My ELL Goal Update

                This past week I was in the preschool classroom at Brigham Elementary School as an assistant. This was my second time in this classroom, my first being when I taught my lesson with Kacie. The lesson being taught was on the sense of taste and I spent my time in the classroom observing a specific child for the lead teachers. Because I was extensively watching this child and writing down everything she said and did, I had little to no interaction with students. This made it difficult to address my ELL goal. At the beginning of the semester, I made my goal to gain experience and confidence in working with ELL students. Even though I did not get much experience working directly with the students, I was able to observe them and see how they interact in the classroom. I noticed that the students who were most vocal, were also the students who are potentially ELL. This surprised me because I would have thought the opposite would occur. I did not expect the native English speakers to be the quietest ones in the room. After looking through some online resources, I found that the classroom environment plays a big role in fostering the engagement and participation of all students, especially English language learners. By having a classroom that encourages language, teachers can help students become more comfortable communicating verbally. Not only should English language learners have ample opportunity to practice their language with adults and peers, but they should also have their native language supported in the classroom. Doing these things will help develop strong English speakers. After being in the preschool at Brigham, I believe that the program and teachers do a good job at doing these things to support their students. Those students would not be as vocal as their language development had not been strongly supported.

On another note, there is one specific thing that happened during my time in the classroom that I found to be very exciting. While one of the boys was looking at a substance, he said it looked bumpy. The word ‘bumpy’ is one that Kacie and I introduced during our sense of touch lesson two weeks earlier. He retained that knowledge and used it in a different context. This was a nice surprise since we weren’t sure how much information the students grasped from our lesson. It was a huge relief to find out that at least one student understood something we taught. Once he used that word, I got a huge smile on my face! Although this was not part of the lesson that day, it was a nice bit of encouragement for Kacie and I.

Here are some of the resources I used when I researched English language learners in preschool. The first link is to a site that outlines effective tips and strategies for teachers to use to effectively scaffold English language learners in the classroom. The second link is to the Illinois Board of Education page addressing ELL in the preschool classroom. This website contains an abundance of resources and websites for parents and teachers to use.

http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/36679/

http://www.isbe.net/earlychi/preschool/preschool_ell.htm

Exceeds: I included resources and links for further support.

Science Lesson Reflection

On Thursday, October 9, Kacie and I taught our prekindergarten science lesson at Brigham Elementary School. Our lesson was on the sense of touch. There were 8 students in the class and we had 4 assistants (classmates). This lesson was planned using the 5E model and the lesson lasted 30 minutes. Although our lesson was not perfect, we did have several strengths throughout. One of those strengths is the developmentally appropriate content that we taught and the materials that we used to teach it. This was evidenced when the children were able to show their understanding and participate during the entire lesson. The students’ participation throughout was a sign that the materials were appropriate for them. A second strength of our lesson was that it was engaging. We used a variety of objects/mediums to present the information. We had real life objects for the students to touch during the activities, as well as, a touching matching game. In addition to those materials, we also used the SmartBoard. Using a variety of resources to teach with keeps the students engaged during the lesson. The evidence that students are engaged comes from their lack of behavior issues during the lesson. We didn’t have any students moving around or distracting the class; they all appeared to be looking and listening to what they should have been looking at and listening to.

With any lesson, there are always areas that need improvement. With this particular lesson, the sequencing and smoothness of transitions could have improved. Because it was not our classroom and we were only visitors, we were not able to ideally prepare all of the materials. We were not able to have them laid out and ready to go prior to the lesson, so we had to get them out as the lesson progressed. This sometimes caused a break in the lesson that could have otherwise been avoided.

Like I mentioned earlier, this lesson was engaging for the students. There were a few students who exhibited high interest and motivation and the others seemed neutral. They participated in the activities, but they weren’t demonstrating the eagerness that the others were. There was one part of the lesson that peaked the interest of every student. The texture matching game motivated the students and got them excited. Every student was interested in the activity and eager to get their turn. Not only were the students looking forward to their own turn, but they were supportive and encouraging of their classmates as well.

Our lesson was fairly simple and we were both highly knowledgeable on the content. We didn’t have any questions from students, so the only information that we delivered was the information that we had prepared. Our true test of knowledge would have come if the students had questions for us. The teacher organization was functional, but not ideal. As I mentioned earlier, we weren’t able to be as organized as we would have liked since we weren’t able to lay out the materials ahead of time. We also did not know the names of the students, so calling on them was not as organized as it could have been. Knowing student names reduces confusion in the classroom and therefore makes student answering more efficient.

Since there were only 8 students, we were able to get a good grasp on the understanding of each student. Our small group activity allowed each teacher to work with two students. A group of this size (two) is ideal when trying to figure out how much students know. Along with the small group activity, we also had the matching game which was completed on an individual level. This activity gave us the most insight into the students and their understanding of texture. We were able to see that most of the students understood the concept we had taught. The SmartBoard activity was our evaluation piece and provided us with the final check for understanding. When planning the lesson, I did not notice that nearly all of the activities had built in checks for understanding, but when really teaching it, I was able to see that we could gauge where each student was. I think this is, in part, because of the size of the class. With a class size of 8, we were able to make observations of each student more detailed.

Overall, I was proud of our lesson and the implementation of it all. The prekindergarten class was very receptive of our lesson and they seemed to understand what we taught. This was the first lesson that I have had to co-teach, so that was a new experience for me. The uncertainty of who is going to say what is another aspect that interrupted the flow. I think that Kacie and I did a pretty good job with this, but since it was our first time co-teaching we still had a few awkward pauses.

On a personal level, I learned how difficult it is to change grade levels. Preschool is my favorite age group and it is what I would like to teach upon graduation. I am very familiar with developmentally appropriate practices in preschool and content; however, I had some difficulty with this during the lesson. For my PDS site, I am in a second grade classroom, so I spend 3 days a week with 7 and 8 year olds. Going from working with these older students down to 3 and 4 year olds is challenging. I caught myself wanting to talk to the prekindergarten class as if they were second graders. For the most part, this was an internal battle that I handled well.

In terms of my goal, there were very few, if any, English language learners in the prekindergarten classroom. During the lesson, all of the students demonstrated an ability to speak English. Because of this, I wasn’t able to address my goal this week. Even though I wasn’t able to address my ELL goal this week, I was able to teach a science lesson for the first time which I think is a huge step toward becoming a proficient teacher.

Since I had some difficulty with the grade level transition, I decided to look up some tips from other professionals who have experienced similar things. Here are a few links that I found helpful!

http://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/free-resources/your-teaching-scenario/changing-grade-levels 

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct92/vol50/num02/-Changing-Assignments%E2%80%94Pros-and-Cons.aspx

Exceeds: I included some resources that would help with grade level adjustment. For the teaching aspect, Kacie and I exceeded by providing a copy of our lesson plan to the classroom teacher.