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Hallgren English Language Learner Observation Reflection

Justin Hallgren English Language Learner Observation Reflection

Justin Hallgren

Department of Education, Drexel University

Foundations In Instructing English Language Learners

Dr. Beth Ulcay

December 10, 2020

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Hallgren English Language Learner Observation Reflection

Abstract

For the observation portion of this course 10 hours of English Language Learners (ELL)

classrooms were observed. The following is my personal reflection on what I considered to be

the best teacher and classroom that I observed. The teacher, classroom, and lesson are evaluated

according to what I have I learned in EDUC 565- Foundations In Instructing English Language

and specifically what was contained in our course readings. This reflection focuses heavily on

parts 2, 3, and 4 of the course. Given the atypical nature of this semester due to the COVID-19

pandemic this paper only briefly touches on cultural integration as that information was not

readily available in the videos.

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Hallgren English Language Learner Observation Reflection

Hallgren English Language Learner Observation Reflection

One of my favorite observation videos was a full lesson that I found on

thelearningchannel.com titled “No Series: Foundational Literacy Skills: Complete Lesson”. The

lesson focused on strategies for newcomer ELLs, split dictation activities, phonics review,

reading guides, and fluency practice. The lesson was built around the common core state

standards ELA.RI.9-10.10. To paraphrase, these standards ask that students can read and

comprehend grade level appropriate non-fiction with either scaffold help for 9th graders and

independently for 10th graders. For this lesson the students were about to begin reading about

Frida Kahlo and the teacher chose to immediately jump into higher order thinking skills by

asking his English language learners to predict how Frida will feel about moving from Mexico to

the United States.

In my opinion this lesson was a goldilocks lesson for me as it was just right for my needs.

The students were mixed ability high schoolers. The class was mostly freshman and sophomores,

with a handful of upper classmen mixed in. Additionally, the ability levels of the class make for

a good case study as most had mid-level English learner skills, but a few were newcomers. Thus,

it’s a good prototypical example for a new teacher.

Evaluating the English language proficiency in this classroom is challenging because I

only have small snippets of information about each student and it appears that this class has a

range of abilities levels grouped together. Complicating my interpretation, most of the students

were fairly quiet unless called upon. Irving (2017) stated that communication is easiest among

those who share similar perceptions. I suspect that the quiet nature of many of the students was

similar to Irving’s description of her Yemeni student. Igoa (1995) talks in-depth about how new

immigrant children experience a silent stage after arriving in the United States, but I believe that
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Hallgren English Language Learner Observation Reflection

all of the students in this class were beyond that phase. While many students were quiet, they did

not be behave like Dennis. Overall, I suspect that this class ranges from approximately the lower

end of level 2 (Emerging) up to students who are mastering level 3 (Developing). I base this

statement off the answers that students gave to several of the teacher’s questions and how those

answers compare to the what is listed in the WIDA can do descriptors.

The teacher asked the class, “How do you think Frida felt moving from Mexico?” One

student, Juan, was able to write the equivalent of 3 simple sentences to answer the question. I say

equivalent because he combined 3 separate ideas into one larger sentence. The ability to make

predications is a level 3 speaking skill and both “producing bare bones expository texts” and

“describing events, people, and procedures” are level 3 writing skills according to the WIDA can

do descriptors (WIDA 2015). Moreover, Juan’s answer contained evidence from the reading.

Finding details that support the main idea is a level 4 reading skill (WIDA 2015). However, he

also seemed to still struggle with the language to a not insignificant degree, so he is definitely not

an advanced ELL. Based on that evidence, I believe that Juan is most likely just beginning to

enter level 4.

Alternatively, other students required sentence starters and were only able to fill in a

word or two. One student simply inserted “misses Mexico” into the sentence starter. The teacher

did ask the student to add one more sentence explaining why. However, we never see if the

student was able to do so. As stated above, the ability to make predictions is technically a level 3

speaking skill, but given the simplicity of the question and answer it may be more accurate to

categorize this as the level 2 writing skill “Give information requested from oral or written

directions“ or the level two speaking skill “describe pictures, objects, events, and people”

(WIDA 2015).
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Hallgren English Language Learner Observation Reflection

Other students fell somewhere in between these 2 extremes. Many of the students wrote a

sentence or two, but had to use dictionaries and online translators. I got the impression that there

was a disconnect in the listening skills and writing skills. For example, many of them clearly

understood the teacher when the question was asked in English and I also had the impression that

knew what they wanted to say in their native tongues. The issue was articulating their answer in

English.

