Lesson Plan
Topic: Strategies to use with ELL students in the classroom
My Inquiry Question: How do teachers provide the support that the English Language Learners need while still meeting the needs of all other students in the classroom?
Article: Alone, Confused, and Frustrated: Developing Empathy and Strategies for Working with English Language Learners by Gay N. Washburn
Plan: Have group read the article prior to an in-class group discussion on Monday, February 22, 2016. Discuss the article- what they thought of the article if there were any points they liked in the article or did not like.
-Move on to my personal questions, such as: Do they find it a challenge to work with or help ELL students or even students who seek help in any other way?
-What strategies have they tried? Did these strategies work or not? How does their SA address the need of such students? And how do their SA’s assess these students?
In the article, some pre-service teachers feel like they are not trained properly in their programs to teach ELL students; what are the groups feeling about this on our program.
-I will give them the background about my students, and see if they can give me any tips on teaching and assessing students.
Reference:
Washburn, G. N. (2008). Alone, Confused, and Frustrated: Developing Empathy and Strategies for Working with English Language Learners. The Clearing House, 81(6), 247–250. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/30190007
Post Group Facilitation Debrief
I think my group discussion went well yesterday. Despite it being a small group, everyone was really engaged with it. I guess because as teacher candidates, we are seeing ELL students in our practicum classrooms, therefore, we are exposed to and are required to use differentiated instruction on our practicum sites. The group discussed what strategies to use. Some examples were: try to talk slowly; use different teaching techniques as every student learns differently; so be aware of who are the visual learners; kinesthetic learners; and auditory learners. Also, a very interesting suggestion was brought up in the article, which the group agreed with. This is that it is important to learn a second language so we are aware of what it feels like to be in an environment where we do not understand or speak the first language. Other than that, we should always be compassionate even if it is getting a little frustrating. We are here to support and teach every single student, not to discourage them.