Standard 6.3
Reflecting on field experiences is nothing new, but the experience that I want to reflect on is one that I really enjoyed. This experience was one with a student that I have had for two years straight. He is an English language learner (ELL) and is a great kid but needs a good deal of help understanding what is necessary in my history class. During this field experience I met with this student and the ELL teacher on a few occasions outside of the regular classroom. We worked on vocabulary necessary to the topic we were learning at the time. We also worked on associating those words with pictures and time periods to help the student gain a better understanding of the topic at hand. The Ell teacher was a great asset during this whole venture and with her help we were able to help this student understand the topic of World War one.
To get this field experience done, I had to sit down with our ELL teacher and understand what this student was missing and how we could fix it. This session really set the tone for the whole experience with the ELL student. We were able to get a plan together and then put it into action with the morning sessions. This also helped the student become more comfortable with class room discussions which helped increase knowledge of the subject. The ELL teacher helped me break down the students test scores and get to the bottom of his learning disability. Using this data we synthesized the information and applied it to my subject. What we could do better to make his learning experience better. During each session the student and I sat down and went through each word and used technology as well to gain a better understanding. We ended up creating a timeline with the words and pictures to describe them. This time line would serve as a way to associate the words with a time period.
This experience taught me a great deal about English Language learners. One, taking the students out of the regular classroom and into a one on one session makes them more comfortable and able to excel more. Two, the ELL teacher is your best resource when it comes to helping your students most when they struggle. This person has all the data that you need to help these students be successful in your classroom. If I could change one thing about this experience, I would have continued the sessions once a week a week with this student for the remainder of the school year. This would have really helped the student out if we had continued the sessions. He needs extra one on one time with me or another teacher to be successful. I would also consider giving this student a resource class to extend his learning opportunities. I think that this experience was very beneficial and helped me mature into a better technology leader.
To get this field experience done, I had to sit down with our ELL teacher and understand what this student was missing and how we could fix it. This session really set the tone for the whole experience with the ELL student. We were able to get a plan together and then put it into action with the morning sessions. This also helped the student become more comfortable with class room discussions which helped increase knowledge of the subject. The ELL teacher helped me break down the students test scores and get to the bottom of his learning disability. Using this data we synthesized the information and applied it to my subject. What we could do better to make his learning experience better. During each session the student and I sat down and went through each word and used technology as well to gain a better understanding. We ended up creating a timeline with the words and pictures to describe them. This time line would serve as a way to associate the words with a time period.
This experience taught me a great deal about English Language learners. One, taking the students out of the regular classroom and into a one on one session makes them more comfortable and able to excel more. Two, the ELL teacher is your best resource when it comes to helping your students most when they struggle. This person has all the data that you need to help these students be successful in your classroom. If I could change one thing about this experience, I would have continued the sessions once a week a week with this student for the remainder of the school year. This would have really helped the student out if we had continued the sessions. He needs extra one on one time with me or another teacher to be successful. I would also consider giving this student a resource class to extend his learning opportunities. I think that this experience was very beneficial and helped me mature into a better technology leader.