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?

Advisory Meeting #2

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

Answer #2:

There are many ways for a first grade teacher to maximize a E.L. student's score on their district test, one of the best ways to do this is through social learning through oral language.

1. When kids talk to their peers on the playground in the english language. They are continuously trying to better understand and speak english through the playground interactions.

2. How english learners stick with students who know their native language. These english learners can better communicate and these students with whom they stick around with can better help them in translating their native language into english.

3. When these english learners are talking to their peers, they are learning how to better transition into english , with simple phrases on "how do you feel?", "how was your day?" and they can later start to answer more questions that require more detail from the student.

Research:

1. PBS. "Social and Emotional Growth." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 22 Aug. 2013

2.Kindermusik’s ABC Music & Me. "Schools." Early Childhood Curriculum. Kindermusik’s ABC Music & Me, n.d. Web. 04 Sept. 2013.

3. 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.

4. Alicja Rieger,, and Ewa McGrail,. "ON POINT Understanding English Language Learners’ Needs and the Language Acquisition Process: Two Teacher Educators’ Perspectives." Understanding E.L.L. Great Urban Schools, 2006. Web. 9 Jan. 2014.

5. Hill, Laura E. "California's English Learner Students." (PPIC Publication). N.p., Sept. 2012. Web. 09 Jan. 2014

Conclusion:
There are many different ways in which a first grade teacher can maximize a E.L. student's score on their district's test but there  are several best ways that prove  the most effective to get your students as a first grade teacher to reach their full potential.

Independent Component 2 Approval

1. For the 30 hours for this component, I plan on getting another mentor possibly to mentor with so I have different inputs and perspectives on my possible answers to my EQ. For the 30 hours i will be shadowing my mentor and possibly doing an interview. I will be meeting also if I can with the English language teacher that assist these English learners in bettering their English. Other than this I will be doing regular TA work for my mentor which includes grading, filing, reading to the kids, and helping the kids in class.

2. I will post pictures off me filing or what I am grading and if I can post pictures of me helping the children during class.I f I post pictures with the children it will probably be of the back of the head and me beside them.

3. If I get another mentor I will be able to get a new set of fresh eyes that could help me in giving me more answers that I may have not thought of before.