This class has impacted my teaching philosophy in several ways. As an aspiring Math teacher, I tend to focus on inspiring students to love and enjoy learning about my content area. After learning more about English language learners and second language methodology, I believe it is equally as important to inspire and motivate ELLs to achieve proficiency in English. It is important to motivate ELLs to participate in the content area classroom just as you much as you need to motivate native English speakers. As Wright (2015, p. 316) states, "effective teachers take advantage of the positive aspects of federal and state policies for ELLs to obtain needed resources and create effective programs." I realize that the efforts made by teachers to support ELLs in their content area classroom can make a great impact on ELL's progress with learning English and learning class content.
Learning about the variety of program models developed for ELLs is extremely important to me as a future educator. Knowledge of the various programs available for ELLs goes hand in hand with becoming familiar with the speaking, listening and writing strategies discussed in the text book. It is in fact state law that teachers accommodate to their ELL students’ needs, so learning about programs and strategies teachers can implement to help ELLs develop English proficiency are relevant to my future as a content area math teacher. Regardless of the laws concerning ELL instruction, as Wright (2015, p. 117) mentions that "teachers must fully commit to implementing [the programs, or] ELLs will be left behind." Implementing programs and strategies to support ELLs is the responsibility of the teacher and is essential to student learning. I can use the practices I learned about in this course regularly within my content area classroom to support and motivate ELLs in my classroom.
One of the benefits of this classes format was that students were able to gather and share a wide variety of perspectives and experiences from both English language learners and ELL teachers. The use of the Vblog makes it convenient for students to share and view multiple resources focused on the Second Language Methodology (SLM).
One of the challenges of this course being online is that deeper discussions concerning SLM topics could be held if the class met as a group. Sometimes, using the online discussion format, responses can be delayed, and discussions of key concepts left unexpanded. Nevertheless, I was able to learn more about course concepts through reading my peers responses and carefully constructing my own responses.
The way Vblogs were used in this course helped me make connections between course readings and real-life classrooms. The Vblogs helped develop a sense of and online community because after completing an interview and considering the topics discussed in the interviews, it was nice to see how interviewee responses compared to those from my own interview. I also feel that the Vblog assignments not only helped me develop my online writing skills, but also helped me become more proficient with recording and editing videos and sharing them across an online format. Teaching and learning through videos have become more common and is a great skill to become familiar with in the field of education.
You have written an exemplary entry and there are many ideas that I would love to discuss with you. However, I only have time and space for one. Your understanding of the key role you play in helping your students develop their linguistic skills while in your math class is paramount. ALL teacher need to understand that learners need time to think and discuss the content or tasks they are given. Your ELLs will benefit tremendously from your knowledge about SL methodology since you will remember to provide them with opportunity to interact working in pairs, and groups. ELLs need to be given these opportunities since their integrative motivation is usually the push they have to do things. They will want to learn math more if they see it as something that they do as a group than as individual work.
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DeleteHello Dr. Avellaneda,
DeleteThank you for sharing! As mentioned by Wright (2015, p. 89), "Language and education policies for ELLs are realized at the district, school and classroom levels." As a classroom teacher, it is my responsibility to recognize and account for the needs of my students at the classroom level. As an educator, student success is my priority and ensuring that ELLs are supported in my classroom contributes to overall student success. I am glad I was able to learn about SL methodology, so I can support ELLs to the best of my ability within my content area classroom.
Hello Angel,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the importance of learning about all program models offered. This is actually one of the reasons I loved having a project where we get to interview an ELL teacher. I got to learn so much about the particular program offered at my school. One thing I learned from that was that the program at my school was not necessarily seen as the most effective program to have in Wright’s and other scholars point of view, however, as Wright states “teachers and administrators working collaboratively to study the characteristics and the needs of the ELLs, … parents and community, and resources of the school” (p. 117, 2015) is ultimately what it comes down to. I do see a commitment to help the students to the best of their ability, so it is nice to see that.
Hi Mayra and Angel, I enjoyed reading your opinions on this class and agree with both of you. Before taking this class I didn’t know anything about all of these programs, so I’m so glad this was part of the class. Wright also mentions that all of the different models demonstrate there is no one-size-fits-all program appropriate for all ELLs in all schools (Wright, 2015, pg. 89). This is the main reason why schools having all of these different programs as options for ELLs is very important. This is helpful for students in general because they’re all so different, but especially for ELLs because they’re trying to learn a whole new language.
DeleteHi Mayra,
DeleteThanks for sharing. I also found it interesting to learn more about what programs my school offered, or in my case did not offer. I was not able to interview a teacher at my student teaching placement due to a lack of any major ESL program and low ELL population at my school. It was still great to interview a teacher from a different school and compare the program models they mentioned to what I experienced in my classroom. I was able to identify the accommodations my teacher makes for students that correlated with those mentioned by scholars in the field of Second Language Methodology. Wright (2015, p.89) mentions that "decisions [about instructional programs within schools] must be based on a consideration of federal and state loci's, research and the characteristics, strengths, needs and desires of their students and community." Since my school has no ESL specialist, teachers at my school "share ideas and resources to help each other" instead of letting students fall into more of a a sink or swim program model (Wright, 2015, p. 113).
Hi Janet,
DeleteI totally agree with you, there is not a one-size-fits-all program for students whether it is to assist them with learning content area skills or a second language. Public schools often carry a diverse student population. Wright (2015, p. 117) reinforces the idea that regardless of the program model schools choose to implement, "teachers must fully commit to implementing them to the best of their ability" for the program to be successful and prevent ELLs from being "left behind."
Hi Angel! Thanks for your reply to my comment. Wow, I thought my school was lacking in the programs offered for ELLs. We have a school of about 800 students and only 25 of them are ELL ranging from Pre-K to 5th grade. I definitely have a lot of respect for teachers that do not have the in class support to give students. Wright states that for students to succeed everyone should collaborate and go “beyond the view of ‘my students/ your students’ to ‘our students” (p. 113, 2015).
DeleteHi Janet, thanks for commenting. At the beginning of this class, I knew about some of the different programs, but I never knew the major differences in them. I also did not know that some were more effective than others. I see now that in areas where there are not enough ELL students programs are lacking, and the students have to deal and are the ones most affected. For example, Wright mentions that some students were left “feeling frustrated”. They said ‘I just sat there’ because there was not even a pull-out ESL program (Wright, p. 107, 2015).
DeleteHello Ms. Foster,
ReplyDeleteI agree that this course has better helped me understand the variety of programs available for ELLs as accommodations such as breaking down the standards and objectives to providing primary language support. Although I have stated in previous Vblog entries, I do see schools struggle with providing the proper accommodations and aides for ELLs due to the lack of funding and school location. Therefore, it is left up to the teachers to supplement the gap that is left when accommodating to ELLs. Wright’s book has helped me find great strategies that apply to both my ELL and mainstream students. Chapter 10 has been helpful for modifying instructional materials to incorporating student’s cultures to better engage students (Wright, 2015, p274,275)
Works Cited
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice (Second ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Caslon.