ELL Support in the Classroom

My classroom receives a lot of support for English Language Learners especially because we have two ELL's in the class. Everyday one of the ELL teachers at my school comes into my class to help out during our literacy block. To support these students she uses a lot of visual cues, and modeling. She also uses a lot of expression when she is describing things. Through the use of modeling the students are usually able to understand what she is saying or what they are supposed to be doing. The ELL teacher also provided the students with an Oxford Picture Dictionary for Kids. This is a great resource because the dictionary provides pictures of everyday objects and activities and the students are able to resort to this when they don't understand something.

ELL Strategies

One strategy that I feel is very helpful in supporting English Language Learners is the use of models, visual aids and diagrams. The use of visual aids not only helps English Language Learners but can help and very useful to all students. Visuals make the language more accessible to ELL students. When teachers can display pictures, diagrams, and charts in their classroom, they are supporting their English Language Learners. This helps these students because they might not be able to speak the language, but their is a good chance that they are going to be able to understand a visual. This is a strategy that I will definitely incorporate into my classroom because it will be helpful for all of my students.

Haw River

The second trip at Haw River Elementary School was definitely much more successful than the first trip to the elementary school. My partners and I had a group of 6 students to do the parachute tests. For our parachute drop we chose to use and test different canopy materials. These materials were a plastic bag, aluminum foil and a coffee filter.

This time I felt a lot more prepared for the activities and the students also understood the concepts much better. It was nice to be able to relate building a parachute to how parachutes come in handy for sky divers. At first the students did not know what a parachute was, but after we gave them the sky diver example they knew exactly what it was. One of the hardest things to do with this activity was to make sure that the students were dropping the parachutes from the same heights. This was hard to do when there are some tall and some short students, therefore our measurements were not exact. Other than that the activity went pretty well. By the end of the allotted time the students had some idea of how the materials used for the canopy determined how slow or fast the parachute dropped.

Literacy Reflection #5

I really enjoyed reading chapters five and two in the Flint and Collins because I was able to understand how to put together a literacy block. I have observed literacy blocks, but I have never actually learned how to put one together and these readings were very helpful in learning that. I like how Flint gives literacy programs and approaches and Collins delves deeper into creating literacy blocks.

In chapter five of the Flint reading I identified and related a lot of what I read back to my fourth grade classroom. Under the National Reading Panel's guideline to use scientifically based reading methods, my school system has adopted Reading Street by Scott Foresman and this is its first year in use at my school. With this program the teachers are given specific trade books and an anthology to use with their classroom. The one good thing that I like about this curriculum is the textbook that the students are provided with. I have looked through the book and it has some great pieces of literature, that so far, my students have really enjoyed reading.

So far I have not seen any writing done in the classroom. Durham's curriculum does not start writing until this week, so when I go into the classroom on Wednesday I should be seeing writer's workshop. Previously with the literacy block, my teacher would start with a mini lesson, do an interactive read aloud which the students love, and then move into reading centers. These centers involve independent reading, buddy reading, guided reading groups and library time. For many of my students this is their favorite part of the day and I am able to see how much the students enjoy reading especially when they can read what they want to read and what will be meaningful to them. One of the most important parts of successful literacy development is to have an extensive classroom library. In my classroom our libary is separated into genre's. One thing that I have noticed, which I'm sure is common in any classroom is that the male students usually go for the non-fiction text. This will be something that I will keep in my mind as I am building my classroom library.

Now that I have gotten an overview of literacy programs and approaches, one of the most important things that I am going to have to look at when applying to school districts/systems is what kind of approved literacy program they are using. Then I am going to have to determine how I am going to organize my classroom using basal materials. I wish that teachers had more freedom to choose authentic texts and develop their own reading/writing curriculum without having to use a scripted one. At the same time, I also see why my school district in particular wants things more uniform across the district.

ELL Observation

For my observation, I chose to observe an ELL/ESL teacher at my school. This teacher partners with my cooperating teacher every morning for the literacy block. The ELL teacher will usually do an interactive read aloud with my class and she also helps my teacher with guided reading groups. During guided reading she will alternate groups with my CT. Usually she has the lower level reading groups. During this literacy time, then is when she also takes aside the two ELL learners in my classroom for about 20-30 minutes. In my classroom, we have a Norwegian and Korean student. Both of these students moved to the United States shortly before the school year started.

One of the main and most important tools that the ELL teacher uses is "The Oxford Picture Dictionary for Kids." This dictionary contains very descriptive pictures with words describing those pictures, and they are usually categorized by a theme (outdoors, school, etc.). In conjunction with the dictionary the teacher also has notebook that has tons of worksheets compiled together. These worksheets contain pictures with fill in the blanks of what actions those pictures entail. These worksheets are very helpful for the students because they are able to connect the words with the pictures.

One thing I also noticed about her is that she uses a lot of examples and hand motions. When she says things to the students she uses many facial and body expressions, especially to express emotions. The students respond well to this because they like seeing how she relates facial expressions and hand motions to words. Another important aspect of her teaching is that not only does she give them information and teach them, but she also takes information from them and relates it to the English language. An example of this would be when the students will tell her a word in their language and then she will relate that word to something in the English language.

