Week 4 Post - Susan

To start off with, I still haven't received my 21st Lit book, so I can't talk about what is in there.

As far as the Scaffolding text, I have that one!

It makes a lot of sense that exposing ELLs to more discussion with their peers is going to help their spoken language skills. However, as with many groups I have been in, not much talking occurs. Finding activities where students must talk to complete the task is essential. This was the one group suggestion that stood out to me as being different from all other group work parts I have ever heard about. One that was mentioned that I feel is important for any group work is making sure students know how to work in groups. Two group activities that I thought were useful were picture sequencing and problem solving. This would work well for me in a classroom because I feel more comfortable in other subject areas, and these can be used in those other subject areas quite well.

Teacher-guided reporting was a completely new idea for me. I have always thought that when students share ideas the teacher should not say anything. This allows for the teacher to help students' thoughts be explored more by helping to walk them through thoughts. I have always been nervous when it comes to sharing my ideas outloud in front of a group. All throughout my schooling, the teacher would just sit and stare at me, making the experience more nerve racking. I wish that my teachers would have helped me along in this way. Even though I was not an ELL student, I feel it would have helped. I find that to be the best part of learning how to help ELLs, that they may not be the only ones struggling in some areas of LA. These tactics allow for teachers to give added support to all students. (As aposed to singling out certain students, such as ELLs.)

I think that the idea of journal writing is great. It is a way for students to practice writing and putting their thoughts down on paper. Many times in field last semester, my CT would have the students write about what they learned during our lessons. This helped students to, first, think over about what they had just been taught, and, second, to put those thoughts into words instead of just telling the CT. I was never given the opportunity to write journals like this. Starting in the 5th grade we wrote journals, but we always had a certain topic to write on. I was never allowed to express my words in writing. By this I mean, I was learning to talk in one way, and write completely different. As though the two were not connected, so to speak.

I attempt to learn Spanish for a few years, but I had trouble with it. Looking back, I think it had to do with a strong emphaise on writing and not on the spoken word. I did great with writing papers and reading to myself, but once I tried to speak sentences I had trouble. This personal experience gives me more understanding about needed to focus on both writing and oral when dealing with ELLs.

Jami's Comment:
I totally agree with one of your first statements about teaching children how to participate in a discussion. I really didn't think about this aspect of it in such detail. But if students have neevr had the oppertunity to be part of a large group discussion they may not know how to do it. We should demonstrate how to do it as well as posting some questions maybe for them to think about or samples to ask. At first they will probably just use the questions that we have posted but thats okay. Once they learn how to be apart of the discussion they will learn to formulate their own questions and get a better understanding of how to think about things. This is a great place to start with discussions. I also think journal writing is a great way for children to get their thoughts and ideas out there. In lower grades letting them know the various ways to write will allow them to be more expressive and free with their writing. Like we saw in the video yesterday in class-the teacher showed the different ways for children to write. This is great because they won't feel discouraged if they can't do something. For us in second grade I think it's important to give the students a very broad topic and let them write what they want on that-like your CT did. This way if they are still writing something down and expanding on what it was that they understood, not some topic that they may not have fully grasped and have only a sentence to write on.

Veronica's Comment: I wanted to add that I think you made a good point about the emphasis that is placed on writing and reading for students that are learning a second language. Although, it is very important for students to understand the concepts of reading and writing in the second language; there should also be a time for ELL students to interact with students that fluently speak the second language. Through this interaction, the ELL students can hear dialogue and participant in it as well.