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"Fresh Off the Boat" is an American sitcom television series about the Huang family as first generation immigrants who moved to the US during the 90s, in search of the American Dream.  The show deals with issues of language, identity, assimilation, and cultural differences, while also exploring themes of family, friendship, and coming of age. The show has been praised for its portrayal of Asian-American culture and its willingness to tackle difficult and nuanced topics.

As an EAL specialist, there are several ways I could relate "Fresh Off the Boat" to my role as follows:

1. Supporting Language Acquisition: As an EAL specialist, my role includes supporting students in their language acquisition journey. In "Fresh Off the Boat," many of the characters are immigrants who are learning English as a second language, similar in the international school environment where students come from different countries and gather in a space to gain academic knowledge.

2. Another important role as an EAL specialist is to help students foster positive identity development and build cultural awareness and understanding.

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Cognitive discourse functions (CDF) is a linguistic term for language function, like describing, explaining, comparing, etc.  When engaging with MLs, collaborating with teachers and peers to construct a CLIL lesson that includes the CDF is crucial to ensure every students gets the best support in the language knowledge and acquisition.

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1.  “Chapter 4: Writing and Teaching to Language Objectives – Planning Meaningful Instruction for ELLS.” Wsu.edu, 2016, opentext.wsu.edu/planning-meaningful-instruction-for-ells/chapter/chapter-4/. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023.

2. “CLIL: A Lesson Framework.” TeachingEnglish, 2019, www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teachers/knowing-subject/articles/clil-lesson-framework. Accessed 16 Apr. 2023.

3. Administrator. “7 Scaffolding Learning Strategies for the Classroom.” University of San Diego - Professional & Continuing Education, 4 Oct. 2022, pce.sandiego.edu/scaffolding-in-education-examples/. Accessed 17 Apr. 2023.

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‌4. Sisson, Charles. “The Benefits of Differentiation in the Classroom.” Hmhco.com, 16 Dec. 2022, www.hmhco.com/blog/benefits-of-differentiation-in-the-classroom#:~:text=The%20benefits%20of%20a%20differentiated,to%20standards%20and%20curriculum%20guides. Accessed 17 Apr. 2023.

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5. Differentiated Instruction for English Language Learners

By Anonymous Container: Colorín Colorado Publisher: Colorín Colorado Year: 2011 URL: https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/differentiated-instruction-english-language-learners#:~:text=Differentiated%20instruction%2C%20by%20definition%2C%20is,with%20varied%20backgrounds%20and%20needs.

6. Bray, Barbara, and Kathleen Mcclaskey. Mid-Pacific Institute 1:1 IPad Program Personalization vs Differentiation vs Individualization.

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7. Anonymous. “Differentiated Instruction for English Language Learners.” Colorín Colorado, Colorín Colorado, 8 Mar. 2011, www.colorincolorado.org/article/differentiated-instruction-english-language-learners. Accessed 10 Mar. 2023

8. 20 Differentiated Instruction Strategies and Examples [+ Downloadable List].” Prodigygame.com, 2021, www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/differentiated-instruction-strategies-examples-download/. Accessed 10 Mar. 2023

9. “Meet the Single Point Rubric | Cult of Pedagogy.” Cult of Pedagogy, 4 Feb. 2015, www.cultofpedagogy.com/single-point-rubric/. Accessed 15 Mar. 2023.

10. Fluckiger, Jarene. Single Point Rubric: A Tool for Responsible Student Self-Assessment. 2010.

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Over the years, the definition of CLIL has evolved from just helping in strengthening a core language to understand a student from their cultural and knowledge standpoint and craft out a plan to best suit the students so he acquires the skills necessary in better understanding the language he's learning.

Therefore, outlining the language objectives and contents that support the development of the language is important.  To do this, we need to find out more about the background, interest etc of the MLs and center the planning around these information.

It is important to take into consideration during the planning stage that SWBAT (students will be able to) + content, measurable outcome + content to be learned = Result rather than strictly following the core curriculum.

This can help us derive the content to be taught; consider the student's strengths and needs; present measurable, achievable outcome; and integrating the content to the language.

Reference: 1.

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It is important to understand that language is used to learn as well as to communicate

To craft out a good CLIL lesson, we need to look into the 4 skills of Listening, reading, speaking and writing and combine them with elements of: (reference 2):

Content - Progression in knowledge, skills and understanding related to specific elements of a defined curriculum

Communication - Using language to learn whilst learning to use language

Cognition - Developing thinking skills which link concept formation (abstract and concrete), understanding and language

Culture - Exposure to alternative perspectives and shared understandings, which deepen awareness of otherness and self.

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We need to have a consolidated CLIL lesson plan (one that can include their culture, knowledge and experiences) for MLs so that they can acquire English will be able to master the language more efficiently and be able to apply it to school, society and regular communication.  It is not about how they score and compare them against the common core curriculum but rather, what we can offer to them, to teach them, to help them understand and pick up the language at its best.

To do that, teachers need to collaborate and work with their peers and subject teachers to create a lesson plan that can include all that.

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This checklist is used during my week 3 FT and i find it extremely useful as it helps me to look into areas that's lacking and work on the actions to improve our current assessment.  It is from this checklist that i'm able to realise what our current system lack in, using the deficit and promising lens to review and sees the need to create an MLs specific rubric for learners at different proficiency level of Emergent, Intermediate and Advanced.

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After creating the deficit lens, i zoom into levels and with the help of the examples from the language functions and functions forms(see below), create a differentiated scaffolding plan for MLs.

Constructing a differentiated scaffolding plan can help MLs follow discrete steps to master a concept based on their abilities, culture, interest and knowledge.  A lesson can possibly broken up into few units and present it to students allow them to use their prefered mode of learning to acquire it and present it in a form that they choose.  Allowing students to develop autonomy and interactions in manners thats most comfortable and effective for them.

