Transcription
Job okay. I guess I can start. So if you'll just tell us how long you have been an ESL teacher and kind of how you got started. Well, I feel like anytime you're a teacher, you're an ESL teacher because we have those students in our classrooms whether you're an ESL teacher or not. Um, but I've been in this particular position, this is my second year. Prior to that, I was a first-grade teacher for a long time, and I've taught second grade, third grade, and fifth grade. And all through my career, there's always been a student that's learning English. In fact, I got a new student—I remember, I'll remember this—the day we started like STAR testing, which… and he didn't know any English. So that was… and they still had him take it. Yeah.
How did you handle that situation? Well, I tried to make him feel as welcome as, you know, as I could. And it was kind of stressful because it was like the first day we started testing, and so it's always kind of like really nerve-wracking because you're trying to make sure everything's done. And they just put on so much pressure about, "Make sure you do this, this, and this" when you're testing. So I was trying not to appear super frazzled. I think it was my fourth year being a teacher, and I was just, "Do your best, do your best," okay? And he just kept looking at me, and I was like, "I know, I know, I know." But yeah, it was scary. Okay.
The next question you kind of already answered, but what grades have you taught and what grade do you currently teach? So first grade for a lot of years, the most, and then second grade, and I did a semester of third grade, a semester of fifth grade, and then I taught gifted for two years. And then I've been here in this position for two years. Um, and right now, as the ESL interventionist, I go through all pre-K through fifth grade, and I do some pull-out where I work with kids in small group settings in the pods. I don't know if you've seen me sitting out there. And then other times I push in and provide classroom support that way.
What do you use to promote your oral language in your classroom? Uh, so a lot of what I like to do in my class is have kids repeat what I've said. Um, if I give a direction, a lot of times I'll say—let's say it's a sequential order type procedural thing we're going to do—and so I'll say, "Step one: First, I'm going to write my name." So then I have the kids repeat it back to me. "Step two: I'm going to…" and then, you know, there's some kind of motion that goes with it. Um, and then the other thing is there's a lot of um peer talking to each other and uh purposely pairing up my EL students with high kids that have great vocabulary—the talkers—because a lot of times those ELs will really be shy and not really say anything because they just, you know, they're uncomfortable. Just like if you were asked to speak Spanish in front of a bunch of Spanish speakers, you would probably feel pretty intimidated. Um, and so I let the—a lot of times—the talker be the leader and having the EL student maybe have like a sentence frame where they can use to answer a question from their peer. And we've—maybe I've talked to that student ahead of time saying, "Okay, these are the ways that I want, you know, little Susie to answer. Can you help her say it this way?" Like, "I agree with you," because just very simple. Do you have Kevin in Lind's class, kid?
How do you differentiate your content—like math, science, social studies—instruction to promote oral language development? Well, I was just visiting with Mr. Cox actually today about that, and the one thing about teaching students that are emerging bilinguals is it's really good for just everybody. Um, you really have to work backwards, you know, when you're planning—planning with some—with that in mind—when somebody is learning English. So for me personally, it's a lot of gesturing, a lot of using pictures, and kind of being animated. Um, when it comes to assignments, students can have like a little something on the wall that has sentence stems for them to use to answer, um, or even little talking cards for them to use until they're comfortable. Um, the hardest part obviously is written answers. And so even just having some things pre-filled in for them. And right now, I have a second grader here who only speaks Turkish, and so that's interesting. And so we use a lot of talking about pictures. And then for his journal prompts, a lot I help him—if he really doesn't understand—I'll use the Google Translate to help him understand what the question is asking. And then um he will tell me as best as he can what he wants to say. So, for example, the prompt the other day was, "Would you rather live in a treehouse or a castle?" And so, of course, we had to look at pictures. I use lots of pictures—what a treehouse was is and what a castle is—and then he would tell me, "Treehouse," and so, "I would rather live in a treehouse." And so I wrote, "I would rather," and then in highlighter wrote, "live in a treehouse," and then he traced over my highlighter part so that he felt like he contributed to the writing. So I do that a lot. Um, math is a lot easier because numbers are so international. When you think of Ali, my Turkish kiddo, he does great in math. The story problems can trip him up obviously. Um, I unfortunately don't really see him very much during math, but sometimes you can—he's in second grade—translate the questions for him or teach him key phrases. Like we were working on, "How many more than yesterday?" and I was drawing and showing him what "how many more than" meant, and that really helped. Um, you really just have to be an animated, picturesque teacher.
How do you document and assess their oral language development? Well, every year—I don't know if you guys are familiar with the TELPAS testing—so that's kind of like my equivalency of the STAR test for my students. And um we can have like for Kinder and first, that testing is a holistic rating. So, oddly enough, I just happened to have one here. We have a checklist for the different language domains, and a student is rated from Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, Advanced High. And there's different domains for the different descriptor, or yeah. And it's kind of like a rubric so to speak. And some teachers—some ESL teachers—like to give these out or get these uh every nine weeks so they can rate their kids. And you can do it for the third, fourth, fifth graders as well. Um, and then as far as TELPAS goes, um the students will take that next week, and it will measure their language development for the whole year, and they'll also be rated Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, or Advanced High. Um, I wouldn't say that we really document—or it just kind of happens. It happens. You notice when they're in their reading, you notice it in their writing. Um, they start to use—instead of just single words—they use phrases. So you'll you'll notice that sort of thing happening, but we don't really document unless we have [Laughter] to… that. How often did you say that? Um, they take the TELPAS—the TELPAS itself is once a year—but the descriptors can be given out uh like every nine weeks or so just for documenting purposes if you have to have that. And these are all found on the TE—or the TEA website.
And then, um, in your opinion, what's the most difficult aspect of promoting oral language development for ELs? Getting them to talk. Um, just like I said earlier, you know, they're very shy about speaking a foreign language in front of peers that speak that language. Um, it's hard because sometimes—especially we have kiddos that will go leave school for a month and go back to their home country—not practice any English and then come back to school. And so it's kind of like a starting-all-over type thing. But for—for the most part—it's really just getting them to feel comfortable and that it's okay to try and speak the language. Um, English is hard, and the writing—you know, it's kind of a spiral effect—the writing becomes the last one to really um grow because you have to be able to speak it in order to write it. Um, and just giving them the courage to take risks and getting out of their comfort zone. The younger ones—I feel I have 11, I think, in pre-K—and they make so much growth because they're just little sponges, you know. But a fifth grader, it's going to take longer because they're already self-conscious, um, setting their ways so to speak as far as language goes. Um, and they really have to be willing to try and be engaged. I have a fifth grader who's not engaged at all, and his language acquisition has not been great because he's checked out. He's just waiting until they go back to Saudi Arabia.
So you talked about them not feeling very comfortable to get up and talk. How—like what's—are some strategies that you use to help make them feel comfortable enough to have a conversation? Um, sorry, that was an awkward question. I would say practice ahead of time, kind of like a rehearsed answer. Um, they may want to participate but don't know what to say. And so I might just whisper in their ear what to say. Um, having the kids cheer them on, uh, or even just have them talk in small—small group instead of whole group. Certainly don't want to force anybody that doesn't want to, you know. There are some that are very, very shy and won't say anything. Um, just support and encouragement and cheer them on when they do something that's brave. Do you have any sort of like system, like if you reach this stick or treasure walks or something? Uh, we do try to bribe them just like we would for STAR test when it comes to, you know, take their time. And um definitely we haven't really rewarded… No, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much.