Reflection In A Special Education Classroom

I had the advantage of knowing a little bit about the simulation before it started as a language broker, so my first thoughts were not necessarily shock. I really started the lesson feeling like I knew what was happening. I had a copy of the lesson plan and I thought I could handle it. It was quite obvious that the rest of my classmates were very shocked, and they looked very confused. However, my confidence was quickly dashed. Additionally, by the end of the mock lesson, everyone looked drained. The first word I wrote down during the reflection at the end was exhausted. I was just so tired. The lesson felt so much longer than it actually was, and it was a lot to handle. I cannot imagine what it would have been like to have that situation all …show more content…
Sherlock was reading the passage for comprehension, even though I knew my answer, I had no idea what was happening. I found it very frustrating. I had a really hard time focusing because it was next to impossible for me to follow along, even with the words right in front of me. While that does not mean that students should not be held accountable for focus in class, teachers need realistic expectations for beginning ELLs. Especially in a special education classroom, I will need to be careful to vary the activities so the students are more motivated to pay attention yet have the opportunity to do something they feel confident they can handle. When doing the actual math lesson, it was really helpful to have the sheet with English instructions so I didn’t need to struggle with each word. I could try and find key vocabulary. Additionally, it was much easier for me to focus on my language learning because I already knew what was happening. I didn’t need to worry about the content. However, I acknowledge that already knowing the content is not helpful for students all the time, but it might give the teacher a good place to start language learning. I wonder at what point using known content stops being effective for the students. How, as an educator, do you find the fine line between helpful transfer and boring …show more content…
When I didn’t know exactly what Prof. Sherlock was saying so that I could help my group members, especially when he was giving directions related to the board, I felt awful and a little guilty. It was somehow my fault that I didn’t understand even though I only knew some words in Russian. It was kind of overwhelming. Using the more advanced students to help beginner students with the same L1 is such a valuable tool when the teacher doesn’t speak the L1, but it can add a lot of stress for the advanced students. I wonder how you can most effectively use them without adding undue stress into their lives. Those students likely do not have an easy home life, so it isn’t fair to expect them to always do language brokering and deal with their own work at the same time. Even if they had the average, white, middle class life they cannot be expected to be both a teacher and a student. I also wonder if these effects are different if the student is bilingual from birth or very skilled in both languages, or if that even happens often enough to be important to consider as an educator. It seems like someone who is extremely skilled in both languages might not feel as stressed trying to