Reflection Post #3

As we progress through the semester, I am beginning to notice just how many possibilities there are in regards to the different methods and strategies to teach ESL. While we have been learning so much about the various activities and approaches to effective teaching and even learning ESL, I have been noticing many similarities between the most effective methods, and the methods my French teacher from High School used. Since she has always been one of my role models in teaching, it is interesting to be learning these things in LLT 307 because they directly correlate with what I already hold as exemplary teaching and maximizing the amount of learning in students.

As far as the kindergarten class that I do my Service Learning in goes, I continue to notice that classrooms in the 21st century are more and more reflective of the melting pot that America is becoming. The teacher I am shadowing has her plate completely full with not only teaching them the regular curriculum, but teaching them basic English as well. Not only that, but the language barrier between the students makes it hard for them to have meaningful interactions with each other. We have both noticed that instead of being able to tell each other the item that they would like the other to share, or ask one another to pass something, they are forced to go ahead and do or take exactly what they want. This leads to a lot of frustration among the students and situations often result in violence or yelling in order to demonstrate this frustration. I think it would be useful to implement some lessons on how communicate amongst each other, at least in the school setting.

With the SIOP essay and our midterm coming up, I am honestly looking forward to making myself go back over all the material we have covered so far and really get a more in depth understanding of everything. I feel as though I haven't had time to actually process and internalize a lot of our content so far due to being so busy with everything else this semester, so I think the midterm will be a good opportunity to do so.