Educ-565 Final Reflection Paper

Final Reflection Paper 1
Final Reflection Paper
and Observation Notes
By Tuong Lam
EDUC 565 - Drexel University

Introduction
The world of English Language Learners, or ELs, is one of perseverance towards
grasping and comprehending the culture and language of a new environment; doing so while also
battling an internal struggle in maintaining their own sense of cultural identity. Therefore as
educators, teachers, and role models, we should try to help ease the process by which EL’s
experience this struggle to adapt or assimilate into this new environment (Igoa); to encourage
and unravel their capabilities and creativity in a way that would best benefit their future while
helping them feel welcomed and comforted in an English-speaking environment. Throughout
this course we have slowly seen and established various types of ways to understand ELs as well
as catering our instructions to their needs to the best of our abilities. We were also able to
reinforce these concepts and strategies through field-observations of content teachers in action
and video lessons taught to ELs. For my observation, done virtually, I observed Mr. Daniels, a
math teacher who teaches Algebra 2 at Parkway West High School, as well as an accompaniment
of a video of an ESL in-person lesson on Geometry.
Observation at Parkway West
Before describing my observation, I would also like to preface that Parkway West High
School is a special admission school, which means that there are criterias filtering out students of
certain academic abilities, and hence the ELs population within the school is fairly low; resulting
in a lack of an ESL certified teacher present in the school. Since the ELs are admitted into a
special admission school, they are usually around an ELP level of around 4 to 5. Therefore, the
ELs’ would only need to be progress monitored within the classroom in respect to the content
materials. If an ELs’ does appear to be struggling in the classroom due to the language barrier,
they would then be provided outside assistance; such as helping the ELs obtain a language
dictionary or thesaurus (Daniels). But generally in terms of support that ELs would receive, it is
up to the teachers to provide the necessary accommodations and teaching approach to help meet
the ELs’ academic and language needs for the teachers respective subject.
In respect to Mr. Daniels Algebra 2 course, the class time totals 90 minutes, which is
broken into two parts: 60 minutes of instructional time where the lesson material is introduced
and followed by 30 minutes of asynchronous time for the students to complete assignments. The
first part of the class, instructional time, consists of a warm-up, formative task, and a lecture
which mixes with modeled and practice problems to help reinforce ideas and concepts
concurrently taught. During the warm-up, the students are given time to work independently on a
problem; which either serves as an exercise to practice skills learned from the previous lesson or
to recall relevant skills and concepts to better introduce the lesson that would be taught. After a
sufficient amount of time has gone by, usually about 5 minutes, the students would then provide
their answers either through the Google Meets polling function, typing their responses in the chat
or voicing out their answer in the call. In certain cases these warm-ups are presented as writing
assignments submitted through Google Classroom, so the students could exercise their writing
and reasoning skills. Mr. Daniels would then read the responses and encourage students to
explain their answer while working through the problem with them. Similarly in the formative
task, the students are presented with more difficult problems, which are usually word problems
that concern the lesson materials that have not been introduced yet. Since these problems involve
ideas that the students may not have learned, they are not expected to be able to solve the
problem. But instead they are given sufficient time, about 10 minutes, to engage in student-
centered discussion of relevant ideas and concepts that could later be referenced by the teacher to
help the student better bridge the lesson material in a more comprehensible manner. After going
through the warm-up and formative task, Mr. Daniels would then connect the ideas as a segue
into the lecture portion of the lesson, which is explained through PowerPoint, in which he would
spend about 15 minutes to discuss and define these concepts in a more tangible and descriptive
manner to the students. He would then proceed to model some problems to show how problems
from this lesson are solved and present the students with some practice problems to work on and
go over together. Once all the practice problems are explained, Mr. Daniels would summarize
the lesson; ending the instructional time of the class. Finally for the remainder of the class time,
the students are assigned a short classwork, consisting of 3-6 multiple choice problems, to
complete while also encouraged to complete homework during this time, or pose any questions
and concerns relating to the lesson material.
Meeting Academic and Language Needs
In analyzing Mr. Daniels Algebra 2 teaching style and lessons, I noticed that he teaches
in a way that is very ESL-friendly in terms meeting ELs’ academic and language needs. In fact
some of his teaching styles reflect a few of Krashen’s hypotheses, such as: the monitoring
hypothesis, where he provides opportunity for students to discover knowledge from the
formative task; the comprehension hypothesis, where he would model with gestures, and provide
tables, charts graphs, as well as highlighted key concepts and vocabulary on the PowerPoint
slides to allow for easier comprehension of the language during the lecture portion of the lesson;
and affective filter hypothesis, where he creates an accepting virtual classroom environment by
welcoming any kind of responses from his students while also giving positive feedback to the
students for contributing ideas (Zainuddin, pp. 89-90). Similarly throughout the lesson Mr.
Daniels would also apply various techniques to make the content more comprehensible during
the class, such as: speaking slowly; reading the problem to the students; repeating vocabulary
and their usage a few times to emphasis their importance (Zainuddin, pp. 205); repeating the
student’s question to show student whether their questions was understood as they has asked it as
well as to let the class hear the question more audibly; relate certain concepts to real world
concepts by modelling application problems; and also to encourage the students to always
explain and justify their answer (Zainuddin, pp. 325-337). I would also like to note that during
in-personal learning, Mr. Daniels would also offer after-school tutoring to benefit ELs in
obtaining more one-on-one or small group learning of the lessons content (Daniels).
Importance of Developing HOTS
Besides noticing the opportunities that Mr. Daniels provides for all of his students,
especially ELs, to engage academically while taking in the language of the content, I also saw
that the choice of problems for the warm-up and formative task are taken into consideration to
help develop high order thinking skills, HOTS, in the students; especially in the formative task,
which is meant to be cognitively challenging to encourage discussion between the students and
their peers. Mr. Daniels also helps develop HOTS by reminding and encouraging the students to
support their answer and explain their thinking process, whenever applicable in the lesson.
Another way that the formative task helps in meeting the student’s academic and language needs
is that it give the students, especially ELs, the opportunity to play a more active role in the
learning practice; first interacting with their peers in understanding the word problem for the
problem and then with the teacher during the process of going over the answer. The formative
task also helps create a joint productive activity that cognitively challenges the students as well
as encourages instructional dialogue based conversation between the students that would help
promote the achievement of high academic standards in order to meet the learning needs for both
the students and ELs (Zainuddin, pp. 136-137).

