TheELL

Report Template
1. Description
a. The setting of the field experience (e.g., in a classroom, at a community organization location,
etc.). The setting of my ELL field experience is a classroom. The class is a CRCT remediation
that my school operates each March using grant funding. In the program, teachers at the school
teach tutoring sessions during connections class periods, and students are pulled out of
connections classes for one period per day to prepare for the test. Students are recommended to
the program by their subject area teachers based on their performance in the classroom and prior
CRCT administrations. In this case, two different ELL students were recommended to the class
that I was assigned to teach.

b. The student(s)use a pseudonym to maintain confidentialitywith whom you are working (e.g.
age, grade level, level of English Proficiency, personal characteristics based on
observations/interactions, other information that may give the reader a more in-depth description
of the student) I am working with two different students, Ernie whose native language is
Spanish and Bert, whose native language is Swedish. Both students are in the seventh grade,
and both are at varying points in the ELL process. Ernie is at the higher end of the English
proficiency spectrum and is in the monitoring stage of the ELL program. He is also a special
education student and has an identified learning disability. Bert would be categorized as an
intermediate language learner. He was not recognized as a special education student, and his
prior standardized test scores identify him in the average range of intelligence. In addition to the
CRCT Remediation class, Ernie is also in my small group special education math class.

c. The days and times that you met with the student.
Both students were in the same CRCT remediation class, and the class met several times over the
course of the month of March and the second and third weeks of April with a break in the first
week of April for Spring Break. The class met every weekday from 10:05am to 10:55am I
worked with the students specifically using the ELL strategies and tactics to teach Mathematical
vocabulary utilized in solving word problems on April 14 and April 15.

d. Ways in which you interacted/engaged with the student (including pedagogical strategies).
Since the concepts that were taught mainly included teaching vocabulary terms, I focused on
finding methods for explicitly teaching vocabulary in class. To that end, I used pictures and

diagrams to introduce the terms such as increase, decrease, etc that the students struggled with.
During the class period, Ernie seemed to struggle more with the content than Bert which
may have been caused by his disability rather than his language learning. Following the
introduction of the terms using the pictures and diagrams, I had students act out some of the
terms and some related terms such as increase/incline or decrease/decline in order to add some
action to the abstract terms in the math content. I also had each student in the class brainstorm
ways that each term could be used in his or her own life. Finally, as a final activity in the April
14 class, I had each student create a Frayer model to help remember each of the terms. During
the April 15 class, I began with a review of the terms from the day before including a further
discussion of the relations to students lives and revisiting the hand motions/activities that we had
practiced the day before. Following the review, the students were asked to highlight the key
terms and indicate the required operation in a set of word problems. They were then asked to
translate each word problem into an equation or number sentence and solve.

2. Objectives and Assessments

Write 2-3 learning objectives and state how you will assess each. Provide evidence for meeting the
objectives.

Objective

(Content) The student

will investigate the
characteristics of
quadrilaterals.

Assessment

Was the objective met?

Evidence of student
learning.

Example
(Formative). I will observe and ask
questions while the student is
working.

Yes. Maria was able to look at the

quadrilateral manipulatives and
identify (show and explain) all
the characteristics of each.

The student will

identify key words that
signify various
mathematical
operations in word
problems.

The student will be asked to

highlight the key words in word
problems and indicate the correct
operation in those word problems
as well as correctly solving the
problems.

Yes. Both students increased

their ability to find and highlight
the key words needed to solve
word problems. Ernies totals
went from around 50% to 75%
and Berts went from around
65% to about 85%.

The student will use

and understand the
accepted language of
the seventh grade
mathematical
standards.

I will observe and ask questions in

an informal setting regarding the
mathematical concepts that are
covered in the class.

The student will use

knowledge of
mathematical
processes and terms to
translate word
problems into algebraic
expressions, equations
or mathematical
number sentences and
solve those
expressions, equations
or number sentences.

The student will be asked to

translate a set of word problems
into the appropriate algebraic
equation or number sentence and
solve the equation or problem.

Yes and No. Bert was able to

begin understanding the
language of the seventh grade
standards and using the proper
terms such as multiply, divide,
add and subtract as well as
discussing proportions correctly.
Ernie was still unable to use the
proper language continuing to
use times and goes into
instead of multiply and divide.
However, that may be more a
function of his disability than his
language proficiency.
No. While the students were able
to highlight and understand key
words, some of the nuances of
recognizing the operation to be
used in word problems were still
difficult for them. Also, both
students still struggled with
eliminating or ignoring
extraneous information.

3. Resources
You are required to use 2-3 ELL-specific resources to help inform your understanding of ELLs and
increase your pedagogical strategies to assist students who are English Language Learners (ELLs). You
may use the resources listed within the module or other resources available to you. Briefly describe how
the resources were used to assist in your experience.
To reach the objectives that I set forth for my students in my lessons, I used a variety of resources and
techniques from three different sources. My sources and the techniques from each are listed below:

The IRIS Center for Training Enhancements. (2011). Teaching English Language
Learners: Effective Instructional Practices Retrieved on April 13, 2014 from
http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/ell/
Re-write instructions to emphasize key words to ensure that students understand
and learn the content, they must first understand the activity or assignment. To
that end, I worked with the ELL students to re-write the directions for the
assignment that they completed as a sort of assessment for the lessons. Prior to
re-writing, I had them underline the words in the directions that they did not
understand. We then re-wrote the directions together using words that were
familiar to them.
Use pictures to teach vocab while my students sometimes did not understand the
specific math content words, they often understood the symbols that
communicated those terms. To that end, we used picture flash cards to quickly
review the different terms that they would be expected to relate to word problem
language.
Dramatize or act out vocabulary words in discussing the terms that are important
in translating word problems and solving them, the ELL students were not wholly
familiar with some of the terms that I wanted to use for references
(increase/incline; decrease/decline), so I had them walk up and down the ramp
heading to our gym to illustrate the incline and decline.
Bomengen, M. (2010, September 16). ESL Teaching strategies: Improving
vocabulary improves reading fluency. (weblog post) Retrieved from
http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/post/2010/09/16/ESL-TeachingStrategies-Improving-Vocabulary-Improves-Reading-Fluency.aspx
Highlighting words as we worked through some problems, I had the students
highlight the words that they thought would be important in solving the problems.
When they had completed the task, we discussed whether the words they
highlighted were or were not important and why they were important or not
important.
Repetition as we discussed the different words that would be important, I was
very careful to provide at least three repetitions of each definition. I also required

students to write the definition of the word three different ways on their Frayer
models (in their native language, in English in dictionary terms, and in their own
words in English).
Flash cards I created flash cards with pictures as noted above.
Robertson, K. (2009). Math instruction for English language learners. (web blog
post). Retrieved from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/30570/
Talk through and/or model problem solving strategies I always walk students
through my thinking as I solve a model problem. We then discuss the thinking that
I used and the strategies that I employed for solving the problems. In this case, I
had to be careful that I did not use jargon or idioms in talking through my problem
solving.
Share problem solving strategies after I talked students through my own problem
solving strategies, I had them solve other problems using their own strategies. I
ask for volunteers to share and explain their strategies. We discussed the
strategies as a class. At times I played devils advocate to make students think of
possible drawbacks of their strategies and work together to come up with
solutions.