The Art of Teaching Second Language Learners

Hello everyone!

I can't believe it is December already!  2015 is just a round the corner and a great time to reflect on the craft we preform as ELD teachers!  Read on...

The 4 D's: Demographics/Definitions/Decrees/Development

Demographics: Did you know that English language learners (ELLs) comprise approximately 21% of the students in the United States? That's over 11.2 million students! (IES National Center for education Statistics).  According to NEA, More than 60 percent of English language learners are in six states: Arizona, California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois.

Definitions: Although each state creates its own exact definition, the federal government gives us this general definition: An ELL is a student who comes from a language background other than English and whose limited comprehension of English is sufficient to create academic difficulties.  The Office of Civil Rights says:  ELL: English language learner. A national-origin-minority student who is limited-English-proficient. This term is often preferred over limited-English-proficient (LEP) as it highlights accomplishments rather than deficits.

Decrees:  According to NCLB ELLs must meet two criteria: 1) learn English and 2) meet grade level content requirements.

Development: It takes two to tango! Classroom teachers are responsible for the content learning of their ELLs. English Language Development teachers are responsible for English proficiency. More specifically, ELD teaches the English that students need to be successful in schools but will not learn during the rest of their school day.

Here are some tried and true strategies from both the content teacher's and the ELD teacher's point of view:

Student Interaction: Kids need to talk!

Content teacher: Provide authentic opportunities for your student to express their learning.

ELD teacher: Provide structured language practice that practices specific structures in English.

The 4 Modalities: reading, writing, listening and speaking.

Content teacher: Reading and writing provide the bulk of instruction with speaking is the culminating event: a speech or presentation

ELD teacher: Speaking provides the bulk of instruction with writing is usually the culminating event.

Classification: Our brains are pattern seekers.

Content teacher: Graphic organizers are the best of the best practices. Use them as often as you can!

ELD teacher:  Organize your instruction by function, form, and classes (vehicles, bathroom vocabulary, prepositions).  When the classification is built in students have a framework for the new vocabulary and grammar structures.

Routine:   Create a learning environment.  Students are ready to learn when they know the schedule.

Content teacher: Be predictable!  Set a schedule and stick to it.  Teach routines and procedures.

ELD teacher:  With routines and procedures well rehearsed your students will be ready to learn and you will make the most from your precious ELD time.

Visuals and Manipulatives:  Concrete and image based teaching makes the content accessible to ELLs.

Content teacher: Use math manipulative materials, word walls with pictures, real objects (realia), provide pictorial cues along with word cues, graphics, maps, photos, word banks,

ELD teacher: Make it visual.  Oral language development and visuals go hand and hand.

Native Language:  Use native language when possible.

Content teacher: Partner same language students to help with translation, send homework in the native language when possible to connect school and home.

ELD teacher: Cognates, cognates, cognates.  Also see which idioms occur in both English and the students’ native language.

Educating English Language Learners is a team effort.  When the classroom teacher and the ELD teacher collaborate great things happen.

Happy Teaching!

UK Worker Can't Afford to be a Teacher

Excerpts from: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/04/zero-hours-contracts-teaching-job-insecurity?CMP=fb_gu

I’m tired of thinking I’ve secured a future for me and my child, tired of thinking I won’t have to worry about whether we both eat or whether we have heating, tired of worrying how we will cope if my child loses their school coat.  I’ve decided to leave teaching for a supermarket job that will give me the security of knowing how much I’ll have available to pay my bills each month.

Before the summer I regularly worked 30 contracted hours a week across three organisations, over seven days (remember, as a teacher, preparation and marking aren’t counted so this is, in reality, more like 60-80 hours). That was how much I needed to work to ensure I didn’t need to claim work-related benefits – which would bite at my pride too much. But despite being told I would most likely have teaching in September, the phone didn’t ring in August or September. I swallowed my pride, claimed benefit for four weeks and applied for everything. In November I got a full-time post on a zero-hours contract. Bit by bit this has been wheedled down to six hours. I am back where I started, and devastated.

It’s humiliating not being able to pay my own way, having to check constantly if and how much I will be paid (one employer still owes me more than £600 – but there’s a time lag of almost eight weeks between them setting me up on their systems and being paid). It also ruins my mental health. I start wondering if it’s me, will it ever end, is there anything I’ve missed, anything else I can do? My anxiety levels are through the roof. Going to a supermarket brings on a racing pulse, light-headedness and complete panic that, if I buy food today, I won’t be able to pay for tomorrow’s crisis.

The thing about zero-hours contracts is that they’re normal. You can dress them up in all kinds of fancy language, but however you finesse it, in my personal experience, most FE employers use them for most of their staff. The handful of full-time posts that exist are often, understandably, snapped up by internal candidates who are already familiar with the system – which, by the way, creates another pressure to stay in a job, on a zero-hours contract, where you can’t pay your bills, because maybe, one day, it’ll be you. Zero-hours contracts also don’t relate to how good you are at your job or how hard you work. That’s irrelevant. You can have 30 hours teaching a week in July, all your students pass and in September you’re unemployed – except you’re not, because there’s always that hope that if you take on one more job, ask one more time, work a little harder, you may just be able to get by.

Zero-hours contracts are inhuman. They stop people planning for their futures and leave them in a state of perpetual fear. They encourage people to become workaholics and damage family life. And imagine the cost to society. Zero-hours contracts mean lower tax collected, less student loan – if any – paid back. There’s the cost to families too. When others are spending time with their kids, I’m working, snatching moments with my child by text or phone from seven in the morning until nine at night and weekends. I dread to imagine what my child thinks of me. I’ve tried to explain, but it’s difficult. So, in half an hour I will resign, teach my last class and head to an open day at Sainsbury’s in the hope of a job that means I can have the heating on, buy my child winter shoes and not panic next time a letter drops on the mat. Maybe I can start daring to imagine that it won’t be another crisis … but simply a Christmas card.

Friday Freebie!

Hello everyone,

Today click here and get this great freebie that students love!

This 18-page Skip Count By 2 Flipbook has interactive flipbooks for students to create and practice counting by 2s. These are engaging books to make as a center activity, or as an extension to your math lesson.

Get your students counting by 2s with this great Skip Count By 2 Flipbook. Students simply color, cut and assemble. Watch your young learners take off counting.

Skip Count By 2 Flipbook can be used during guided math as openers, small group time and math work stations

How to use this book:
Assembly:
• Print on cardstock.
• Cut at the dotted line to separate the base of the flipbook from the picture pages.
• Cut around each rectangle picture box.
• Arrange the number cards one on top of the other and staple or bind the top of all pages to the flipbook base.

This is an engaging way for students to practice their numbers and share their knowledge with family and friends.

Click here to get this great freebie!
Happy Teaching!