Three Ways to Teach :)

Using a blog makes learning more independent of time and place, peers have this chance to participate, share their own thoughts and teacher can teach anytime and anywhere. besides, it facilitates reflections and evaluations.

To teach second langauge to speakers of other languages, I think teacher should understand each student's cultural background. Students who come from different cultural backgrounds have different perspectives on learning style. In terms of using blog to integrate teaching and learning, teacher should know how to develop himself/herself as a facilitator with open mind by creating learning environment. It is necessary to facilitate students to understand each student's blog post by establishing truse, comfortable and safe environment in order to get everyone involved.

The article Supprting Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Learners in English Education  really helps me to grasp an idea on how to set up activities and assignments towards diverse cultural learners.

Three Ways that I Would Like to Use:

1. Autobiographical writing:

Students use blog as a dairy to reflect their daily life. Students need as many opportunities as possible to interact in the target language instead of seating in in the traditional classroom.

Through autobiographical writing, culturally diverse learners show their diverse experience, culture, and personal life to their learning communities, “teachers and teacher educators must respect all learners and themselves as individuals with culturally defined identities.”( Supprting Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Learners in English Education) Students need to understand and learn about others’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds and experiences. For example, Have second language learners read autobiographies of their age and then write their own stories, and compare and contrast their stories with the ones they read.

2. Peer Reviews and Comments: Blog as a tool to reflect students’ thoughts.

Students write their thoughts and responds to the teacher and the comments from each other. This is the opportunity for collective and collaborative learning since students have the opportunity to read their classmates’ blog and those of others. In this case, students are required to read and respond to classmates’’ posts. Ideally, students need to review the comments left by other classmates and leave their own responses.

3.Blogging Buddy:

When teacher does not have enough time to comment extensively on each student’s post, “blogging buddy”, which could be assigned by the teacher or be chosen from student as students’ editing partner, could take the responsibility to review and comment other’s post. When every student has their own blogging buddy, students will be motivated to post and to give their partner written feedback.

Each second language learner brings with his/her rich and varied language and cultural experiences. As NCTE mentions, “all too often, these experiences remain unrecognized or undervalued as dominant mainstream discourses suppress students’ cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1990)”, therefore teacher should actively acknowledge and incorporate funds of knowledge by understanding that second language learners normally have the fear of using non-native language to compose their ideas, and the needs to be encouraged to write in that language as often as possible.