Class Demographics (EDU 220)

The first day I walked into Ms. Apple’s second grade SEI classroom, I was put right to work. Though she did not know I was coming that day, she sat me down at a table with a handful of students to help them follow along with the class activity. She quickly gave me instructions as well as made me aware of the classroom demographics. Her classroom is all English Language Learners, with Spanish as their primary language. There are 23 students total with 15 boys and 8 girls.

Ms. Apple’s classroom is set up in a way to aid the students in their learning. It is especially geared towards helping the students during their reading intervention groups. The walls have reminders, of sight words, and learning techniques. The classroom is set up in three large groups of at most 8 desks, with two large tables in the back of the classroom for various small group work. The students aren’t always in the same seats throughout the day. The class really respects Ms. Apple and she has provided them with a good learning environment. They often use technology to aid in their learning too. Overall Ms. Apple’s classroom is set up to provide the best opportunity to learn.

Ms. Apple uses a Red Light-Green Light questioning technique to help her students know how to find and understand questions/answers in their reading. She has a wall poster with the directions. Green light means it is a one answer question and the answer can be found in one place. The yellow light question means that you need to slow down to answer. These questions can be found in at least 2 places. Red light questions are when you need to stop to answer, these answers can be found in multiple places. 

(This is not the poster Ms. Apple has in her classroom, but it looks similar. Image found on google)

Ms. Apple's classroom also contains posters with similar information like editing marks, sight words, sentence structure, and more. 

(Image found on google)

(Image found on google)

This classroom is SEI and as discussed in class, SEI isn’t the best method for English language learners. Ms. Apple does occasionally relate the material to the students in their primary language. I have also seen her use material that supports the student’s cultural background. This is all her own implementation, the school itself does not support the student’s cultural background from what I have seen. I could see it benefiting some of the students if she did speak their primary language. I have not seen or been witness to any sort of drawing upon student experiences, or collaboration with their families. 

(Names changed for privacy)