How Can I Help ELL Students? (Blog Post #4)

When beginning the teaching program, it is a requirement to take a class called Diversity in the Classroom.  There is one class period that is dedicated to ELL (English Language Learners) and then it is never really talked about again.  In the school district I am placed at there are a decent number of students who are ELL.  I can tell when students are not comfortable with English because they are quieter and do not want to contribute as much.  As teachers we need to help ELL students feel confident when they are asked to answer questions in class.  If I end up working for the district I need to know strategies that were not covered during that one class. 

               The class that I am placed in does have ELL students.  These students can read and comprehend in English because they have been placed in an honors classroom.  According to Kristina Robertson and Karen Ford’s chart, I would place these students in intermediate fluency.  They can communicate in the second language but do have “gaps in vocabulary knowledge.”  They are still the quieter ones in class because they do not want to be wrong in front of the class.  How can I help ELL students feel more confident to speak their opinions in front of others who learned English as their first language?

               One strategy I think would be beneficial to ELL students in my classroom is Robertson and Ford’s strategy of error correction.  This would be done one-on-one rather than in front of the class.  When students are working individually I would be able to conference with each student.  With ELL students I would work on their language skills with whatever the conference is about.  According to Penny Kittle in Book Love (2011), conferences are a way to “increase complexity and challenge” for students (p. 84).  For example, if I am conferencing with an ELL student about his or her essay they are writing I would correct the error and then explain the difference.  This way the student is still learning the language to get him or her to advanced fluency without the potential to be embarrassed in front of his or her peers.   I think if students are corrected often in front of their classmates then there is a chance ELL students will not volunteer to answer questions.  There needs to be a balance with the number of corrections given.

               Another strategy I want to try to help ELL students feel more confident from Robertson and Ford’s strategies is learning another language.  Students do become excited when their teachers attempt to learn their language.  I remember when I was a para one of the ELL students was shocked when I could have a short conversation from the little Spanish I remembered.  When he tried to further the conversation but I had to tell him that I was unable to continue in Spanish.  He told me I should learn more again.  When I think back to this encounter I now realize how important it is for all students to feel comfortable speaking in the classroom.  Trying to learn some words in students’ languages may help them feel more comfortable to try to speak in English.  I regret not continuing to learn Spanish and I hope my future ELL students do not give up on English.

Sources:

Kittle, Penny (2011) Book Love. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

"Language Acquisition: An Overview" by Kristina Robertson and Karen Ford.   http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/language-acquisition-overview#h-stages-of-language-acquisition

Not My Student (Genre Reflection #2)

            First, the student walks into the classroom with a buddy form.  You have control of the classroom, for now, because your mentor teacher has to test a student in the hallway.  You see that he is upset but gives nothing away as to why he was sent out of the room.  You tell him to sit in the appropriate chair. You tell him not to be disruptive because your students are trying to write a paper.  He goes over to the seat and deliberately makes sure the seat makes a noise.  You look over at him but he pretends not to notice.  He starts tapping a pencil.  Your students start getting distracted and look over at him.  Feeling the pressure to be in charge of the room you tell the student to stop tapping the pencil.  Students are trying to write.  He stops tapping and you think he finally sees reason.  Instead he moves on to an even louder noise, shaking the blinds.  You walk over to him and whisper to him the he needs to stop shaking the blinds.  He decides to stop and take out his pencil sharpener.  Nothing could go wrong, right?  He removes the pencil shavings and starts playing with them ON THE TABLE.  This is your time to shine.

            You ask him to step into the hallway so you can talk to him.  You take deep breaths, this is the first time you ask a student to talk to you in the hallway and he isn’t a student you know well. Breathe, you got this.  You give him the best “fear the teacher” look you can muster.  You tell him that he is not to be disrespectful in your mentor teacher’s classroom.  You think you sound authoritative.  He is not fazed.  He does not look at you with fear.  You feel like you have somewhat failed and your mentor teacher notices this when you start walking back in the room with him.  She asks why you had to talk to the student.  After you explained she asks for the student to come out to talk to her and while she is SITTING she tells the student the same thing in her authoritative tone and he listens.

            After class you talk to your mentor teacher about your first “hallway discussion.”  She congratulates you for taking initiative and trying to talk to the student.  You know there is more work to be done.  What needs to occur to make a hallway conversation more effective? 

Learning to Give Students Time (Blog Post #3)

I have realized during my time in my internship that I do not give students enough time to get to the correct answer.  They sometimes need an extra push but that does not mean that I need to provide them the answers all of the time.  According to Melissa Kelly's article "Wait Time and Education," teachers should wait "three to seven seconds" for students to respond to a question.  I think what is difficult for me is that I want to fill the empty noise.  Those seven seconds feel like a long time.  I have been told multiple times that it does not feel that long to students but when it feels like I am being watched I need to fill the noise.  It has gotten better throughout the semester but I know that I will need to work on it next semester when I am with students I am unfamiliar with.

