Entry 3: Interview with Content Teacher
Reflection
I was able
to interview Ms. Zee, who is a literacy teacher for 7th and 8th
grade, and has English language learners who range from beginning,
intermediate, and advanced. Now there are a few key points from our interview
that I would like to specifically reflect on. Right off the bat, once Ms. Zee stated
the types of ELLs she has in her classroom, I wanted to follow up with the
question about what different approaches and methods she uses to accommodate
for her students. I was overjoyed to hear that Ms. Zee incorporates small group
and peer teaching within her classroom. As I was reading through Chapter 3 in
our textbook, the author provides several examples of methods and approaches
that teachers should use, and one of those simply stated to, “Provide maximum
opportunities for student participation” (Wright, 2015, p. 64). From Ms. Zee’s
explanation of why she allows students to help one another, it is clear to me
that she wants to not only sustain a positive classroom environment where her
students feel engaged and are learning to be cooperative, but she is also providing
opportunities for the students to practice using the English language they are in
the process of learning. Furthermore, as you can tell from Ms. Zee’s responses
and facial expressions, she truly is proactive when it comes to making success possible
for her English language learners. According to Wright (2015), “A major goal in
language teaching and learning is to “lower” the affective filter to maximize
comprehensible input” (p. 52). Therefore, I made sure to ask how she makes
success possible, especially for students who have low motivation and anxiety.
From her responses, I appreciate the fact that Ms. Zee first shares about her struggles with her
students, and how she is still learning English. By doing this it almost lowers
the playing field, and students can view their teacher as someone more relatable,
and allows them to feel like valuable members of her classroom community. One
last point that I would like to highlight from the interview is my question
about No Child Left Behind and how it impacts Ms. Zee’s classroom. From reading
Chapter 4, I understand that NCLB relies on high-stakes testing, and it does
bring awareness to the needs of ELLs, but in the words of Ms. Zee, “It gives
everyone a chance.” Ms. Zee mentions that teachers should find what their ELLs
are strong in and to build on it, which directly reminded me of something I
read in Chapter 1. Regardless of students’ English language proficiency level,
teachers “should build on the considerable strengths that ELLs bring with them
to school, including their home languages and the funds of knowledge they have
access to in their homes” (Wright, 2015, p. 15).
Hi Maggie! Thank you for posting such a great interview! I enjoyed listening Ms. Zee’s experience with ELLs. I definitely agree with your statement regarding giving students multiple opportunities to participate. Wright “refers to this process as the development of a personal approach to teaching and a set of core principles to draw on when teaching” (pg. 64, 2015). I liked Ms. Zee’s method of letting students help one another. I always learned that when you teach someone else what you just learned, not only are you helping by teaching the other person, but you are also retaining the information better yourself.
ReplyDeleteI concur that students are more likely to retain information better if we put the learning in their own hands. It is so important that we as future educators do not become accustomed to the banking method of teaching, which means to simply put knowledge into our students' brains as if they were empty vessels. Going back to helping our students, retain information better, particularly our ELLs, coming from a math teacher's perspective, I definitely plan on incorporating the use of visuals such as a word wall. This is a great way to not only enhance their thinking and understanding about math concepts, but can help build their vocabulary.
DeleteHi Maggie, I agree that as educators we should not bank knowledge into our students. Wright states that “anyone can give the same book, worksheet, tests to a group of students” (pg. 265, 2015). Especially for ELLS this is true, because these students each have their own unique needs. These students needs tailored instruction specifically for them.
DeleteHi Maggie! Ms. Zee stated in the interview that she believes that small group instruction is the best way to teacher because students learn best from each other. I could not agree more with this! Wright states, “Cooperative learning focuses on the use of small groups within which students collaborate to solve problems or complete academic tasks.” (Wright, 2015, p.63). Being able to learn with your peers and from your peers helps build confidence and essential collaboration skills. I love that Ms. Zee takes the time to connect with her students. Thank you for sharing your interview!
ReplyDeleteI have also found in my own classroom I am student teaching in right now that when we have our students work in small groups, they are more likely to participate and engage with each other in a more personal way. You mention that it can help build confidence, and I have seen this happen first hand with some of our more reserved students, even a few of our ELLs. It is less nerve-racking for students if we give them a chance to first work with their peers before we jump into a whole group discussion. We especially do not want to raise the affective filters within our students. Therefore, as educators we have to be mindful of the different activities and tasks we plan to use, so that all of our students can actively participate and succeed.