Instructional support of ELA Skills
Besides looking to the way Mr. Daniels lesson instructions and structures meet the needs
of the ELs academic and language needs, we will also consider how he supports the development
of ELA skills in the classroom; mainly listening, writing, reading, and speaking skills. One way
Mr. Daniels’ lesson supports the development of listening skill is by providing purposeful
listening by posing guiding questions relating various aspects of the lesson or the problem to the
students verbally (Zainuddin, pp. 170); these questions range from: ones with answers shown on
the PowerPoint to check if the student were following along or questions that asks to determine
the next mathematical step that should be taken in solving a problem. He also supports the
development of writing skills by creating writing tasks to engage the students in thinking about
the purpose of what they are writing (Zainuddin, pp.286); such as having the students write/type
their answer along with an explanation of their answer, in the warm-up as well as submit it as
part of a participation grade. Mr. Daniels also supports the development of reading skills by
reading the problems, either in the warm-up, formative task, or model/practice problems, aloud
to the class while also asking comprehensive question to reinforce an understanding of what the
problem is asking, which words in the problems are important to solving the problem as well as
how those words could be translated into math (Zainuddin, pp. 241). Finally Mr. Daniels
supports the development of speaking skills by encouraging student-centered discussion of ideas
during the formative task activity as well as explaining his thought process aloud when working
through modeled problems and then have the students explaining their solution process when
working in the corresponding practice problem (Zainuddin, pp. 193-194).

Case Study of Writing Piece by ELs
After reviewing Mr. Daniels classroom instruction and structure in respect to presenting
comprehensible content as well as being supportive of the development of the four ELA skills,
we will examine an ELs student in the class. In fact, in Mr. Daniels’ Algebra 2 classes there are
at least one student within two of his Algebra 2 classes who are English Language Learners. In
his first Algebra 2 class, the only EL in his classroom, who we will refer to as student A, arrived
to American with an initial English Language Proficiency, ELP, placement level of 1.0; where
student A’s primary language spoken at home was French due to having originated from a
country in West Africa. After experiencing at least 5 years of schooling in the School District of
Philadelphia, student A currently has an ELP level of 3.9 (Daniels). From my observation of
student A’s both during class and from the assignments they turn in, I have seen their ability to
display ELA skills which include but are not limited to: describing math processes; make
hypotheses based on their understanding of the problem; as well as find details that support the
main ideas (WIDA Consortium). But possibly due to the virtual nature of the classroom, where a
lack of physical context exists and most if not all of the students are placed into one setting with
their cameras off, student A does not often voice their ideas in discussion unless prompted upon
by the teacher. This aspect supports the high-context culture that student A comes from; in
which they might communicate better in environments inclined towards nonverbal
communication, such that they could read facial expressions, make eye contacts, or study body
motions (Zainuddin, pp. 33-34).

