Jason Guzzardo

ITEC 7430
ELL Project
Initial Thoughts
What do teachers need to know about students who are learning to speak
English?
 Be aware that ELLs will tell you they understand when they don't, because they don't
want to be a problem for you.
 Even if a student seems to have good communication skills it does not mean that
he/she has adequate academic language skills.

What are some general instructional practices that can be beneficial to students
who are learning to speak English?
 Provide written notes
 Provide graphic organizers, and or pictures
 Speak slowly
 Try to use consistent terminology, so that synonyms don't confuse them.

What should teachers consider when testing students who are learning to speak
English?
 They need enough time to figure out what's being asked
 They may need translation help
 What ever accommodations they receive on class work, they need on a test

______________________________________________________________________

Report
1. Description

a. The setting of the field experience (e.g., in a classroom, at a community

organization location, etc.).

General Education Classroom

b. The student(s)—use a pseudonym to maintain confidentiality—with whom you

are working (e.g. age, grade level, level of English Proficiency, personal
characteristics based on observations/interactions, other information that may give
the reader a more in-depth description of the student)
 Terri is a 16 year old female student from Honduras that is in a Senior Level Co-
Taught College Prep American Government course. Her English skills are
average as she is must better at writing and drawing her explanations than
speaking it in English. She is in the classified as an ESOL student at our school
and is scheduled to receive an AUDIT grade for my class with the possibility of
receiving credit if I (teacher) believe she demonstrates competent knowledge of
the material. Terri is a very respectful student that has been quiet for most of the
semester. She has begun to be more assertive in her general education classes
since we have met twice a week during her lunch (started in October) to work on
her Civic education (ESOL goal).

c. The days and times that you met with the student.

Tuesdays , Wednesdays Thursdays for 18 sessions 30 minutes each (90 minutes a

week) during the first half of the students lunch (student’s lunch is 60 minutes
long). 9 hours of contact time as well as 3 hours of additional time to plan session
activities/instruction.

Dates: October 6th , 7th, & 8th

October 13th , 14th & 15th
October 20th, 21st & 22nd
October 27th , 28th & 29th
November 3rd , 4th and 5th
November 11th , 12th and 13th

d. Ways in which you interacted/engaged with the student (including pedagogical

strategies).

Since the student came to 12 sessions it allowed for me to give her very
individualized one to one instruction and help while encouraging her to still work
independently. Also, having the days back to back helped with the scaffolding of
the material. For example, during regular class time she would attempt to work
on her class material while in the session we would alter the assignment to help
her understand it better or do an activity to help her understand it differently. We
often used Google Translation to help with some of the more difficult vocabulary
as well.
 For example, in October the content topic in her class was the Legislative Branch
and How a bill becomes a law. For Terri this was a difficult concept to
understand not only because of the language, but it is a generally a difficult topic
for most students. So, we used 2 help sessions to create a “story board” of the
process and a game on ICivics called “LawCraft”. We used these as her
assessment in the course to demonstrate mastery of the concepts.

2. Objectives and Assessments

Write 2-3 learning objectives and state how you will assess each. Provide evidence for meeting the objectives.

Objective Assessment Was the objective met?

(Content) Terri will (Formative). Terri will produce a
explain How a Bill graphic organizer that shows the
becomes a Law Law Making process
(Content) Terri will (Formative). Terri will use a graphic
identify and explain the organizer to explain the roles and
roles of the US president functions of the US president using
English language and
picture/diagrams
Evidence of student
learning.
Terri not only a produce a graphic
organizer (story board) of the law
making process, but she was also
able to navigate a game based
learning activity with minimum
assistance.
Terri was able to identify the roles
of the president and briefly explain
each. She did require some
assistance in regards to the correct
English terminology to use in her
explanation. Her drawing
supplemented her explanations
very well.
 3. Resources

You are required to use 2-3 ELL-specific resources to help inform your understanding of
ELLs and increase your pedagogical strategies to assist students who are English
Language Learners (ELLs). You may use the resources listed within the module or other
resources available to you. Briefly describe how the resources were used to assist in your
experience.

The first two resources I used were to assist with solid pedagogical practices for ELLs
when designing the sessions with Terri.

The third resource is a link and article provided to me from our ESOL teacher to help get
an understanding of teaching the ESOL students in our schools.

https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2013/10/25/strategies-for-ell-instruction/

http://www.supportrealteachers.org/strategies-for-english-language-learners.html

http://www.nea.org/tools/30402.htm

Reflection
What do teachers need to know about students who are learning to speak
English?
Most of the students that are learning to speak English are bright and can accomplish their course work in their own
language. Some however, may have intermitted education (mostly refugees) or students from low income areas
(which means there was no formal education for a period of time). This puts the student in high school at
a significant disadvantage. They have not experienced math in any formal educational setting past simple addition.
Some of the cultural differences in the students that are new to America may not be apparent to the teacher, they
may want to get to know the culture a bit to make a connection with the student. They are often embarrassed to ask
for assistance. Fear of failure, leads to learned helplessness. We must, as educators find out what we believe from
our own cultural backgrounds, it does affect our approach towards the ELL students in our classes.
What are some general instructional practices that can be beneficial to students
who are learning to speak English?

General Instruction suggestions: Provide pictures to new English speakers, allow word to word dictionary and small
groups so students can model if there is not another student in the class that can speak the language to interpret for
you. If you can provide vocabulary with definitions of the course in small parts this helps with familiarity of the
content. Also, remember that computer technology is not available to all of the cultures we encounter. The flipped
classroom structure is very difficult to new English learner, they need specific instructions on computer use. They
probably should have any quizzes on paper rather than on the course page until the teacher is certain the student
understands how to access the course page and the directions for taking the test.

Some students may need accommodations to testing such as more time or allow them to write answers in their
language then rewrite in English. That is how their processing is taking place. They think first in their language then
interpret or change to English. That is why we should ask for extended time for the ELL's.
 What should teachers consider when testing students who are learning to speak
English?

Testing - I kind of answered above. However, if a student is new to this country chances are that a written
assessment is not going to measure much. They probably have only begun to understand the culture of the school
setting. It is very frustrating to the student that has low English proficiency to TRY TO DO THEIR BEST that is
what they hear all the time. Their best is not measured in a language they can not communicate in.

Briefly describe what you would have done differently (now that you know…)

I was very fortunate with my experience as the student was easily accessible and had a pretty good language base,
but just really need a bit of extra help with information presented slightly different to prove she understood the
concept. My approach was solid and would use it again given a similar situation. I am also going to take some the
activities we did in the sessions and incorporate them into our lessons of the concepts to all students to help all of
our learners!

Briefly state what questions you still have.

Our ESOL teacher has extremely helpful with this module. The feedback she gave was truly and advocation of what
ELL students require.