The book that I have chosen for this course is English Learners Academic Literacy and Thinking: Learning in the Challenge Zone by Pauline Gibbons, foreword by Jim Cummins. The book so far is very enjoyable. It defines a lot of terms that are important to teaching our students, especially English Language Learners. It also gives many different literacy and critical thinking strategies that are great for any grade level and all types of learners. As teachers, we need to slow down and think more about our students' needs and how we can address their reading skills, abilities, and understandings of the literacy.
As an educator, I know that there are a lot of obstacles that we face within our classrooms every day, and it changes every year. We always have a large, diverse group of students. These students need our undivided attention and guidance. We need to be able to differentiate and teach many different personalities, to most people this seems like a daunting task, but to a teacher, this is reality. We also have regulations, testing, standards, observations, planning, and organizing all on our plate. Our livelihood revolves around these kiddos. A lot of us also have students that may be from other countries and/or speak another language. These children are referred to as English Language Learners (ELL).
In the United States, Canada, Australia, and the U.K. students may come into our classrooms with a limited English proficiency, because English is the main language in these countries. There are many other names that ELL can also be referred to: English as a second language, English as a new language, non-English speaking background, bilingual, language background other than English, or English as an additional language (page 8). Not all ELL are fluent in another language besides English, they might have just been exposed to another language at some point in their lives by family, friends, or a different cultural background.
Teaching ELL students is really best practices. Children who come from different language backgrounds need a lot of guided practice, visuals, and mentoring. ELL also need sheltered instruction in order to be successful. Sheltered instruction combines language and content instruction in way that is not necessarily easy, but adapted to the students needs. It might even be challenging at times. It integrates the curriculum with language proficiency, content knowledge, and academic skills. Pauline Gibbons states, "Separate or some kind of shelters instruction may also be the best option for more recently arrived EL learners" (page 9). I believe that sheltered instruction is good for all students though. As an early childhood educator I know that my students need well thought out and driven instruction to stay engaged and involved in their learning. Gibbons also talks a lot about scaffolding. Scaffolding is assisting a learner to move towards new skills, enabling them to know how to do something so that they can complete tasks on their own, and supporting the learner today so that they can do assignments and such on their own in the future (page 15).
This is just the beginning of what I have read in a very well written book. I look forward to reading more and telling you all about the different strategies that are discussed. I know that I have already learned so much from this book, and I hope to help you learn something new as well.
This looks like a really great text. I was also thinking about reading this text before deciding to go with They Say/I Say. I believe that English Language Learners are going to be a part of our teaching no matter where we go, but strongly so in New Mexico. I really liked your statement that " we need to slow down and think more about our students' needs and how we can address their reading skills, abilities, and understandings of the literacy." I also like the way that you put that their instruction needs to be adapted versus made easier. I feel there is a lot of bad feelings and instruction that is given to ELL students and most of the time teachers just don't know how to handle this unique type of student. It would be an interesting take to see how the methods presented in this book may help other types of learners instead of just ELL students. It seems like scaffolding is a very popular method in most literature and teaching methods so it is no wonder that it is used for ELL students too.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn Luna- I am glad that I chose this book. It is really important in our profession and in NM to know specific strategies for teaching our ELL. I hope that you learn something new from my blog entries as I continue to read the book.
DeleteMegan, I appreciate your insight on the needs for students. I am interested in your book because language is our primary form of communication with students. Now throw in the mix of English not being a primary language or other challenges for students. I think your mention of scaffolding really stood out to me. I think it is important to meet students where they are at. I constantly remind myself that I am not doing this work for ME, but for the student. I try to remove my teacher ego and try to help the student. I look forward to see what more information you give us.
ReplyDeleteRene- I think teachers sometimes forget that not all their students are at the same level and have different needs. We are always moving so fast pace and pushing kids to move on to the next thing, that we forget to slow down and actually teach them what they need. I think the testing and mandates have a lot to do with that. It is sad because like you said, we are there for the kids!
DeleteGreetings Megan -- This sounds like a great book for instructors of any content area and at any level. Strategies to support ELL students are helpful for every level. I enjoyed the information that you shared because I see a lot of ELL features in my adult developmental writing students. I'd like to hear more of your thoughts about the strategies -- if you are going to try them out, or if there are things you already do with students which you find helpful.
ReplyDeleteAmber- The target audience for this book is secondary educators, but I can see myself using a lot of what Gibbons talks about in my second grade classroom. As I continue to read I will talk more about the strategies and if I agree with them or not. Stay tuned! :)
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ReplyDeleteI’m so glad that you mentioned that “not all ELL are fluent in another language besides English, they might have just been exposed to another language at some point in their lives by family, friends, or a different cultural background.” In the southwest we see this a lot with students who speak Chicano English. They may or may not be bilingual in Spanish, but they have a mix of these languages which causes them to shift between lexicons and perhaps not know the English translation for a Spanish word they’ve been saying their whole lives and vice versa. Many of these students get caught and stuck in ELL classrooms, because of discriminatory issues based on the value placed on Spanish. While students coming in and speaking Mandarin may move in and out of ELL very quickly. I think that home language needs to be valued, and that is what so many ELL teachers do; they teach students that their language/culture/identity is valuable and help them to work within the parameters of an institution that demands Standard English in order to move ahead academically and professionally. I look forward to reading more of your posts on this topic. It sounds like it will be a pretty comprehensive book with some good strategies!
ReplyDeleteGregoria- I also believe that it is important to value the student's home life, culture, and language. That is their identity and what they know. There should be no reason to take that away from them while they are at school. Here in NM we have multiple different languages that come into our classes. In my class alone, I had students from 3 different Pueblos and from Mexico who spoke their native languages. I always loved when they would share things with me or the class about their culture and language. Of course it is our job to also teach them in English in order for them to do the work and assessments, but valuing who they are as people is equally as important.
DeleteI believe that this book can be very helpful for ESOL teachers who have a lot of students from different countries. As you mentioned one of the things that ESOL teacher need to consider is their culture which must be valued by teacher all the time.
ReplyDeleteYes! Culture plays a huge role in who the student is. Being an educator means that you have to be sensitive to your students and who they are.
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