Assign. #2, Fieldwork Observation

Today the students began a new strategy for writing. We are trying a program called "Write Reflections". We tried it once right before the Christmas break, but many of the students were having trouble with it. However, I decided to try it again today. The students were asked to share what they liked about snow. I got the predictable answers, which I wrote on a transparancy that was the same as the handout that they received. However, I wrote all the appropriate responses, but they were asked to write only 3 on their paper. In the next section the students were to copy the introductory sentence as it was written on their paper. Then they were to take the 3 things that they liked about snow and make them into supporting sentences for the topic sentence. I was able to go around to a few of the students who were really struggling and help them with their sentences. Tomorrow we will begin working on editing our rough drafts.

• Teaching issues:
• One student gave an inappropriate response unrelated to the topic. This is a common attention-getting technique for him. Another student was having difficulty in knowing how to compose a sentence even with my prompting. A couple of the students simply rewrote the list of fun things to do, without making them into sentences. I think the biggest challenge for a few of my ELL students will be in correctly forming subjects and predicates. A few of the others will need to work on using sentences to complete one thought instead of making one long run-on sentence. I'm still not convenced that this is the most efficient method of writing for my ELL students.
• Second Language Acquistion 
• Brainstorming for ideas is a great ELL strategy. I also allowed students adequate time in order to think about what they were going to say. One student who is "early production" was given an option about two possible answers in order to help her with vocabulary. Also the use of the overhead projector with a copy of their matching worksheet helped the students to follow along. Instead of telling them where I was on their worksheet, they could just see where I was on the overhead.
• Ethnographic Perspective
• It is important as an ELL teacher that I know the student's level of language acquisition, reading and writing levels. I should also know the wait time for students when they are trying to compose what to say. Playing in the snow is a new activity for a few of my hispanic students and my Kurdish student. However, we have been reading books in class about the snow, both fiction and non-fiction in order to build background for all my students.

MTSU Honor Statement:

This assignment/assessment was solely written by me. In no way have I
plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated
the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations
of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State
University and/or appropriate legal action being taken against me.
Signed (submitting this statement to Teaching Faculty with student's name typed
below constitutes signing):
Celia Denney
Date: Feb. 3, 2010