Michelle Snyder
ESL Teacher Interview
TE 826
Dr. Glenn Tracy
2-22-12

My person that I interviewed is very unique besides being a very good teacher. She had received the honor of being selected ‘Teacher of the Year” a few years back here at Perkins County Schools (Grant, NE), so I knew her methods and strategies were tried and true. She has several different hats in our school system with English Language Learner (ELL) being just one part. She was asked to work with/for me in this program with our high school ELL students while I concentrated on Elementary and Middle School. She is in charge of the district’s Speech department which has also had great success. Finally, she is the school’s Spanish teacher, and a very good one. I have
This series has a CD with many visuals that you could use with one student on their computer, or several students, and put it up on the Promethean Board. Using Sopris, we have found that acquiring the English language both in the social and academic phases, students have progressed through the stages much faster and with less stress.
One challenge that pertains to all students, as well as ELLs, is the Writing factor. No matter what the language, writing requires extended, forethought, editing and students need to do more than reading comprehension allows. Depending on how much and exactly what you want to put into your writing, it is so much more complex than speaking and harder to get across. Students have to remember the traits of writing as well as any other rules there are. The more complex you want your writing to be, the more rules there are to follow. The problem with getting to a higher writing level is the desire in the student. Most people need to learn to read and therefore work to achieve that. These days, with texting, Twitter, Facebook, etc…the Art Form of Writing isn’t valued as much. If someone can get by without it, they will. Most don’t want to put the time and effort into becoming a great writer.
Writing, for ELLs, is the most difficult part to teach. They don’t know the conventions of writing, and they have so