Blog Entry 3
Reflection
I got the chance to interview with three teachers that are alike but also different in their own ways. Ms. Langhammer was a reading, language arts, and social studies teacher. Whereas Ms. Thai was a math and science teacher. As for Ms. Myrie, she is a self-contained teacher who teaches all subjects.
I learned that Ms. Langhammer incorporated her love for drawing all around her classroom. Whether she is working in a whole or small group, I saw her drawing everywhere. She also displayed her students’ drawing on the walls, which let the student feels like they are part of the classroom. I like how Ms. Langhammer has found a way to tie in one of her strength/interest that could help those students that are visual learners.
From Ms. Thai, I learned that during the lesson, the students should get the chance to have a voice. They should not only be able to ask and answer questions but also the chance to talk to their peers. For ELLs, it is crucial for them to learn how to communicate/social as much as they learn how to read and write. I really like the 5-2-1 method, where the teacher teaches/talk for five minutes, students talk to a partner for two minutes, and clarifications or corrections are made within a minute.
As for Ms. Myrie, she answered a question that I have been struggling lately. I wasn’t so sure how to address or correct errors that ELLs or just the whole class in general. According to Wright (2015), corrections could be made through recasting, while is simply modeling the correct form to the student (p.159). Ms. Myrie demonstrated the fact that there are a certain time and place that correction should be made and I find that it matches what I have been learning from my readings.
Hello Lina! I thought it was great that you interviewed three teachers! Mrs. Tracy talked about incorporating visuals for students, and that is something I 100% agree with. I, myself am a visual learner. Throughout the years of me getting my degree this is something they talk a lot about. We have visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. She also mentions having patience with students. Which I thought was interesting because I hear this so much in with other teachers. This seems like the golden rule in teaching. Mrs. Tracy talked about schema. She mentioned to make sure that the students understand the material and that it is already in their schema. In the textbook, “Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy” Brown and Lee write that, “The reader brings information, knowledge, emotion, experience, and culture-that is, schemata to the printed word” (Brown and Lee, 2015, pg. 391). This is true for ESL students as well as general students. Students will not understand the material that is being taught if their schema contains nothing of the material. I really enjoyed your video Lina! I loved hearing the different opinions of the different teachers. Each teacher seemed like they really knew they stuff. That makes me happy that these students are being taught well
ReplyDeleteHi Desiree!
DeleteI’m glad that you mention about Ms. Langhammer. When I went into her classroom, there were many visuals that weren’t only made by Ms. Langhammer but also her students. I’m mostly a visual learner, but I think that I’m also a kinesthetic learner. After being in the classroom and working with the students, I feel like it’s really hard to have patience. I noticed that I am a person who doesn’t get frustrated easily if someone doesn’t understand something. The same goes for when I’m teaching, but I realized that there are some factors that would make it difficult for me like the time restriction and the number of students that need my help. Thank you for watching and commenting on my video.
Lina, that is amazing that there are three ESL specialists on your third grade team! Your video gave me a lot of insight on how different teachers can provide different perspectives and reasoning on what is best for English Language Learners. One of your teachers mentioned guided reading lessons and focusing on vocabulary. I like how she makes sure her students have the schema to understand the text. Learning how to read can be very difficult for students and it is great that she acknowledges that they need the background knowledge. I noticed that the teachers you interviewed believed that it is important to be slow with your speaking as an English Language Learner teacher. This is true and effective, but it is also important to “keep a natural flow to your language as possible” so that the students develop fluency in their talking (Brown & Lee, 2015, p. 194).
ReplyDeleteHi Shelly!
DeleteI agree that it is important for teachers to make sure that the students have the schema for the material they will be learning. A teacher cannot mention material to students and expect them to just know it. Learning is a process. I find the fluency part of language true as well. I, myself find it difficult when someone speaks quickly in an everyday conversation. I could only imagine what it feels like for a ELL student.
Hi Shelly!
