Student Background Information For A Non Native English Speaker

When a student who is not proficient in English enrolls in school, parents are given an English language survey. When the parents fill out the survey, if the student’s parents respond to the first three questions on the survey that their home language is not English, then the student is given an English

English learners are currently the fastest developing student population in schools today. This makes it extremely important to provide these students with the programs and services they deserve. Providing a strong education for ELL students is what I personally believe to be an asset in America’s future. Today there are many challenges I believe teachers and students face when it comes to instruction and assessments.

The instructional setting is two eighth grade classrooms with class sizes of 28 and 32 students. Of the 60 students, ten are Hispanic, four are Asian, and one is African-American. All ten Hispanic students are bilingual with overall California English Language Development Test (CELDT) classifications of: one student intermediate, three early advanced, and one advanced. The remaining five Hispanic students have been reclassified to English proficient and do not require EL support. Four students are foster youth. Nine students receive special education support.

In this internship activity, I first researched Chapter 89 the Adaptations for Special Populations, Subchapter BB. I reviewed the policies as required in the Texas Education Code, Chapter 29, Subchapter B that ensures equal educational opportunities for every student in the state who has a home language other than English and who is identified as an English language learner. It is important to know the requirements and competencies for this program. I also became aware of the exceptions and waivers a district must submit a waiver for if it is unable to provide and bilingual education or English as a second language program. Once understanding the criteria and program design, I attended and observed an Language Proficiency Assessment Committee (LPAC) meeting where each student’s level of proficiency as discussed and educational goals were put in place for each student to master English language skills across all content areas.

In the United States, there has been an increase in in the number of children from Spanish speaking backgrounds. The English Language Learners, commonly known as ELL’s, are being placed in Special Education without being properly tested for a learning disability. However there are a large number of ELL’s with learning disabilities in elementary grades that truly have a learning disability and are over looked. Many school districts have problems placing ELL’s. As a result these students end up in special education whether they have a learning disability or language impairment. Teachers are also indecisive when dealing with ELL’s. Most teachers recommend that ELL’s

In Sara Gonzalez essay “Growing Up Bilingual” she gives a personal experience with The United States educational system on bilingual education. After arriving in the United States with two small children 30 years ago. She thought well about the school system and depended on them to teach her son English. Later that week she received a call from his teacher and principle to come in for a meeting. During that meeting her son and her was insulted by them stating “Is your son mentally retarded?

It is important as a teacher to make sure that they communicate with English Language Learners parents. ELL parents may have a difficult time becoming involved in their student’s academics because they might not know the English language as well. As a teacher, I will want to help the ELL parents as much as possible. I will inform the parents that I am here to help them in any way possible. And that I have found some very helpful community resources that aid in English acquisition and serve immigrant families that may be able to help them out. There might be a lot of questions that the ELL parents might have that as a teacher I will not know the answer, this is when the community resource can help them out. It was mentioned that when someone

The first student whom I assessed is an 11-year old female, going into the 5th grade in District 204. She was born and raised in Columbia for the first ten years of her life. The girl moved to the United States with her parents in June 2016. She speaks Spanish fluently, and at the time she arrived in the United States, she neither spoke nor understood English. The girl was placed in a general education class, and she receives bilingual instruction for about 30-40 minutes a day. She told me that her father speaks both Spanish and English fluently, and her mother speaks Spanish, and a conversational English. She also shared with me that her parents promote reading at home; they take her to the library to check out books, and encourage her to

As an educator I would be concern that a student speaks in simple langue given that

Over the past four years since John started school in Australia his level of English has improved a lot; especially his receptive use of the language. John is a talented language student and is achieving great results in both additional languages he is studying at the moment, English and Japanese. Due to his cultural background John does not volunteer to speak freely during class. This makes it hard for his teacher to find the degree of depth of his understanding of new concepts learned in class. However, he is a passionate language learner and his focus is to perfect his knowledge in both additional languages.

The United States is home to millions of immigrants from all over the world. During 2004 more or less about 5.3 percent or 2.8 million of Kinder-twelve grade students were classified as being limited in English proficiency. Most of these students came from homes where only Spanish was spoken by their parents and other family members living with them. I have chosen to do my research on “Should English immersions replace bilingual education”. This topic interested me as soon as I saw it because it is something I can relate to. When I was a child, my parents brought my brother and I to the United States. We lived right across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas which is where I live today. I was able to start school at a kinder garden level. My family’s native language has always Spanish. When I started school, I did not know one single word in English and my parents either, so all the help I got was in school and some private lessons I would attend a couple times a week that my parents were able to afford. I remember my teacher would give me one on one tutoring and would at first give me work in Spanish and then started mixing it up a bit and would sometimes give me the work in English rather than Spanish or sometimes even both. The teacher I have interviewed works for the Eagle Pass Independent School District, and teaches fifth grade at Benavides Elementary. I have known her for quite some time, even though her strong language is English she believes that English immersion

Vincent is an eighth grade student in the Elm Community Schools. He is an ELL student with Spanish as his primary language in the home. He came to the United State on July 19th, and his current ELL proficiency level is a two. A level 2 signifies that he has difficulty speaking the English language conversationally and academically. Based on this level Vincent is significantly below grade level in relation to the others in the classroom. Also in this level Vincent can understand parts of lessons and simple directions from peers and teachers.

This chapter discusses the ways in which teachers can assess writing in the classroom. Assessment for young students can be a turn-off. Especially when it comes to writing, students in elementary school are just beginning to write and if the students are not assessed in the right way then they could be turned off completely. This is why the three ways of assessment are extremely important for teachers of first and second graders. Although it is even more important to get a feel for the class and determine which method of assessment is the most beneficial to the class as a whole. I think this way because even though each student responds differently to teaching methods, it is important to make sure that the class is being treated equally. It would not be fair for the teacher to assess one student using the observing method, which I see as an easy assessment, and then another student be assessed based on the final product. The process and the product are completely separate parts of the writing process and both aspects show different levels of the students’ understanding.

I have selected a student that for all intents and purposes, I will call her Zaire who is 16 years old. She is from Mexico City. However, she has dual citizenship because her parents are both from Denver. It kind of surprised me when I found out she spoke minimal English because she looks like she is from Northern Ireland, with red hair and blue eyes. Her parents had been missionaries and lived in various parts of Mexico until about 3 years ago. According to Zaire, her family spent roughly 16 years living in Mexico returning only long enough to renew Visas. Her mom and dad spoke English in the home while they lived in Mexico however her education was in Spanish and because of that she knows very basic conversational English. Her ACCESS score is a level 3 meaning that her English skills are developing and she requires visual supports to help her fully summarize key concepts in class. She has two brothers one older and one younger. Zaire’s older brother was born here and started school before the family moved to Mexico. He is 19 and speaks fluent English; he came with her to back to school night, instead of her parents. Her younger brother was born after they returned to Denver and has not started his education yet. I have not met him but, she stated that he can speak both English and Spanish. I have not had the pleasure of meeting her parents. They seem to travel frequently for work and her older brother is in charge of most of her daily activities.

I observed a sixth-grade math class in the sixth period, where there was one ESOL level 1 student, hereby known as Student B. The class period contained approximately 16 students and was substantially diverse. However, Student B is the only child receiving ESOL services. She arrived from Argentina a few weeks ago and cannot speak a word of English. During this period there was no prior knowledge or guided activity performed. The teacher directly displayed proportion examples on the promethium board and had the students work on their own. Then she went desk by desk and asked if the students needed any personal assistance. When she arrived at Student B’s desk, the teacher asked me if I could translate the problems for the student.