Reflection

My work samples are from a new ESL students first times with me instructing him. He
is in a different class, and their class comes to my room once a week for Health. The first sample
is the first activity to begin the unit. The second sample is the same childs work a few weeks
later, demonstrating his growth in understanding. This work sample clearly illustrates growth in
P-12 learning and is an exceptional and sophisticated example of the product type. I chose this
work sample because it shows the growth and learning of a student throughout my takeover and
Health Unit. It demonstrates my ability to teach information explicitly and clearly enough so that
an ESL student who just moved here can demonstrate clear progress during the unit.
This work sample accurately represents student growth and learning because it is
demonstrative of the students new knowledge and confidence of observational skills and the use
of English words only. In the first sample, I had instructed the students to make nameplates for
health class since I was unfamiliar most of their names. Next, they were to draw their favorite
foods on their nameplates, to introduce them to health I provided an example. I wrote my name
on a nametag and drew my favorite foods. In the first sample the student labeled the drawings he
made using his first language. While it wasnt instructed to label the food that the students, drew
I learned in my ART 140 class, that student who are less confident in their abilities both
artistically and academically label their word in order to get more reassurance that they are being
understood. The Student labeling his nametag in German demonstrates he is still more confident
writing in his native language but overall insecure in the assignment. After a few more lessons,
we moved to our Health Journal in which the students were again asked to draw and write. The
second sample shows that he was able to formulate his thoughts into cohesive sentences in
English. He drew pictures without labeling them in either German or English, which is
demonstrating a growth in confidence as well.
This work sample also demonstrates my ability to create activities that help build my
students knowledge on a particular topic. Throughout unit, we focused on a topic within the
realm of Nutrition. Throughout the unit the students were logging in the Health Journal, or used
other materials I provided to demonstrate what they learned. The second sample is a
representation of a piece of work from the Health Journal that each student received. These two
samples demonstrate my ability to teach the children through various activities while having
them learn and apply new knowledge.
This work sample demonstrates my growth and development as a teacher because it has
enhanced my ability to understand and assess student learning. I have had the opportunity to
observe and work with students whose first language is something other than English. The
students learned about nutrition during my takeover of the health subject. The first work sample
demonstrated the students lack of confidence and inability to fully comprehend what I was
asking of him. After a few weeks the confidence was soaring because this particular student had
the background knowledge to support him. He was participating in class and sharing his
learnings. This student ended up being able to apply new and previous knowledge to the second
work sample, boosting the confidence in the work. This sample clearly demonstrates a growth in
knowledge and ability over a short span of time. This has taught me the importance of truly
paying attention to detail and to all my students. I will in the future continue to collect student
samples for comparisons so that I can understand my students better and the progress they make.