Observation

I observed Rodney from for a total of 10 hours and I tutored him

for about 30 minutes. Rodney is in first grade and goes to Amos K
Hutchinson Elementary School. He is a student in Mrs. Forkeys
classroom. Rodney was a stage 4 English language learner because he
knew about 6,000 words and was starting to use harder sentences, ask
questions, and voice their opinion. He can do grade level math and
science and he is beginning to get better at social studies and English.
He also started to use their native language to help them with using
the English language. I observed him on March 29th, April 5th, April 12th,
April 19th, and April 26th from 10am to 12pm.
I tutored Rodney in Math for about 30 minutes. He has been
learning how to do word problems. Though he is very good at math he
struggled with reading the whole word problem and did not know some
of the words, but once he knew what he was reading he was able to do
the problem very effectively. I gave him a worksheet with a bunch of
word problems on it, and each word he did not know I would put it on a
flash card with the definition on it so he could study those words. I
began the lesson with giving him a little refresher on how to go about
answering word problems, and then did an example for him, and then
we did one together. Once I felt he could go about this on his own I let
him work and offered help when needed. I informed him that math is
the exact same in his native language as it is in English. I told him that
students from his native country are learning the exact same math as
you. He thought this was very cool and seemed more excited to get to
work. One change I would make would be to make the lesson a little
bit more fun. Once I finished working with him I realized that he did
not have much motivation to get a correct answer. Next time I will
bring some candy and each time he gets a problem right I will give him
some. Also he was very shy so it was hard to get him to engage in a
conversation with me and I did not realize this until about half way
through the lesson. Next time I will start the lesson with a little game
to get him out of his comfort zone and open up to me a little more.
Overall, I felt good about how it went and used a lot of what I learned
in this class to help him not only with math, but also with speaking.
I was actually surprised at how few accommodations Rodney was
given access to. He had a teacher assistant that would help him only
in the afternoon because that is when Mrs. Forkey would teach new
topics, the morning was strictly review. The teacher assistant did not
seem very nice and was very strict with Rodney. After observing her it
seemed like she was just fed up with Rodney and getting very
frustrated with him because at times he would lose focus. I was
actually kind of taken back at how easily the teacher assistant would
lose patience and seem to give up on him. Mrs. Forkey was very good
with Rodney. She would constantly check in with him and made sure

he understood what was going on when the teacher assistant was not
in the room. He was also sent out of the classroom for 30 minutes a
day to meet with a speech teacher so he could work on using the
English language. Rodney was subject to the ESL pullout method as
well as the collaborative model. Some accommodations I used were I
talked slowly to make sure he understood what I was saying. I pointed
out each word as I was reading the word problems and then put the
words he did not know on a flash card. I had Rodney read allowed
each word problem and helped him with pronunciation. Also Rodney
and I collaborated on how to do some problems and what the right
answer was. I connected his culture to the standards by telling him
math is the same in his native language as it is in English. Rodney was
a stage 4 English language learner.
A lot of instructional strategies that I learned in this class were
used applied while tutoring Rodney in just a short 30 minutes. I
modeled exactly what I was expecting Rodney to do and that is
something I learned that from SEI. I had Rodney try it once on his own
and then we worked together to solve the problem. This came from
SIOP. The way I taught and reinforced new vocabulary was by using
flash cards. I provided Rodney a background on the topic of word
problems and gave hi a little refresher on how to do it. I watched
Rodney work and tried to find what parts he struggled with so I could
help him learn how to do it. I also did a duet reading with him because
we would read allowed the word problems together. I learned these
strategies from the readings and videos. Overall, these strategies
seemed to work very well. I feel that I was effective in helping him
with math problems and making sure he understood what I was saying
and doing. Some strategies I should have used and will use next time
is to provide him with some motivation to get the correct answer. Also
I will try and make the lesson more fun, I will try and involve some
movement in my lesson so Rodney will not get bored and it will be
easier to assess him. I should have also assessed him before the
lesson to see what he knows and then assess him after the lesson to
see what he learned.
During my 10 hours of observations I learned a lot not only about
Rodney and how ELL learn, but also how to teach a class. I felt very
grateful that Mrs. Forkey gave me the opportunity to not only sit in her
class and observe, but also how helpful she was with everything. I
observed an eager young boy who was hungry to learn. His face would
light up every time he got an answer right and was able to put a sticker
on a monitoring board. He was very observant, during individual work
he would look around to see what his peers were doing and then follow
their example. Rodney was able to speak pretty well for not knowing
the English language for that long. When he was ask a question it was
obvious that he knew in his head what he wanted to ask but
sometimes would have trouble getting the words out. Mrs. Forkey was

very good at motivating him to work through the process of asking a

question. Rodney seemed to have a few friends and he seemed to
enjoy his time with them. One of his friends was very helpful. He
would help Rodney with a lot and answer any questions he asked.
Rodney was very engaged in a classroom setting, but once he was
around someone he was not very familiar with he got very shy. The
class was very accepting of him and treated him like any other Englishspeaking student. I was able to spend lunchtime with him and I tried
very hard to have a conversation with him. I asked him questions
about his family and about where he was born, but his answers were
very vague. Rodney would really only talk to his few friends, but he
would not talk that much. He mostly just watched. One thing that I
found odd was that he started crying mid lunch. It was very random
and only lasted about 30 seconds and then he was fine. I talked to
Mrs. Forkey about it after lunch and she said that he cries during
lunchtime almost every day. Each afternoon a teacher assistant would
come into the classroom to help him with the new topics Mrs. Forkey
was teaching. I was not very fond of the teacher assistant. She was
very impatient and had a smug look on her face every time Rodney
would get an answer wrong or do something wrong. It seemed as the
teacher assistant had little to no confidence in Rodney and was so over
helping him. If the teacher assistant cannot be confident in Rodney,
how are we supposed to expect him to be confident in himself? I had a
little hypothesis about why Rodney cries randomly during lunchtime
and it was maybe he is just so not looking forward to having to spend
the afternoon with the teacher assistant. Though I bet this is not true,
it was just a thought I had. Throughout the 10 hours of watching
Rodney I was amazed at how much he could do. I came in expecting
him to not be engaged and to not get any answers right, but he
completely shocked me. One thing that amazes me about children is
how well they can adapt to any situation. I am very grateful I was able
to spend a glorious 10 hours with Mrs. Forkey, her students and of
course, Rodney.
I noticed a few things the educational system needs to do to help
all the students from different countries. One thing is to make all
teachers take a course on how to teach these kids and their different
needs. Though Mrs. Forkey was very good with him, I have a feeling
theres a lot of teachers who do not know how to teach ELL just like the
teacher assistant. Also I think their needs to be more resources for
ELL. This school I observed at had a lot of available resources, but
when I asked Mrs. Forkey about other schools resources for ELL she
said that most schools do not know how to teach ELLs and the teachers
are in a way set up to fail because they do not know how to teach
them. With only more and more immigrants coming to the United
States the educational system needs to realize that there are a lot of
teachers who are not prepared to teach someone who has no idea how

to speak English. Though the educational system has made great

strides in improving ELLs school days, there is still need for
improvement.