October 4, 2011 SPSE 6712
For this observation, I chose to observe the same 7th grade class that is taught by my mentor, the other ESL teacher during my planning. The 8 students are all students that were in my class last year so I know them all very well.
Section 1: Teaching Issues
The lesson was well planned and involved a reflection of the pre-reading activity that was conducted the previous day. The teacher engaged the students into a discussion comparing three bubble maps that had been filled out by an 8th grade class, a 6th grade class, and their own class. Unfortunately, many of the students are resistant to speaking aloud in the class. There is also a big difference in the proficiency levels of the students represented in the class. These same students wouldn’t stop speaking in my class last year. Maybe, the teacher has not built a deep enough relationship with the students yet. The questions she posed seemed simple enough; “What do you see that is the same as yours?” “What things do you see that are different?” One boy says, “I need glasses.” (I sent a letter home to his parents about this last year.) The grouping of the desks may have been an issue this time. The desks were arranged into a semi-circle with the teacher in the middle. All the students could see each other’s’ faces. One girl kept looking totally disinterested and would make dramatically deep sighs of disgust and roll her eyes. Many of the other students would look often to her for approval to speak. The others would look at her with a blank look. One girl, who e=was absent the day before, was pointing out the differences and was the only one who would speak. I recommended to the teacher to rearrange the desks the way she had them the day before for the next lesson into a staggered arrangement and put the bad attitude girl at the back so the other students couldn’t see her face as easily. I came back and observed her class the next day and it worked. The other students participated because they couldn’t look to her for disapproval. I gave the girl in the back individual attention and assistance with the lesson the next day and she was happier.
Section 2: Second Language Acquisition
The teacher’s use of the bubble map graphic organizer was a huge help to the students in simplifying the concepts of comparing and contrasting, especially to the Japanese boy, who has only been here one year and is still practically non-English speaking. Without the native language words, it is hard to describe abstract concepts such as comparing and contrasting but the graphic organizers made those more comprehensible concepts for the non-proficient students. The teacher chose to switch to a different activity after getting a little frustrated at the students lack of participation. The new activity was one where the students would have to get to know each other better by asking questions to each other in small groups to find out what each other’s’ bedrooms looked like. The small groups worked better because the students were less shy in speaking to each other. The teacher helped the Japanese boy form sentences with his broken English to encourage second language acquisition. She also modeled correct structure and pronunciation with him. The best strategies implemented in the lesson to encourage second language acquisition were that the teacher allowed extra time for the students to form their answers, she modeled the directions and she had the students read the directions aloud as well. All of these strategies helped improve second language acquisition.
Section 3: Ethnographic Perspective
The information that the teacher needs to meet the needs of these learners is to gain their trust. Once she is able to do that, I’m sure they will talk non-stop in her class and open up as well. The pre reading activity focused on a story that is about a Hispanic girl and the discussion of comparing and contrasting the different grade levels concerns turned to a question of how these concerns might have been different in their own countries. The only concern that differed from the American perspective in this class was the concern from 2 Mexican students over recent gang activity that had taken place in their homeland. This could be a huge step toward the students opening up in an effort to build a relationship with the teacher and the rest of the class.
MTSU Honor Statement
This assignment/assessment was solely written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State University and/or appropriate legal action being taken against me.
Signed: Erin B. Cathey
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