Dominique Graves

Professional Communication Plan

03/18/2020

Professional Communication Plan

My journey to becoming an ESOL teacher has been surprisingly unexpected because growing

up, I never wanted to become a teacher. Honestly, I didn’t believe I possessed the talent. Before

graduating with my undergrad degree in Spanish, I had dreamt of becoming a translator

and an interpreter. That dream came to an abrupt stop when I realized my level of fluency was

not up to par. Fast forward passed the awesome 10-month job opportunity to teach English in

Spain after graduation because of health reasons and stop in the year 2017 when I was accepted

in the MAT TESOL program. This is when I developed a new dream. Now, I am an 6th grade

ESOL teacher. I never thought I would make it this far. Growing up, I didn’t receive the best

education because I wasn’t being challenge and my voice was not being heard. The school

over in the next county had everything I wanted. The grass was greener on the other side.

Unfortunately, I could see the grass, smell the grass, but I could not walk on it. Thanks to my

subpar education, I’ve struggled all throughout college to have confidence in what I know.

I’ve always been told that I am smart, but I never believe it. For what is easier for mostly

everyone in my college classes to do is difficult for me. I say all of this to share why I’m now

passionate about being a teacher. I don’t want another student to feel insecure about their

intellectual abilities. My philosophy of education is for my students to learn how to use their

education as a tool to create a better life for themselves and their families through sharing

experiences and providing real-life examples. My background, personal beliefs, values, and
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expectations has influenced how I interact with my ELLs because I pledge to advocate on

their behalf, and I am consistently teaching them to advocate for themselves. They just need a

helping hand.

Two of my strengths are rapport building and responsive listening. I believe rapport

building is crucial in showing my students that they can trust me as their teacher. For

example, I am consistently reminding my students that they are in a safe environment while in

my classroom, especially when they must read aloud. We are not here to judge but to learn. I

remind them that it’s okay to make mistakes while reading and I will help them with a

difficult word. In turn, I share with them how I still struggle to read aloud and a tip of how I

would read over the part I have to read before reading aloud to my peers, so that I will not be

surprised by an unfamiliar word. Outside of my classroom, I like to build rapport with my

students’ parents through e-mails and parent conferences. The reason I chose e-mails as a

median is it allows the parents who speak another language to chat with me immediately. I

encourage them to write in their native language and I can translate it. They’ve informed me

of the challenge of finding someone to interpreted at the last minute and I’ve found it

challenging as well. By cutting out the middleman, this gives us an opportunity to build a

better parent-teacher relationship because we have immediate access to one another.

In my opinion, responsive listening is what makes rapport building successful. Throughout

my time as student teacher and now a teacher, I’ve made sure to listen to my students and

share my personal experiences that related to their life, such as living in a foreign country and

learning different languages to show that I am human too. This created a welcoming

environment that encouraged collaboration (WIDA, 2015). While listening, I may give verbal

and nonverbal clues to reassure them that I am listening. For example, I like to ask them
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questions to gain a deeper understanding, give a simply nod along with eye contact, or follow-

up with an activity or event they have mentioned to me in the past. When communicating with

parents, I like to give the same verbal and nonverbal clues, but I make sure that I am

respectful of their cultures and not do anything that would be consider disrespectful, like

excessive eye contact. In addition, I want the parents to understand that their voice is being

heard. Unlike a parent who wanted to hear the truth about his son, but instead the teacher tried

to avoid telling the parent the truth (Lawrence-Lightfoot, 2003).

Two of my limitations are my assertion skills and conflict management skills. Since this is

my first-year teaching, I am still learning how to better develop both skills. It is different for

me to be assertive with the teachers I push-in with because I don’t want to step on any toes. I

would hate to cause someone their job. I’ve requested to be included e-mails or have lesson

plans sent to me three days in advanced, so that I can better serve my students, but it rarely

works out in my favor. This shows that I should improve my collaborative problem-solving

skills with my fellow colleagues. I should find out why I receive information late and how can

I help to resolve the issue. I need to be assertive and share the importance of receiving the

lesson plans in a timely matter. I hope to experience coconstructed teaching that will focus on

the common goal of students’ achievements and we can all go to each other for help

(Lundgren, Mabbott, & Kramer, 2012). Teachers have a shared responsibility to ensure that

all ELs succeed in school (Fenner, 2014).

