Observation 1

I am observing at Washington Elementary School with Mrs. Wagner. I was excited about observing ELL students because in my past observations, I have always observed the whole class. I arrived at Washington Elementary School, checked in with the secretary, and headed to Mrs. Wagner’s classroom. I kind of got lost but found my way! No worries =D
Mrs. Wagner was working with a small group of students when I walked into the room. She told me what she was going to have me do for the day. I was going to observe an ELL assistance work with a student until 10:30am, work with the student until 11 am on his math; work with a different student with her math until 11am; and then read with a kindergartener in Mrs. Davis’s room.
It was interesting observing because some characteristics of the student came into my mind. I would say the student is very good at his English. I wondered if his parents speak English at home too or not. I loved the fact that he did not mind me sitting next to him because I have had experiences in the past where a student did not want me sitting next by him the first visit. Finally I got a chance to work with him one on one with his math. He is a very bright child. With a couple of the problems, I told him that drawing out pictures helps me a lot and I thought that he should try drawing a picture to help him get the answer too. I model how to find an answer by drawing it out and I had him do the next problem drawing pictures. And it worked, he got the right answer. We did not get done with all the problems that I anticipated for us to get done but as long as he understood everything else then that is what counts!
It was 10:30 and he had to go back. I waited and another student came. I helped her with her math too. She seemed to be shy. She wasn’t as talkative as my first student. We were working on greater or lesser than math problems. In her math book, “greater than” is not said “greater than”; it is said “more than” and I kept on saying “greater than” because I grew up learning it by saying “greater than or lesser than”! I kept on correcting myself and thinking that the student might think I am slow! Oh well. 11am came by fast and I left to go to Mrs. Davis’s kindergartener classroom.
I read with a student. He was very adorable, loud, talkative, and funny. We were reading about Dinosaurs and Wow!.. he was excited. When we were reading, I stopped him a couple of time just to check his comprehension and it was there! Every time when he did not know a word, he would say, “what is this?” very loud. I thought it was funny how the way he said it. I have seen many students read in the past; and I can now say that I can see the difference in reading level. This student that I was working with is probably in the beginning level or reading. His reading is not very good but it’s okay. He just need that extra help to get him sped up. Noon came around and the kindergartners had to go to special class. Overall, I thought it was a great day!