Artifact 6 || The ELL

ELL Knowledge

K	W	L
·       Are unique learners too	·       Best practices for modifying activity within regular classroom	·       Scaffolding, cueing and providing PRACTICE time
·       Require modifications to curriculum/lesson/assessments	·       Inclusionary tactics for ELL’s	·       CRP, dual language responses,  cross curricular deliveries
·       If CRP content is used, ELL’s can provide rich culture to the classroom discussion	·       How to utilize first language effectively	·       Don’t discourage it ·       Allow for it, and guide it into language lessons ·       Use it to help build L2 ·       Partner same language Students together if needed to provide a platform
·       May only struggle with English, identifying strengths/weaknesses of process is key	·       Teaching students with low literacy in L1, best practices	·       Create community ·       Model all response/activities prior to requesting action ·       Include family in learning, create open and continuous dialogue
·       Have barriers to education in English schools, we need to eliminate them	·        Language learners acquire the grammatical features of a language in a predictable order when language learning occurs naturally. ·        Phonics instruction should play a major role in L2 literacy development. ·        It is imperative that all mistakes be corrected in some manner.	·       Fluency has a varied definition and should be sought after only AFTER conversations with the ESL instructor, parents and HR teacher.  ·       It is not necessarily imperative to correct every grammatical error this is a contextual issue dependent upon the stage of the learner and confidence level.

Professional Growth

Reading through others’ posts and responses has brought to light many critical points to being an effective ELL instructor.   From welcoming ELL’s into the school, providing them voice and opportunity to use L1, to doubling down on grammar lessons to ensure students have the language structure in place to participate confidently in your lesson, the feedback and posts have genuinely changed how I approach the ELL’s in my classroom and school community.  Being respectful of culture has always been on the front of my mind when speaking with ELL’s, however using this along with their initial language assessment to build appropriate lessons to scaffold grammar and structure to reach fluency faster as certainly take aways. 

I am specifically focused on the language development section of this course as it relates to building fluency in ELL’s and strategies to aid them.  Utilizing the different forms of literacy such that students have access to these pieces across all curriculum points and at home allows them to approach it when they are ready, and apply meaning in different contexts, something that is apparent after discussing with colleagues is the importance of ensuring the language structures we are teaching are created such that they are useable in various lessons and not just the particular lesson that day.  Building on grammar structures, imbedding new vocabulary that students are given ample time to play with, to extend outside of the specific context to see how it adapts or how they can adapt it to fit the intended in meaning.  The guided practice opportunity being the key.  Allowing students to practice, practice, practice until they feel they’ve reached mastery at which time the teacher can build upon the lesson to further the understanding by adding new contexts, new vocabulary or new subject matter.  One of the biggest take aways for me was to ensure there is more than enough time for practice. 

The writing piece was the struggle for me in this course; I recently had an ELL who I simply couldn’t engage in writing activities.  Listening, reading weren’t an issue however when asked to write something he simply wouldn’t do it.  This, upon reflection following the course, was likely due to a mis-representation on the initial language assessment from a previous school.  Instead of doing our own in-school, we relied on the assessment of the previous school.  The student was not in my class long, but during that time I tried many different strategies to engage the student in a writing activity to no avail.  In their final week in our school, we wrote out some simple sentences that helped talk about their day.  While the student was able to orally communicate they couldn’t take the sentences and put them on paper; providing them the guided practice, and more practice, of these structures allowed them to articulate in writing how their day was going, what the weather was like etc., provided an entry point for all further writing exercises. 

One last area that has really changed my thinking is the area of capacity building as it relates to ELL’s. I’ve included the conversation we had online about corrections etc. as I believe this relates.  As we build, or scaffold, upon students prior knowledge we expect to challenge them and as such for them to make mistakes.  We are encouraging students to work in heterogenous groups to get the best outcomes for all students involved and out of that questions being answered by native speakers so the student can build on their own skillset. Should an ELL need to use L1 in order to get a better understanding of the lesson, or to feel confident enough to participate we should encourage them to do so.  The use of L1 will allow them to make their own connections to the language and content and bring it back in their own way for better individual understanding.  Once participating in class discussions, I have found our class divided in terms of how often to correct our ELL’s out loud and I remain unchanged that I will let context make the decision for me.  Overloading a student with corrections will simply decrease their confidence in my opinion, so instead I’ll start to take notes on simple corrections to make and only correct the much larger ones that I feel the rest of the class will also benefit from.  These notes can lead my conferences with the student and provide them more specific guided practice and ensure students retain the information through exit tickets or further discussions. 

I will certainly be adapting my practices to include a more Universal Design model now as I have more theoretical knowledge of ELL’s to build upon my experiential knowledge.  By allowing early staged learners to use L1 in class, to creating more visuals and modelling sentence structure more often I hope to promote these learners to embrace the classroom and English and start their own path of inquiry.  Focusing on grammar lessons that permeate throughout each subject and including vocabulary that is both social and academic will allow ELL’s to participate not only in the classroom but also the playground.  Continually scaffolding lessons and then giving my students TONS of time to practice and play with the new content in their own way will allow the lesson to sink in with personal connections making it more meaningful to the student and increase the opportunity of retention. 

Philosophy

As an educator I hope to promote a positive, contributing community experience to all students that set foot in my classroom.  One where we learn from one another, and hold each other up in the best way we know how.  I will provide rich, fulfilling content that my students can both hear and see themselves in, and allow my students to lead the way through inquiry as I guide them to relating expectations.  We will work as a team to learn about one another and promote equality; working in different groups, positively responding to inquiries from other students, providing honest feedback etc.  My students will have the opportunity to learn  and be assessed in all forms and will be given an abundant amount of time to practice independently, small groups and with the teacher in order to explore the concept and reach a level of mastery.  I will ensure students learn through experience new vocabulary, both academic and social, and learn to apply each in the appropriate context.  I hope that upon entry into my classroom, my students see and feel the opportunity to succeed.