This week, I feel that I made
strides in reaching my initial goal. As a reminder, the main goal I set for
myself when working with ELL students was to “learn more about each student’s
personality and interests. I hope to accomplish this goal by knowing the
strengths and struggles each ELL student experiences.” When assisting in the
ELL kindergarten classroom this past week, I truly got to know a small group of
students on a more personal level. When assisting them with differentiating
between living and nonliving organisms, I would talk to the children about
other objects they thought were living or nonliving. As an example, I asked the
students if they thought donuts were living. They looked at me with puzzled
facing and started giggling. I continued to ask them, “Do your donuts walk,
talk, and grow?” They replied by shouting, “No!!!” with smiles on their faces.
As this activity progressed, the students talked to me about their families or
their favorite things to eat or just random facts about themselves. I saw the
connection the students had between one another and were very encouraging when
each classmate answered the question, “Is this living or nonliving?” The
children would talk amongst themselves and would help a peer who was struggling
with this concept. One little girl announced and reminded her table team that a
baseball glove is not living because it does not eat, breathe, or grow. Even
though the teachers, including myself, reiterated this statement to death, I feel
that it meant more to the students coming from her. I feel that the
conversations and time spent with this small group of students helped me to
move closer to my goal of getting to know students on a personal level.
When
reflecting on this week’s performance, in addition to the modules and material
we have discussed in class, I feel that I have a better understanding of what
ELL students endure. I feel that first and foremost, we are helping the
kindergartens and preschoolers grasp and obtain a better understanding of
science. However, through the modules of diversity, I feel that many of the
principles of those who can be considered “different” can be applied to ELL
students. For example, at the root of everything, children are children
regardless of any circumstantial situations. I almost feel guilty for having a
goal when working with ELL students. When thinking about this in correspondence
with what we have learned about diversity and teaching in this class, I feel
that putting a label on this goal is constricting and only furthering the
notion that ELL students are different from any other students. I feel the same
goes for children who are in poverty, exhibit a special need, or speak another
language. These labels, in my opinion, are creating unintentional segregation
amongst students. Why have a goal for ELL students rather than students in
general? After thinking about this, I feel that I may unintentionally treat English
language learners differently from their “typically speaking” peers. This is
something that we have been taught not to do, yet am I doing exactly that? I
understand that it is important to know personal information pertaining to each
student, yet are we subliminally developing lower expectations for these
students based on their language components?
When
talking with this small group of students, I found out that their primary
language was Spanish, yet they did a beautiful job communicating in English.
They comprehended the information and, in my opinion, could have been
challenged further. These are smart, capable kids! I don’t want labels to
persuade me to think any less. I guess this reflection has caused me to think
in a different light and I want to work upon making sure that I am meeting the
needs of all students, regardless of what may differentiate them from their
peer. I know that I am not an ELL student, yet I have different needs/come from
a different situation from any one of my classmates. We are all different,
regardless of the factor, we all deserve to be treated with respect and have
our needs met.
The following article discusses how teachers can effectively
deal with meeting the needs of all students in the classroom: http://www.wou.edu/~tbolsta/web/texbook/24_Meeting_the_Needs.pdf
Exceeds: Went over the required word count and included an
article.
