My Experience For Speaking English

Playtime and Academics in Kindergarten Kindergarten, the most exciting educational time for anyone’s life. Every child’s dream of finally going to school and having time to play with children they just met. But now a days is playtime still considered a learning way for kindergarteners? Lea Winerman, writer of “Playtime in Peril,” explains how psychologists and educators have found research that young children in New York and Los Angeles spend less time on playtime when they are in kindergarten. Kindergarteners have been having way less playtime than twenty years ago, they barely have time to learn while playing.

The school would purposely put us in different classrooms, to separate us from each other. Although I was lowered a grade because of my lack of knowledge in English, I now realize that I was lucky enough to come to the United States at an early age. It is easier to understand a new language as a kid. All throughout elementary school, I was an English Language Learner. Being a transfer student from a Spanish speaking country to a foreign country was probably the hardest thing that I have ever dealt with. In class, the teachers would make me read aloud. I did not like reading in class because I knew that I was going to mispronounce a word and my classmates would laugh at me. When I would learn something new in school, I would always be eager to go home and tell my parents about it. I was exposed to two different languages everyday. From living in an all Spanish speaking household to going to school everyday where teachers told us that English was the only language that was allowed to speak in the classroom. We would be scolded by the teacher, when we would talk Spanish. If it was not for them, I would not be able to fluently speak, write and understand English. I realized that although I had many bad experiences

While writing might seem like a simple task, it can be a daunting task for a lot of people. Sometimes it can be hard to express the ideas in your mind in the words of a paper. This results in a disconnect with what a writer may actually think. A great writer is one that can transform his thoughts into words perfectly. This is a craft that takes many years to perfect, which is why writing is troublesome for a lot of us. Many students also have had bad experiences with writing. Maybe they had a teacher that didn’t try to support them and their writing. They might not have ever gotten the help they needed and may feel that they are in a hole where their writing can’t get better. At this point, they just accept that their writing will never get better.

The schedule for my day involved various classroom activities, many songs on the smart board, recess, lunch, nap time, crafts, and the end of the day. The day started with “playtime” around the

After recess it was the children’s “Planned review time” which is where they all spread throughout the classroom and explore in the classroom and play with toys they like and play with their friends. This is where the kids learn and practice their social skills, practice being kind to one another,

In elementary school, boys hung with the boys and girls did whatever they did with girls. We acted silly in class to get a laugh, talked loudly and generally didn't pay attention to the teacher. Back in the day, the teacher would give you a paddle if you got out of line and my 4th-grade teacher was no exception. Her method of punishment would make the student gather rulers from fellow students and then use that newly formed weapon on your hands. It was the same as mothers making you go outside and get a switch from a bush. I would watch as the "bad boys" would weep as this teacher would wail on their hand. Of course, after school, we would tease the bad boy by calling him a girl. I did everything I could to not get paddled, however, I knew deep down I wanted to see if I could take the pain

Throughout the course of the day, the kids were either playing one on one with each other, playing in a group, or playing with a staff member; very rarely did they play by themselves. The dynamic with which they played, however, changed throughout the day, depending on the activity. I found that during morning free play was the time the kids were more likely to play by themselves, or with a staff member. During this time there were also fairly large groups (5 or 6 kids) that

I had to use English all day, and understand everything in English. How difficult for me, who speak Chinese 18 years, to use a totally different language to live in a strange country. Although I’ve never had a communication in English before I came there, I tried to speak with my classmate using my terrible English. I did not give up practicing English. After 11 months to studying English, I entered Santa Barbara City College.

Part 1: To be perfectly honest, I’ve never had a time where I have felt very isolated or very included in a school setting, well not a time that is particularly memorable. But, from talking to my friend, Caroline, she remembers her senior year of high school she was had a writing class and the majority kids in that class were the “cool/popular kids.” She recalls many instances where her teacher, Mrs. Upadhyay, would mock or make fun of the questions she would ask or the comments she would make in class. There was one instance where there were a group of popular boys in class and they were insanely chatty. Her teacher never asked them to stop talking but when Caroline turned to her partner to ask a question she was immediately called out. Another instance was when Mrs. Upadhyay was lecturing and a lightbulb went off in Caroline’s head. She thought she would say something that would really impress the class and help them understand the lecture. She raised her hand, when her teacher saw it instead of calling on her she chose to ignore her. Caroline thought it was okay though, she would wait until Mrs. Upadhyay was finished. Shortly there after, a popular boy raised his hand and she stopped her lecture to call on him. Caroline was completely appalled by this. She immediately cut off the

