The second observation that I conducted was the day after my first observation. It was nice to see the continuation of the previous day’s lesson. This class did start out a little strange. The school was nearing the end of its first quarter and students who had good behavior were given a reward party. This meant that for the first twenty minutes of class only half (four) of the normal nine students were present. The teacher was undeterred by this and continued with the lesson as if all students were present. When the students from the reward party returned, class continued after a small explanation of the class project.
The lesson began with the teacher opening her notebook to the section with the recorded sentences, about walruses, from the previous day. The sentences offered by students were in a random order, written down as they were given. The teacher wanted the students to eventually write a paragraph using these sentences. So, the teacher began by asking students which sentences went together. The students were seated around a semicircular table and each student was asked, in clockwise order, to find matching ideas in a pair of sentences. If a student answered incorrectly the teacher moved on to the next student. This created a friendly competition between students to find the most and/or right matching sentences. Students seemed very pleased with themselves when they answered correctly, and their disappointment with answering incorrectly was minimal. Each sentence pair was highlighted in a different color to denote which student had made the correct response. By the end of class all of the sentences had been paired together and students were ready to begin writing their paragraphs about walruses.
There are some issues that I observed with this class that may prove to be a hindrance for second language learners. First, as I mentioned in my previous entry, the ESL classroom is shared with a resource class. The class is divided into two by a series of bookshelves. This division does nothing to stop noise from the other side of the class. The noise is likely a distraction for students, and it is also possible that the excess noise lessens the impact of auditory input. If a student can’t hear the teacher clearly this will likely slow down the rate at which the student acquires the language. This noise was more apparent in my second observation because students from the resource class who were not allowed to attend the reward party were acting out.
Another problem that I noticed was the lack of an overhead or smart-board. In my observation of the lesson I noticed students crowding around the teacher to see the notebook where she had recorded their sentences. The students across the table from her had more difficulty reading from the notebook than the students seated at her side. This was likely because they were further away and forced to read upside down.
One more potential issue is both a positive and a negative. Students in this class are a very tight knit group. The negative aspect of this is that students try to entertain each other. This causes some interruptions and forces the teacher to have to remind students to stay on task. I don’t think that this is a problem that can ever be remedied; it is essentially kids being kids. This trait is also the greatest strength to the class. Students consistently encourage each other, are kind and respectful, and try to help each other out in solving language problems. This makes the class a very low pressure environment for students. My observations lead me to believe that students do not fear reprimand for wrong answers, in fact it appears that they understand that wrong answers are just as important to learning as right answers are. This low pressure learning environment is a key to language learning.
Another positive within this class were the number of books. Each student had their own copy of the walrus book that they were studying. This allowed students to read and review at their own pace, and associate the teacher’s pronunciation with the written words. Speaking of pronunciation I never once heard the teacher stop to correct student pronunciation. If a student made a mistake the teacher simply repeated the word so the student could hear it and moved on. I believe the auditory input is much more important than stopping class and having the student repeat the word over and over until they get it right.
Some ethnographic information that I believe crucial is learning the students’ home situation. A teacher shouldn’t pry into the students’ lives, but they should be aware that often student behavior is a direct result of their home life. This doesn’t mean that certain students should get special treatment, but certain situations may need further explanation of consequences to students.
In the lessons I observed the only culture that I saw was the youth culture. Were students are upset because they didn’t get the Hannah Montana pencil. Ethnicity was never brought up.
I find this class very interesting to observe and I am looking forward to working with this class more.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Observation One
My first observation took place at a Murfreesboro elementary school. This elementary school is one of the more urban schools in the Murfreesboro City School system. The school has a large population of students who speak a language other than English at home. The class that I observed had nine students, five boys and four girls, and was a second grade level two class. Students are placed in this class as a result of their scores on an English proficiency exam. Level two students are those that are starting to gain a solid grasp of English, but still need some additional instruction. The teacher I observed informed me that she believed a good percentage of these students would test out of ESL the following year.
The lesson began with students entering the class and sitting in a circle around a table. This class is a pullout, meaning that students leave their normal class to come and have ESL class. The lesson was a reflection on a book about walruses they read the day before. Once the students were seated the teacher passed out journals. All the journals were spiral notebooks with student names on the covers. The students then opened to a blank page and the teacher asked, “What can you tell me about walruses?” The students instantly became excited remembering everything they had learned from the reading the day before. Each student offered facts from the book while the teacher recorded. It was interesting to see students jumping up and down and raising their hands as high as possible hoping they would be next to give a fact. With all the excitement of recounted walrus facts, it was not uncommon for students to forget what they were going to say once they got called on. The teacher handled this problem by coaching them through, by asking simple questions like, “what the most interesting thing you can think of?” The students never seemed to feel any pressure; they seemed to understand that making mistakes was a part of learning. The class continued on like this for about forty-five minutes until the students were out of facts. It was amazing how much they remembered from the day before. The teacher later told me that she had intended for them to write a paragraph in their journals using all the walrus facts, but the students had remembered so much that they ran out of time and would have to do it the next day. Since the students wouldn’t have time to write the teacher asked them to read aloud short poems that they had written earlier in the week. The poems all followed a similar format but students inserted descriptive words about themselves. The lesson ended with the students cleaning up then lining up at the door.
