January 17th, 2016 (Entry 1)

Steve: It has been an interesting experience working with an English Language Learner in a
mainstream English classroom. When he first got transferred into my class, I was ecstatic
because I missed working with ELLs. I assumed that because he was placed into my class, and
the fact that he was in a study abroad program for a year, that he would be able to work on some
of the content with structured language support. He also had a translator that I was fine with him
using.
I was able to give him some additional support while we worked on Of Mice and Men in class,
and he never stated that he had issues with any of the content. That was until he wrote a lengthy
note to me on a quiz that he had not been able to understand anything that we had worked on in
class so far. Part of that is definitely the dialectal differences of Steinbecks writing, but the fact
that he let me know that there was a larger language barrier than originally thought sent off some
red flags in my mind.
I immediately started checking how he was doing in his other classes. He was nearly failing three
of his classes: Health, Economics, and Chemistry. I spoke with those teachers and found out that
they hadnt talked to him much, and therefore, they did not know about his difficulties. I then
went to go speak to the guidance counselor that was in charge of foreign exchange students, and
we made an action plan to speak with his other teachers.
I also started to do some basic language pre-assessments in order to get a better idea of his
language abilities, but that presented problems too. Without access to WIDA exams, I did not
have a relatively comprehensive way of assessing his language skills. I tried a variety of
assignments, and I have started to work with him on developing some written and oral skills.
The primary issue is that I have other classes that I have to teach, and they are not doing the
same content matter as Ko is (although they could probably use it). So, I am conflicted because I
have two separate curricula happening in my seventh hour, and I am not sure that I am doing
Kos language education any justice at the moment.

January 18th, 2016 (Entry 2)

Steve: I have gathered a number of writing samples from Ko now, and I am trying to do a
detailed analysis of them. There are definitely gaps in his writing, especially when looking at
prepositions, articles, Subject-Verb Agreement, and tenses. I do not know how to structure his
work in my class to help fill these gaps when I cant give him one-on-one instruction every day.
When examining his article responses, I am noticing that he tends to copy some of the rhetoric
from the articles when providing a description of the article, or it is approximately the same from
the article. When I look at the open response to the article at the bottom, I am noticing that he has
more grammatical and syntactic issues.
Ko has specifically asked me to work with him on writing and speaking skills. Today during
class he asked me to work with him one on one on his Country Project that he is doing for a final
exam grade, and I am hoping that I will be able to work with him in this capacity. Given the odd
schedule of exam week and the fact that he has other classes that he has to study for, I am not
sure I will be able to allocate all of the time that he deserves. This is frustrating for me.
The relative plan at the moment is to break down the tasks during the week. The first three days
of the week is to get him to work on developing some grammar and vocabulary knowledge,
starting from examining the form to develop original sentences of his own. On Thursdays, I
would like to engage in some sort of speaking evaluation with him. Ideally, I would challenge Ko
to be able to speak with other individuals during this time frame. I might be able to ask another
student in the class to pair up and be a language buddy with Ko. On Fridays, I want him to read
through a nonfiction article and do a basic assignment with it. I get the articles from NewsELA
which is website that the teacher can adjust the difficulty of the language while still covering the
same content.
It has been quite difficult to work with an ELL in a non-ESL class. My experience prior to this
year has only been in Mary-Lous classroom where the students would only work on English
language acquisition. Now, I have to balance the rest of my classs focus on writing, literature,
and dialogic activities with meeting Kos needs.

January 28th, 2016 (Entry 3)

Steve: I am noticing that Kos language capabilities need to be properly assessed in order for me
to structure a better curriculum for him to follow in my class. I do not have extensive experience
administering these kinds assessments (especially with no access to formal ones like the WIDA).