The most useful event for my learning was the literacy activity, where students learned how to create an alliteration poem. When I assisted with the activity, I provided a definition for the students to grasp a further understanding of the concept. An alliteration is a sentence or line of a poem that has at least two or more words starting with the same sound or letter. For example: Marlon makes a marmalade with mangoes.

Teachers applauded boys for trying, yet cut me off when I spoke and were quick to point out my mistakes in front of the entire class. School didn’t just teach me my ABC’s and how to count to one hundred, it taught me that my words weren’t worth anyone’s time.

In third grade I was enrolled in an ESL (English as a Second Language) class. My teacher was Hmong and he would always speak Hmong to us and tell us to respond back to him. It was the first day of class when he asked me “ Nyob zoo, koj lub npe hu li cas?” (Hello, what is your name?) I would answer “My name is Toni Kong.” He would then tell me to repeat myself until I answered back in Hmong. I did use to hate him because when he made me speak in Hmong I felt embarrassed because I wouldn’t be able to answer back, unlike the other kids but this is a common case for a lot of first and second generation Hmong kids. The reason for this is moving to America and learning how to speak English. As English is spoken more often of form of communication with other people, overtime people forget how to speak their native language because it isn’t spoken on a daily basis anymore.

It wasn’t until third grades that I began to notice gender stereotypes. Why should I have? I loved playing soccer, and I played as well as, if not better than, the boys. I was equally as fast and equally as talented. At this time, I didn’t know that society expected girls to be poised and proper instead of hard headed and stubborn. My mother soon gave up on her dreams of dressing me cute to church. She wanted me to wear one thing and naturally I wanted to wear the other. I soon acquired another nickname. This time I was called “Contrary Mary.” During recess in third grade, the gym class was taken outside on a hot humid Illinois summer day. We were to run a mile, this meant six laps around our school’s exterior perimeter. I loved to run and to me everything was a competition. I finished first. I was sweaty, and my heart was thrumming from the run. Soon after me, the boys finished their mile. I was accused of cheating, and I learned that day that it is not acceptable for a girl to finish before a boy in our society. I beat the boys again, this time in pull ups doing twenty-five, and again I was accused of cheating. Of course, I was accused of cheating. These boys never thought that maybe my background in gymnastics and determination were enough to help me complete this task. Later in life, I played as the only girl on an otherwise all boys travel soccer team. I was intimidated; however,

At five years old, leaving behind my parents and my whole life back in America was quite a scary experience for me. My mom later told me that as she dropped me off at school, I stood at the school gate, I looked emotionally bewildered as I waved goodbye. I was led away from the gate by my Didi, the caretaker of me and five other girls in one dorm room. Being shy at the time, I let my Didi introduce me to the other girls in the room. Most of the girls knew few words in English, but they all spoke Gujarati, which was foreign to me. I did not want to be the “new girl” that no one talked to because I was different than everyone else. I soon learned that the girls in my room were also feeling the same way I felt about entering a boarding school. I learned that they were

English is a subject I have always felt strong with as a student, this area of strength has not only benefitted me in my this course but has helped me to succeed in every class I have taken. American literature so far has gave me a new and refined understanding, from read and writing to communicating my ideas in group discussions. Never before have I been able to have such a confident understanding of was I was reading and writing. I have gained a new and refined belief of what it means to annotate a text and why it is important, though I will always have reserved feelings about them. In discussion groups by referring to my annotations I am able to express my ideas and observations about the text. I have never before been so challenged with a piece of writing, throughout my career as a student prompts had always been specific and specifications were always strict. Writing literary analysis was not only a new type of essay writing for me but it required me to refer back to my annotations and think deeper about why I was having certain thoughts and opinions on a text to develop an argument. Whether it is reading, writing, or speaking the significance of everything I have mastered, and will continue to learn in english class will allow me to have fate in they way I express myself in the future.