This weeks readings continued to discuss incorporating English Language Learners in the classroom. The main point I took away from the readings is that the bottom line for ELLs is to improve their communication within this new culture. A way to think of this is similar to the way we are taught to think about literacy. Literacy is not just reading and writing, it has so many more components such as listening, comprehending, explaining, requesting, etc. but they all go back to this idea of communication.
The idea of including the ELL students in the general education classroom reminds me a lot of bringing special education students in as well. The more we read in each of out TE classes I find that everything comes back to interacting with your students’ one on one to get to know them, and then customizing instruction. I think this is something that teachers often let fall between the cracks. It is understandable that making each student’s lesson or assessment slightly different is unrealistic, but it could be a trend among a group of students. The same is true for ELL. Just because you have 3 students in your class that are all learning English, and all speak a different first language doesn’t mean they can’t all benefit from the material being presented in a similar fashion.
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I completely agree with your response, Meryl! These readings were further explanation of how/why ELL students need to be taught effective communication. Through providing avenues for communication we are giving our students the opportunity to expand their fluency in speaking, reading and writing. I also agree that literacy is more than just those three things. Literacy is all around us and the more involvement we ask of/allow our students, the better the chance they have of mastering the topics. I also really enjoyed the connection you made to integration of Special Education. Being a Gen. Ed student, I would have never thought of that connection but it's definitely plausible!
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