Methodology Interview with Educator
I was able to interview Ms. Villasenor. She is a second-year
kindergarten teacher at JC Mitchell Elementary in HISD. She is bilingual certified,
and I am so grateful that she took time out of her busy schedule to share a
close look and knowledge about her classroom, her students, and the
interactions that take place there. I also found this to be exceptionally
insightful since I have been placed year-long in a 5th grade
classroom.
Ms. Villasenor advocates
deeply for differentiated instruction and being supportive. One thing she does
as a must is constantly provide visuals in order to build a bridge to connect
their learning of content in English and Spanish. Being able to differentiate
instruction yields growth for students on an individual level which is significant.
I personally believe that having a student grow in your classroom with their
own way and at their own pace is more rewarding that not differentiating their
instruction and comparing them to the “norms” of that grade level.
Another thing we talked about in the interview was the
way she corrects her students. According to Wright (2015), “teacher models the
correct usage through a positive and reinforcing response, using the correct
forms in their response. Such response in authentic conversations is a form of
scaffolding” (p.158). It is extremely important to be aware of how you correct
students (especially at such a young age like kindergarten) to avoid hurting
their feelings, confidence, or self-esteem. Affecting a student on that level could
be detrimental to their learning and motivation in the classroom. Click on the
link to get more details on what her classroom looks like!Click here to watch my interview :)
Hi Anicia!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed watching your video and interaction with Ms. Villasenor. Knowing that she teaches kindergarten, it must be really challenging to have her teach ELL students because not only do they not know English, they still have to be familiarized with their home language and teach them how to maintain both languages in their lives. “Monolingual forms of education are the weakest of all of these programs. They make little to no use of ELLs’ home languages, they aim for social and cultural assimilation of students, and they frequently result in the loss of students’ ability to speak their first language…” (Wright, 2015). Knowing this and because of the age group that Ms. Villasenor teachers, is smart that she has visuals in Spanish and English, which allows them to still be connected to their home language and learn the new language.
Wright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, Second Edition.
All of Ms. Villasenor's ELL students have the same home language, which is Spanish. I believe this makes it easier for her to give support since there are many Spanish resources available for HISD compared to if she had many diverse home languages in her classroom. Wright (2015) mentions, "knowing the student’s home language or languages allows the teacher to provide primary language support". The use of visuals definitely allows for a more meaningful connection.
DeleteHey Anicia,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your interview from a Kindergarten teacher’s perspective. I am wondering why some students that speak English are in Ms. Villasenor’s class and not in an all English class. Perhaps they are trying to immerse the students in Spanish so they will become bilingual, like in a dual language classroom. I would be interested to know the effectiveness of this approach. This is somewhat the inverse of what schools that have very few ELL students encounter. In those schools, a few ELL students are placed in all English speaking classrooms. These English-speaking students may have sequential bilingualism in common with the students that just immigrated from Mexico, “which [applies] to newcomer ELLs who already speak the language or languages of their home country but then start to learn English as a new language at school (Wright, p.5, 2015).”
Wright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, Second Edition.
Thank you Jordan! That is definitely possible. Our last interview assigned was with an ELL and he shared with me that his parents actually decided to place him in an all English classroom instead of a bilingual classroom to be immersed with the English language. They wanted him to learn English as soon as possible. Luckily, his sibling is around five years older than him so he was somewhat already exposed to the language by pure socialization. Wright (2015) states if a student is one of the younger children in the family, and the family has been in the United States for several years, it is likely that the older siblings speak English and use it often in the home. This was beneficial for him and is what probably avoided him to "sink" in the classroom.
DeleteHello Anicia,
ReplyDeleteWhen I conducted my ESL interview, I remember him telling me how he would watch his cousins speak in English and that was his motivation to learn English. Like this teacher said, most of her students have older siblings or cousins, or even parents that speak English, so I can see that being a big motivation for many students out there. According to the text, “If the student is one of the younger children in the family, and the family has been in the United States for several years, it is likely that the older siblings speak English and use it often in the home” (Wright, 2015, Pg. 17).
Wright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, Second Edition.
DeleteMotivation plays a significant role in learning whether it is in content or even language acquisition, especially instrinsic motivation! There is an extensive amount of research that talks about motivation and how much it can drive students toward success it supports the idea that "motivation and confidence in the content help ELL students learn the material and objectives more efficiently"(Wright, 2015). On that note, I believe as great educators we should be able to do things that will only fuel the flame of a child’s motivation and that can be done with having a positive classroom environment, being supportive, and communicating well to your students that you care about them and their future.
DeleteI really liked your question when you asked how she teaches a predominately Spanish speaking class in English without having the students being confused. I think that is a challenge that many bilingual teachers face because the English levels greatly vary. I think the way she handles that challenge is awesome! By her reviewing it in Spanish first she is able to “frontload” what is to come in lecture. According to the text, “teacher models the correct usage through a positive and reinforcing response, using the correct forms in their response (Wright 2015).” I think the way she handles correcting her student’s language errors is nice and subtle. She does not mean to put them down, but instead she tries to genuinely help them. I think this can really help her students with their self-esteem and encourage them to continue achieving a higher English proficiency.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, Second Edition.
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DeleteThank you for watching my interview! This year-long student teaching experience has been filled with many questions similar to that one. I love learning from the teachers at my campus and I try to ask as many questions now that I am given a chance to be around so many of them. At first, I used to be embarrassed to ask questions because I didn't want them to be "dumb questions" but I realized that I need to know these type of answers so that I am prepared or at least insightful for when I have my own classroom. Being able to "frontload" or "pre-teach" is really beneficial in my opinion, especially if done in small groups. For example, previewing vocabulary before teaching a lesson that involves unknown words can make it easier or smoother for students to understand the actual content instead of being caught up on the meaning of a word. I think correcting young students is such an important thing to consider because the last thing you want to do is lower their self-esteem or confidence in the classroom. According to Wright (2015). “teacher models the correct usage through a positive and reinforcing response, using the correct forms in their response. Such response in authentic conversations is a form of scaffolding” (p.158).
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