Ko has been incredibly patient with me when it comes to his language instruction. He
understands that I have a large number of students in my 7th hour class, and he does not seem to
be upset that I cannot spend the entire hour with him. I am very grateful for this because it is
difficult trying to balance two curricula in the classroom.
Ko recently completed a project for me for his midterm exam in class where he gave me
information about his home country of Japan. The actual writing itself is not too bad, but there
are definitely a number of grammatical and syntactical errors. My intention behind having him
complete a number of writing assignments is to just get him constantly practicing using the
English language. He completes article responses every Friday, and these articles are in English
as well.
My biggest challenge right now is to make a coherent curriculum for him. I am wondering if I
would be able to talk with you, Kongji, about this to see if you have any suggestions for me.
I have noticed that he has been more openly speaking to students in the class as well as with me.
There are still some social barriers, but he is starting to inch his way over them.

February 4th, 2016 (Entry 4)

Steve: This week has been a bit of experimentation with my ability to teach without directly
instructing Ko. At the beginning of the week, I thought that it was important for him to begin
listening to examples of native speakers that are speaking on a variety of topics, so I attempted to
find a podcast or listening activities that he can do in extra time to start practicing and speaking
in the language. I am still trying to find something that is suitable for him to listen to but still
challenging at the same time.

Additionally, I started asking Ko about if he talked with his host parents here in Owosso, and he
told me that they do not speak at length about much. I encouraged him to try to start
conversations with them at all possible chances. I am trying to get him to engage in any sort of
language use opportunity as possible. I have even asked several of my students that I have strong
relationships with to try to strike up a conversation with Ko.
Ko did go to an extracurricular at my school today though! I just so happened to stop in another
teachers class, and she had a meeting of the Tautology club. Ko was in the room occasionally
speaking to other students and participating in activities. This made my heart very happy. Im
glad that he is beginning to socialize a little bit with peers around his own age.
I feel like non-European foreign exchange students at my school do not get proper linguistic and
academic support that they need to be successful. Ko is an incredibly smart and gifted student.
He excels at math, business, and economics, but the language barriers that are imposed upon him
in classes are restricting. Many of the other students at the school who are from European
descent do not need the language support to be successful, and they have been placed in higher
English classes as a result (English 12 to be exact).
Im definitely thinking that I need some additional support with this student, so I am planning on
meeting with Kongji sometime soon and bringing any work that I have of Kos to see if we could
brainstorm something. Maybe I can meet with other TESOL people in my cohort too to see what
they think.

February 10th, 2016 (Week 5)

Steve: I feel like I have done a decent analysis of Kos English skills given that I had no prior
indication to his skills. His program that he is a part of had no formal assessment to determine
his language skills. That REALLY hurt me as an ESL educator. I felt like I was running
completely blind, and to be honest, I still am. I have no formal support from my mentor teacher
or from the school.
Owosso High School does not have an ESL program, and it does not even have the curriculum
established for such a class. There has never been an extensive need for the program in the area. I
have no support from anyone. It is a little unnerving to a brand new student teacher.

I know that I have a network of support at Michigan State and East Lansing High School that I
could utilize on a regular basis, but I also realize that they have their own work that they need to
accomplish in their own lives too.
I do know that I need to talk about this problems that I am running into with other people in the
department, but the day-to-day expectations for teachers are many and diverse. I need some
collaboration time with my peers to establish a unit or series of units to help my ELL.
Vocabulary instruction also needs to be a constant in my instruction.
This is difficult, Kongji. Its hard to teach two separate classes at the same time.

February 18th, 2016 (Week 6)

Steve: I had an incredible conversation with Ko today in my seventh hour English 9 class. He
recently completed an article for me about the Detroit Teacher Strike, and he wrote that this is
not the solution to this problem. The teachers need to teach in order for the problem to be
solved. We sat down later that day and discussed the current situation in Detroit Public Schools
and why the teachers resorted to the strike in the first place.
His face completely changed during this conversation. He was not aware of the stark differences
between the Japanese and American education systems. He asked many questions about the
condition of schools, how teachers are treated, and the differences of educational quality across
the country.
I asked him to do some exploration of educational systems and their differences through writing,
and he wrote quite a bit of information. He taught me a lot about the ways in which teachers are
treated in Japan and how Japanese education is structured. He also told me about what he will be
doing when he completes his year here in Owosso.
Its moments like these that I love working in cross-cultural situations. Ko has been relatively
socially isolated while we are at school. One of the first things that I want to do is invite him to
school events and pair him up with a buddy in the class. I think one of my English 9 students
would be an excellent partner for him.
I also need to go buy a Language Notebook for Ko. I want him to be able to take notes on
language, listen to native speakers, and do writing assignments. I need to work out the details
with this. Hopefully I can include him in this conversation.

