Today
was my second time in the preschool classroom, this time as one of the
assistants to help facilitate and take notes for the two head teachers as they
conducted their lesson. This week the lesson was on the sense of smell, which I
found to be very interactive for this group of students. Looking back at my
goals for this experience, I wrote that one of my main goals with ELL students
is to simply gain experience working with them, because my experience has been
so limited throughout my teaching experiences thus far. I feel that the best
way to learn about teaching and working with students is to actually have those
hands on experiences and make sure to reflect upon them before, during, and
afterwards to ensure that I grow as an educator. This week I was able to
interact with the students in a small group, as they worked at tables and held
discussion about the mystery bottles and their different senses. I participated
in small discussions with them while I simultaneously took notes for the head
teachers. One thing I found interesting was the two girls who were sitting side
by side. The first girl appeared to be very outgoing and forward, as she stated
her thoughts and made connections out loud during the activity. I believe she
is not a student who would be considered an English Language Learner. In
comparison, the girl next to her was slightly unsure of herself and a little
more quiet. The first girl was able to help this girl participate in the
activity, asking her questions, helping to explain the directions and
encouraging her, telling her that "she did it right!" I believe that
the girl who was quieter was an English Language Learner. I felt there was a
sense of community as the girls worked together to understand the lesson and
had fun while participating in it. I believe creating that sense of community
is very important in any classroom, but especially with students who don't have
English as their first language. This girl was able to receive support from her
peers while the teachers were helping others and I found that to be a beautiful
thing! I believe learning is a social experience and saw the positive effects
of that in class today.
My other goal for class was to
discover the struggles ELL students face while in school and work to improve
their experience. While this was only the second time in the classroom, I feel
that some inferences can be made and allow me to reflect on how I would help
improve the children's educational experience in the future. One
little girl did not verbally contribute to the lesson and showed signs of
confusion in what was expected of the students during the smelling small group
activity. She was unable to answer whether it was a good or bad smell or predict
what object was in the bottle creating the smell. When presented with crayons
she was able to proudly state their colors. This led me to believe that her
English vocabulary was very limited, but seeing her face light up when she
spoke the colors of the crayons in English showed that she was proud to have
some vocabulary in which she was able to contribute to the conversation.
Because of this, I think I would have modeled the activity in depth and
provided her with new vocabulary to use during the lesson. I would give her
pictures of options of what could be inside the bottles with the names of those
objects in both English and Spanish. She would be able to point to and practice
saying these words before had so that she would become familiar with the vocabulary.
Then she could refer back to these cards during the activity as a support.
During our short time spent in the classroom
today, I was able to take away a lot of new experiences to reflect on and look
forward to the next time we step in that classroom! I always feel like a giant
when we first step in to the preschool, with all of the little faces peering up
at us. However, as soon as the learning begins and we start to interact with
the students I feel at ease and ready to learn more about working with a
diverse group of students!
EXCEEDS: I went over 500 words :)