After introducing student A, we will study their writing piece from a recent warm-up in
which they had 7 minutes to complete, as shown in Figure 1. From observing student A’s
response to this warm-up, there are at least two areas of instructions that needs to be addressed in
the classroom: their reading comprehension of the problem as well as their use of the possessive
noun, ‘your’ instead of using ‘you’re’, the contraction form of ‘you are’. In respect to addressing
their reading comprehension of the problem, we could pair student A with a non-ELs students so
that they could assist each other in applying strategies to better understand the problem; such as
rewording the problem in simpler terms or draw figures to help (Zainuddin, pp.329-332).
Similarly the confusion between the possessive noun “your” and the contraction “you’re” can be
absolved by again pairing student A with a non-ELs student, where they would exchange each
other’s answer for constructive peer feedback on each other’s work. Another method that could
be applied, as seen from an online grammar lesson, would be to create a template response
modeling how the answer should be written, while keeping the answer itself blank for student A
to figure out (Shantanu). This method would give student A an idea of what the problem is
looking for and at the same time we can also use this opportunity to incorporate ‘you’re’ and
‘your’ appropriately to model the proper usage of the word.
Besides writing skills, I also observed the speech patterns of ELs within a geometry
lesson taught in an ESL classroom (Shantanu). I noticed from how the ELs responded, that there
were certain critical areas of needs that could use improvement, such as: referring to objects and
terms by demonstratives like ‘that’ and ‘this’, instead of using the appropriate noun and term
when explaining their understanding; or having a tendency to leave long pauses when trying to
figure out the next word they are trying to say. In the case of students, and ELs, referring objects
by pointing and using demonstratives like ‘that’ and ‘this, teachers could follow up by providing
the name and term of each object that the student is pointing to or referencing. Similarly,
teachers could strengthen student’s fluency in speech by engaging them in games or activities
where they would interact in conversations with their peers such as the one seen in the lesson
video (Shantanu).
Conclusion
As a prospective secondary math teacher, I would believe the students that I would
interact with the most in future are students from 9th-12th grades. From this observation
experience, I was provided a glimpse of a few general and math content related teaching
strategies that would not only apply specifically to ELs, but also a blueprint regarding how I
should structure my instructions such that it would create a conducive learning environment for
all students of varying learning styles and abilities. This would mean setting up the lesson to
include but not limited to: providing tables, charts, and graphic organizers whenever applicable;
set up activities for plenty of student centered discussions and use that to springboard more math
content conversation; respond positively to students to encourage a welcoming classroom
environment such that the students would feel open to state their opinions and relevant thoughts
regarding the lesson; as well as using repetition throughout the lesson to help reinforce important
vocabulary and concepts. I am also encouraged to try to provide as many outside assistance to
support my student’s development in their language and academic needs, such as providing
tutoring, language translated text, as well as making my lesson notes available for my students to
reference. As teachers we should try to consider whether our lessons are comprehensible and
relevant to our students and be open to make the relevant adjustments and accommodations in
order to help meet the academic or language needs of all of our students, especially ELs.
References
Daniels, R. (2020, December 3). Personal interview [Personal interview].
Igoa, C. (1995). The Inner World of the Immigrant Child. New York: St, Martin’s Press. (IDBN:
0-8058-8013-5).
Shantanu, Lindsey, (2017, March 1). ESL Geometry Lesson [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i23B_o_QHj4.
WIDA Consortium. (2015, April). CAN DO Descriptors for the levels of English Language
Proficiency [PDF]. Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
Zainuddin, H., Yahya, N., Morales-Jones, C., Whelan Ariza, E. (2011). Fundamentals of
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages in K-12 Mainstream Classrooms. (4th
ed.) Dubuque: Kendall Hunt. (ISBN 978 1-4652-6760-3).
Observation Notes
EDUC 565 Observation Notes
Observation Date: 9/02/2020 Classroom Setting: Synchronously Observed
For each of the following elements of successful instruction for English Learners,
describe your observations. Try to be as clear and specific as possible, but please
use “notes” formatting. Use extra pages as needed.
Each class period are 90 minutes long:

60 for instructional activities and 30 for asynchronous work
I. Content Objective:
Students will learn the rules and regulations of the classroom after going through the
syllabus.
After going through the in-class activities and lectures SWBAT recognize patterns
and expressions correctly through completion of the classwork.
II. Language Objective:

SWBAT identify and explain, verbally or in words, the vocabulary related to
variables and expressions; such as quantity, variable, constant, numerical expressions,
and algebraic expressions.
III. Higher-order Thinking Questions/Skills

HOTS:
Students are given a warm-up to engage in high-order thinking; where they are tasked
to identify the pattern of the eight image when only given the patterns of 3 images. In
the warm-up the students are analyzing the images to grasp the patterns before
predicting the 8th image.
Investigation by students via student centered discussion of the problem for the
formative task: For the past 4 years, Jesse has grown 3 inches each year. He is now
15 years old and is 5 feet 6 inches tall. He predicts that when he is 20 years old, he
will be 6 feet 9 inches tall. What would you tell Jesse about his prediction?.
In this formative task the students are analyzing the problem and evaluating whether
the prediction is correct.
High Order Questions:

“Can someone tell me what each of those shapes are called?”
“We know that the problem only shows up to a heptagon, but what are the polygons
that you guys remember from geometry class called”
IV. Instructional activities

Introduction to the class followed by a detailed description of the class expectations,
classroom behavior, grading rubric, as well as list of the sections and topics we would
be going over this year.
We then enter into the actual lesson on “Patterns and Expression”, where the students
are to work on a warm-up independently before volunteering their answers to the
class.
Following which a formative task is given, where the students are presented with a
problem that is from this section; so they are not expected to be able to solve the
problem, but are encouraged to work together with their classmates to create
meaningful conversation that would help them solve the problem
Mr.Daniels then presents his lecture which informs the students on the definitions of
the vocabulary’s and ideas regarding Patterns and Expression. Along the way, he
would also present various modeled problems to work with the students as well as
practice problems for the students to work on.
The instructional activities should take up about 60 minutes of the class time.
V. Assessment (modified assessment)

The students are given a multiple choice classwork assignment, of about 3 questions,
once instructional time is over. This classwork is to be completed before the end of
class, so they have about 30 minutes to complete this assignment and are to use the
remainder of the time after completion of the classwork to work on homework and
ask any questions.
Students also have a homework assignment due before the start of the next class
meeting; although late homework is still acceptable for full credit a week after the due
date. (So if the homework was due on 9/04 then they have a week from 9/04, or 9/11,
to turn in the assignment for full credit).
VI. Scaffolding/ Accommodations for ELS

During the lesson Mr.Daniels would read aloud each of the problem as well as give a
30 seconds of silence after asking a question before moving on as well as repeat the
same ideas as much as possible and sometimes in multiple ways to help facilitate
better comprehension for different types of learners.
Students are given ample time to complete the multiple choice classwork assignment.
They are also provided time to work on homework and pose questions regarding the
instructional material. If they need more privacy they are given the opportunity to go
into a break-out room with the teacher to discuss any problems or concerns.
The PowerPoint slide used for this lecture is also provided to all the students publicly
through google classroom, and specifically designed to include tables and defined
vocabulary for ELs to reference.

