10/11

I found these sections on learning strategies to be very interesting. To admit, in some of my clinical hours I experience these learning strategies in the classroom, and they seem to be quite effective. I believe that it is important to teach these strategies to our ESL students, because (as the chapter in the book explained) many of them may not be use to the independent learning that is required by the students in high school and especially college. Just as in the study, the students were used to the teacher being in charge in the classroom. Similarly as we know, how the structure of the classroom is varies from culture to culture, therefore we need to make sure we are preparing ESL to be proficient in the language, but also to develop academic competence and strategies.

I loved all of the activities that were happening in Mrs. Chens' classroom. I have never heard of the two terms strategy-to-content or content-to-strategy. I really like how Mrs. Chen uses content to teach the strategy or to reinforce it. I love content-based instruction, I believe it is highly effective because it is so easy to choose themes and units that appeal to the interests of your students. However, if you do not make the connection of content-to-strategy effectively, then it almost seems as if the learning is ineffective. The unit that Mrs. Chen planned around planes has so much action that is happening at the same time. Students are learning content, while practicing their competency, while using their strategies that they have previously learned, while using their second language to achieve tasks. It's almost flawless! It just seems like such a great way to get students hands on their own learning and practicing the strategies that they will use in their second language inside and outside of school. What is different in the ESL classroom vs any regular classroom is that the strategies that the students are expected to learn are implicit in that the teacher really explains what the strategy is called and when you use it. Whereas in an ordinary classroom such strategy would just be infused in the material they are learning, and the students just naturally pick it up self-consciously.

To avoid using the content-to-strategy ineffectively, one must think of the content that they want to teach first, and then most importantly think about the WHAT the students need to know and LEARN (declaritive knowledge) and WHAT the students needed to DO (procedural knowledge). By using content based instruction in an ESL classroom, there can be endless benefits. For example, teachers can create units around the students' interest to further their motivation in using and learning the second language. This can give the students a feel of power in what they learn. I really liked Mrs. Chens classroom, and I would love to involve such content and units in my future classroom, it really seems effective.