Name: Kimberly McWilliams

Date: 1/28/2016
Course Name: ESL/ Dual Language Methods Reflection Wheel
Journal # 1
EVENT(s)/BEHAVIOR(s):
In my experience at Dodge City High School it was very evident that
my students struggled more with math than other high schools I
previously taught. For a time I thought it was the math teachers
assuming they were lax or poor in quality at the school. Then one day
one of my brightest students came in for help on an assignment. While
I was probing and prompting her to complete the problems I noticed
that she needed more processing time than I would have suspected.
Finally she apologized for taking so long and proceeded to explain to
me that for her she had to do math in Spanish, otherwise it didnt
make sense. First, she had to take the English number convert it to
Spanish. Second, she calculated everything in Spanish in her head.
Before she finally translated her Spanish answer to English. It was then
I realized if my top performer needed to make these conversions surely
other ESL students would be as well.
FEELINGS:

Happy
Resolved
Elated
Perplexed
Stumped

THOUGHTS:
After recognizing this correlation I was pleased because I had an
epiphany that I needed to change something for my students.
However, I was unsure of what needed to change exactly. I decided I
needed to investigate more and ask different students in all of my
classes how they go about solving math equations. For me this was a
slight daunting task because Chemistry itself is essentially another
language.
LEARNINGS:
I realized I had assumed that if I taught math problems the way I was
familiar with that would be good enough for my students. Looking back
that was very naive. One of the other assumptions that I made was

over estimating my students abilities. Many of my students had tested

out of KELPA and when speaking to them one would NEVER know that
Spanish was their first language. What I also realized is that speaking
skills dont necessarily carry over to their ability to do math.
In hindsight I do believe these assumptions were natural. It is a large
part of human instinct to judge people based on their speech as a first
reaction. Someone an tell a lot about a person by the way they speak,
their dialect, word choice, and grammar. However, it does not mean
that they have all the skills I think they should.
In my prior experiences I was in predominantly Caucasian school
districts beforehand that had some diversity but were also more
effluent communities. I had never come across these types of students
before. My background is that I speak only one language. Aside from
taking French in high school, which was not the most rigorous, I never
had to translate anything. I cannot relate to that need. It is my job
though as a teacher to try and appeal to each students needs. The
more educated I become the better teacher I am for my students.
APPLICATIONS:
This moment brought about a new perspective for me. It made me
realize that everyone thinks and processes differently. In the past I had
always thought of math as a linear topic with definite boundaries. That
is what I liked about it so much as a child and in college when I applied
to Chemistry. However, I realized that math isnt as linear as I thought.
I do not have to teach a lesson one way. Ive spent a lot of time since
discovering and researching different ways to teach the math
concepts. Ive also introduced a longer wait time. This has really
helped the students during notes in class and when I ask for volunteers
to answer questions.
Now in my teaching I want to try and incorporate different levels of
cooperative learning to provide support for some of the lower level
students. As a chemistry teacher I try and do as many hands on
activities/ labs with my students. However, I want to work more on
making the correlation to those and the math. For some students who
like to work ahead or to be prepared I would like to give them an
outline of the lesson with essential questions Ill ask along the way.
Then they have the opportunity to process information beforehand and
focus during class and not worried about being behind.