Who needs GRAMMMAR?!

Some English speakers use the grammar properly, but in fact don’t know the main reason behind such usages. This goes back to what is subconsciously found in one’s mental knowledge. 

According to the “Grammaticality Judgment Task”,  I’d question students based on a rule I’d like to introduce them to. Let’s say the lesson is about Compound Words, I’d wear a raincoat and sunglasses and ask students to relate between the words that parallel with my outfit parts. After I point out what Compound words are, students would observe real world data (according to the Observational Adequate Grammar) and then consciously notice the syntactic structure of how words are formed and therefore learn it. This would result in the Parameterization of the word order and structure. 

So let’s say I’m discussing what Nouns are for grade 5, specifically Concrete Nouns, I’d highlight that it’s basically a person, place or thing. 
       After that I’d support them with sentences that have nouns, and based on the findings, students will have to illustrate nouns. When I’m dealing with abstract nouns, I’d try to make the concept concrete as possible. So for example, if I’m introducing them to the word Justice, I’d have the class act out a scenario of a court where there would be a victim and a burglar. Based on my questions of examples and non-examples, I’d highlight that the abstract word is a noun.  When it comes to Verbs, the easiest way to instruct it is to have students perform different actions in class. Charade playing is a good way to model verbs, after the word is guessed I’d point out that it’s an action and therefore it’s a verb. When it’s time to get introduced to the Adjective word class, I’d choose a student and then the rest of the class has to describe what they see in this chosen student. Based on their answers, I’d point out that what has been said are Adjectives. For the Prepositional Phrases, I’d bring an empty box with a ball and based on the ball’s position students will have to construct sentences. In each sentence, a preposition will definitely be used and as a response to that I’d have to point out that we use such functional words to unite words and ideas together. For the Adverbs, I’d teach students how to formulate the 3 WH- Helping Question “When-Where-How questions” that are related to the main action in the sentence. With reinforcement activities, not only would pupils develop the skill of selecting the word class but also they would also understand the profound usage of each.

Highlighting the concept of Plurality is pivotal as it affects not only the affix usages but also the verb classification with its proper subject. Just like the other functional categories, the plurality of nouns must be directly instructed. I’d do that by getting pictures of singular characters or objects and other pictures with numerous characters/objects. For each picture, students would have to spell the word that fits the picture. For the plural pictures, the –s block is added to the end of the word.

All in all, performing game-like activities while practicing grammar permits students to process the syntactic rule they’re dealing with and therefore turn it as an Innate part of their language’s grammar. This is what Chomsky explains in his “Universal Grammar Perspective”. That’s why it’s necessary to point out to the grammar aspects I discussed earlier. After all, when the speaker learns and practices the correct use of syntax it’s more likely to have the sent message clearer and therefore carry a comprehensible intent.

A Glimpse of "The Death of Reading in the Middle Eastern Arabic Countries"

    Studies have shown that reading is actually of very high rates in the West whereas in the Middle East, the reverse results are really astonishing.The Arab thought foundation’s Fikr has proven that children raised in an Arab country read for a total of six minutes per year while a child brought up in a western country reads for 12000 minutes. 

    It’s the fact that the Middle East has very few readers because unfortunately reading isn’t given the needed attention. Sadly, academic achievements are described as grand successes, reading articles are observed as grand failures between students in the Middle East countries. According to AbirBallan(2011), the Arab culture does not promote reading. The heartbreaking truth is revealed as parents don’t see the importance of reading to their children unless they are learning the alphabet. Specifically, these parents do not see that books need to be read for gratifying the fun needed by their children (Granados,2003).

    This topic was a major issue of a long report I was part of 2 years ago. To make a long story short, we supported our findings with discussions and surveys until we came up with a few solutions I'll be highlighting in the following recommendations:

1-      Follow the 4 sub skills to improve your comprehension skills as well as your motivation towards reading.

2-      As a teacher or a parent you play an essential role when it comes to build interest for reading to your kids or students.

3-      As a successful teacher follow the guided reading approach along with other approaches such as shared reading, reading aloud and independent reading. They are all indispensable approaches in literacy education.

4-      Choose the right kind of book to attract the reader’s attention.

5-      Engage children in joyful activities that are contextualized in the story’s domain. Such as: illustrating the story or acting it.

6-      Encourage people to apply to reading clubs.  

Resources: 

·         TahiraYaqoob. (2011). Why are so few reading Arabic books? Retrieved from The National World: http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/why-are-so-few-reading-arabic-books

·         ED.Gov. (2003). Activities -- Helping Your Child Become a Reader. Retrieved from U.S. Department of Education: http://www2.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/reader/part5.html

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How do Children Perceive and Comprehend Language?