One of my students invited me to attend the school play that he was a part of.  He was proud of the fact he was in the play and wanted as many people to attend as possible.  I was excited to get to see my student in a play for the first time.  The play was "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."  I had a feeling of pride any time my student was on stage.  The play was a great way for me to realize being a teacher is more than being at school every day and teaching lessons.  It is more than trying to get to know students during passing period or when conferencing with them.  Being a teacher is also getting to see your students participate in one of their passions and supporting them through the process.  I look forward to seeing future students participating in their passions.

One question I want to explore next semester is how to put a positive spin on bad behaviors in the classroom.  My MT has warned me of some of the behaviors in one of her hours I am teaching in.  She said that they are not bad students but occasionally get off task and start doing things that disrupt the flow.  I think I want to test out giving students jobs when they come in each day so they can put their energy into that.  If any students like to talk without raising their hands I want to try the strategy of "talking chips."  I hope that it will promote more quiet students to participate in discussion as well as help students who enjoy talking to limit what comments need to be made.

As the semester is winding down I look forward to seeing what challenges and triumphs occur during interning full-time.

https://www.thoughtco.com/importance-of-wait-time-8405

My KATE Conference Experience

What did the KATE Conference mean to me?  I have been inspired and I feel like it was an impactful experience.  I learned so much from the breakout sessions.  My favorite session was titled "Selfie Culture: Make it Work."  I was unsure about going to this one at first because I did not know if it would be beneficial to me as a teacher.  I was so wrong.  Stacy Chestnut and Alexis Fisher incorporated numerous activities I can use to get to know my students.  One activity I would like to do with my sixth graders would be the "Five Core Values" we got to do.  They had us first write our five values and then put a circle around it.  The next circle is where we had to write names that help us protect those values.  The circle after that are people that do not always help us with our values but we continue to have around.  The last circle are the names of people we probably should not have in our lives.  I like this activity because I feel like middle school is a good time for students to look at the type of friendships they have.

Another session that I am happy that I went to because it was not at all what I expected was the "Pod Save Us All."  I never really thought about podcasts being a tool for teaching.  The one that I could use with middle school students would be Storycorp or Poetry Now.  I feel like Storycorp would work with middle school students because it would be a good way to show how to create a story.  I think that the stories on this website are meaningful and students may empathize.  I liked the podcasts for Poetry Now because the authors of the poem read them.  Students would be able to understand the flow of the poem.

The next session I want to talk about is the "Get Out of the Way and Let Your Students Read."  I remember reading Penny Kittle's book Book Love during Literature for Adolescents.  Although I enjoyed the book and Kittle's discussion on how to get students to read more, I did not really know how to incorporate the strategies in the classroom.  This session showed me how teachers are able to use strategies effectively and how to incorporate your own spin on the strategies.  My favorite technique was how the teachers check on how students are doing with their readings.  I found it encouraging that the teachers presenting were getting some of the same results that Kittle was experiencing!  I now know that I will be able to incorporate a few of these strategies into my own classroom.

I liked being with a group of English educators who are passionate about their profession.  They were all welcoming and I was thankful for it because I was a little nervous going into the conference the first day.

One presentation I with I went to was the "Hatred of Poetry" session.  I heard so many amazing things from the other teaching interns about it.  One session that I thought would be different was  the "Including Diversity in the Middle and High School Curriculum."  I appreciated that they gave more titles of diverse novels that I could incorporate into a middle school classroom but I wish that there was more discussion about how to teach it.  The session never really got past discussing the novels.

Overall I am so happy that I attended the KATE Conference.  I want to try my best to return next year and learn even more!

Should I Call On You? (Blog Post #2)

Where did I last leave you on my journey through student teaching?  Ah yes, I was trying to figure out how to ask more in-depth questions.  I am happy to say that I have gotten better at posing higher level questions to my students.  I think I was able to ask better questions because I was teaching my unit last week and I had to plan out lessons for five days.  I took my mentor teacher’s advice and read the text we were going to be reading in class, Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick, while I was planning so I could write out the main questions I wanted to ask.  Now that I have had the practice to write out what higher level questions I want to ask I now need to work on asking higher level questions on the spot.

During my week of teaching I tested out my question of “how do I incorporate discussion and still have enough time to complete the lesson.”  I can now tell you after a week of teaching that it is really difficult to balance!  I wanted to get through all that I planned with my students but in order to do that there were some days that I did not ask all of my questions I wanted to ask.  If I had more time to teach I would have had more in-depth discussions with my students.

