I started my ESOL placement this week and I have had a blast! I am in a sheltered classroom with 16 students who are all served by the ESOL program. I was somewhat opposed to having ELL's separated in a room by themselves but as I've seen in my placement it really helps the students who are in the class. The students are taught in small groups most of the day and my teacher focuses on teaching the students strategies while incorporating content. The students have formed a real since of community and all of the students except for one speak Spanish at home. My teacher speaks Spanish and is able to help explain abstract ideas/concepts in Spanish. She uses alot of cognates when teaching and her students are really able to make the connection and understand. I've been able to see the best practices we've learned about in action. The biggest conflict I had with the instruction was the CRCT test prep. Instead of using meaningful lessons, my teacher had students complete practice packet after practice packet. Test taking skills are extremely important, but I felt the students weren't getting any content instruction out of the packets. I'm looking forward to seeing the classroom after CRCT is over :) Hopefully I will see more best practices!
Post 2:
My second week in my ESOL placement was even more fun. I love getting to know knew students and my class is very interested in me and they ask me questions all the time. I really feel welcome in the classroom because of the way the students respond and the teacher. Sadly, I had to witness how the CRCT really effects the students and teachers this week. My students had to take the CRCT every morning. While they were taking the test, I had the opportunity to work in a 2nd grade classroom. I met the most adorable little boy and I got to work with him one-on-one pretty much the entire time. He usually has an ESOL specialist work with him in the morning so I just took her place since she was tied up with the CRCT. He was so motivated and I could tell he really wanted to become better at English. He got so excited when he could do anything by himself and his face would light up. He really warmed my heart to see how happy he was at being successful. He would take his completed work over to his teacher and without saying anything just hand the paper to her. She would look over it, smile, and then give him a high five or thumbs up. Her response made him light up even more! He really wanted to please his teacher by putting forth more effort :). I was sad to only have three days with him but at the same time, thankful for the chance to get to work with him. Working one-on-one with students is really a rewarding and enlightening experience. Seeing the progress happen right before my eyes is such a wonderful experience! At the end of the week he got a 7 out of 8 on his spelling test. The highest grade he had received on a spelling test all year :)
I started my ESOL placement this week and I have had a blast! I am in a sheltered classroom with 16 students who are all served by the ESOL program. I was somewhat opposed to having ELL's separated in a room by themselves but as I've seen in my placement it really helps the students who are in the class. The students are taught in small groups most of the day and my teacher focuses on teaching the students strategies while incorporating content. The students have formed a real since of community and all of the students except for one speak Spanish at home. My teacher speaks Spanish and is able to help explain abstract ideas/concepts in Spanish. She uses alot of cognates when teaching and her students are really able to make the connection and understand. I've been able to see the best practices we've learned about in action. The biggest conflict I had with the instruction was the CRCT test prep. Instead of using meaningful lessons, my teacher had students complete practice packet after practice packet. Test taking skills are extremely important, but I felt the students weren't getting any content instruction out of the packets. I'm looking forward to seeing the classroom after CRCT is over :) Hopefully I will see more best practices!
Post 2:
My second week in my ESOL placement was even more fun. I love getting to know knew students and my class is very interested in me and they ask me questions all the time. I really feel welcome in the classroom because of the way the students respond and the teacher. Sadly, I had to witness how the CRCT really effects the students and teachers this week. My students had to take the CRCT every morning. While they were taking the test, I had the opportunity to work in a 2nd grade classroom. I met the most adorable little boy and I got to work with him one-on-one pretty much the entire time. He usually has an ESOL specialist work with him in the morning so I just took her place since she was tied up with the CRCT. He was so motivated and I could tell he really wanted to become better at English. He got so excited when he could do anything by himself and his face would light up. He really warmed my heart to see how happy he was at being successful. He would take his completed work over to his teacher and without saying anything just hand the paper to her. She would look over it, smile, and then give him a high five or thumbs up. Her response made him light up even more! He really wanted to please his teacher by putting forth more effort :). I was sad to only have three days with him but at the same time, thankful for the chance to get to work with him. Working one-on-one with students is really a rewarding and enlightening experience. Seeing the progress happen right before my eyes is such a wonderful experience! At the end of the week he got a 7 out of 8 on his spelling test. The highest grade he had received on a spelling test all year :)