English Language Learners Summary

English Language Learners (hereafter referred to as ELLs) currently comprise 10% of the total school population in the United States (National Center for Education Statistics, 2005). It is a population that is going to continue to increase in American public education and their specific needs for learning literacy are of great importance to teachers. Since schools and teachers are increasingly judged based upon the academic achievement of students, then the success of the growing population of ELLs is going to be increasingly important. In the present paper the role of the teacher and specific research-based literacy strategies for ELLs is investigated.

English learners are currently the fastest developing student population in schools today. This makes it extremely important to provide these students with the programs and services they deserve. Providing a strong education for ELL students is what I personally believe to be an asset in America’s future. Today there are many challenges I believe teachers and students face when it comes to instruction and assessments.

It is essential to understand English language learners’ needs because ELL students face the combined challenge of learning all the academic content as other students, while also learning the language of instruction. With the rapid growth in the size of the ELL student population in the U.S., teachers who are effective recognizes ELL students unique academic needs, unique background experience, culture, language, personality, interests and attitudes toward learning for the purpose to adjust, or differentiate, their instruction to meet students’ needs.

ELL continue to rise year after year. In EDUC 628, the class delved into the rise of ELL in America and how the best teaching methods to approach each learner with. Every ELL student is unique and has different learning process. Although the semester covered a wide variety of topics ranging from dialects to teaching methods, every module served its purpose in providing a framework for future ELL teachers. Learning about how to teach ELL was significant to me because when I first entered the school system in America, I was placed into ESL and I have gone through the process of many of these teaching methods. EDUC 628 main focus was preparing students whose goal in the future was to educate ELL. The articles and readings assigned in the class provided a funds of knowledge going into each new lesson. Coupled with the readings, hands on activities such as the mini lessons and designing lesson plans provided each student with experience that will reflect on their teaching abilities in the classroom. In my paper, I will be provided a step by step synthesis of what was learned and accomplished every week along with a brief summary of the readings. I will probe deeper into the modules and lessons that piqued my interest the most and that also challenge my mindset.

Differentiating instruction for ELLS is extremly inportant for their success in school. Sheltered Contenent Instruction state, "REsearch suggests that English learners benefit from a seperate block of time for ELD or ESL." They also stated that sometimes this can not happen due to the large amount of ELL's in a classroom. In this case the teacher can co teach with an ESL teachers to help these students.

Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP), is a high quality instruction model, that guides teachers of English Language Learners (ELL) in providing well planed lessons, to enable students to be successful in second language acquisition. The SIOP is research-based, and field-tested as well as being closely aligned to ELL and State content language standards. The purposes of this paper is to create and describe a SIOP model lesson plan, and identify and

Under the Civil Rights Act, schools are responsible for ensuring that all students receive equal access to education, including English Language Learners (ELLs). Merely, providing the same educational resources for all students does not constitute educational equality. Students such as ELLs, need an English Language Development (ELD) program that accommodates their specific language needs in order to legitimately offer equal educational opportunities. Based on research findings, districts need to implement and developing ELD programs that have had proven success rates of making adequate yearly progress for ELLs. For years, psychologists and linguistic theorists have speculated on the acquisition of language and educators have studied these research findings to enhance their teaching pedagogy to accommodate their ELLs.

Sullivan (2011), reports that numbers have fluctuated between states with some reporting from zero to 17.3% and the average falling within 9% (Sullivan, 2011). Huang, Clarke, Milczarski, & Raby Huang (2011), indicate that since the 1980’s, the number of ELL students has doubled with more than 8% in the PreK-12 grades (Huang, et al., 2011). As such, the influx of students has also increased the need for not only new, but experienced teachers to provide language assistance as they acquire English. One reason for this need is that ELL students have the additional pressure of learning English and the content simultaneously and require experienced teachers. When these students begin to struggle, they are left with little resources and wind up being tracked for special education services. According to Stein (2011), there are many complex factors that place so many ELL students in special education services and one of the main ones is the characteristics of second language learning and its false assumption that a learning disability is present (Stein, 2011). According to Hall (2014), when students enter classrooms speaking very little English and the teacher is unable to communicate with them in their native language, ELLs can feel alienated and/or become easily frustrated (Hall, Quinn, Gollnick, 2014). Huang, et al. (2011), states that when

English language learners are students whose first language is not English. Consequently, ELLs have lower reading ability levels compared to non-English learners (Begeny, Ross, Green, Mitchell, & Whitehouse, 2012; Ross & Begeny, 2011). In addition, different ELL categories exist: long-term ELLs, migrant ELLs, and transnational ELLs. Long-term ELLs are United States citizens who have been enrolled in American schools since kindergarten; however, these students are classified as limited English proficient because they have not successfully acquired English during their elementary years. Furthermore, transnational ELLs move back and forth from their native country to the United States; therefore, the constant move between countries inhibit

Teaching requires developing lesson plans that build the students base of knowledge and then lead them to independent learning through the use of continuum strategies. By effectively using continuum strategies the classroom teacher can create learning opportunities that move the lesson from teacher-centered to teacher-assisted then on to peer-assisted and culminating with student-centered acquisition of content material. This continuum is very effective for the English language learners(ELL) in that it offers sheltered learning opportunities within the continuum to support and facilitate learning of English as well as content area material. By interfacing continuum strategies with the Sheltered Immersion Observation

ESL instruction focuses on teaching students English who are not yet proficient in; whereas sheltered instruction focuses on making all content area instruction comprehensible by English language learners in English to support their development of the language. For ESL instruction, the focus in on state English language proficiency standards, such as listening, speaking, reading, vocabulary, and the ability to communicate competently. However, sheltered instruction focuses on state content-area standards and covers more formal subjects such as language arts, math, science, social studies, art, music, and other content areas as

The decision on the case positively affected the educational system. For example, this is the reason why school directs are required to provide equal opportunities for English Language Learners (ELLs). To help ELLs overcome the language barriers, school districts started implemented instructional programs such as English as a Second Language (ESL), Bilingual Education, and English Structured Immersion (ESL). Most importantly, teachers are offered professional development regarding instructional strategies for English Language Learners. Thus, ELLs are given adequate resources that enable them to receive an appropriate

With the increasing number of English language learners (ELLs) in the United States, English learners (ELs) make up a decent percentage of the students in our classroom. It is projected that by 2015, 30 percent of the school-aged population in the United States will be ELLs. Which is an increase of 169 percent over the last two decades (Francis, M. Rivera, Lesaux, Kieffer, & H. Rivera, 2006). Educators, now, more than ever, need to be teaching to the needs of our English language learners. Through the use of the SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) model and incorporating each component of that model into our lessons, we will help students become more comprehensible in the subject matter,

In beginning differentiation for ENLs, it is important to provide multiple opportunities for students to read and interpret complicated texts. ENLs of varying abilities can be grouped together during reading activities. This group can represent one of the “tiers” during lesson planning. Passages or chunks of leveled texts should be carefully chosen for this specific purpose. As other students read silently and independently, ENLs can also read silently. The ENLs however, should be encouraged to support one another and ask one another questions when they do not understand. This gives language learners of different levels a chance to collaborate. More advanced learners often enjoy helping their classmates.

Ms. Sullivan is a third grade teacher at an elementary school where English language learners (ELLs) make up approximately 85 percent of the student population. The majority of the third graders she teaches are of Asian, African American, and Hispanic ethnicities and seem to be within the intermediate stages of English language proficiency. In the video lesson, Ms. Sullivan presents a whole group math lesson measuring temperature using a thermometer. In this lesson, Ms. Sullivan utilizes a wide variety of sheltered instructional strategies to improve her ELLs’ language development.