Final Reflection for CIL 621

Overall, I think that the process of creating this unit was both challenging and an
educational learning experience for me. I found that creating my lessons encouraged me to explore
teaching styles, teaching goals, and CCSS. This class was a unique opportunity for me, by creating my
first unit all on my own. Before this class, I had never used textual evidence to design a lesson. Now
that I have, it will positively influence all of my future lessons, by encouraging me to first find the
purpose of different teaching strategies and then applying them to my lessons. Out of my three lessons,
the first one about designing a park is the only lesson I have taught in a classroom with ESL students.
As an English auxiliary, I am not required to make a formal lesson plan for any of my classes. I co-
teach, so I often ask the main teacher (teacher of record, if you will) about their goals during the class.
They almost always tell me that they just want me to teach in English, anything I want. The first lesson
I designed for CIL 621 is the method I would have liked to have used to teach my students about
ecosystems. Before creating this lesson plan (for CIL 621) I had taught this lesson by drawing an
example and having my students follow it. I realized that I wanted them to be more independent and
that scaffolding was necessary. For example, the list of vocabulary words that are related to
ecosystems. This can be found in my materials list for lesson plan one, on my webpage, are all words
that I hope to have my students include in this activity. If I ever taught this biology lesson again, I feel
way more prepared and can see that the outcome would be positive.

The process of designing a lesson for ESL students was both difficult and rewarding for me.
I choose to highlight three examples that I would teach in a row to my secondary ESL students. The
overarching theme that I choose was English Language Learning with a focus on reading, writing,
listening, and speaking in different content areas. Each lesson uses at least 2 of the 4 skills to produce
both productive and receptive skills. As a new teacher, I wanted to research how ELL’s are being taught
in order to become proficient in English. For starters, I looked into the definition of proficiency. I found
that there are proficient speakers who lack in common core subjects but can still communicate. This is
the majority of my students. In one article by Hakuta, Butler, and Witt (2000), they stated that
“educators have come to distinguish between oral English proficiency and academic English
proficiency, and these terms have entered the common parlance of most professional educators and
policymakers” (p.5). This means that if I want to achieve my goal as an ESL teacher, I need my
students to reach a proficient level in both oral and academic English. For starters, “Oral English
proficiency is determined through standardized proficiency tests” (Hakuta, Butler, Witt, 2000 p.5).
However, “Academic English proficiency refers to the ability to use language in academic contexts,
which is particularly important for long-term success in school” (Hakuta, Butler, Witt, 2000 p.1). As a
teacher, I want to focus more on academic English proficiency. In order to do this, I researched how to
incorporate art in a classroom to bring in cultural appreciation and awareness. For another one of my
lessons, I researched the value of technology in the classroom and the frequency of contact students
have with technology. Lastly, I researched close reading skills. All of these combined are present in my
4 lesson plans.

Designing this lesson has begun my journey of learning how to be a great teacher. This unit
showed me that I need to focus my learning on how to find or create material for a lesson. I have never
taken a lesson planning class before, but now I am going to be actively seeking it out. I have realized
that I am extremely slow at creating lessons because I do not have a background in knowing the steps. I
know that in the near future I will have a mentor, and I am excited to begin asking them questions and
observing how an experienced teacher designs a lesson.

My concluding thoughts about this unit are that having a background in Spanish has
allowed me to consider the perspective of my students. I feel confident that I know the right materials
they need to scaffold them into successful proficient English speaking students. I am focused on
learning how to improve my teaching by using assessments. CIL 621 has inspired me and shown me
that you can learn about your students and their individual level with assessments and interest
inventories. I am more motivated than ever to learn about assessments. Being that the unit I designed
for this class is in the middle of the school year, I only included formative and summative assessments
that related to the lesson. I would like to learn how to incorporate assessments, such as a spelling
assessment in the middle of my unit. With all learning experiences comes mistakes and room for
growth.

I have realized that not having an undergraduate in education has lead to a few small
hiccups that I am still working out. For example, going about the process of choosing a CCSS still
makes me feel a little uncertain. As well as, the best way to create the material for my units.