DeleteFor my student teaching, I’m working at a district where there is a diverse population of students. Therefore, every teacher is aware about ELLs and have prepare accommodations for them in the classroom. Like you, I also agree that it’s important for students to have background knowledge about what they are reading. Moreover, I think it’s also important that teachers get to know their students’ background information and interest, so they can provide them with appropriate books. Thank you for watching and commenting on my video.
Hi Lina!
ReplyDeleteI liked how you interviewed 3 different teachers to get a wider perspective on teachers with ELL experience. I liked how your last teacher addressed when to correct student speech errors. She mentioned that as a teacher, you should provide implicit corrections through recast by responding naturally back to the student in a way that corrects the form and models it correctly (Wright, 2015). When the student is talking in casual conversation to others, the student does not need to be corrected unless it is during learning time and they are consciously making an effort to learn how to correct themselves. I also liked that that the teachers would mention about individual differences that teachers must consider when they are lesson planning. It is always necessary to “take into account the variation of ability in your student” as there are those who perform above and below the classroom average (Brown & Lee, 2017, p.205).
Hi Jennie!
DeleteThank you for watching and commenting on my video. I really like how you mention about recasting and lesson planning. When I’m in the classroom, I find that it’s common for students to speak in incomplete sentences. Therefore, my mentor teacher would provide them with sentence starters that not only help them speak correctly but also help them process their thoughts. As for lesson planning, I find it crucial to over plan and have plans available for differentiated instruction because we might not know what could happen during the lesson.
Lina, I enjoyed listening to your interview with all three teachers. This really gives a range of ideas and perspectives of working with English language learners. I really liked what your first teacher mentioned about having guided reading lessons and making sure it’s on level. She also mentioned that as she goes through the book she may have to stop and focus on vocabulary. I really like the idea of learning vocabulary in context to what is being learned instead of just being given a list of words to memorize and learn and that’s exactly what she is doing. For your second teacher, I really liked what she learned during her training about 5-2-1. I especially liked the part where children get to talk with their peers about what they’ve learned because with English language learners this allows for practice. For your third teacher, I really like what she mentioned about correcting errors. According to Wright (2015), providing implicit corrections through recasting and responding naturally while modeling the correct form is a good way to correct errors (p. 159) and that is exactly what she stated. She also stated that this only really needs to be done during specific instruction and when a student is speaking incorrectly in a social setting it doesn’t need to be correct. This thought aligns with what Wright says as well.
ReplyDeleteHi Chenda!
DeleteThank you for watching and commenting on my video. I’m glad that you learn a little bit from each teacher. When I was interviewing Ms. Thai, the second teacher, I also found that the 5-2-1 method was really interesting. From what I learned after being in the classroom for awhile that some students have a rather short attention span for their age. There this method is a quick way for the teacher to assessing them informally and let the students learn from others.
Wow Lina! I thought it was really great that you decided to interview more than one ESL teacher/specialist. Each teacher has great info and interesting methods as to how they approach their ELL’s. Recasting as mentioned by Ms. Myrie is a great way to correct English language learners as stated in the textbook as well.
ReplyDeleteLina,
ReplyDeleteIt's so great that you had the opportunity to interview so many teachers on different perspectives to working with English Language Leaners! I was especially interested in some of the topics that the last teacher mentioned on the concept of social communication which can be considered to be vastly different than academic communication. This reminds me of the concept of implicating the use of language for an academic purpose as spoken about in the text by Brown & Lee (2015), this goes into the topic of the type of vocabulary that is used in the language depending on the subject matter. As teachers it's important to give students the opportunity to do both both academic and social language in the classroom so that they gain an understanding of what the difference is amongst the two types, maybe even revolving a lesson plan around the type of vocabulary to use in different scenarios would be excellent.
Brown, D. and Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by Principles. White Plains : Pearson-Longman,
4th. Ed. IBSN-13: 978-0-13-392585-2