Classroom Culture Paper

There are 21 students in the kindergarten class that I am placed in. All of the students are
5 years old. Seven of them are females, and 14 of them are males. Five of the students are
African American, nine are caucasian, and seven are hispanic. Of the seven children who are
hispanic, English is a second language to five of them. One male student has been diagnosed
with ADHD and is currently taking medication. There are no students with an IEP in the class.
One student has been showing behavior issues and is currently in the process of getting a
Behavior Intervention Plan.
The classroom is a large rectangle shape, and the students sit in four table groups. The
student with the behavior issues is sitting at a desk by himself in the back of the classroom
because he was too much of a distraction to the other students. The teachers desk is in the back
corner along with a kidney shaped table that he uses to pull students over for individual work or
small group work. My CT rarely ever sits down because he is constantly walking around
monitoring students work. The classroom is very colorful and engaging; this helps makes the
classroom a good environment for learning. The classroom library has multiple bins of books
that are separated by genre. Each bin has a colored sticker and so does each book, so the students
just need to match the colored stickers when putting their books away. At the front of the
classroom is the smartboard, and the students love when they are able to use it. Using technology
in the classroom can be a very useful tool if done correctly. Students are learning to use
technology younger and younger, so providing ways for the students to learn through technology
(like the smartboard) is very beneficial.

I talked to many students in the class and found out what they like about school, their
learning, their interests, and their ways of thinking. Almost all of the students I talked to said that
recess, PE, and lunch were their favorite parts of the day. It seems that they enjoy the social
aspect and the exercise that takes place during recess, PE, and lunch. This relates to their
enjoyment of interactive learning activities that take place in the classroom. These young
children like learning activities that are hands on and interactive. For example, many students
enjoy centers because it requires them to move around the classroom between centers. Also, the
smartboard is every student's favorite center because of the level of interactiveness.
Most of the students I talked to really enjoy school, learning, and being read to. I spend
lunchtime at the tables talking and eating with the students. This is a time in the day that I use to
really get to know the students better. I often let the students I am sitting with lead the
conversations because this helps me know what they think is important and interesting.
Conversations revolve mostly around family, movies, tv shows, and questions they have about
my life.
They love talking about their favorite movies and tv shows, and if I have not seen one
then they love going into detail about everything that happens. They like talking about their
families and always connect learning to their personal lives. For example, during class they will
share facts about their families that relates to something that was taught.
In my educational psychology course and my child development course, I learned about
Piagets stages of cognitive development. Many Kindergarteners fall under stage two: the
preoperational stage. During this stage, children have an egocentric, or self-centered, way of
thinking, which means they have difficulty understanding life from anyone else's perspective

except their own. Their worlds revolve around themselves and they cannot fathom that other
people think and feel differently than they do. This helps to explain all of the kindergarteners
comments during school that relate to their personal lives. While teaching students how to share
and how to begin to see other perspectives is important at this age, it is also useful to make
connections to their personal lives while planning lessons.
There are seven Hispanic students in my class. Five of these students are learning English
as a second language, and three of the five are pulled out for ESOL services. I met with the
ESOL teacher who works with three English language learners (ELLs) in my placement class.
She gave me some of the best practices for working with ELLs at a kindergarten level.
First, seating them close to me while I am teaching is important so I can monitor their
understanding and clarify when needed. When I am questioning, I should provide extended
wait-time for them to process what I am asking. She also recommends providing ELLS with
opportunities to answer non-verbally (pointing to choices, drawing a picture, circling from a
choice menu, etc) if they do not have a great deal of expressive vocabulary. Out of the three
ELLs that are pulled from my class, one of them specifically would really benefit from the
option to answer non-verbally. I should make sure I am speaking at a slower rate of speech, and
using simple sentence syntax. It is important that I model directions, and provide as many visuals
or realia as possible to help them better understand what I am asking them to do. In addition,
repeating key vocabulary often, and incorporating movement and music/chants frequently helps
their understanding of unfamiliar words and/or concepts. Lastly, she recommends pairing them
with a proficient buddy for partner work, and allowing them to use their native language if that
helps them to be more successful. My cooperating teacher speaks spanish as well so he often will

