All Teachers are Language Teachers
“What do general education classroom teachers need to do in order to support the academic English development of language learners, especially when English learners are one of many types of students they serve?” (Himmel, 2012)
In her article “Language Objectives: The Key to Effective Content Area Instruction for English Learners,” Jennifer Himmel provides a helpful step-by-step breakdown of what strategies general education classroom teachers can use to create Language Objectives that will support the learning of ELL students in their classes. I found her basic guideline that these objectives “should involve the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing),” a particularly useful concept for use in my own classroom.
As a future drama teacher, I’ve struggled throughout this course with the idea of including more academic language in my lesson plans, because in many cases students who are drawn to drama and theatre courses are seeking refuge from the more academic subjects. Now I realize that there are students who need as much exposure as possible to the academic English language in a variety of contexts. And it’s not as if I have to redo my entire curriculum to incorporate ways to support this need. It can be as simple as creating and posting frames (for a start), to help my students access language objectives with more clarity. Which is useful for all my students – not just my ELLs.
Although, as a general rule, drama teachers try to avoid too many writing assignments (to prevent turning our classes into English courses) – there are opportunities for small writing prompts that could help reinforce the process of using academic English in a low risk environment. By providing handouts as a part of informal performance feedback activities, I can ask students to “list, retell, summarize in writing, record” their observations and analyses about a performance. Or as a part of a game, I could ask students to “define and use” key theatre vocabulary or “demonstrate” key concepts to illustrate their understanding. When I really stop and reflect, there are a lot of ways I can turn my drama classroom into another space where all my students can practice their academic English skills. I just have to open my eyes to new possibilities.