ELL Goal Update #2

This past week I was an assistant teacher in the kindergarten classroom. The lesson was about seasons. I was excited to spend some time with the kindergarten students because I know that the majority of them are English Language Learners. For the past several times I have been in the classroom, it has been in the preschool classroom which does not have as many, if any, English language learners. Knowing that the kindergarten room did have some, I was ready to work on my goal this past week.

          As a reminder, my ELL goal was to gain experience and confidence in working with English Language Learners. I think I took a step forward with both aspects of my goal this week. I was able to not only observe the students, but I also got to communicate with some of them. Although my communications weren’t long, they were important to my growth. One example of this was with a young boy with whom I was taking notes on. I had gotten down at his level to help him with the individual activity flip-book and we worked through the activity together. I asked him questions about what he was doing and why. He and the boy sitting across from him began talking about their names when I asked them to spell them for me (so I could write them down). The other boy said his name in the “English” way and then also in the “Spanish” way. The boys proceeded to ask me if I knew Spanish and I admitted that I didn’t know much, just a few colors. Although this interaction was not very deep, it did give me some insight into what ELL students know and understand about their environment. These two boys were able to demonstrate that they understood that they spoke a language that is not the primary language of most people in their community. They did not assume that I knew Spanish and, actually, thought it amusing when I said the few words I do know. This whole experience helped me to see that ELL students know that they are a little different than others. These particular students, luckily, knew that it wasn’t a bad different, but just different.

          The interactions that I had on this day may not have given me a ton more experience under my belt, but it did make me feel more at ease working with students whose primary language is not English. Addressing the difference broke the ice for me and made me more comfortable when communicating with the students. I have noticed a similar trend at my PDS site with some of my Indian students. It is always more comfortable having conversations with them when we acknowledge that we are different. My students know that not everybody celebrates the same holidays or believes in the same gods. When I initially thought that bringing up these “tricky” topics would cause awkwardness, I realized that I had it completely backwards. It’s awkward if the differences are ignored. When they are pointed out it leads to discussion and we are able to learn new things about people and their own unique cultures.

 

Exceeds: I linked my experience at Brigham to my clinical site.