Michelle Lawless

ELL Reflection
Professional Development
11/11/15
This year at Trace Crossings was my first opportunity to work with ELL
students and be aware of their needs within the classroom. My clinical
experiences thus far at Trace Crossings have been heavily involved with ELL
students; it would have been very beneficial to have had this training earlier
in the year so I could have better helped my students. These past two days I
have learned so much information in regards to ELL students and Im ready
to get back to Trace Crossings to begin implementing it.
The most surprising thing I learned during these two days of training
was that ELL students can be at 4 different levels of being proficient. An
example of this would be a child who is at a level 5.0 in speaking and
listening, but a 2.1 in reading and writing. Now that I think about my
students at Trace, I can see this so very well. I have one child who I never
thought was an ELL student just because he spoke English so well. I soon
learned that he was Romanian and has poor skills when it came to reading
and writing in English. Mrs. Bowen has many conversations with me about
her ELL students and Im looking forward to getting a deeper understanding
of them after this training.
Another aspect of this training that surprised me was when we
discussed the icebergs in regards to BICS and CALPS. After we went over the
meaning of BICS and CALPS, we discussed a little girl named Rosies iceberg

which told us her academic and social language in English. I learned that it is
much easier to progress a student through the phases of acquiring a new
language when they have a background of schooling even if it is in their
native language. This is why its so difficult for these elementary students at
Trace Crossings to move through these phases. They havent had any prior
schooling in their former countries because they are so young. This gives me
a deeper understanding of these students and why they cant read or write.
If they couldnt read or write in their native language, then they certainly
wont be able to easily read or write in their second language.
On the second day I learned about comprehensible input. We watched
a video of a man who first spoke in German and then asked if we understood,
obviously we didnt. He then spoke in German again and used hand signals
that we had all seen, and we understood what we was saying. This can be
transferred into the classroom for students learning a new language. When
teachers are teaching they need t be sure that whatever they are doing they
are using things that are comprehensible for that student. This could be
pictures, hand signals, and other non-linguistical visuals.
I also learned several things about how to build background
information in ELL students. A great way to build background knowledge in
vocabulary would be to bring in concrete objects to introduce the words. I
have done this in all of my vocabulary lessons with all my students whether
they are ELL or not. Another great way is to use songs with vocabulary.
Students learn vocabulary best when they are learning it in different ways so

using music would be considered a different way of learning. Music also

causes you to learn abstractly which will make the content easily
remembered.
This ELL training was beneficial in so many ways. I not only learned a
lot about the process of acquiring language but many ways to help and
accommodate for these students. Im ready to get back to Trace and help my
ELL students in an even deeper way. Im looking forward to learning more
about how to teach and accommodate ELL students as I continue throughout
the teacher education program.