After going through the in-class activities and lectures, SWBAT correctly identify the
properties of real numbers as well as graph/order them on a number line.

SWBAT describe, in words or verbally, where a given real number should belong on
a number line as well as be able to classify variables to their respective subset of real
numbers.

Higher Order Thinking Skills:
Students are given a high order thinking problem where they are given six emoticons
as a warm-up problem and tasked to describe a set that includes only 5 of the
emotions. This encourages students to analyze the emotions for similarities and
differences and be able to justify their analysis on the types of set they come up with.
Similarly the formative task is another high-order thinking activity in which they are
to identify whether statements relating to real numbers are true or false; and be able to
provide counter examples if the statements are false. This activity encourages
students to evaluate the statements and provide examples to support their answers.
High-order thinking questions:
“What other types of sets can we use to describe 5 of the emotions?”
“What kind of subset of real numbers can we use to describe 6/3?”
“What are the types of properties we are using to solve this problem?”

We introduce a lesson on “Properties of Real Numbers” with a warm-up, where the
students work independently on the problem before volunteering their answers to the
class and then discuss the answers with the teacher, Mr.Daniels.
Following which a formative task is given, where the students are presented with a
problem that is from this section; so they are not expected to be able to solve the
problem, but are encouraged to work together with their classmates to create
meaningful conversation that would help them solve the problem
Mr.Daniels then presents his lecture which informs the students on the definitions of
the vocabulary’s and ideas regarding Properties of Real Numbers. After each
concepts are introduced he would also present some modeled problems to work with
the students. Then he would present similar practice problems for the students to
work on independently before going over those problems with them as a class.

The students are given a multiple choice classwork assignment, of about 4 questions,
once instructional time is over. This classwork is to be completed before the end of
class, so they have about 30 minutes to complete this assignment and are to use the
remainder of the time after completion of the classwork to work on homework and
ask any questions.

meeting; although late homework is still acceptable for full credit a week after the due
date. (So if the homework was due on 9/11 then they have a week from 9/11, or 9/18,
to turn in the assignment for full credit).

During the lesson Mr. Daniels would read aloud each of the problem as well as give
a 30 seconds of silence after asking a question before moving on. When explaining
ideas he would also repeat the same ideas as much as possible and sometimes in
multiple ways to help facilitate better comprehension for different types of learners.
When a student asks a question or describes their interpretation of a concept, he
would repeat what was said to him in a way that he (Mr. Daniels) had understood it.
This way the students would be able understand if what they were asking was
properly translated in the way they wanted and receive feedback regarding their
interpretation.
Students are given ample time to complete the multiple choice classwork
assignment. They are also provided time to work on homework and pose questions
regarding the instructional material. If they need more privacy they are given the
opportunity to go into a break-out room with the teacher to discuss any problems or
concerns.
The slide deck as well as notes containing the worked out solutions in the warm-up,
formative task, and practice problem used for this lecture are also provided to all the
students publicly through the Google Classroom stream. The slide deck also
contains specifically designed to include tables that formats the concepts in easily
reading ways as well as defined vocabulary for ELs to reference.


After going through the in-class activities and lectures, SWBAT correctly evaluate
inequalities of one-variable as well as graph the solutions on a number line.

SWBAT describe, in words or verbally, if a given inequality is always, sometimes, or
never true.

The students are given a warm-up that encourages high order thinking based on
math skills that they have already seen. The warm-up for this sections asks the
students to consider the most amount of songs that could be downloaded into an
MP3 player if each song uses 4.3 MB while the MP3 only has about 7.8 GB of
memory free of 19.5 GB.
This problem encourages the students to think about what it means to determine the
most amount of an object and then justify their analysis how they came up with that
answer.
presented with a problem where a skater has to score an average score over four
trials that is under 34 seconds; of which the time score for 3 trials are provided. The
students have to then determine how to model this problem to reflect how to
determine the appropriate score for the 4th trial to fulfill the requirement.
This activity encourages students to evaluate information provided, recall how to find
averages, as well as be able to model the situation correctly.

“What do we need to find the average?”
“How is solving inequalities similar and different from solving equations?”
“What kind of math properties are we using to solve these inequalities?”

We introduce a lesson on “Solving Inequalities in One Variable” with a warm-up,
where the students work independently on the problem before sharing their answers
with the class, followed by a reveal of how the teacher, Mr.Daniels, approached the
problem.
Then a formative task is given, where the students are presented with a problem that
is from this section; so they are not expected to be able to solve the problem, but are
encouraged to work together with their classmates to create meaningful conversation
that would help them solve the problem or provide various ideas that they have
observed from the problem.
Mr. Daniels then presents his lecture which informs the students on the definitions of
the vocabulary’s and ideas regarding solving inequalities; which includes vocabulary
as well as concepts on how to graph inequalities on a number line. After each
the students. Then he would present similar practice problems for the students to
work on independently before going over those problems with them as a class.

