As we are headed towards our long practicum, along with lesson planning I am trying to pick up on as many learning strategies. I want to try to help assist every single student needs in my practicum classroom. Of course, this includes my ELL students. By observing my SA on the observation days, I have been noting a few pointers down. One strategy is how she arranges the seating plan. On each table, she has ELL and Non-ELL students. She also always places an academically strong student at each table who can help their fellow students who might be struggling to get their work done; especially if the teacher or I am busy. Also, when she teaches a writing lesson to the entire class, she’ll have the slower students work on the carpet rather than the tables so that they are closer to the whiteboard and can easily follow directions. She also includes a lot of visuals in her teaching.
So far I have learned that even though students require our attention and need our support; it is also important to make sure they can be independent and confident as this will allow them to go further and succeed individually.