Supporting English Language Learners

As a teacher the most important thing to acknowledge is that all students can learn to read and write. After recognizing the importance of literacy and having expectations that all students will display growth over time, seek to understand the literacy possibilities that can arise. Assess a student's current knowledge and then select the appropriate resources to ensure students have an abundance of literacy possibilities. Monitor their progress over time and make the necessary changes for student engagement and motivation. Consider targeted skills and activities that will help students become engaged and motivated to learn in your literacy classroom. English as a Second Language (ESL) students should be provided with an abundance of opportunities to grow and develop their vocabulary in order to properly reach the end goal of reading, efficiently comprehending text.  Assessing Student Literacy Understanding Assessments take place in order to help guide the decisions that teacher...

  English language learners face a unique set of challenges within their educational experience. Bilingual students have a wealth of knowledge and skills that often goes unrecognized and underdeveloped in English-centered education settings. ELLs can struggle with academic reading and writing according to standardized test scores and other types of formative assessments and fall short of the levels of their English-only peers, but these conclusions are not reflective of their intellectual, creative, or social abilities. In this blog, I will explore some struggles and challenges that ELL students face in their academic careers, including some strategies that have been identified by the research as possible aides. One struggle for ELL students is high academic, creative, or other potential being overlooked because of a perceived lack of literacy skills. Academic language differs from language spoken at home; therefore, teachers must take into account all students’ home literacy ski...

          There are a variety of different types of learners that will enter into a classroom with a diverse set of skills and needs. To prepare to help all learners it is important to understand the reasons they may succeed or struggle. Meeting the needs of all students requires teachers to understand the characteristics of those learners, the signs and details of how they may behave, what background information they may bring, and what ways they communicate the best. With understanding the characteristics of those learners teachers must always be cautious of the types of perceptions and representations they may have. Acknowledging that there may be biases and misrepresentations of those students that can affect the judgement and decisions of teachers.  Characteristics of English Language Learners Many English learning students may come from a wide variety of diverse backgrounds. Their home lives and the level of understanding they have in English h...