Teaching ELL chapter 10 June 3, 2010

Teaching ELL and students from different cultures always seems that much more daunting after reading books such as these.  They usually make me feel like I am failing my ELL students.  We as teachers have a lot of responsibilities to our students.  On top of these everyday responsibilities we have the obligation to take the extra steps to help our ELL students succeed.  Of the responsibilities we have to our ELL students, the most difficult for me to consider is the involvement of the families.  One part of the chapter that interested me was the table outlining some of the cultural differences between families born in the US and those of ELL students.  The first difference, competitive for US born vs. cooperative for foreign born, was an interesting one.  I think we are a competitive culture here in the US.  My students always compare grades when we pass back assignments.  We have been doing a lot of cooperative work in our classroom over the course of the year.  I am not sure how effective it has been for our ELL students.  I’m not sure those new to the language have been able to get the most out of the group and pair interactions.  They are not always able to understand their fellow students and the non-ELL students don’t always know what to do or say when the ELL students can’t understand them.  I think the interaction is good for them, though.  It may not seem like it sometimes but the ELL students are listening and picking up little bits here and there. I will continue to use group work in my classes.  Not matter the level of language proficiency, the ability to work with others is a vital skill for all students and hearing other students speak the language is great practice for learning.

Another point I found interesting was the possible reluctance of ELL families to interact with teachers and school.  This can be due to perceptions that schools do not want the parents interactions or by a lack of trust of figures of authority.  No matter the reasons families are reluctant to contact school, I should work towards creating a comfortable  and welcoming environment where the parents of ELL students can feel free to communicate with me.  I think the idea of being proactive in communication with home instead of reactive is a great one.  It is also one of those things that has been difficult for me during my internship and will probably be difficult during my first year teaching as I try to get settled into my role as a teacher and getting my act together.  Giving positive feedback is something I want to do more of as my career matures.  While they may not act like it, students and parents appreciate hearing positive feedback.

Teaching ELL: Teaching Strategies April 15, 2010

Chapters 4, 5, and 6 in the Curtin book dealt with teaching strategies for ELL students.  An important aspect of the strategies covered is that the variety of strategies suggested are no different than those recommended in well run classrooms without ELL students.  Visual aids, demonstrations, graphic organizers, interactive and cooperative learning, are all strategies and tools that should be present in every successful classroom.  I have been trying to integrate as many of these strategies and tools into my classroom as possible.  In both science and math the students spend a majority of their time engaged in cooperative group work.  I feel like it has been successful for the most part.  With the exception of a couple of students, the levels of student discussion on topic has been good.  A recent activity had the students acting out the motions of the Earth-moon-Sun system with certain questions in mind.  It was great to hear students planning their demonstrations and to hear some “ohhhs”  when someone saw something they didn’t before.

The reading provided some useful resources that I think could help me in the future.  The planning chart on pages 74-75 (Curtin 2009) provides a good outline to think about.  Often time my plans are simply written out in a way that I think may work.  The book says I should expect to plan 2-3 times the amount of time the lesson will take. (Curtin 2009)  this is a daunting task.  In this case I am glad to be a middle school teacher with only 2 subjects to plan for.  I know I need to work on my planning.  I have learned that just understanding the content I am trying to teach doesn’t automatically allow me to make my students understand it.  I am really trying to work on guiding the students to understanding rather than simply telling them the information, which is not learning at all.

I think the concept of learning English by learning subject content is an excellent one.  For myself, and perhaps anyone who has tried to learn some of a language for a foreign trip, sitting at home and trying to memorize vocabulary and random sentences doesn’t really work.  The words and phrases that are learned without context have only so much use. ELL students learning the language in pull out classes don’t develop the scientific or mathematical vocabulary needed to be successful in normal classrooms.  So even when they reach a point where their language skills are good, they are starting for behind other students in scientific or mathematical knowledge and skills.