     Since the dawn of history, it has been believed that there exists a process by which children develop the capacity to perceive and comprehend language in order to enable communication. Different theories emerged to prove how children actually acquire their first language. The controversial issue has been studied by the Behaviorist, The Innatist, and the Interactionalist/Developmental Theories.  

       All of the three perspectives are logical and open closed doors to have better understandings of language acquisition. I personally advocate the Interactionalist/Developmental Perspective as I view it as an amalgam of the other two theories, where it focuses on the child’s innate learning ability through cognitive developmental stages and the environment in which the child develops. With the assistance of this valid hypothesis I was able to understand how my cousin “Malak” acquired her English language as her mother spoke to her Portuguese in contrast to her father who spoke Arabic.

        Just like Skinner states due to the supportive interactive environment, Malak was able to advance in to higher levels of knowledge and performance in three different languages (Portuguese –Arabic-English). Malak who started speaking Portuguese at the age of 18 months acquired language so quickly due to the deep interaction with her mother in the early stages.  It first began when she started imitating her mother at the age of 2; Malak would say “Comida!Comida”  which meant “Food! Food” whenever she was hungry. Then she started assembling words and forming sentences in Portuguese. At the same time her father was speaking Arabic to her. But she decided to stick to Portuguese at the age of 2 with the use of some Arabic words. This was mostly because she spent most of her time with her mother who spoke Portuguese and listened to Portuguese songs out loud. This parallels with the Interactionist/Developmental Theory that agrees with the Behaviorist Perspective of how the environment plays a role in learning the language. As she entered Kindergarten at the age of 3 she started acquiring the English skills. She learned the basics in the English Language from school and peer interaction. This also portrays the fundamentality of the environment as a source of learning.

      When Malak hit the age of 4, her aunts who only spoke Arabic moved to their city.  The frequent interaction with her aunts and cousins allowed her to start forming Arabic sentences. This allowed her to master translation of Portuguese sentences into Arabic. Like her mother would tell her in Portuguese “Go call your father to come and have lunch” she would literally go to her father and cite her mother’s words but in Arabic. This linguistic potential indicates that Malak had the linguistic creativity that the Innatist Theory discussed where she was able to use her internal ability to deliver her mom’s message.

     Just like Piaget states, Malak’s first language (Portuguese) was acquired faster than her older brother where she partially understood the abstract time frame in the Concrete Operational Developmental Stage. For example, she wanted to go to the playground so her mother said “wait 5 minutes” , so she counted to five and said okay let’s go. Her mother then explained that 1 minute means counting to 60. So you have to count to 60 five times and we’ll move. After she finished counting, she was still confused why counting so many times is different from counting to 5.  This supports the developmental aspect of this perspective which highlights that if the child doesn’t cognitively understand a certain issue, he/she isn’t able to construct meaning related to this aspect.

       As a general conclusion, Malak is currently at the age of six who lives in a bilingual atmosphere where she speaks and understands the basic linguistic requirements in Portuguese, Arabic, and English.  Not to mention her brother who was only a year older didn’t acquire the skills Malak did. This proves that children acquire language differently because there exists diverse aspects related to the society and biology of the child’s cognitive development.

The Tassle was Worth the Hassle!

  As I reflect on every meaningful moment of my life, I can't help but relive the day I graduated from university with a Bachelor's degree in the field that interests me most, Teaching English as a Foreign Language. I remember living every moment of the day, enjoying it to its extreme with people who shared this mutual hassle with me, a hassle characterized by hard work, dedication and perseverance with those who I admire the most, my dear friends. Seeing all my classmates in the graduation gown was a gratitude to all of us and the instructors too, because we had all reached the highest rank of the skyscraper after three years of tough work. During the ceremony, my friend looked at me with tears in her eyes and said “Noor! We’re done… I can’t believe it’s all over”.  I held her hand and said “it’s the beginning InshaAllah and I’m sure the best is yet to come to all of us my darling”. It was a day where we took thousands of pictures; pictures of us friends, of us and the instructors and even with the Dean of the school of Education “Dr. Anwar AlKawtharani”. 

The second best part of this day was seeing all my family members actually attend the ceremony, I got a knot in my throat to see my father standing in his suit though of his ill case at that time. I remember hugging him tight and thanking him and Mama for all the support they’ve provided me with. Post to this drama was the dinner and prom party we stayed for. My Canadian cousins were all here for a quick vacation and were part of the prom which was a crazy blast no one would ever forget! 

What are my Ambitions and Expectations in Education?

