Final Learning Journal


1. Academics

I am very happy to have learned more about the WIDA leveling system and ELL standards for MN. I really knew nothing about ELL standards or leveling systems before I took this class. Although I did learn about the system in general, I need to think more about how I would implement in a classroom. I do not like abstract concepts very much and the WIDA leveling system is quite abstract to me in what students should be able to do. Hopefully the district or school would be able to help me in breaking the levels down to more concrete terms. I liked being able to compare LEAP levels to the WIDA levels. LEAP’s levels are much more manageable in that they are more specific.

I think my favorite part about reading the textbooks was adding many, many more activities to my repertoire. (Maybe they aren’t quite in my repertoire yet but I’m sure they will be!) I liked the insert method especially. As an English teacher, I think it can be challenging to scaffold articles and readings in a mainstream classroom. The insert method helps to scaffold reading comprehension by helping students to utilize metacognition. They must be thinking about what they are reading as they read the material. I also learned about how to scaffold group work. I have always had a negative experience with group work in high school. It always seemed like I was either stuck with all the work or not given an opportunity to participate. Thinking about groups as “cooperative groups” gave me some more insight into how I should implement them in my classroom. Rather than just telling students to get into groups, I need to think before about how students are going to be grouped and what exactly each student’s role is in the group.

I was also interested to learn more about how to teach reading to a wide variety of different ELL students. I really liked using picture walks in the 1c class at LEAP. I am a very visual learner and it helps me to see what words mean. Picture walks really helped me to scaffold my reading groups for each student’s reading needs. I would ask Tu Reh to pick out a house and Tong to point out water. I like that this activity can be differentiated without students noticing.

The laws and legislation were helpful for me in creating a framework of knowledge about where ELL education has been and where it is headed. I learned a lot from Nina’s talk as well. It is good to know the laws so that someday, if I work in a small little district in the country with unfair ELL services, I will be able to inform them of the rights of ELL students. I remember looking at the laws for ELL education in ED 246 but I didn’t really think about how they apply to me, as an ELL teacher. I hope I am an advocate for my students both in and out of the classroom. Ms. Kristi has a sign in her room that lists the rights of ELL students with corresponding cases and legislation. I think it is neat that she shows the students their rights in the classroom. Hopefully it will encourage her students to speak up for themselves as well.

I was very interested to learn more about the history of ELL education. I have had to think more about why the pull out model is ineffective and why others models are so effective. I never really thought before about the different models and why they worked/didn’t work. I like the SIOP model a lot. I am glad that I got more comfortable using it. I like that it provides step by step instructions so that teachers will remember to think about everything in a given lesson.

I learned a lot about lesson planning as well. Honestly I never realized how much work went into teaching before this Interim. I had made many lesson plans before but I wasn’t smart enough to realize that all these lesson plans and unit plans are made after an entire day of work. As stressful as this Interim was at points, I learned a lot about what I need to do to balance work and fun. I think I became better as the Interim went on with managing my time and effectively organizing my time throughout the day.

2. Contextualizing

The most important knowledge I will take away from this Interim is the importance of creating a framework for students between past experiences and new learning. I think this framework falls under the broader category of contextualizing learning for students. I loved learning about my students’ lives this Interim. I never realized how important this knowledge was for a teacher though. I thought it was just something fun that teachers could do with their students. I now believe that it is absolutely imperative that teachers take the time to understand their students’ backgrounds. I learned that in the teaching of reading it is essential that students understand the cultural context of a piece, as well as the basic aspects of reading. For example, I take for granted that students will know that fairy tales start with “once upon a time”. Before this course, I never though about how much a knowledge of different genres can positively affect a student’s reading comprehension. I only focused on the basic aspects of teaching students to identify graphemes and phonemes. It is imperative that I teach the cultural context of a text as well as the basic aspects of reading.

I learned that I need to reflect both on my and my students’ cultural backgrounds as I make lesson and unit plans. Some teachers may not think that is important to learn about their student’s background. One student in my 1c class was really down for at least a week. He always had his head on the desk and didn’t want to do his work. On one spelling test, he spelled every single word right… just backwards. Ms Kristi and I were trying to figure out what was going on but without any success. He kept saying “I’m sad” whenever we asked. I thought it was maybe part of the culture shock of coming to the United States and trying to cope with everything that had happened. After a translator talked to him and Ms. Kristi for a while, she figured out that he had very painful sinus headaches and it hurt to lift his head up. The conclusion I had jumped to, although not bad in itself, was still not right. If I was the teacher and had not pursued the matter any further it could continue to negatively affect his health. This whole long story is just to say that I learned a lot about not jumping to conclusions about students based on their appearance or attitude.

I love learning about different cultures in the world. I loved learning a lot more about the Karen people. Since this journal is open to anything we learned, I think it is safe to comment about what I learned about other cultures. I was interested to learn about how different students adjust to American culture in different ways. For example, it was interesting to learn that many Karen boys dress very femininely and experiment with nail polish and makeup as they adjust to American culture. I would’ve maybe been tempted to make assumptions of students based on my past experiences with similar students. Again, I learned over and over the importance of not making assumptions about ELL students (or any students) but keeping an open mind and allowing them to explain to me their culture. It is also interesting that the Herrera book believes that teachers should learn the basic symbols and language structures of their students. I have learned that it is vital that teachers take the time to learn about their students’ culture and language. I think that this learning can even stretch to my teaching of mainstream students. Even if I am not teaching students the English language, I need to make sure that I am learning about them and their personal background so that I can better assist their learning needs. I realize that it can be a temptation to do the minimum as a teacher, but I know that the benefits of putting in the extra work of showing students that you care about them by researching their background far outweighs the negatives of extra work. I’m sure that this knowledge will help me as a future teacher in the St. Paul school district.

3. Personal

I also learned more about myself and where I need to develop as a teacher. I was happy to learn that I really do enjoy teaching. I really enjoyed working with each one of the students at LEAP. One positive thing I learned about myself is that I am very flexible. I was able to jump into Ms. Quest’s class and teach daily mini-lessons although I didn’t get the opportunity to plan before. Granted Ms Quest modeled for me what I was supposed to do, but I was thankful that I felt comfortable enough in the role of teacher to teach at a moment’s notice. One point that I learned is that I need to improve on being creative, rather than frustrated, during challenging lessons. While dealing with the lowest level students in 1c, I realized that I was focused on the frustration of not knowing what I was doing rather than using the reading group as an opportunity to hone my skills as a teacher. I was thankful to learn this about myself so that I can improve in my last week in this skill.

I learned that I need to give myself extra time in creating lesson plans and unit plans so that I do not feel stressed with the workload. When I do assignment in bite-sized pieces, I am much more relaxed and can complete the task without frustration. I think it is important to know my own limitations so that I do not burn myself out as a teacher. I enjoy writing lessons and creating an interesting unit plan, but I had to first realize when my best work was done and what I needed to do in order to do my best work.