Teaching English Language Learners: My Vision and Plan for Preparing for English Language Learners

My Vision

English Language Learners come with many assets and skills. In my classroom, ELLs will:

learn English at the same time as the Ontario curriculum;
see themselves in the learning environment;
feel that their language and culture are valued;
have confidence to express their opinion and know they have a voice;
meet high expectations when they are involved in setting goals (with appropriate supports);
have opportunities to choose pathways that honour their strengths and interests.

My Plan

Reception:

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression”. -Mary Ashworth

The family will be greeted and welcomed by designated reception team (secretary, principal, ESL teacher, settlement worker, translator).
All staff members, including administrative staff, are aware of and understand the welcoming process.
The family will receive a welcome package translated in their language. The package will provide parents with essential information, such as the name of the principal and names of the welcoming reception team; the school phone number; and the dates of holidays, professional development days, and parent-teacher interviews, and inform them about essential procedures.
The family will be taken on a tour of the school. During the tour, they will notice multilingual welcome signs, in the languages of the community. They will also notice the multicultural parent volunteers. The most important thing they will notice is the happy children, in safe, loving and positive classrooms.
The principal will point out the classroom(s), that the child(ren) will be registered in.
After the tour, they will be provided with additional resources and information regarding programs, supports, and resources that may interest parents/families, such as local adult ESL classes, or a map of nearby community centres.

Classroom Routines:

The teacher will provide his/her own welcome package to the new student. The package will include a class picture (with student names), an All About Me page about the child’s assigned student ambassador, a visual schedule of the typical school day, classroom rules and expectations, most recent monthly newsletter and calendar.
The ELL would go on another quick tour of the school, with his or her assigned ambassador.
The student ambassador will have a checklist of items that he or she needs to explain and/or show to the new student.
The teacher will check in frequently with the ELL to make sure they feel comfortable in the classroom.
At the end of the first day, the teacher will notify the parents/guardians of how their child adjusted to the classroom.

Initial Assessment of the ELL:

The initial assessment is an important first step in determining an English language learner’s language proficiency and literacy development in English. It is an opportunity to develop a profile for the ELL that includes educational, cultural, and personal background.

The purpose of the initial assessment is to determine:

the student’s language proficiency (oral, reading, and writing) and literacy development;
the student’s mathematical skill level;
appropriate programming supports;
appropriate placement.

It is important to ask if the student has any assessments or reports from his/her first language. If no assessments are available, then some assessments should be completed in the child’s first language. The translator will be able to comment on the ELL students comprehension skills and penmanship, etc. Questions and tasks should start easy and slowly become more difficult. The goal is to keep the student confident, and unintimidated.

Following the initial assessment, the classroom teacher and the ESL teacher can discuss and plan appropriate accommodations and strategies based on the student’s STEP level. The teacher will be responsible in collecting evidence and completing ongoing assessment. Ongoing assessment of student learning and providing feedback are important factors in improving student achievement.

Resources:

Set up your classroom with word walls that have pictures or real objects connected to them.
Use graphics such as maps, photographs, and other visual displays as much as possible.
Have a daily visual schedule, so that students know what to expect each day.
Set up a classroom library that includes a listening center with books on tape and earphones. Children love to listen to a story. ELLs can listen to a book on tape that they are not yet ready to read on their own.
There should be a variety of multicultural materials in the classroom (posters, books, manipulatives, games).
Provide ELL students with a personal picture dictionary, and graphic organizers.
Use dual language texts, and label items in the classroom in multiple languages (languages reflected in the classroom).

Expectations:

Instructional strategies and accommodations:

Allow students to respond in a variety of ways, such as communicating with gestures, and providing yes/no responses;
Allow students to observe and listen before they respond to a question or prompt;
Simplify your sentence structures when speaking to students;
Create compilations of familiar texts, such as illustrated language- experience charts, poems, chants, etc., for student re-reading;
Allow students to read about a topic in their first language;
Allow students to respond to questions orally rather than in writing;
Encourage students to read first- language or dual-language books;
Remind students to use the text features such as illustrations, graphs, captions and glossary to gain a better understanding of the text;
Provide opportunities for Jigsaw Reading, so that each student becomes an expert on a section of a text and then shares information in the home group;
Allow students to respond in drawings, words, phrases, simple sentences, and first-language;
Provide students with dual-language and illustrated dictionaries, thesauri, dictionaries of idioms, and glossaries.