Considerations When Planning the First Six Weeks

Create learning environments where students can establish the interpersonal relationships with the teacher and amongst themselves. This will integrate an essential tenet of collectivist cultures in which students see others as a source of information, support, and motivation. This can be done in a variety of ways such as daily icebreakers that ingrate sharing interests, talents, hopes, fears, and allow students to begin to see the ties that bind them. It is advisable to integrate these activities, not only within the first 6 weeks of instruction, but throughout the year. ELD classrooms welcome students throughout the year and there is always a new student who needs to be weaved into the classroom community. The playful icebreaker is only the tip of the relational iceberg. There are a variety of grouping and pairing strategies that can allow for the continued development of relationships as the activities become more academic in nature (ie.think, pair, share, round robin, learning teams, reading coaches, writing group/pairs). The teacher must also create opportunities to be known by their students. This can be done through scavenger hunts or other playful or more structured activities (i.e. teacher plants clues around the room and students learn about their teacher through artifacts; teacher makes a slideshow/video highlighting important events or people in their lives).

Conduct baseline assessments at the beginning of the year to make instructional decisions regarding starting points, student groupings, and learning year-long and unit objectives for learning.

To establish a culture of error in which formative assessment is used to inform the teacher’s decisions, but are also used as a reflection tool for students who can learn to name their common errors and work actively towards mitigating those in collaboration with the teacher and peers.