Heidi+Marriott



Wednesday, July 18 - Potluck!

Monday, July 16 Tonight went well. We had a great conversation and then finished up with the commonly confused words. I've enjoyed getting to know the students and I've learned a lot, probably more than they did. I would love to teach a class like this again someday.

Wednesday, July 11 Jose did not come tonight, but there was a new student. Her name is Gypsy. She is also from Mexico. She has a strong base in English and wants to work on pronunciation and daily life vocabulary. Jisook was also gone. We started out lesson out as normal with a group conversation with Jaron's group. It went great. I was so proud of Sunny. She spoke up and made a comment without directly being asked. That is big for her! After that we worked on commonly confused words. I had a generic list I had printed off of the internet and so it included a couple of words that I don't ever even use or see. At first I tried to explain but that wasn't helping, probably because I wasn't comfortable using the word. Finally we asked Dr Conrad to help and he did, but he told themyou really don't need to worry about it. It isn't a word they will come across and if they did they could figure it out in context. THat was kind of an eye opener for me. I sometimes worry that I need to teach every detail and students need to understand it all...but it comes in spurts. I can tell a student not to worry about that detail and it won't hurt them.

Monday, July 9 Last night we work on group conversation again. Listening was an important part. Sunny was not there. After the group conversation, which seemed to flow more naturally, we had Jose adn Jisook write sentences to go along with the picture worksheet and the words that they came up with. It was interesting to review sentences with them. Some of the things they wrote weren't necessarily wrong, but it wasn't how a native speaker would say it either, so we discussed the differences. The we practiced listening with a computer program that read a story and then had questions to check for understanding. THis was good practice to pay attention to details. They did really well. I am happy for the most part about how things are going, but I worry about Jose. He understand and speaks pretty well, but he has such a thick accent I have a hard time understanding him. I have to pay close attention to what he is saying or I will miss it and even then I struggle sometimes. I know he worries about group conversations and people listening to him so I would like to work on some pronunciation, but I don't want to offend him because he hasn't specifically asked for that. I think I will bring a game or something and see if I can help without making him feel self conscious.

July 1, TC: So many important aspects of what it means to teach ESL students of such varied needs and interests! You're dealing with tough issues, like how to do correction in effective ways that don't interfere with communication or embarrass students. Please bring this up in class or talk to me because there are a lot possible correction options and I like the ones you're planning to try out. We can also discuss ideas for helping students to feel more confident about speaking in conversation and about moving from their native language to the target (English) language. It's interesting that in K-12 school situations, bilingual kids can be valuable resources for teachers and schools as they naturally help beginning ELLs to understand what's going on in class, figure out how to get around the school, and so on.

Wednesday, June 27 I got to meet Jose tonight. He has been here for a long time and still has a strong accent. I have a hard time understanding him sometimes. We decided to join with Jaron's group to practice larger group conversations. We had Karla pick the topic and tried to make it as natural as possible. I think it went well. I noticed Jisook and Sunny do not comment unless they are asked a direct question. Jose did well joining the conversation but speaks softly with a heavy accent. He says he feels like people at work don't hear him or listen to him and I wonder if this is part of the problem. After Jaron's group left we discussed the conversation and what they could wrk on next time. I think it was a good activity I hope we can repeat. For the remainder of the night we returned to the topic of media specifically talking about different information and things we can find on the television. It went well I think. Sunny asked that we correct her if she says something wrong. I will struggle with this a little bit, but I see why she wants the immediate feedback. I think I will maybe try to take notes and then help her after a conversation is complete instead of interupting every time something isn't quite right. It is something I will have to try out.

Monday June 25 Tonight I met Sunny and Jisook. I will be teaching them with Monica for the remainder of the class. Jose is also supposed to be in our group but he didn't come tonight. Sunny and Jisook are both from South Korea and actually knew each other before they came here. They have been here for less than two years. All three of them said they wanted to work on group coversational skills, so we decided on the theme of media to help with vocabulary and to guide our disscussions. We thought that would be an authentic topic they would be discussing with peers and co-workers. Tonight we focused on the newpaper. We each read an article and then talked about it. It went very well. It was interesting to me some of the vocabulary words that they were unfamiliar with. They seemed to understand with some explanation though. I was pleased with the night's work. The one thing that concerns me about their English progression is that they rely on each other quite a bit. If something confuses them they speak to each other in Korean instead of asking me or Monica. I can understand why they do this...I'm sure it is much easier and more comfortable, but I think they would grow more if they would try to figure it out in English first. It is something I will consider pointing out in the future.

June 20 I met a number of people last night and it was very exciting to me. I struggled to have a conversation during dinner with Marisol and her daughter Vanessa. They have only been here for 6 months and struggle to communicate in English. Vanessa does have some basic skills, but Marisol understands very little. She was very uncomfortable. I tried to help by whipping out my extremely rusty Spanish. I don't know that it made her feel any better, but it gave me a better perspective of how she and her daughter probably feel. It is extremely frustrating to not be able to communicate effectively. I would get started and then realize I didn't know the word I was trying to express. I have never really spoken to native Spanish speakers and it was intimidating. I'm sure that is only a sliver of what Marisol might be feeling, but It was a good experience for me as I am learning how to be an effective ESL teacher.

During the interview part of the night I met with TERESA and JUAN. They are married and came here from Mexico together over 20 years ago when they were expecting their first child. Teresa is a teacher aide in the head start program in Ogden School district. She has been working on her English profiency since they arrived. She said she earned both a GED and a high school diploma. She speaks very well, but does have a thick accent. She seems to understand what is being said and is often called on to translate for her job. I asked her what she wanted to work on and she said reading, vocabulary and pronunciation. She also wants help on the past tense. She said she could use help on writing, but when I asked her what kind of writing she would like to work on she said that she thought dictation would help. She wants to see if she is understanding correctly and able to write it down, I think. Overall, I think she has a good base and just needs some fine tuning. Juan put off learning English until only a couple of years ago. He was planning on returning to Mexico and therefore did not see a need. He is probably at a speech emergence or intermediate fluency level. His biggest thing he wanted to work on is vocabulary. He said he needed to know more words. He also wanted to work on past tense. He works at the Pepsi plant and doesn't really have to talk to anyone there. He still seems reluctant to learn, but he was there so there is at least some desire. I am excited to see how everything goes!

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