Observations

So after emailing and caling back and forth with the school district, they have finally placed me in a ELL classroom. This teacher is only willing to work with me under the conditions that she has absolutely nothing to do with me and i stay out of her way. She also only took me in knowing i was to do 10 hrs, which I clearly stated as well as the deparment that set up the observations that it would be 20. The teacher and the assistant principle both emailed me and called me to let me know that now, in mid-April can finally start my 20 hrs but that they can only allow me their an hr and a half a day, for four days a week.

Today I have finally started my Observations and completed an hour and half of my assigned hours. I jumped right into working with the students. The class has about 8 to 10 1st graders in it from all over the world. Since students seemed to be missing i worked hand in hand with the teacher to complete a writing assignment with the students. Since they are preping for the NYSESLAT i worked on practice for the writing section.

The students got a picture, cut it out, glued it to their notebooks and then had to explain what was going on in the photo. The children learned to tell a story through a topic sentence, 4 details and a concluding sentence. some student were able to move through it with confidence and some had great difficulty. A young student from the Netherlands has only been in the country for about a year and came here with no english speaking skills. he now is able to communicate and write full sentences. He knows most sounds and letter and uses a letter chart to help him write. He also has a book that he writes sight words in if he doesn't now how to spell them. For example he wanted to write "They are ready to go out" but came to me to write out in his book and help form the sentence. Jackie an El Salvador 1st grader was nt only welcoming but was able to write descriptive sentances. she was also happy to correct miss spelled words and ask questions about how to spell something.

After they were finished writing and read it to me or Mrs. M, they were asked to underline the topic sentence, the details and the conclusion all in different color crayons. This will help them with organization for the exam.

All of the children seemed very excited to learn but even though they are willing they still have difficulties. Te project today was part of my writing sample. I'm trying to get as many children involved as possible. each week in going to try to have them do a writing sample. As the weeks continue hopefully they will improve and be ready for the written part of the NYSESLAT. It will also show the students their progress.

Tomorrow I plan to work on the QRI-5. Im hoping to use the rest of the week to test as many students as I can and get an idea of where they stand in relation to where they should be for their grade level. Mrs. M says many of them if not most are behind and even expeience difficulty in other subjects just because they are not able to read the material, not that they are unintelligent.