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.
finding nemo bathroom
1 year ago
It is really unfortunate that my class does not have any ELL/ESL students or any EC students. We have one student with an IEP and she only receives speech services three times a week, all when I’m not there. We have a cluster of AIG students and other then that my students are the “normal” students. We have high and low students and they are broken into reading groups accordingly. I’m so jealous of everyone else that has these specialists that come into the classroom and help the students! I’ve heard of the picture dictionaries but I’ve never seen one and I think they are a great idea! I may even buy one for our classroom because I think all students could benefit from them, not just ELL/ESL and EC students.
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