intro lme observations

7/28/2019 Intro LME Observations

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Observations Comments/Reflections/ConnectionsFebruary 1, 2013. Block 1. 80minutes.The classroom is very large. In thefront of the room, there is a

chalkboard with 15 desks situatedaround it in a U-shape. In the back,and two the side, there are 6 tablesthat can seat between 3-7 people,arranged with desks. Off to the side,there is an additional alcove with twotables that each seats 4 people.There are many bookshelves againstthe walls, filled with books in English,and books about instruction.

A really sizeable classroom, eventhough there are a lot of students, it

doesnt feel super crowded.

The period began with Dr. Taddei

conferencing with the 5 tutors.Before talking with them, she spoketo one group of students that wereseated at the desks, and gave themdirections. Many other students weresituated throughout the room, andpull out worksheets, etc.

Dr. Taddei only seems to interact

with this group of students, I havenever even seen her speak with anyof the other students situated aroundthe classroom. This is part of the(hidden) curriculum of the classroom.Dr. Taddei focused on the advancedgroup of students while the othershave high school tutors.

Jackson (1990) the dailyexperiences of students in

classrooms matter. Students learnlessons about how they aresupposed to behave, socialstratification, etc.

Conference: Dr. Taddei startedtalking to the tutors aboutbackground of each of the studentsthat they are working with, and theirspecific progress. Dr. Taddeiencouraged the tutors (high schoolseniors), to give their students

frequent quizzes, and to assignhomework every night.

Julian- Wesley has 3 siblings whooften overshadow him, so he shouldget a lot of one on one attentionwithin the classroom context.

The tutors do not seem to have anyformal training. Dr. Taddeimentioned that she put themthrough a training period, but I donot know how exhaustive it istheyseem like regular students. When Dr.Taddei told me about the tutoring

program she spoke a lot about howspecial the tutors are, and it seemedlike she is very invested in thisprogram for instructional purposes.

This seems like a lot of personalinformation to randomly give out to


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Christine: the three girls she wasworking with are all in very differentplaces in their work. Anel has a verycomplicated background because

she has a baby, and has missed a lotof school because of that.

this group of tutorsas far as I know,they have not signed confidentialityagreements, etc.

After the discussion, the tutorsmoved off with their designatedstudents, while Dr. Taddei returnedto the board to work with 9 students.

There are a total of 22 students inthe classroom, as well as 5 tutors.Dr. Taddei began by outlining theagenda for the day. She asked them,

What does objective mean? Whatdoes agenda mean?

Dr. Taddei. How do you describe astudent? Do you use a noun or anadjective? Students use signal cards(red or green), to respond.

Students used various descriptors. Itdidnt seem like this was a

particularly exciting or new lessonfor thema couple of students hadtheir cell phones out, and were nottaking great pains to hide them

Tutoring: Miriam was studying for aquiz with four of Aesops fables. Sheread the stories out loud the mouseand the lion, the tortoise and the

hare, and answered some questionsabout them why does the lion needhelp? What is the lion trappedunder? etc.

Clearly she has read this storybefore, and has no trouble answeringany of the questions.

Deweylearning should beengaging, creative, and culturallyrelevant. Clearly this is notshe readthe story multiple times, and eventhen, this doesnt seem to engageMiriam at all.

Tutoring: Anel, Selina, and Magallywere speaking in Spanish to eachother while working in a vocabularypacket. They are each in differentplaces. Christine, their tutor, knew a

few words in Spanish, but the threegirls helped each other bytranslating. They workedconsistently, but talk to each other inSpanish throughout.

Christine did not seem very investedin helping them. She spent a lot oftime just sitting there, watchingthem work. When Anel hadquestions, she addressed them to

Selina in Spanish, rather than toChristine.

February 1, 2013. Block 2. 80


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minutes.

Dr. Taddei spoke to the students atthe clustered desksthey had tobegin working on learning the

vocabulary in the new story.

Delpitis this the case where thestudents arent ready for discoverylearningbecause of language gaps,

etc., they need a lot of directinstruction (skills), before they canengage creatively?

