Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement
            What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

                  Overall, I would say my presentation.  I felt like I explained my three answers so that both the seniors and juniors in the class would understand how I came to the conclusion of those answers. I explained components of each answer to make sure that the students in my presentation understood, and were able to grasp why I choose my answers to be answers to my EQ.

(2) Questions to consider
           a. What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation(self-assessment)?
                          P+
           b. What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project(self-assessment)?
                         P
(3) What worked for you in your senior project?
              My activity. What I did for my activity, was I translated a poem from English to Italian. I gave every other student a name tag to wear around their neck and they would be the "teachers". While the ones who didn't have a name tag were the "students". The teachers (had the poem in english) role was to best teach to their capabilities and from what they learned in my presentation, from my first two answers to use those strategies and techniques to teach the student (with the italian poem) what the poem said. The students in my presentation were able to feel a E.L. student's struggle learning a new language and the "teachers" were able to understand the complexities first grade teachers face when wanting to teach an E.L. student English. They only had to teach one student whereas a first grade teacher would have to teach a class of 32 students with E.L. or non-E.L. in the class.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine what would you have done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?
                              I would probably pace myself. I wasn't nervous when doing my presentation, but when I presented , the whole time the students in my presentation were dead silent, so I took it as they were getting bored. Which I didn't want, so I tried to speak faster so that I could retain their attention until the activity. I made time but I would , now, not take the silence to mean they are bored but that they are attentively listening.

(5) Finding Value
            How has the senior project been helpful to you and your future endeavors? Be specific and use examples.
                       Senior project has helped me look more closely at future careers I might want to do going to college and all now. I really liked first grade teaching and I have found myself looking at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to see the projected amount of jobs in the next couple of years, and when I will graduate from college to see my success of getting a job in the market. I am trying to find all the information I can to possibly pursue this as my future career.

Mentorship

Literal:

On side of blog

Interpretive:
      What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?
   
         The most important thing I gained from this experience was about finding opportunities where I could find a mentorship in what ever area of field I want to study in when I go to college.Also, being able to work in a field where I might go into with some experience with help me a great deal just because I will have some prior experience  besides textbook knowledge.  I also gained working with others. I worked with the teachers I helped, I have worked with peers, so working together well with a diverse group of different personalities.

Applied:
    How has what you've done helped you answer your EQ? Please explain.

          I gained my first two answers from my experience with my mentor. Being able to work with these first graders and being able to get hands-on experience was able to provide me with the ability to best "teach" first grader english learners. I was able to better comprehend my answers: social learning through oral language. I was able to notice that when I was helping these first graders, the english learners and non-english learners would constantly communicate(talk to each other). My other answer is interactive teaching through oral language.This one I was able to observe first hand throughout my mentorship because of how the teacher included english learners and their responses.

Exit Interview

(1)What is your essential questions and answers? What is your best answer and why?

              EQ:What is the best way for a 1st Grade teacher to maximize and E.L. student's score on district's test?

 Best Answer: There are many ways for a 1st grade teacher to maximize a E.L.'s student score on their district's test. One of the most effective ways a 1st grade teacher can maximize a E.L.'s student's score on their district's test is by social learning through ELD programs in schools.

         -This is my best answer because there is more factual and concrete evidence that have lead me to many articles discussing on the importance, the value and different ELD programs and the effects of success the children have with these implemented programs in place at their school.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

       I did a lot of articles focusing on my foundation. I noticed  a lot of social learning aspects at schools that lead me to my first and second answers . However, my third answer didn't occur to me until I did a general search of E.L. students. It led me straight to ELD programs and that's when I started to look into them as a possible answer and found a lot of articles with research evidence or test they(the authors) conducted in different ratio settings and different types of programs.

(3) What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?

             I faced problems such as trying to find someone who was well-rounded with E.L. students in their classroom other than my mentor. Some had already retired and others were barely starting out as teachers so the didn't have as much experience that could be beneficial to me. To solve this little bump in the road what I did was, I went to either a grade level below 1st grade or above and asked around who would be willing to interview with me about E.L. students, and teachers who have worked with children a long while. That's when I found Mrs. Chan. She worked in other grade levels but had the most experience with kindergarteners, who had a lot of experience with E.L. students. 

            

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

          Mrs. Chan who led me to finding out what me third answer was going to be early on and Ms. De La Pena who lead me to finding research about my first two answers and later referred me to Mrs. Chan as a possible source to help find  a more different perspective on what E.L.'s may need.Both teachers thought what E.L. students' needed was different because of the grade level they taught and the amount of children in each class. 

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

LITERAL

(a) I, Xena Perez-Angeles, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) Several teachers at the school. One of the ones who helped me the most was Mrs. Chan, especially because I did my last two interviews with her. She also referred me on what I should look up during my research checks.

(d) Overall, I helped various teachers with anything they needed but Mrs. Chan was the one who had the help from me, especially because she helped me with my interviews. I helped her doing the regular activities she did with the children such as making sure they are focused on the task at hand, they wrote down what they needed to write and organized the children. I helped the other teachers on the campus by making copies; grading test, quizzes, ect. ; inputing grades into the grade book ; and filing as well as printing.
   

