Day 2

Language acquisition for ELL students needs to be developed in all classrooms at the secondary level. The ELD teachers only can not be responsible for teaching English. CREDE standard #2 involves "developing literacy and language skills across the curriculum".

It seems to me that my high school has a lot of improvement to make in supporting ELL students. However, a big frustration for me is that many of our ELL students have been in US schools since Kindergarten and are still classified as ELL. Why? Is it the program the schools use, is it the socio-economic status of the family, is it the education level of the parents? No matter what the reason, the students are now in high school and need to learn.

In my classroom, I feel I do OK in supporting the development of language. I explain the meaning of words that are parts of definitions, not just the new math terms. During discussion, I try to give wait time for those who need it. The students at language acquisition stages 1 & 2 are offered native language support in the classroom.

I do need to work on speaking less. In the DVD, Dr. Roland Tharp stated that teachers speak 92% of the time. When I think about my teaching style, I realize that some days I talk too much. One way to limit that is to increase the number of collaborative activities in my classroom. These activities could be done in pairs or small groups. These activities could be done in the current classroom arrangement by sharing with neighbors or the desk arrangement could change. I need to find, create, implement more collaborative work.

My students are definitely challenged by the curriculum (CREDE #4) but I need to work continually on finding new way to make the curriculum more accessible to not only ELL students but all students.