I decided to interview my sweet friend Ms. Gonzalez, who happens to be a first-year teacher. You would never know she is a first-year teacher from my interview, because she has so much knowledge of English language learners and her classroom! Ms. Gonzalez teachers first grade in which many of her students are from low socio-economic backgrounds. This aligns with what Wright mentions in the book Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners, as it states, ”… the majority of ELLs are ethnic minorities from low-income families,” (Wright, 2015, p.13). This happens to be very accurate in Ms. Gonzalez’s school because she does work at a title I school. She mentions that more than half of the students in her class are ELL and that many of her English language learners’ reading level is very low. It is hard for students who struggle to speak English to be able to read English to be on level for their age. Ms. Gonzalez mentions that her students are pulled for ELL work as ...
I interviewed a great friend of mine, Abby Lopez. During my interview Abby mentions that her mother is from the united states and that her father is from Mexico. Her parents met here in Texas and eventually got married here as well. Abby and her two brothers were all born here and were raised in a primarily Spanish home. Abby mentions her mother being bilingual and that helping quite a bit once she started school and needed to learn English. Abby talks about being in ESL classes from the start of her education in pre-kindergarten. She remained in ESL classes until the fifth grade and she believes it shaped her into the fluent-bilingual speaker she is today. According to Wright, Abby is considered to have additive bilingualism which “occurs when a student develops proficiency in a new language without losing his or her home language...