After reading the article I began to question how prepared we really are as future educators to teach ELL students. I personally feel that the education program, while it does emphasize many great things, lacks in the field of educating ELL students. In the past four semesters we have been bombarded with theory and different types of teaching methods: specifically scaffolding and differentiated instruction. While these are just words that describe different types of teaching methods I feel we were robbed when it came to ELL students. While the majority of these discussions did work great in a traditional English classroom I personally feel unprepared to teach in a room of ELL students.
The article mentioned that proposition 203 eliminated the ability to use native language instruction in classrooms and required teachers to attend SEI training. When I was a child and moved to the states my English was not the greatest. It was proficient enough for me to be placed in a full immersion classroom without the aid of a speech pathologist. I do remember feeling out of place for a little while, but I cannot imagine what it would be like for a student who cannot speak any English at all. I remember my teachers having a difficult time and sometimes treating me differently, granted it was probably differentiated instruction, but I always felt so far behind. I decided to start working outside of school on my English by doing personal training methods that fell in line with the curricula, so much so that I was trying to read ahead just to make sure I could keep up in class. I cannot begin to fathom the difficulty an ELL student must face in a full immersion setting.
The article mentions that the student population in Public Schools is now 51% Hispanics, 36% white, 9% black, 2% Asian and American Indian and the most significant achievement gap is between English-speaking students and English Learners. In my current internship I can see this working with CAPT scores because I had to assess reading scores as well as CAPT scores and ELL students were always at the bottom. If I were the teacher of the ELL students I would feel a certain failure, although it wouldn’t necessarily be my fault I would still feel responsible for the learning of these students. The article continues to bring in some interesting and shocking statistics, especially the quotes from the preservice teachers.
These quotes reflected a lot of my own beliefs but those preservice teachers had the advantage of many more hours of cultural training that I have. This semester in an effort to help close this Gap I have specifically entered courses designed for ELL students. If we are to be future educators then we need to be armed and ready for any type of scenarios. I find it disappointing that the current education program does not reflect more ELL training and with the data from the article this adds to my disappointment. I feel it should be mandatory for at least 2 semesters of ELL education classes to be in affect considering a lot of our fellow future teachers want to teach specifically in an Urban setting where it is more likely to find these ELL students. Our educational system is also changing and the chances to find ELL students continues to rise. If we are not armed with the right tools and teaching methods then we will surely fail to aid these students in their educational enrichment.
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2 comments:
Ryan- I agree with you in saying that we should have been required to take more ELL course. That would then require Neag to have more qualified professors to teach those courses, and to create those courses. I honestly think that the best strategies and practice we can learn to teach ELL (or any students) is through experience. Sometimes the methods they teach us in our courses have to be altered to fit our current students. For example, there are varying levels of English proficiency, so we may need to adapt or change the strategies we've learned. I've been fortunate enough to have a few ELL students during student teaching, so I think I was able to learn a few strategies- most of which were actually mentioned in "Making Science Accessible to English Learners." However, I know not everyone has had the same experience.
I wouldn't contradict your concerns about the program you have experienced. However, you are showing exactly what should be done in the absence of adequate leadership by taking the responsibility on for yourself. The needs of students are too great to be left for others to decide. Just as you've done by your internship work and your course selection, you will need to take charge of your expertise given what you see is best for your students. On the one hand, that might be disappointing. But on the other hand, you already reveal that you are aware about what you can do.
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