This update is going to be a bit longer them my future posts will be because I want to really go into detail about activities and structure of the class, as it's the first one I'm attending as a tutor while clients are present. One thing I'd like to note right away is that (as I found out just today) this RDC (Refugee Development Center) program holds this Adult ESL class on Mondays and Wednesdays; however, tutors aren't required or asked to sign up for both so I am only attending on Wednesdays. There may be some leaps within my blog posts, as I will not have known what happened or was worked on in class Monday from direct experience.
According to observation, Monday earlier this week introductions, placement tests, and name tents has been completed. However, there were two new adult ELLs who joined the class today as well as one four year old daughter, which gave me the opportunity to somewhat proctor the written text as well as give the oral one. The oral section was part question/answer form and part directional. It involved questions such as "Hello, what is your name?" scoring points of 1 (for responding "name", 2 for "Hello, my name is ____", and 3 for "Hello, my name is ___. What is your name?" and other similar questions with the same scoring system about country of origin, family, address, phone number, and birthday. The direction portion of the oral section included the oral-tester to say phrases such as "Point to the banana" and "How many apples are there?" while presenting a given picture. The direction part also called for the testee to do their best in giving the letter name and letter sound of five randomly drawn alphabet cards.
Once this was completed, the clients were able to join the rest of the class who were reviewing from Monday on important terms for learning in this ESL class ("listen", "hear", "talk", "write", "point", "circle", "matching", etc.) and name introductions one by one to class using the "Hello, my name is ___" structure taught.
Next was a review of English terms learned from Monday in order to prepare for a get to know you game (terms included mainly the months and days of the week). The lead teacher's academic goals seemed to be to have students practice using English to find out about other classmates, get to know other people's names, and also to practice writing one's own name. The clients given goal was to complete the most possible of the passed out worksheet, which had incomplete sentences to be filled in by someone else writing their name on the sheet. An example of this was the sentence "...has the same month of birthday as me". To complete this sentence, a client must use English to find another person in the room who has their birthday the same month and have them write their name in the blank.
This activity was interesting as tutors were allowed to wander the room with the client they were working with and help them, and I overheard multiple scenarios where tutors did most of the talking for the client. This is something that I think could use improvement, while maybe the tutors could be stationed around the room as mediators but the actual ELLs be the primary one's walking around in order to allow them more opportunity to speak on their own. Another difficulty I noticed about this activity was that there were a large range of English oral proficiency among the clients and this caused some confused, communication barrier to the assignment, and even a little embarrassment for lower levels. After the activity, there was a debriefing.
After about half of the time of the class (an hour later) the clients and tutors split into high level and low level. I stayed with the high level because the client I had been working on was placed there. We were given topics from the teacher to discuss and then spent about 30 minutes small talking (topics: name, country of origin, city, N/E/S/W, "What did you do today?", "What will you do tomorrow?", etc.). I found this somewhat difficult as we finished the topics given and had to work to think of other things to talk about. In my group, the client I was working with the most had very high oral profiency and could carry out a conversation answering almost every question I asked during the small talk. One thing I might want to do for next time is keep a notebook of my own topic ideas for those times when we finish the lead teacher's and are struggling to keep the conversation alive. Then we were given worksheets that looked similar to the profiency test ones, and tutors worked one-on-one with clients to help complete the worksheets. The worksheets contained different written activities such as matching, story ordering, fill in the blanks, etc. One of the opportunities I had to go more in depth of explaining English was when my client was confused about "ate" vs "eat". I worked to describe this to her, and realized it is very difficult to impromptu a definition of a word which you don't think about much because of it being a sight word to you. There was also an opportunity throughout these worksheets where I explained the differences between who, what, when, and where. As I explained, the client I was working with took initiative to take notes on what I was saying on her own. I learned that she is also taking an English class at LCC and covering similar leveled things to what was in the later part of the worksheets.
For next week, I mentioned to the lead teacher during tutor debriefing after class that I noticed the client I was with came with her cousin and often answered questions for both of them during small talk time. This lead me to wonder if the other client was shy or just not as comfortable/proficient in English. We discussed possible having them sit apart, at least during small talk time. But also debated that this might hinder their ability to keep each other informed as they are able to speak to each other both in Spanish if one needs additional support understanding something. From my understanding of the set of of class, each week tutors may be working with different clients throughout the room, so this would make it difficult for me to individualize what I discuss and things I want to emphasize on with certain clients that I worked with before. Next week will be more of a deciding factor on this, though. Overall, I feel that I had a productive experience and am excited to see more about the lead teacher's instruction and manner in teaching the adult ESL class.
