Last Tuesday’s Visit
Comments(1) Recognizing and meeting the needs of ELL students can be difficult in a Drama Classroom – or so I discovered during my short practicum at Killarney Secondary, because there are fewer explicit indicators that these students might be struggling. I understand that is my responsibility as a teacher to get to know my students in order to make my classroom a space that is accessible to everyone, and after revisiting my school last Tuesday, I now realize that I still have a long way to go.
I witnessed an event that I’m having difficulty unpacking that involved a Grade 9 ELL student. On the day of my visit, the Grade 9’s were performing short scenes using 3 or 4 lines of dialogue while portraying different stock characters. However, after the student in question performed, my SA made a particular point of applauding his work, and exclaimed that “I’m so proud because, as the class may or may not know, English is not your first language – and you did very well. The character and the dialogue were very clear. Well done.” This comment was extremely sincere, in fact, it was apparent to me that my SA was quite emotional during this moment.
At first, I too was swept up by my SA’s enthusiasm in the heat of this moment. I felt that it was a moment of positive encouragement for this particular student, and offered recognition his accomplishments during the scene. However, when I was at home reflecting on my visit like a good little B’Ed student – I realized that I was feeling conflicted about what had happened. Even though it’s clear to me that my SA singled this student out to compliment him, by doing so he also highlighted that because “English is not [his] first language,” he is different from his classmates. The implicit message of this could be “I have different (ie. lower) expectations of you,” and by pointing this out to the class, it might actually change how this student is regarded by his peers.
So now I’m at an impasse, (and would appreciate input from my classmates). Is it better to single out our ELL students for the purpose of recognizing their progress – or does that only further separate them from the classroom community? What does the alternative look like?
Help!
I am very sympathetic to your thought. Upon reading your reflection, I recalled my own experience. I got 100% for a unit test in Math 12 class even though I was actually in Grade 11. When the teacher was handing back the test to me, he said “Well done, Jenny. You are only Grade 11 and have been in Vancouver for only so long but you’ve beaten most of Grade 12s already! I’m so proud of you.” Though I knew that it was meant to be a compliment, I was embarrassed to be singled out. As you mentioned it, I thought that his implicit message would be the surprise of an ELL students being outstanding since he didn’t give any compliments to other outstanding students. I didn’t want to get praised from the teacher even when I achieved perfect scores in other unit tests, since I wanted to keep good and trusting relationships with my peers. Also, I didn’t volunteer to answer questions that the teacher asked even though I was sure I knew the right answers because I wasn’t willing to stand out from my classmates. I thought it would have been better if he gave me a compliment privately.
Also, I think giving a compliment is not a problem limited only to ELL students. During my short practicum, a teacher asked one challenging question to the class, but no one answered it. Then she asked one female student whether she had solved it. The student told the teacher that she couldn’t do it. As I was walking around the class, I saw that she had actually solved the question. I thought she might be a little too shy to share her answer. However, I soon realized why she pretended like she couldn’t solve it. When this particular student said she didn’t know how to do it, the teacher simply remarked that since she got the best scores on the last test, if she was not able to solve it then no one else probably could. I couldn’t believe it. This particular teacher seemed like she was unknowingly isolating this student from her peers. This teacher might argue that she gave praises to the student’s good test mark, but at the same time, she made the other students feel inadequate and possibly resentful of their better (as far as the test score goes). From this experience I came up with a question similar to yours: how can I praise students without making them feeling insecure or isolating them from their peers? Or can I actually change anything about outstanding students tending to be isolated, since it may be a natural tendency among teenagers everywhere?