Kevin Steinke

ED 359
Prof. Scott Reilly
30 August 2017

1) As a teacher, what challenges did you face when trying to teach your lesson/content to
the class?

Outside of the obvious difficulty of having students that didnt speak the language of the
lesson, which was Spanish, there were also students that were unfamiliar with the content
of the lesson. Choosing something that is more universally familiar, or even something
with fewer steps, could have helped this. Additionally, dealing with a class size that was
that large, and therefore attempting to control the students conversation (which was in
another language) outside of the lesson was challenging.

2) What did you do to overcome these challenges?

In the moment, the two other teachers and I cut out a few of the more self-explanatory
steps, which helped to cut down on some of the time, as well as some of the conversation
among students. In order to combat the language barrier, two simple things were done.
First, we planned ahead and made use of not only the visual on the board, but we also all
created our own fortuneteller alongside of the class, so that they could follow our
modeling. Secondly, we made use of all three teachers, and attempted to provide 1-on-1,
or at least small group, instruction in the lesson were it was most needed. This working in
smaller groups also helped to cut down on some of the conversation.

3) As a teacher, how did this activity simulate trying to instruct one or more ELL students in
your classroom? How did you use language in your classroom?

This project was actually very similar to my experience teaching in South Africa in
sophomore year. In any of my five English classrooms, there were anywhere from 35-50
students, all of varying understanding, and all of varying desire to learn especially from
me. The first few weeks of teaching there went much like this lesson chaotic,
complicated, and seemingly impossible given that there were a lot of students, all of
which could somewhat understand my co-teachers and I, but not enough to get by. The
important thing to remember in settings like that, at least that I have found in my
experience is that there are many different ways to communicate, and its important to
use them all. From body language and facial expressions to simply modeling, there are
dozens of ways to get a point across without using a common language. We made use of
Spanish, expecting that at least half of the students in the session have taken a Spanish
class in the past and might recall something that would help them.

4) As part of the class, how can you relate this activity to the experience of ELL students
in an English-speaking classroom?
 It certainly makes the case very clear that it is difficult for students in an English-
speaking classroom to keep up with the rest of the class, especially if the class is moving
along quickly. Without a firm understanding of the language being used, and without the
appropriate scaffolding, it would be incredibly easy for a student to fall behind.

5) Overall, what do you think was the purpose of this activity?

The purpose was to put us not only in the role of the educator that has a difficult time
teaching ELL students, but to put us in the shoes of the student that doesnt have any idea
what is being taught. We had it lucky, as students especially, because the teachers chose
topics that were relatively easy to learn and understand. This is not the case in a typical
classroom, and the fact that that is the case really needs to be considered more by
educators.