ell case study observations

OBSERVATIONS

weeks of nov 4 and 11

I was looking forward to observing Mrs. Weissman’s 4th grade yiddish speaking boys class in action.They are in a school called BELZ in Lakewood NJ and the main language spoken there is Yiddish.However, the majority of the school speaks English too. There were 10 children in her self contained class made up of 2 ELL  students and the 8 others struggling at different levels. I observed that she has a lot of visual aids around her classroom that her students can use as a reference. Ie. months of the year, days of the week, vowels, consonants, classroom rules, sentence structure etc. She also has 2 contests going on at once as an incentive for good behavior and on target classwork, as well as points earned for caring for each other. I thought this was so nice since each student is his own world with his own strengths and weaknesses and they can all benefit from complementing each other with what they can give which is a self confidence booster too! I did feel though, that internal motivation such as the opportunity to perform in front of others or rating their own work etc works better than so much external motivation.

As I watched each student, I noticed varying levels of cognitive ability, interest, different levels of focusing and many disturbing behaviors too. However, the teacher had her finger on the pulse of each child with the aid of her yiddish speaking assistant. I chose with the help of Mrs. Weissman to target a boy named Chaim for the purpose of this study. He is 10 years old. He arrived from an insular community in Brooklyn, NY 2 years ago where the only language spoken was Yiddish. He had no exposure to English except for doctor visits etc. Mrs. Weissman says that his parents who are well off financially hired expert professionals to teach him English besides placing him in Mrs. Weissmans supportive class. The parents are enrolled in a course for learning English as well. Chaim looked a bit short and slight compared to his classmates and a bit shy and inhibited. When the class was reading aloud, I saw that chaim had a hard time following along and keeping track. The assistant helped him find the place and hovered nearby to be on hand. During comprehension questions, Chaim did not raise his hand but he did show interest in the class discussion. My observation was that he really wants to learn but it is hard for him. His behavior was more shy than acting out and I always have a soft spot for these children.