Blog entry 4 reflection

While reflecting on this class I realized how much I have learned in just a short amount of time. I did not have much experience or knowledge about English Language Learners and did not realize how much the number of ELL’s is increasing in schools. Out of the four second language acquisition theories discussed in chapter three I agree with the sociocultural perspective the most. When teaching students a new language I think the most effective approach to take is to expand the amount of opportunities they have to interact with one another and experience the American culture. “As students learn the new language, they gain knowledge about how to use the language in sociocultural contexts and construct their social identities through their participation in language-mediated activities” (Wright, 2015, p.58). This theory proved to be true because during my interview with an ELL she said she learned the most by socializing. To do this I will incorporate lots of group work and partner work in my classroom.

Something interesting is during my observations last semester I observed at a bilingual school and while observing in grades K-2 the instruction was done in Spanish only. At the time, I disagreed with this and did not understand why they were not being taught in English. After taking this class, I learned that the program that school was using was home language content-area instruction. I no longer disagree with this program and support it instead. I understand how the students must master the content first before learning the language and I think doing so will actually make learning English easier in the upper grade levels. This program will help them succeed and stay up to standards as well. “Providing ELLs with content-area instruction in their home language while they are learning English as a new language helps to ensure that they will learn complex academic content and master grade-level content standards” (Wright, 2015, p. 91).  ELL’s will have a harder time grasping grade level content standards if they are taught in English, a language they are still unfamiliar with. I am glad I learned more about this program so that I could change my opinions and views about it to be more positive.

One of the things I read that most stuck out to me to use in my classroom was the productive talk moves. These are ways to scaffold classroom discussions in a way to accommodate ELL’s to make sure they are understanding what the discussion is about. Within the productive talk moves are revoicing, repeating, reasoning, adding on, and waiting. By doing these things it is giving the ELLs another chance to hear what their peers are saying and gives them more time to process it. I saw a lot of the productive talk moves being used in the observation videos I watched for the observation paper assignment. I got to see how these scaffolding methods really made a difference in engaging the students.

Within my teaching philosophy I have always had a strong belief in differentiated instruction and individualizing assessments and activities based on student’s needs. This class supported my teaching philosophy because I got to learn more strategies and methods to use to accommodate and teach students so I will have an easier time implementing my philosophy beliefs into my classroom. I think the blog entries was a great way to submit assignments and interact with one another. When I first read the syllabus, I was so nervous to do it because I have never posted videos before or interacted in a blog before and I am not very tech savy. Now I learned how to do it and it was not difficult at all. I think the blog made things for personal. In other online classes we would just interact on a discussion board. Being able to view classmate’s videos made it more engaging and I felt like I learned more from them than just reading a discussion board post.

Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.

Entry 2: Interview with ELL

https://youtu.be/4uoEyz01K20


I interviewed my boyfriends mother Herminia Bello who learned English as a second language in the United States. As far as learning English, the subsystem morphology was the most challenging for her. "Morphology is the study of the structure of words" (Wright, 2015, p.32). She struggled with things such as the difference  between to and too, and using past, present, and future tense. This is one of the challenges that comes with teaching a new language because the rules on how certain words change meaning differs across the languages. "For example, many languages do not use inflectional morphemes to indicate number or tense, such as -s or -ed in English, but instead use a stand-alone morpheme, a separate word, to indicate number or tense" (Wright, 2015, p.32). I believe this is the case for Spanish, her native language, because there are different words to use when speaking about the past. "Voy" means I am going and "fui" means I went. These are two separate words to express the different tenses. In English, for many words if you just add -ed at the end it makes it past tense so it is very confusing for ELL's.

Herminia mentions she comes from a very poor family of 12 in her home town of Alamos, Sonora Mexico. She said she had basically nothing there. There were 60 students to 1 teacher ratios at school, no air conditioning in the building, and very uncomfortable desks to sit in. At home, she did not have resources to help her grow and learn or reach her full potential. "Although limited resources and the challenges of learning English may impede opportunities to learn, ELL's can learn and reach the highest levels of academic achievement" (Wright, 2015, p. 15).  Herminia did not let her circumstances get in the way of her success. She had never been in a car before yet came to the United States in a private plane without knowing even one word of the English language. She faced her fears and kept her goal of learning the language close to her heart. She is now a fluent English speaker and was able to give back to the community by being a translator for the Save The Children organization. She graduated high school after only being in the United States 1 year where all of her classes were spoken in English the entire time. Even with limited resources, she was still successful just as Wright said was possible.

Something that helped Herminia be successful was her teachers. She said her teachers took a great interest in her and even spent time with her outside of the school to get to know her better and support her. "Teachers need to know the following about each student: (1) language and literacies used at home; (2) ELP level; (3) educational history in the home country and in the United States; (4) length of time in the United States; (5) reason for immigration; (6) number of siblings; and (7) parent's educational history, employment, and proficiency in English and other languages" (Wright, 2015, p.23). Wright mentions all of these important things that teachers should know about their students and Herminia's teachers proved that this is an important factor in helping the ELL's. They got to know her and believed in her so they knew what ways to help her and it resulted in her success.

Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.

Entry 1: Self-introduction video

According to Wright, “An English language learner (ELL) is a student who is in the process of attaining proficiency in English as a new, additional language” (Wright, 2010, p. 1). ELL’s come from different countries all over the world and are becoming more common in American public schools. As a teacher, it is very important for me to recognize this growth of ELL’s in the classroom and understand what my responsibility will be as their teacher. “The ways educators choose to view their ELLs affect the ways they organize teaching and learning in their classes and the ways administrators structure programs in their schools and districts (Wright, 2010, p. 2). While I am nervous to have ELLs in my classroom with the fear of not giving them the best education they deserve, I know that the more research I do and the more tools I have for teaching ELLs the more confident and successful I will be. Having a positive outlook is key. With a positive outlook I will organize engaging and meaningful learning opportunities for my ELL students.

One of the problems in defining and identifying ELLs is “determining when an ELL has attained enough proficiency in English to be redesignated as fluent English proficient” (Wright, 2010, p. 3). I can see how many students fall short of the help they need by being pushed out of the program because of passing one English proficiency test, but still needing the additional services they were receiving. This transition from ESL classes to general education classes is huge and this is where I hope to be a support system for those students coming into my classroom.

Blog Entry 1: https://youtu.be/sgelBhauflg