ELL Class Reflection

My overall experience at Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy was very enjoyable. The ELL class that I sat in on taught me a lot and the students were great to work with. I got the opportunity to develop strong relationships with all of the students because I was also observing in some of their core classes. It was interesting to see how they acted in a regular education classroom then how they acted in their small ELL class. The students were much more outgoing in the ELL class and were always raising their hands to ask questions. In the regular education classroom these students were very quite and the only time they would talk is if they were asked to. Occasionally they would misbehave in class but that was their way of getting attention and a way to tell the teacher they had no idea what was going on. I enjoyed seeing these students in both settings because I got a sense of who they

Prior to sitting in on these classes, I did not know what to expect or what was even going to occur. I grew up in a small white town so we did not have classes like the one I observed. After observing for 15 hours I have realized how important it is that students get the help they need when it comes to learning English. One major lesson that I have learned from my observations that I will take with me for my future encounters is to not let my students abandon their Spanish. It seemed that in every class I observed, the students all expressed their hate for English and their lost Spanish. They were forced at a young age to forget Spanish and only know English. I have learned that this is not the appropriate way to go about teaching children English. Spanish is a big part of their lives, it makes up who they are so we should not get rid of their Spanish. Bilingual children do well in school so as educators it is important to teach children English but not let them forget their