Vandreia Montano

ESC 708
Spring 2015
Reflection 3.b.

I selected three artifacts that show my skills according to the TESOL standard 3.b. The
first artifact, entitled Facilitating academic vocabulary acquisition, was developed for my
graduate class ESC 529 Language and Literacies Acquisition in Secondary Education, from the
fall of 2014. The artifact was a homework assignment for which I had to select a chapter of a
middle/high school textbook of my choice and identify the bricks and mortars in a paragraph of
the chapter according to my area of studies. Developing this artifact helped to develop my
ability to analyze written materials to be presented to the students and see what vocabulary
words should be selected to facilitate their content knowledge and develop their standard
language. I also learned the importance of looking for words that are specific for the discipline
that is being taught and how to connect them to useful language structures. This demonstrates
that I have met the TESOL standard 3.b. They (candidates) understand that language is
developed most effectively in meaningful contexts, and they manage and implement learning
around both subject matter and language learning objectives.
The second artifact, Motivation in the Classroom, was also a homework assignment for
the ESC 529 class, from the fall of 2014. The assignment was a reflection based on readings and
classroom discussions on the students motivation in the classroom. For this artifact I reflected on
two agents of students motivation/demotivation (parents and teachers), and I wrote about my
own experience and my thoughts on the issue. This artifact helped me to understand how
teachers influence in the students motivation/demotivation in the classroom and what are some

of the ways of making learners interested in the class and content being taught. This shows my
awareness of the importance of the teachers ability to motivate the students to learn, by
recognizing the students efforts to learn and reinforcing the positive points about their work
before pointing their errors.
The third artifact, Discussion board 3 was a discussion board homework assignment
developed for the class ESC 766 - Teaching English as Second Language through the content
areas, from the fall of 2015. For this assignment I was expected to read a few chapters of a book
and select one idea presented by the author that stood out to me. I was also asked to select some
tools from the book that I would like to work with my students, besides selecting some Tier 1,
Tier 2, and Tier 3 words from a previous exercise. This assignment helped me to prepare
activities for the students to develop their vocabulary and content matter acquisition. It also made
me reflect on my own experience as a second language learner and compare the techniques that
my former teachers used to apply with the authors suggestions. In addition, I practiced selecting
Tiers 1, 2, and 3 words which is a strategy to teach vocabulary and help ESL students develop
their language knowledge. This artifact also shows my skills in accordance with the TESOL
standard 3.b. Candidates know, manage, and implement a variety of standards-based teaching
strategies and techniques for developing and integrating English listening, speaking, reading and
writing for a variety of social and academic purposes. Candidates support ESOL students in
accessing the core curriculum by teaching language through academic content and view language
and content as joint means to achieve ELLs academic and language development goals.
Developing these artifacts helped me to understand how to help students to learn content
at the same time that they are learning language. They also contributed to enhance my

knowledge of different techniques to teach vocabulary and help the students to acquire standard
language.