During my spring break, I observed at a high school near my hometown; the high school is a large suburban high school with a population of around 3000-3200 students. The ELL program at this high school has one teacher (I will call her Jill for the purpose of this blog), and she teaches 4 different ELL courses: ELL resource, and levels 1-3. The course counts as English credit for graduation and the students may stay in the ELL courses until they feel that they are ready to be mainstreamed into the regular English courses. To qualify for the specialized courses, the feeder school in the area has already indicated that they need the ELL courses, the students must have indicated on their entrance exams that they speak another language at home and also that they are testing below average on the English section of the entrance exam. Students have the option to either take the ELL courses or the parent can refuse the option and the student will be mainstreamed. Jill told me that 90 percent of the parents choose to have the ELL courses for the benefit of their adolescent, which I think is a very good idea. Jill's opinion was that if they have the resource, what reason would they have not to utilize it, which I think makes a lot of sense.
Jill has been teaching English for 10 years and ELL for 8 of those 10 years she has spent at this high school. She also teaches American Literature which I was able to observe as well. She does not speak any other language fluently, but she is attempting to teach herself some Spanish and Arabic in her spare time since that is the need of her students. The demographics are that the majority are from Arabic-speaking countries (Yemen, Egypt, Jordan and Palestine), a few from Spanish-speaking (Guatemala and Mexico), and 2 students from Vietnam and South Korea. She felt that it would be beneficial to know a little Arabic to familiarize herself with the language and culture in order to help her students.
An interesting thing that this high school provides is the resource period, which I think is an excellent idea. The students from all of her courses can take this class and it counts as a study hall; they can then work on homework from other courses, do make-up work, quizzes and tests from other teachers as well. The school provides each student a computer in the classroom so that they can work on any internet-related homework or if they need to do PowerPoints for their classes. Students are responsible for working on something the whole class period (50 minutes), and the teacher gives them a zero or half credit if they are not working on something. They may read an outside book or book for a class when they are done with regular homework. Jill emails and works closely with their teachers so that she knows what type of classes they are taking and how she can best help them; she is a little limited because her specialty is English, but she can help them translate or define a word for better comprehension of the material. I was able to walk around and assist a couple of students with those things as well while she worked with a student on a Works Cited Page, which he had never done before. Students are able to help each other with their homework if they are in the same class or same subject. Jill provides them with outside reading material; she has mostly modern literature like Harry Potter and the Hunger Games, some graphic novels, and a few classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and the Outsiders.
Side note: something I noticed that I loved about these classes were that because of the size (each class had less than 10 students), the students did not culturally segregate. They definitely know the value of speaking English and practicing with their classmates. Of course their good friends spoke their native language but they sympathized with the students whose language was not Arabic and the older students helped the younger students, as well. I was pleased to see such a nice harmony among the group. They were very well-behaved and very polite; Jill has clearly made an impact on them. They very clearly respect her and feel like she is there for them. She talks to them about their personal lives and their families and said that they do a cultural day once a month where they bring a food or a movie in their native language to celebrate their culture, which I think is great, but they probably could do a little more. Likely it depends on the nature of how the school views the ELL program.
Jill's Level 1 and 2 classes (intermediate to high intermediate level) are all boys, which I thought would be totally terrifying, but I was quite wrong. The boys were respectful, listened patiently to directions, and worked well together. They are very independent learners; my teacher told me that it took her a lot of time and effort to get them to behave this way, but some of them have had her for 2 years and some for only half a year so far, so they are still getting accustomed to the ELL course. She mostly uses supplemental reading materials because the textbook she was given she felt was not up-to-par with what she wanted them to learn; she uses an outside short story book called "Beyond the Stories" which contains articles in sheltered English about certain topics in American culture. For example, the short article they read for that day and the next day's class was about geeks and how that term has evolved over time. The students were able to relate to it right away and understand what she meant by that term because they knew about the social structure of their high school. She has them do popcorn reading of the article or story, and after they have read their section she has them summarize or paraphrase it to make sure they have understood it completely which I think is an excellent measure of their reading comprehension skills. She also makes sure that everyone reads at least twice in the reading so that they can maximize their learning of the material. The classes are very discussion-based and encourage the students to speak in English at all times which is also imperative in an ESL classroom.
Jill's Level 3 (intermediate high and advanced speakers) class is the smallest and also has the only girl. Most are seniors and there is one junior in the class, and I was happy to hear from them that they were all continuing on in higher education, even if it was at the community college level. They all seemed very eager to learn and continue improving their English. They are currently reading "the Giver" which seems to be a popular book in ESL courses (the woman I observed at Heartland was reading the same book) and as she does with her other classes, the students read aloud from the book and then summarize what they have just read. In her level 3 class however, Jill points out very specific grammar points that they should be aware of and also has them note vocabulary for their use; she does this in her level 1 and 2 but not nearly as much. She also asks the students to sympathize with the main character and try to make it relevant to their daily life by asking them questions like "How would you feel if...?" or "What do you think would happen if...?". She also shows them literary devices in the text like metaphor and onomatopoeia and gives them examples to help retain it, like "buzz" for a bee. Jill also employs a multitude of facial expressions and hand gestures; she is not afraid to look silly in front of them or if they laugh at her which is important when you are a teacher. We have to be actors to make anything click! The reading seems a bit difficult at times for them to read, but they stop and ask questions of the teacher, like "Am I saying this right?" or "What does this mean?" And she very willingly stops the reading to explain things to them, which you need to be prepared for as an ESL teacher.
Overall, I loved getting the experience of observing in a high school classroom since I have been observing at a community college and this week will begin my observations at the junior high so I am excited to see all the ends of the spectrum and how students progress in their English skills.
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