The ESL friendly approach used by the teacher was to intertwine teaching English as a

Second Language with a traditional high school English course. A significant component of the

lesson was centered on Frida Kahlo’s biography. While these two subjects are somewhat similar

in nature ESL and ELA are technically separate. Therefore, I believe this qualifies as content-

based learning. Zainuddin, et. al. (2011) defines content-based learning as placing the emphasis

on developing language while an academic subject area is employed.

In addition, multiple other strategies were employed. A second approach employed by the

teacher was using the comprehension hypothesis. Zainuddin et.al. (2011) states that one of the

most important elements in the acquisition of a second language is whether the input is

comprehensible. To accomplish this task the teacher wisely chose a non-fiction book that

immigrants could easily relate too. The question “How do you think Frida felt moving to the

United States?” is the epitome of comprehensible for these students. Our text also mentions the

strategy of peer tutoring which was used in this classroom (Zainuddin et. al. 2011). Lastly, I

believe the teacher’s classroom management skills and his overall disposition helped to keep the

students effective filters low. He was challenging his students, but no one appeared to be overly

stressed. It was a good environment for learning. Moreover, as was suggested by Washburn
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Hallgren English Language Learner Observation Reflection

(2008) his body language was “visible”, “noticed” and being used as a tool to increase

comprehension.

The teacher used many strategies to promote the development of most of the language

modalities. I did not see any of the listening strategies provided by Zainuddin et.al (2011) used in

this lesson. However, the teacher focused heavily on speaking. He used several of the speaking

strategies listed on our book including explicit teaching of pronunciation skills, peer tutoring,

and choral reading (Zainuddin et.al. 2011). For reading development the teacher focused heavily

on higher order thinking skills and used some prototypical elements of sheltered instruction

including extra wait time, highlighting key vocabulary, activating background experiences, and

clarifying language objectives in the native language for the Spanish speaking students. For

writing development, the students simply had a free writing activity. As stated previously, the

ability level of the students was such that some were only able to add a couple words to a

sentence starter. The focus of this lesson was heavily skewed towards split dictation, phonics

reviews, and fluency practice.

In conclusion, this class was an excellent example of how English as Second Language

and English Language Arts should be taught togeher. Importantly, the lesson was wisely

centered on a story that would be comprehensible input for the entire class. Moreover, the

teacher incorporated numerous strategies for teaching low to mid-level English language

learners.
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Hallgren English Language Learner Observation Reflection

References

Igoa, C. (1995). The Inner World of the Immigrant Child. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

(ISBN:0-8058-8013-5).

Irving, K.J. (1984). Cross Cultural Awareness and the English-as-a-Second-Language

Classroom. Theory into Practice, 23(2), 138-143.

Washburn, G. N. (2008). Alone, Confused, and Frustrated: Developing Empathy and Strategies

for Working with English Language Learners. Clearing House, 81(6), 247-250.

WIDA CONSORTIUM (2015): Can Do Descriptors

Zainuddin, H., Morales-Jones, C., Yahya, N., & Whelan Ariza, E. (2011). Fundamentals of

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages in K-12 Mainstream Classrooms. (4th

ed.) Dubuque: Kendall Hunt. (ISBN 978-1-4652-6760-3).