Just in the past month I have already seen a drastic difference in both of these students English language abilities. They can now both express their ideas, say sentences and ask questions. This has all been due to the help that they have been receiving at school and the work that they have been doing at home with their parents.

UDL

Universal Design for Learning is a great practice that makes learning attainable for all students. When I think about UDL I think about other things we have been talking about in our classes such as inclusion, modifications, differentiation etc. I consider UDL to be relatively new and in the last 5 years it has become a more accepted practice among teachers. The use of technology to teach all students is an important aspect because it is important that every student is reached. When I was in elementary school I don't remember the use of much technology, but now we are in the age of technology and teachers should take advantage of its different uses.

As for my classroom, I am not seeing as many UDL practices in my classroom as I would like to. Right now I am seeing the use of technology to help my English Language Learners. In my classroom I have a Norwegian and Korean student in my class who both moved to the United States at the beginning of the semester. Everyday during the literacy block in class these two students are allowed to use the computer to play an interactive game that assists with their English language learning. While this is great for the ELL's I do not know if this can be put under the category of Universal Design for Learning.

When I get my own classroom I do hope that I am able to effectively use UDL practices in my classroom. I hope to do this by incorporating technology that works and is accessible to all of my students. I want to be able to use the technology that can use with all types of students whether they are ELL, ESL, or EC students. The most important aspect of this will be to know each of my students different learning styles.

Literacy Reflection #4

In this chapter, Flint talks about four theories of literacy development (bottom-up, top-down, transactional & critical) demonstrated by four different teachers. The literacy development practice that is most common in my 4th grade classroom is the bottom-up theory. This theory is where "learning to read is based on a series of small discrete steps from the simplest to most complex." The school that I am placed at has an industrial based model of learning, therefore this practice seems to fit best. The curriculum that we are following has layed out all of the lessons and activities where there is a predetermined series of skills. With this curriculum there is little to no room for differentiation.

In a perfect world I would love to be able to teach from a top-down perspective where meaning is essential to the reading process. Ms. Battle, who was the teacher discussed in the section was able to plan the curriculum based on the interests/needs of her students. Like I said before, in a perfect world I would love to be able to plan my curriculum solely on what the students need, but with No Child Left Behind this is not as prevalent as it once used to be. This model and theory of literacy gives the teacher a lot of freedom what he/she can do in the classroom.

While in the chapter each individual model was described and illustrated separately, I think that it is best to use each model in conjunction with one another. When I get my own classroom, I hope that I will be able to take things from each model to create my own best teaching practice.

Misconception

With the bubble activity at Haw River Elementary school with the 2nd grade students, I can not say if the student's did or did not have misconceptions. These were students that I had never met before, therefore, it was hard to tell if they had any misconceptions and it was hard to measure their conceptual change. Due to the fact that the students did not know what surface tension was and that the students were only interested in playing with the bubbles I did not notice any misconceptions. If the students did have any misconceptions, I do not know if their misconceptions would have changed by doing this activity. I think that the next activity we do with the parachutes will have a greater affect on changing the students misconceptions.

In my 4th grade classroom I have been able to see my students misconceptions change. Recently we just completed a unit on magnetism and electricity. With this unit the students were able to build circuits and test the strength of magnets. When building the circuits the students had many misconceptions about how a battery and wires could light up a light bulb. Once the circuits were built it was great to see how the students misconceptions were changed with experimenting with the circuits and learning more knowledge about electricity.

It was wonderful to see this in my classroom because in my classroom I will also have to gauge students conceptual understanding. I will do this by organizing principles of science in order for my students to learn new information more effectively. I was able to gauge the students conceptual change when I could notice how the students were able to rethink and restructure their prior knowledge about electricity and magnetism. I want my students to be able to apply their knowledge to new concepts.

Literacy Reflection # 3

When I read the title of this chapter, "Getting to Know Students: Developing Culturally Relevant Practices for Reading and Writing" I knew this chapter was going to be very beneficial. I found the first part about Bianca very interesting because it related so much to the class discussion that we had last week. Many students that come from different cultural background lose their language because they only want to speak in English. It is immensely important that as future teachers we encourage our ELL and ESL students to keep their home language. In this text Bianca was "ashamed" of her culture/language and this is not something that I want to promote in my classroom.

In my classroom, everyday the ELL/ESL teacher comes in and does the first part of literacy with my class. She usually does vocabulary/concept development and an interactive read aloud. My class is about 60% Hispanic, 20% Caucasian, and 20% African American. During every read aloud that I have seen her do she had been able to relate the material across cultures. I love how she is able to take a piece of information and make it relevant for all of her students. It has been wonderful to see this done in the classroom because this is something that I've never seen before. Through observing her I have been able to learn good teaching practices that will help me when I get into the classroom.

Another thing that I found interesting in the chapter was the attitude questionnaires and surveys. I have seen these done in almost every class that I have been in, even in college. I never really liked doing surveys/questionnaires, but I see how they can be helpful in finding out students' interest and getting them interested in reading and writing. Reading is going to be more meaningful to students when they can read one of their favorite authors or about something that they are interested in.