Blog Entry 4: Reflection

This class has impacted my teaching philosophy in a variety of ways. I think the most important way it has impacted me as a future educator is that I have become more aware. I have become more aware not only for ELLs, but for every student. It has also affected my teaching philosophy in that this class has reinforced the importance of keeping up-to-date with research-based strategies, accommodations, practices, and instructional methods in order to be a good educator. If an educator does not stay up-to-date with different professional developments, conferences, and training, an educator may fall back into teaching cookie-cutter children. I do not wish to become like this as I firmly believe that since every student is different and thinks differently, it would be detrimental to the students and their education to foolishly believe that they learn the same way.

I am a SPED cert, and the program I currently have my mind set on does not rely on academics, rather it focuses on life skills. However, a topic I found most relevant to the teaching of my content area is interaction with peers. As many of the students that receive special services in the district I am currently student teaching at (and will hopefully be receiving a position in) are ELLs in more ways than one, I have seen firsthand how important interacting with other students actually is. Students learn best when they are able to interact with each other (Wright, 2015). It helps students grow socially and linguistically. This in turn helps school become more enjoyable and easier to comprehend as they are less anxious to ask questions when they do not understand the material. Another thing that really stood out to me is that education is not a one-size-fits-all. While I did not necessarily learn this because of class, I believe this course has really helped enforce that idea. It is important to get to know your students and finding a program, strategy, or accommodation that fits the students' needs. It is of utmost importance to not treat every student as if they all had minds that think in the same fashion. Not one student will have the same background or manner of thinking and treating them as such may prove less than beneficial for the student and the teacher alike (Wright, 2015).

I think some of the challenges with taking an asynchronous online course (especially this course in particular) is that there is so much information to learn. For me, it was a bit difficult to learn the material as it is easier for me to learn new materials when I am able to listen to the teacher verbally teach the information. It is sometimes difficult for me to understand a concept or application of a strategy if I am not able to verbally ask a question or interact with peers or the teacher. However, a benefit from this course was the ability to have a variety of different explanations. I really enjoyed not only learning alongside my peers but also learning from them. It allowed a sense of community as in order to do well in this course, we had to interact often with each other. 

For me, the vlogs were a very interesting part of the course. I have taken about four courses (SLA and SLM being two of them) that revolved around blogs/vlogs, and I feel like they made the course a creatively interactive course. Using vlogs was a good way to stay connected and share our thoughts with each other. We were able to read about different strategies and applications from a variety of different perspectives. This way, if we did not understand one strategy, we were able to have different experiences and descriptions to help clear any misunderstandings. This course was not only informative, but also very enjoyable and immersive as I was able to learn using a variety of resources such as the textbook, videos, and my peers.

Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.

Blog Entry 3: Interview with an ELL Teacher

Blog Entry 3

For this entry, I decided to interview my current mentor teacher.

When I was showing her the list of questions that I would be using when conducting this interview, she confided that she did not remember much about linguistics as it never really was an emphasis in her classes. While they were mentioned in class, it was not something that was mentioned other times throughout her educational path.

One thing that I took away from this interview was how much she emphasized being patient. In the classroom, when we are teaching a new topic, with the class that has the three new-arrivals who have been living in the United States for less than a year, we have to take it a bit slower and have more small-groups to help them understand the material. While we are trying to help them learn English, our primary goal is to teach the material this year, so since their state exams (the STAAR tests) will be in Spanish, we are focusing more on teaching the material in Spanish to ensure the subject is understood. We also try to have them be exposed to the vocabulary in English as it seems many state assessments are biased.

According to Wright (2015), in testing, bias is seen as a way that an assessment may penalize a student. In some classroom assessments, my mentor teacher and I have actually seen a few different cases of unintentional bias where a word not commonly heard in Spanish was used: cornmeal. Not many students in our classroom knew what cornmeal was and were unable to successfully answer the question being asked. Since our focus is currently the material, my mentor teacher has decided alongside some of the school administrators that their current educational path is learning the material rather than putting a large emphasis on the English portion. That is not to say that they are not being exposed to English, as everything in the classroom is said in English and in Spanish to help enforce both languages for the other students while allowing our new-arrivals to have exposure to the English vocabulary/terminology.


Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.

Blog Entry 2: Interview with an ELL

Blog Entry 2

For this entry, I decided to interview a young adult who was born and raised in the United States. As mentioned in the video, Luis Valencia, grew up speaking Spanish and English. He began his educational journey in an English only class where only his English was nurtured in school. 

After the interview was over, we began talking about how he wished he had focused more when they would teach sentence structure in class. According to Wright (2015), syntax is the study of rules that are used to create sentences. In order to create proper sentences, it is important to know and understand how to apply these rules. I asked him to clarify what he meant, and he confessed he struggled for a long time because he was able to apply order to his sentences based on experience even though he did not know the academic rule, and this caused confusion as he did not necessary apply the correct rule with the language he was speaking. In English, order is generally adjective-noun whereas in Spanish it is noun-adjective (Wright, 2015). For example, in Spanish, it is correct to say el perro negro even though translated directly would mean “the dog black” which is not correct in English. Luis said he would struggle with this in early elementary because when he was at home, he would apply English rules when speaking Spanish. When he was at school, he would apply Spanish rules when speaking English.

After we were done with the interview, I also read some of the hypothesis about second language acquisition. Based on his experiences, he felt that he agreed with the input (comprehension) hypothesis. Comprehension hypothesis is that people acquire the language as they begin to understand what they hear or read (Wright, 2015). Luis believes he learned the English language the more he began to understand what he heard in the television and at school. If there was something he did not understand, his teachers would repeat the word or sentence. Overall, he feels it was effective for him, but it may not work for everyone.

Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.

Blog Entry 1: Introduction

Blog Entry 1

I feel I was very fortunate to have learned English and Spanish at such a young age. In my blog, I mention that I first learned Spanish and later learned English. I was also born in the United States, making me a native U.S. born English language learner (ELL). According to Wright (2015), a native U.S. born ELL is someone who is an English language learner who was born in the United States which helped them become native English speakers. While I did not have another physical being to communicate with, I was able to inadvertently use the characters from the movies and shows I watched as a toddler to pick up everyday communication skills that I was later able to implement in my everyday life both in and out of the classroom. Furthermore, when my sisters were born, I talked to them in English and Spanish, helping reinfornce whatever language they needed help with as they grew. I believe it worked out rather well for us as all three of us are fluent in both English and Spanish. Because of this, all three of us would be considered native U.S. born ELLs.

This semester, I was placed in a fifth grade bilingual class. The district I am placed in is made up of predominantly hispanic students and a majority of the students being English language learners (ELLs). According to Wright (2015), the United States has in the past done poorly in helping properly educate ELLs. As a future educator, I hope to help support my future student's native language with simultaneously helping them learn/reinforce the English language while also helping them with their academics.

Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.