Last week on Thursday – January the 28th on my weekly observation I noticed one or two things happening in the classroom that are related to my inquiry question. My inquiry question is How do teachers provide the support that the English Language Learners need while still meeting the needs of all other students in the classroom? Well let me tell you this much, last week’s visit left me with lots of questions to think about.
We have a few students in the classroom that are ELLs. What I noticed was that not all of them require the one on one help as they did before. I definitely see progress with some of them. However, I have a been finding it a challenge with a few of them. What I noticed was that these students are academically strong, but they just require that push. Until they do not get your attention, they do not give their 100%. However, once they have you standing beside them, you asking them to do their work, then all of a sudden you see them doing an amazing job. Do they do this because perhaps they lack confidence? Or is is just because they like the attention? These questions have been bothering me. Due to this, I even had a non-ELL student in the classroom ask me if I was one of the other student’s helper (good thing the ELL student did not hear this). I had to explain that no, I am here for every single student that requires my assistance, and that specific student had their hand up.
I am hoping through research and by looking at other studies, I will find out the reasoning(s) for this.
Your questions are definitely evolving Suriti (much like in the Dana article we read during Inquiry 1!). When you suggest students need a push, what do you mean? Do you have some strategies you have observed that support this?