I believe from my experience that ELL students do better in Math classes more than any other class. I believe that this is partly due to the fact that there is less reading in this particular class. Classes, such as Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts contain larger amounts of reading. I think that this is the area that most ELL students struggle with. They may not be able to comprehend a long reading as well as students whose first language is English. I think that Language Arts, especially with my students at Berkmar Middle School, is the class that most ELL students struggle with. This class contains extensive reading and grammar deciphering that these students may have a harder time being able to do.
I think that there are a lot of strategies in which we can support ELL students. My MT will have students read one paragraph at a time and have them turn and talk with their elbow partner and summarize what they just read. I think this is a great way to help ELL students learn how to break down the text and decipher the meaning of it. Having students read an entire document by themselves can be overwhelming and these students may struggle understanding the document. Another technique that I have seen in the classroom is being able to pick the most important sentence out of a paragraph. This allows for students to pick out which sentence they believe is the theme of the paragraph. My MT plays a game where students will pair up and read a paragraph independently. The students will underline what they believe is the most important sentence and they will share with each other. If the students both underlined the same sentence, then the students will high five each other. This is a fun way for students to be able to pick out the main summarizing sentence of the paragraph. Also, one strategy that I have tried myself in the classroom is doing popcorn reading. One student will volunteer to read. After that student reads one paragraph, we come back together and go over what we just read. Then the student who just read picks another student to read. The students find this to be fun because they will volunteer to read just so they can pick on one of their friends to read a paragraph. I tell the students that they must pick someone from another table to ensure that the reading aloud is spread around the classroom rather than just at one table. This allows ELL students to have a chance to practice reading aloud, and they also get to break down the text one piece at a time.
Although I do not speak another language, I am trying to practice my Spanish currently with duolingo. I try to get a lesson a day out of it, because I believe that it is important to learn other languages. Being fluently bilingual can be so beneficial to, not only students, but teachers as well. Teachers who are bilingual have such an advantage when it comes to interacting with ELL students in the classroom. For example, I know that Christian, in our history cohort, is very helpful in his ESOL classroom because he can clarify texts for students who speak Spanish. I would love to be able to fluently speak Spanish to be able to further support ELLs that may speak Spanish.
Culturally responsive teaching can definitely be a way to support ELL students. Being able to relate whatever is being talked about to everyday life can help these students make connection to better understand. It is imperative that teachers implement culturally responsive teaching in the classroom, not just for ELL students, but for all students. Relating content to everyday life, especially in Social Studies, will allow students to engage in a lesson and feel a connection to the material that is being talked about. I never realized the gravity of how beneficial it is to be able to use culturally responsive teaching until I began this program at GGC. It is amazing to see how students can actually understand a concept if they can connect is to something that they are familiar with. I think that this is a very important teaching strategy to help support ELL students.
Ace Baloosh 