Reflections

Overall, I really enjoyed this fieldwork experience a lot more than many of the classes for this degree. I enjoy doing hands-on work to learn, and this class gave me some great ideas for my classroom. The coursework was very reasonable and not overwhelming like I thought it might be. I had a lot of fun observing the ESL teacher at my school and spending a few days with her in her classroom. I got to see what it's really like to teach ESL as opposed to 4th grade like I'm currently teaching.

Although we did not use a wiki in this semester, the blog posts were a beneficial way to reflect on the coursework that we have completed.

Literature Circles

1. What are your overall impressions of implementation?

Overall, I thought the implementation of the literature circles went relatively well. My students enjoyed the project and it is something that I would recommend for others to try as well. It was quite a bit of planning on my end, but it was a good experience for the children and they liked the books.

2. How did the students react to the literature?

The students really liked the books that I had selected. I selected several Jan Brett books, because she has beautiful illustrations and we've been talking about senses so it corresponded nicely with that.

3. How did students react to discussion?

Students were very involved in the the discussion. I was working with a group of three students and they were all three so eager to share that it was a little difficult to make sure that everyone was heard.

4. How appropriate are Literature Circles for ELL's?

From my experience, literature circles are an excellent way to involve EL's in reading instruction. I think that ELL's can really benefit from this small group, targeted instruction with literature.

5. What changes would you make next time?

In the future, I would like to try this technique with older students, and I would like to let the students choose the literature that we study instead of me selecting it.

6. What suggestions do you have for other ESL professionals considering it?

I would recommend that you try it and see how it works for you. I did a lot of research about literature circles in general on the internet and there are a lot of great resources out there. I would recommend checking that out to see what you can find to give you some ideas and direction on where to start setting up a literature circle in your classroom.

Reflective Fieldnote Blog #4

• What are your overall impressions of this observation?

My overall impressions of this fieldwork were very positive. The teacher that I worked with was amazing and I learned a lot from her and from the students in her classroom. I also was able to take back some of the information I gathered in this observation and use for my personal classroom instruction.

• What did you learn as a result of the fieldwork?

One of the things that I learned from this fieldwork was how important it is to really get to know your students. I learned a lot from doing the different projects on one student at a time, and I thought about how I wished that I would take the time to get to know every student like this.

• What is the value in case study research and analysis in terms of classroom practice?

I believe that case study research is the most effective way to improve classroom practice. Trying different strategies and techniques to see what works and doesn't can help improve instruction.

• What is the value of the ethnographic narrative?

The value of an ethnographic narrative is to gain insight on a child's perspective. Sometimes when I'm teaching a group of 25 kids and focused so hard on meeting the state standards and being ready for testing that I forgot that they are just kids. They need to play and have fun. They have lives outside of school and interests and hobbies. Doing a project like this makes me see a glimpse into their lives. I liked hearing about my student's family and what he enjoys doing out of school. I also learned about how his culture effects his life and how our lives are different because of our different backgrounds.

• How will this information assist future teachers (next year’s teachers) as well as yourself in

meeting the needs of this particular second language learner?

It will give information to the teacher about the student academically and socially. It will allow the teacher to see where the student comes from and a little bit about his background and also to see what he is like as a student.