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Hallgren English Language Learner Observation Reflection

Grade & duration Content Language HOTS questions/skills Instructional Activities Accommodations for ELLs
Objective Objective
 Lower Elementary  short vs tall Not given. Did not see HOTS. This class  Strong focus on vocab practice to start the  Video
 ESL for Korean  Boy vs Girl Appears to be was lower Elementary and day.  Relia
Students vs Robot vocabulary very low English skills. It  Correction- All Vocab!  Images/pictures
 40 mins  Counting focused focused on learning the vocab  Teacher was good with hand
 https://www.youtube.c  Happy vs of basic communication. gestures.
om/watch? Angry  Emphasis on repetition
v=3Qqbx1fUrqw  I, You, He,
she
 ESL Teaching- Dana  parties and Not Given Students were asked to add a  Conversation about culturally relevant Relia- The intro focused on the
Litwornia social sentence to a group made parties. students describing real family
 Middle School gatherings narrative. This isn’t super  Talked about food events.
 Mixed Ethnicity  What is a higher order thinking, but it is  Reason for the party
 Wide range of EL narrative? in “the realm” of predicating  Things that happen at a party Teacher provided potential
levels. what’s next. On several  Group story creation. sentence starters for the lower level
occasions’ students were ELLs.
 https://www.youtube. o Each student added one sentence
asked why something didn’t o Students had to write the story
com/watch?
fit.
v=HNpDbHv4X4s on paper.
 32 mins  Assessment is writing a narrative on their
own.
 SIOP Lesson- Mary  ????  Count vs Did not see HOTS, this lesson  SIOP Model  Visuals – lesson and all
Casey non-count focused on perfecting one very  Began going over person, place, thing. around the room.
 Spanish speakers nouns specific reading skill.  Short lesson on what are non-count nouns  Lots of Pictures
 Range of lower level  Small group work, sorting pictures of  Gestures
EL. nouns into count vs non-count.  Simplified sentences
 https://www.youtube.  Practice writing simple sentences with  Slower speaking
com/watch? non-count nouns.  Had interpreter for this lesson.
v=A1Wk_TVt79o  Activity to read other people’s sentence  Utilized past knowledge. This
 28 mins. cards. topic exists in Spanish.
 Finished with whole class review at the
board.
 https://www.youtube.  paraphrasin Does Paraphrasing count as a  Student selected vocab These were high school upper level
com/watch? g HOT for an ELL?  Reading A Long Walk to Water ELLs. The class was specifically
v=8f_ZFxKeIR4  sequencing Update plot timeline designed for them. So no real
 Grammatic accommodations were needed.
 High School probably
al structure They did take turns reading on
all 4 grades.
of their their own and the teacher reading.
 24 mins
sentences.

Grade & duration Content Language HOTS questions/skills Instructional Activities Accommodations for ELLs
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Hallgren English Language Learner Observation Reflection

Objective Objective
 Lesson observation  Maybe  Students were asked to  Opened with oral interpretation of a  Teacher spoke clearly.
Paullo Abreu advanced predict what’s happening picture.  Repeated the most important
 Possibly a GED ESL adjectives? in a picture.  Asked to predict what’s happening in a stuff.
Class?  Its big on  Later asked to critique picture.  Lots of Gestures.
 They appear older. describing. predictions after hearing  Practiced sentences with larger words.  Used pictures
 https://www.youtube. Proper the audio. o Emphasis on pronunciation.  Wrote sentences on board in
com/watch? pronunciation.  Students were given  Parts of speech. tandem with asking orally.
v=Niel3vqgwrU question prompts that  Played audio of the interaction in the  Used audio conversations.
required deeper thought to earlier picture. Students were asked to  Exaggerated emotions in
 Upper level EL skills.
answer. critique their predictions. examples.
1 hour 4 mins
 If your friend cooked a  In depth break down of the conversation. Used cards with half sentences.
meal that was awful,  Made complete sentences from sentence
would you tell them? starters in response to a story problem
prompt.
Corrected sentences to be true statements.
 SIOP Lesson- Lorie Science - Matter  How to  Browsed the booklet to  Started by using a think-pair-share answer  SIOP Model
Aleman understand/ make inferences about “What is Matter?”  Wrote clearly on board
 https://www.youtube. read a they thought the lesson  Taught students how to interpret text  Spoke slowly
com/watch? textbook. would be about. features to get the big picture before  Used sentence starters
v=xDgiJJKE-N8 Maybe? Students were writing short starting.  Used charts/Graphs (visuals)
answer questions about the  Vocab from the science book! Match on  Used picture cards to help
 Upper elementary ESL
material the board. with vocab
 Teacher appears to be
tutoring them in  Titles, subheadings, bolded sentences-  Very encouraging (round of
science. make into a question. applause)
 48 mins  Students wrote questions about the  Read aloud as a group.
reading material. Students one page/ teacher one
 Answering each other’s questions was page.
used as the exit ticket for the day.
 Class Observation   Vocab  Critical thinking about an  Open with partner discussion about pictures  Use of relia- kind of. A major
using life pre-  Discussion article. What would the around the room of types of unusual topic was Rickshaws…. Not
intermediate s locals say? transportation. sure if that’s all that relevant.
 Whole class discussion
 Adult intermediate  Adjectives  For? Or Against? She did speak of traffic and
 Small group discussion about mode of populations size, etc.
 https://www.youtube.  In my opinion… transport
com/watch?  Act out certain characters  Understand the meaning behind a article.
 pictures of types of
v=mlrhVPdQuu0 point of view in a fake  Asked to predict what the locals in an article transportation.
 58 mins debate. say about a topic.  Key words/sentences are
 Form an opinion after reading an article. written.
 Corrected sentences with errors to end the  Had the students act out each
class. character’s point of view.
Grade & duration Content Language HOTS questions/skills Instructional Activities Accommodations for ELLs
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Hallgren English Language Learner Observation Reflection