One struggle I had while teaching was not calling on the same three students to answer questions.  How can I get more students involved in the discussion?  After the first day of only calling on people who raised their hands I experimented the next day and decided to call on students.  I gave students time to think about their answer when they did not talk right away but there was one student who refused to answer the question.  I also gave an opportunity to talk in small groups but that did not help her answer the question.  What are other techniques I can use to help students be more comfortable voicing their opinions in the classroom?  One technique I have found on John Spencer’s article Encouraging Introverts to Speak up in School was number seven on his list of ten ways to get introverts to speak up in class.  He says “I conference ahead of time with students who are anxious. I affirm their courage in speaking up and allow them to share their frustrations with the situation.”  I like this idea because he gives students a chance to talk to him one-on-one about any issues they might have about speaking in front of their classmates.  I want to try this technique with my students who are shy.

One idea that I want to incorporate into my teaching is allowing students more free time to write about whatever they want to.  Students are given times when they write in my mentor teacher’s classroom but I would like to incorporate more time for students who enjoy writing.  According to Bomer (2011), “we need to teach students to attend to their thinking, to develop and extend it” while writing (167).  I would want to incorporate at least one fifteen minute block a week where students are allowed to write whatever they want to write about.  For those who were like me and did not like having too much freedom while writing I would post writing prompts on the board to spark an idea.

Link to John Spencer’s article: https://www.quietrev.com/encouraging-introverts-to-speak-up-in-school/

Bomer (2011). Building adolescent literacy in today’s English classroom. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Waiting to be Called On (Genre Reflection #1)

Dear Heather*,

            I am sorry I did not give you a chance to talk in class today.  You have such amazing ideas in your writing but you seem shy when you are sitting in class.  When I walk by and you are working on partner work I have noticed that you are actively engaged in your conversation because you are usually talking to your friend.  I would love to hear you give your insight to the rest of the class.  Is it because you do not like speaking in front of others?  Do you not want students to comment on what you are saying? 

            When I was in middle school I did not like having to speak in front of other students unless I was asked to do so by the teacher.  I did not really come out of my shell and feel confident to answer questions until high school. 

            I hope to make you feel more confident about speaking up during discussions.  Today we talked about the first chapter of Freak the Mighty and you looked actively engaged in what your peers had to say.  I wish I had called on you so you could have been a part of the conversation.  It is still early on in the year so there is a chance you may become more comfortable giving your opinion. 

You came up to me today in the hallway and asked me a question.  That made me really happy!  I like that I am starting to build a relationship with you and I hope that also makes you more comfortable.  I look forward to working with you and helping you become more comfortable in the classroom.

                        Best Regards,

                                    Ms. Jewell

*name was changed

What is in a Good Question? (Blog Post #1)

Hello readers!  After my last week and a half in my classroom I have realized one thing- I need to become better at asking students in-depth questions.  My mentor teacher let me try to ask questions when we were reading "The Good Deed" by Marion Dane Bauer in class.  I would start out asking surface level questions but could not come up with deeper questions that led to a discussion on what a good deed really is.  When I talked to my mentor teacher after class she gave me great advice about how to ask deeper questions.  She told me that when I go to read the story before I teach it I should write down the questions I think of as I am reading in the margins so I know when to pause the story to discuss an important point.  I feel like this advice will help me when I have my own classroom.  In Building Adolescent Literacy  in Today's English Classroom, Bomer (2011) discusses the importance of helping students hold their attention to one idea and to develop that idea (p. 4).  As I am learning to ask more insightful questions I will help students focus in on one idea and to form their own opinions.

People have always questioned why I want to teach middle school.  My answers have evolved over time and my current answer is because I love how eager the majority of them are to have their opinions be heard!  It can be a little tough to reign in the students that are more vocal once they get started on a topic but my mentor teacher does a great job at letting students have their discussions while driving the lesson forward.  My main worry and my question I will be posing for myself throughout the year is "how do I incorporate discussion in my lessons and still have time left to complete the lesson without rushing?"  I want to be the type of teacher who helps students figure out what their opinion is throughout the year but at what cost to the lesson?  When I asked my mentor teacher about my worries she told me that for her it depends on the day if they are able to get through the lesson in enough time that they are not rushing.  If there is not enough time to finish the classwork then they have to finish at home.

Once I take over the classroom I do want to continue incorporating discussions.  I feel like middle school is a great time for students to build their own opinions.  A lot of times I think people believe that middle school students only listen to what their friends think.  I disagree because I think that students do have their own opinions but need to have a space where they can openly talk about them.  They also need the chance to say their opinions.  I also enjoy hearing their opinions because twelve year olds have some great insights on what is going on in the world.

One practice I would like to try out in the classroom this year while I still have the help of my mentor teacher is Fishbowl Discussions.  I would have half of the group set up in an outside circle asking questions and the inside of the circle would be answering the questions.  They would switch halfway through class.  I like this strategy because more students will be engaged in the discussions.  It also makes students who have a difficulty listening to others a chance to learn how to.  The students in the outside circle will also have a chance to ask insightful questions that make the whole group think.  I also like this strategy because it will not be solely on me to direct the discussion.

I am excited to learn how to ask questions this year as well as working with my students on how to form their opinions.