I look at myself today in the mirror as a hiker who’s about to reach the peak of the mountain he/she had always dreamed of. Four  years  of being instructed on how to become a skillful educator and here I am today one step away from being in front of my actual students. I have learned that there’s no correct way for teaching, it’s just a matter of using diverse interesting approaches based on the setting I’m in. My learnings and acquisition from the school of Education have permitted me to aim my shot at locations I’ll be summing up in three:     

·         Inspiring students

·         Improving students

·         Facilitating mastery of the educating field 

 My first aim as a future educator falls at being Inspirational.  The word Inspiration itself signifies the first building block of any role model. Inspiration doesn’t appear out of nowhere, it takes great effort to have students interested in the educator and his/her educating approach. That’s why I suppose my inspirational goal requires me entering my future classes with my “enthusiastic” hat since my energy is said to be contagious to students. The second part of being an inspirational role model would necessitate me to incorporate interactive game-like activities to the target lesson. Integrating students’ performances within my lesson plans surely helps their passion to stand out towards my educating approach and therefore the material itself. The last part of being inspirational requires showing students the meaning of motivation and the intrinsic reward of accomplishment they achieve in the end. 

In addition, I assume my second goal in educating students would be improving them. In other words, I don’t think it’s sufficient to enter the class cover the curriculum, grade students and leave. I believe it’s much more than the traditional teaching. Honestly, my purpose in education lies on making a difference in students. Having this impact on the learners would require me assisting struggling learners to perform better by giving them the extra attention of mine even when if it’s going to be in recess times.  The second part of improvement would be modeling students by teaching them the strategies of accomplishing long-term goals in both academic and personal contexts. After all, having students as magisterial members in the society stems from what has been instilled in them in the classrooms starting from grade one till they graduate high school.

Furthermore, I believe the last superordinate title of my educating purpose would be facilitating mastery of the education field. Smoothening the educating field would definitely stem from my years of experience with students. But I can ensure that adding to the body of “how to perfect educating” requires any novice and even experienced educators to take students’ backgrounds into consideration before looking at the target academic material. Knowing the students first in terms of their age, cognitive, emotional and linguistic abilities is pivotal enough to achieve 6o% of the educational success. The remaining 40% is ensured by altering the target subject-matter to suite learners’ interests.

As a general conclusion, I come to rise expectations about my future educating journey positively through having a first impression of “the best out of my students is yet to come”. Being optimistic about my students is key to make educating successful. In particular, I truly have faith that every learner in my classroom will benefit and grow in knowledge due to my effort. I do promise myself that I will be able to achieve my three teaching goals through hard-work and perseverance. My positive expectation will allow me to believe that each day I will get better in what I’m doing. Even when challenges pay me a visit, I should be strong enough to fight them back. My positive prospect will definitely have me interact with students via my gentle attitude no matter how slow the learners are. In the end, choosing my expectations to be positive eases not just my educating role, but also students’ victory in both academic and nonacademic contexts.

Education Day ~ Touch the Future

 

      Last spring semester 2017's Education Day was one of a kind. Usually what happens on this day is having students display their academic achievements to judges and present their work orally in English of course. I'm the type who really enjoys such a day because it makes me feel competent to have come up with final products after putting all the hardwork on the tasks. For personal reasons, I was only able to present my Practicum I portfolio and luckily was granted the first place for it out of all the competitors. Dr. Anwar AlKawtharani attended the presentation and took a look at my work and commented positively on it. I believe such an event is necessary in having us students practice our oral communicative skills yet engage us in the challenge itself to seek satisfaction.   .

                             

Highlights of My First Observational Reflection

“Safety first” should be any educator’s policy when it comes to welcoming learners in an academic setting. The safe, fluffy and warm environment can be ensured once the learners feel aware about “what’s next”. Clearly, established classroom routines show up to provide comfort and productivity efficiently. The paper at hand aims to reflect my observation at grade 3, OMEC whereby I shed the light on “The Teacher’s Routines”.

 “Good afternoon class” said the teacher at 1:00pm. She told the class “we have a guest, Ms. Noor is here to watch you all, so you have to speak in English alright? I’m sure all of you will do well in front of her!” The suitability of this goes back to having the teacher set high expectations since the very beginning of the class. These words of hers were supporting and motivating enough for them to move on and speak English without hesitance. To tell you the truth, these words did have a great impact on students’ English performance. They spoke English most of the times, but there were these 3 students who always commented in Arabic. Usually the teacher recasted their words in English and praised their answer selection.

Next, the teacher told students “Hands up and down, hands up and down, hands up and down… now let’s take a deep breath… look at Ms. Eman… If you hear Ms Eman, clap your hands… If you hear Ms Eman cross your hands… Ms Eman wants to see if grade 3 students are polite, respectful and if they’re speaking English”. The effectiveness of this moment reflects the teacher’s choice of following the operational standard in managing the classroom environment and letting things flow neatly. Based add to this, I could sense that the teacher was comprehensibly aware of her area of performance since she followed a classroom management pattern professionally. What makes me believe this kind of professional knowledge belongs to the “pattern” superordinate title goes back to having the students’ performance framed and yet somehow observable (in terms of having a consequence; a quieter atmosphere). 