Meeting with the second set of 5tutors: Frank was working with twoboys, teaching them vocabulary froma picture dictionary. He tested themon vocab a few days ago, so it isunnecessary to do it again.

Other tutors were continuing with

language and vocabulary packets.Dr. Taddei told the tutors that Anelhas a two-year-old son, and becauseof him, she has missed a lot ofschool. Anel is behind when it comesto learning Spanish, because of hercommitments to him.

Again, this is a lot of personalinformation, and although it might berelevant for the tutor that is workingwith Anel specifically, I think it isquite insensitive to discuss this in alarge group.

Gino, who is a native Albanianspeaker, was talking to Anel andSelina. He told them that another girlin the school, Selma, is the prettiest

girl in the school, but she has aboyfriend.

Neither of their tutors tried to quietthese students. In fact, they bothtried to use their meager languageskills to understand what was going

onI ended up translating for them.

Jackson (1990)socializing matters.Students learn from these kinds ofexperiences. What lessons are thestudents/tutors getting about classwork and gossip as a result?

Anel said the word Spanish, buther pronunciation sounds likeEspanish. Sheree is really annoyedby this, and she kept on making Anel

say the word over and over again,without making any progress.

This is something really silly to worryaboutAnels spoken English isactually quite good, despite a clearaccent. Anel was really trying, but

she just couldnt get the word out,and this seemed like a waste.

Wileylanguage rights. Historically,immigrants are never understoodand appreciated. The accent isstigmatized.


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Sheree was continuously jokingaround with Gino, who has very goodEnglish, and she was not payingclose attention to Anel and Selina.

Anel and Selina had a bunch ofquestions about the emotions packetthat they were working on, and I hadto help them with a lot of questions,because Sheree wasnt paying any

attention, and distracted Gino fromhis work as well.

February 8, 2013. Block 1 80minutes.Dr. Taddei gave instructions to theadvanced students about openingtheir vocabulary lists. The tutorstalked about a deviant girls behavior(another ELL I havent met).Christine said that her parents wouldnever allow that kind of behavior.

They were talking about a girl whoslept around, and used words likeslut and whore, and talked abouthow she had been with other girlsboyfriends. Slut shaming is prettytypical in high school.

Grantdeviant behavior is highlyunacceptable in girls, whereasproblem behaviors are morepermissible in boys. This creation ofattitudes and assumptions, ismoralistic, and creates a socialhierarchy within the school.

Dr. Taddei talked to Christine aboutAnel-provided more backgroundinformation on her parents. Anel wasrecently reunited with her parents.She was out of school for severalyears, and missed out on having achildhood.

Magally is too talkative anddistracting to Selina and Anel. Anel isfar behind, but she is reallycooperative, and she does not needconstant monitoring.

The way Christine talks about Anel isreally dismissive, and Christineseemed to think that Anel couldntlearn anything.

Dr. Taddei was very free withpersonal information, but she waspretty clear on the fact that a lot ofAnels problems come from factorsthat she could not control, and themost important thing is for her tostay in school and get an education.

Veronica said that Ester has a lot oftrouble paying attention, and she iseasily distracted. Dr. Taddeirecommended that Veronica giveEster frequent breaks, so shewouldnt become distracting in theclass.

Esterfirst time in school (age 15),although she is a native LiberianEnglish speakermajor literacyproblems.


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Anels homework assignment inAnels notebook.

Anel has been in the US for 3 years,and she is from Mexico. Selina has

been here for 3 months, and she isfrom Guatemala.

be nice and helpful, but this reallyseemed like the wrong time to behaving that conversation.

February 8, 2013. Block 2 80minutes.Dr. Taddei began the class byreminding students that they werecontinuing with ACCESS testing. Thetutors talked to each other abouthow they think it is best that they donot speak the native languages ofthe tutees.

All the tutors seem to agree thatmonolingual instruction is best, andit is important for the ELL students toexclusively hear Englishthey evendiscourage speaking nativelanguages among friends.

Wileythe students have the RIGHTto education in their nativelanguagesbut the tutors assumethat they know best in this situation.Monolingualism is discriminatory,and dismissive of the studentsnative cultures.

