Today, I thought I would give everyone some insight into what exactly Morgan and I do in ESL class. As you hopefully know, we have four levels of ESL class: 1, 2, 3, and 4. Students are placed in these classes based on their scores on the ACCESS test or WIDA Screener test, and Morgan's and my informal evaluation of them. Although we have four different classes, they fall into three different types of class.
ESL 1 is for our newcomer ELs. The goal for this class is basic listening and reading proficiency. We want students to understand what people are saying to them and what they are reading, both inside and outside of class. We focus some on writing but hardly any on speaking. Research has shown that forcing speaking does nothing to improve students' language proficiency, and just raises the affective filter. ESL 1 focuses more on basic communicative skills, less so on academic language and vocabulary. We want students to get to a basic proficiency, since we are teaching in English, rather than in their first language; as soon as they start understanding English, then we can go deeper into more academic language and skills.
ESL 1 spends a lot of time getting exposed to comprehensible input, whether it is through Morgan talking to them, videos, or simple readings. She uses a variety of methods to make the English comprehensible, such as speaking slowly, pictures, drawing, gestures, translation, cognates, context, etc. They show their comprehension and answer questions through physical responses, one-word answers, drawing, and longer answers as they feel comfortable. Morgan also reads to them for about 10 minutes a few days a week. As they begin to gain more proficiency, they will start reading self-selected books at their reading levels for about 10 minutes a day. This is one of the best ways to improve proficiency in a language!
Example of a typical day in ESL 1:
ESL 2 and 3 are more similar to each other, just at slightly different levels. We got new textbooks and workbooks this year, and are loving them! They are targeted at struggling readers and have lots of activities and suggestions incorporated for English learners. They are modeled more like "regular" English textbooks, with readings, writing activities, comprehension questions, and vocabulary, but are focused a lot more on vocabulary and include lots of texts from different cultures. We use the textbook and workbook as a backbone, and scaffold, extend, and supplement as necessary based on student need.
Typical day in ESL 2 or 3:
ESL 2, 3, and 4 all read for 10 minutes most days. These are books that they chose from Morgan's and my classroom libraries, from the UTHS library, or that students procured on their own. Sometimes, Morgan and I read to them or they do a writing activity instead.
ESL 4 is structured more like a "regular" English class, but with slightly lower-level readings and lots more support. For example, our first unit is on expository essays. We read four different essays (written by Black Hawk students!), practiced annotating them, and answered questions about them, and now just analyzed what the different authors included in the different parts of their essays. Next, the students will create an outline, then finally write their own expository essay. I'm also planning on reading another novel this year (we read Stargirl last year but I have some of the same students, so I need to pick a different one), reading the No Fear Shakespeare version of The Taming of the Shrew, writing personal narratives, and hopefully doing some sort of research paper/project.
Typical day in ESL 4:
On Fridays, both Morgan and I have study hall days with all of our ESL classes. We read for 10 minutes, then they have time to work on homework, get help, make up tests, etc. If they don't have any work to do, they can either read a book or do an English learning/reading on the computer like Rosetta Stone, ReadWorks, No Red Ink, Duolingo, etc.
Along with our regular curriculum, reading, and helping students with other classes, Morgan and I also fill several other roles for our students. We talk to them about class or friend issues, inform them about school events (like recently we ordered homecoming shirts for all of our students), practice for the SAT/ACCESS tests, help with lockers, check their grades, and do whatever else they need in order to be successful at school. We also often have students coming in during our ESL or other classes, and then we or Maria helps them with homework/tests.
I hope that helps you understand more of what goes on in our ESL classrooms every day! There's always a lot going on and some of our classes are more rowdy than we'd like, but it's always a good time!