Divide and conquer

Last night was a great experience. We divided into two groups which was very beneficial. The advanced group was reading Sandra Cisneros and are starting the novel "Stone Fox" for homework. There are five of them in that group and I am so proud of them. They are motivated and working hard. Working equally as hard is the beginner group. We have three students, although one was absent yesterday. We worked on interviewing partners and sharing what we learned about them. Thankfully two other teachers came so the student/teacher ratio was excellent. It was nice to work one on one. I discovered that one of the students studied English years ago for a brief time, so this is his first formal instruction in years. Also, another student has been in the U.S. for years and has never had any formal instruction. That explains the difficulties she is having. I am so excited to be working with her though. She deserves to progress and improve her English language skills. I am hoping that if I can encourage teachers to come and stay each week, then we can continue this one on one instruction/tutoring and see real progress.

Feedback on the groups

I am so thrilled to report on the progress of the advanced group. B. shared with me that the group worked very quickly last night on the homework review. They are very enthusiastic learners and I am impressed to hear that she will be starting a novel with them. They have a great teacher and she will do wonderful by them. They will learn a lot, I am sure. I only hope to have the same positive impact on the other group. It will be slow and steady work, but if I can keep up the morale and showed marked improvement, they will feel confident and optimistic as well.

An important task in this work is to make sure that I communicate what is going on with the other teachers. Tonight hopefully we will have two or three more teachers on hand. I need to make sure they are kept in the loop so they can jump in and help any time.

Reflection #3

Today we read the homework paragraph together. Afterwards we divided up into two groups. Thankfully B. was there to take the advanced group and go over the homework with them. I am so blessed to have her there. My passion for this work is equally matched with her. My group needed work on pronunciation, contractions and their pronunciation and grammar rules related to past tense verbs and their endings (/d/, /t/, /ed/). I don't want this to be a sink or swim class. I really want them to learn. One student asked me - is the reason we have class two days because you were told you can't or you don't want to? I felt so bad. I told her part of it was that I wanted to start slow, and part of it because if I work each night, I'll be working day and night. Ideally if we have more teachers, then we can rotate with a schedule. I'm the ultimate optimist. I always hope for and expect the best. Tomorrow we'll do another listening exercise and try some pair work. I need ot make sure no one is lost, that questions get asked and answered. We'll see.

Reflection #2

tonight was the first night of real work. They had a listening exercise, speaking and reading. I was impressed by their concentration. maybe I'm so used to children who fidget so much. but they worked hard. They were genuinely interested in "getting" the material. I was very impressed. However, working with the multi-levels makes it much harder. There were a few who jumped at the chance to answer and be heard while others really wanted to melt into their papers. Unfortunately our time was so limited. 30 minutes flew by and I didn't think I would have enough. They suggested that next week we try for 45 mins. We'll see, I don't want them to get in trouble. Work is of course a top priority but hopefully with continued support, we can move forward. Sin barreras - without barriers! I also discovered that one guy isn't coming back - he's too shy, quiet, not really interested. It's okay - I'm here for them as long as they want it. Hopefully I can do more group work, teach them some learning strategies (underline unfamiliar words, etc.) and learn how to preview the material for them ahead of time.

Reflection #1

the class went well. the students were very nervous - mostly the ones who feel they don't speak very well. The multi-level class makes it quite difficult. It's hard to do many comprehension checks without making the students feels bad. After class, two students (who admitted their inabilities earlier) stayed to ask questions about pronunciation. One of them said she felt intimidated by the better speakers and looked forward to group work. She felt in a smaller group she would probably speak out more with less fear. We talked about pronunciation and communication barriers. I'm excited about tomorrow and seeing their progress.

beginnings

I began ESL classes at work this week. We meet from 7:30 to 8pm because the students work from 3:30pm to midnight. It is a group format with conversation style instruction. The purpose is to improve their English language skills, build confidence and morale and improve worker performance. I am thrilled to have this opportunity. This is a great step in the right direction.