The students are given a multiple choice classwork assignment, of about 5
questions, once instructional time is over. This classwork is to be completed before
the end of class, so they have about 30 minutes to complete this assignment and are
to use the remainder of the time after completion of the classwork to work on
homework and ask any questions.
meeting; although late homework is still acceptable for full credit if they turn it in
within the week after the due date.

During the lesson Mr. Daniels would read aloud each of the problem to the class. He
would also give 30 seconds of silence after asking a question or explaining a concept
to give students time to ask/type questions. When explaining ideas he would also
repeat the vocabulary as much as possible and sometimes in multiple ways to help
facilitate better comprehension for different types of learners. When a student asks a
question or describes their interpretation of a concept, he would repeat what was
said to him in a way that he (Mr. Daniels) had understood it. This way the students
would be able understand if what they were asking was properly translated in the
way they wanted and receive feedback regarding their interpretation.
regarding the instructional material. If they need more privacy they are given the
opportunity to go into a break-out room with the teacher to discuss any problems or
concerns.
formative task, and practice problem used for this lecture are also provided to all the
students publicly through the Google Classroom stream. The slide deck also
contains specifically designed to include tables, step by step solutions, as well as
graphs to help better visualize and explain the concepts in an easily
accessible/comprehensible way as well as an inclusion of all the defined vocabulary
for ELs to reference.
Each class period total 90 minutes: 60 for instructional time + 30 for asynchronous work
After going through the in-class activities and lectures, SWBAT correctly recognize
and be able to evaluate absolute value equations and equations as well as graph
their respective answers on the number line.

SWBAT describe, verbally or in words, and graph, on paper, solutions to absolute
inequalities as well as describe the steps to solving absolute equations.

math skills that they have already seen. The warm-up for this sections asks the
students to imagine themselves riding an elevator whereupon a table mapping the
number of floors they have gone up/down after 5 trips. The students are then asked
to determine far did the elevator travel in all and to justify their response.
This problem encourages the students to think about what it means total distance of
an object rather than simply adding and subtracting the number of floors they may
have gone up/down for each trip.
presented with a problem which asks them to consider determining an inequality that
describes the circumference of a basketball given that must be between 28.5 in and
29.0 in. The students determine the tolerance (or the margin of acceptance for this
range) as well as how to rewrite this absolute inequality into one without absolute
values. This activity encourages students to recall what they know about inequality,
and translate the information into an inequality statement, while also thinking about
an inequality that describes the margin of acceptance allowed for the circumference
of a basketball.
‘When we travel up and down the elevator to each floor are we losing distance each
trip?”
“What do you think the word ‘tolerance’ mean here?”
“If our inequality is x > -5 and x < 5, how would we turn that into one inequality?”

We introduce a lesson on “Absolute Value Equations and Inequalities” with a warm-
up, where the students work independently on the problem before sharing their
answers with the class, followed by a reveal of how the teacher, Mr. Daniels,
approached the problem.
is from this section; so they are not expected to be able to solve the problem, but are
encouraged to work together with their classmates to create meaningful conversation
that would help them solve the problem or provide various ideas that they have
observed from the problem.
Mr. Daniels then presents his lecture which informs the students on the definitions of
the vocabulary’s and ideas regarding solving absolute value equations and
inequalities; which includes vocabulary as well as concepts on how to graph absolute
inequalities on a number line. After each concepts are introduced he would also
present some modeled problems to work with the students. Then he would present
similar practice problems for the students to work on independently before going
over those problems with them as a class. After the end of instructional time,
Mr.Daniels would then summarize the lesson to help remind the students what kind
of information was presented and the terms that are important to remember.


would also wait 30 seconds after asking a question or explaining a concept to give
students time to ask or type out questions. When explaining ideas he would also
regarding the instructional material. If they need more privacy or 1-1 help they are
given the opportunity to go into a break-out room with the teacher to discuss any
problems or concerns.
formative task, and practice problem are also provided to the students publicly
through the Google Classroom stream. The slide deck also contains specifically
designed to include tables, step by step solutions, as well as graphs to help better
visualize and explain the concepts in an easily comprehensible way. There is also an
inclusion of all the defined vocabulary for ELs to reference.
After going through the in-class activities and lectures, SWBAT correctly use data to
model linear quantities as well as to interpret the resulting graph.

SWBAT describe, verbally, whether a given has a strong, weak or no correlation.

math skills that they have already seen. The warm-up for this sections the students
are presented with a set of data points plotted on a graph which shows the number
of hours and amount of money earned each day for a week. They are then asked to
assume and explain how many hours it would takes to earn $200.
This problem encourages the students to interpret the relationship between the x-
and y-axis (the number of hours and amount of money) as well as predict the trend
that would help determine how many hours would be required to earn $200.
tasked to justify whether each statements describes a cause and effect scenario.
This activity encourages students to identify each part of the statement and
determine if there is a relationship apparent there and then explain their reasoning.

‘do you think the size of the car’s engine affects the number of passengers it is
designed for?”
“Do you think a person’s age and number of cassette tapes he or she own might own
is a correlation that changes depending on the year in which we consider this
statement?”

