Section V: Reflective Monitoring and Evaluation

Artifact 1: EDCI 742 Reflection Wheel Journal #1

TESOL Domain & Standard:

- Domain 2 Culture. Candidates know, understand and use the major concepts, principles,
theories, research related to the nature and role of culture and cultural groups to
construct learning environments that support ESOL students cultural identities, language,
and literacy development, and content-area achievement.
o Standard 2.b. Cultural groups and Identity. Candidates know, understand, and use
knowledge of how cultural groups and students cultural identities affect language
learning and school achievement.

This artifact was the first Reflection Wheel Journal I completed for the ESL/ELL program
and so it is the first one that really challenged me to think about my own socialization and
upbringing and how that influenced my thoughts about language and cultural diversity in the
classroom. One of the assumptions I had, as documented in this artifact, was that the school I
am teaching at did not have any CLD students because of the lack of racial and ethnic diversity.
Since I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago where was exposed to multiple languages and cultures
that were different from mine, I wrongly assumed that a town in rural Kansas with little ethnic or
racial diversity would have any CLD students. As a result of my socialization and the assumptions
I held, I went a whole semester not knowing that one of my students was a CLD student, and it
was not until I began my ESL/ELL coursework and reached out to the ESL/ELL Coordinator for my
school that I was informed that that student was a CLD student. Another piece of my
socialization that was challenged by this reflection wheel journal was that my CLD student was
experiencing a similar upbringing to mine, when in reality, my students upbringing was not as
similar as I assumed. My fathers first language was Greek not English, and because he grew up
in an era that did not promote or require ESL/ELL education in school, he struggled academically
as he developed his English language skills and fluency. This in turn influenced my upbringing. My
parents (both fluent in Greek), raised me with English as my primary language (but I am fluent in
both Greek and English) so that when I went to school I already was fluent in English. Since my
father struggled academically, there was extra pressure on me to achieve high marks
academically. When I had my CLD student in class, I realized that he, and his family, placed a big
emphasis on grades and this student wanted to achieve high marks in every class at school. I also
(wrongly) assumed that this student was like me with the fact that they were taught English at
home but was a child of parents whose first language was not English. Since I projected my own
socialization and upbringing on this student, I was not aware that they were linguistically diverse
and that they were part of the ESL/ELL program at our school.
This artifact aligns with what I wrote in Section 5 of my Portfolio Platform in many ways.
One way this artifact aligns is because In Section 5 I discussed the importance of being aware of
students biography cards, and this artifact highlights how my assumptions and biases from my
socialization would have been discredited earlier if I was aware and understood my CLD
students biography card at the beginning of the school year. This artifact also aligns with what I

Section 5 Artifact 1 Caption 1

wrote in Section 5 because I discussed in Section 5 how I could use my own bilingual upbringing
as an asset in the classroom when working with CLD students. Although this artifact highlights
how my bilingual background led to biases and projections when I first started taking ESL/ELL
coursework, Ive now identified and developed ways I could more effectively use my background
and socialization to promote second language acquisition in a meaningful for my CLD students.
Finally, in Section 5 I discussed the importance of continuing professional development and
working with colleagues to enhance biography-driven instruction for CLD students. This artifact
displays the importance of collaboration with colleagues and how professional development can
negate the assumptions and biases held due to your personal socialization when I discussed how
my assumptions due to my socialization were immediately challenged once I began talking and
working with the ESL/ELL Coordinator for our school.

Section 5 Artifact 1 Caption 2