I must improve my conflict management skills. I have had issues with my students

misbehaving and instead of being assertive, I would either let things go or raised my voice. I

need to be consistent with my expectations of how they should behave in my class and to

include their parents as a resource. Allen (2007) discussed how teachers should view parents
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as a resource and dig deeper to see why the student is behaving this way. The steps I am

taking to overcome my limitation are to first share my expectations with my students from the

first day. If a student is misbehaving, I will have a student conference and address the

behavior. Next, if the behavior doesn’t change, I will contact the parent. Lastly, I will write an

office referral.

After reading The Seduction of Common Sense by Kevin Kumashiro (2008), my mind as a

teacher has been forever changed. He speaks of the necessity of being an anti-oppressive

educator and empowering our students to ask critical questions. Throughout this program, I have

been learning assertion skills that will help me to better advocate for my students and I will pass

these skills on to my students and their families, so that they can advocate for themselves. Fenner

states the, “… concept of advocacy for ELs lies at the heart of teachers’ expectations for ELs,

their interactions with these students, and their ability to support their students’ success through

collaboration with colleagues, administrators, and the community as a whole” (Fenner, 2014, p.

6). Reflecting on the course readings and shared experiences has sharped the teacher I will

become. I learned from this class the importance of the teacher-parent relationship. By

providing mutual support, the parents and teachers know what they need and can expect from

each other (Allen, 2007). In turn, creating the two-way communication, parents’ voices will

be heard (Allen, 2007).  Building relationships with the families of your ELLs is very

important and rewarding. Teachers can learn a lot from the parents about their child and by

them being willingly to share with you, it can you help you understand why the student may

do x, y, or z. In turn, we can work on way to best help them receive a great education (Allen,

2007). Parents are the student's first teacher and who to better learn about the student then

from their parent (Fenner, 2014). 

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     By setting up different means of communication early on, this will help to ensure that the

parent is well informed with their student's school performance. In addition, the teacher is

able to provide the families with resources, such as ways to support their student at home with

schoolwork, language interpreters, lunch programs, and any additional help they may need.

By pushing for parental involvement, research has shown that it can lead to better academic

performance, reduces dropout, and improve their student's view of school (Fenner, 2014). I

now have more tools to put into my teacher toolbox and realized my sphere of influence

should not stop at my classroom door. In addition, I am more aware of meaningful

collaboration, what to do and what not to do in certain situations with parents, and more ways

to advocate for students in and outside of the classroom.

I think I am a L3 on the rubric.

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Reference
Allen, J. (2007). Creating welcoming schools: A practical guide to home-school partnerships

with diverse families. New York: Teachers College Press. 

Fenner, D.S. (2014).  Advocating for English learners: A guide for educators. Thousand Oaks,

CA: Corwin 

Kumashiro, K. K. (2008). The seduction of common sense: How the right has framed the debate

on America’s schools. Amsterdam Avenue, New York: Teachers College Press.]

 Lawrence-Lightfoot, S. (2003). The essential conversation: What parents and teachers and

learn from each other. New York: Ballantine Books. 

Lundgren, C., Mabbott, A., & Kramer, D. B. (2012). Collaborative conversations. In

A. Honigsfeld & M.G. Dove(Eds). Coteaching and other collaborative practices in the

EFL/ESL  classroom: Rationale, research, reflections, and recommendations (pp.69-78). The

United States of America: Information Age Publishing.  

WIDA (2015). Slife: Students with limited or interrupted formal education. pp. 1-14