Watch the following
webcast featuring Diane August, Margarita Calderόn and Fred Genesee on best
practices for teaching ELLs, and the two short videos on literacy development
at home. Consider how the information shared in the webcast and videos relates
to the best practices for instructing ELLs shared in Topic 2 and in the
assigned readings. Your response
will be posted on your blog.
The webcast covered many topics that summarized our course and
expanded on some of the material from our lessons. The discussion had much information and I
have bookmarked it for future reference. The issue is clear that ESL students are
increasing across the country. They are
affected by the changes in the law with the No Child Left Behind Act. Although the law is meant to address all
students across the country, it is important to remember that ELL students are
a very diverse group and that “one size does not fit all.”
Dr. August repeated a recurring concept from the assigned
readings and it is something I will not forget.
She emphasized that the students level of literacy in L1, including
literacy skills, can be transferred to L2.
This means that there is much value in bilingual education for younger
students and those who have not achieved many academic language skills in the
native language. Dr. August also
stressed some recurring themes and mentioned practices that work. Vocabulary development and activities that
increase phonological awareness are very important. Scaffolding was also given attention, and one
practice she gave as an example is pre-teaching vocabulary before reading a
text. In this way, the students can be
supported as they work to learn both content and academic language. Also I found it noteworthy that Dr. August
stressed that assessment is critical.
Teachers need to be constantly assessing and asking themselves “Does
this work? Why or why not?” She suggests that teachers can gain skills to
better support their students through professional development and having a
theoretical background. She also said much research remains to be done in this
area.
Dr. Genesee supports Dr. August’s ideas about professional
development and stated that “teachers need repertoire for teaching ELL students”
so they can tailor the response. He also
said that ELLs can come at any grade level and that teachers should be prepared
for that. There was some discussion
about learning disabilities and Dr. Genesee said that it is very difficult to
diagnose and should be done with care.
One of the primary ways to diagnose this is to test the student and see
if the issue is also present in the L1 or only the L2. Dr. Genesee reiterated that phonemic
awareness, morphological awareness, vocabulary, and phonics are important. This instruction should begin as early as
kindergarten. He emphasized that
instruction should be explicit with a good degree of technical knowledge and correction
of errors. However, he did state that
overcorrection can be discouraging to the students, so there is a fine line to
be walked.
One thing Dr. Calderon said that struck me was that
mainstream teachers should support the ESL efforts by techniques such as
sheltered instruction. I wonder how much
training mainstream teachers receive across the country in supporting their ELL
students and the ESL specialists who teach them.
I appreciated the video clip of the kindergarten teacher in
California. His diverse ELL student
population was assessed on an individual basis almost continually by their
dedicated teacher. I would like to think
that this kind of individual attention and explicit instruction, as well as the
assessment and adjustments made coming from this, is the model that can be
implemented across the country. Rather
than treat students as one homogenous group, each student is given the
personalized attention and assessment in order to make sure that “no child is
left behind.”
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