We introduce a lesson on “Using Linear Models” with a warm-up, where the students
work independently on the problem before sharing their answers with the class,
followed by a reveal of how the teacher, Mr. Daniels, approached the problem.
is would be the subject taught in this section; so they are not expected to be able to
solve the problem, but are encouraged to work together with their classmates to
create meaningful conversation that would help them solve the problem or provide
various ideas that they have observed from the problem.
Mr. Daniels then presents his lecture which introduces the students on the definitions
of the vocabulary’s and ideas regarding using linear models, such as how use data
to determine predict a given scenario. This lecture also includes vocabulary as well
as concepts on how make scatter plots, sketch trend lines, as well as choosing
points from our data to create a linear equation to model the situation. After each
the students; where he would describe the steps and process to approach this the
problem. Then he would present similar practice problems for the students to work
on independently before going over those problems with them as a class. After the
end of instructional time, Mr.Daniels would then summarize the lesson to help remind
the students what kind of information was presented and the terms that are important
to remember.


After going through the in-class activities and lectures, SWBAT correctly evaluate
inequalities of two variables as well as shade in the corresponding region when
graphing.

SWBAT discuss, verbally, the process in solving two variable inequalities as well as
be able to describe how to determine which part of the graph of the inequality should
be shaded in.

math skills that they have already seen. The warm-up for this sections are broken
into two parts; the first parts asks the students to find the vertex and axis of
symmetry from two give functions; the second part askes the students to determine
the if a function is vertically compressed or stretched.
This problem encourages the students recall and practice some of the items they
have learned in the last class regarding transformation on absolute value functions.
Similarly the formative task is another high-order thinking activity in which the
students are given a graph that relates to the amount of gas in the tank of a car to
the distance it can drive. They are then tasked to answer a series of questions based
on what they see from the graph; such as describing the domain of the situation, why
does the graph stop, why is the first quadrant only shown, determine the inequality
for the graph, as well as a questioning about what the slope of the graph maybe.
This activity encourages students consider each parts of the problem to dissect
information provided in the graph so as to evaluate and create meaningful
conclusions that is based off the graph.
‘What does the x and y axis labels of the graph tells use about the type of relation we
have about the gas and the distance we can drive?”
“How do we check if we shaded the correct boundaries on the graph”
“How can we use transformation from the previous lesson to draw boundary graphs
more quickly?”

We introduce a lesson on “solving and graphing two variable inequalities” with a
warm-up, where the students work independently on the problem before sharing their
of the vocabulary’s and ideas about the different methods to solving two-variable
inequalities, such as providing step by step guidance on how the proceed with
solving them algebraically, looking for patterns and resemblance to y=mx+b to give
an idea of which region to shade, as well as applying previousl lesson topics of
transformation to quickly graph the inequalities. After each concepts are introduced
he would also present some modeled problems to work with the students; where he
would describe the steps and process to approach this the problem. Then he would
present similar practice problems for the students to work on independently before
going over those problems with them as a class. After the end of instructional time,
Mr.Daniels would then summarize the lesson to help remind the students what kind
of information was presented and the terms that are important to remember.


After going through the in-class activities and lectures, SWBAT correctly solve
systems of equations algebraically using the substitution or the elimination methods.

SWBAT describe in words or verbally, the steps taken to solving a system of
equations using substitution or the elimination method.

math skills that they have already seen. The warm-up for this sections was a writing
assignment in which the students were given 7 minutes to type/write their responses
on google documents via the Google Classroom assignment. For this warm-up the
students were given the daily pay at two different stores which involved a flat pay
plus a percentage of all sales commissions for that day. They were then tasked to
determine how many sales would be needed to be made in a day for one of the
stores in order to a store that is more worthwhile to work at compared to the other
store. This problem encourages the students be able to identify the equations from
the problem, then solve for the necessary component and finally determine how
much sales (in whole numbers) is necessary for the target store to make in order to
make a bigger profit than the other store.
Similarly the formative task is another high-order thinking activity in which the
students are given a word problem: A student took 60 minutes to answer a
combination of 20 multiple-choice and extended response questions. She took 2
minutes to answer each multiple-choice question and 6 minutes to answer each
extended response questions. They are then tasked to determine and write out the
system of equations which models the word problem and then solve for how many of
each type of questions were on the test.
This activity encourages students to think about the two types of equations that could
be created from the given information: an equation that models how many questions
she can answer in 60 minutes as well as an equation that models how many multiple
choice and extended response questions were on the test. The students could use
what they learned from last class to solve for this problem (using tables/graphs) or try
to determine a more algebraic approach in solving this problem.
“In this formative task, how many equations can we create? What do each of those
equations describe?”
“What are some ways we can check that our solutions are correct?”
“When should we use elimination or the substitution method? Does it matter which
one we use to solve for systems of equations?”

We introduce a lesson on “solving systems of equations algebraically” with a warm-
up, where the students work independently on the problem before sharing their
of the vocabulary’s and ideas about the different methods to solving systems of
equations, such as providing step by step guidance how to solve by substitutions or
the elimination method, as well as referencing previous lessons on using graphs and
tables to help check answers. After each concepts are introduced he would also
present some modeled problems to work with the students; where he would describe
the steps and process to approach this the problem. Then he would present similar
practice problems for the students to work on independently before going over those
problems with them as a class. After the end of instructional time, Mr.Daniels would
then summarize the lesson to help remind the students what kind of information was
presented and the terms that are important to remember.


