March 9, 2012 - DIA Observation #4

When I visited DIA today there was only one student in the room with an aid. She was assessing reading.

I visited several classrooms where EL students we in.

I enjoyed the culturally diverse community which exists at DIA. The teachers are supportive of the diverse backgrounds of all of their students.

Some of the things I saw which seemed to empower the language learning students were the following:

1. Teachers did not make judgments about the students who seemed to struggle in their classrooms.
2. Students were not labeled.
3. The school seems to encourage students to speak their own language and supports the cultural differences of all students.
4. Teachers had projects up on classroom walls that demonstrated the cultures of all students. The projects  included writing about their families and traditions found in their culture.
5. I saw several books in the languages of the students.
6. I saw several signs around the school in the languages of the students.

I was encouraged by these. In multilingual education these are a first, strong, interactive step in empowering language learning students.

February 24, 2012 - DIA Observation #3

Today I assisted a student to complete a literacy project for his Language Arts class.

I helped a student write and review his book of poems.

I provided scaffolding and tried to assist and support the student he worked.  I enjoyed my time with him. He seemed motivated to complete his project. He practiced English writing skills. I worked with him on correct sentence structure and poem structure. I encouraged him to use his background experiences and interests to complete the project. We worked on vocabulary building skills, simple sentence structure, and reviewed various types of poems and how he might write those different styles. I tried to provide clear explanations of the academic tasks he was required to do.  I amputated the level of difficulty and worked from a writing and vocabulary level he seemed comfortable with. It was a great visit at DIA today!

February 17, 2012 - DIA Observation #2

My entire observation was spent with the aid as she administered times reading assessments.

Some key things I noted as she interacted with the students:

1. She was knowledgeable about the student development and learning, and was able to make associations between what the student prior knowledge and reading strengths and weaknesses were.

2. She understood what strategies and approaches were most likely to achieve optimal speed and accuracy with the times assessments.

3. She developed a secure, positive relationship with each student. The students enjoy her and they know each other well. she is quick to pickup on signals and behavior from the students which demonstrated frustration or fatigue. Because they share a friendship students seemed more willing to attempt new skills, and try harder.

4. She encouraged the students to be persistent which affected their learning in a positive way.

Febuary 10, 2012 - DIA Observaton Reflection

The EL teacher was present for all of class.

I consider her to be a Emotional-Objective Person

Students worked on individual late assignments for other classes.
Qualities: EL teacher had frequent interaction with the students, encouraging them to work hard.

Management Process: The EL teacher is communicative, and sensitive to the students.

Values: The EL teacher connects well wtih others.

Functions: The EL teacher  communicates , motivates, and moves the students work forward.

Interpersonal Relationships: The EL teacher was verbally expressive, and was relatively aware of the students feelings.

Factors that cause stress: The EL teacher seems repetitive in her ideas.

It is difficult to evaluate the EL teacher from a teacher standpoint because she is acting as a support to the students, not really teaching anything new on Fridays.

The aid was involved with timed reading assessments. I observed this process after the EL teacher left the building.

This experience has been a little discouraging, I was hoping to see more interaction between the students and the teacher.


I observed some language practice opportunities in writing through student based projects and poem writing activities.  I witnessed some degree of adaptation of content for different levels of student proficiency when assignments were adjusted to meet individual needs.

febuary 10, 2012 - Thoughts prior to my first observation

I am eager to visit DIA. 

Areas I will be interested in observing include the following:

1. Language: I hope to see students involved in hands-on activities providing opportunities for them to practice using new language content and understanding.

2. Language: I hope to see students engaged in activities the allow them to apply content and language skills.

3.Strategies: I hope to see scaffolding techniques that support a students understanding, learning and discovery.

4. Lesson: I am eager to see how the teacher adapts the language content to all of the students proficiency levels.

5. Lesson: I hope to see meaningful activities that blend lesson concepts with language practice.

6. Lesson: I hope to witness students reading, writing and speaking in relation to lesson learning or project based activities.