According to observation, Monday earlier this week introductions, placement tests, and name tents has been completed. However, there were two new adult ELLs who joined the class today as well as one four year old daughter, which gave me the opportunity to somewhat proctor the written text as well as give the oral one. The oral section was part question/answer form and part directional. It involved questions such as "Hello, what is your name?" scoring points of 1 (for responding "name", 2 for "Hello, my name is ____", and 3 for "Hello, my name is ___. What is your name?" and other similar questions with the same scoring system about country of origin, family, address, phone number, and birthday. The direction portion of the oral section included the oral-tester to say phrases such as "Point to the banana" and "How many apples are there?" while presenting a given picture. The direction part also called for the testee to do their best in giving the letter name and letter sound of five randomly drawn alphabet cards.
Once this was completed, the clients were able to join the rest of the class who were reviewing from Monday on important terms for learning in this ESL class ("listen", "hear", "talk", "write", "point", "circle", "matching", etc.) and name introductions one by one to class using the "Hello, my name is ___" structure taught.
Next was a review of English terms learned from Monday in order to prepare for a get to know you game (terms included mainly the months and days of the week). The lead teacher's academic goals seemed to be to have students practice using English to find out about other classmates, get to know other people's names, and also to practice writing one's own name. The clients given goal was to complete the most possible of the passed out worksheet, which had incomplete sentences to be filled in by someone else writing their name on the sheet. An example of this was the sentence "...has the same month of birthday as me". To complete this sentence, a client must use English to find another person in the room who has their birthday the same month and have them write their name in the blank.
This activity was interesting as tutors were allowed to wander the room with the client they were working with and help them, and I overheard multiple scenarios where tutors did most of the talking for the client. This is something that I think could use improvement, while maybe the tutors could be stationed around the room as mediators but the actual ELLs be the primary one's walking around in order to allow them more opportunity to speak on their own. Another difficulty I noticed about this activity was that there were a large range of English oral proficiency among the clients and this caused some confused, communication barrier to the assignment, and even a little embarrassment for lower levels. After the activity, there was a debriefing.
After about half of the time of the class (an hour later) the clients and tutors split into high level and low level. I stayed with the high level because the client I had been working on was placed there. We were given topics from the teacher to discuss and then spent about 30 minutes small talking (topics: name, country of origin, city, N/E/S/W, "What did you do today?", "What will you do tomorrow?", etc.). I found this somewhat difficult as we finished the topics given and had to work to think of other things to talk about. In my group, the client I was working with the most had very high oral profiency and could carry out a conversation answering almost every question I asked during the small talk. One thing I might want to do for next time is keep a notebook of my own topic ideas for those times when we finish the lead teacher's and are struggling to keep the conversation alive. Then we were given worksheets that looked similar to the profiency test ones, and tutors worked one-on-one with clients to help complete the worksheets. The worksheets contained different written activities such as matching, story ordering, fill in the blanks, etc. One of the opportunities I had to go more in depth of explaining English was when my client was confused about "ate" vs "eat". I worked to describe this to her, and realized it is very difficult to impromptu a definition of a word which you don't think about much because of it being a sight word to you. There was also an opportunity throughout these worksheets where I explained the differences between who, what, when, and where. As I explained, the client I was working with took initiative to take notes on what I was saying on her own. I learned that she is also taking an English class at LCC and covering similar leveled things to what was in the later part of the worksheets.
For next week, I mentioned to the lead teacher during tutor debriefing after class that I noticed the client I was with came with her cousin and often answered questions for both of them during small talk time. This lead me to wonder if the other client was shy or just not as comfortable/proficient in English. We discussed possible having them sit apart, at least during small talk time. But also debated that this might hinder their ability to keep each other informed as they are able to speak to each other both in Spanish if one needs additional support understanding something. From my understanding of the set of of class, each week tutors may be working with different clients throughout the room, so this would make it difficult for me to individualize what I discuss and things I want to emphasize on with certain clients that I worked with before. Next week will be more of a deciding factor on this, though. Overall, I feel that I had a productive experience and am excited to see more about the lead teacher's instruction and manner in teaching the adult ESL class.