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QUESTIONS FOR ESL TEACHER INTERVIEW

1. What is one negative experience you have had in working with other languages?

I don’t know that I would say it’s negative, but it can be frustrating or challenging to
find grade appropriate/age appropriate materials for students who are at levels 1-3 of
language proficiency and are in 3rd—8th grade. Often times these students are reading
below or far below grade level and I have a difficult time finding materials that relate
to the content being studied and are not babyish looking.

2. What is one positive experience you have had in working with other languages?

I have learned so much about the cultures of my students. Even though my native
language is Spanish and many of the students I work with are native language
speakers, the students I work with and have worked with in the past come from
diverse cultural backgrounds. This is helpful in teaching students to be accepting of
others and to look at things from different perspectives.

3. What do you do to lessen anxiety in your ELLs in the mainstream classroom?

• Allow use of the native language


• Use visuals, gestures, acting things out
• Frontload vocabulary
• Increase wait time when asking questions by using different cooperative
structures (think-pair-share, roundrobin, numbered heads)
• Praise
• Making connections to their cultural background

4. What do you do to lessen the anxiety in your ELLs in your small groups?

• Same as above
• Provide feedback on what they are doing well

5. What teaching strategies do you find to be the most effective when teaching
ELLs?

• Allowing for use of the native language


• Providing comprehensible input via visuals, gestures, acting things out
• Frontloading vocabulary
• Providing opportunities for students to interact with each other via use of
partner activities and cooperative group work
• Picture sorts and word sorts
• Graphic organizers
• Sentence frames
6. What teaching strategies do you find to be completely ineffective?

• Looking up definitions in dictionaries


• Teaching vocabulary solely through use of context clues
• Lecturing with no scaffolding
• Reading without previewing vocabulary or making connections to
background knowledge
• Grammar worksheets

7. How effective do you feel our bilingual program is?

It is hard to tell because it is the first year of implementation in the district. While
I do feel it raises accountability for teachers in terms of meeting the needs of ELL
students, I am concerned that not everyone has the proper training and that
teachers are not necessarily accustomed to so much co-teaching.

8. What is one suggestion you have for improving our program at the district?

• Looking at the needs of individual buildings and not applying a “one


shoe” fits all model.
• Provide more training on how to shelter instruction
• Provide more training on co-teaching

9. Do you feel there is enough professional development for the entire staff?

I think that training is provided but not all benefit in the same way. For example,
teachers who have a background in bilingual education more readily apply new things
learned in staff development. Staff who are hearing information about ELLs for the
first time have a more difficult time applying/understanding new concepts.

10. Do you feel there is enough professional development for the bilingual staff?

Not really

11. What professional development opportunities would you like to see in the future?

Perhaps teachers video taping lessons and analyzing together (with successful
bilingual teachers) to identify things that are working well and ways to improve their
practice

12. Are the assessments we give our ELL students appropriate for what we are
measuring?
Some--I think that regardless of what assessment is given, teachers always need to
keep in mind what they are assessing: content or language

13. Do you believe our district is being proactive enough for our changing
demographics?

I think that they are trying to be. There is a great push for problem solving in teams
about students we are concerned about and providing intervention for struggling
students. However, I worry that people are forgetting that regardless of how much
intervention we provide, it still takes ELLs 5-7 years (if they are receiving native
language support) to become fully proficient in the English language.

14. What suggestions might you have regarding our changing demographics?

Encourage more classroom teachers to seek out ESL and/or Bilingual endorsement.
Make sure teachers encourage parents to continue native language development at
home.

15. How do you incorporate co-teaching strategies during your push-in time?

*Jen, I haven’t done this, but I like the ideas suggested in the co-teaching packet you
received at one of your staff developments. If I were in the classroom, I would
incorporate many of the suggestions given there;-)

16. How do you provide support to your students in the mainstream classroom when
you are not there?

• Provide word banks


• Help teachers in generating language objectives
• Give classroom teachers tips on how to make lessons more
comprehensible

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