Blog:3 Teacher Interview
For my interview, I spoke with Ms. Hurtado. She is a sixth grade teacher at Hambrick Middle School. She teaches reading and writing, and has been doing so for the past 4 years since she began her teaching career. I never really talked to her before this interview. I only remembered her from a walk through we did in the ELA department. A walk through is when you go into about 4 or 5 different classes all in a time frame of about 20 minutes, and you takes notes of the culture in each class. Her class seemed to be oriented around students’ speech, language, and meanings. While I was in her class, I could tell she did some extra things such as give very thorough explanations, repeated a lot of instructions, and sometimes spoke in Spanish. I could tell that the students in her class were ELL. This made me remember, her because she seemed really passionate about her teaching. I felt I would get the most in depth feedback from her concerning the topic of second language learning. She gave me a lot of pointers that I could take with me. The most important advice she gave me, that I never really thought about, is that “ELL students understand the context. It’s the barrier of language that holds them back.” She says if students don’t understand the objective in English, they they shouldn’t understand it in Spanish either. But, if they do understand the information in Spanish, then we know what the real problem is. We have to be patient with them and understand the factors that maybe holding them back.
Here is my video
Here is my video
Hello Lawrence! My interviewee also occasionally speaks Spanish to her students when present instruction or helping them on a one to one basses. It sounds like Ms. Hurtado is great teacher and provider for her students. In the text it states that, "To help students succeed in the classroom and in school, teachers need to 'think linguistically', that is, teachers need to understand language as an integral element in the content they teach, the contributions that their students make in the classroom, and how these students participate in lessons and activities" (Wright, 2015). By the way Ms. Hurtado gives that extra assistance to her students and provides repetition of instruction, and sometimes in Spanish she is thinking linguistically about her students and making sure they succeed in her classroom.
ReplyDeleteYes Emily,
DeleteI think giving them an equal balance is the best approach.However, while giving them an equal balance, you would still have to critique each child differently, because one child may not understand what the next child understands. Student A may need two or three extra minutes in their native language, while student B may not need as much. To take students away from their home language and want them to receive a decent education doesn't coincide. Their may have a 60 minute native language program implemented in a school, but I think students may just need a little more.
Hi Lawrence, Ms.Hurtado seems like a nice teacher, especially since she said she does small groups, and some of the children have to start from level 0. Introducing them the basics all over again, which I find over achieving, since she has to take time away to help those in need because they basically are learning from the beginning. I think she finds it in a way easier to do this since she teaches reading and writing, therefore helping out the ELL's in a much more concrete way. The language barrier is another thing that students students struggle with such as academics and interaction, like Ms.Hurtado has stated and she provides many tools like anchor charts, and sentence charts to help the students in vocabulary and visuals like Wright. "Teachers should look for books and other materials that deal with the realities of students" (Wright).
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, Second Edition.
Hi Jesus
DeleteWright mentioned that teachers should approach children on the level they are on, and work with them on that level. Teachers should not max out students because you may cause them to shut down. Ms. Hurtado understands that because she was also once an ELL student. She has that nurturing approach that makes most her students draw towards her and work for her. That is a very important aspect I noticed as well.
That is very true Lawrence, the students need to work at the level they are on and not be forced on a higher level. This means that they work their way up through hard work with the teacher slowly moving towards that top level so the students become independent learners. (Wright, 2015) mentions that “the purpose of primary language support is to make instruction in English as comprehensible as possible for ELL's so they can learn the content and acquire more English. Ms. Hurtado's students must be lucky to have a teacher who has that nurturistic approach like you say, doing so Ms. Hurtado captivates the students attention even more.
DeleteWright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, Second Edition.
Hey Lawrence, I notice there there were a lot of different styles that Ms. Hurtado used depending on he classroom. It seems that she uses a lot of the effective strategies that are provided through out text book. One of those strategies that she mentioned was to give quick explanations for individual students also giving explanations during small group instructions ( Wright, 2015, p.300). These are strategies that my mentor teacher uses often in his classroom and I find that it is very helpful. We have a few students that are beginning ELL students in our classroom but have been able to see these students improve even in some cases being able to pick up on words in the word problems. The only time we allow them to use Spanish assignments in the classroom is during individual assignments including assessments and we have been able to see them really grow.
ReplyDeleteHi Andrew,
DeleteIt's good that you all allow them to do individual assignments in Spanish, but do you think that group assignments and homework in Spanish could be useful too. I'm not saying that we should give all their homework in Spanish, but maybe enough for them not to struggle. Giving them only a fraction of work in their native tongue is almost like the sink or swim method. I'm not taking anything away from you all because you guys are most likely doing a great job, but do you think they could get ahead not just in language but also academically by giving them work they could successfully comprehend and complete?
Hey Lawence, your teacher mentions how her students come with many gaps in the beginning of the school year and how she has to introduce them to picture books and literacy they are able to comprehend and is at their reading level. what she is doing is what Wright suggested “teachers can help ELLs acquire new words in instructional and natural, non-instructional ways, by understanding that vocabulary acquisition happens most easily in context and related to topics that the students care about” (Wright, 2015). She provides them with books that make sense to them or books with pictures where they are still able to see not just the words but the story progress with images. Giving them the extra support to learn new vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, Second Edition.
Yes Hilian,
DeleteI agree she does a lot of things that aligned with what we learned in this classroom. I believe that natural learning is the best form of acquiring a new language. Even though instructional learning is a good avenue, Wright stated that "naturalistic learning is geared more towards the students interest." This allows them to be more involved in there learning process. I really appreciated her authenticity, and more than likely, you could see it too with her description of her story time with her picture books.