Tutor Meeting: Dr. Taddei talkedabout the fact that Anel is much

better at speaking English, but Selinais doing significantly betteracademically.

Magally was distracting the twoother girls from the group, so shewas removed from their study group.ACCESS testing: Before beginningthe test, Dr. Taddei remindedeveryone how important it is forthem to do really well that they

have spent a lot of time preparingfor the exam, and it is theirresponsibility.

Teaching to the Test (classpresentation on StandardsEducation). Standardized testingputs so much pressure on ELL,

English only/NCLB standards has tobecome the language policy(Menken, 2006, LME).

ACCESS testing: Dr. Taddeicomplained that the students spendso much time taking standardizedtests, they have few opportunities to


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really learn, which hinders theiracademic progress.Dr. Taddei: The sheltered biologyclass is disadvantageous to reallybright students, because it is

basically just dumbed down biology,instead of quality education withmore language accessibility.

Moses (2001)academic success incore topics can be hugely impactfulin crossing social and racial barriers,

but because of their languagedifferences, students in ELL classesarent given the same level ofeducation that the general educationstudents have. They are preventedfrom achieving the same level ofsuccess.

February 22, 2013. Block 1. 80minutes.Conference with tutors: Christinewas giving Selina and Anel an oralexam, in two different sections.

Frank was working on irregular verbswith his two students.

There are two new brothers in theclass, who just arrived in the US afew days ago.Tutoring: Kathleen was supposed to

be working with Ester, Magally, andthe two new brothers. However,Ester started being really stubborn,and she refused to pull out herpacket and start working.

Dr. Taddei came over and yelled ather. Dr. Taddei said that Ester caneither stay and work with the group,or she can work by herselfbut shehas to be working.

Grantagain, behavioral problems in

a girl are considered unacceptable.The racial dynamics of thisclassroom are really interestingbecause there are no white students.Rather, the model group, tends to beVietnamese/Chinese students,because they are high academicachievers.

Dr. Taddei also really likes some ofher West African students because

they have strong educationalbackgrounds (former Frenchcolonies). What she hates arestudents who dont seem to valueeducation, or their families dont.

Dr. Taddei was working with heradvanced students, they are doing Memorization is not particularly


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reading for concepts.

Dr. Taddei handed them a list ofsimiles that they will have to learn.

Dr. Taddei tested me on a bunch ofthem: light as a _______ to showthe students how commonly theseare used.

useful as a learning techniquealso,my demonstration of skills was kindof silly.

Students pulled out their self-evaluation formshave to givethemselves credit for homework andclass participation.

Self evaluationself efficacy (EdPsych). I didnt get a chance to seethese, but I wonder about howsimilar or different they are to theevaluation forms the students inSoundings usedsame goal?

Dr. Taddei left her group of students

for a few minutes, and went over totalk to the two new boys.Tutoring: Anel and Selina were bothworking on vocabulary packets. Anelborrowed one of Selinas old packets,in order to get the answers.

Christine gave Selina an oral examabout baking. There are a lot ofquestions that Selina could notanswer, so Christine looked up words

on her phone, to translate them intoSpanish.

Memorization, again.

Dr. Taddei talked to the two newbrothers in the class. Their first dayin the US was earlier that week, andyesterday was their first day ofschool.

They are from Nigeria, they livedwith their grandmother, and boththeir parents are deceased. They

speak English and mostly haveliteracy problems, but the school nolonger has a program to supportthose learning needs.

Kozolin Camden the schools arefalling apart, and there is no moneyto fix them. Meanwhile, in nearbyschools in Cherry Hill, there is tons ofmoney, and the schools are great.This high school is not nearly as bad,but there are serious funding issues,and a lot of funds have been takenout of servicing the needs of

ELL/immigrant students, becausetheir learning needs are not a toppriority. Dr. Taddei said that theschool knows they are all going tofail the standardized tests anyway,so it isnt worth the money, investingin proper educative programs.


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February 22, 2013. Block 2. 80minutes.Dr. Taddei went to talk to theadvanced students, giving them ado now assignment.

Sheree was talking about how Ginomakes her uncomfortable she wantsto avoid him. She talked about thispretty loudly, so some of thestudents could hear.

