ENTRY 3: INTERVIEW WITH BARRAZA
For my interview I decided to interview my mentor teacher. Diana Barraza has been teaching for 19 years. She currently teaches at Owens Elementary in 3rd grade. Her classroom consist of students who are ESL, bilingual, and general education. At the school I am currently as has a SEI (Structured English Instruction) program that helps ESL students in the classroom environment. Students are slowly transferring out of a classroom that teaching in another language other than English then slowly transfer to a class where all instruction are taught in English. In 3rd grade students are supposed to be taught in all English, so in Barraza’s class, she provides lots of visuals and hands. This is very beneficial for students who still struggle with English so visuals and manipulatives really help students. For motivation, students in her class get motivated a lot with prizes and positive feedback. When students start to understand the concept of what they are learning they get more motivated as well. With these motivation techniques students are motivated extrinsically. This is the less ideal quality of motivation according to Ortega because students are learning for another reason besides learning for themselves. I personally agree with Ortega, believing that being motivated extrinsically is less ideal because of the short term effects. Having intrinsic motivation and having a reason to better themselves and understanding that what they are learning can help better their future will last longer than being given a prize. But at this age, I believe extrinsic motivation, like prizes and such, can really help motivate the student and hopefully get them to start working harder and finding their own intrinsic motivation. Some students do get more motivated when they see they are doing better, they are motivated because they know they are improving so this quality of motivation is more purposeful. In Ortega there are arguments on whether or not negative feedback is purposeful. Barraza believes the positive feedback is what works best in her class. Using negative feedback really affects her students and pushes them back instead of helping them. When giving negative feedback, many of her students shut down. I personally see this as well and do prefer giving positive feedback. I feel that when giving positive feedback, the students genuinely want to do better so that they can continue receiving the positive feedback. I can see how content they feel when proving themselves and wanting to make their parents as well as their teachers proud. I hope you enjoy learning a little about the classroom environment I am currently in and her thoughts on teaching and learning!
Hello Julie!
ReplyDeleteI’m enjoy learning about your classroom environment and some teaching strategies from your mentor teacher. In my opinion, it is very hard to balance the learning levels between ESL students and regular students in a same class. Because there are always having education gap a few or a lot. Ortega (2013) mentioned about audiolingualism/audiovisualism as a method involves mostly aural and visual input and quick repetition and expansion drills (Ortega, 2013, p. 164). I think especially for 3rd grade bilingual students need a lot of extra support, teaching strategies that work best for them and I am really like how your mentor mention that she used a lot of visual and hands. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Quynh! I too feel that it is very hard to balance the learning levels between all the ESL students and general education students in the same class. We currently rotate between 4 classes the whole day and have so many different leveled students throughout the day. We always change the lesson throughout the way to fit more of what the general level is in that class. For example for a lower level class or the class with more bilingual students, we would focus more on having small groups or whole groups instead of independent practice. Visual and hands on manipulatives really helps as well. Thank you for your reply!
DeleteHi Julie,
ReplyDeleteGreat interview with Ms. Barraza! With nineteen years of teaching it seems as though she has a lot of experience. The program that she is a part of really sounds like such a supportive encouraging program. I am impressed that the students support does not end at third grade whether the are ready or not. Focusing on their readiness level Ortega states that "teachers can only hope to teach successfully what learners are developmentally ready to learn" (Ortega,pg.138). Acknowledging this will eliminate students falling through the cracks. with hopes of eliminating the achievement gap.
Hi Cristina! Being her student teacher, I can see that 19 years brought her a lot of experiences and knowledge on finding solutions and methods in effectively teaching different types of students. With many of the students we receive in the middle of the year are bilingual and does not know much English, Mrs. Barraza finds many different methods in helping these students not fall behind and help understand what she is teaching even though everything is in English. I really appreciate her determination in really trying to push and motivate all students. Thank you for your reply!
DeleteHi Julie!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your interview with Ms. Barraza! I appreciate that you started the interview with a little bit of background information on her, so we can get an idea of who you're talking to. I like the fact that Ms. Barraza uses prizes and positive feedback, because everyone gets discouraged at times, especially when learning a new language, and it's good to have a little push to encourage you to stay on the right track. According to Ortega, "when individuals construe their behavior as structured by a means-end, pragmatic-instrumental causation that is imposed from the outside , their sense of self-causation and autonomy is low, if present at all, and they are said to be extrinsically motivated (2009, p. 176). I believe that at this age, 3rd grade, it is okay for the students to need extrinsic motivation at times, but as they get older they will begin to see the importance or benefit of learning a new language, and this may motivate them to continue to learn and develop in that language.
Hi Ya'nique! I too really like the use of prizes and positive feedback to help motivate students. I personally see everyday in class a lot of student get so excited when they receive prizes for their hard work or even a high-five or a "good job!". It is so exciting seeing how positive students attitude turns. I too agree that when they get older they will see the benefit of learning a new language and motivate themselves intrinsically. At this age it can be a bit difficult to find the motivation so using prices and positive feedback can really help the students. Thank you for sharing!
DeleteHello Julie,
ReplyDeleteI thought that the professional that you interviewed was quite insightful. Ortega says that constant and relateable content is great for second language learners. "This is what Krashen termed i+1. Learners obtain comprehensible input mostly through listening to oral messages that interlocutors direct to them and via reading written texts that surround them, such as street signs, personal letters, books and so on" (Ortega, pg. 59). So I think that the inclusion of manipulatives can only enhance student learning.
Hello Julie, thank you for sharing your interview with Ms. Barraza with us! It was very informative, and she shared a lot of interesting information! I like that she uses prizes and positive feedback to help her students. Ortega (2011) says that extrinsic motivation is a “less ideal quality of motivation (pg. 176). Though I think being 100% extrinsically motivated is not good, I think third grade is still an okay age to provide some sort of motivation from the outside. I like this teacher’s thoughts on positive feedback. It is so true that one piece of negative feedback can students back. I believe that positive feedback is the best thing for students!
ReplyDeleteHi Alyssa! I also like how she uses prizes to help motivate her students. I totally agree with your thoughts on extrinsic motivation. I too feel that using extrinsic here and there, even for older students, is okay. As long as the students and teacher do not fully become dependent on prizes then extrinsic motivation should be okay. I do see and feel the intrinsic motivation can be more motivational long term for students and can help them stay motivated longer. Thank you so much for your reply!
DeleteYes intrinsic motivation is great for students! You just have to make sure that you use extrinsic motivation in a way that can help foster students to build that intrinsic motivation. Your teacher has a lot of experience in dealing with students and I love her style of feedback and view on motivation. Thanks again for sharing!
DeleteHey Julie
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your video with Ms. Barraza. 19 years of teaching is amazing. It seems like it would be difficult for some teacher to teach different levels of students. I admire her effort on balancing such a great task. I like how Ms. Barraza uses extrinsic motivation with her students. It does help with some motivation. However, over time and if not, earlier it is much beneficial to have students have intrinsic motivation. Positive feedback is so important to learning students. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Desiree! Thank you for your reply. Ms. Barraza balances so many different types of students so it does become very difficult, but because of her amazon experiences and knowledge, she finds so many different solutions and methods for each student. With extrinsic motivation I do seeing it work temporarily but like you said, intrinsic motivation is much more beneficial. I also agree that positive feedback is so important and I personally see how much it helps with motivating students. Thank you again!
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