Brigham Kindergarten

Today I had the opportunity to observe a kindergarten lesson at Brigham. This was my first time in the kindergarten room and I really enjoyed it. It seems like an outgoing and loving class. The students were not afraid to talk to and communicate with us. As far as I could tell most of the students spoke English pretty well! There were not any major language barriers within my personal small group. You could tell that their English was not yet perfect but neither is mine.

This week the students participated in a lesson on what plants, humans, and animals need to survive. The students started off in a large group on the carpet then split off into three small groups. You could tell that the students were somewhat used to small group lessons and the way that they functioned because there was not much confusion on where to go or why they had to rotate every five minutes.

All in all I did not hear as much Spanish being spoken in the kindergarten room as I did in the pre-k room. In the pre-k room the teachers would sometimes repeat directions in Spanish for some of the students so they could understand what we were saying to them. In the kindergarten room the teacher did not speak Spanish once the week that I was in there and I did not hear the students communicate using Spanish within the classroom. However, I did see many directions and labels in both English and Spanish. I saw this not only in the classroom but also in the hallways outside of the classroom.

As far as my goal goes, I honestly do not feel like I have made much progress towards my goal. I feel like what I have seen has been the basic tools that I already knew about coming into this experience. Tools like using their native language and having pictures and labels to help as visual cues. For example, in the lesson that we observed today I saw the most student collaboration and interaction at the habitat center. This center allowed the students to visually see each habitat and the animals they were categorizing. It also allowed them to physically place the animal where they thought it lived and explain why. This was an excellent activity not only for the English Language Learners but also for every student in the classroom because of the many different learning styles that were incorporated into it.

I feel like a main part of my goal was to get to know the individual students and their academic needs when it comes to their language development but I was not able to get to know any of the students on a deep and meaningful level, which has been frustrating. I have loved this experience and getting to work with pre-k and kindergarten students especially because I have not been in a clinical placement in either of these grades. It has given me the opportunity to create and implement lesson plans that concentrate on young English Language Learners and their specific needs. It has been interesting to compare the ELL students in my PDS clinical placement to the students I have seen at Brigham. No matter if you are a preschool, kindergarten, or second grade English Language Learner you are still learning, practicing and maneuvering new words and phrases every single day. Language is constantly changing and evolving.

Exceeds: I went  over the word count and compared experiences I have had with different English Language Learners.