As for my teaching, I am luck to have an ELL co-teacher in my math class for support.  We try to use several of the strategies covered in the the Curtin book.  Lots of group work with think-pair-shares and mini jig-sawing.  We have gotten them up on several occasions to act out graphs or geometric shapes.  I try to read directions or introductions aloud as students follow along and I try to keep the word wall up to date.  Even with our efforts, some of the ELL students are having trouble keeping up.  We have to keep the pace of the class up because we have many high level students also.  This is an issue in many classes and not just with ELL students and one I have a lot more to learn about.

Curtin, Ellen M.  (2009) Practical Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners.  Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.

EDU 6139 Teaching ELL April 7, 2010

The first three chapters of the Curtin book dealt with the history of ELL and stages of english language acquisition and initial teacher considerations when dealing with ELL students.  There are lots of topics included in these chapters.  The hot topic in chapter one is No Child Let Behind.  We’ve all have our own opinions and have heard the opinions of others about NCLB.  From what I have heard, I have few good thoughts about NCLB.  One of the few good things I have heard of is the disaggregation of student data making schools accountable for all students not just certain groups.  There seem to be more downsides than up.  The expectation of 100% success, while naively noble, is impossible, and to hold a teacher up to that standard is ridiculous.   Standards are left up to states and can vary from state to state.  My understanding of the Washington standards is that they are ceiling instead of minimum requirements.  Instead of expecting students to reach a minimum level of proficiency we are expecting students to reach nearly honors level in their grade to be deemed successful.  The last thing of NCLB is the tenets.  The consequences listed in Tenet one seem to have some problems.  Holding teachers accountable is good.  It doesn’t seem to hold the students or the parents accountable.  It seems that a great teacher at a poor performing school is at a distinct disadvantage.  The tenet states that teachers “contributing” to student failure are to be replaced.  (Curtin 2009)  What incentive do teachers have to take jobs at poor performing schools when they can be fired for not bringing students thatthey, or perhaps no one, could bring up to standard.

I have been experiencing ELL first hand.  The eighth grade math class I am teaching is an ELL inclusion class.  We have 6 ELL students (which I know isn’t a lot in some schools).  I have seen the challenge of trying to teach these students.  The greatest challenge to me seems to be the expectation that they be taught at grade level.  The students are placed based on their age but only one is within one year grade performance wise.  I know two of the students read at a 1st grade level.  On page 41 the Curtin text states that the reading level of classroom texts may need to be adjusted, but content must be similar.  (Curtin 2009)  Perhaps this is referring to language arts classes because I am curious where I am going to find an 8th grade level math book written for 1st, 4th, or even 6th grade readers.  I am lucky, in that the class is designated as an inclusion class so it is co taught with an ELL specialist teacher.  I think the curriculum we use is tougher for ELL students.  we are teaching the Connected Math curriculum which focuses a lot on student led activities, group work, and reflections.  A math teacher I know of has experienced success with her ELL students by going back to older text books and learning with numbers, formulas, equations, and repetition.  It may not be the “new way” of doing things but often ELL students can do 2x=10 but may not understand “Mark has 10 Widgets and wants to give them as presents to 2 buddies, how many widgets does Mark need to put in each gift box?”

I am grateful for the ELL teacher in the class.  I have a hard time seeing how we could get anything done with the ELL students without her.  We do a lot of group work and the groups are expected to help each other.  Many of the students do a good job with this but there is only so much they can be expected to do.  There are deadlines for assignments that they have to meet also and we can’t expect them to miss a deadline and a possible learning opportunity while trying to help another student.   One of us can spend the entire class helping a few of the ELL students while the other splits time with ELL and other groups questions.  A great concern is pacing of the class.  I know we are going too fast for the ELL students.  The ELL teacher even takes extra time with them during other periods of the day to work on their math, but they are often behind and missing work is a big problem.  I feel we have to be fair to the other students also.  We are already a couple of weeks behind other 8th grade classes.  Slowing the pace down to accommodate the ELL students penalizes the non-ELL students.  We make accommodations on exams and give them as much help as we can during class.  It is a topic that I feel I definitely struggle with.