4 peer responses due in 9 hours

posts are attached

each set of 2 has its own instructions

Discussion

Healthcare Crisis

Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings

LATISHA’S POST:

I do believe there is a healthcare crisis in the United States. I feel that it does not matter if you have insurance or not the times are changing and this is causing a lot more out of pocket expenses before insurance will make the first payment. I witness this first hand. I used to be able to go to a provider for medical issues and would not have any out of pocket expenses (deductibles) to meet before the insurance will actually pay, beside the copay. Now most insurance companies require you to meet a deductible before they pay anything. This puts more financial strain on people, not just the uninsured. It seems it is better to be uninsured and just pay out of pocket for services. People who are uninsured are more likely not to get medical services and are more likely to need hospitalization due to life threatening issues such as pneumonia or diabetes that are not controlled by medication (Krager, 2018). They are also more likely to use the emergency room for services than a provider (Krager, 2018). Children that are not insured have higher chances of developmental delays due to not seeing a doctor (Krager, 2018). Many people are uninsured because the cost of insurance premiums are very high and they still have to try and make ends meet (Krager, 2018). Although Medicare is the second largest social insurance in the United States there are still things that it does not cover for those that receive Medicare. For example someone on Medicare can only spend 20 days in a skilled nursing facility hen they will need a copay after 20 day and will have to pay out of their own pocket after 100 days (Krager, 2018). This is an issue that causes most people to get services at home and have the family pay out of pocket for a nurse or sitter or CNA. People have become anxious and fearful about getting and maintaining their health insurance due to payments (Krager, 2018). The rise of hospital care is a major health care expenditure (Krager, 2018). Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance continues to rise as well, which is reducing paycheck that employees are bringing home, with no raise to compensate the cost of health insurance (Krager, 2018). On top of the increase for premiums the cost for provider visits can be very costly (Krager, 2018).

References

Krager, H. &. (2018). American social welfare policy: A pluralist approach. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.

HEATHER’S POST:

There is no question the US has a serious healthcare crisis that has been going on for as long as I can remember. There are many people who either cannot afford insurance or have insurance but cannot afford to pay deductibles or co-pays. Both of those reasons are leading to people not going to the doctor for minor issues resulting in more serious medical emergencies. We are now at a point where insurance plans have become so expensive even companies are not providing coverage for their employees. In the past it was standard for every employer to offer some kind of healthcare policy to all staff and those policies would also cover immediate family members. Now a days there are many businesses who do not offer those healthcare plans anymore and when they are offered they are for employees only. Back in 2001 “more than 41 million Americans—or roughly one in seven—went without health coverage for the entire year in 2001” (McCarthy, 2003 para. 3). The US has programs like Medicare, Medicaid, VA, etc. that is supposed to help those who qualify but the treatments provided to those people are horrible and do not truly help. The article What’s Next for the US Health Care System After COVID-19? States those programs are “Not well funded in the best of times, the safety net is stretched beyond capacity” due to the current Covid-19 situation.

One of the amazing things about science and medicine is things are forever changing and advancing for the better. Which is one of the reasons the life expectancy has continued to increase. However, the more advancements that are made in healthcare the more expensive things become. One example is the use of laparoscopic surgeries. It is great that surgeons are able to complete operations without cutting open a patient and this increases healing time. The down side to this is the cost of that procedure is going to increase because of the cost of the robot and having to find a surgeon who has been fully trained to use the equipment. There is also no set price for any procedures, someone might pay $100 in California but will pay $1000 in New York for the same thing.

I do not envy the people in positions who have to try and fix issues such as these. I wouldn’t even know where to begin to fix the health care system. Every action is going to have a negative reaction and is going to make a large number of people upset. I know there are a lot of people who want universal healthcare to be implemented which always sounds good in theory but just like everything in life there are negatives that have to be thought of prior to making that decision. In Canada “many Canadians are forced to seek care in overtaxed emergency departments, where wait times can be excessive; crowding has been associated with delays in treatment of conditions ranging from asthma to myocardial infarction” (Cram, Dhalla, & Kwan 2017 P. 564).

References:

Blewett, L. A., & Osterholm, M. T. (2020). What’s Next for the US Health Care System After COVID-19? American Journal of Public Health, 110(9), 1365–1366.

Cram, P., Dhalla, I., & Kwan, J. L. (2017). Trade-offs: pros and cons of being a doctor and patient in Canada. Journal of general internal medicine, 32(5), 563-565.

McCarthy, M. (2003). US health-care system faces cost and insurance crises: rising costs, growing numbers of uninsured, and quality gaps trouble world’s most expensive health-care system. (Special Report). The Lancet, 362(9381).

 Writing and Content in the ESL Classroom

Guided Response: Review several of your classmates’ posts, and respond to at least two. Compare the answers of your classmates to yours. Notice any similarities and differences to teaching adults versus K-12. You might choose to respond to one person who is writing about the adult context and one who is writing about the K-12 context. For distinguished peer responses, respond with a minimum of five sentences that add to the conversation, and refrain from evaluative posts (i.e., You did a good job.).

MELISSA’S POST

I will be speaking on the K-12th grade ELLs

Describe some challenges with teaching writing and content in an ESL classroom.