February 24th, 2016 (Week 7)

Steve: I have not been doing my part for Ko this semester so far. I dont feel like I have provided
a quality ESL education to him, and part of that comes from the lack of my ability to divert my
teaching both English 9 content and the ESL content.
Ko has repeatedly shown me that he is capable of engaging in extended conversation with native
speakers. We have spoken many times with one another about a variety of subjects, including
education, his experiences in America, and his thoughts on his development as an English
Language Learner. He gets incredibly flustered when he cannot think of words, and that is
perfectly okay. I keep telling him that I am capable of understanding him even with the gaps in
his language knowledge.
Additionally, he has had extensive writing practice in my class so far. He does not shy away from
writing in English, but he does rely on his translator quite a bit. I am curious on how to approach
the conversation about his translator. On one hand, I am perfectly fine with him using the
translator to help in his classes, especially since he has six other classes than mine. On the other
hand, I want him to start practicing listening, reading, and writing in English on his own. I have
conflict with this. I know that Mary-Lou does not allow translators in her classroom, but she also
gets the privilege of actually having time for direct instruction.
I am hoping that I will be able to resolve some of my issues over my five day weekend. I need to
spend some time to develop a full unit and points of instruction for Ko over the next few days.
Maybe I can get Kongjis help with this.
Points to Focus on: Articles, Subject-Verb Agreement, Auxiliary Verbs, Writing and Speaking
Fluency, and Social Interaction

March 4th, 2016 (Week 8)

Steve: I started recording lessons for my ELL this week, and they have already proven more
effective. He is able to move through the lesson at his own pace without my presence. It
definitely eats up more of my time outside of class, but I feel like it is worthwhile for his
education. I am having him do some writing, reading, and speaking activities in relation to The
Arrival by Shaun Tan. It is a very interesting graphic novel that highlights the cultural
experiences of immigrants. While Kosuke is not an immigrant, he should be able to draw some
parallels between his experiences in the USA and the main character of the story.
I believe it is very important that ELLs also engage in some work with fictional texts as well. In
my experiences, there seems to be a larger focus on non-fictional texts and dry grammar lectures.
There is definitely warrant to both of those strategies, but I feel like you have to engage the
students in their imaginative faculties as well. Fiction does this perfectly, and The Arrival does
this even more so! It has no words, so Kosuke will be able to construct his own story from the
images that he sees in the text.
I plan to record some grammar lessons over the weekend on Articles and Subject-Verb
Agreement. Hopefully I will be able to get some decent grammar lectures recorded for him in
preparation for next week. I feel like I am a little rusty on ability to teach explicit grammar
elements, so I think that this will be good experience for me.
For my final internship portfolio, I would like to include some of the materials that I am
preparing for Kosuke as a means of meeting my students where they are currently in their
education. He is somewhere between a beginning to intermediate proficiency in my opinion (this
is based off of observational data and student work alone).
Kosuke responded very well to the recorded lesson. It makes it more personal for him and makes
some of my instructional time a lot more streamlined. I definitely want to continue doing this in
the future.
Reminder to self: Take The Arrival home to record lessons for Kosuke, record the two other
grammar activities, try to make calendar for Kosuke (spend around 2 hours total on all of this)

March 10th, 2016 (Week 9)