Not appropriate. Although it is fine ifshe felt that way, she needed to dealwith that with Dr. Taddei in private,

rather than just gossiping about it.

Dr. Taddei was showing a moviebased on a book they just read. Shestopped it very frequently, in orderto explain what is going on in theclassroom.

Sheree was working with Heather.She told Heather, as she was gradingthe test, in the directions it saysunderline. If you do checks, I wontgive you credit for your workthatsthe way it is in college or tradeschool.

Ridiculous.

Dr. Taddei put all of the studentsnames into a baggy. As she pulledout their names, they each have torecite Robert Frost.

Anel and Selina worked together(their tutor was out today). Anelexplained her worksheet to me, andthey worked together to get thework done.

Surprisingly hard working withoutsupervision.

March 4, 2013. Block 1. 80minutes.Conference with tutors: Talkingabout some of the students.

MarvinFrank said that he doesntlike the introduction of the book he isnow working on (aboutcommunication). There is anattached workbook. Dr. Taddei saysthat it is a challenge, and to push


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through it.

Selinashe had a lot of MAP testing.She was also late to school for a fewdays, so she is really behind on

where Dr. Taddei wants her to be.Dr. Taddei said that she is a verybright girl, and will catch up.Dr. Taddei with the advancedstudents: they are filling out aworksheet on John Steinbeck. Sheasked them leading questions, andthey use signal cards as a responsemechanism.While they are answering questionsindependently, Dr. Taddei came to

talk to me (sitting 5 feet away fromthe students). She said that Freddyhas a disability (no specifics). He andhis family are not part of the culturehis parents dont work, and theyonly watch Spanish television. Theyhave been in the US for 2 years, butFreddys progress is very slow.

Mary is good at English, because it isher native languageshe is from

Liberia. However, she never learnedto read before coming to the US, soshe really struggles.

Winter is 17 and also has a disability.She has some issues in school, whichis surprising to Dr. Taddei becausemost West African students do reallywellFrench schools fromcolonialism.Dr. Taddei makes her advanced

students learn/memorize idiomaticsimiles, i.e. cute as a button, stiff asa board, etc.

Dr. Taddei also wrote downsentences, and students had toidentify the words being used


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metaphorically.

Christine was tutoring Anel andSelina while they went through apacket. Both work independently,and consulted with each other for

help. Christine was sitting watchingthem, writing their next test.

They had tests two weeks in a row.Anel and Selina were unhappy aboutthe situation. They talked to eachother about it in Spanish, andChristine seemed completelyoblivious to it.Mark and Michael were workingthrough a packet having to do withsentence construction. Every timethey finished a page, Randyrewarded them with candy.For Language Minority Education, Idid an interview with Selina, so that Icould develop a more detailedpicture of one student.

She told me about her familyherdad is a cook, and she has a younger

brother and sister. Her father speaksSpanish and English, although sheonly speaks Spanish at home and inher neighborhood.

In Guatemala, she lived in a smalltown, and went to schoolconsistently for 9 years.

Her favorite class is math, because itis similar to what she learned in

Guatemala, even though it ischallenging because of the languagebarrier.Between classes, Dr. Taddei wasreally interested in my conferencewith Selina. Although there arebackground forms, Dr. Taddei

Ancessforming caring relationshipsis critical to school success,especially for students that havestruggled to make it through school.


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doesnt know anything aboutSelinas personal history.

Dr. Taddei mentioned that this yearis the first time that Anel has been in

school for five years, and throughthe year, she has been missing fewerdays.

Although I often have problems withDr. Taddeis methods and opinions, itis clear that she is really invested inAnels education, and is willing to doa lot to get her through school. When

I asked Anel, she said that Dr. Taddeiis her favorite teacher, because sheworks 1-on-1 with Anel during adifferent periodthere is a verystrong relationship there.

March 4, 2013. Block 2. 80minutes.Dr. Taddei told her students to takeout the short story that they havebeen reading, and to start answeringseveral discussion questions she putup on the board.Pre-conference: tutors talked abouthow instead of learning morevocabulary, the students shouldlearn sentence structure.Conference: 1 student has beenabsent for several days in a row. Thishappened last year as well.

