Final Project – TE 845

Option 1

  • Identify an ESL student to work with. (If you don’t have access to anyone at your school, you will likely be able to find someone through networking with friends, relatives, and colleagues. You could also find out about community ESL classes and immigrant organizations or advocacy agencies and seek a volunteer student through those avenues. If you are unable to find a child to work with, you might choose to work with a college student or an adult. Most colleges and universities have ESL programs and international students.)
  • Meet the student to get acquainted, roughly assess his/her English proficiency, and to learn about his/her interests and academic goals. (In week 10, you’ll learn about assessment tools and options.)
  • Based on your initial assessment, plan a literacy activity to conduct with the student. The activity should be centered on an academic text and last about 1 hour (possibly shorter if you’re working with a young child). You will create a lesson plan that includes language and content objectives, pre-reading/writing, a reading and/or writing task, and a post-reading/writing assessment.
  • If possible, videotape your lesson. (This will help you analyze it afterwards.)
  • Within 24 hours of conducting the lesson, write a summary/reflection of the experience. What worked? What didn’t work? What did you learn? What did the student learn? How do you know? What would you do differently if you had another chance to do the activity? If you were to work with this student again, what would the next steps be?
  • You will submit the following items:
  • A document that shows what you learned about the student after your initial meeting (a general introduction to the student ) and that describes what you think the student needs in terms of academic and linguistic support
  • Your lesson plan with supporting materials
  • Your summary/reflection of the experience.

You can choose the format for these items. You can write a traditional paper or present your project in some other form. I encourage you to explore alternative formats that incorporate visual representations and technology, but this is not required. If you want to do something other than a paper, please consult with me first.

Option 2

  • Make arrangements to observe an ESL class (K-12 or adult). Most colleges and communities offer ESL classes as do private organizations. Often, the library will have information.
  • Have a brief conversation with the teacher before or after the lesson to learn a little about the class, the students, and what the goals of the lesson were/will be. If there’s time you could also ask additional questions about teaching ESL.
  • While you are observing, take detailed notes of what you observe the teachers and the students doing. Pay particular attention to the following items: What were the language goals? Were there also content goals? If so, what? How did the teacher work to make English comprehensible to the students? What was the role of other languages besides English? What instructional strategies did the teacher use? How did the students respond to instruction? How did they respond when they didn’t understand? Could you tell whether or not they understood? What strategies or principles do you see that reflect what you’ve learned in the course?
  • Within 24 hours of observing, write a detailed summary/reflection of the experience. In your reflection, assess the teaching you observed in light of what you’ve learned in TE 845.
  • Based on your observation, design a follow-up lesson that you think would be appropriate and applicable to the class you observed. The activity should be centered on an academic text and last about 1 hour. You will create a lesson plan that includes language and content objectives, pre-reading/writing, a reading and/or writing task, and a post-reading/writing assessment.
  • You will submit the following items:
  • A document that shows what you learned from your conversation with the teacher.
  • Notes from your observation.
  • Your lesson plan with supporting materials
  • Your summary/reflection of the experience.

You can choose the format for these items. You can write a traditional paper or present your project in some other form. I encourage you to explore alternative formats that incorporate visual representations and technology, but this is not required. If you want to do something other than a paper, please consult with me first.