This was the first week I was in the classroom to see someone's actual lesson. The topic of the first lesson was sense of touch! I think this lesson was well planned out and organized. It was also hands on which was very beneficial to the students in that classroom who are English Language Learners. You could tell that the students loved being able to hold the tubes and smell each individual scent.
One of the goals that I had made for myself while in the classroom was to try and get to know each student on a personal level so I could create a trusting and open relationship with them. I knew this was going to be a challenge because we are only in the room every few weeks. However, I ran into another obstacle with this goal. As a class we are talking anecdotal notes on each of the students behavior and actions while we are in the room. This is such an important tool to have especially when dealing with such young children. But it makes it hard to get to know each student on a deeper level. I found that I was either concentrating on two students during the hands on time or trying to watch the entire class at round up.
I believe I mentioned in my last post the fact that we were not sure which students were English Language Learners and how it negatively affected the way in which we implemented our lesson. This week I think we had a much better handle on which students were not native speakers of English. However, there was one new girl that was not there the first week. I am not sure exactly what language she speaks at home and I would love to find this out. This little girl was in my small table group and it was evident that she did not understand much English. She was very shy, did not like to look you in the eye, and did not answer one of the multiple questions I asked her. But after many different attempts on my end of rephrasing questions or asking different questions she looked up and pointed at her brown crayon and said "Brown!" with an enormous smile on her face.
Although, it was a one word sentence I could tell that it was much more that that to this child. It was the only way that she knew how to communicate with me and she was so proud of herself for that. But this encounter made me realize fist, how advanced the English Language Learners are in my clinical placement and second, how difficult it can be to have any communication with a child when you do not speak the same language. As adults, I feel like we are more apt to use body language to get our point across when we encounter situations like this. But I am not sure that children know that they can and should use body language or movements to aid their communication. I think this would be an important tool to teach English Language Learns in my future classroom.
A read aloud about different types of communication
Kayla,
ReplyDeleteI like that you talked about the importance of forming a relationship with each of our students. This is so important! But can be especially difficult in a classroom that we are not in day in and day out. Another thing that I really liked that you did was see the small accomplishments from each child. While saying one color might be a very simple task for one child, it could be a mountainous occasion for another. Knowing each child’s ability levels can help us know what to expect from each of our students and also help us celebrate those small victories. I’m interested to see what the rest of the semester plays out like with this particular class. I feel that we will all get a bit more comfortable but it is always tough to come into someone else’s classroom and take over for 30 minutes. I think it’s good practice for us to learn the do and don’ts of that as well.