5th and Final

Literature Circles
I used Swimmy by Leo Lionni for my literature circle. I thought this was a good book because it was on a kindergarten level but contained themes that would inspire an in-depth discussion on friendship, courage, and being different. “A lot of children's books deal with sharing and getting along with others. A lot try to help children be themselves. The brilliance of Leo Lionni is that in book after book he brings these two ideas together, showing children that they can be themselves and care about others at the same time.” Taken from http://www.amazon.com/Swimmy-Knopf-Childrens-Paperbacks-Lionni/dp/0394826205 . Because my students are early second language learners, I chose to read the book to them because none of them are able to read on their own yet. I also designed a reflection sheet that only required them to check yes : ) and no : ( as I read it aloud to them. I found this idea online about writing discussion questions on a beach ball and letting them pass it around the circle. They really enjoyed this. The only problem was that they couldn’t read the questions themselves so I had to read the questions to them. It was really hard for this discussion not to be teacher directed since my group is at such a beginner level. I had to try really hard not to direct the conversation and simply help them with what they were trying to say. I also was careful not to pressure a student to talk who wasn’t comfortable. The students loved the book. I think that the book choice is very important for literature discussions. The students were excited to talk about the book because it was engaging. Several of the students related Swimmy to Finding Nemo which I thought was funny. I think that literature circles are great for second learners. Because their conversational language develops quicker than their written language, they can have more in depth discussions verbally than if they were writing down there thoughts. My students are not able to keep literature journals yet but the literature circle activity was a great way for them to express their thoughts about the story and make real life connections.

My Journey through Fieldwork
This class has by far been the best one! I feel like I learned so much just by being able to talk to my mentor. It really is true that real experience is the best experience. I was able to see many strategies we have learned put to practice and observe ways to make them better. I was also really glad that I was able to find a Kindergarten ESL group to observe because that is what I am most interested in teaching. I think that my Early Childhood degree and this endorsement have prepared me to be the best possible first year Kindergarten ESL teacher. Now all I need is my own classroom : ). I only lack one more semester to complete my C & I Masters and one more class to finish my ESL endorsement. I am very grateful for all the links and resources this class provided for licensure and praxis help. These will come in very handy in the spring. Good luck to all you who are graduating in December and I’ll “see” the rest of you in January!

AR Thoughts:

What an awesome way to learn “hands on” how to fix a problem! Every student is different and every class is different. Something that worked for somebody else might not work for you. But you will find out really quick what does and doesn’t work in your classroom if you implement action research. There is so much to be said for studying other people’s research and talking to experienced professionals, but I learned firsthand through this project that sometimes that isn’t enough. My ESL mentor was adamant that in all her experience the main way to increase comprehension for second language learners is through visual aids and it was obvious through my observations that this was the only tool she used. Once I started to collect data, it helped her realize that she was zoning in on one strategy too much and that by incorporating and rotating strategies, the students actually comprehended more.

My Ideas

• Everyone has some prior knowledge, it’s our job as teachers to help students activate and connect it.
• Assessment don’t always answer all the questions, sometimes they create more.
• Students could bring in items from home that relate to the subject matter, this helps them make real-life connections

I Suggest…

• Utilizing mini action research projects many times throughout the year.
• Use pictures and video clips, not just written notes. Sometimes we short cut the information if we are trying to take quick notes and you can get much more concrete data by using technology
• Change up the way you group your books. A lot of times in elementary classrooms books are grouped by subject matter or theme. Try grouping books with the same vocabulary words in them too.
• Mix it up! Comprehension isn’t gained through just one strategy so use them all in different combinations!

SPSE 6712-Observation #2

Teaching Issues

The biggest problem I have noticed during my observations has been regarding the student’s prior knowledge. Building on student’s prior knowledge is an important part of teaching. Sometimes it is difficult because not all our students have had the same experiences. Unfortunately, this is an even bigger challenger with second language learners because even though they have prior knowledge to build on, they don’t know how to express it because of the language barrier. I feel like this problem is easily fixed simply by bringing in more pictures, videos, or hands on objects so that the students can associate them with the word/topic. Another problem I noticed was in regards to conducting the lesson in a small group. Even though the students are all level 1 ELL they still have a very broad range of skills. During this lesson the same students would point out the high frequency word every time. I felt like the ones that needed to learn it the most didn’t have a chance to look because the higher level students would find the word and point it out before the lower level student had a chance. I have also noticed this happening with other lessons as well. It seem like the students are all working together at the same time instead of them each getting their own chance to answer the question. This particular lesson might reach every one better if they took turns pointing out the word can on each page. This way only one student was looking at a time and you would be able to tell if they were getting it or not.

