Google Project Log

2/2/16
20 minutes

2/3/16
2 hours

2/10/16
1.5 hours

2/11/16
10 minutes

I met with Mr. Pitts for about 20 minutes to

discuss what would be a helpful project for
ELL students. He mentioned that older ELL
students who seem to be proficient in English
often struggle in comprehension because they
do not have the same background knowledge.
He was thinking that maybe I could create
resources or ideas for teachers to help them
know how to help their ELL students, and
maybe working with some of the students. He
also sent me a website to explore for ideas.
I began exploring the website and looking
into different comprehension strategies, and
watching videos of teachers working with
ELL students. I also talked with Mr. Pitts and
decided that I would continue to explore and
decide what angle I want to work on this
from.
I started researching language objectives and
how to write them. This is something that Mr.
Pitts said is very important for teachers to use
when they have ELL students, but that most
do not take the time to write language
objectives for each of their objectives. I also
looked for specific strategies to teach
vocabulary. I also met with Mr. Pitts again to
talk about some specific students in Mrs. Us
class and how I can help them with
vocabulary in texts they read. I also learned
that Mr. Pitts also went on the Samford in
Costa Rica trip when he was a students which
is really cool and we were able to talk about
our experiences there.
I talked with my classroom teacher about the
specific students in her class I want to work
on reading with. I plan to stay after class
many days to work with them during their
reading time. I also talked to her about
helping her write language objectives for her
upcoming objectives.

2/24/16
35 minutes

2/25/16
35 minutes

2/29/16
2 hours
3/2/16
2 hours

3/7/16
2 hours

I wrote a language objective for the lesson I

am teaching to my class tomorrow and talked
to Mr. Pitts about it. He offered some
suggestions and brought up some more cool
ideas of how to incorporate the language
objective into the classroom. He also gave me
some books on weather to look at and figure
out how I can use them with my students.
I talked with my teacher and used a language
objective in my class. Student R was not in
class today but Student S latched on to the
vocabulary cards right away and I was able to
see him use the vocabulary in the right way
I came to Trace during reading time, and read
and talked with student R for about an hour
and then I worked and helped with the rest of
the class until the end of the day.
I planned for my session with my students
after PEI, and then I stayed after at Trace
during reading time to work with student R
again. Today I read with student R. I recorded
him reading a book that he has read before,
and then we listened to it together. He
commented that he could barely hear himself,
he read very quietly, so I want to work with
him more on his confidence when reading. I
also asked him some questions about his
feelings about reading.
I came to Trace at 1:00 and stayed until the
end of the day again. This time they were
doing reading stations, so the class was
rotating between doing many things. I read
with each of the ELL students during their
silent reading time. They each read a book to
me and it was fascinating to see the
differences between each of them. The 2 girls
were great readers and did not struggle too
much. Student S who I have not been able to
work with one-on-one yet is able to read
pretty well, but definitely does not know what
every word he reads means. I also asked him
about speaking Spanish at home. I took
Student R out in the hall again, and had him

3/10/16
1.5 hours

Total Hours Spent: 12 hours 40 minutes

read his favorite book again to me as I

scooted further and further away from him
down the hall, making him read it louder to
me and he sounded so much more confident! I
talked to him about reading it to some of his
classmates, so hopefully we will do that next.
I came to Trace at 1:00 again today and left
30 minutes before school ended for the day.
Today I had Student R read his favorite book
to another student in the class. He really
enjoyed this and I could see that he was
excited to be able to share his favorite book
with his friend. He read louder and more
confidently than the first time when he read
with me. I continued to work with this student
and also Student S during their reading
stations. I observed Student S working on the
Osmo and saw how seeing the images of
words really helped him.

Data-Anecdotal Notes
2/25/16
During my lesson I used index cards with the vocabulary words I wanted the students to
use while they created their questions as a group. Student S who is an ELL student loved
these cards and made sure to use those vocabulary words when I came by. I loved seeing
this and could see how doing this type of a thing on a regular basis could really make a
difference.
2/29/16 (Student R)
Before Reading:
1. Do you like reading?
a. No, he likes math better than reading and really does not like reading.
2. How do you feel about words about weather? What are some words you know.
a. He does not like words about weather, and one word he told me he know is
expand.
3. How do you feel when you get to a word you do not know while youre reading?
a. He starts to feel angry. He keeps looking at the word, but then he still does not get
it so he get angrier, then he asks Mrs. U.
During Reading Notes:

He read Weather in the City to me and missed the words cloudy and Thursday. Cloudy
was the one he really struggled with.
Then we read Weather and Seasons and he struggled with a few more words but figured
them out. Cloudy was still the only word he did not know at all.

After Reading:
1. What did you like about this book?
a. He liked the part about the snow, and said that he wished it would snow here.
2. What was difficult about this book?
a. He did not like the part with cloudy in it because he did not like the word and it
made him frustrated.
3. What do you think helps you the most to understand what you are reading?
a. He said that asking his teacher or a family member like his older sister helps him
the most.
I asked Student R about how much he speaks Spanish and English. He said that he speaks
Spanish at home and that his dad does not like English in the house. He said that it gets
confusing sometimes when he comes to school and has to speak English. He does have an
older sister at Hoover High School who also has to speak English in school.
Then I let Student R read some books of his choice to me, and I read to him. Since it is
Dr. Seuss week he read Hop on Pop to me and I read Green Eggs and Ham. I asked him
comprehension questions after and he did pretty well understanding what happened.

