ELL Case Study
EDLI 636
Cooperating Teacher Interview
Maya’s ESL teacher, Melanie, has been teaching ESL for five years and was previously a classroom teacher in an ICT classroom for 6 years; she is ESL and Special Ed licensed. Melanie explained that In her early years of teaching ESL at PS 321, the ELL population was mostly Latino and Asian and now the population is mostly Western European. The student group is more heterogenous than ever with most students speaking different languages. Many of the students’ families came to New York for their professional careers. A large majority of these students have strong prior school experiences, a great deal of prior knowledge, and sometimes speak a little English. A smaller portion of the students come from other areas of the world with parents moving to the United States for a variety of reasons.
Our ELL population is very diverse and we have never had a full pull out ESL classroom. The ESL model for our school is for ELLs to be placed in regular classrooms and receive a combination of pull out and push in ESL services with a lot of sheltered instruction. The classroom and ESL teachers collaborate to meet the needs of individual students. Melanie has run the ESL program at our school for the past 5 years. She teaches all of the lower and upper grade students. Maya, my case study student, is in the first grade.
In response to the interview questions regarding Melanie’s perception of ELLs learning motivation and performance in school, she commented that it is really no different than other students, and it depends on the child and his/her nature and experience. She said that talking is always the last frontier for ELLs and a silent period is to be expected, particularly for students who come to the school speaking little to no English. “Talking is always the scariest for them because they know that people are going to react and respond. This opens up a conversation which they may not be ready for”. She also mentioned that culture can play a factor in a student’s performance and motivation. “If the child’s culture is very different than the one they are coming into, we can expect that their transition and adjustment will be different. It is always helpful to find out as much as we can about the student and his/her experience through the family, and to find ways to best support that child/family’s transition based on what we know. It is always easiest to do this when the parent or a family member speaks some English, but when that is not the case, we are able to find translators either in the school or community.”
When asked specifically about ELLs reading and writing performance, she said that it varies and is relative to the student’s prior school experience, home environment, prior knowledge, and language, which can vary widely. “We have a lot of kids who come with a great deal of literacy skills that they transfer”. This is due in large part to the growing population of ELLs who come to our school from western Europe and from highly educated families. Many of these students have had solid prior learning experiences that they transfer to English.
When asked about difficulties that ELLs encounter in school, Melanie said that the learning differences and variations she sees within the ELL population are the same as it is with any other demographic. “Like any other demographic, there is a large range and continuum in learning with ELLs. Sometimes you will get a student who struggled with their native language and will struggle with English. Right now I have a student who is showing signs of dyslexia in English and it turns out she had similar issues in her native language.” A student’s native language can also play a role in a child’s adjustment to learning English. “Students who come to our school speaking languages that are more closely related to English are going to have an easier time learning English than students whose native language varies dramatically from English, like Arabic or Japanese. However, the personality of the student and prior learning experience are also strong factors.”
Melanie noted that because our current ELL population is largely European, with students whose parents speak some English, many of the students don’t rely on native language for an extended period of time and are able to transfer what they know to English more quickly. A difficulty that she has noted with some students is their adjustment to not being the learner they were in their native language. “Sometimes kids are accustomed to being a really great math student and now they cannot follow the math lesson. Or they may get upset that they have to read books that feel simple compared to what they were reading in their native language. It can be a humbling experience for some kids, particularly older children. Everything we do in school is based around oral language and learning can suddenly become difficult for ELLs when it once was not; this can be frustrating. For students who do not have a bold personality, and are not willing to take risks, the adjustment can be hard. We have to be sensitive to all of that”.
We did talk about outliers, kids who do not fall under the larger group of European families. “We do still get kids who come from all over the world and may not speak any English at all; they may also come from a very different culture on many levels. We know that these kids are going to have difficulty and are going to have meltdowns. At first we have to do all that we can to help these kids understand basics and communicate their basic needs. Pictures can be very helpful for this. And whenever we can find another student or staff member who speaks their language, that person can be of tremendous comfort and help to the student.”
In our discussion about how classroom teachers resolve ELLs’ learning difficulties Melanie talked about how teachers modify the curriculum and “take things down a notch”, when working with ELLs who are new to the school and English. A big theme in this part of our interview was the strength of the classroom teacher. Melanie takes into consideration how supportive and strong the classroom teacher is when thinking about her work with teachers and ELLs. “When a student is in a classroom with a strong teacher - a teacher who knows the curriculum and uses a lot of supports in his/her teaching - ELLs typically thrive because these are the kinds of supports they need. If the classroom is not as supportive, I can help create better access to the curriculum and support the teacher in helping the student.” Melanie talked about how we let ELLs write and even read in their native language alongside English to support ongoing academic development and skill transfer. Some specific ways that Melanie and classroom teachers try to resolve learning difficulties are to mindfully partner ELLs in mixed level partnerships and groups to support peer modeling, explicitly teach phonics, and whenever possible, pair an ELL up with another student who does speak their language. In our school this is often easy because our ELLs speak so many different languages.
Melanie is extraordinarily good with children and with parents. I have known her for years and she has this sense of calm and control, paired with extensive, practical knowledge that make her very effective in her position. Melanie has a gift for putting children and parents at ease, and offering sound, practical advice. She has years of experience working with students and families from a wide range of social ,cultural, linguistic, religious and economic backgrounds. She brings knowledge of English language learning and cultural sensitivity to all she does.
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