Observation Date: 12/04/2020 Classroom Setting: Video from YouTube
Link to video:
ESL Geometry Lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i23B_o_QHj4 (13 minutes long)
Citation: Shantanu, Lindsey, (2017, March 1). ESL Geometry Lesson [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i23B_o_QHj4.
In person classroom:
After completing the lesson activities, SWBAT, describe correctly the components in
a triangle (adjacent, opposite, hypothenuse, and angle theta)

SWBAT names the sides of a triangle and justify the responses verbally.

High-order thinking skill:
The teacher then goes into an activity called “Quiz-Quiz-Trade”. This activity
consists of cards a picture of a right triangle with one of it’ sides marked by a letter
‘X”. The students would work in pairs to read out which of the side of the triangle is
being marked and justify it. The teacher also has a fill in statement written on the
board to help with how they should respond: Side X is the ___ because__. After
taking turns reading each other’s cards, the students would then trade the cards with
their partners and move on to find another student to continue on the activity.
High-order thinking question:

“I said side X is adjacent because it is next to theta. Is that wrong?”

Teacher introduces the lesson by reading out the language objective. The teacher then
begins to lecture briefly about what each sides of the triangles are called, in the
process asking probing questions to the class about what each words (opposite,
adjacent, and hypothenuse, mean and how they would translate mathematically.
Teacher also reminds them that these are important components to learning
trigonometry. The Teacher also has the students draw out the triangle in their note
book to follow along with the illustration of the triangle components. After
introducing the components of a triangle in respect to a designated angle, she redraws
the triangle with the angle in a different locations and then have the students explain
to her and name each sides of the triangle in respect to the angle.
The teacher then goes into an activity called “Quiz-Quiz-Trade”. Before the activity
begins, the teacher demonstrates how the activity works with a student and then
explains their thought process on her answer based on the template response the
teacher provided on the board. During the activity she would work with some
students to help them as well as to quickly asses their understanding by providing
erroneous explanations.
Students then spend about 4 minutes completing the activity.
The teacher then does an error analysis with the class by providing an example in
which someone would correctly name the component of a triangle but provides an
incorrect justification.
Assessment (modified assessment)
Students were asked low level thinking questions (usually ones involving
confirmation or repetition of information) to check their understanding.
There were not any sort of summative assessment or graded work for this video
lesson.
Scaffolding/ Accommodations for ELS
Teacher draws a diagram to illustrate the concept, while also encourages students to
draw an diagram to follow along. When introducing new words/vocabulary, the
teacher would say the word and then repeat it again before asking the students to
repeat it with her twice. She would ask the students what they think the words mean
in context to math. She would also explain at least twice (once before writing on the
board and again as she writes it on the board).
During the “Quiz-Quiz-Trade” activity, she would practice with certain students who
were struggling; providing her explanation (in some cases emphasizing certain
words) and at the same time pointing to the picture on the card to better illustrate her
explanation. The teacher also provided fill in the blank statement in how to respond
to help students start the activity.
EDUC 565 Interview Responses from Mentor Teacher
Interview Date:12/03/2020 Classroom Setting: Virtual Setting
Interviewee: Mr. Richard L. Daniels School: Parkway High School Grade: 11th-12th
1. What challenges have you encountered while teaching them? How have you tried to
overcome these challenges?
In person classes:
There are not as much ELLs since I am a math teacher; so as long as I stick with numbers
and symbols I don’t usually run into a lot of challenges. Math is a pretty universal
language.
Although in my previous years as a middle and 9th grade teacher some of the challenges
usually involved constructed responses. I noticed that the ELLs could not answer in
English but could do so in their own language. So I would be a lot lenient on their
response answers because it was not a content error but a language error. So it became a
matter of determining whether the answers is wrong in content or wrong in English
translation.
This was actually prevalent at Stetson when I was a 7-8th grade math teacher. Every
week we would have a new constructed response to practice. ELL’s would run into the
trouble of comprehending constructed responses especially if they could not understand
the content.
Another challenge is that students try to be more literal in translation and while the
textbooks or problems is not always a 1-1 translation from their language to English.
Especially in cases where even English speakers students have trouble with some of the
harder vocabularies.
I have tried to overcome this challenge by encouraging ELs to draw diagrams whenever
possible (universal in math) such as an input or output box when describing functions.
2. What strategies have been particularly effective in making content accessible and
comprehensible to ELs in your class?
If the ELL speaks Spanish, I would provide Spanish textbooks/workbooks to work with;
since the school district has almost everything bilingual for Spanish or Slavic language.
There is also the Pearson textbooks which has content available in 15 languages.
3. What are some of the languages/culture in Parkway West?

In Parkway west language: Spanish/ African dialects/French/Western Africa region.
4. What kinds of support do the ELs receive?

Parkway west does not receive any support as a school for an ESL teacher or program;
since there are not enough ELs students to create room for an ESL teacher. I believe there
is a ratio requirement of 50 ELs students for every 1 Els certified teacher. But there are
alternatives both for students who could get admitted or instruction accommodations that
the teachers themselves provide themselves.
For example in the case of student adjustments: two 9th graders were recently accepted
into student who are at level 1 ESL; and ended up not doing well in any of their classes.
They are transferred to a ESL language supported school. In general I think ELS at Level
3-5 can get by in most high schools
For ESL in Parkway, any ELP level below 4 does not need to be serviced. If we do, we
would need an ESL certified teacher in the school.
For ELs around Level 4 and 5 they do not need ESL teachers to guide them and only
need to be monitor. In some cases Parkway offers outside assistance; such as providing
the student with an English to Spanish dictionary/ thesaurus kit if the only barrier from
the education is due to language.
There is a special ed coordinator we took up as ESL coordinator for the few EL students.
Examples of teaching accommodation are found in question 7.
But from my previous experience in the middle school setting, the ESL team at Stetson
would provide ideas to teachers; have PD explaining useful ESL techniques
For example: Show a Fruit like Apple and say it in the ELs’ language and then provide a
picture and then say it in the language again.
Translating this habit into math means that you have to say it two or three times.
In class- ‘I say it 2-3 times and in different order. To ensure the translation eventually
sticks. “
5. How much language, academic, or other support do ELs receive?

