Entry 3: Interviewing Mrs. Avalos
Interview with Mrs. Avalos
I interviewed Michelle Avalos for this week's entry. She has been teaching at Rita Drabek Elementary School for fifteen years and has thirty years experience under her belt. She currently teaches first grade at Drabek ES. This past school year she fourteen ELL students in her classroom, the most at one time in her school career.
In the interview, she mentioned her goals for English language learners are no different from her other students. She wants her students all her students to be at the same level in reading, math, etc. Since she teaches first grade, she does not have to deal with STAAR but she does have district testing as a form of norm-referenced testing (Wright, 2015). They are allowed accommodations for the ELL students, like showing pictures to help assist them understanding the questions. Since the district tests are on content they have done in class, she does find she has to prepare them any differently than from in class tests.
Her school has a combination of pull-out ESL and pull-in ESL programs, sometimes the students are pulled out of the classroom and sometimes one of the ESL specials come into the classroom (Wright, 2015). Something that stuck out to me in the interview is how she negates one of the drawbacks to pull-out ESL. Michelle does small groups while her ESL students are pulled out of the classroom so they do not miss whole group instruction, which is one of the main disadvantages to pull-out ESL (Wright, 2015). She then waits until her ESL students are back into the classroom to bring them into their small group.
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub
I interviewed Michelle Avalos for this week's entry. She has been teaching at Rita Drabek Elementary School for fifteen years and has thirty years experience under her belt. She currently teaches first grade at Drabek ES. This past school year she fourteen ELL students in her classroom, the most at one time in her school career.
In the interview, she mentioned her goals for English language learners are no different from her other students. She wants her students all her students to be at the same level in reading, math, etc. Since she teaches first grade, she does not have to deal with STAAR but she does have district testing as a form of norm-referenced testing (Wright, 2015). They are allowed accommodations for the ELL students, like showing pictures to help assist them understanding the questions. Since the district tests are on content they have done in class, she does find she has to prepare them any differently than from in class tests.
Her school has a combination of pull-out ESL and pull-in ESL programs, sometimes the students are pulled out of the classroom and sometimes one of the ESL specials come into the classroom (Wright, 2015). Something that stuck out to me in the interview is how she negates one of the drawbacks to pull-out ESL. Michelle does small groups while her ESL students are pulled out of the classroom so they do not miss whole group instruction, which is one of the main disadvantages to pull-out ESL (Wright, 2015). She then waits until her ESL students are back into the classroom to bring them into their small group.
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub
Hello Veronica! I enjoyed watching your interview with Mrs. Avalos! It is a teacher’s goal to have all the students with the same goal to go to the next grade level. It is wonderful that Mrs. Avalos have some sort of accommodations for the ELLs such as visual pictures and trying to explain in a different simpler way for them. According to Wright, “So far, research can suggest that there are only two kinds of accommodation with the potential to support ELLs’ access to test content: testing students in their home language, and simplifying the language in the test” (2015, pg. 129). I thought that Mrs. Avalos tried to simplify by explaining it various ways, visuals with pictures, and testing on the computer. With having a great funded school and school district comes with benefits of having additional support such as having an aid come and pull out the students to work one-on-one during small groups/workstations time.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hi Katherine! I also agree that it's a good tactic what Ms. Avalos does to help her ELL students better comprehend what is being taught through visual aids, and the fact that her school is able to provided ESL teachers as aids is a plus! Students indeed can benefit from “pull out” ESL instruction because in many cases students tend to feel more comfortable practicing their new language and even build relationships with their ESL teacher, which enables the student to be more motivated to improve their language proficiency (Wright, 2015, p.107).
DeleteReference:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub
Hi Katherine! I felt her use of visual aids benefited the students because they were able to assist her students in actually seeing what is written and understand the question better. Accommodations refer to "modifications to the testing environment... that are intended to make up for the student's lack of proficiency in the language of the test" (Wright, 2015, p. 319), which visual aids fall under. Testing in their home language could also be a viable option but it only works if the student knows how to read their home language.
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition
Hi Nancy! I believe Mrs. Avalos' student benefit from the combination of pull-out and pull-in ESL programs. As you said, the students build relationships with their ESL teacher and feel safe in their ESL teacher's classroom (Wright, 2015). Since there is a pull-in ESL aspect, it helps further their relationships and feel safe in their mainstream classroom. The ESL students should know their teachers, whether they be the ESL or mainstream, will do the most to meet their needs.
