Sharing the wisdom: Strategies for Teaching ELLs

Well it has been a ride...

Strategies for Teaching English Learners: A sharing

Chapter One: Who are EL learners and Who are TESOL?

     As a veteran teacher of 28 years in RCOE’s Alternative Education programs, I can tell you that ELLs like their teachers are a heterogeneous group.  They have different needs, desires, strengths and needs.  Like all Students, they must be engaged actively and given an active role in their educational plan and process. 

     I have a Ryan credential in Social Studies, I have been trained in SADIE, I am HOUSSE certified in all subjects and am finishing my M/M Sped credential.  I am left-handed, the 4^th of seven children, and second generation Mexican American. For the last 20 years I have been Hispanic, for the 20 years before that, I was Chicano, and the 15 years before that I was just a poor Mexican kid from the wrong side of the tracks.  My father moved from East LA, after World War II, to go to College: First Valley College and then UCR, to earn his BA in Botany. The point is that he and his wife decided that although they were bi-lingual, that their children would be taught English only, so as to not make schooling more difficult.  It did make cultural identity an issue, but who knew that at the time?

     My first Teaching experience: Student teaching at Poly High School in Riverside was as an ESL Teacher.  I have taught IEP-ed, Title I, General Ed, ELLs, Expelled Students, adjudicated minors and everything in between. I have learned what works and what doesn’t work… and I know that 90% of the trick is to be true to yourself and let the teaching take care of itself, in spite of your best efforts.

     Ref. on Chapter is Table 1.1, pg. 6: Terminology for English Language Learners: learn it, use it.

Chapter 2:  Critical Roles for Teachers:

      So yes Teacher as coach, facilitator… but also as advocate and counselor… this chapter deals with the political aspects of being in the role of teacher.  Paulo Freine coined the term: conscientization, pg. 23,  which goes along with what Peter Parker’s uncle told Peter, with great power comes great responsibility…

     Words are power, and being in the role of a teacher wields great power.  We must own both the authority and the responsibility to all our students; in my opinion even more so in the case of the EEL student.

     I am a licensed Marriage Family Therapist, one of the principle minds in Structural Family Therapy is Salvador Minuchin, he states that all relationships including families are based on power and control Minuchin, 1976.  As a therapist and as a teacher I am aware of that and use it benevolently and caringly in the classroom.

Chapter 3. Views of Teaching and Learning:

     This chapter includes a good review on learning theory, strategies and roles of educators and students both in general and specific to L1 and L2 situations.  As a family therapist I have been trained in many Learning theories…. The main three being Behavioral, Developmental and Constructivism:  From those Social learning theory, Constitutional/Cognitive ala Piaget and the new fusion conceptual: Constructivist; are most relative to the classroom.

      I was very happy to see the table 2.3 on pg. 45, regarding inputting and retrieval of information from the Long Term memory.  The computer model of learning introduced in the last 30 years has been quite helpful for both theorists and educators.

     The concept of language acquisition termed as communicative competence is most especially pertinent for EELs, Hymes, 1972. The ability to “convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts, Brown, 1994.”

Chapter 5:  Learner Strategies and Learner- Focused Teaching:

          I really liked this chapter, as opposed to just teaching Strategies: the focus is on the learner, an active focus not just a ‘tabla rasa’ or empty jar to be filled with whatever data or skills we see fit. Note taking, binder minders, reading strategies, GO’s, SADIE, L1 to L2 generalizations, all of that good stuff… a very nice collection of ideas and concepts. Students need to know how to learn and how to learn more efficiently as the driver of their own Education.

         As a therapist, I have used the Myers Brigg’s for years, mainly for marriage counseling, but I works for teachers and students as well, a different kind of marriage or relationship, Keirsey 1978. 

       Of the many ideas for learning and teaching presented in this chapter, I believe Table 5.1(: A model of Strategies to Achieve Academic Competence, pg. 105.) is perhaps the most useable in helping students organize and guide their success in the academic arena, (watching gladiator, atm).

Chapter 6: Oracy Instruction That Builds on the First language:

    Escushan y Repetan:  nothing like a repetition drill, they work, even better when done as equals in the learning process.  Many students have formal learning in L1 that can and should be acknowledged and utilized… Other have a L1 or home language that is informal and is primarily used an a comfort language or an extension of identity…

     The book discusses BICS and CALP,  basic informal language and the formal cognitive language  that all students need to be successful in school and in their social lives as well.  KWL charts and discussions, authentic tasks are all helpful topics.  I like the table, 6.3:  Strategies for speaking a foreign language, it helps students see the way to organize their own thinking and education.

      Oral language is the threshold of Language as it is of culture and most things passed on… Do not underestimate the need for the development of Oral language, between students or between EELs and TESOLs.  Oral expression is the basis of not just rapport but also the relationship between self and others in all areas.

Chapter 7:  Literacy Instruction for ELD:

     Again the author brings up the power issue with literacy and the opportunities available to our students.  We are the advocates of our students and we must boost and facilitate the development our students’ voices and ability to read.  Many related topics were covered including: the reading process, Std- based reading Instruction, Emergent Literacy, language experience approach and much more.