Steve: I have had some really positive experiences with Kosuke recently with his work, although
I do have some reservations about my ability to teach him effectively given my context. He has

recently been doing some writing assignments for me when it comes to reading Shaun Tans The
Arrival. He has been really getting into the creative writing component of the unit.
He has been developing a written story around the graphic novel since it has no words. He has
been talking about the experiences of Thomas, an immigrant who chose to move away to get
money for his family, and the troubles that ensue. He has a really creative mind!
I have also noticed that he has been using his translator for many assignments. Recently, I have
been asking him to only use his translator in case of language emergencies. This has made me
realize that I need to implement more vocab for him throughout the unit. I am really hoping that
after my mentor teacher takes over teaching the rest of the classes again after spring break that I
can take Kosuke into a separate room and do some really intensive language study.
By reflecting on the language teaching in the English department here at my school, Im
realizing that the importance of explicit language instruction for all students regardless of their
first language. Many of my mainstream students struggle with writing, spelling, etc. Kosuke is
on a relatively equal par with my mainstream students in some regards.
Kosukes verbal proficiency has also had a marked improvement. He is socializing with more
people in my seventh hour class. One of these students has an interest in Japanese culture and
language, so I have paired them up to be buddies. I see Kosuke socializing with other people in
the halls, and even his Civics teacher says that he has had some improvements with the writing in
his class.
I hope that I am doing an okay job with Kosuke this year. I feel bad that I am unable to give him
the proper 1:1 instruction that I really want to do.

March 16th, 2016 (Week 10)

Steve: I have really enjoyed watching Kosuke develop more language skills over time, and I
think having the mix of nonfiction and fiction has been really helpful in this regard. The
information that he relays to me is very interesting. I dont feel like I get too much information
coming from a Japanese perspective. What I mean by this is that I dont get to hear many news
stories told from a non-American perspective.
For example, Kosuke just shared with me about the anniversary of the Earthquake and
proceeding nuclear disaster in Japan. He told me how Japanese citizens are still dealing with the
troubles caused by that incident. Additionally, he has talked to me about the state of Japanese
education and immigration. Many younger Japanese citizens want the government to accept

Syrian immigrants into the country because of the population issues that they have. All of this
information was AMAZING to me because I had not previously thought about it.
My same troubles about teaching Kosuke still linger in my mind. I really wish I could have had
him for an independent language study. That would have been the ideal situation. Additionally, I
have had to craft new curricula for him because all of the units I had previously are geared
toward a whole ESL class, not a single student in a mainstream classroom. This has been an
additional struggle as well.
I really wish I had time to do larger class instruction on writing that Kosuke could participate in.
These limitations are frustrating!

March 24th, 2016 (Week 11)

Steve: I believe that my decision to wean Kosuke off of his translator has proven to be a
relatively effective task. I know that many ESL teachers allow their students to use some sort of
scaffold to help them with their academic work, and I definitely see the warrants of using this
kind of tool in the classroom. I just want to see what he would be able to do without that
language crutch.
He has done very well with it! There are still obviously some grammatical and tense issues that I
have noticed, but those language skills come with additional time and practice. I am already
brimming with ideas of what I could do once I have 1:1 time with him in April when my mentor
teacher takes over the classes once again.
Kosukes listening skills have had remarkable improvement when it comes to BICS level
language. He has been socializing with his peers even more now, and he initiates conversations
with teachers as well. This is a huge shift in behavior. Initially, he wouldnt even talk at length
with me due to cultural differences in teacher-student relationships. He has transcended many
cultural differences since he has come to Owosso High School.
March 30th, 2016 (Week 12)
Steve: Now that it is the week before Spring Break, I can feel the students burning out a little,
including Kosuke. I feel like he has been operating on a really high level both academically and
linguistically. Some of his other teachers have come to speak to me about the difficulties that
they have experienced with instructing him in class. I think they break will do him some good.
Unfortunately, given the responsibilities and demands of finishing my ten week lead teach, I
have been having difficulty providing direct instruction to Kosuke. Luckily, he has been working

