Observation Paper: Social Studies Bridge Class

On Tuesday, February 13, 2018 I observed a social studies bridge class. The students in that class have been in America for 1-3 years. We are all English language teachers regardless of the subject we teach. For that reason, I was interested in observing a class other than language arts to see the teaching strategies the teacher used with her ELL. I was rather shocked after my observation and a lot of it has to do with this teacher being new to the district. She has not started her ESL endorsement and her inability to work ESL students was at full display. For privacy concerns, I will refer to this teacher as Mrs. Strong. The students entered the class and were instructed to list five liberties every human should have. After five minutes of taking attendance and talking to a student, Mrs. Strong told the students to share their list with their “AB” partners. Five minutes later, she instructed them to share their list with ther”1-2-3-4” partners. While group work is recommended and a great practice for ESL students, Mrs. Strong did not walk around the class while the students shared their list. As you would expect, students eventually got off track and started talking about things other than the Bill of Rights. In addition, I could hear students speak in their native language of Arabic. Mrs. Strong did have her objectives on a whiteboard, however, she briefly reviewed them. At Strong Middle School, teachers are expected to review objectives every day and have the students