Reflection

Hello, welcome to my last VBlog!

Before this course I had a concept about English Language Learners students. I have learned that we are starting to stay away from certain terms such as first language we should say home language, such as English is the students additional language rather than saying second language (Wright, 2015). I was aware of small things that took in place to teach ELL students a new language. But I never imagined that each little detailed makes a difference to the students. Throughout the course I was able to learn more in depth of how an ELL student may learn and grasp the instruction in a different environment. I have learned that in some schools students are placed in mainstream classes when the school does not have a certain amount of ELL students to make an ESL classroom. It is crazy how students are thrown into mainstream classroom letting the students to sink (Wright, 2015) .

Being able to learn how to implement strategies to help my future students is a great tool for me. By learning strategies and how I could implement them in the classroom is beneficial for the teacher and the students because we would be learning together. I thought that majority of the ELLs home language was mainly Spanish. I was able to learn how learning another language can become a challenge for some. Letting the students use trans language will help the teacher and student know what they are trying to say as the students is trying to understand the new language (Wright, 2015). After learning about how ELL students learn their additional language. It has shaped my mind on how I could help the students. I know that I want to structure my classroom with several things to help ELL students. One of the things that I will absolutely do is have a lot of group work. As the ELL students learn from teachers and their peers, they will be able to bond and speak more (Wright, 2015).

In my opinion one of the aspects that should require more attention is math. The reason is because according to Wright (2015), math vocabulary can be confusing. As there may not be cognate words that the students could familiarize. As well as Speaking, ELL students need time to process new information and translate it in their home language at times.

Now that the semester has almost come to an end, I have learned a lot. Being a teacher means that I will have to face several challenges to make sure that my students get the education they deserve. Just how Wright (2015), mentions that students need we have to include students into our community which we do once we start to introduce English to them. This course has given me a different point of view. I know that it will take a lot of different strategies to meet each individual of my ELL students. As a bilingual individual I know what it is like to learn a new language. I feel that because I have been on that journey, I will be able to provide a bit more to them.

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

Entry #3

Hello everyone, welcome to my VBlog 3! We are almost at the end with our VBlogs. For this interview I decided to interview my mentor teacher, Ms. Adams, she currently teaches 2^nd grade Math and Science in Hartsfield Elementary. She has been teaching for about 4 years. She is a young teacher who is always open to new strategies that will help her students’ progress. During this interview I was able to see how much passion she has to make her students learn.

Ms. Adams explained the strategies that she uses in her classroom and what works well with her students. She uses a lot of vocabulary with them as well as she explained to me that sometimes as a teacher you have to go all the way back to teach phonics. Ms. Adams mentioned something interesting  in our conversation that ELL interacting with other is important to her in her classroom. According to Wright (2015) in the Cognitive Approach to SLA Interaction Hypothesis is very important to the ELLs so they are able to interact with others. In the classroom that I am now my ELL students are in an intermediate level, so I have seen progress in each of them. One of my students still is developing his second language I try to help him as much as I can.

I was able to see that ELL students don’t have the same support as others do. As I have learned they tend to be forgotten in class. That is why it is important that teachers do a research and get to know their students  background and see where each student stand with a new language this is what Wright ,(2015), mentioned.

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Entry #2

In my interview I decided to interview a close friend her name is Monica. I have known her for several years. I thought she would be a great person for my interview. She was born and raised in Houston, Texas. Her parents are from El Salvador. She grew up speaking Spanish for the beginning of her childhood. She was in a bilingual class during her early elementary years. She was able to learn English quickly without struggling as much. Her siblings would speak to her in English as it helped her learn the language quickly. According to Wright (2015), Vygotsky’s theory people learn from interactions and collaborations. This goes with the importance of communicating with peers. This helped Monica as well as her teachers provided tons of hands-on-activities to learn. Learning about the students’ background is important and it would hep the students education as the teacher would have more information about the students (Wright 2015).

I was able to learn so much from her story as we have different background we were able to share our stories. We both learned English in a different environment. As we talked we were able to point out some things that stood out to both of us while learning English.  Monica and I both had similar views on how an education for ELL should be a priority just like any other mainstream classroom. When the school system fails to provide an education, the students are the ones who suffers. The No Child Left Behind supports the bilingual and non-bilingual education, but the disadvantage is that there are no strict rules. As far as how teaching goes in classroom teaching the students native language is optional (Wright 2015).   

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Entry 1: Introduction

Hello everyone!

My name is Verenice Lara, I am a Senior that will be graduating in May 2019. I am very excited to start my Student Teaching this semester.

Here is my video Introduction .