Observation notes from EL observation: October 1, 2015

Visuals that support content objectives of current instruction:

I can sort my words.
What are some jobs we see people do in our community?
I can write about y favorite job in Busytown.
Played Go Fish with flashcards:
Most liked the game.
One struggled with this, mostly because of social skills but not
because of language.
Struggles as an ESL teacher:
In four different classrooms.
Especially hard when your behavior management or
organizational skills do not mathc with the classroom teacher.
Co-teach science 1x/each day in each classroom (2 hours total),
otherwise she does small pull out groups in the morning. This is the
second week of pulling out small groups of students. Currently working
on letter sounds and short sentences.
PRESS made a difference for native speakers but only a little bit. It
made less of a difference for ELLs.
Pillsbury has a Spanish bi-lingual program. There is an almost allspanish Kindergarten classroom where they get about 30 minutes of
English all day. It is called 90/10 90% of literacy time is in Spanish
(not including specialists) 1st grade is 80/20, 2nd grade is about 50/50.
The goal is to transition the kids who are proving that they are reading
proficiently in Spanish, so to transfer scores into English.
Idioms or slang: Emily thinks this is a biggie, even for native
speakers.
Pullout - Other teacher behind wall: Smile (voice up), smile (voice
down), acting out words for crying, happy- This little guy spent time
crossing desert , She, you, I practice using people and pointing
Alex, grade 2 newcomer, L1. Ok, now we need to go find a guy.
Probably traumatizing and scary. Only child in the school. Teacher
worked with Student said: when I thought about America, I thought
food and streets were all painted gold. One Somalia refugee bit a
teacher on his first day, bit another teacher on the second day and was
expelled for a month. He was unhealthy, hernia, couldnt poo lots of

health issues and PTSD thought white people were going to eat
them. Someone told him this as a joke white, fat people a child who
is not mentally and physically unhealthy will believe him. Emily home
tutored him for a month, and he would just shake with fear, but it took
about 1.5 months of her visiting that he finally got more comfortable.
He had never left mom before that time. When he got to school he e
puked immediately from nerves, and could only handle half days. Also
started that the day after 20 kids were shot in school in new jersey. He
was hysterical and terrified of anyone non-Somali. After a few weeks
of he warmed up Emily taught rest of kids in family and said he was
fine
Kids: Its Miss Megan! (Insert tons of Spanish excitement words)
natural and sweet.
ELL teacher: recap at the end. Regroup and go through each bag. Who
thinks bag 1 has cotton balls - (point to picture, shakes bag)? Repeat
process with remainder of choices (6 choices, 6 bags) exactly the
same order each time cotton balls, Q-tips, m&ms, coins, cereal, rice
Classroom teacher pulled one student for small convo in Spanish.
Unit planning connect to what students already know: why do you
use q-tips? Yes, to clean! (Demonstrates cleaning ears) discusses
what else you can clan.

Summary:
Teacher: Emily Pederson at Pillsbury (Minneapolis)
Grade 1
7 ELL teachers: 6 full time and 1 .5 time. Each teacher gets one grade
and the .5 teacher gets leftovers
Class 1: Class had 22 students, 11 ELLs (L1), Grade 1

Insights:
Good teaching is just good teaching like Goldenberg said
1. Press Program like Pals
Press program did not follow process to learning the language. For
example, if you dont know what a cup is or a table is, it is hard to
learn the letter sounds to go into those words. Not based on modeling,
etc.
2. Idioms biggie from Megan and Oksana
3. Stories are here. Are real. Are now.

Different Classrooms
Home base classroom:
Dynamic words displayed:
WIDA based chart:
Level 1: fish
Level 2: I see fish.
Level 3: I see fish swim.
Level 4: I observe the fish swimming.
Level 5: I observe the fish swimming fast.
Student display: I would like to spell _______ words. (Student fills in
adjective)
Co-teaching Science: (mainstream)
12:45 Kids enter room Emily teaching - 22kids, __4_ELL who get
pulled earlier in the day.(L1)
7 hijaabs

Noticings in the classroom: 5 senses posters with pictures in English

an d Spanish
Calendar in English and Spanish,
What senses did we learn about this week hand up, big 5, points to
body parts as she identifies senses.
What senses did we learn about this week hand up, big 5
I can use my sense of touch .
What things do we touch?
Speaks slowly with lots of expression, repeats things, clarifies
statements. reinforces oral language with body and oral. Also used
SMART board. Soft teddy bear picture. Read word, describe. Repeat
with hard (rock), squishy (toy), wet (watermelon). Read this word with
me: cold (snow), hot (candle), smooth discussed all words, examples
and non-examples. Scientists use the word rough but you use the
word bumpy.
We are going to use our sense of touch today. Modeled how she
wanted them to touch and what they should be thinking when they
touch what is inside the box. Set expectations, all in English. Lots of
hand guestures. Pass feeling box around the circle.
What does it feel like? (Student repeats the exact words) mainstream
teacher prompted with a few words from the pictures Emily just
showed.
Second round, students are showing with their hands how it felt. One
student playing with higab. (super cutie in teal hija).
Students had a hard time saying words that described how it felt,
instead of what it was.
Two Somali girls whisper to eachother in Somali. Later whispered to
eachother in English.
Speaks slowly, uses the same vocabulary words A LOT during the
lesson. Students could use any vocab they wanted to to describe the
item, but I was impressed with how the ELLs were given several words
at the beginning of the lesson to use and participate with.
Legally blind child identified the last box a troll doll!

Teacher finishes up, we switch rooms.

Classroom 2: This classroom is almost all Spanish speakers- lots of L1.
Noticings in the classroom lots of books displayed English and
Spanish tables labeled with flags and country names in Spanish
groups (Spanish title) calendar, rules, flags, presidents, labeled in
Spanish. the world of English alphabet
English/Spanish/pictures/with blends a/a- b/ba c/co - j/ja- n/ni- n/nan
(with ~ over n) **more spanish than english displayed** Poster for
The Giving Tree in Spanish. Spanish alphabet with only Spanish words
(in addition to the other alphabet)
Student art work - Chinese writing? Black paint
Think in your head (point to head) What are some good sounds you like
to hear (with your ear, touch ear)? At night, crickets (says chirp chirp).
Lets think of bad sounds examples from children given in English.
Spanish teacher co-teaches in Spanish/inserts himself as necessary.
My 5 senses hearing:
Word bank:
Cotton balls (picture)
q-tip (picture)
M&Ms (picture)
Coins ((picture)
Cereal (picture)
Rice (picture)
Student is to shake
Students are very interested in participating. The students at the
teacher table are getting more check ins from the classroom teacher
and showing where to write letters. I love their accents as they are
speaking in English to eachother. There is a LOT of Spanish speakers in
here too.
Writing is very LARGE and spaced out on a lot of their work. Very
beginner-ish.
Spanish attention getter, English directions, a little Spanish in between.

ELL teacher stays with lowest group. Speaks slowly, points to where to
write answer. Gives letter by letter directions in Spanish and English
about how to spell the word, despite the words being in the word bank.
Number 4, yes, that says coins
Teacher prompt: I predict it is cereal (modeled). Say, I predict
(students repeat and finish sentence.)
Why do you think it is coins? What made you think that? just good
teaching!