Reflection #3
Danica Finlay (200402114)
Faculty of Education University of Regina
ELNG 200-010
Professor: Dr. Rubina Khanam
Due Date: February 28th, 2021
Link to Google Doc. With proper formatting: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xLEzyCh1LuCcSVcvAWvmCfgLxgXONcRKybpQaLRDayU/edit?usp=sharing
On February 24th I had the opportunity to get to know and build a connection with students from Mexico that I will be working with later on in the semester. Getting to know the students and engaging in conversation with them has definitely been my favourite part of my post-secondary experience so far! Going into the class this past Wednesday I found myself to be very nervous. Although I was nervous, I think I was feeling a lot more comfortable than other students in my class because I am also currently taking ELNG 326 and I had the opportunity to meet Mexican junior high students on the Monday prior to the Wednesday ELNG 200 class. I think the elementary students were very excited to be on the zoom call with us, just like I was! Each time they spoke to me they would call me Miss. The amount of respect that the young children had for us “teachers” I think was incredible and overall, I had the most amazing experience within this class.
One thing I noticed right away when getting to know the elementary students was that some students I believe were in the silent period. The silent period is something that we learned from our ELNG 200 class and is defined as a period where students do not speak because they realize that using their L1 language is not working within the context. Instead of talking, students stay engaged within the class by observing and listening to their fellow classmates and teacher ((Roseberry-Mckibbin, 1995) retrieved from ELNG 200 Class PowerPoint titled Silent Period). When introducing ourselves to each other on Wednesday I realized that some students loved to chat and ask a lot of questions and some students chose not to speak at all. Because I have an understanding of the silent period and wanted each student to feel comfortable, I did not pressure or push any students to engage in conversation. I think that when a child feels ready to talk, they will. This week I watched the videos titled, The Education of New Canadians and Saskatchewan Schools and the New Canadians, while watching the videos I was quick to realize that immigrants new to Canada were not allowed to practice their traditions at public events.
Instead, they were forced to do the “Canadian way”. I think that if we were teaching Mexican students in the early 1900s we would not even acknowledge their culture or traditions. But on Wednesday I enjoyed asking students questions such as where they live, what languages they speak, what holidays they like to celebrate, and their favourite foods. Because we each talked about where we are from, we all felt more comfortable talking about ourselves and sharing our stories with one another. I believe it is extremely important to include other cultures and languages when teaching. When asking questions some kids taught me how to say my answer in Spanish! I thought this was a great way to participate within the breakout session because not only were they learning new things, but I was learning new things as well.
Another teaching strategy my classmates and I used with the kids was screensharing. The use of screen sharing allowed the kids to gain an understanding of what we were talking about through visuals. This visual method connects to one of the videos watched this past week titled, “The Education of the New Canadian” – Saskatchewan Department of Education (1919). Within the video one of the captions read, “Teaching English by means of pictures” (Sterzuk, 2019). In the video a man was drawing pictures on a piece of paper and it looked like people were gathered around learning the word for what the picture was. Like in the video, the visuals that my fellow classmates and myself used I believe helped the kids to not only understand what we were talking about but it also kept them engaged because they were excited to see what the new picture was going to be. One example of when we used the screenshare was when we were talking about where we lived. I said that I lived in a small town and asked if where they lived was big or small. The students were not sure how to answer the question but when a fellow classmate showed them a picture of a big city with tall buildings the kids all agreed in excitement that they did in fact live in a big city.
The only thing that I would have liked better was if I had been more prepared going into the session so I wouldn’t be as nervous. I also found it difficult to understand some students because of technical issues such as internet connections and poor microphones, but this is something unfortunately we cannot change.
I believe that because of this class and the first five weeks of learning, it helped me understand the children a lot more. I believe that if I had not learned about the silent period, I perhaps would have called out on students to talk more instead of allowing them to take the time to feel comfortable and speak when they are ready. I also think that because of the multicultural awareness that we have read and discussed in previous classes, it encouraged me to ask the kids about who they are as individuals and ask about their L1 language.
Resources
Khanam, R. (2021). Silent Period. PowerPoint
Library and Archives Canada. (2017). Saskatchewan Schools and the New Canadians
(1916/1922?). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbjzvQ3gO4M&feature=youtu.be
Sterzuk, A. (2019). “The Education of the New Canadian” – Saskatchewan Department of
Education (1919). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SviGwu9gyuA&feature=youtu.be