INTERPRETIVE

 Something significant when I was helping Mrs. Chan she had previously mentioned in the interview was the support of the English Learner students at home and school from their parents. The biggest impact to the children are the parents supporting the children in the acquisition of a new language. I saw in the mornings that the children's parents would come and volunteer in the morning in their child's class. However, as the day progressed the parent volunteers will slowly start to dwindle. Mrs. Chan explained the difference this year's class compared to last year's class was that although there were less E.L. students in her class last year she had more parental support on the child through parent volunteer involvement in their child's classroom. This year's class has significantly more E.L. students yet their is very little parental support through parent volunteer involvement in the child's' classroom. I saw evidence of this where I saw only two or three parents maximum come and be a parent volunteer for the morning in comparison to other classes as well.  (I will provide photos/ transcripts very shortly. I do not has some at this time.)

APPLIED

Mrs. Chan helped greatly in giving more hands-on with my second and third answer. My second answer was social learning through oral language and I realized in her classroom that this is especially presented, and used with E.L. students in the elementary grades especially kindergarten to 3rd grade. These are the "active" years for the children because they tend to be more social with their interactions , thus they talk more to each other which can be a proven distraction in the classroom but is beneficial to the students during their recess and lunch break.My third answer was social learning through ELD programs in schools. At the end of the school day, there were a handful of children, also E.L. who were enrolled in ELD programs after school and I saw that the children interacted socially with the other children who were not only in their grade level but a year or two older then them.  The older E.L. students, who know more about "correct" english would help the younger ones correctly pronounce what they were trying to say so that they start to use that term or phrase. I compare this to, better yet an example of this is when a mother has a son or daughter who cannot pronounce a difficult word. The child mispronounces it, but the mother states to the child how to correctly pronounce it and the child repeats the word back to the mother to make sure he or she is pronouncing is right. The mother isn't telling the child "You are wrong! It is said like this..", but simply " Oh, the word is actually...." in a positive statement rather than a negative one that will be hurtful towards the child making the child not want to learn anymore. With Mrs. Chan I  helped her, through spring break with an easter egg activity that was fun for the kids but also helped them learn correct spelling and numbers in order to better succeed at first grade .

April Post

So today I went and volunteered at Mrs. Chan's room. I helped with the children who were being especially rowdy today. She had told them that if they behaved they would get cookies, at the end of the day they didn't because while we had all gone to the library they were running, and they were not using their inside voice. So when I told they to go in a straight line, quietly, Mrs. Chan followed but at the end of the line because I was leading it and I had to watch the kids in the middle and front and make sure they behaved. Later when the kids went home I was in Mrs. Chan's room conducting my interview with her.

Blog #18: Third Answer

EQ:

    What is the best way for a 1st grade teacher to maximize an E.L.'s  (English Learner) student's score on their district's test?

Answer #3:

  There are many ways for a 1st grade teacher to maximize a E.L.'s student score on thier district's test. One of the most effective ways a 1st grade teacher can maximize a E.L.'s student's score on their district's test is by social learning through ELD programs in schools.


1.Students learn more though talking and interacting with one another and to interact with one another to help is the goal of the ELD programs

2.How students interacting with one another help each other through ELD programs such as the one-way or two-way programs.

3.How long the students take to learn the language while the implantation of the ELD programs such as the one-way or two-way.

Research:

1.Hay, Ian, and Ruth Fielding-Barnsley. "Social Learning, Language And Literacy." Australasian Journal Of Early Childhood 37.1 (2012): 24-29. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Sept. 2013.
2.Gándara, Patricia, Maxwell-Jolly, Julie, and Driscoll, Anne. "University of California Linguistic Minority Research Institute." Listening to Teachers of English Language Learners: A Survey of California Teachers' Challenges, Experiences, and Professional Development Needs [eScholarship]. University of California Linguistic Minority Research Institute, 01 Jan. 2005. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.
3.Hakuta, Kenji. "University of California Linguistic Minority Research Institute." How Long Does It Take English Learners to Attain Proficiency [eScholarship]. N.p., 1 Jan. 2000. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.
4.Genesee, Fred, Kathyrn Lindoholm-Leary, Donna Christian, and William M. Saunders. "Educating English Language Learners: A Synthesis of Research Evidence." Google Books. N.p., 2006. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.


Conclusion:
 Since there are many different ways for a 1st grade teacher to help a E.L. student, one of the most effective ways for a 1st grade teacher to maximize an E.L. student's score on their district's test is by implementing social learning through ELD programs in schools.

My Fourth Interview

My interview is with Mr. Ruiz's wife, or if not the school person  who specializes in helping these E.L. student's.

1. What makes you a perfect candidate to help these E.L. student's?
2. Where did you get your degree?
3. Why , or how did you come about wanting to help E.L. students?
4.How often do you meet with a student who needs help with their english?
5. How do you classify a student who needs more assistance than others?
6. How often do you meet with these students?
7. What test must they take to not be considered E.L. anymore?
8. How do you help these kids , as in what tips do you have for someone who wants to help an E.L. students but does not know how to approach the situation?
9. In your experience how many children test out of being an E.L. student?
10. Do you believe that E.L.D. programs help these children in bettering their language?
11. How effective are E.L.D. programs that you have seen so far?
12. Have you seen improvement in children when they communicate regularly with other children through social interactions?
13. What is the percentage rate of success of E.L.D. programs?
14.The percentage rate of success of students  who test out of E.L. in the first year?
15. The percentage rate of success of those children testing out of E.L.D. before they reach 3rd grade?
16. About how many students do you help that are E.L. in elementary school?
17. How about in middle school?
18. Where do you suggest I look for more information about E.L. students and programs and effectiveness of them to help students?
19. Do you recommend I interview anyone else who may help in furthering my research for more answers?
20. What is the best way for a first grade teacher to maximize a E.L. student's  test scores on district's test?