Entry 3: ESL Teacher Interview
ESL Teacher Interview: Mrs. Diaz
In this video I interviewed Mrs. Diaz who is the only ESL teacher at the middle school I am student teaching in. Mrs. Diaz discussed her experiences teaching students in the ESL program. I wanted some background information about how long Mrs. Diaz has been an ESL teacher and why she decided to make this her profession. This allowed both Mrs. Diaz and myself to "warm up" before continuing with question regarding ELLs in her classroom. She mentions that she has a large variety of ELLs ranging from high in English proficiency to low in English proficiency, along with multiple languages from students with different cultures and backgrounds.
One accommodation that Mrs. Diaz is allowed to give these students is a dictionary that translate words from English to their native language. Wright mentions how important it is for teacher to identify appropriate supplemental education materials that ELLs can use in the classroom such as bilingual dictionaries or even fictional or nonfictional books that students can read in their native language (Wright, 2015, p.24). This accommodation is extremely important for both the academic growth of the student, and it will allow the student to feel accepted
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We also discussed the state exam that the students will be taking in exactly one week from this day. Mrs. Diaz expressed her concerns about how prepared her students, who are at the beginning level of English proficiency, are for the assessment. She mentions how little help the students get at this level as they will be taking the same assessment as students who are English proficient. This surprised me as I have always that that students enrolled into the ESL program received more accommodations than just a dictionary and the option to sit in a small group. In the book, Wright says that testing students in their home language, and simplifying the language used in the test are the only two kinds of accommodations that can truly support ELLs (Wright, 2015, p.129). Allowing student who are at the beginning level of proficiency to take state exams in their home language is more accurate when trying to assess their level of understanding.
Jeroy, i am glad you had the opportunity to discuss the challenges and rewards of teaching an English Language Learners class. Your interviewee mentioned that it proved exceptionally challenging to teach students when their proficiency levels varied greatly. what type of teaching strategies would you hope to utilize to supplement these challenges? Since we will be teaching math, would you still have students use dictionaries? What are your thoughts on students speaking to one another in their native language? You discuss how Wright believes that only two accommodations work well for ELL students - simplifying language and utilizing native language in tests (2015). What other accommodations can you think of that might work for our content area? Personally, I love the use of manipulatives and pictorials as supplements to teaching content.
ReplyDeleteHi Ila,
DeleteYour ideas are good, but I just have a question. If a child has been being taught in English for the past two weeks and then you give him a test in English how will that help them. If they have been learning the subject in anew language and do not understand what the teacher is saying, how will manipulatives and pictorials help? The tools are meant to get a deeper understand of the content, not to learn the content on a test. There are so many things wrong when I walk in a school that sometimes I have to look the other way to keep from getting frustrated. Because, I know that there is some students around the country that are not receiving an adequate education, and its not based on their learning skills, it is based on their language barrier.
Hello Ila, thank you for asking such great, though provoking questions. Some of the teaching strategies that I would use to supplement some of the challenges my ELLs may face are incorporating pictures into my lessons, using manipulatives such as shapes and base ten blocks when solving equations and calculating volume, and I would also have students work in small groups so that my ELLs can learn, through collaboration, the concept of the lesson and also more of the English language. I would absolutely allow my students to use bilingual dictionaries, especially if it's in the students IEP.
DeleteHey Jeroy,
ReplyDeleteI thought that it was interesting what you stated about the state exams and the two different ways to accommodate for an exam. In my classroom for student teaching we have many ELL students and most of them the only accommodation they receive is extended time, although we had one student receive the Spanish version of the STARR test. I believe that there should be more accommodations for students but that being said there are many questions where the students can use pictures (at least in 5th grade) which are provide on the exam. I believe that it is important to make sure students are able to accurately be assessed from the exams on their knowledge rather than their understanding of the language. If this is not done then many decisions are made for the students that can really harm their futures (Wright, 2015, p.135).
Hello Andrew, thank you for commenting on my post! I've always been a little confused with how restricted the accommodations are for the state exams compared to the classroom. I honestly do think that sometimes it is a disservice to the student to take away accommodations because as an adult, I use accommodations (Google and other accessible tools) all of the time and it helps me learn and accomplish my goals that I have set for myself. I have noticed that some questions does include pictures and models which is great for students who need visuals, but as we get more advanced with technology and things become more accessible through the internet, I think that should be incorporated into state exams as well.
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