The lesson gave students the opportunity to reflect on what they had learned. It was almost deceptive. Students thought that they were merely learning about walruses, but they were also learning all the language associated with walruses. Communicating with one another and the teacher was the main focus of the lesson, where students debated what facts were true and what facts needed to be amended to make them true (students would occasionally sort of embellish a fact to make it a little more interesting). The students were their own group each offering advice and adding to the conversation. The class on the whole was very informal it was essentially a forty-five minute conversation about walruses. I also found the poems that the students read at the end of class to be very interesting. Though there was predetermined format for the poems the each student, with a few exceptions, had something completely original. These poems gave students the opportunity to learn to shape language to meet their needs, and this is an essential skill for a literate person.
As a side note, the students cared about my presence only at the very beginning and the very end of class. In the beginning they simply asked who I was and what I was doing, and at the end they only wanted to know what I thought about their class. It is interesting that the students were more interested in the lesson than the new guy watching them and taking notes.
I greatly enjoyed my first observation, these kids are hilarious and their joy of learning really had me at a loss. I’m looking forward to going back.
The lesson began with students entering the class and sitting in a circle around a table. This class is a pullout, meaning that students leave their normal class to come and have ESL class. The lesson was a reflection on a book about walruses they read the day before. Once the students were seated the teacher passed out journals. All the journals were spiral notebooks with student names on the covers. The students then opened to a blank page and the teacher asked, “What can you tell me about walruses?” The students instantly became excited remembering everything they had learned from the reading the day before. Each student offered facts from the book while the teacher recorded. It was interesting to see students jumping up and down and raising their hands as high as possible hoping they would be next to give a fact. With all the excitement of recounted walrus facts, it was not uncommon for students to forget what they were going to say once they got called on. The teacher handled this problem by coaching them through, by asking simple questions like, “what the most interesting thing you can think of?” The students never seemed to feel any pressure; they seemed to understand that making mistakes was a part of learning. The class continued on like this for about forty-five minutes until the students were out of facts. It was amazing how much they remembered from the day before. The teacher later told me that she had intended for them to write a paragraph in their journals using all the walrus facts, but the students had remembered so much that they ran out of time and would have to do it the next day. Since the students wouldn’t have time to write the teacher asked them to read aloud short poems that they had written earlier in the week. The poems all followed a similar format but students inserted descriptive words about themselves. The lesson ended with the students cleaning up then lining up at the door.
The lesson gave students the opportunity to reflect on what they had learned. It was almost deceptive. Students thought that they were merely learning about walruses, but they were also learning all the language associated with walruses. Communicating with one another and the teacher was the main focus of the lesson, where students debated what facts were true and what facts needed to be amended to make them true (students would occasionally sort of embellish a fact to make it a little more interesting). The students were their own group each offering advice and adding to the conversation. The class on the whole was very informal it was essentially a forty-five minute conversation about walruses. I also found the poems that the students read at the end of class to be very interesting. Though there was predetermined format for the poems the each student, with a few exceptions, had something completely original. These poems gave students the opportunity to learn to shape language to meet their needs, and this is an essential skill for a literate person.
As a side note, the students cared about my presence only at the very beginning and the very end of class. In the beginning they simply asked who I was and what I was doing, and at the end they only wanted to know what I thought about their class. It is interesting that the students were more interested in the lesson than the new guy watching them and taking notes.
I greatly enjoyed my first observation, these kids are hilarious and their joy of learning really had me at a loss. I’m looking forward to going back.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Introduction
Hello all!! Guess I should start by telling you a little bit about myself. Well, I am a graduate student at Middle Tennessee State University working on getting my MEd in curriculum and instruction with a concentration in teaching ESL. I received my undergraduate degree from Georgia Southern University in Writing and Linguistics. I am currently acting as a graduate assistant at MTSU, where I get the chance to see how the university works and get the opportunity to work with a number of school districts.
I have created this blog to record and keep field notes for my practicum courses. I hope that the insights from my observations will be helpful and interesting. I am very excited about getting out there and seeing what it takes to be a successful ESL teacher. More to come soon!!
I have created this blog to record and keep field notes for my practicum courses. I hope that the insights from my observations will be helpful and interesting. I am very excited about getting out there and seeing what it takes to be a successful ESL teacher. More to come soon!!
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