During my observation, I noticed several problems in the classroom related to teaching and instruction. The first problem that I noticed was simply not enough time to meet the needs of each child that requires EL services. The teacher that I observed pulls out 30 kids a day at two different schools. She comes in early and starts a group, stays late, and has no lunch break. Even with this rigorous schedule, it is still a challenge to spend enough time with each small group throughout the day to give them the attention that they need.
In addition, some of the groups were too big. Instruction time would have been more effective if the groups had less children in them. The time restraints and lack of money to hire another EL teacher is the reason that the groups cannot be broken into small ones. Especially the kindergarten groups are too big and hard to manage. In those groups, instruction time is limited due to trying to manage that many K's that do not speak English.
Second Language Acquisition
The majority of instruction that I observed was in Reading/Language Arts. The teacher did a fabulous job teaching reading strategies to help her students be successful readers of English. She was reviewing the concept of visualization while I was there. I was amazed at how the students understood this concept and the vocabulary that the teacher was using with them. It made me wonder if my own regular ed. 4th graders would have understood this same thing! I also liked how she incorporated their native countries and languages into her assignments. She allowed them to share and listen to stories about their native countries that related to the visualization exercise.
As far as materials go, the teacher used SO many books the day that I observed. She had all kinds of wordless books, picture books, chapter books, leveled readers, and more. The students all had individual book bags and comfy places around the room where they loved to sit and read. I would have liked to see more technology available for the teacher. Both schools that she services are very nice, new schools yet they fail to provide adequate technology for the EL room. She does not even have a computer in either room at the two schools.
Ethnographic Perspective
As an ESL professional, I would like to have more background in different language other than English. I am not fluent in another language, and I believe having background knowledge of other languages and how they work would benefit me. The teacher I observed was able to use her knowledge of languages to help her understand the mistakes that her students would come across in the classroom.
As I said earlier, the teacher really incorporated culture into her assignments and activities. She had students share about their native countries and made it a part of the learning environment. The students had a neat opportunity to share and to learn about the native countries of their peers.
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