Second Language Acquisition/ Ethnographic Perspective

The ELL teacher has been working on the high frequency word can this week. The lesson today consisted of reading the Eric Carle book, From Head to Toe. Kindergarten high frequency words are something that the regular classroom teacher works on a lot but the ELL students need extra one-on-one help with them. The lesson was very appropriate for second language learners because it used a children’s book that repeated the high frequency word on every page. Mrs. Horton gave the students pointers (glittery unsharpened pencils) to use to find the word can on every page. The students LOVED using their pointers and responded well to the story. Mrs. Horton would read the page and then the students would use their pointers to find the high frequency word. She also would pull them into the story by asking if they could do what the animals and kids in the story were doing, like scratch their head or beat their chest. The students enjoyed this because they were actively participating in the story. The book chosen also had lots of wonderful pictures that portrayed the words so even if the students didn’t understand all of the words, they could figure out what was going on through the illustrations. Another thing I liked about the book was how much repetition it had in it. Repetition is great for young learners and especially ones who are second language learners. The phrase, “I can do it” was repeated at the end of every page. By the end of the story the children had memorized it and would track print while saying, “I can do it.”Also, there was a sentence strip with the word can that each of the students could hold during the story to remind them what they were looking for, I thought that this was very helpful to them. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like Mrs. Horton incorporated a lot of culture into the lesson. But I am sort of unclear as to how one would do that with this lesson. Perhaps next time the instructor could choose a multicultural book to use for the lesson.


Anna

SPSE 6712-Observation #1

I have been working at Mitchell Neilson Primary for my fieldwork and am really enjoying it! They have a sort of special circumstance because they share the ELL teacher with the elementary school as well. This doesn’t give her a lot of time to spend with each student. However, she has the kindergarten students for an hour everyday so I go during that time. This is what I observed during that time:

Teaching/ Ethnographic Perspective

The purpose of the lesson that I observed was to work on the students letter recognition skills. The teacher gave each student a dry erase board and asked them to draw a sad face on one side and a happy face on the other. Then, she gave them each a sentence strip with their names on it. She would choose a letter from a set of index cards to show the students. If the letter was not in their name then it made them sad : ( and they had to write that letter on the sad side of their board. If the letter WAS in their name than they were happy : ) and they got to write it on the happy side of their board. I thought that the lesson was very appropriate for the students. For the ones that were very low level it was good that she gave them their name cards because they were still in the matching stage of letter recognition. However, I thought that for the higher level learners it would have been beneficial to take away their names cards to see if they could recognize its presence in their name from memory.
The students really seemed to respond to the activity well and enjoyed making very sad or happy faces once they found the letters. I also liked how the teacher did not put a lot of stress on the student’s letter formation. Many of them struggled with writing the letters correctly. She would simply show them once how to make the letter, allow them to try, and then praise them for their effort. I think this was really important for them not to get discouraged or give up trying. It will come with practice. An observer would hardly notice the ELL group that is pulled out in each Kindergarten room. The classrooms are fairly large and she always pulls her ELLs out at a time when the rest of the class is at their desks. This way, she can take her group to one of the centers that are blocked off and not disturb the class. Sometimes this strategy is frustrating because they have to be very quiet in their small group. They aren’t able to do certain activities like sing songs or play noisy games because they would disturb the class. The teacher is very inviting and accepting towards her ELL students. Even though she has them for a very short amount of time she always asks them how their day is going and gives them a chance to share their feelings. The students are all happy to see her and are excited about going to her group. She does a very good job of making them feel special that they get to come see her. They don’t feel excluded at all from the rest of their class.

Community

When the ELL teacher works with the kindergarteners she goes into one class at a time and pulls the ELL students to a quiet spot in the room. All of the classes have at least 3 ELLs so it makes for good sized small group instruction. While the activity was for each individual student to recognize the letters in their own name, the students would help each other look for the letters. They all seemed to get along and want each other to find the letters. One student even said, “I am sad there is no A in my name, but I’m happy it’s in yours!” I thought that was so sweet! Most of the ELL students the teacher pulls out in kindergarten are level 1 proficiency according to their ELDA scores. They are seen by the ELL teacher every day. However, there is one student that scored a 3 on the ELDA but will still qualify for consultation services from the ELL teacher because the language spoken at home is Arabic.