Instructional Strategies for Ell Classrooms

Scaffolding for this student would include activities to develop the technical vocabulary necessary to understand the reading materials, or having the teacher provide reading materials appropriate to the child’s reading level. Additional instruction may be needed in reading skills, to support the student in a reading activity. The zone of proximal development explains the need for student and task to match, making the task of learning attainable (p87). Teaching to one zone of proximal development is likely to leave some students frustrated and confused, while others can coast through the lesson (p88). It is not so important for the teacher to know exactly what the student’s status is, rather to be aware when the students are becoming frustrated, and are in need of more practice, or when the task is just right for the individual (p89).

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.

Selecting materials relevant to ELL’s experience or culture; strategically using students’ first languages to make the content delivered in a second language more comprehensible teaching word learning strategies that build on first language knowledge such as using cognates; and frequently using partner talk to give low-English-proficient students more opportunities to talk with more English-proficient

Scaffolding is “support that enables a child or novice to solve a problem, carry out a task, or achieve a goal that would be beyond his or her unassisted efforts” (2014). Parents, caregivers, and other adults scaffold how to play with a toy, how to get dressed, how to hold a spoon, use a cup, etc. Scaffolding is being done every day unintentionally by anyone who comes in contact with a child. In the Voyager room we see the teacher scaffolding one of the girls when the teacher tells the student to group her animals by size. This was a great way for the student to work on her greatest to least identification skills. Another way a teacher was able to scaffold in the classroom was mediating a fight. A little boy and girl began to fight and so the teacher was able to show them the proper way to talk out a disagreement by walking them through the steps of turn taking when

be English Language Learners, (ELL) for them to benefit from this lesson or to meet state

Each student takes a few minutes to think through an appropriate response on his or her own and then pairs with another student to share their responses. After putting their ideas together, they create a collaborative response to share with the class.

Teacher conducts group conference with the finished group to clarify and extend their learning. As teacher ask questions that provides with evidence of students’ understanding and explore their way of thinking. Teacher asks various questions to each students such as What obstacles did you overcome to resolve this task? what the hardest fraction you encountered? What strategy did you use? How your strategy relates to your classmates’

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.

There are many different strategies that an instructor can use in ELL classrooms or in classrooms in which ELL students have been mainstreamed. As always, instructors are called upon to constantly modify their curriculum and instruction in order to meet the needs of each individual learner. This is made more possible if the instructor has more knowledge of different teaching methods and strategies. There are many possible research sources that offer ideas, methods and strategies for everyday use in an ELL classroom. Several of the more common or functional strategies will be discussed here.

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.

Over the past 15 years, the number of ELL and ESL students has rapidly increased to nearly 5 million. These students come in significantly below those of their peers in nearly every aspect of academic performance. In order to ensure that these students’ needs are being met, you must have a significant amount of coordination and collaboration throughout the educational system. Under the law, each school district must show that the entire student body as a whole is meeting the same academic standards. These subgroups (ESL and ELL students) must be meeting the state proficiency goal as well.

She also notes the difference between academia language also known as CALPS: cognitive academic language proficiency and meaningful language - BICS: basic interpersonal communication skills. She mentions how academic language requires more comprehension of the language than interpersonal language; which is more informal and contextual. She also illustrates the importance of treating students for who they are going to become, not the by the fact that they are struggling. A methodology that is represented throughout the book that illustrates the ways teachers can accommodate their language learning students is with scaffolding. Scaffolding is a variety of instructional techniques that are used to assist students to move towards a better understanding of the content and towards independence when it comes to their learning processes. The teacher provides a form of temporary support that will assist the students reach increased levels of understanding and skills acquisition that would not be achievable without aid. All in all, this book will be great for all K-12 teachers and professors; but, I did not review this book because I already did a book review for this book in a different course and it would not widen my prospects of learning more about special

Hill, J.D., & Flynn, K.M. (2006). Classroom instruction that works with English language learner. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Vygotsky’s concepts of zone of proximal development and the more knowledgeable other person has led to the idea of scaffolding. Scaffolding, which encompasses both ZPD and MKO, is seen in almost all classrooms in today’s society. Scaffolding is a temporary support mechanism that aids students when they need it and then relinquishes control when the assistance is no longer needed. According to Lipscomb, Swanson and West (2004), scaffolding is used in classrooms by the “development of instructional plans to lead the students from what they already know to a deep understanding of new material,” and “execution of the plans, wherein the instructor provides support to the students at every step of the learning process.” Scaffolding encompasses the role of the teacher. The teacher acts as the most knowledgeable other to the student and then assesses the current knowledge of the students. The teacher decides which knowledge level the students should be performing at, and that gap between current knowledge and abilities and their potential is the zone of proximal development. In order for

Scaffolding is defined by Educational Psychology, 8th edition as: “Support for learning and problem solving; might include clues, reminders, encouragement, breaking the problem down into steps, providing an example, or anything else that allows the student to grow in independence as a learner (45).” The key concepts of scaffolding in the zone of proximal development is how Vygotsky believed the most learning can take place as the students are amongst peers whose “private speech” can be discussed among one another to come to new conclusions. (aka learning.) private speech Children 's self-talk, which guides their thinking and action; eventually internalized as silent inner speech. For example, a teacher could introduce a concept requiring prompting,