Can you understand me? (online reflection #1)

Can you understand me? (reflection #1)

I am in a high school for my core 3 placement this semester and all of my students are seniors. The classroom is designed for students who plan on furthering their education after high school. These students all plan on attending a four year college, a community college or a technical college. My CT is really good about getting all of the students involved in class discussions and making sure that they understand what is being expected from them. Whenever they receive an assignment she goes through the directions and breaks them down this way there is no confusion about what needs to be completed. She does a really great job explaining everything and going through the directions one step at a time.

There is one issue that I have seen in the classroom that I would like to address and get some feedback on. It involves a couple of English Language Learners; even though my CT does a great job breaking everything down these students still lag behind a bit. When she moves on they are still trying to process what she recently said. They also fall behind because when it comes time to do the assignment they are still trying to put all the instructions together in a way that they can understand and process.

I can normally help these students, they sit together which makes it easy for me to go sit at their table and make sure that they are not falling behind. These students first language is Spanish which I can speak fluently. While my CT is lecturing I can make sure that they understand what's going on.

My biggest concern is what happens when I become the teacher and there's not that extra person in there with me when I'm lecturing. How do I make sure that these students aren’t falling behind? The classroom has a large number of students which makes it really hard to have a lot of one on one time with the students. Another issue would be if it was a language I was not familiar with, how would I go about that.

I read an article called "Overcoming Language and Cultural Barriers in School:

Helping Hispanic Students Acquire Success in Elementary School" by Pauline S. Ivey where Ivey talks about how students with English as their first language are far more successful than students who start out speaking a language other than English. I want all of my students to have an equal opportunity in being successful without language being a barrier. Ivey also talks about how parents are not as involved in their children's school because of the language barriers which might explain why they're less successful than students with parents who speak English.

So my question for you guys would be how would you deal with this situation? I want my students to be able to process what they are learning and not fall behind. I also want parents to feel comfortable coming into my classroom during conferences or any other school events.

References

          Ivey, P. S. (2011). Overcoming Language and Cultural Barriers in School: Helping Hispanic Students Acquire Success in Elementary School. Online Submission