Challenges That Teachers Face When Improve Performance Of The Language (Essay Sample)

Classroom Challenge 2 Name of Student Course Date Introduction The Challenge 2 Scenario presents typical challenges that English teachers face in a bid to improve the general performance of the language. The teacher in question has been transferred to a new school and they are facing a relatively new teaching environment. Shifting from a small private, Christian school with low diversity levels to a larger school, with larger classes and larger diversity scores presents a tough situation for the teacher. First, they will be teaching larger classes with larger diversity indexes, meaning that they delve into faith issues freely as a Christian teacher. This teacher is also facing an uphill task in redressing academic success at the new school. Academic success is measured in three metrics: comprehension, vocabulary and exposure to nonfiction. The teacher will need to devise strategies of improving comprehension, developing vocabulary, and increasing exposure to more nonfiction materials in class for all students. All this will be done taking into the account that the classes are relatively larger and have a higher diversity indexes. Discussion Goal 1: Improving Comprehension Comprehension strategies are conscious and systematic plans that are made of monitored steps that teachers and learning supervisors use in ensuring that the readers are able to fully make sense of the text. The teacher notes that new school is quite different from the setting of the small Christian school where she used to teach. In the new school, she will taking the 6th grade with the improvement of comprehension levels being a priority. So far, the class limited resources that can be used for improving the level of comprehension, and thus a need for a formal request to increase the class reading materials. The teacher needs to keenly analyze the average comprehension index for the 6th grade team. This is the first step in monitoring the comprehension of students. By understanding whether majority of the students are in a position to understand what they are reading or not, the teacher can devise strategies to boost the level of text understanding. Through monitoring, the teacher will be in a position to point out different comprehension levels in the class. For instance, the presentation done by the team leader showed the general dispersion of comprehension levels in 6th grade. With the use of the dispersion figures, she will be in a position to monitor those who are not comprehending well and identify what they do not comprehend well. Once the key areas that are not being understood are highlighted, the teacher then can deploy the teaching aids made available. At the moment, the English teachers are using the computer software that facilitates comprehension training in class. With the use of the learning aid, she can reach out to more students, effectively boosting their comprehension levels. The school has made learning aids available for the teachers. As a part of comprehension improvement, the teacher can incorporate the use of graphic and semantic organizers. Graphic organizers come in handy in illustrating different concepts and relationships between the said concepts in form of texts or diagrams CITATION Lor15 \l 1033 (Lord, 2015). Graphic organizers are an important tool in the comprehension process especially for the slow learners as they facilitate focusing on concepts in texts, understanding and the assimilation of information. The teacher can make use of the computer software to develop graphic organizers that can aid the comprehension of concepts being taught in class. The flipped classroom model is another effective way for improving the comprehension levels of the 6th grade class. In this strategy, the students gain first-exposure learning before engaging in the classroom setting CITATION Ber12 \l 1033 (Berrett, 2012). Within class, the students will then focus on the processing part of the learning, which includes activities such as problem-solving, synthesizing and analyzing. This strategy can be effected through an assignment-based model whereby students are required to produce work prior to class, which can then be assessed and extensive feedback given during the class. Goal 2: Developing Vocabulary Vocabulary is a crucial aspect of reading comprehension for all students since the more they develop their vocabulary, the better able they are to make sense of what they read. One strategy that can be used in achievement of thus goal is morphological analysis. Morphological complexity of words that students are exposed to increases as they advance through school due to the increase of discipline-specific and specialized language. Students with skills in morphological analysis are able to use the meaning-bearing components in such complex words to determine the meaning. It has been demonstrated that morphological knowledge helps students in deciphering meaning of words, comprehension and spelling. Another strategy useful in the development of vocabulary in the 6th grade class is development of word consciousness. This concept refers to a multi-dimensional construct that incorporates students’ awareness of differences between written and oral language, comprehensions about the impact a word’s function in a sentence may have on its meaning, knowledge of the impact of word parts on meaning, and appreciation of word choice CITATION Lor15 \l 1033 (Lord, 2015). This type of instructional strategy may be carried out via procedural, declarative, and conditional know...