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Language functions and examples of forms

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Language functions and examples of forms

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Caffeine Queen Teacher. “What Teachers Need to Know about Scaffolding and Differentiation - Caffeine Queen Teacher.” Caffeine Queen Teacher, 19 Sept. 2022, caff

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This method allows the teacher to plan the lesson based on MLs ability and knoweldge with the help of different methods, styles and strategies to allow greater student and teacher engagement and confidence both socially and academically.

Other benefits includes(3):

Improves the likelihood that students will retain new information

Helps connect foundational knowledge to new concepts

Engages students with their learning and tracking their own progress

Gives students more autonomy and independence in the classroom

Bridges student learning gaps in traditionally difficult course content

Reduces students’ feelings of frustration, confusion and negative self-perceptions in the classroom

Allows students to “fail productively” and encourages asking for help

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Affordance theory can help us understand how students perceive and use their different languages based on the opportunities and constraints that are present 

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Understanding how differentiation and affordance theory apply to MLs can help us understand how students develop and use languages and how they learn and apply the language based on the affordances of the situation.

Affordance are:
1.     Identifying the learner’s proficiency level in language and creating/adapting instructions accordingly

2.     Providing multiple types of assessment and feedback to check progress in language acquisition

3.     Offering choices and flexibility in task difficulty, learning process and grouping to cater to different learning styles and preferences

4.     Encouraging reflection, goal-setting and collaboration to promote active engagement with the content and deeper learning

5.     Using available resources and technology to respond to learner’s needs and experiences

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Quoted by Karen Ford(5), differentiation can be defined as instruction that is designed to support individual students' learning in a classroom of students with varied backgrounds and needs.

My week 4 assignment looks into what is differentiated learning and the 'how-to' so that we can cater to MLs in their language acquisition and optimum learning.  Before making a lesson plan, we need to consider the following(6):

1.     That it has to starts with multilingual learners and identifying the learner’s proficiency level in language;

2.     That instructions are created/adapted based on the learner’s proficiency level;

3.     Assessment should offer multilingual learners’ opportunities for showing what they know and can do without modifying the cognitive or academic expectations.

4.     And to provide feedback to check progress in language acquisition.

There are many examples of classroom differentiation setting such as flexible student groupings; different choice of task difficulty(8); etc.  The one i appreciate more is implementing reflection for students and goal-setting. In which i will cover in details in my impact 4 presentation.

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To start, the SIOP model can be used to help with the planning of a differentiated lessons plan for MLs students, some elements of the model include(7):
- Get to know each learner as much as possible

- Set expectations for all learners

- Have a variety of research-based instructional strategies

- Use ongoing assessment to guide instruction

- Provide multiple types of assessment

- Differentiate homework

-  Collaborate

- Make content comprehensible for all student

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Creating and conducting an assessment for MLs is not a one teacher job.  It has to be a collaboration of teachers, specialist, parents and students.

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My school is an international school with a diverse mix of students from all over the world, from PreK up to G12.  Although English is the main language used in teaching all subjects at school, some students may not possess the skills necessary to thrive in this environment.  As such, differentiation in educating our MLs has to be organized to help them in their academic achievement, allowing them to use their cultural knowledge, understanding and awareness to learn English and oust possible discrimination and unfairness at the same time, empowering them to thrive in the classroom and on.

Teachers and specialists need to collaborate and work with each other to help MLs bridge that language deficit.  Putting in place strategies and resources necessary to ensure its efficiencies and effectiveness.

Differentiated assessment is necessary for MLs because they may not have the same level of competence in English as native English speakers and traditional assessments that rely on language proficiency cannot provide an accurate reflection of their knowledge and skills.  Teachers can customized assessments to best fit the MLs to ensure objectivity and fairness in measuring their language knowledge and skills.

One such method is the Single Point Rubric for MLs.

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As an assignment for my task 5 project, I wrote that every multilingual learner’s proficiency level is different even if they may be in the same class.  The teacher must give space for growth to each individual learner to ensure maximum learnings that make sense to them.

The single point rubric is a tool to help students be responsible in their goal setting and self-assessment of what they learn. (10) This is to help MLs focus on the expectations of a criteria and what they can achieve from it.

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I sat with an MLs and have a deeper understanding of her struggles during her English class at one particular unit and we narrow down to one problem, which is her inability to participate in class discussion due to her lack of confidence to converse in English with the rest of her classmates.  She's aware and is able to explain to me the context of the unit but she do not know how to express them out during a group discussion.  We work on the Single point Rubric and decide on the criterion based on the school's CC standards.

Together, we agree on the 6 areas of improvements from the CC and marks down the steps she needs to do in each of the area in columns of:
[How I know met the criteria]
[How I went beyond the criteria]
[How I will revise to better meet criteria]

In the next few weeks, each time she comes to class, she reassess the criterion and work on areas based on her own assessments and targets.

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I also noted my observations during class in this reporter's notebook on her progress.  We both agree it's a fabulous assessment tool to use as she has control of how she achieve her targets with her own actions and how she will be assessed based on her ability to cope with her targets and her end results than by just giving poor grades becoz she didn't participate in group discussion.

Coercion and top-down instructions is effective and most of the time, bias and unfair.  The Single point rubric allows the MLs to set their own doable goals and work on achieving those goals without unforeseen pressure from teachers.

To conclude, such assessments, although time consuming and more work for the teachers, is necessary and beneficial for both the student and the school.  Is it better to condemn a student based on the academic result that he/she gets or to find out the root cause of that poor result and help the students by understanding their problem to the poor result and look into the school assessment guidelines and see if there's a sparsity in between.