Classroom Observations, Post 2

At first it's a little odd to "observe" your own classroom. Teachers are, of course, more than used to evaluations and observations. We observe and evaluate our students constantly, and we, in turn, are being observed and evaluated by principals, department of education representatives, directors and central office staff every time we turn around. In fact, I think many teachers are sick of the word "evaluation" as we hear it constantly. :-) Part of our yearly evaluations include self-evaluations, but looking at my classroom environment with ESL eyes is a bit different. It's actually been very illuminating, and I'm grateful for the process that has unfolded in this graduate class because I'm getting input from students that I would not have gotten otherwise.

There are a few issues and problems that seem to arise with Pre-K ESL students. If I look at my current class and also reflect on previous years, I see that I have a huge challenge with the group of students that is timid and ELL. What a challenge! Even though I am bilingual, with a select few students, I cannot even get a non-verbal response to questions/comments/activities!!!! Is this just part of the silent period, or is this timidity and introversion colluding to challenge the teacher even more?! This becomes an issue because it is difficult to engage the students in some learning activities, and it can be extremely difficult to assess what the child knows.

Another pressing issue in Pre-K is language level and acquisition. For many of my students, this is their first year in a school setting and most have not before been to a daycare. For these ESL students, this is their first intense and prolonged exposure to English. Therefore, my focus has to be on developing BICS (basic interpersonal communicative skills) with my students. While we also introduce and discuss content-specific vocabulary, my first goal is to build the social vocabulary of my students. Pre-K is a language-rich, social environment, so it is, in my opinion, the perfect environment to plant the English language seed and watch it grow. My challenge comes in teaching the necessary content while working with students who are still acquiring BICS.

I feel so lucky to be able to work with my two favorite populations--early childhood and ESL. It's not always easy, but it is always rewarding!!!!