There are many challenges that teachers are faced with when teaching writing and content to their ESL students. One of them is getting the child motivated to learn all areas of the English language and keeping the child engaged when they struggle with their self-confidence. Many children who come to the public school system from non-English speaking homes, come with extreme anxiety, worry, and fear. They are in shock which is referred to as culture shock, and this leads to them being distant, withdrawn, and silent. The author of Improving Writing Skills: ELLs and the Joy of Writing states, “the students’ worry that they are making huge, embarrassing errors or that their ideas aren’t very good in the first place, then we begin to understand the complexity involved in writing in a second language (Robertson, K. n.d.). What Robertson is saying is that the children’s lack of confidence could hinder the child’s academic progress and that if teachers are not aware of these challenges, they cannot set realistic goals and create appropriate learning objectives for their children.

Explain how teachers help students overcome those challenges.

Teachers can help their students overcome these challenges by making the environment warm and welcoming for their students. They can provide activities in both the native language and the English, and they can provide visual aids and tools for the children to follow along with. Additionally, teachers can use repetition in their lessons to help the child master the skills they are trying to teach. Knowing that children learn best through repetition and modeling is a great way to help the children overcome their challenges. Finally, not pointing out every mistake the child makes will help the child to feel more comfortable with taking risks.

Determine how teachers can help students with the vocabulary needed to write.

Teachers can help the students by focusing on writing skills and metacognition and with that in a meaningful way and not just focus on the reading skills. Teachers can use writing in all content areas to encourage the students to continue to put their thoughts down on paper. Teachers can have the children tell story’s and then use the whiteboard or journals to help the students put those stories down on paper. Teachers can create games and fun activities for their students using the vocabulary that they are being introduced to. Finally, preparing appropriate lesson plans that meet the needs of the students and are not too advanced or too easy for the students. The lesson must be created to be at a skill level just above their current level so that the children can be challenged.

Defend how BICS and CALP language proficiencies can impact a student’s writing.

Children being proficient in BICS can socialize in an effective way. These children can keep a conversation going while on the playground, and while in other social settings, and are more comfortable speaking in front of others. To build the child’s Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills BICS teachers can create lessons that incorporate peers working together, teambuilding activities, and small group discussions. It is important that teachers understand that BICS is a social language that is built to help children communicate in social settings. Teachers need to teach the child cognitive academic language proficiency CALP skills to help the student in the classroom and when taking tests. It is important to note that CALP is strictly academic language whereas BICS is strictly social language. Both are very important for the children to be successful in learning and becoming fluent in the English language.

References

Acacia University (2017). 

Writing strategies for ESL students (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)

 [Video file]. Retrieved from

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd3ezbUBbLo

Mahmoud, S. S., & Oraby, K. K. (2015). 

Let them toil to learn: Implicit feedback, self-correction and performance in EFL writing.  (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)

Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(8), 1672-1681. doi:10.17507/tpls.0508.18

Piper, T. (2015). 

Language, learning, and culture: English language learning in today’s schools

. Retrieved from 

https://content.ashford.edu (Links to an external site.)

Robertson, K. (n.d.). 

Improving writing skills: ELLs and the joy of writing. (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)

 Retrieved from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/improving-writing-skills-ells-and-joy-writing

SHIMIKA’S POST

Describe some challenges with teaching writing and content in an ESL classroom. 

 Some challenges with teaching writing and content in an ESL classroom are lack of vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and student readiness. Lack of vocabulary demonstrates that the student is unable to express their ideas, beliefs, and feelings through words. Grammar explains the structure of words and how they are formed in sentences. Spelling, although they may be so simple for most it causes anxiety for most ESL and can prevent them from moving forward. Student readiness is based upon the student if the student is not willing and motivated for writing it will not be successful. 

Explain how teachers help students overcome those challenges. 

Teachers can help students overcome challenges by providing the students with electronic dictionaries, that will pronounce and define words. Teachers can implement lots of activities that involve reading and grammar. Lessons should include assignments with repetitive instruction, which will help the student with memorization. The most important concept is to get the students motivated, to even want to participate. The more interesting it is, the better input the teacher will receive from the students. 

Determine how teachers can help students with the vocabulary needed to write. 

 Teachers can help students with vocabulary needed to write in many ways. Teachers can pre-teach words, before the class discussion takes place. Teachers could demonstrate how to use the dictionary, to help with pronunciation and word meanings. Direct instruction which means presenting consistent and clear instructions in a way that it can be comprehended. Associate words with things that are familiar to the student. The teacher should display real objects, pictures and a word wall should be displayed in the classroom, which will allow the students to visualize what the words look like 

Defend how BICS and CALP language proficiencies can impact a student’s writing. 

BICS and CALPS language proficiency impact a student’s writing because it identifies where the student is at in language proficiency assessment. BICS deals with social language. Social language is how you communicate with others. CALP focus more on academic language that is learned mostly inside the classroom. Social language is how you may communicate with friends and academic language is more professional. They both impact a student’s writing by how they are communicated. Social language would include run-on sentences, incorrect spelling, and grammatical errors., however with academic languages these items will be corrected. 

Piper, T. (2015). 

Language, learning, and culture: English language learning in today’s schools. 

Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu (Links to an external site.)
 

Acacia University (2017). 
Writing strategies for ESL students (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)
 [Video file]. Retrieved from 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd3ezbUBbLo (Links to an external site.)