In general I’m not sure about it in the high school setting but in Stetson (middle school):
low level ESL (self-contained until 8th grade); taught with more 1-1 help from ESL
teacher.
For example: ESL at Level 1 and 2 in the classroom are usually self-contained and would
need a bilingual teacher all the time to assist the general education teacher or get pulled
out of the class room for more 1-1 or small group help.
6. How many hours per week of ESOL/ ESL instruction delivered by an ESL certified
staff do ELs receive? Is this sufficient, given their needs? Do the ELS have access to
after-school programs that support their academic and/or social development.
ESL students in Parkway: Shouldn’t happen a lot since Parkway West is special admit.
Required in school: 10% special Ed every year.
So ESL would have to go to a school that has a strong ESL support school.
In some cases it can be hard to discern if the student is unable to showcase their abilities
due to the language barrier or other special education needs. This can be a disservice to
the ELs since they could be top of the class but not show that.
7. What are some of your experience with working with ELs students in your
classroom? What are some accommodations you try to provide for ELs?
In-person: I had after school tutoring available for all students in my class.
From my experience I recall specifically 1 student from Africa and another from
Bangladesh:
Both had attended tutoring, which was useful in enlightening them on the content since
they could ask questions; sometime they would even ask same questions in a different
way to better grasp the concept. This also made me realize the effect of transliterating
words can affect the students comprehension when learning ideas; especially topics that
have a lot of vocabulary.
In tutoring if I said something one of the ELs didn’t understand, they would repeat what I
said back to me followed by their interpretation of what it they believed I had said.
Through that process I could either correct and agree with him.
In short tutoring in small groups show them that math was something they could
overcome and not feel bad about not understanding things.
Out of the two students tutoring helped provided one of the students the courage to speak
up in class, if something I said that did not translate well to them in class, they would
similarly repeat their interpretation to me in class so I could correct them or agree with
them. Which could also turn into a re-teaching/ learning moment for other students we
may have also had similar questions and confusion in mind.
Although I felt that I was only able to work patiently and be open-minded about working
with ELs both in and out of class could possibly be due to my previous background as a
middle school teacher at a predominately ESL school.

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and Observation Notes

EDUC 565 - Drexel University

The world of English Language Learners, or ELs, is one of perseverance towards

helping them feel welcomed and comforted in an English-speaking environment. Throughout

of a video of an ESL in-person lesson on Geometry.

Observation at Parkway West

and concerns relating to the lesson material.

Meeting Academic and Language Needs

Importance of Developing HOTS

the students and ELs (Zainuddin, pp. 136-137).

Instructional support of ELA Skills

supports the development of speaking skills by encouraging student-centered discussion of ideas

working in the corresponding practice problem (Zainuddin, pp. 193-194).

Case Study of Writing Piece by ELs

which they might communicate better in environments inclined towards nonverbal

motions (Zainuddin, pp. 33-34).

‘your’ appropriately to model the proper usage of the word.

content conversation; respond positively to students to encourage a welcoming classroom

Daniels, R. (2020, December 3). Personal interview [Personal interview].

EDUC 565 Observation Notes

Observation Date: 9/02/2020 Classroom Setting: Synchronously Observed

use “notes” formatting. Use extra pages as needed.

Each class period are 90 minutes long:

and expressions correctly through completion of the classwork.

II. Language Objective:

SWBAT identify and explain, verbally or in words, the vocabulary related to

variables and expressions; such as quantity, variable, constant, numerical expressions,

and algebraic expressions.

III. Higher-order Thinking Questions/Skills

High Order Questions:

IV. Instructional activities

be going over this year.

are to work on a warm-up independently before volunteering their answers to the

practice problems for the students to work on.

V. Assessment (modified assessment)

ask any questions.

to turn in the assignment for full credit).

VI. Scaffolding/ Accommodations for ELS

vocabulary for ELs to reference.

EDUC 565 Observation Notes

Observation Date: 9/09/2020 Classroom Setting: Synchronously Observed

use “notes” formatting. Use extra pages as needed.

Each class period are 90 minutes long:

II. Language Objective:

III. Higher-order Thinking Questions/Skills

High-order thinking questions:

“What other types of sets can we use to describe 5 of the emotions?”

“What kind of subset of real numbers can we use to describe 6/3?”

IV. Instructional activities

V. Assessment (modified assessment)

ask any questions.

to turn in the assignment for full credit).

VI. Scaffolding/ Accommodations for ELS

EDUC 565 Observation Notes

Observation Date: 9/23/2020 Classroom Setting: Synchronously Observed

use “notes” formatting. Use extra pages as needed.

Each class period are 90 minutes long:

II. Language Objective:

III. Higher-order Thinking Questions/Skills

High-order thinking questions:

IV. Instructional activities