Dr. Taddei wanted Sheree to talk toher other tuteeto find out moreabout his previous schoolexperiences. He was struggling witha lot of the reading, because he didnot understand the context of a lotof the stories he was reading.Tutoring: Hallie was reading HardTimes out loud to her tutee. Sheread out loud very slowly. After that,she asked him what he understood

multiple times.

I didnt say read, I said what did youget?

She was super impatient and bitchy.

GarciaDeficit perspective onlanguage acquisition. People that see

multi-language use as a problem,and assume a lack of understanding.Hallie is incredibly impatient, anddoesnt seem to care about givingJeffrith opportunities for learning.

In the middle of class, a Marinerecruiter came into the class, and

I was really not ok with this, and itseemed completely inappropriate in


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talked to the students about howjoining the military can be a greatway to get citizenship.

the context of an ELL classroom,where probably at least severalstudents are undocumented.

Julian was working through a packetwith the assistance of his pocket

translator.

Kira, his tutor, was reading Catcherin the Rye while he worked.

April 5, 2013. Block 1. 80minutes.Conference: Frank talked aboutMarvin. Marvin was working ongrammarconjugation, presentcontinuous.

Magally was placed into a newgroup, and holding her own.

MichelleSelina is doing very well.Selina was going best with theStories+ series of packets.

Dr. Taddei gave me a copy of theELL handbook for tutoring, that she

gives to each of the student tutors.During the meeting, all of thestudents had their work out. TwoFrench-speaking students spoke toeach other across the room.Advanced group: They were readingOliver Twist. Dr. Taddei told herstudents that reading the storywould good preparation for college.She told them that there are 3,800colleges in the US, and that all of

them could go to college if theywanted to.Safiyatu told everyone that her sisteris visiting from Nigeria. Her sisterhas a job there.They read and discussed OliverTwist, and Dr. Taddei talked about


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how he is an excellent worker.

Gabrielle did not have the right colorhighlighter she had a pinkhighlighter and Dr. Taddei requires

yellow. Dr. Taddei reprimanded her,and made Gabrielle borrow ahighlighter from someone else.Advanced: they went through thevocabulary words for chapter three.Everyone read silently, to answer Dr.Taddei about what one of themetaphors meant.

Dr. Taddei told them that Oliver wasupset because other people made

fun of his mother.

She told them that a boy shouldwant to beat someone else up, if thatperson said something bad about hismother.Kelly went through Marvins spellingtest with him. He got 22.5/25 on thetest. She needed to calculate thepercentage on her phone.Michelle was working with Magally.

Michelle said, que estudiaste?, andMagally thought she had to explainwhat she studied in Guatemala.

I told Michelle that estudiaste isthe past tense, and Michelle gotupset. She responded, Im justtrying to do whatever I can.

I said to Magally, que vas aestudiar, and she immediately

understood what the questionmeant.

Later, Michelle said, but thanks.

Magally applied to college (she isntsure where she applied) she wants


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to become a doctor.

April 5, 2013. Block 2. 80minutes.

While Dr. Taddei talked to thestudents, the tutors talked abouttheir relationships with their tutees.

Veronica is frustrated with Anel,because she is always trying to getout of doing her work, Veronica callsAnel a bad girl.Veronica resents Anels other tutorChristine, because Christine alwaysgives Anel tons of tests, without

letting Veronica have input on whatAnel needs to know/be tested on.

Anel was teaching Veronica someSpanish. Simple words, and Anelcorrected Veronicas Spanishgrammar.Advanced: Dr. Taddei talked to herstudents about attending colleges.

She told them that when she had a

lot of Chinese and Vietnamesestudents, they would all go to collegeat Penn, and at other really topuniversitiesthose students wereparticularly good at math. However,her current students dont need todo thatthey could go to communitycolleges and still succeed.

Racial stereotypes!?!?!?!?!??!?! Itseems like Dr. Taddei really wants tohelp, but she has a lot of reallyantiquated ideas, and she is kind of

racist, which I find troubling in herclassroom context.

Advanced: All of the students werewriting paragraphs, after reading theGettysburg Address, and MLKJs I

Have a Dream speech.

