of L2 exposure" (2013, p. 17). Taking German in a formal school setting in Texas would mean you were likely getting very little exposure to the language as opposed to someone learning the language in Germany, so that's awesome that it was a successful experience for you. Thanks for sharing!

      Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.

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    2. Savannah BlockFebruary 10, 2019 at 11:14 AM

      Hi, Selena! Thank you for commenting! I can imagine you have heard many different languages as you work at the airport! That would be cool to experience. I find it interesting that you had an easier time learning German than Spanish. I would have assumed it would be the other way around, but maybe that has to do with the what you have learned about German. As you mentioned from the reading, "most children grow up speaking two or more languages simultaneously", I also find it important to consider the children that grow up speaking only one language(2013, p. 3). These children are also known as monolingual children, and it is interesting to look at the child's capacity to learn other language once that first language has been established (2013, p.4). I look forward to learning more about this topic in the class and using that information in my classroom.

      Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.

      Delete
    3. Savannah BlockFebruary 10, 2019 at 11:21 AM

      This comment has been removed by the author.

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    4. Savannah BlockFebruary 10, 2019 at 11:23 AM

      Hi Megan! I found your comment really interesting. I really liked your quote from Ortega. It made me think about the ELL students in my class, as well as my own experience taking French in high school. We can only take in so much information when learning a new language, and depending on how much we use it, we might have a hard time making it "stick". In the reading, Ortega mentions that "multifarious opportunities for L2 acquisition arise from travel, employment, migration, war, marriage and other such as happy as well as unhappy life events. Therefore, more people learn additional languages from a mixture of both naturalistic and instructed experiences" (2013, p.6). The instructed experiences is what we or our students can learn in the classroom. The more we are exposed to other cultures and languages, the easier it will be to learn them.

      Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.

      Delete

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