DeleteSmall group instruction is one of my favorite parts of the day! I pull small groups for intervention and enrichment. I love seeing students work together to problem solve. I find for ELL students it also makes them more comfortable in asking questions that they may not always ask in front of the whole class. Also, because I pull small group for enrichment, students do not view small group as a bad thing because everyone gets pulled. Taking the time to build relationships with your students, and really get to know them, is so beneficial and can really help in encouraging them in their academic success.
DeleteHello Maggie, I am Isabel Uribe. I believe that Mrs. Z has a lot of great points. One is that all students need differentiation when learning English. Wright states "All students differ in prior knowledge... background. One-size-fits-all instruction is problematic..."(Wright CH.10 PG.264), meaning that all students learn in different ways and cannot all be taught the same. This does not only go for ELLs it also goes for general ed student as well, all students learn in different ways and the teachers need to be able to distinguish the best way for her students. She talked about using small group and peer teaching. I also believe that these strategies are great for Ells and all students because they learn better when interacting with one another. I know that I would learn English better when I would talk to my friends. "...it may be beneficial for them to learn a few words in the language or languages of their classmates"(Wright Ch.11 Pg.300). In this section Wright mentions that its ikay for students to learn from their peers and to be honest this is the best way in my opinion. Its easier to learn a language when it is being talk about in a fun way rather than in a lesson. Students will always learn more from their friends than teachers. Thank you both so much for sharing I really enjoyed the video.
ReplyDeleteMany of the classes I have taken thus far have highlighted the importance of differentiation, but trying to differentiate lessons is not as easy as they make it out to be. There are many different factors that have to be taken into account such as students' interests, readiness levels, and learning profiles. You mentioned that this goes for all students, and not just English language learners. Although, let's say you are a mainstream teacher who has ELLs in your classroom. How can you differentiate in a way that addresses the needs of all your students?
DeleteI guess I would have to teach my classroom with a pull-in teacher, "... an ESL teacher goes into the regular classroom to work with the classroom teacher and her ELLs"(Wright Ch.5 Pg. 108). This means that I will have a "co-teacher" that I get to plan my instruction with. I believe that this is great because my ELLs will have to teachers watching them and assessing them which will allow us to make better instructional decisions about their learning and our planning. ELLs are a tough group to work with because of the levels that they are at. Most of the time they are everywhere and having some help is always great!
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ReplyDeleteHi Maggie. Thank you for the post! Ms. Zee seems so genuine and “proactive” when it comes to her ELL students. It is important for future ELL teachers to put their minds in the same place as their students in order to successfully reach their educational needs. I agree with Ms. Zee, who was just like my interviewee, supports peer teaching. We all learn best from each other because our students come from all over the place with many ways to educate one another! “Recall that translanguaging refers to the ways bilingual and multilingual students draw on all of their linguistic resources and make meaning as they communicate and engage in tasks in the classroom and beyond” (Wright, 2015, pg. 298). We need to use as many resources as we can! Not only from textbooks, teachers, posters, but even from our friends in our very own classroom!
ReplyDeleteWright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: research, theory, policy, and practice (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Caslon.
It is amazing that Ms. Zee was able to share with you the different modifications she implements in her classroom. Peer teaching is great for students because it allows them to learn from a peer in a more direct interaction manner. Seeing students learn from one another can give a teacher perspective on what works best for each students.
ReplyDeleteHi Maggie thanks so much for posting this interview!
ReplyDeleteI was thrilled to hear about the stratiges that Ms.Zee included in the class. I see teachers struggle with combining fun and test ready lesson plans making it harder for the teachers to determine If their students are learning and also enjoying it at the same time. I feel that teachers are given so much to teach in such a small window of time, they are overwhelmed and do the bare minimum to ensure the students skate by. I feel that we shouldn’t have students just "skating by", we should take pride in making learning enjoyable, only a select few can do that and that’s why they become teachers; we should embrace that instead of stressing them out for a certain score on a silly test.so im super excited to see that you found a teacher that not only includes proper techniques but she also includes peer learning so each student can learn from one and other overall enhancing their experience.
Amazing work!
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