Objective Objective
 CCRS in the ABE  Identify and  CCR  Compare/contrast voting  Talk to 3 different people. Introduce  Used relia- discussed voting.
Classroom: highlight standard in home country vs USA yourself. Where did you come from? This was an election year in
Intermediate ESL evidence Reading Inference questions at the end. Who can vote in that country? 2012
 https://www.youtube. that supports Anchor 1,  Find the title, and captions, number  Authentic conversations
com/watch? their Level C. paragraphs.  Spoke clearly and slowly
v=Hrol_D_ujsc answers to  Work  Discuss what’s happening in picture  Group reading aloud by
text- together to  Teacher read text, students circled vocab teacher and students.
 Adult intermediate
dependent understand or confusing stuff to discuss later.  Asked students to use vocab to
ESL
inference new vocab  Sentence starters fill in sentence starters and
61 mins.
questions as in difficult 1. What does the word mean? have a convo with partner.
evidenced text 2. What does the sentence mean?  Used had gestures
by their  Find 3. Find the evidence.  Group reading. Help each
responses to evidence in  Group reading, students help each other. other.
the text  This vs these vs that vs those  Dictionaries and google
questions Talk about Asked to use highlighter to highlight evidence searches.
and details in text. for answering questions.  Very encouraging
highlighting
 Drew on past knowledge
marks in the
comparing what happens in
text
native country vs USA.
Accurately
quote,  Sentence frames.
paraphrase Stressed relevance of the topics she
specific evidence chooses.
from the text as
evidenced by
small group and
whole class
discussions.
 ESL/EFL Open Class   Descriptive  none  Began/ended with vocab practice  Native speaking teacher
Demonstration - vocab for  Group sentence practice answering with available.
(E.P.I.K.) English people/fam mock convo phrases.  Lots of Pictures/images
Program in Korea ily  Practice convo in pairs.  Sentence starters
 Jake Broe  Practiced partial descriptive sentences as  Audio conversations
 4th grade a group  Hand gestures
 38 mins  Used card game to practice describing
 https://www.youtube.  Played game at the board
com/watch?
v=6Co8RYUah3s

 Grade & duration Content  Language  HOTS questions/skills  Instructional Activities  Accommodations for ELLs
Objective Objective
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Hallgren English Language Learner Observation Reflection

