Entry 3
For my interview, I interviewed Mrs. Dunn who is a teacher
at Birkes Elementary. She currently has a class with 10 ELLs. The first
question I asked her was, what methods or strategies does she use in the
classroom? She talked me about how she uses a lot of pre-teaching. By
pre-teaching she meant that if she is going to be using certain words in a
lesson the following day, she will introduce them to the students. In a small
group she goes over the terms and their meanings, so that during the lesson
they are not stuck trying to understand due to one word. In her classroom she
has a diverse group of ELLs, so she has to use a lot of pictures. Two of them
can read in their native language so she also uses their language to help them.
For the students that cannot read in their native language she has an app on
her phone that speaks the translation for them. Wright (2015, pg. 17) mentioned
in the text that “knowing the student’s home language or languages allows the
teacher to provide primary language support” that can further help the students.
She also tries to provide sentence stems to help them in their speaking.
The second question I asked was, what difficulties has she
faced in helping ELLs? She talked about how it is frustrating for her to see the
student’s frustration. To see how hard, they work, and she works to help them but
then see them frustrated is difficult for her to watch. She explained how it is
also difficult to have to keep teaching at the grade level of everyone when
they need more time to work. This lowers their confidence in themselves and the
work they put into school.
For my last question I asked, what advice she would give to
future ELL teachers? She said to reach out to the parents and try to provide
them with many resources. Resources that can help them help their children be
successful. She said to encourage the students to continue to work hard and
that they are smart. One last thing she said is to force them to talk every day.
Wright (2015) said that teachers need to talk less in the classroom so that are
given opportunities to speak in classroom activities. Allowing students to talk
to their peers and teacher gives them practice in their pronunciation and overall
their fluency in speaking.
Wright, E. W. (2015). Foundations of Teaching English
Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Caslon Publishing.
Hello! In regards to Mrs. Dunn's second answer, I feel that every teacher hates seeing their students get frustrated or struggle at an assignment. I know I do and it just leaves me with a disheartened feeling as well. I love her advice and I do agree that we need to start encouraging our students to try their hardest at school. Researchers have conducted that motivation and confidence in the content help ELL students learn the material and objectives more efficiently (Wright, 2015). Besides motivation and confidence, I believe teachers should also be provided with plenty of resources. Unfortunately, my interviewee wasn't given much resource to help her from her school but that didn't stop her and she found plenty of other resources to provide for her students and the parents.
ReplyDeleteHello Emely! It is even harder when you see your students frustrated, and you are trying everything to help but it is not working. This is where that relationship is important to form since the beginning of the school year. If our students can see and feel that we believe in them then they hopefully will believe in themselves. Sometimes all students need is someone who cares enough to challenge them. They will never know what they are capable of until they are pushed out of their comfort zone. Wright (2015) talked about how research found that students who were being pulled out were more engaged than in their regular classroom even though it was a safe environment. The relationship with each student I feel is crucial to allowing that motivation and confidence to be effective in learning. I think as teachers our schools should be willing to provide with the best resources, but sometimes we know what is better for our students. I wonder if maybe it worked in her favor for her to have gone looking for resources.
DeleteWright, E. W. (2015). Foundations of Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Caslon Publishing.
Hey! I think that when Mrs. Dunn spoke about how motivating the students and building their confidence was an important task I agree that educators should try to help the students be able to focus on not just the materials or what they know but build the students up from the inside out. A child who feels motivated and is able to share in a safe environment is more willing to try and challenge themselves. Also researchers have conducted that motivation and confidence in the content helps ELL students learn the material and objectives more efficiently (Wright, 2015).
ReplyDeleteHello Hilian! I agree with you one hundred percent! It is not enough for us, their teachers to believe in them but they need to believe in themselves. At the end of the day they are the ones doing the hard work to reach their goals. We as the teachers set the tone though. If we do not create that safe environment like you said then it is hard for them to want to push themselves. They need to know that we are there for them. I mentioned this with Emely, but Wright (2015) made a point with ELLs who were being pulled out. There regular teacher was only able to help them so much which frustrated them and possibly led to lack of confidence. When the students were pulled out they had a relationship with their ESL teacher and felt progress due to the environment they were in.
DeleteWright, E. W. (2015). Foundations of Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Caslon Publishing.
Alessandra,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed getting an insight of Mrs. Dunn's experiences and strategies in the classroom with English Language Learners. I like how she executes pre-teaching by pulling out small group of ELLs to preview vocabulary. It's important to preview vocabulary while providing images to support the connection that should be made. Cooperative learning is a type of instruction that could promote a caring learning environment by pulling them out with a small group. Wright (2015) states “this is an effective strategy for helping ELLs learn both language and academic content”. I think it’s important for students to not feel alone when going through second language acquisition in a classroom.