SPSE 6712 #2 Observation and Problem Identification

During my second observation in the ESL classroom I noticed a view things that could be concerning. There is one student who is newly from Mexico and does not speak any English. The ESL teacher helps him with all of his other homework as well studying English. The ESL teacher has to know how to teach these other subjects like the regular classroom teacher. She said that she spent two years of watching the math teacher to learn how he teaches math so that she could duplicate his methods. She also needed a refresher in how to solve the math problems. This could be an issue for new teachers who have not had time to observe the other teachers or are consistently too busy to spare time to observe. This will require that the teacher spends a lot of time outside of class to learn what the students are learning in 6th, 7th, or 8th grade classes.

One class I observed was the 7th grade English class. There are only six boys in the class; five of which have lived in America and gone to American schools many years. The sixth boy has been in America less than a year and lacks a lot of the vocabulary and knowledge the other boys already know. The five boys are in ESL to perfect their skills so they can pass the ELDA with high scores. I watched them use 11 prepositions from their list to create sentences. The five boys were focusing more on forming correct sentences and spelling correctly. The sixth boy knew how to form sentences, but was struggling to create a sentence, because of a lack of vocabulary. I think it could be difficult to focus on the varying needs and levels of the students.

The students, daily, work on Daily Oral Language (DOL) and Goofs. The DOL consists of three sentences that they are to correct on their own and then as a class. The goofs are powerpoint presentations that the students create of incorrect and correct sentences. One student, each day, will show his goof. On the day I observed the students also created 11 sentences using prepositions from their preposition list. The students have multiple opportunities to work together for help or to check their work. Often, students have more courage to offer answers or ask questions when they are working in a group. The students have lots of opportunities to work on the computers, and they really enjoy it. For the students who need their skills perfected, the computer requires attention to spelling and offers help. These students also are not as familar with using a computer, so they are learning valuable computer skills. The newer student is more experienced with using a computer, so he knows how to navigate easily while he learns more English.

I think that most middle school ESL teachers will need to not only be knowledgable in English skills for students trying to test out of ESL, but also of all the other subject material so they can help new learners of English complete their work. The ESL teacher will need to possess the knowledge and skills of the regular classroom teachers, and know how to best teach someone who is not proficient in English. The teacher I am observing seems to be under a lot of pressure to help her select students test out of the ESL program within the next year. They are close to scoring high enough on the ELDA, but they have are still making mistakes that second language learners make. On the other hand, she has two learners who are very new to the English language. She has very few truly intermediate English learners. These are such contrasting levels that it is hard to provide each level with the attention they need to succeed when in the same classroom. As the students created their sentences using the prepositions the teacher explained each word and the situation they might be used. She explained how a word, like amid, is not commonly used in TN, but could be found while reading or on a test. The students were welcome to create sentences about their home countries, and those would be discussed with the class.