They all had to memorize theGettysburg Address.

Dr. Taddei talked to them aboutwhich words are good connector


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words between sentences andparagraphs.Many of the students in the classwere preparing for graduation, so alot of them spent time putting

together their senior portfolios.

Dr. Taddei told me, that the reasonthe school does the senior portfoliosis to ask the students to be a bitreflective of their time at the school.They have to put together their bestwork from their years, in differentfields.

April 12, 2013. Block 1. 80minutes.Conference: Michelle wrote a test forSelina, covering synonyms,antonyms, irregular past verbs, andquestions about stories that she hasread. Dr. Taddei looked over it, andtold Michelle it is really good.

In the beginning of the class, Selinaspent 20 minutes tutoring another

student, who just arrived in the US.Marvin is taking a French placementtesthe might take honors of APexam. He will take this class withgeneral education classroom.Jennyshe is also an ELL, but amuch more advanced student. Shehelped Selina and Anel . Dr. Taddeiurged her to go to college andbecome a teacherDr. Taddei toldJenny that she is a natural.


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Senior students continued workingon their portfolios. Dr. Taddeiassigned each of them to write anessay on a holiday that is celebratedin their native country.

One student asked to write about aholiday in the US, and Dr. Taddeisaid, in YOUR country.

Students were writing studentsabout India, the Ivory Coast, Mexico,Ecuador, Liberia, and Nigeria.Two brothers were working througha listening activitywith written andoral components. Singular and

plural.

Their tutor corrected all themistakes, without explaining whythey were wrong.Anel was working with Christine. Shewas reading a story packet. First, sheread the story out loud in English,and then she translated the wholething into Spanish. Christine askedSelina to listen in, and check Anels

Spanish grammar.

April 12, 2013. Block 2. 80minutes.During the break: I told Dr. Taddeiabout the methods that Christineused with Anel, basically using abilingual approach.There is a new student in the class,Jeffrith. During one of the other

periods, Anel was helping Jeffrithwith English speaking.Chat in the hallway: Dr. Taddei toldme that Spanish families are verystrong, but they do not valueeducation.

Dr. Taddei is kind of racist, andbelieves in stereotypes!!!!!!!!!

Nieto (1996)cultural issues inlearning. Latino students get a lower


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French speaking Haitians and Africanstudents often take AP or honorsFrench (integrated with generaleducation students)because theirparents send them to private school

Spanish students cannot do thatpoor educational past.

quality of education. Dr. Taddeisassumptions about the culturallearning context of Latino students,probably leads her to give them aless strong quality education.

The advanced students during thesecond period are working at almostthe same level as a generaleducation literature class. Writing ismore difficult for them, but theyhave made a lot of progress throughthe semester.Jeffrith is the new student. He cameto the US from Honduras in February.

He can already speak English prettywell. He was practicing an oralpackethe didnt have trouble withverb conjugation.

He is very excited about school, andseemingly everything.

April 19, 2013. Block 1. 80minutes.Frank was working with Marvin.Marvin had a bad test, and sincethen, he had been much more

focused.

Dr. Taddei told Frank to give Marvina long test, to see how he isprogressing.

Dr. Taddei called Marvins mother, tolet her know that he didnt study fora testnow he will take work moreseriously.

Dr. Taddei said that although Selinais making a lot of progress, she isshy, and doesnt have a lot ofconfidence in her speaking abilitiesshe needs support.Jackie said that Martin is not carefulwhen he does his work. He seems


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content to stay at a level, lazy. Hewent to private school in Haiti, andhe has been in the US for severalweeks.All the students in the advanced

class were working independently,while Dr. Taddei talked to me.

She showed me a new progressreport method from the DanielsonGroupPAETEP, standards forteaching. She got rankedproficient for the different sections,and excellent for one.Advanced: they were still readingOliver Twist. Dr. Taddei was asking

them questions about the plot.Tutoring: Three students were allworking on their worksheets. Helen(their tutor) was sitting at the table,but she wasnt talking to thestudents, and she looked like shewas about to fall asleep.Michelle told Selina to erase herwork and rewrite it, because Selinahad made some spelling mistakes.

