Practicum Reflection from My Observations

Personal Reflection:

Before beginning my practicum experience, I had little experience working with ELL students. As a special education teacher, I only have a few ELL students on my case load; therefore I had the preconceived notion that ELL students are struggling learners, just like students with a learning disability.

I left my first observation feeling completely naive about working with ELL students, yet motivated to work with these same students again!

I observed a small group 1st grade class with two young boys. One boy immigrated to our country two years ago from Somalia. The other boy has only been in the country for little under a year from The Congo. As I observed these boys reading with their teacher, I was completely dumbstruck. The boys were reading guided reading books with multiple words on the page. I was impressed, because my students in 1st grade are still learning letter sounds and can identify only a few sight words (a, the, and).  The students were asking questions and showed a real interest in learning. Each time, I observed the class, I was able to see the students making great grow towards their language learning and reading goals!

After the observations, I was completely shocked by the learning gap between my students with learning disabilities and these ELL students. My inexperience working with ELL students had me generalizing negative learning thoughts on them. My assumptions was that students receiving ELL students were much like those in my specialized classes. I was glad to learn that my assumptions were incorrect! But, I can't help but think that if I had these assumptions, then what are the general education teachers assuming? The ELL teacher shared that she struggles with helping the teachers break their misconceptions that ELL students have learning difficulties when they don't. She shared that she would like to have a team meeting where one of the ELL parents leads the meeting in their native language. Experiencing the difficulties and how hard these students are working to fit in, might help with welcoming them into the classroom.

Throughout my practicum, I grew professionally and personally. I was able to break misconceptions and embrace the cultures of these students. My goals for the practicum were to learn about teaching strategies and understand student cultures to connect with my students more deeply. I felt that after my short time in the ELL classroom, I was able to accomplish these goals and experience more than I could have imagined. I encourage all teachers to take a step into a diverse classroom to really experience all aspects of education! It was definitely an eye-opening experience.