Sara Riemer

EDUC 359
Dr. Reilly
November 6, 2016
Mini Reflection
As a teacher, the challenges that I faced was trying to pronounce the vocabulary word
correctly. I looked how to pronounce the word correctly, but it was very hard to say the word.
Another challenge that I faced was trying to explain the word to the students without giving the
definition of the word. It was hard to think of a sentence using the new vocabulary word with the
correct content. I have never been exposed to some of these vocabulary words before and I had
no prior knowledge in order to construct a sentence. To overcome these challenges I googled a
picture of the vocabulary word. It is very important to use visual representation when teaching a
new vocabulary word in general, and especially for ELL students. Visual representations help
students see the word and try to use their prior knowledge to help think of the definition of the
word. I also googled a sentence using the vocabulary word. When students hear a new
vocabulary word in a sentence, it helps students use context clues. When I used the word in the
sentence some of the students understood the one vocabulary word because the student had prior
knowledge. When teachers use visual representation and new vocabulary words in a sentence, it
helps students understand the word better without being told the definition. When I was teaching
my lesson on another vocabulary word, I realized that the example sentence did not help the
students understand the word at all. I showed the students the visual representation of the word
and some of the students guessed what the word meant, while other students did not know. This

mini lesson helped me realize that sometimes an example or a visual representation of a word
may not help a student understand the word. In this case, the teacher would have to further his or
her instruction by using context clues and telling the students what the word means. This activity
helped me stimulate one or more ELL students in my classroom because it made me realize that
an easy vocabulary word to me, may seem very difficult for an ELL student because the
vocabulary word is in a different language. This activity made me realize how hard it is to teach
a new vocabulary word to an ELL student because they may not understand anything at all. It is
important to use a visual representation because the student will at least see a picture of the word.
I used language in my instruction by pronouncing the vocabulary word correctly. I told
everyone to say the word after listening to the word on the computer. The students were
participating in oral language. As a student I can relate to this activity to the experience of an
ELL student in an English speaking classroom because when I heard other students vocabulary
words, I did not understand the teachers pronouncing the word at all. It took me a while to
understand what the teachers were even saying and I asked the teachers to say the word
again. When the teachers said the word in a sentence, I still did not understand the word. When
I saw visual representations of the word, it helped me understand the word a little bit better, but
not as much. I realized the struggles for learning a new vocabulary word in a different language
for ELL students. I was becoming frustrated too when I was learning the new word and not
understanding it. I was able to feel how an ELL student feels which made me upset. This activity
opened my eyes and my future teaching career when I teach ELL students. Overall, I think this
activity was very beneficial for all of us because it made us realize how hard it is learning new
vocabulary in a different language. We were learning a new word in English and many of us

were having trouble. It made us truly understand how an ELL student feels when learning in a
new different language.