Working with English Learners

-English learners should have daily English language development lessons -Books in both the home language and English should be available on a daily basis. (use a checkout system, as a reward…)

Taken from: Bennett, C. (2011). Comprehensive Multicultural Education: Theory and Practice. Boston, Mass. Pearson Peregoy, S. and Boyle, O. (2013). Reading, Writing and Learning in ESL. (8 th ed.). Boston, Mass. Pearson

Eight Characteristics of Teachers who have attained high level of racial and cultural competence

-Are very comfortable with students -Engage students all the time -Have a personal positive connection with each student

-Have very high expectations for each student and follow through with them -Accept total responsibility for any students lack of success (persistence pays off) -Have a strong positive relationship with all the parents

- Constantly reflect on their practice & include others in the assessment of their practice - Develop and use culturally relevant lessons on a regular basis

Principles of Culturally Relevant Teaching

-Students must experience academic success, including literacy, numeracy, and the technological, social and political skills they need to be active participants in a democracy. Self esteem accompanies genuine academic success. What does this mean?

-Students must develop and/or maintain cultural competence, and the students home culture becomes a vehicle for learning. What does this include?

-Students must develop a “critical conciousness” through which they may challenge social injustice. What might this look like?

Examples of Culturally Relevant Teaching

An emphasis on cooperation and collaboration in the classroom -Encouraging students to rely on and support each other -Including students’ real life experiences in the curriculum

-Allowing students to ask their own questions and search for their own answers -Encourage students to lead discussions & other class activities

Working with English Learners

PREREADING -Build background knowledge -Motivating the learner -Setting purpose

- Some pre-reading strategies -Overview (preview of topic) -films -pictures -preview in L1

During Reading - Reading with a purpose -Monitoring comprehension -Engaging background knowledge

During Reading Strategies - Learning logs -Asking questions -Using headings/sub-headings -Answering questions

-Postreading -Organizing & remembering information -Using information

-Post-reading strategies -Artwork -Summarizing -Publishing/dictation -Reporting -Making a film

Other helpful strategies for ELs

- Before a lesson Review the concept -in the home language (L1) if possible -provide a book, film, youtube or information sheet (search google…)

Before a lesson cont… Teach key vocabulary

During the lesson -Use visuals, gestures, pair/share -Assign a bilingual buddy to EL -Repeat & define key vocabulary

-During the lesson cont… -create a graphic organizer, writing or using pics of major concepts Examples: venn diagrams, clusters comic strips, charts, … - ask questions that are comprehensible for Els (watch sequence of questions, ask questions that require one-word answers…)

During the lesson cont… Review the major concepts at the end of the lesson. – encourage students to add a sentence using the vocabulary to their vocabulary journal

After the lesson -Modify the task for Els based on their English fluency Ex: instead of a paragraph, a sentence, or a pic and dication