English Language Arts Teacher Interview Reflection

 

ELA Teacher Interview Reflection

The interview with teacher Morgan, took place in classroom in the evening after her lessons. This time was appropriate because classes were over, so she was free for the interview without any interactions from her students. Morgan is a 5^th grade ELA teacher who has been teaching for over ten years, which is why she was a perfect candidate for the interview. I began the interview by enquiring on her thoughts about teaching the four skills including; speaking, viewing, listening and thinking. Her response emphasised on the importance of young students having a good foundation on this skills, because this is what determines the rest of their language learning journey.

Teacher Morgan frequently mentioned the importance of games during her ELA lessons, indicating that young students are able to understand concepts better when they are introduced to them using a fun activity. some of the games she mentioned included; word wheel, hot wad and time wrap all which can be used to teach parts of speech, types of sentences, tenses and also help in writing and reading skills. The games which can either be conducted in groups all by the whole class, as understood from the interview create an interactive mood within the class. The games allow all the students to be engaged and take part in the learning, through presentation, asking and answering of questions during the game learning activities.

Effectiveness of teaching ELA is all dependent on the strategies employed during the lesson. From the interview, it came out clearly that a teacher who does not take time to understand the students and their needs can have a hard time helping the students improve their language skills. Everything that a teacher does during the lesson beginning with how they speak provides the students with an opportunity to develop language skills. Learning does not stop at school; parents also have a great role to play in helping their children develop effective language skills.

Teachers should always educate parents on the importance of engaging in learning activities with their children when at home. This can be done by constantly holding parent meetings whereby parents meet the teachers and learn about their children’s progress. parents should just like the teacher use every activity at home as a learning item, where they ask the children to name various items, name the part of speech among others. Parents should be actively involved in helping the students with their homework, which help ensure that the learning process is not cut off when the students go home from school.

This interview has been very educative for me as an aspiring ELA teacher. I now understand that one of the most important elements of teaching ELA is making learning fun for the students. Games not only help create good social environment within the class, but they also help the students to grasp contents much easier and better. I have also understood the importance of creating a learning cycle for the students by engaging their parents in the learning process. This helps ensure that learning does not stop at the end of the day when the students leave school, but rather continue with the help of the parents at home.

Interview questions                           

1. How would you define ELA teaching, do you find it challenging?
2. What types of ELA activities do you use to teach skills related to speaking, viewing, listening, and thinking?
3. How do the learners react to these learning activities?
4. How do you encourage whole class social interaction and communication in the English language arts classroom?
5. How do you encourage small group social interaction and communication in the English language arts classroom?
6. What strategies do you use to support the diverse communication needs of exceptional students and English language learners?
7. What are different ways you communicate with parents? How do you explain the importance of literacy skills to them? Do you explain ways they can help their children develop these skills? If so, how?
8. Have you noticed any differences in language skills acquisition between the students whose parents are involved in their learning and those that are not? If yes, which are some of the differences?
9. What do you do to help these students whose parents are uninvolved in their learning process?
10. What are some of the advice you would give to new ELA teachers, who are having challenges teaching language skills

Interview notes

• The teacher appears excited about the interview; she passionately describes her experience in teaching ELA.
• Her spoken English is excellent; she does not make any grammar mistakes as she responds to the interview questions.
• She indepthly responds to all the interview questions without hesitation, even going ahead to give case examples to help illustrate how she ensures learning takes place during her lessons.
• She readily shares her teaching materials to help illustrate how she uses them during the ELA learning activities.
• She sounds very conversant with ELA teaching strategies matching her ten years of experience as an ELA teacher.