ELL Writing Project-Interview

 

Interview questions with classroom teacher: This interview was done with Mrs. Gila Strauss, the head of the  English Chug School in Israel. She works in conjunction with the Israeli schools and is in charge of teaching English to the children in her neighborhood.

 

• Please describe your ELL teaching experience.

As an ELL teacher for orthodox Jewish Israeli children, I have to balance a mix of fun and education. My class is on top of an already intense Hebrew educational program. I need to be considerate of the cultural differences between American and Israeli styles and accommodate their sensitivities. For instance these children live very sheltered lives and try to limit outside influences such as the internet and secular books. This presents a challenge when trying to come up with materials for these children to read.

 

What is your perception on ELLs in terms of their learning motivation and performance(especially in reading and writing)? What learning difficulties do ELLs usually encounter in schools? What is the role of family and community in helping ELLs’ learning?

 

Since my students are learning an entire curriculum in Hebrew plus English class, it is hard to encourage my class to make my class their main focus. However, they are all motivated to learn English since they feel that it will open many more windows of opportunity for them. In Israel it is considered cool to speak English. Although this is the case, not always is the motivation to be “cool” enough to motivate the students to put in the hard work it takes to learn a new language. There are many students however who are motivated and are able to achieve great heights in their English studies. Studying English is like any other subject, if you are good at it that makes it all the easier to absorb.

Some of the learning difficulties that ELLs encounter are a clash in culture and style. There are many subtle differences in every culture that are often overlooked but for children can make a tremendous difference on a student’s perception of a situation. Furthermore, when students try to translate in their head from their native language to English, often these translations do not work and what comes out is incoherent.

The role of family and community in helping ELL’s learning is crucial. Learning English should be encouraged at home. Teachers need to keep in mind however that it’s important for students to also maintain their cultural identity even while adapting to their new English speaking setting.

 

 In your opinion, how do classroom teachers resolve ELLs’ learning difficulties? What strategies do you adopt? Are they effective or not? Do you participate in on-going professional training for teaching ELLs? What is your experience in terms of working students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds? How do you make sure that your teaching is culturally responsive? How do you go about reaching out to the family and the community?

 

In my opinion it is up to the teacher to set the climate of tolerance in the classroom. ELL students need to feel that they are in a safe environment in order to effectively learn English. It needs to be known that is okay to make mistakes and that we are all here to learn together. When students make grammatical mistakes when they speak I often ask them to repeat themselves appropriately. Usually this is effective since it causes students to repeat their thinking process and analyze what sounded right and what did not. Other times the student gets into an even deeper hole. As far as professional training for teaching ELLs, I do not participate in any formal seminars. I am however in contact with the principal of the school who is an expert in this area. Before I came to Israel I never taught students who did not speak the same first language as me. I was pleasantly surprised at the similarities that the children had to my former students and the unique differences that made my Israeli students a refreshing bunch! The English Chug School is very strict to respect the sensitivities of the students’ families as mentioned earlier. I am thankful for this since I am protected from insulting anyone. I do not go out of my way to reach out to my students’ families since in Israel they are the natives and I am the foreigner. I am in touch with them though about their children’s progress. 

 

 If you have an ELL in your class whose culture you are not familiar with at all, how do you go about teaching the child?

I had a student who came from a Sefardic background (his family originated from Persia). I was unfamiliar with his background and customs but I was curious to gain a feel for where the boy was coming from. So, in front of the whole class I asked him questions about his culture. He was very forthcoming with the information and was so happy that I had put in the effort to know and appreciate his background. We laughed about our similarities and differences, and we went on with the rest of the lesson.

 

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 Please describe the ELL’s performance (in terms of learning motivation and writing skills) after participating in this project.

The topic that we chose about the student’s vacation I felt was a great way to motivate him to write. His motivation for writing in general I don’t think improved as a result in participating in the project. He did however gain an important tool on how to plan before writing so that he is work comes out better.

 

 In your opinion, how did this partnership affect the ELL’s learning performance and

motivation?

The relationship between the student and Aviva was strong. The student is not the most outgoing, but he responded well from working with her.

 

What did you learn from this school-university partnership model?

I learned about the many programs there are available for students to get their Master’s degree, even in Israel! With all that aside, I was impressed with the lesson template and I thought that it was very thorough. I also found the standards that the lesson corresponded to very specific and a great guideline for teachers.

 

What difficulties did you encounter in this school-university partnership model?

I did not really encounter any difficulties except for giving over IEPs. The process was overall very smooth.

 

What would you suggest to improve the school-university partnership model?

 As a teacher I would be interested to speak the professors of the university. I feel that I would gain a clearer idea of what is expected and will gain from their knowledge.