Step 1: Provide a summary of what you experienced so the reader knows what you did

and what you experienced

Description of the critical incident or practice
At 10, I walked into Mrs. Mehl’s 7th grade ELL classroom. When I arrived, the
students were not yet there but after a minute or two, a few students began to trickle
in. One student in particular made his entrance to the classroom very obvious. From
right outside the doorway, he began to make a loud screaming sound as if a dinosaur
was coming into the classroom (this is the only way I could describe it). Once he saw
me and my other peers, he stopped making the sound he was making and calmly said
“Hi” and then walked to his seat to put his materials down. He proceeded to walk
around the room to chat with friends before the class period began. A majority of the
students were spanish speaking, so this particular student focused his social attention
to the spanish speakers. The students in this class had a lot of energy and were talking
to one another throughout the class.
A few minutes from when the class period began, Mrs. Mehl introduced the
writing assignment that the students were expected to be doing. She questioned why
no one had their computers open to the slide presentation, working on making
inferences about the events of an image on the board. While students were working,
there was a lot of chatter even though Mrs. Mehl was trying to explain the assignment.
She was walking around and explaining the task in a variety of different ways, and also
individually helped students if needed. Once the students were done writing, they
were asked to find a partner and share their response. Mrs. Mehl let me and the other
Butler students walk around and listen to the students’ conversations.
We talked briefly to Mrs. Mehl about her role at Clay Middle School. She
explained that most of the students in the MLL class are level 1 or 2s. She also
informed us about the fact that this MLL class is in place of an elective class. I
observed that the students who spoke more fluently struggled with writing a bit more.
To combat this I think Mrs. Mehl should offer more support for writing, specifically
for these students. Overall, this class was enjoyable to observe especially since this
was the first time that I got to go to that specific room!
 a. Feelings
i. Calm
ii. Confused
iii. excited
b. Thoughts
i. I felt calm because the lights in the classroom were warm and there was
nothing too cluttered or disorganized that would make me feel anxious.
ii. I felt confused because one of the assignments that Mrs. Mehl gave her
students was not explained well. They had to ask a celebrity a question
but most students thought they were asking about the celebrity, not the
celebrity so it was confusing to explain the concept.
iii. I felt excited because I was in a new classroom that I had not had
experience in yet.
c. Connection to your thinking:
i. What went well?
● The writing activity at the beginning, the students were used to
this routine.
ii. What didn’t go so well?
● Classroom management. The students were talking a lot and
moving around while the teacher was talking.
iii. What do I want to do the same next time?
● Observe students working on the assignments with partners.
iv. What do I want to do differently next time?
● Do more with the students instead of mainly observing.

Step 2: Make at least one connection to personal experience, other texts you’ve read,
and/or what you know about schools
- In my ED 408 class, I am in a 1st grade classroom and I am working with an
MLL student. I was able to use some of the techniques for communicating and
teaching MLL students with the students in the 7th grade MLL classroom. It
 was cool to see the difference between a 1st grader MLL student and 7th grade
MLL student.

Step 3: Expand on five High Leverage Practices or more you chose to use in your
write up by telling which one, how you used it and what your thinking was in
choosing this for your student(s).
- HLP #22
- HLP #22 involves providing positive and constructive feedback to guide
students’ learning and behavior. In the MLL classroom with Mrs. Mehl,
she would write words for students to use on the whiteboard so that
students could feel comfortable with the writing assignment in general
and not have to worry about a single word. As students take the time to
write for their assignment, she walks around the room looking at
students’ work and complimenting their writing or giving them
constructive notes about how to improve it. She would also announce
grammatical structure advice to the whole class in order to remind them
important information about writing in English.
- HLP #18
- HLP #18 involves using strategies to promote active student
engagement. In Mrs. Mehl’s classroom, students were engaged in an
activity about how to ask questions by including famous celebrities.
Students were expected to write 3 different types of questions as if they
were going to interview someone famous. The students were allowed to
choose from a variety of pre-selected celebrities to form their questions.
This type of strategy engaged the students with people that they have
heard about in the media which gives them connections on a personal
level that they can use in the future.
- HLP #17
- HLP #17 involves using flexible grouping. In Mrs. Boyce’s 8th grade
resource class, students were split into 2 different groups; 1 group was
working directly with Mrs. Boyce and the other group was working
 independently on whatever assignments they needed to complete. This
type of flexible grouping allows students to work together in the
independent group and improve social skills or help one another with
homework. The group with Mrs. Boyce gets to have immediate feedback
on whatever activity they were working on and can receive help if they
need as well.
- HLP #15
- HLP #15 involves providing scaffolded support. In Mrs. Mehl’s
classroom, students received scaffolded support as they worked towards
the assignment they were going to receive. The students did the
interview/questionnaire activity with celebrities which is going to
prepare them for asking their peers questions when they have to start
working on their research project. This scaffolded support gives them
the opportunity to learn about what they are going to be doing on a small
scale and being provided with instructions on how to go about creating
good interview questions.
- HLP #14
- HLP #14 refers to teaching cognitive and metacognitive strategies to
support learning and independence. In Mrs. Mehl’s classroom, students
are expected to engage with the writing assignment they have to do at
the beginning of every class. The students work on inference and
predicting skills in writing. This skill is still in the 7th grade curriculum
so it focuses on challenging students, however, this specific activity is
not designed to be incredibly difficult to complete. The students have
writing skills which means this activity works to push their writing
skills. It is a cognitive challenge because it is grade-appropriate, but it is
designed at a level that is manageable according to their WIDA scores.

Step 4: Field experience. Choosing 3 questions to answer about your experience.

1. Did you see any differentiation in students’ interests or readiness?
 a. To prepare for a project, Mrs. Mehl introduced how to ask and answer
questions. She printed a bunch of pictures of different celebrities and
allowed her students to choose one to “interview”. The options were
people that the students had previously expressed interest in. This gives
students the ability to connect more to the activity and remember how to
ask questions in the future because they will be able to reconnect with
this experience.
2. Were there well established routines?
a. Yes. In Mrs. Mehl’s class, students are expected to put their phones
away, and open their computers to the slide presentation that they have
been working on during the year. She wants the students to begin
working on inferring the events of the picture that is on the board and
writing a few sentences about what they can see. It seems like this
routine happens each time the students come to class, so the teacher
does not need to explain as many things because the students should
already know what is happening with this specific activity.
3. Did you see mutual respect?
a. In Mrs. Mehl’s class, not really. I saw the students not paying attention,
talking out of turn, moving around the classroom, not following
directions (even though they understood the directions), and more. Mrs.
Mehl seems like a very kind person which leads me to think that her
students might be able to walk over her kindness. I think she needs to
implement more behavior management strategies.