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Kindergarten
This was my first year in school in Mexico. I never read much with my parents due to the fact that they worked many long hours. In school, I was exposed to many different books all in Spanish. We complete 3 years of kindergarten in Mexico so this continued for several years. -
First Grade
When I went to first grade, I was struggling with reading. My mom hired a retired teacher to work with me in hopes that I would catch up to where I needed to be. I did not like to read and this impacted my abilities. -
Third Grade
In third grade, we began learning about history and government. This sparked my interest in reading about those topics. I started to not hate reading as much as long as I could pick the topic. -
Sixth Grade
I moved to Las Vegas. This was the first time I lived in the United States and was required to learn and communicate in English. I was placed in a newcomer set of classes where we worked on the basics of English (phonics, vocabulary, etc) while still learning grade level content material. -
Seventh Grade
I was placed in class using the Read Well program. There were three instructional assistants and one teacher. We worked on leveled books and it was a very structured program. We mostly focused on pronunciation, letter sounds, and decoding. As we worked through the different levels and as we were successful, we would move to the next harder level. -
Ninth Grade
I started high school in a magnet program at Clark High School. I was placed in an honors level English class which scared me. I went to my counselor to discuss it. They ended up placing me in a regular English class. This was my first time in a non-ELL English class since coming to America. This year was very difficult for me because I had limited support within the class. -
Tenth Grade
My counselor refused to move me into a regular English for my sophomore year. I was placed in American Literature class where I had to read all of the classic books. The teacher I was placed with did not believe in accommodations for ELL students and was very tough on me. We read books like The Great Gatsby and The Scarlet Letter and she did not help me at all. I appreciated how she was teaching. However, I think there was no reason for me to struggle as much as I did. -
Eleventh Grade
I was placed in an AP English class but the difference was this teacher provided any accommodations she could think of to help me. I could see how hard she was working to help me. -
College
In college, I took a class on Latin American Literature. It connected me back to that third grade teacher who worked to teach so many historical events. This brought my learning full circle because I began learning about a topic solely in Spanish and now had the opportunity to read and learn about it in English. It made me feel successful because after hearing for years that I was struggling I finally felt like I understood fully the material. -
Present Day
I often still struggle with reading from a phonemic awareness. This impedes some of my comprehension. However, I learned coping mechanisms to help my comprehension. For instance, you can copy passages into Google Translate and it will read them aloud. I enjoy reading now and know the obstacles I need to overcome to be a better reader. I think overall being ELL myself will make me a better teacher because I understand what my students are going through.