Blog #2 Problem Identification and Reflection

Teaching Issues:

I observed an ELL reading class for this assignment. The teacher had a book on the projector from a website called starfall.com. The teacher started out with the title page displayed. One problem I noticed was the large number of students in the classroom. There were thirty-two students in a fairly small classroom. Even though the classroom was small I noticed some of the students in the back straining to see the screen. The teacher would ask questions about the title and illustrations on the title page to build background knowledge and have students make predictions. When the teacher ask a question and students would raise their hands (about four or five students per question), the teacher would then call on a student that did not have their hand raised every time. I wonder if the teacher is doing this for a academic reason or a behavior modification reason? The seating arrangement for this classroom was in groups of four. Most of the students were sitting with their own ethnic groups, although there were a couple of mixed groups. Most of the girls were sitting up front and the boys were sitting in the back. The teacher used repetition many times in the lesson. The main characters were a boy and his father and the teacher repeatedly asked who the characters were and talked about character traits. One problem the teacher had with this class being so large is keeping all the student's attention. Several students were talking, drawing, or passing around paper during the lesson. Several times the students would just call out an answer to a question posed by the teacher, some times the teacher would admonish the students for this and at other times the teacher would not say anything. I think the students are getting a mixed message about what the procedure for answering questions is.

Second Language Acquisition:

I observed a lot of repetition in the lesson, especially with academic vocabulary such as character, setting, conflict and solution. The teacher also explained many of the words in the story or asked the students questions about the words to ensure their understanding of the story. The teacher also asked some students to explain the meaning of some words to other students in their native language. As the students read the story in a whole class read aloud, they were filling out a story web graphic organizer. As they read the story the teacher provided scaffolding to the students by telling them which part of the story web to fill in at certain times in the lesson after they had talked about that particular part of the story, such as character or setting. For example the teacher would tell them to list a certain character then to write an adjective to describe that character. I noticed that the teacher would only give them about a minute to fill in the answer. Is that adequate time to fill in an answer for this level of ELL or would more time been better for processing the material and vocabulary? As stated earlier the story was projected onto a screen by a projector and some of the students had to strain to see it. Perhaps it would have been better and more engaging for all students to give each of them a copy of the story to read along with. They could also have taken it home or used it again in class to re-read, thereby gaining fluency with practice.

Ethnographic Perspective:

This class was very diverse with several first languages present. From a surface glance there were Karen, Spanish, Nepali, and Arabic speakers. There was a fairly large range of English proficiency in the classroom as well. A teacher should know the range of proficiency or ELL level of the students in the classroom to best meet their needs. Knowing some of the student's background history is also very beneficial in helping the students acquire the skills necessary to succeed in an American school. The teacher would speak to the Arabic speaking students in their native language as the teacher speaks Arabic as a first language. The teacher also had a Nepali students that has a higher level of English proficiency that other students to translate some words into Nepali. This creates a learning bridge between the students native language and English. One problem I noticed is that the Karen (Burmese) and the Spanish speaking students were not told to do this or given any encouragement by the teacher to do this and were therefore somewhat left on their own without the benefit of any translation. There was not a clear picture of any particular culture being integrated into this particular lesson although the story the teacher was using was based on a myth. There would be many opportunities to incorporate other cultures into a unit using myths from other cultures.

MTSU Honor Statement:

This assignment/assessment was solely written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State University and/or appropriate legal action being taken against me.

Sirci Stinson

9-22-10