Week 2 ELL Questions

What is your experience in terms of working or friends with people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds? I am first generation, my parents are from Italy and therefore I entered the school system speaking very broken English and was placed in ESL for a few years. I have friends from a number of cultural backgrounds and appreciate there are many challenges for teachers when presented with learners of various abilities.

I had the opportunity to observe an ELL student in the fall of 2009 and witnessed many obstacles from a student perspective and teacher perspective. There are many instructional strategies being used with ELL students that have proven to be very successful, no different then the strategies that are utilized for many other learning needs. The most important factor rests on the instructor as it is the instructor’s responsibility to understand their student’s needs and what will suit them best. In some cases the social acclimation of the student plays a major role in the student’s success. If we can provide ELL student the support to develop a strong self efficacy to learn English then they will succeed. It is also important to engage their parents to reinforce the work and support they need at home.

Do you have experience in working with ELLs? Yes, myself and previous student observations.

Do you have experience in teaching ELLs? No

What is your perception on ELLs in terms of their learning motivation and performance in general and in reading and writing specially? Like any child they are eager to learn. Self efficacy plays a large role in their success and it is very important that teachers accept ELL student’s culture and embrace it into the classroom in a way that they are seen as an added value and feel comfortable making mistakes and meeting the language challenges.

What learning difficulties do ELLs usually encounter in schools? ELL students face many challenges from fitting in socially to keeping up with the rest of the class.

In your observation, how do classroom teachers resolve ELLs’ learning difficulties and improve their learning motivation? Teachers utilize similar techniques with guided reading, read alouds using books that the ELL student might relate to enrich the class on different cultures and engage the ELL student so they feel part of the class.

What strategies do they often adopt? See above. In addition cooperative group work so they may learn from their peers who may know the language or be able to help.

Are these strategies effective? Yes

Are you familiar with these strategies? Yes, very. Every class I have observed utilizes these strategies

Are family and community involved? Not that I can really witness. Providing pointers to family on how they can help is very helpful.

What intervention strategies would you adopt if you have ELLs in your class? RTI, running records, solom.

How do you go about teaching the child? Based on their difficulty I would try to keep the student in the class and work with them during center time for guided reading work. If I had the budget I would provide a speech to text translation program in class as an assistive technology piece they can use when appropriate.

How do you go about reaching out to the family and the community?

Case Study - Read My Weekly Status Here

My name is Cristina Spathis. Welcome to the comment section of my weekly observation blog! I am observing a second Grade ESL student who's first language is Spanish. Her parents are from Mexico and she has a twin brother who is also in the program. Only spanish is spoken at home. For our book project we are using "To the Beach" by Thomas Doherty as our inspiration. My student is going to write a book titled "To the Library". Read this section to learn more about my weekly progress!

About me
I am a Childhood Education Graduate currently taking EDLI 636 at NYIT, Old Westbury. I will be student teaching in the Fall of 2010 and look forward to having my own classroom one day. I too entered the school system as an ESL student. I can definitely imagine what these students experience is like and hope they develop the confidence that I eventually did.