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Blog Post 4: Reflection of Course

I was not entirely sure what to expect coming into this class. Having learned a second language before, I figured the content would not be too difficult to comprehend. I feel like I learned an extensive amount of knowledge from the course, however. I realize that, while I understood the process and the steps that were present for myself, as I developed comprehension and fluency of my second language, I had little insight toward the vast diversity of factors that influence others, particularly children, as they develop their own mastery of a new language. Learning a second language is a difficult task. In order for the most efficient learning to occur, second language learners must be able to make connections between languages they already have comprehension of and languages they are working toward developing fluency in. In my future classroom, I will strive to provide these connections to my students who are learning English as their second language. In my lesson plans, I will provi...
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Blog Post 3

Hey everyone! In my third blog I interviewed Melinda Cox. Mrs. Cox is a 7th and 8th grade teacher in the county I live in who was generous enough to sit with me and answer some questions about her experiences with ELL students. Mrs. Cox is currently in her 12th year as an educator and is still very passionate about the work she does. When I asked Mrs. Cox about high-stakes testing, she did not seem very pleased with how they are structured toward ELL students. She mentioned that they do benefit students, seemingly more so with their English studies than in other, in a way but addressed flaws with their design as well. Something that stood out to me, when discussing these forms of test was when Mrs. Cox mentioned that it's commonly accepted that the ELLs will fail this first time around. She mentioned that the students are generally aware of this, as well as the teachers. A reason for this is that, as Wright wrote, "Among the many other problems with state high-stakes tests is...
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Blog Entry 2 Interview with Lauren

Hi guys! In this second blog I chose to interview a long-time family friend named Lauren.  Lauren is from upstate New York, where all of my family hails from. Lauren's family has deep French roots. Lauren grew up learning about the French language in her early years, though she also studied the English language during that time. She explained that English was a little tough to pick up in comparison, and she struggled some with pronunciation and associating with comparable spellings of words within the language. Wright says that "Student difficulties in pronunciation often have to do with the fact that some English phonemes may not exist (or may very slightly) in a student's home language, and vice versa" (Wright, 2015, p.31). For Lauren the most helpful thing was when teachers had a competent understanding of and fluent ability to teach phonology. "Knowledge of phonology helps teachers understand issues related to pronunciation, accents, a and regional varieties ...
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Blog 1

Hallo! Ich heiße Ryan Crim. I am a Senior at UH Main Campus and I am working on a degree in early childhood through sixth-grade. my three major passions are; music, cooking, and helping others. I am an advocate for the learning and growth of children in all regards. I believe all children should be provided with the best opportunity to learn that they can possibly have. And, I hope to provide such an opportunity, in my own classroom. Here is a link to my video: https://tinyurl.com/ryanblog1 Blog 1
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