DeleteWright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub
Hello Veronica! I enjoyed watching your interview. You mentioned that how Ms. Avalos negated the pull-out program stood out to you and it stood out to me as well. This particular program has been criticized by many for many reasons. "First, and perhaps most important, students miss out on instruction in their regular classrooms when they are pulled out" (Wright, 2015, p. 107). It seems that Ms. Avalos tried to avoid this problem by doing small groups while her other ELLs were pulled out. This could be very damaging to the ELLs because they need to be in the classroom to learn. "ESL instruction provided by the pull-out teacher typically is not coordinated with what the students are learning in their regular classrooms, largely because ESL teachers generally pull students from several classrooms, making it very difficult to coordinate with every teacher" (Wright, 2015, p. 107). With this challenge, the ESL teachers are not teaching the same content as the regular teacher so this could leave them to feel very confused when they come back to class later and have missed so much instruction. My cooperating teacher I worked with last semester struggled with this and had the principal come observe how disruptive to the classroom it was. She was a math/science teacher and the ELLs would come back in the middle or near the end of a math lesson and be very lost since they missed the beginning of it.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition
Hello Tori. I agree with you that Pull-out ESL has its pro’s and cons. However, pull-out ESL is designed to help English language learners students become fluent in speaking English (Wright, 2010). Because when student are not placed in the pull-out ESL program then they are generally placed in the mainstream classroom. When these students are placed in a mainstream classroom they often face frustration and disappointment because they do not understand the language. In the pull-out ESL classroom students felt more safe and comfortable speaking their native language.
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2010. Print. First Edition.
Hi Tori! You are correct in there are a lot of issues with the pull-out method, which makes some condemn this program. As you said, one issue is students miss out on their regular instructor's teaching, another is some mainstream teachers believe their ELL's are not their main responsibility, and some students feel shameful for being pulled out in front their classmates (Wright). I hope your cooperating teacher and principal came to a an understanding on how to fix their problem.
DeleteWright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub
Hi Shirin! You are right that about the pros to pull-out ESL. However, I feel that because her school also has aids come to her classroom, the aspect of feeling safe with their ESL teacher and in their ESL classroom could also be transferred to their mainstream classroom. In the pull-in method, the ESL teacher "goes into the regular classroom to work with the classroom teacher and her ELLs" (Wright, 2015, p. 109). I think Mrs. Alvalos uses both versions to her advantage.
DeleteWright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub
Hello Veronica. Your interviewee, Michelle, mentioned that her school incorporates a pull-out ESL and pull-in ESL program. Wright (2015) describes these as occasions where students are pulled out of the classroom and occasions where an ESL specialist comes into the classroom as an aide. I have seen both methods at work in my student teaching 1 semester in my classroom. During tests, exams, and quizzes the ESL students would leave with the ESL specialist who would be able to translate if they needed, this was done outside the classroom to not disturb the others. While in the classroom the ESL specialist sits with them to help them understand anything that was taught. I see a benefit to both methods but not solely one.
ReplyDeleteReference:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub
Hi Jerome! I think it's wonderful you were able to see both of these methods work in an actual classroom. I agree when you say you see benefits to both methods and not one because both the pull-out and pull-in ESL programs have cons. The pull-in method works best when the ESL teacher and the classroom teacher work together and is not regulated to the corner. I believe how Mrs. Avalos waits until small groups works most advantageously for the pull-out program.
DeleteWright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub
Hey Veronica. I agree that small groups are the best way to go. I mentioned that during tests the ELL students have the aide with them to translate the test questions. Wright states, "So far, research can suggest that there are only two kinds of accommodation with the potential to support ELLs’ access to test content: testing students in their home language, and simplifying the language in the test” (2015, pg. 129). Now the tests that we gave in our classroom in Student Teaching 1 was the same for ELL and other students. However, they had the aide available to translate for them. I think it is really beneficial this way.
DeleteWright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub
Hi Veronica, great questions! I found it interesting when Ms. Avalos mentioned that she relies on small groups when her ELL students are pulled out from the classroom. I think that is a good teaching method because that way the students don't miss out on important new lessons. Wright mentions that to approach good teaching, teachers are to ask themselves at what level their ELL students are, what are their learning goals, what are their academic needs, etc. (2015). This way, by Ms. Avalos doing small group and with both her regular students and her ELL students, she is able to meet those academic needs for all her students. I really like her idea, because during my observations for students that were pulled out I noticed the teacher kept doing whole group lessons without regards of the student that wasn’t there.
ReplyDeleteReference:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub
Hey Nancy. Just watned to touch on your comment about how Ms. Avalos relies on small groups when her ELL students are pulled out of the classroom. In our class we only pulled out our ELL students for tests so that they could have a translator if need be. However, I am not so much of an advocate for the pull out method during instruction. Wright(2015) states, "First, and perhaps most important, students miss out on instruction in their regular classrooms when they are pulled out" (Wright, p. 107) I agree with Wright on this one and do not think that students necessarily need to be pulled out unless it is for something specific. We are learning that in education all students need to be included in the classroom so why would I take out my ELL students during instruction when I can give the lesson and then fortify any information they need by working with them one on one in class.
DeleteWright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub