I think the ELL classroom I liked the most was the math class we visited. I saw a lot of techniques suggested in the reading being used in that classroom. For example, the teacher was allowing students to help each other during class. It seemed as if she had positioned seats in such a way where the students' strengths and weaknesses balanced each other out so that they could help each other as they went along. She also used some Spanish in her lesson, but only words that were important to to lesson and only after saying the word in English first. She had diagrams on the board and used different colored markers to further help the students understand. She also had agendas and objectives on the board and around the room so that the students knew what was expected of them.
As far as teaching an ESL class, it is not something I'm opposed to. I actually do think these classes are beneficial to not only the student, but to the teacher as well because it gives them experience and insight into the life of someone whose first language isn't English and maybe hasn't even always lived in America. However, it may take some getting used to because there is that language barrier. As I said last week, I took Spanish in high school and know some basics, but I am no way fluent. Maybe this could be a good thing, though if I ever did become an ESL teacher because it would help me to understand how the students must be feeling learning how to speak English and I could learn from them just as they'll be learning from me.
I always feel slightly cheated because I took Italian in high school and never ever had an opportunity to use it. I can still speak some of it and with some practice I could probably pick up some of it again. The idea of learning spanish to aid in an ELL class seems taxing to me and that's a language that is very similar to italian and english. My worry is that I still can't imagine a very successful classroom where the teacher doesn't speak at least a little of the native language of the student. They're not all going to be spanish speakers, some may be Chinese, or Portuguese, or french. I think it's probably my own short sidedness but it's hard for me to imagine how I could perform in a classroom like that.
ReplyDeleteThat's true. If there was any language present other than Spanish, it would be a bigger problem for me because that's the language I've had the most exposure to. That's why I think the idea of teaching an ELL class makes me a little nervous because I would feel kind of underprepared. I don't think it's something I'm definite of right now but it is something that I think would be a good experience and maybe something to just keep in the back of my mind.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree about the math class. You don't realize how much peer interaction can help until you see it in action. It really helped the flow of the class. I agree with you, Joey. I did feel out of my element quite a bit in the ELL classes, and it made me realize how helpful being a bilingual educator can be in a diverse district. With that said, I think a monolingual teacher can be effective in an ELL class - It would jus t take time to adapt to that type of an environment.
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly with Joey; I definitely now regret not using the languages I took in high school more than I did/do. I took a full four years of Spanish, and five years later, I could barely order a beer or ask for simple directions when I visited Spain last March. This is one of the reasons I feel that learning at least one other language is so important now-as globalization increases and populations grow less and less homogenous, the number of bilingual and multilingual people is going to need to go drastically up. So, in a way, these students who are ELLs now are going to have a leg up later when they know two or three (or more, judging from a couple of the students I spoke with) different languages. For teachers wanting to at least brush up on the basics of different languages, there is a great free website that is supposedly comparable with Rosetta Stone with regards to learning a language. It is called "Duolingo," and is supposedly very innovative and best of all, FREE.
ReplyDelete