Week 2 Questions

1) What is your experience in terms of working or friends with people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds?

Last semester I worked with an ELL student ( 3rd grade) who was learning how to read books in the English Language. We worked together throughout the semester on strategies to decode unfamiliar words and phonetics. I felt that the experience was a learning experience for the both my student as well as myself. Outside of my educational experiences at NYIT, I have been a Chiropractor for nearly 17 years. During much of this time, I worked in many diverse neighborhoods with all types of people. I feel that these experiences have taught me to value the importance of all people no matter what their heritage or culture might be.

2)Do you have experience in working with ELLs?
My only experience so far working with ELL students was last semester in EDLI-635. This was a class with Dr. Hsu which dealt with teaching literacy skills to ELL students.

3) Do you have experience in teaching ELLs?
I am not a teacher yet however I have had some limited experience teaching an ELL student how to use strategies to read new words in English which she was unfamiliar with.

4) What is your perception on ELLs in terms of their learning motivation and performance in general and in reading and writing specially?

I can only base this on the student I worked with last semester. She was a bit shy and reluctant at first, but she definitely was motivated to learn about new strategies to help her read.

5) What learning difficulties do ELLs usually encounter in schools?

I feel that one major problem these students face is trying to adapt to their new surroundings and finding people who will guide them when they experience difficulties while trying to learn a new language.

6) In your observation, how do classroom teachers resolve ELLs’ learning difficulties and improve their learning motivation? What strategies do they often adopt? Are these strategies effective? Are you familiar with these strategies? Are family and community involved?

I found that grouping students together who share the same learning difficulties or were from similar learning backgrounds or cultures helped to ease some of the tension these students had and they were more inclined to participate in the class activities. Another effective strategy was to try and use students background or prior knowledge when teaching new concepts such as vocabulary acquisition.

7) What intervention strategies would you adopt if you have ELLs in your class? How do you go about teaching the child? How do you go about reaching out to the family and the community?

I would definitely reach out to the parents/family of these students to encourage them to read to their children and communicate with them ( in English if possible).
In addition to utilizing the family resources of the student, I would also try to use some of the tools I learned in EDLI-635 such as teaching students how to properly sound out new words (phonetics/phonemic awareness), scaffolding the reading instruction of my ELL students by utilizing both whole class and small group instruction such as read-alouds and guided reading with the eventual goal of having the students being able to read independently.