 CCRS in the ABE Doctors office Minnesota Some predication questions.  Open with simple anatomy practice  Lots of hand gestures
Classroom: Literacy vocab, CCRS What do you think is next?  Questions about Drs office pictures.  Sentence starters
Level ESL descriptive standards  Group questions matching phrase to  Speaking extra clear
 https://www.youtube. phrases, anatomy  Reading picture.  Wait time for questions
com/watch? vocab Anchor 1,  What letter, what sound?  Scaffold from simple question
v=4AkkiGJ3inY Levels A  Matching letter sound to what hurts in to harder questions.
and B, and anatomy picture i.e. B is for back pain  Lots of pictures
 50 mins
Speaking picture  Relia- going to the doctor.
and  Partner work with pictures  Lots of repetition
Listening  Spelling words from picture (Head, Man,  Fingers for basic counting
Anchor 2, Stomach, back, etc.)  Singing- head, shoulders,
Level A.  Scaffolded questions from yes/no to knees, toes
either/or to more complex.  Language is very slow and
 Sentences with pictures clear.
 Cut out sentences/pictures to order a
story.
 No Series: Deeper What I Project based learning  Recap- What I know, what I want to  Used maps
Learning in the ELL know/What I know  Scaffolding
Classroom want to know  Domino theory  Learning stations
 https://learn.teaching about the  Group work to finish packet.  Group work/collaboration
channel.com/video/de Vietnam war. Stations for group project. Peer to peer tutoring
eper-learning-in-the-
ell-classroom
38 mins
 No Series: Group Investigating Prepositions – Student led investigations?  Asking about plants in the classing  Used Relia
Work in the Multi- plants In/on, at/on That’s higher order thinking  Group listen and repeat  Used small group/partner
language ELL right?  Used discussion starters to describe the discussions.
Classroom aloe plant.  Discussion starters
 Lower Elementary  Asked about 4 of the 5 senses to describe  Worksheets have gaps to help
 https://learn.teaching the aloe plant. with intermediate English
channel.com/video/gr skills.
oup-work-in-the-
multi-language-ell-
classroom
 42 mins
  


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Hallgren English Language Learner Observation Reflection

 Grade & duration Content Language HOTS questions/skills  Instructional Activities  Accommodations for ELLs
Objective Objective
 No Series:  Frida Kalho Phonics, Predicting what will happen  Begin by predicting how someone will  Teacher is bilingual. Used
Foundational Literacy  Foundationa reading, fluency feel. Spanish translation to explain
Skills: Complete l Literacy  Practiced group speaking, vocab words more complex words.
Lesson ELA.RI.9- Skills with By the end of  Gr- vs Gl-  Had students translate English
10.10 Newcomers grade 10, read  Strategies for newcomer ELLs words into their native
 Grades 9-10 ELA with  Split and  Split dictation activity language
ELLs Dictation comprehend  Phonics review  Partner work.
 https://learn.teachingc Activity literary  Reading guides  Sheets with gaps.
hannel.com/video/foun nonfiction at the  Teacher makes drawings on
 Fluency practice
dational-literacy- high the table to help explain with
 Closed with review of the days
skills-complete-lesson end of the pictures.
worksheet/questions to makes sure
 45mins grades 9-10 text Peer to peer tutoring.
everyone leaves with the correct answers.
complexity
Fluency test on the computer to end the class.
band
independently
and
proficiently.
 No Series: Finding Variations in ELA.SL.2.1a | Paraphrasing  Classroom discussion about variation  Used Relia- used new and old
Variations in Living living organisms. ELA.SL.2.1b  Paraphrase “variation” to their partner versions of the jungle book
Organisms: Complete  Used fill in the gaps worksheet to help books and movie to describe
Lesson 1a: intermediate English learners demonstrate variation. Also, used sports
 2nd grade science with Participate in the meaning of “variation” balls
ELLs collaborative  Worksheet with book reference to help  Fill in the blanks.
 https://learn.teachingc conversations describe variation in organisms.  Hand gestures.
hannel.com/video/find with Class came together to report on each groups  Students given books for
ing-variations-in- diverse partners work. reference
living-organisms- about grade 2  Given options to choose from
complete-lesson topics and texts for types of variations.
45 mins with peers and
adults in small
and larger
groups.

b. Build on
others' talk in
conversations
by linking
their comments
to the remarks
of others.
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Hallgren English Language Learner Observation Reflection