Anel was working on her own packetindependently. Conversationpractice.

April 19, 2013. Block 2. 80minutes.Conference: Gino and Brandonusually work together, but they eggeach other on, and tease others. Dr.Taddei is unwilling to give either of

them a female tutorMichelle usedto work with Gino, and he made herreally uncomfortable.Anel was working with Veronica.Veronica started the tutoring sectionby asking Anel what homework thefirst tutor had assigned. She looked


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at the homework, and said it wascompletely ridiculous. She askedAnel which part she wanted to workon first, and they started working ona packet.

Hannah was grading Jeffrithsassignment. She was giggling, andpointing out object pronouns.Sheree used a phone translator toexplain a story to the students shewas working with.In the hallway, Gino and Brandonwere working with Leonard. Theywere not studying very hard, butthere was a significant improvement.

April 22, 2013. Block 1. 80minutes.They were reading an adaptedversion of Oliver Twist.

Dr. Taddei starts the class byreminding her advanced students ofhow far they have come during thisyear.

They are reading about criminalsbeing sent to Australiaas a tie in toOliver TwistThe Charlie and Matt read tothemselves, while their tutorwatched. Charlie finished work waybefore Matt, and doodled on hispacket.

After Charlie finished, Jeff reread thestory out loud to themvery slowly,

and asked if they had any questionsabout the vocabulary.Marvin worked one-on-one withGabby. He said that he didnt do hishomework because he didnt havetime to do it between practicing formusic and other work.


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He has a test on Friday that heneeded to study for. The test will beon sentence structurespast,present, future, etc.

He didnt bring in his Frenchdictionary that day, so Gabby had tolook a lot of words up on her phone.Alex and Henry, both French/Creolespeakers, worked on their past tensepacket. They answered questionsindependently, and then Jameschecked their work.

James speaks some French, so he

translated some vocabulary wordsfor them.

Alex was farther ahead then Henry,and started doing the nextworksheet before Henry evenstarted.

April 22, 2013. Block 2. 80minutes.

The advanced reading class isreading and ELL abridged Jane Eyre.Conference: Dr. Taddei decided tomove Pierre and Marvin up to herclass because they were easilydistracted, and she wanted to haveher eye on them.

They were not up to level with theother studentsbut they wouldhopefully be able to listen and

understand.Advanced students: Dr. Taddeiexplained to her students how towrite a 3-paragraph essay, usingtransitional words. Using althoughin the beginning of the topicsentence connecting paragraphs 2


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and 3. And so=as a result.

While they were working on writingconnecting sentences, Dr. Taddeicame over to talk to me. She told methat failing schools are a myth. She

doesnt think that everyone needs togo to college. The problem is thatLatino families do not take educationseriously.Gino moved up to this level becauseall of the tutors found him impossibleto deal with. The advanced group isabout 5 levels above where he is,but Dr. Taddei needed to keep hereyes on him.5 minute civics lessonmany of thestudents are in the process ofbecoming citizens. Dr. Taddei teasedthem about failing the citizenshipexam.

Dr. Taddei talked to them aboutracism and inequality in the US!Tutoring: Anel went through a list ofvocabulary words, and then read astory that used those words in

English. First, she defined each wordin SpanishVeronica confirmed withher phone.

After reading the story, she had toanswer some questions, butVeronica ended up giving her almostall the answers

It seems that Anel is moving too fastthrough the packetsit is unclear ifshe really understands any of the

packets, or work she is goingthrough.

Marvin read a very short story aboutthe sun and windthey tried tofigure out how to get a man to take

off his coat.

He read the story very slowly outloud.Advanced: Dr. Taddei introduced LesMiserables to the class. They willread selections from the abridged

Bruner, Toward a Theory ofInstruction. With regards to the orderof how learning is optimized. The


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version.

Dr. Taddei told them that MarieAntoinette is famous for saying letthem eat cake, because she didnt

care about poor people in Franceduring the revolution.

advanced students are at the pointwhere they can work with symbolicrepresentation. In the reading forconcepts books, they talk about theunderlying meaning of their reading,

and connect the reading to largersocial issues.

intro lme observations

Documents