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Maynard

Caitlin Maynard completed an unstructured field experience for her ITEC 7305 course working with an English Language Learner (ELL) student, Thomas, virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over four weeks of tutoring sessions using Google Meet and Duolingo, Caitlin helped improve Thomas's reading comprehension and language skills. Through learning about Thomas's home life and language background, Caitlin enhanced her understanding of cultural differences and the digital divide faced by some students. This experience reinforced for Caitlin the importance of using diverse tools to support ELL students' individual needs and increased her awareness of global issues affecting education.

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51 views

Maynard

Caitlin Maynard completed an unstructured field experience for her ITEC 7305 course working with an English Language Learner (ELL) student, Thomas, virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over four weeks of tutoring sessions using Google Meet and Duolingo, Caitlin helped improve Thomas's reading comprehension and language skills. Through learning about Thomas's home life and language background, Caitlin enhanced her understanding of cultural differences and the digital divide faced by some students. This experience reinforced for Caitlin the importance of using diverse tools to support ELL students' individual needs and increased her awareness of global issues affecting education.

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Caitlin Maynard

ITEC 7500
Reflection – Standard 4.3

4.3 Diversity, Cultural Understanding & Global Awareness - model and facilitate the use of
digital tools and resources to support diverse student needs, enhance cultural understanding, and
increase global awareness.
______________________________________________________________________________

During ITEC 7305, Internet Tools in the Classroom, students were required to complete an
unstructured field experience working with an English Language Learner (ELL). I took this
course in the Spring of 2020, which was interrupted by COVID-19 and complete school closures
throughout the state of Georgia. Therefore, I completed my ELL field experience virtually at the
beginning of the 2020 - 2021 school year. I worked with a fourth grader, Thomas*, who was in
one of my friend’s classes at a local elementary school.

As part of Standard Four, Digital Citizenship and Responsibility, Element 4.3 focuses on the
ability to model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to support diverse student
needs, to enhance cultural understanding, and to increase global awareness. Thomas, his
teacher, and I met for our tutoring sessions through Google Meet every Tuesday and Thursday
for 30 minutes at a time for four weeks. Our lessons would start with a Duolingo warm-up and
review session and then we would shift to sentence practice activities, focusing on basic reading
comprehension out of context. Over the course of the four weeks, Thomas's skills were
continually pushed, requiring him to arrange incorrectly numbered paragraphs and eventually
work on larger passages, which built his reading stamina and extended comprehension
skills. Becoming familiar with Duolingo allows me to support diverse student needs. English
Language Learners at my school range from knowing the Spanish, Hmong, and Romanian
languages; therefore, it is imperative to know that our students are not all the same and they will
need individualized support in the classroom. As I learned more about Thomas and his home
life, my understanding of cultural differences was also enhanced. Thomas's family appreciates
education, but when they were hit particularly hard during the pandemic, his parents could not
fully focus on him and his siblings. This caused their online participation to drop to almost non-
existent. In finding out more information about the lack of personal electronic devices at
Thomas's home, my global awareness was also increased in terms of the digital divide. While my
school district is Title I, it is sometimes hard to reconcile the ongoing deficits in technology
ownership based on the day-to-day appearance of most of my students. One family may be fine
financially while a family down the street is struggling to make ends meet. When that is mixed
with the loss of jobs due to the pandemic and sudden at-home learning, it forces one to really put
their lives and teaching practices into perspective. This experience reinforced the idea for me that
the digital divide is real and I am glad that my district was able to loan devices to families in
need.

Through this experience, I learned that I enjoyed working with younger students. I have been
teaching middle school for ten years and have become very comfortable with this age group.
Working with Thomas was refreshing and gave me a glimpse into my possible future as my son
is seven and fourth grade seems to be right around the corner. As I still have questions about
older English Language Learners, I could have worked with a high school student to change this
experience.

While I feel this experience can affect all three areas, I believe that it immediately impacted
faculty development in terms of my personal knowledge, skills, and dispositions of and toward
English Language Learners. Even though I worked with a fourth grader, I am now able to
understand a little bit more into the thought process, capabilities, and limitations of these
students and how to best meet their needs. The impact of this experience can be assessed through
the discussions between my elementary school colleague, my school’s ESOL coordinator, and
my self-reflection as I have applied these techniques with my middle school ELL students.

* name has been changed to maintain confidentiality

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