Welcome
back everyone, for this blog I interviewed a friend of mine who is a kindergarten
teacher at Clearlake ISD. She has been teaching now for 5 years and loves it. I
liked getting to interview a ESL teacher because I am considering becoming one
and now I have more background knowledge. Ms. Martinez gave a lot of great
answers. I love how she mention to use gesture and visual when communicating
with the students I think that is great because visual are a key for almost everyone
to understand. Ms. Martinez also mention how she loves getting to work with ESL
students to take on the challenge and getting to know each and every one of her
students According to Wright it is important for understand your students. “It
is important for teachers to understand the students cultural background and
how their culture influence their learning” (2017,p.17) Ms. Martinez did
mention that it was important for you to understand your students that way you
know how to make them successful in the classroom. This is one major thing she
liked about teaching ESL students is receiving the great feeling after as you
see them grow into great English learners.
Hope you enjoy the video!
https://youtu.be/26XuhZifJ38
Hi Elyse! It was insightful to learn about working with ELLs from a different perspective. Having a friend like that is really great because she can help you with your journey towards becoming a teacher. Having ELLs in a kindergarten class means you get a chance to be first at paving a successful pathway for those students. Listening to her point of view gives you plenty of ideas and what to expect in the future. It’s wonderful that she loves the challenge and wants to understand each of her students cultural backgrounds. Wright explained how,” when teachers know their students well and understand the sociocultural contexts of their classroom, school and community, they can draw on their knowledge of language teaching and learning theories, methods, and approaches to inform their own principled approach to providing the type of learning environment that builds on their students’ strengths and addresses their unique needs” (2015, pg. 65). Her motivation to know her students cultural backgrounds helps her be more prepared when it comes to planning her instruction. When it comes to being successful, wright states, “ teacher will have a sense of what is and is not comprehensible for their students, and what type and amount of scaffolding is needed to help them succeed” (2015, pg. 63). By getting to know her students backgrounds, she’s also seeing what type of scaffolding is needed for certain lessons and procedures. Experienced teachers like your friend, usually have plenty of scaffolding techniques when it comes to teaching ELLs and I’m thankful that we get these opportunities to learn from them!
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition
Hi Elyse! I agree with Nicole in the fact that by Ms. Martinez getting to know her students so well and the way that they learn is extremely beneficial in their education and second language acquisition. She is able to build on their current education, their background, their culture, and other factors that come into play when it comes to a student’s learning abilities (Wright, 2015, p.17). I think that that is a great approach to take when it comes to learning being able to make the information stick when you are teaching a hard to get subject, like a second language.
DeleteHello Nicole
DeleteThank you for watching my video. I agree with you on the comments. It is very good for her to get to know her students and background. I told her I really liked that about her teaching skills. When you understand your students background knowledge you may even get to understand what is the best way for them to learn as well. You also mention how you liked that she challenged her students and I do as well. It allows for her students to grow I feel like students tend to grow more when they are challenged.
Thank you again Nicole for watching my video!
Hey Elyse!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed watching your interview with Ms. Martinez. I agree with Ms. Martinez that teachers should take the time out to get to know their students. By building personal relations with the students, teachers can be effective in teaching and guiding students towards success. Wright discusses the importance of educators “becoming knowledgeable of their own students' cultural backgrounds and how culture influences learning at school and involves much more that "food, dress, art, music, and holidays of an ethnic group" (Wright, 2015, p.17) because a student’s background allows the teacher to know why they might display a certain behavior or why they might struggle with a certain subject.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition
Hi Kanwal, learning who the students are is important when teaching. When Wright (2015) discusses how “Thus, the more the teacher knows about a students’ experiences, the more he or she can assume about the expertise that student is likely to have.” (p.17). When teachers learn more about their students and form a certain bond/trust it allows the students to open up more with their teachers. This does help the students to have a higher academic performance. When there may not be that student/teacher bond the students may not care about their work because they can feel that if the teacher does not care about them then why should they care about their work. I see it all as being about getting to know who the students actually are because if you are going to be with that child for a full year then it’d be hard not to.
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hi Kani,
DeleteThank you for watching my video. I like how you mention in the comment that you found in the textbook it said how teachers become more knowledgeable when getting to know the students background. I completely agree with that in so many ways because when you know about your students you are able to learn there best learning styles and what works for them and what doesn't. It also helps you know your students straighten and weaknesses. Thank you again for watching!
Hey Kanwal,
DeleteOne thing that has stood out in many of the interview is that teachers should get to know their students. Another thing is that teachers should have a bit of background knowledge from their students. These two go hand in hand because it will guide us as educators to have a good student/ teacher bond. Having that with your students will make them trust you and may even make them want to go to school every day.
Hi Elyse! I enjoyed watching your video and listening to your friends perspective on teaching ELL’s. I liked that Ms. Martinez uses gestures and communication to help her ELL’s it reminds of what Wright (2015) states “ modifications may include simplifying the language and using gestures, and reducing the rate of speech” (pg. 53) she is using the interaction method and that is a great method to help ELL’s.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015.Print. Second Edition
Hi Laura,
DeleteThank you for watching my video. I also like how Ms. Martinez uses gestures. I think that is a good option because usually with hand signs it helps students understand better then trying to verbally communicate. In our human nature when we want something but there is a language barrier we usually just point at stuff or use gesture. Thanks again for watching my video!
Hello, Elyse. Ms. Martinez spoke of one of the most utilized talk moves in education. The second of five talk moves listed by Wright (2015) is repeating. Ms. Martinez emphasizes the practice of providing students with one, single, direction at a time. Then, instructs students to respond by repeating the direction, or statement, back to her. This practice is used for clarification and confirming understanding purposes to bolster students’ comprehension of the delegated task and developing English proficiency. The productive talk move of repeating is defined as “asking students to restate someone else’s reasoning” (Wright, 2015, p. 158).
ReplyDeleteHi Audrey,
DeleteThank you for watching my video. Ms. Martinez did say she like to repeat when students are just learning a language. I think that is helpful because students may not get it the first time and just need to understand what you are saying if you repeat it a couple times. Also, when Ms. Martinez told me she only gives a direction one time I thought that was a great thing because too many directions could make the students confused. Thank you again for watching my video!
Hi Elyse! I really enjoyed your interview and I thought you did a wonderful job at explaining how it went. I found it interesting that Ms. Martinez has so many different types of cultures that she sees in her classroom, and I think that that is such a wonderful thing to experience! I believe that you can learn so much by having students that come from different cultures and languages. One thing that really stuck out to me was that your interviewee mentioned that it is important to not give your ELL students too many directions at once. I sometimes find myself giving too many directions to my students and it causes confusion. When they get confused on what they do, my students start to feel anxious or they just choose to not do the work. It is important that teachers give their students time to process the directions that they have been told, and to let them act on it. This is related to the input processing model. This model helps when students use the language that they hear or read and then process it for meaning (Wright, 2015, p. 54). When students are processing information, they are connecting it to the knowledge that they already know, and they need to figure out what it is they need to be thinking or doing.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, Second Edition.