Professional+Development+Paper

Monique Kuhl Dr. McKool ELD 308 April 21, 2011  English Language Learners The book __English Language Learners__ begins with the quote, “school administrators, curriculum specialist, and classroom teachers all have the same goal: to enable every student to succeed academically”. This is a powerful statement to me because as much as these people try to do everything we can to help each student succeed, it is unlikely that everyone will receive the appropriate education that they deserve. I know this is something with all special needs students. For example, children with a learning disability, students brought up in rough homes and many more. English Language Learners or ELL students are a group of students that falls under this tragic list and that make up many of the students in many districts. One of the largest districts with many ELL students in the book is Fresno Unified School District. It is in the middle of the Central Valley of California. This district is one of the largest in the entire state. This book says that about one third of the students are ELL students. One of the positive things about this district is that all of the teachers have to have certification to work with these students. I think that it is incredible that this district is trying to ensure that all of their teachers will be able to be there for all of their students. I believe that if this were to work in an ideal world it would be an incredible thing because the teacher would be able to use all of their knowledge to help the students succeed. However, in the passage I was reading it spoke about how providing so much help to such a large district is extremely difficult. There are laws and limitations that will not let the students learn in their primary language. This makes it very discouraging to the students. I struggle to imagine what I would do if I was a teacher in this position. I would want my student to learn and understand, but I do not want to get into trouble with the law either. The book also states that there are no “clear guidelines concerning materials, approaches and time frames for teaching ELLs and instruction for ELLs is often ‘embedded’ in the mainstream reading program”. If there is not set time or guidelines how is any person supposed to figure out how they are going to teach literacy to the students as a whole. If I want to use the Fountas and Pinnell framework in this district it would be extremely difficult to work in this without set guidelines. If I were the teacher in this district I would have to use a lot of differentiated instruction. My thirty to sixty minutes of language and word study would all be in English. This would help them improve their knowledge of the language. During reading workshop all of their stories would be in English however, I would give them extra supports. This would include an audiotape or having someone to read to them while they read the story. This would help make English easier for them. Finally, during writers workshop their work will still be in English, but I will keep an extra eye on my students and constantly provide supports to the children. This set up could apply for any district that has ELL students who need this kind of support. While reading the section called “From Traditional Approaches to Content-Based Language Teaching” was something I think anyone who has an ELL student should read. It spoke about how teaching transitioned from teaching strictly vocabulary, to teaching strictly through speech, to finally teaching while teaching the curriculum. At Millstone River School this year I was fortunate enough to sit through one of the Spanish Classes and I noticed that their teacher did this except for in Spanish. He speaks only Spanish to the students and they know exactly what he is saying and how to respond. However, its not just words that he is using I watched a lesson where the students had to write to a pen pal overseas. I would be amazed watching this in an English Language Learners classroom. The Cha-Cha-Cha Curriculum is very fascinating from the book __English Language Learners__. It spoke about how in some classrooms each subject is separated from the rest. I think this is horrible because how will ELL students succeed if they do not have practice that they can constantly follow. I have been very fortunate to be placed in a classroom where this is not the case, especially because I know there are a few ESL students there. My teacher understands that she cannot complete the full two and a half to three hours for Fountas and Pinnell in the Millstone River system so she incorporates social studies into both writing and reading. This will ensure that she teaches the full curriculum as well as supports all her students throughout all of their subjects. She is an incredible teacher and I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly witness this to support everything I read. While reading over the “Ten Tips for Supporting Students’ Primary Languages” I noticed a few tips that I would implement in my classroom to ensure that my ELL students would succeed. If at all possible the first thing I would do is use tip number four, which is “pair newcomers with a partner who speaks the same primary language”. This would ensure they would have a friend that would understand what they are going through as well as someone they could look to for guidance if things got complicated. I would also use tip number three, “organize pen-pal letter writing”. I saw this when the Spanish teacher did this except for in Spanish. All of the students were to respond to a friend whom sent them a letter in Spanish. Writing letters about what they want to write about will give the children the motivation to keep trying to write in English. __English Language Learners__ has taught me many things about how I can be an incredible teacher to students that need me most. The students need someone who understands all of the points above as well as many more. English Language Learners will be in everyone’s classroom someday and we as future teachers need to be prepared. I hope that my future student’s will reap the benefits of everything I have learned.