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Case: Change Style of Teaching? Mr. Taylor has been enjoying his first year of teaching sixth grade in a comfortable suburban setting. He has been implementing the new and innovative teaching techniques recommended for ESL (English as a Second Language) students. Mr. Taylor's sixth grade ESL students outnumber his English speaking students in the classroom. Mr. Taylor has been very motivated about the visuals and manipulatives he has added to his lesson information in order to enhance the learning opportunities for all of his students. The animated read alouds and the fun role playing activities certainly have been assets when presenting comprehension skills to the second language learners. Mr. Taylor feels strongly about his successful unconventional strategies that seem to close the language gaps and truly help make learning connections for the ESL students. While the school year is progressing smoothly, Mr. Taylor starts to worry about the conventional end of the year standardized achievement tests. He knows that these scores will be a reflection of his teaching profession as well as an integral part of his school's overall assessment averages. Questions: 1. Should Mr. Taylor change his style of teaching? 2. Is Mr. Taylor's concern about the end of the year assessments a valid concern? 3. Will the conventional assessments administered at the end of the school year reflect Mr. Taylor's teaching ability? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) 1. I think that Mr. Taylor's style of teaching has greatly benefited his students, but it doesn't seem like it has prepared the students for the end of the year tests. I think that if Mr. Taylor would incorporate questions similar to those on the tests then the questions would not come as such a shock to the ESL students. They will have an idea of what the tests questions will be like. 2. Mr. Taylor's concern about the end of the year assessments is a valid concern because it is his teaching that is reflected to by the test scores. If the students do bad on the tests, then his job could be at jeopardy. This does not mean that the students did not learn anything, it just means that they aren't used to taking these kinds of tests and could have test anxiety. 3. The tests at the end of the school year do not completely reflect Mr. Taylor's teaching ability. There could be many factors that would affect the students' score including the time of day, events that may have happened, or anything else. Mr. Taylor is teaching his students and they are learning the material, but they are doing it in a different way than taking standardized tests. |
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