Goals and ELL readings

I am going to try and play catch-up here for the first few blogs.

After reading the syllabus more closely, I have come up with a few goals for myself for this class:
I would like to learn more about how to better implement strategies for emergent readers in my classroom. This has been something that I have noticed in my field that becomes stronger and stronger as the weeks go on. I would like to learn how to incorporate more of the standards into my classroom--maybe even have a "guide" as to when I should be covering specific things [depending on the grade level].

I would also like to develop my portfolio with different aspects of teaching. On top of just simply learning about literacy and how to implement it, I would like to take that and add in aspects of classroom management, and assessments that are grade-level and child appropriate. By this I mean that I would like to gain some resources that I can take with me into the classroom (i.e. handouts, worksheets, etc).

I would also like to learn how to better incorporate Language Arts into all aspects of learning. Since literature is able to be adapted to so many different topics, I think that it is important to be able to incorporate standards from different subjects with LA. This will be something I want to learn a lot about this semester.



ELL Readings:
Last semester I took a class called "LLT 307--Methods of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages". In this class we read many different articles and case studies on teaching to ELLs. I have realized over the last few years that ELLs are on the rise in our elementary schools, and having courses like this should almost be required soon. It is important to have instruction focusing solely on ways that will be easier for students whose first language is not English, because they may not have the prior background to understand context clues or similar aspects of your lesson. Lesinski states, on page 24, "They represent a variety of socioeconomic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds. In school, ELLs need to simultaneously develop English compotence and acquire content knowledge. An overwhelming majority of assessment tools are in English only, presenting a potential threat to the usefulness of assessments when ELLs' lack of English prevents them from understanding test items." This section alone shows how important it is to tailor your teaching [and materials] to ELLs. However, by putting things into different terms or allowing ELLs to be assessed in other ways opens the door for students who also speak English, but may be developing at a slower rate. By providing differentiated instruction, you open up a new window for learning for many of your students, not just ELLs.

This will become a more "hot ticket" item on the table as we roll through the years with more and more students in our schools who have different learning abilities, or who aer ELLs.