Scenario Response 6

The prompt indicates that my “students have varying needs socially and academically” and that my ELL students do not work well in groups (the gateway to improving social integration) “unless paired strategically with a partner who is willing to assist, and who knows the language the ELL seeks to learn.” So the first thing I would address is how to strategically place my students by ensuring that my ELL students were placed in groups where they could work with someone who could help them make the connection between their native language and English. I did exactly this with a Journalism course I taught this past Fall. Half of my class were ELL students, 12 in all, and of these twelve, 4 were also advanced language learners. In addition, 8 were from Spanish speaking backgrounds and 4 were from Portuguese backgrounds. Two of my students had mastered English, Spanish and Portuguese. For the first half of the semester, and to facilitate language development in a social context, I placed my students in groups of four; the groups were homogenous by native language; all of my ELL groups had an advanced language leader. In order to help them build both content specific vocabulary and foundational knowledge of Journalism, the course had a rigid routine. During small group components I circulated among the groups to assess understanding and to ask and/or answer questions. 1) Mondays were bring in a newspaper article and discuss with the weekly rubric addressing the topic for the week. All notes, including new vocabulary words, were to entered into their notebooks. 2) Tuesday give an I Do We Do You Do I watch lecture based on the weekly topic drawing from discussions about the article from Monday; the discussions were whole group and then small group with a guided worksheet. Again, notes and new vocabulary, or new examples of old vocabulary were to be entered into their notebooks. 3) Wednesdays we would watch current news stories and then discuss in small group, with a wrap-up at the end for groups to report back to the whole group. Again, notes and new vocabulary, or new examples of old vocabulary were to be entered into their notebooks. 4) Thursdays we would research an aspect of the weekly topic to be presented in class on Friday. New vocabulary learned that week was to be incorporated into the presentations. 5) Friday’s we presented. It took about three weeks of this routine for my ELL students to feel as comfortable as my native English speakers in discussing the news from the articles and from the television. Not all of the members of the ELL groups felt comfortable presenting on Fridays, so almost universally, the more advanced English language learner got up and led the presentation; but all members were standing up in front of the class and participated. Sometimes, the kids would conduct a presentation as an interview segment in their native language with another member of the group providing English translation to the rest of the class. By the second nine weeks, we changed groups so that each group held a mix of ELL students and native speakers. My ELL students had become socially ready at that point.