Why create an ELL (English language learner) video lesson library?
Texas is a state that has been largely impacted by the surge in ELLs (English language learners) with 16.2% of all students classified as ELLs (Texas Education Agency, 2012). With the growing number of ELLs, it is essential that pre-service and in-service teachers know how to apply best teaching practices in their lessons. Education students may read descriptions of strategies or participate in an in class demonstration with adult learners, but these strategies can best be understood by also watching demonstrations of effective teachers working with actual students. Video demonstrations which are available, such as those found on YouTube, often do not include effective implementation of such strategies, may only include a short segment of the lesson and/or may be of poor production value. Furthermore, the videos rarely include links to the lesson plans or other resources. To help address this deficiency, with the help of Texas A&M University, Commerce staff and students, I have created a website which contains videos of educators implementing strategies in English and Spanish.
What is the purpose of the library?
· To provide an opportunity for the featured pre-service and in-service teachers to plan, implement and reflect upon a lesson taught to ELLs. Often times in teacher education classes, instructors will have pre-service and in-service teachers design a lesson. The lesson may appear to be well-designed, but it's unclear if and how that lesson would work in practice. Teaching is much more than designing the lesson, it's about adapting that lesson to meet the needs of the students. Several of the teachers featured had never taught before and others had very limited experience working with children. Therefore, the goal of the project was to not expect perfection, but rather to provide the featured teachers an opportunity to demonstrate their lesson in an authentic setting.
An additional goal of this project was to take educators through the lesson process: planning the lesson; discussing the lesson with an instructor and peers; revising the lesson based on feedback; teaching the lesson; and reflecting on what went well and what could be improved upon. In viewing the video footage, the educators were able to more closely analyze their strengths and weaknesses.
· To increase understanding of best ELL teaching practices by providing examples of a variety of effective ELL strategies in authentic contexts. Hopefully, the videos will help viewers to have a better understanding of how the strategies demonstrated can be used with English language learners. In addition to offering a variety of resources, the videos also include labels which identify various steps used to implement each strategy.
· To provide the university with online videos that could be used to highlight successful student-educators. In the videos, we have tried to focus on what students did well. The teachers featured and I worked together to purposefully choose video segments which showcased the strategy demonstrated and what the teachers did well.
Who can benefit from the website?
· Pre-service and in-service teachers
· Teacher trainers
· College instructors
What resources does the website offer?
· Videos of teachers demonstrating their lessons
· Lesson plans
· Links to additional resources (e.g., handouts)
· Photos of students during the lesson and student products