During my interview with Mr. Dang I realize that his experience as an ELL was not the same as mine. Although we both attended schools in Texas his experience was a lot different than mine.He mentions he was grouped in classrooms with
other ELLs including Spanish speaking students.According to Wright (2015)
language minority students “covers all students in the United States who speak
other languages other than standard English” (p.5). Mr. Dang's
experience is different from mine because during my early elementary age I was
placed in a Vietnamese bilingual classroom.My
hometown was heavily populated with a lot of Vietnamese students. From what I remember each grade level had one Vietnamese teacher that would teach all the ELL students who qualified for those accommodations. Fortunately for me I had Vietnamese teachers who
supported us both in learning English and bridging the gap between the two
languages. I believed this eased my experience in learning English more
smoothly since I was able to language transfer quicker between English and
Vietnamese or vice versa depending on the circumstances. As compared to Mr. Dang's experience he had a difficult time adjusting between the English instructions and transferring his knowledge to and from his native language. He did not have a positive experience as I did.
In Chapter 5, the author talks about sheltered
instruction.This idea benefits ELLs
because as teachers we need to make the instruction where our students can
access it.If we bring it down to there
level they are more likely to understand the material and be engage.Wright states, “Sheltered instruction
observation protocol model offers guidance to teacher who use shelter
instruction by helping them systematically plan, teach, observe...”
(p.92).In my field study I have seen my
Mentor Teacher use sheltered instruction for her ELLs.I have seen her pull students to her
computer to review terms ahead of time so they are able to connect new English
words to their native vocabulary.These
last few months she has used multiple ways to help her ELLs understand both
Math and Science content. This is important for our students because when they see math problems it is easy to solve if its just a number sentence. What I have seen is although they know how to solve the problems they can not comprehend what the question is asking if it is stated in word form. However we can help our ELLs by sheltering instruction will benefit and boost their confidence in the classroom.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
