ELL Report 1
Stephen Rockwell - ELL Report
1. Description
a. The setting of the field experience (e.g., in a classroom, at a community organization location,
etc.).
This ELL field experience took place in my 11th grade language arts classroom at Brookwood
High School in Gwinnett County Public Schools. The student is in my 11th grade American
literature class, but we met after school hours via Zoom.
b. The student(s)—use a pseudonym to maintain confidentiality—with whom you are working (e.g.
age, grade level, level of English Proficiency, personal characteristics based on
observations/interactions, other information that may give the reader a more in-depth description
of the student)
I.M. in an 11th-grade student at Brookwood High School. The student recently moved to the US
from Nigeria, and their family has been in Gwinnett County for three years. I.M. clearly displays
willingness to be successful, and they don’t mind asking for additional assistance or clarification
when they need it. They have a basic level of English proficiency, but they are not always
confident in the directions I give or the notes they take. According to my observations of I.M.’s
performance, their level of English Proficiency is Stage 4, Intermediate Language Proficiency.
And, according to the most recent results from the ACCESS 2.0, I.M.’s level of English
proficiency is “D”, meaning they are directly served and should receive accommodations of
extended time and word to word dictionaries.
c. The days and times that you met with the student.
I met with I.M. during after school hours for three days a week for two weeks total. Since I.M. is
currently learning digitally, we decided to meet over Zoom. For each day, we met for an hour for
each after school session. In total, we met for six hours over the course of two weeks. We met on
October 13th, 14th, 15th, 20th, 21st, 22nd.
d. Ways in which you interacted/engaged with the student (including pedagogical strategies).
As much as I would have enjoyed meeting with I.M. in person, the current educational
environment does not allow that. Our students had the option of coming to class for face-to-face
instruction or staying at home for digital instruction. I currently have two-thirds of my students
learning from home. As mentioned earlier, I interacted with I.M. via Zoom three times a week
for two weeks. Each after school session was an hour. Most of our interaction consisted of me
reviewing the PowerPoints or texts we read in class. Together, we’d work through guided notes
and graphic organizers for to document background knowledge and identify textual evidence. I
would use word banks for I.M. to use so as to focus the vocabulary on specific words. If the PPT
did not involve guided notes, I would print the PPT, leaving space for I.M. to take notes and
record their ideas. We ended each session the I.M. writing a brief summary of our sessions,
sending it to me through the Zoom chat box.
2. Objectives and Assessments
ELL Report 2
Write 2-3 learning objectives and state how you will assess each. Provide evidence for meeting the objectives.
Objective Assessment Was the objective met?
Evidence of student learning.
ELL Report 3
3. Resources
You are required to use 2-3 ELL-specific resources to help inform your understanding of ELLs and
increase your pedagogical strategies to assist students who are English Language Learners (ELLs). You
may use the resources listed within the module or other resources available to you. Briefly describe how
the resources were used to assist in your experience.
For this lesson, I used resources available from the IRIS Center to help inform me about my current
understanding of how ELL experience classroom instruction. Specifically, the importance of activating
background knowledge. The strategy is arguably more important with ELL students because it is a good
time to build a personal connection with the student. I also used the scores and instructional
accommodations provided to me from Brookwood primary ESOL instructor. I also used the WIDA
website to provide me with more resources and strategies to make sure I.M. achieved success in our
language arts classroom. All of these resources provided me with the knowledge and skills needed to
prepare I.M. in the area of language arts.
I believe the most important resource came from the WIDA website, mentioning the importance of
making every student feel welcome in the classroom. From my experience living abroad, I know the
feeling of not knowing the language and having find ways to get by. However, I cannot imagine students
navigating a high school schedule and learning five different content areas in an unfamiliar language.
