Preschool

This past week I was in the preschool classroom in Brigham elementary. This was the first week I had ever been in the preschool classroom and it was hard to engage the students. I feel like a lot of the time the students didn’t know how to express themselves. I don’t know if it was just the questions they were being asked or if this was a regular occurrence. My station was supposed to talk with the students about what different instruments sounded like. Some times the students didn’t respond and other times the students gave an answer that didn’t make sense. Since it was just my first experience with these kids I am not sure if they behave like this all the time or if it was just the nature of my questions. In order to make it easier for the students I wonder if I should have given them more options for answers. Maybe the question what does it sound like was too vague and the students didn’t really understand how they were supposed to answer. One student said every instrument sounded like a truck. I think their vocabulary just is not developed enough to express what they are thinking.

My goal in working with bilingual students was to find ways to engage them and challenge them in the classroom.  One step towards doing this is getting to know the students and see how they engage in the classroom. Since this was my first experience with the preschoolers I do no think I know them well enough to find ways to engage and challenge them but I was able to see how engaged they were in the classroom. One little boy in particular was really quiet in our small group so I asked him in Spanish if he spoke Spanish and he nodded. I asked his name but he was so quiet I could not hear him. I tried asking him the questions in Spanish and even though he did respond I could not hear a word he said. As I kept asking him I kept scooting closer and closer to try and hear him but I was unsuccessful. I felt bad that he wasn’t as engaged as the other students in the conversation. However, he did like playing the instruments and was smiling while doing it. But when it came to the speaking he clammed up and was not participating. I think it would have been nice to find some other way to allow the ELL students to communicate other than vocally. Maybe having some pictures he could have pointed to or trying to use yes or no questions would have made it easier for him to contribute.

Even though I felt that I was unable to challenge or engage this specific student I think I learned a lot from this experience. I learned that you need to give all students different ways they can participate and not limit it to just vocalization. Students still need to work on areas they struggle with but helping them to feel successful in the classroom is also important.

Exceeds: Responded to two classmates Blogs