I could read between the lines that the teacher wanted her students to grow up in the learning process through the frame of neatness and organization not just in the space they’re in, but also in terms of the classroom performance through setting the foundation; different routines.

The Special Needs' Week

   The Education Department at LIU decided to have one whole week with activities for those of special needs. This was held during the fall semester 2017 whereby LIU hosted associations like  "Markaz AlBasira" in which its members with different visual impairments presented poems and a role play scene highlighting their struggles in the society. The second part of the event included a workshop for Dr. Nizar Ibrahim (whose visually impaired) about inclusive classrooms for the disabled learners and how teachers need to deal with such pupils. The best part of the week was actually visiting "Eyam AlRajaa" association in Zahle and viewing children of different ages with special needs and getting to interact with them. Such activities come to acknowledge and provide us as graduates and future leaders when it comes to dealing with the 

diversity in education with the best methodologies when it comes to proper pedagogy. 

                             

The Arab Women's Conference

      The conference was hosted at the Lebanese International University (LIU) during the spring semester 2017 in the support of women in terms of acknowledging them in the society. I was part of the organizing committee for the conference. I can't deny but the conference was a great chance for the LIU staff members and its president meet with intellectual speakers from Morocco, Saudi, Lebanon and even with Lebanese speakers residing abroad. Not to mention that the Lebanese "Female" minter Enaya Ezzidine was also present at the conference. The discussed topics revolved around the ideas of raising awareness towards looking at the Arabic Woman and appreciating her great identity in the society. Based on what I remember, it was agreed in opinion  that the women in the Arabic region is seen through the positive lens who tends to succeed in different domains. I'd like to thank LIU and specifically the education department for granting us this golden chance for looking into such topics. 

About the Webinar I attended

The webinar I attended today on February 21^st 2018 was titled “Bring Computer Science to Life in Your Elementary Classroom”. It was presented by Joan M. Mazur, Ph.D., Professor of Instructional Systems Design, University of Kentucky College of Education; and Jennifer Rodabaugh, STEAM Lab Instructor, Fayette County Public Schools, KY.  Not to mention that it was sponsored by LEGO® Education.    

The speakers Dr. Mazur and Ms. Rodabaugh welcomed the attendees warmly before digging deep into the computer-science title. The punchline of the webinar came to shed the light on how teachers are getting into academics and neglecting computer sciences. The introduction came to emphasize on how we humans are living in the internet of things. Then the following essential questions were raised “So what needs to be done in this case?” & “How should teachers prepare students to see the benefits of technology?”

An educational answer to the questions was presented by Dr.Mazur who suggested looking into “Computational Thinking”; a consultation which exists in the form of five stages of decomposition, generalization, algorithmic thinking(a central skill in coding), evaluation and abstraction. This benefitted me to understand how education helps kids learn the basic inner workings of computers and eventually set them up for a lifetime of successful use and management of the technology in their everyday lives.

Not to mention that the mentioned stages include attitudes and dispositions in terms of one’s confidence when dealing with complexity, persistence in working with difficult problems, tolerance for ambiguity, having the ability to deal with open-ended problems, and having the ability to communicate and struggle within groups with other members to achieve a common goal. As a teacher, I’d advocate instilling such attitudes within my students in order to empower them to become autonomous learners because there will come a time where I won’t be there for them anymore.

The second solution proposed by Dr.Mazur is including hands-on activities. I come to benefit from the examples provided in order to have students actively engaged, take ownership of the learning, give opportunities to use academic language and finally have students reflect on their learning.

Furthermore, to add to what has been presented, Ms.Rodabaugh clarifies “computational thinking” by teaching vocabularies in the form of coding, programming, looping in the beginning. This would have me train students to create real world connections to hardware independently. Therefore, educational outcomes would be having my students engage in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners and develop main ideas and themes as multimedia components and visual displays are available too( like graphics and sounds).

A decent part of Ms.Rodabaugh’s presentation focused on projects and possible educational outcomes (like building a device that detects objects remotely after determining the distances of the sun and stars from the Earth). So maybe I would transfer such projects to my classroom and have students offer outcomes in writing or speaking for different purposes. The appropriateness of computational thinking is in exposing students to skills that deal with team work, organization, sharing ideas and searching for own information and solutions.  

A coda to the webinar focuses on teaching computational thinking though it requires changing the role of a teacher to becoming a facilitator. It changes the way teachers teach because one starts to teach for application. So all in all, computational thinking comes to give platform for collaborative teaching.