on narrating The Arrival as a means of practicing with English. I dont believe that I have been
able to instruct him as well as I would like to, but the circumstances and restrictions I am under
are causing me to my best with the time and resources that I have.
I have noticed that he spends more time outside of class with other students in the building now
too, and this makes me incredibly happy. One student in my seventh hour class (we will call him
Stan for the sake of protecting his identity) has been hanging out with him in the hallways and at
lunch more. I believe that they are planning on spending some time together over Spring Break.
This moment is a really proud moment for me as a teacher because many times English
Language Learners are isolated away from their native-speaking peers. This integration, albeit
minor at this point, is the start of something wonderful.
I am wishing that I could have more instructional time with Kosuke. He has so many language
questions, and I can only answer so many. He has emailed me a few times when he has had
questions, and I make sure to keep an eye on his grades and any comments that teachers may
include in PowerSchool. His Civics teacher has collaborated with me several times to provide
language accommodations on his tests. This has been wonderful practice for me.
I am curious as to how these different exchange programs assess and place their students. There
should be easily accessible data for people like me to observe. I will have to look into this. The
biggest problem I am having with that is there is no language proficiency data for me to base
instruction off of.

April 13th, 2016 (Week 13)

Steve: The week off definitely had a positive impact on Kosukes work ethic. He is not burnt out
anymore. This is reflected in his grades as well. He is currently doing very well academically,
with all As and Bs. The only class where this isnt the case is in his Chemistry class. He has
spoken to me about Chemistry many times before, and he has trouble overcoming the language
barriers in that class. He is even more frustrated about it because it is similar concepts that he has
already studied back in his original school in the Mie prefecture.
Additionally, Kosuke is almost done with The Arrival! He has really liked it so far because he
can construct the narrative without relying on his English proficiency. I really like using this text,
especially for English Language Learners. I am hoping to integrate it into my future mainstream
English Language Arts classes as well. I feel like the experiences are universal, and the students
could have a really fun time trying out a new text.
I have been reviewing old data that I collected from Kosuke in the past, and I am trying to set up
some instruction that would benefit him during my last few weeks here at OHS. There is a slight

problem though. He still has to be in the class that my mentor teacher is now teaching, and she
wants him to try working on the text that they are doing next, The Glass Castle. I have full faith
that he would be able to engage with this text, and it would definitely give him an interesting
perspective on his understanding of the United States. Hopefully I can make some language
accommodations in class to help him out more.
Its hard setting up a sustainable teaching practice without direct instruction. That is something
that keeps coming up in my experiences and even in this reflection journal. Maybe that speaks to
the ways in which English Language Learners experience schooling in the framework of the
American educational system. Maybe it is just specifically my school. I cant help but feel like I
have not done my best work with him though.

April 19th, 2016 (Week 14)

Steve: This was my last week teaching in my classrooms. My mentor teacher is going to be
taking over all of our classes to acclimate them back to her teaching style. This means that I will
be out of the classroom; therefore, I will also be away from directly teaching Kosuke. I dont
really have much choice in this situation.
Looking back on the entire school year that I spent with Kosuke, I believe that he has made
tremendous gains as an English Language Learner. He has developed many different skills that
he did not have previous. His BICS language usage has improved quite well, which is a common
occurrence for English Language Learners in their first few years in an ESL environment. He
changed from a quiet, respectful, and isolated young man into a sociable and friendly man. It is
incredible to have seen his growth over time. He will be returning to Japan in just a handful of
weeks, and I hope his experiences at Owosso High School are positive and helpful to his overall
education.
I plan to remain in touch with Kosuke after he leaves OHS. He friended me on Facebook quite
some time ago, and I will be able to use that to stay in contact with him and maybe help him in
his journey to learn English.
The biggest regrets that I have about working with Kosuke is that I wish I could have had more
time and freedom to work with him one-on-one. Given the constraints that I had, I was unable to
do more. I feel uneasy about letting him continue on in my English 9 class under the supervision
of my mentor teacher, but I know that he will be able to do well in any setting that he is in. He is
adaptable and intelligent. Additionally, I will let him know where I am so he could use me as a
resource as well.
Given that this is my final week directly teaching him, this will also be my last entry in this
reflection journal.