Comments for Treading Water: Managing ELL's in the classroom

Comment on Language is Power, Power is White by Comments made by me « intertwining technology and teaching

Comments made by me « intertwining technology and teaching — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:11:07 +0000

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Comment on Closing the Language Gap by Becca Thebo

Becca Thebo — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 02:02:07 +0000

Communication is the key to having a successful school. Teachers need to work together and have a unified plan for teaching their students. If this does not happen than students become flustered and confused from all of the chaos taking place in the school. While I understand the importance of having a unified staff that communicates and works well together, I also think that is it important that teachers do not abandon their individual style with this unification. So the question remains, is it possible to obtain the same teaching techniques but at the same time keep individual style? I think the answer to this is yes. You said it perfectly Erica when you wrote “It’s not about we the teacher; It’s about they the student”. BINGO! By developing lesson plans that students will benefit from and sharing these lesson plans with other teachers the students are benefiting. Our job as teachers is to help students to the best to our ability. This means sharing, communicating, and putting in that extra time to come up with new ideas and techniques for teaching. I think that your blog emphasizes this need very well. Unfortunately lack of communication and teamwork is an issue in many school districts across the country and in the end this unwillingness to work together hinders the learning experience of the students.

I think that the topic for your blog is great and that your entries are rich with insight and controversy. I really enjoyed reading your posts and learning from them. Thank your for sharing your blog with me and I wish you the best of luck in the future!

Comment on Read-alouds show success in the ELL Classroom: by Comments « Griffin11’s Weblog

Comments « Griffin11’s Weblog — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:38:16 +0000

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Comment on Read-alouds show success in the ELL Classroom: by griffin11

griffin11 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:28:13 +0000

I really found this entry to be interesting because I had recently written up a lesson plan based around a read-aloud. Even though it was for an elementary classroom, I had wondered how well it would work in a secondary ESL setting. I know some might think that this is a juvenile like way to teach students, but I don’t really see the problem as long as it is working. I think the whole point of the read-aloud is so that the students actually learn and start to comprehend the material, so when people go against it saying that it is an elementary activity then I think they should reevaluate there educational goals.

Comment on Read-alouds show success in the ELL Classroom: by Shaynon

Shaynon — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:11:16 +0000

This is definitely an interesting issue…I’ve come to find truth in the notion that “listening comprehension” is typically easier than “reading comprehension.” To hear something read aloud improves one’s idea of the tone of the paper, as you alluded. Listening rather than reading does seem to be easier at times as well. Of course, there are those students who are actually better at reading a second language than they are at listening to one. So, then, of course, the presence of an ELL accommodation may be necessary in regards to reading/listening comprehension, but what’s the best way? It seems to me that reading aloud while having students read the text throughout the reading could be beneficial. But are the students paying attention? Perhaps a “popcorn read” could be effective, so that the students are working together at a common pace, taking turns reading aloud, while simultaneously reading the text in front of them. To promote individual reading comprehension, perhaps the teacher can provide the students with a general idea of what the text is about…like a brief sort of summary that will create a skeleton around which the students can supply the meat of the material. There are so many different ways to go about teaching alone, and the accommodations for ELLs add a whole new selection to the buffet!

Comment on Is Korea the Future of ESL? by alexcase

alexcase — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:41:19 +0000

Never heard anyone hold up Korea as a model for how people should study English before! Are you confusing Korea with Holland or Denmark??

TEFLtastic blog – http://www.tefl.net/alexcase

Comment on Is Korea the Future of ESL? by schuldtk

schuldtk — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 02:34:26 +0000

I really enjoyed this article. I am extremely interested in anything about English becoming a more popular language over seas. It is crazy to think that so many other countries are so persistent about making sure that students are learning English. I keep hearing more and more about in the news and in blogs; this topic seems to be growing more and more popular throughout the class. I am curious as to whether or not anyone knows of other countries that are holding similar conferences about ESL. It seems to be becoming a more common news topic so I would think that many countries would be interested in holding similar meetings. I would like to think that eventually the U.S. would catch up with the rest of the world and begin encouraging students to learn foreign languages. I also like your idea of having a friend in another country that you could discuss methods and techniques for teaching. I think that would be a great way to add a new perspective to your teaching.

Comment on Language is Power, Power is White by greenje

greenje — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:57:47 +0000

From my child psychology class and my Teaching ESL class, I have come to the conclusion that two-way immersion is the best way to foster bilingual students. I think that these classes are the best possible way to teach students new information and a new language. Studies have shown that when students are in ESL classes their content is often “dumbed down” a little for fear that they cannot learn the English and the information at the same time. This is the reason that I feel two-way immersion is so effective. However, in assessment we still need to remember that it takes 7-10 years for an English Language Learner to develop academic language. I’m not sure how long it takes to go from knowing English to learning another language at an academic level, but it will not be until around the end of their high school careers that we will have students who are truly proficient in both languages. Thus, the immersion program must start in elementary school and go through high school.

Comment on Beyond the Classroom and Into the Streets by bostonk

bostonk — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:27:55 +0000

I think you have done a great job showcasing the many ways in which ELL students struggle. For my College of Education volunteer hours, I have been working in the ESL classroom in a West Michigan High School. I was so shocked how far behind most of the students are. I have mentioned this in other blog comments before, but after the first day of seeing the students struggle to make up work for classes that won’t wait for them, I asked the teacher how the teachers can honestly expect these students to keep up under the extra stress of trying to learn in a language that is foreign to them. He said, “Some of them hold them to the same expectations as the other students, and they fail. Even worse, some teachers just pass them to get them out of the way, keep them going, even though they aren’t really learning.” I found this answer to be disturbing. It made me really think about this and what I would do in my English classroom. I don’t want to pass the kids because they don’t understand anyway just to keep them moving, and I don’t want to hold them to the same expectations as the other students who have spoken English since they were infants. In fact, last week one of the ESL students in the class quit school. He was an 18 year old at a sophomore level. He may have needed to help out at home, like with the complications you mentioned, or he may have been tired of the struggle. It seems like there has to be a better way to help these students.

Comment on Language is Power, Power is White by ehaveman05

ehaveman05 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:02:30 +0000

I never thought about teaching more than one language…that’s a great idea, ideally. I ‘m afraid that if more than one or two languages were proposed on a curiculum we would find ourselves proposing an alternative school or specialized charter school. I guess Spanish becomes the 2nd langauge taught because the majority of native speakers speak Spanish. The same way we chose to teach our mainstream classes in English becuase the majority of American students speak English, or at least they did until a few years ago. It goes to show that our school districts are based on the same democratic critiria that our country is founded on! So, although I think your idea is great, I’m really unsure how to get the funding and time to squeeze it into a public school setting. If you’ve thought this further, I’d be curious to hear your ideas! Thanks for posting!