Godawa 1

Wiktoria Godawa

English 4

Mrs. DeBock

27 April 2017

Real World Experience Narrative Writing

As the Senior Exploration process began, deciding which topic to research depended

largely on what my real world experience would be. I was faced with deciding between working

in the music field for my experience, or experiencing an ESL class. Finally, I decided to go with

the option that I experience less often, to be able to expand my horizons. I sat in on an ESL class

here at St. James High School for an entire day. I found that the majority of the students who

need ESL instruction at our school are of Hispanic origin. Depending on the location of a school

and size of a city, one may see a wider demographic of nationalities in such classes. During my

experience, I was able to witness how each student learns and the tactics used to teach English.

When I was in elementary school, I went through the ESL instruction process. With this

in mind, I had a vague idea of what I may experience during my visit. I spoke to Mrs. Hudson,

the ESL instructor for both St. James High and Middle Schools, and we scheduled a day for me

to visit for the duration of the school day according to her schedule. I arrived at the beginning of

the school day, and discussed with Mrs. Hudson what would happen. Certain students come in at

different points in the day based on their proficiency levels. During first block, the lowest

proficiency students come up to the class. There were three girls there who spoke poor english,
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because they moved to the United States fairly recently. Mrs. Hudson explained to me that there

was one girl there who moved to the US from rural Guatemala about six months ago. The area

she came from is so rural that they speak a dialect of Mayan, rather than Spanish like the

majority of Guatemala. This means that while she is in ESL instruction, she is learning Spanish

along with English. During second block, a group of boys came in who were high proficiency.

They spoke clearly, yet had some struggles when it came to vocabulary. The reason I could tell

they were higher proficiency was because they easily carried a conversation with both Mrs.

Hudson and me the entire time they were there. Afterwards, a large group of high proficiency

girls came in. They were celebrating one girls birthday and it was clear that they all spoke

English easily and carried conversations naturally. Following all of the high proficiency students,

the low proficiency students who wanted extra help came back for extra help.

Mrs. Hudson explained how she usually runs class. She spends some time building the

foundations for the English language, but that does not always help the students to pass their

classes. Especially with the low proficiency group, Mrs. Hudson took time to work on classwork

with them, break it down, explain it, and make sure they understand it. During first block, the

girls were making flashcards as a way to learn vocabulary for a government and economics class.

Mrs. Hudson wrote on the board the template for the card which was four squares. In one square

was the word. In the next square was the definition from a dictionary for English learners. The

next square was for a simplified definition that Mrs. Hudson made to allow the student to better

understand the meaning. The last square was designated for a visual representation of the word

that the student may use to associate the meaning of the word to the picture. They got through as
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many of the words as possible and came back later to finish them. Afterwards, Mrs. Hudson told

them to get out any homework they may have and work on it while she was there to help them if

they needed it. She worked with the girl who moved here from rural Guatemala on a math test.

The amount of patience and care Mrs. Hudson displays with these students was awe inspiring.

She would not move on until the question was thoroughly understood.

For the higher proficiency students, both the boys and girls following them, Mrs. Hudson

focused on expanding vocabulary and word association. In my research, I found that a crucial

part of the English learning process is associating a word in English to the word in the students

native language. Using a card game called Scattergories, Mrs. Hudson established a way of

connecting common human knowledge to using the English vocabulary the student has acquired.

She would hold up two cards, one with a category, and the other with a letter. The task was to try

to name a word that fits the category and begins with that letter. For example, the category would

be In the kitchen and the letter could be B, and an example of an answer would be blender.

The first student who named a suitable answer was given the category card. Whoever had the

most cards in the end was the winner. This game required a multidimensional understanding of a

word, in that both the meaning and spelling played a role in the correctness of the answer. I

played along with the girls for one round and realized that it is far more challenging than I had

imagined.

Lastly, there was a free session where anyone came to the room that needed extra help.

Several of the high proficiency girls helped the low proficiency girls with any homework they
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needed to finish. Mrs. Hudson helped the same girl with her math test from earlier that day. The

environment was extremely welcoming in general, and the whole class made me feel at home in

the class. Each student showed me the different things they have completed throughout the year

to put in their portfolios. This portfolio serves as a way of tracking the students progress

throughout the entire year. The students showed me books they had to write, posters they have

made, and several other activities. For example, once they were to write a riddle in english and

they shared with the entire class. I have found that these activities often resemble the activities an

elementary school student would complete when learning the english language in depth. Phonics

exercises, writing short stories, and writing prompts are among the activities shared between

elementary school and ESL instruction.

My experience shadowing an ESL class at our school was a pleasant and enlightening

experience. I was faced with the reality that, at least in high school, the role of an ESL teacher is

not only to help a student cross the language barrier they have to overcome, but also to help the

student pass high school and to be able to compete with their native English speaking peers. This

gave me fresh view on the strategies that were put into mind when teaching students like me

English as a second language.