3/2/16
Feelings about reading questions:
How do you feel about reading at home for fun?
o He does not like it. He does not think that reading is fun.
How do you feel about getting a book as a present?
o He likes it if it has pictures and is a cool book because he just likes to look at the
pictures.
How do you feel about going to the bookstore?
o He has not been to a bookstore.
Whats your favorite book/type to read?
o His favorite book is The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss, and picture books are his
favorite type of books to read.
How do you feel when its time for reading in class?
o He feels sad because he does not like reading time.
How do you feel when you read out loud in class?
o He does not like reading at loud and feels mad when he has to.
I also asked him if he liked reading with me and he said that he does. I feel that it is because I am
just one person, he loses confidence when there are more people. I want him to read his favorite
book to a small group of students next time.
3/7/16
I talked to Student S about how he feels about reading, and he says that he likes to read. He also
speaks English at home, and his teacher told me that he recently decided that he wants to speak
English at home rather than Spanish so that he can become better at it. His parents can speak
English while Student Rs parents do not.

Proposal Outline
Name: Abigail Hancock
Improving ELL Instruction in the General Classroom
Needs and Opportunities
The minute someone walks into Trace Crossings Elementary, it is immediately clear that Trace
has a diverse population. Many different languages are spoken by students in the school.
However, these students spend most of their time in the general education classroom, only
receiving about 30 minutes with the ELL teacher each day. It was found that 41% of teachers
across our country have ELL students in their classroom. Of that 41% only 12.5% of them
participated in 8 or more hours of professional development related to ELLs in the past 3 years.
This shows me that classroom teachers are generally not prepared to keep up with the needs of
ELL students in their classroom. I want to be able to learn more about what the classroom
teachers can do to support their ELL students.
Audience / Clients / Users
I will be working with a couple of ELL students to see the impact different strategies can have
when working with these students. Student learning will be impacted because these students will
be able to better understand what they are learning and we will also focus on comprehension. I
will measure my students learning through anecdotal notes as we use different strategies. I will
be working with the ELL teacher Mr. Pitts on this project and also with my classroom teacher to
see how I can fit these strategies in to her classroom as I work with her students. I will do
research to find best practices for helping ELL students in the general education classroom.
Timeline
I will spend the first 2 weeks planning with Mr. Pitts and my classroom teacher while also
conducting research. I will work with them to come up with a plan for the classroom and finding
times I can work with my students. Then I will spend 2-3 weeks implementing my strategies in
my classroom with my students. I will work with them approx. 2 days a week.
Product
I will be able to show the improvement of one of my students in his confidence. We will use
different strategies to practice his reading of unknown words and increasing his confidence with
reading. I will hold myself accountable by videotaping him as he reads to note the improvement.
Reality Check
I will need some books to help my ELL students with reading which I will get from Mr. Pitts. I
will also need to use my phone to record my student reading.
Conclusion
I think this is an important project because it can help other teachers and pre-service teachers
learn about the assistance ELL students need in the class and see ways that these things can be
implemented. It will also help them see how these students feel and they will be able to put
themselves into these students shoes.

Reflection
This project changed a lot from the time when I started it until I finished. I decided that I
wanted to focus the most on how to help the ELL students in my class feel more confident in
what they were doing and using language that is specific to the content. I was able to see this in
student S when I taught my lesson and gave him vocabulary notecards. He latched on to those
and used those vocabulary terms while he worked with his table. Then, I was able to see student
R become more confident as he read his favorite book. The first time we read it he really
struggled and read very quietly. The second time we were able to practice again and he listened
to himself read. This helped him want to gain confidence reading. By the end of our sessions he
agreed to read out loud to another student in his class and I was able to see the difference on the
videos I took. Clearly, my students were impacted by this and I was able to see that progress both
in my anecdotal notes and the videos I took of the progression of student Rs reading.
If I were to do this again, I would put together a resource for teachers to show them the
importance of language objectives in the classroom. I think many teachers just do not know what
to do with their ELL students and are unsure of how to best help them. I would also make more
content specific language cards for my teacher to use in the classroom. I was able to see how
much they helped one of our ELL students and I know it would have been even more beneficial
if I had been able to make more and laminate them for my teacher. This way she could use them
in years to come as well with her future students.
I want to use this in my future classroom. I want the ELL students in my classroom to
feel comfortable and confident, and one way this can be done is by helping them really
understand the vocabulary being used in the classroom. Language objectives can help with this. I
want to have language goals for the students in my classroom, both ELL and my general
education students. It will benefit both of them because they will know what vocabulary is
specific to what they are learning and what vocabulary I expect them to use in the classroom

when discussing the lesson with their peers. I am glad I decided to pick this as my google project
because it allowed me to study and learn more about something I am passionate about. It has
helped me explore different strategies I want to use with ELL students in my future classroom.

Videos:
https://youtu.be/FakuoWtGFnc
https://youtu.be/ghjJV4X68HQ
https://youtu.be/5N65Vxfoqa4