     Rich Educational environments are some of the topics: centers, posters, GO’s Student work, are all grist for students’ curiosity and opportunity for growth and learning.  I particularly enjoyed the Table 7.1: I really like charts and tables, GOs in particular; Picture or Iconic memory is one of the most robust memory traces in the human mind…. The topic on the table was: Building Cultural and Content Schemata during the phases of the reading process.

     I believe it is one of the responsibilities of educators to value and model lifelong learning and that includes readers for life as well.  I offer Sustained Silent Reading on a daily Basis and I point out to the kids that I always have a novel in my bag, in case I get a few minutes to read a few pages of leisure reading.

Chapter 8:  Learning Process and the Imaginary:

     I really enjoyed this chapter as well, we have to use our imaginations as well as out students’ in order to find a way to empower our ELLs.  If you can imagine it, you can do it… I believe this and learning powerful ways to express ourselves is a good start.  Short Stories, Rap songs, Haiku’s, Lowku’s, it’s all good, just get in there and play about, find your voice, find you bliss, find the blessing, just throw the line into the lake and keep awake, you will probably catch something, even if it’s only a cold…  Imagination and a sense of humor are dangerously paired concepts and students and teachers need to develop and use both…

     Getting kids to write is really helpful to express themselves and explore their interior and exterior worlds in both L1 and L2, Box 8.1 on various poetry forms was very helpful and fun, Structure to Creativity:… Also Innovations and adaptations of known works and songs are a good way to get kids to take reasonable risk in writing.

      Imagination and reasonable risk…  many of my students have unreasonable ideas regarding what is reasonable… If we are talking, say Basketball, as opposed to practicing free throws, they would either steal a ladder, place it next to the basket and drop ball thru the hoop, or blindly sling the ball over their heads in the general direction of the basket at the other end of the court…  They don’t know what reasonable risk, is.  We need to teach them what is reasonable, practical and gives the biggest bang for their two cents.  We must model, encourage and allow for failure and success, not our success, but theirs, real, repeatable and relevant!

Chapter 9: Grammar through Integrated Language skills and wonderful English…

         Another nifty chapter, among other things I’m a history teacher and a linguist… the history of the English Language and words in general are fascinating and both simple and complex. Etymology the study of root words is one of the course we have taught at the Juvenile hall for the last twenty years… it’s simple yet powerful set of skills… 

       On the other hand this chapter deals with the culture of English as a democratic light thru the last millennia, in many ways it is the language of the modern world, we all have a stake in it. I like the table on pg. 257, 9.3, which looks at the Five Languages of English, it is a thoughtful view of this global and goofy language.

      We are talking whole language here, especially English in its written form.  I still believe that good reading leads to good writing. And that being able to confront the blank page with a message from your heart to share with yourself, your peers and the world is the essence of the bipedal upright simian that would be king of this world.  We always strive between construction and destruction.  Man has to have a media for his own private discourse, and writing is our main vehicle.

Chapter 10:  Culturally Based Language Teaching:

     We are talking context and inclusion here.  We all belong and we belong for different reasons.  We all bring something to the party… It is the job of the teacher to help students find their gifts and help them unwrap them and use them, for the good of themselves, their families and the community. The chapter looks at different strategies, styles and related issues.  Again the author is reminding us that that we are doing more than just giving information to an empty mind. We are world travelers… ‘No less than the trees and stars, we have a right to be here… Ehrmann circa 1945.’

     The text, as usual does a good job of sharing diverse and helpful information, my favorite bit of knowledge was Table 10.1 on page 273 regarding Terminology Involving Culture.  It is our business to be interculturally and intraculturally savvy and accepting.

      We are not just teachers; we are a culturally diverse people acting as emissaries of knowledge, voice and power.  Ours teaching strategies, our beliefs and out educational practices must have its core in inclusion and diversity and tolerance and better yet celebrate the differences and similarities of all cultures and peoples.

Chapter 13:  Teaching English in context:

     We are talking registers, dialects, and synthesis of many forms of expression and the peoples that express them.  Everything is more fitting and powerful in its context, its place of origin and strength.  As educators we must maintain that philosophy of appreciation while maintaining our own voice and integrality and an educator and an individual.  I like table 13.5 on page 353: Movements toward a social and Cultural View of Literacy.

     Every picture tells a story and the story may take a thousand words plus to give the story life and meaning, and each eye and voice may tell a different story from that same image.  We are talking a shared vision in a difficult area and a difficult time.  And yet this is our world and our time.  It is also the beginning of the world and the time of the generation that we a currently helping to find their vision and voice. We must be competent, kind and honorable… it is the way of all cultures at their best and most forthright. 

     Make a conscious choice as to what you share with your students. Choose your words and your attitudes consciously and wisely.  Thank you Monika and Ms. Diaz–Rico, for a vivid text and course that has the power to change lives one EEL and one TESOL at a time.  Reflection, direction and demonstration, this is the cycle of knowledge, care and change. I bid you peace.