How New Teachers Can Teach ESL Learners Effectively

Freelance writer, Dorit Sasson interviews Professor Barone the following two questions:

Based on your own observations and research, what do you feel are some of the challenges teaching ELLs in mixed ability classes at the primary school level? Junior high and high school?

The response: I have never been in a classroom that did not have children with variety of academic levels. So rather than viewing the mixed abilities as challenges we just perceive them as an expectation. Here are some of the practices that seem to work:

· We engage children in small groups where they can chat throughout the day. There is always an academic task but we allow children to converse so they can practice English.

· We expect that teachers keep students engaged. So children are never called on one-at-a-time to respond. We may use whole class response when the answer is simple. We partner children where each child has a letter or number (1 & 2 or A & B). They we ask partner A to share with B or the reverse. With the simple letter or number we are assured that both partners participate. This partnering allows children numerous opportunities to practice.

· We have children writing and reading from the first days of school. We look at their writing to learn when they understand letters, letters and sounds, and how to represent words in English. We have simple books for children and we keep adding to these books so every table group has a variety to choose from.

· We explicitly teach phonemic awareness to our K and first graders. This is done in small groups with the teacher or aide. We use Road to the Code.

· We involve parents. In one school parents come to kindergarten and learn how to read with this child.

· We use a large number of photos or realia to support meaning.

· We group children in multiple ways throughout the day depending on need.

· We provide intervention or enrichment blocks each day depending on student need.

· We make sure that there is at least 90 minutes for reading instruction, a half hour for writing, and a half hour for intervention every day.

 Other good questions asked in the article include:

Dorit: What are some of the more critical areas new teachers need to know when planning differentiation lessons for their ELLs? Based on what you perceive as these critical areas, what advice can you give to new teachers?

Dorit: What should primary school general education teachers particularly take into account when differentiating instruction?

Dorit: At the beginning stages of teaching reading, what areas of instruction/differentiation are becoming increasingly challenging for new teachers to implement? Why is this? What are some of the ways that teachers can overcome this?

Dorit: How would you define a struggling ELL in mixed ability classes?

Dorit: How can teachers cater to struggling learners in mixed ability classes?

Dorit: Do you have any recommendations for using oral instruction effectively in both primary/junior high school settings?

Click here for more specific practices from the article.