repeat certain instructions to one of the ELL in my class if my CT feels as if the student is not
fully understanding. I do not know spanish; however, I will be sure to learn some key words that
will better help me translate instructions to this student if needed.
The ESOL teacher says that the best practices for English Language Learners in
kindergarten are very simple to implement in the classroom. The younger a student is the easier
it is for him or her to pick up English as a second language; therefore, the best practices in
kindergarten are usually easier to implement in the classroom than when the student is in an
older grade.
Behavior issues are very prominent in my placement class. Three students specifically are
causing a lot of distraction during instruction. Of these three students, one of them sits alone in
the back of the classroom and can rarely join in with the rest of the class. This student will refuse
to do things, yell, and hurt other children. He was recently suspended for hitting another student.
The advice I have recieved from my CT and the assistant principal is to try my best to get this
student engaged, but do not let him distract the whole class and take away from the rest of the
students learning time. If he begins to be disruptive and starts distracting others, then I should
remind the class that if other students are doing things they are not supposed to and are not
listening, then we just ignore those students and continue to focus on me. The goal is to have
lessons that are engaging and spike his interest; however, the main thing I should focus on is to
not let his outbursts distract me and the rest of the students in the class. The other two students
who are having behavior issues need a lot of positive feedback, and the behavior problems are at
a minimum when they are engaged in an interesting activity and lesson. I should make sure I am
using engaging activities that they will want to take part in. Also, making sure they understand

the activities in the beginning is important so they do not go off track. Another piece of advice I
received for dealing with classroom management is to openly praise students when they are
doing something correct. For example, if I notice a student sitting quietly then I will say I love
the way ______ is sitting quietly ready to start the lesson, or if a student is raising their hand I
could say I love the way _____ is raising their hand. This encourages students who are not
doing the right thing to do the right thing without specifically calling them out.
The ELLs in my class are all very attentive and eager to learn, so I think that the students
with behavior issues will definitely be the biggest challenge for me when it comes to
accommodations and modifications. There is still a lot of testing and observing being completed
for the students with behavior issues in my class, so I need to make sure I am staying up to date
with what the assistant principal, my CT, and the school psychologist recommend when it comes
to how to adjust my lessons to fit these specific students needs.
The diagnostic for the positional word unit revealed a large gap in positional word
vocabulary knowledge between English language learners and non English language learners
within my kindergarten placement class. The three lowest scorers are all learning English as a
second language. They have not been taught these academic words in school; therefore, they
have not been exposed to as many of them like the non English language learners in the class. I
need to make sure I am reaching the ELLs during my unit by using specific pedagogical
practices that will increase their understandings of the content. I do not want the English
language learners to fall behind in this unit because of a language barrier.
I read the research article PreK-3rd: Raising the Educational Performance of English
Language Learners (2001) to try to find more information of teaching the English language

learners in my class. This article stresses the importance of education during the younger grades
in all students, but specifically English language learners; Research shows that a coherent,
sequenced, and integrated set of learning experiences from PreK through 3rd Grade provides the
foundation for educational and life success (Russakoff, D., & Foundation for Child, D., 2011,
p.4). Conversational English differs greatly from complex academic language; non-English
speaking children learn conversational English in two to three years, but it can take five to eight
years to master the complex language skills required for academic subjects (Russakoff, D., &
Foundation for Child, D., 2011, p.5). Most of the positional words I am teaching in my unit fall
under the academic vocabulary category for English language learners because they do not hear
many of them in normal conversations. On the other hand, many of these words fall under the
conversational English category for the native English speakers because they have learned them
from hearing them in everyday conversations. The main point I took away from this article is to
make sure I am using effective practices with the English language learners in my class, and that
I am not ignoring their needs.
The next article I read, English Language Learners and English-Only Learners' Response
to Direct Vocabulary Instruction, provides me with more information on pedagogical practices
that improve English language learners comprehension when learning vocabulary. This article
examined data from a kindergarten vocabulary intervention study to determine whether
treatment outcomes had differential effects that favored English language learners (ELLs) or
English-only learners (EOLs) and whether the relationship between initial English general
receptive vocabulary knowledge and response to vocabulary intervention differed as a function
of language status (Crevecoeur, Coyne, & McCoach, 2014, p.51). The study provides a

research-based pedagogical practice that will benefit kindergarten English language learners in
vocabulary instruction: including various multimedia enhancements during the unit. I can use
this practice while teaching my unit to improve the English language learners comprehension of
the vocabulary terms. The findings in the article suggest that augmenting an English vocabulary
intervention with multimedia enhancements provided ELLs with varied and multiple
opportunities to increase vocabulary knowledge (Crevecoeur et al., 2014, p.54). Including
various multimedia enhancements in my unit will help the ELLs understand the vocabulary
included in my unit plan. I will include read-alouds, videos, paper and real-life visuals, and
interactive games and activities to help reach the different learning needs presented in my class.

References
Crevecoeur, Y. C., Coyne, M. D., & McCoach, D. B. (2014). English Language Learners and
English-Only Learners' Response to Direct Vocabulary Instruction. Reading & Writing
Quarterly, 30(1), 51-78.
Russakoff, D., & Foundation for Child, D. (2011). PreK-3rd: Raising the Educational
Performance of English Language Learners (ELLs). PreK-3rd Policy to Action Brief. No.
Six. Foundation For Child Development