Jamie Henderson

2/4/16
ESL Methods
Jen Rider
Word Count- 578
Observation
Park Elementary is located on the south side of Durango. In the school year of 2013 through
2014, the population of the school listed just fewer than five hundred students. For the most part,
the number of students was equally divided among each grade. The outliers were in first grade
and forth grade. The forth graders represented the least amount of students out of any grade, the
forth grade class only had sixty three students. The first grade class was the largest, with just
under a hundred students. Almost sixty five percent of the students at Park Elementary are
Caucasians. Six percent of the school is represented from students with a Native American
background. Three percent of the school is made up of Asian students. One hundred and nineteen
students at Park are Hispanic, this equates to about twenty five percent of the schools population.
In the same school year, 2013-2014, there were 4670 students that represented all of the 9R
schools. Out of all the schools in 9R, there are one hundred and eighty five students that
qualified as ELL students.
During recess one day, I stayed behind and briefly interviewed my cooperating teacher,
Hilary Preston. I am placed in a third grade classroom. Out of the twenty two students in the
class, three of them are ELLs. My teacher commented in the beginning saying, something along
the lines of, if you get to know one of them, you will understand the other two. I didnt quite
understand what she meant at first so I asked her to elaborate. She went on to explain how each
students personality was very different but their background and level of English was all very
similar. All three of them are Hispanics, all originate from Mexico. All of them are also second
generation immigrants and Spanish is spoken almost primarily at home. All of their parents
speak English but prefer to speak Spanish in a home setting. All three of the ELLs are labeled as
LEPs. This stands for Limited English Proficiency. Because they dont fully understand English,
the students are given resources to help them succeed. One of the strategies my cooperative
teachers uses, is to place the students in either the same table group or neighboring table groups.
This allows the students to communicate in their native language, if needed, to figure out

instructions. They each have different strengths and weaknesses but if they work together, they
can figure most things out. Another helpful program for the students is, five days a week they are
pulled out of the classroom and given three on one with the support from the ELL specialists.
Ms. Preston went on to explain how the students did miss class in the Pull-out program, however
she feels that what they learn outweighs what they miss.
One question I often ponder during my observation hours is; how fast do they increase their
level of English? During the next couple of months I am excited to get to know the ELL students
better and watch as their English progresses.
Work Cited
"Durango 9-R." School View Data Center. Colorado Department of Education, n.d. Web.
"Park Elementary School." SchoolDigger. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.
"Student Data." Student Data. Durango 9-R, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.
"Summary of Pupil Counts for Specific Schools." Colorado Department of Education
(n.d.): n. pag. Colorado Department of Education. Colorado Department of
Education. Web.