Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Getting to Know Your ELLs: Six Steps for Success & Compassion, Action,…
Getting to Know Your ELLs: Six Steps for Success & Compassion, Action, and Change
It sounds so simple, but if we as teachers put more effort into who we are teaching, more of the what would take care of itself.
– Katie, Elementary Teacher (Freeman & Freeman, 6)
-
-
who to ask?
students
Students' actions, body language, drawings, and behavior in the classroom can tell you a lot
As English improves, they will be able to share more through speaking and writing
Start with "get to know" you games and icebreakers at the beginning of the year but don't stop there – keep looking for opportunities to allow students to share information about themselves throughout the year.
Ask a lot of questions to continue building that relationship. Ask about family members, pets, academics, sports, what they do outside of their school day, how they spend their weekends, after-school jobs and prom dresses!
Look for ways to build your student's trust. Share (appropriate) stories of your own about topics such as your family, pets, or favorite activities
Listen to your students and let them know you're listening by the questions you ask. Tune in to what they are saying.
-
incorporate these topics into standards-based classroom assignments and discussions and continue learning about your students through their academic work
Provide students with questionnaires that ask them how they feel about reading and writing in English, as well as about their individual strengths and challenges
-
-
families
if the parents don't speak English, have an interpreter available when you meet with them in order to make your time together as productive as possible
-
colleagues
ask ESL teachers, bilingual teachers, guidance counselors, previous classroom teachers, paraprofessionals, parent liaisons, or other bilingual staff members
community
find valuable information about a particular family or group of families from community members, staff from community organizations, or other parents whose children attend your school
-
-
-
food drives involve a competition between classrooms to collect the largest number of cans, which reflects how much disposable income, more than how much concern, the families of that class have
food drives are well-meaning, they may
inadvertently be:
-
-
-
-
when kids collect canned goods for "poor people," it makes "poor people" seem
like a permanent, almost genetic condition
If we leave it at that, it is a child's imitation of an adult's token gesture of charity: tossing a coin in a beggar's cup
By oversimplifying the problem [they are hungry because they are poor] it oversimplifies the solution: a bag of food. It stereotypes low-income people as passively "in need."
Food drives can be a developmentally
appropriate activity for young children when used as a vehicle to do the following
-
-
Introduce local activists and organizers as role models addressing needs
and working for long-term solutions
-
-
-