Before going to Brigham my goals for working with
English Language Learners were to gain more confidence and become more
comfortable with English Language Learners. Also, I wanted to become more aware
of their struggles they face in the classroom. Throughout my experience at
Brigham I hope to learn how to provide differentiation instruction for ELL
students and to learn effective ways to communicate with these students. Even
though this was my first time in the classroom with these students, I was still
able to observe a lot when it comes to a diverse classroom with many ELL
students. I noticed that many of the students were very quiet and afraid to
answer when we asked them questions. Some students also answered for others
that were sitting next to them if we did not understand what they said. The
teacher also repeated some of the student’s names if we weren’t sure what they
were. This could relate to how they do not understand what we were asking. I
have experienced this kind of situation in my PDS classroom. I have done
assessments with some of my students and I would ask the students questions and
the ELL students struggled with knowing what to say. I think the more practice
and experience I get with these students, the easier it will become to learn
ways to teach them.
Since
it was our first day we mainly focused on just getting to know the students,
but I think we could have done more extending an activity about the five senses.
We started with a getting to know you game about going on a picnic then we read
a book and closed with a song about the five senses. Our lesson went faster
than we anticipated, so now we know to plan more and be prepared for this to
maybe happen again. I think we thought the getting to know you game was going
to go longer than it did. The students seemed to enjoy the song that we sang
with them about the five senses, so we probably could have done something more
after the song. We could have included a video such as this http://www.pinterest.com/pin/170362798377803877/
to show them an extra visual and song of the five senses. We also could have
done an activity such as bringing in a Mr. Potato Head figure and going over
each part like reviewing what we do with our eyes or what we do with our ears.
This would have been a fun way to talk about the five senses with preschoolers.
This
time I felt like I personally did not do as much as I could of while we were
there. I think we could have planned better and made sure each of us were in
charge to lead a part of the lesson. The next time I am in the classroom I will
help more while I’m in the classroom and work more towards reaching my goals
and what I want to learn while I am there. Each time that I go to the classroom
I will work towards getting more experience with ELL students and finding ways
to get more involved while I am there. I want to work towards making the
initiative to work with these students, instead of standing back being afraid
to do something.
Exceeds: I included a video and extension activity about the five senses.
2 comments:
Megan,
I think that you have some great goals and that they are very similar to the goals that we all have while doing lessons with the preschool class. I also noticed the students were very quiet and I hope that this will change as the year goes on. I was really glad that the teacher was in the classroom with us so she could help us to know their names and what they were saying. I agree that we could have done more with the students. Our lesson definitely went faster than any of us had anticipated so we need to make sure that we always have an extension activity. The getting to know you picnic game went surprisingly quickly. I like the video that you included, it would have been a nice one to show to the preschoolers. I also really the potato head idea! That would definitely be something that the students could relate to and it would be easy for them to understand, even for the English language learners. I agree with you about not doing much while we were there, I also feel that way. In out next visits I would like to be more involved in the teaching. But it is really hard for all of us to have a big role in each lesson because of the number of us and the time that we have in the classroom. Maybe we could take turns each week with having large roles in the lesson.
Megan,
You have really great goals set for yourself while we are at Brigham! I really like that you want to learn more about the students, but more importantly the struggles that they face in the classroom. This is a great goal to have because it will help when trying to create activities for the students to do and knowing where you can support them during the activities. We never know what will actually happen when we implement the lesson plan and it is important to over plan and be prepared for any situation that could come up. I really like how you went back and found more activities that you could have implemented so that you were in the classroom with the students longer. These will be great resources in your future classroom! I especially like the Mr. Potato Head activity. A lot of young children know who he is and it is a great way for them to connect new content with a character that they are familiar with from Disney. I like how you have not only set goals for working with English Language Learners in these classrooms, but you have also made goals for yourself as we go to Brigham throughout the semester. You have set great goals to push yourself in the classroom and while working with the students. We will all be able to learn much more from the experiences that we will have with the students in these classrooms. The more experience we gain Brigham as well as learning from the students each week will help us to be better teachers while in PDS and in our future classrooms!
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