Entry 3: ELL Teacher Interview

I enjoyed my interview with Ms. Zacarias. She provided a lot of information about ELL students as an ELL teacher. Teachers with ELL students must use different strategies to help their students in the classroom. According to Wright (2015), all teachers share in the responsibility of meeting the language and academic needs of ELLs. So it is really important to know the successful strategies to help students. Ms. Zacarias did a wonderful explanation of successful strategies to help students. Some of the successful strategies she mentions are more visuals, more think time, and more collaboration. 

Visuals are really important to help students to recognize the meaning of the content while they learn the language. Therefore, teachers need to think about what types of pictures and anchor charts to display for the students to help them understand the content. Teachers need to think about how they can provide more opportunities for visuals. The teacher can use visuals to help build background knowledge of content. 

According to Wright (2015), extra time is an accommodation used on students to help them on the test. As Ms. Zacarias mentioned, ELL students need more time and collaboration to be successful. Therefore, it is important to provide opportunities to use the think pair share strategy with the students. Students just need to receive extra time so they can read and make connections. Then, the students can discuss with their peers to help them develop their understanding. 

Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Zacarias. (2019, April 3). Interview [Personal interview].

Entry 2: ELL Student Interview

After the interview, I was sad to hear that used assimilation on Cecilia. In Cecilia’s story, you can hear the negative impact the teachers had on her. According to Wright (2015), in assimilation, the students must abandon their language and culture to become Americans.  So, students would feel discouraged about their native language and culture. And, the student’s linguistics and academic needs must be met in schools. So if a teacher discourages and does not help the student, the student has a low chance of succeeding. Since “learning to read in English is more difficult if students cannot read in their home language.” (Wright, 2015) Therefore, the teachers must fulfill their students’ needs so they can gain a high academic achievement. And as Cecilia mentions, she would have been more fluent in Spanish if her teacher did not discourage her from speaking Spanish.

In Cecilia’s story, you can hear the impact of standardized tests on the school's policies. The teachers wanted her to speak in English to pass those tests, instead of on focusing on her development in the long run. The teachers did not understand her point of view in learning English. If the teachers understood the challenges the students faced, they could have a smoother transition to English. And, I have thought about my own students. And, I agree with Wright’s statement of “the mandated one-size-fits-all standards …  are not appropriate for the diverse ELL population.” (Wright, 2015) At my school, a teacher told her experience of ELLs students in standardized tests. The teacher’s ELL students have misinterpreted the prompt of the Writing STARR in the past. Therefore, it is important for the teachers and test makers to understand the ELL students’ point of view. So, there is not any confusion on the test so students can be successful test takers. Overall, understanding the student’s background and challenges allows teachers to know which resources they need to help their students.  

Gutierrez, C. (2019, February 21). ELL Student Interview [Personal interview].

Wright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, Second Edition.

Entry 1: Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is Tiffany Yang. I am a student at the University of Houston. I am currently majoring in teaching and learning with the early childhood through 6th-grade certification in hopes of becoming a 4th-grade teacher. I am student teaching at Oak Forest Elementary in 4^th grade.

As you can see from my video, growing up I was expected to learn two languages which are Chinese and Spanish. Growing up I lived in a multi-language household when I was very young. My grandma only spoke Taiwanese while my parents spoke Chinese and my siblings spoke English. English is my first language, however, my parents were not fluent in English. There was not a strong Chinese community in my hometown so I would rarely speak Chinese. My community was a Hispanic dominated community so people were expected to know English and Spanish. My parents were expected to learn English and Spanish to communicate. Many of my teachers spoke to parents in Spanish because the parents did not know English. Both sides of the border were expected to learn the other's language. 

This is my first time doing a video blog. I am committed and providing a safe and fun environment to my students, so they are willing to learn and they have their basic needs fulfilled. I believe students are responsible for their own actions because I can only influence them. I believe students are small adults who need to be taught on how to act and think. “Minority students … tend to have parents with low levels of education who are unable to provide assistance with schoolwork or afford expensive supplemental educational services” therefore, as a teacher I need to provide support to close in the gap amongst my students to help them learn. (Wright, 2015) I can provide support such as oral administration, proximity sitting, and visuals. Oral administration can help them when they do not know who to pronounce the word or passage. Proximity seating would allow me more access to help the student.

I am forward to working with all of you!

References:

Wright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, Second Edition.