But that doesn't mean our students can't thrive in English as a second language," she added. "They definitely can."
This challenges the idea that learning another language prevents students from succeeding. Students can still succeed while retaining their original culture and dialect
Teachers in the district—where about 30% of students are multilingual learners—give early elementary schoolers systematic phonics instruction, a foundational piece of early reading lessons.
This shows that English learners still need direct reading instruction.
"By default, you're going to go with those sounds you know."
Students naturally use the rules of their first language when learning English. Teachers need to understand how these students learn.
"I think back to myself; I didn't have any guidance or learning or help to learn how to support English learners and how to use both languages as an asset," Addison said.
Teachers often want to support English learners but lack proper training. Schools need to prepare teachers to use students’ languages as strengths
English learners need intensive instruction in developing spoken English skills, the statement read, but they also need to be taught phonics and phonemic awareness,
This shows that English learners need multiple types of support.
Schools shouldn't treat English learners "as if they didn't bring any knowledge to the table," Cárdenas-Hagan said.
English learners already have valuable knowledge from their first language. Teachers should build on students backgrounds instead of viewing them as lacking. This idea was also shown in the other article I annotated.
It's not an either-or question; students need both, especially students who are struggling to learn to read.
English learners need multiple types of support. Learning English involves both speaking skills and reading skills.
Usually, our bilingual teachers don't have enough resources. You go to a training and it's, 'We have everything for English, but Spanish is coming.'"
Many schools are not fully prepared to support multilingual students. Teachers need resources and training that include all languages not just English.
"If the first language of instruction is Spanish, then we [only] want to teach what doesn't transfer."
Teachers should use students’ existing language knowledge instead of reteaching things they already understand.
"It's a matter of positioning EL teachers to where they know their benefit and their expertise," she said.
The article argues that EL teachers should be recognized as important educators with specialized knowledge, not just as assistants who provide extra help.
that English learners bring with them assets and insights that benefit fellow students and teachers alike.
this shows that English learners should not be viewed only as students who need support. Their experiences and perspectives can add value to classroom discussions
One of the challenges Marshall has found is a lack of curricular materials that are both rigorous and accessible for her English learners. The legend of symbols at the top were Marshall's own creation. Nationally, teachers working with English learners have said in surveys they too have struggled with finding appropriate resources.
With more funding to the EL classrooms more students will succeed and find more comfort in their lessons
Students read the speech aloud as Marshall called on them to highlight words and phrases and correctly mark them with a symbol. For instance, in the line "It pleases me because I must say this honor belongs to all the survivors and their children …" the students agreed that "pleases" connoted a positive emotion while the words "survivors and their children" referred to people.
The way Marshall is teaching her class is inclusive while still keeping the core details of the lesson. This way the lesson is easier to absorb for the students.
The district has since urged all educators to embrace the research that shows the value of teaching language through academic content. "It's a difference from thinking about [English-learner instruction] as a remediation," said Marshall, who works primarily with newcomer students. "It's not a remediation. We can't wait until you're proficient in English before we start teaching you grade-level content."
This process helps English learners be at the same level as their peers and not fall behind also making English learners feel more confident.
To address these challenges, the Nashville district's staffing investment includes developing instructional-leadership teams at each school with coaches specializing in English-learner instruction. Funded through the district's Title III funds, federal dollars designated for supplemental support for English learners, the coaches provide feedback on how teachers implement strategy and make sure the co-teaching relationships are working smoothly
the district invests in teacher support by hiring English-learner instructional coaches. These coaches help teachers improve instruction.
It's invested in hiring hundreds of EL teachers and paying existing teachers to get an English-learner endorsement, said Molly Hegwood, the executive director of the district's office of English learners.
The Nashville district should be a model for other areas in how to properly attend to English Learners needs.
The rapid growth of the English-learner population has been driven by several factors, notably more foreign-born students enrolling and immigrant families having more U.S.-born children. But the distribution of those students across school districts varies enormously, as do states' estimates of how many teachers are needed to serve those populations.
I was confused by the grown in the proportion of the English-learner population however this paragraph cleared any misunderstanding.
When Renee Wilson, an EL-certified teacher, applied to the district eight years ago, she was urged to join the Newcomer Academy to best utilize her skillset. Today, however, 1 in 5 students in the district are English learners, and one academy can't meet the demand.
I think that every school should have at least on EL-certified teacher and should get more depending on the student body. However I understand the idea of having one academy specialize.
estimated needing an 800% increase.
That is such an interesting statistic. It shows that the education system cannot stay the same. It always need to be evolving and adapting to properly teach the students.
Ideally, EL teachers say, the solution looks something like what they've developed at Mt. View Elementary, where Gomez and Dietz seamlessly take turns leading discussions and working with students who may need some extra help understanding what's being said.
Viewing English Learners as students who deserve to be includes in a classroom and not separated in the main idea of this article. English learners do need some support but don't need to be separated from their peers as if they need to be quarantined.
Where teaching jobs focused on English learners were once seen by some as support roles, the work is now regarded as more prestigious and requiring a high level of expertise that's valuable to gen ed teachers as well.
The change of how the job is viewed is will have a positive impact on English learning students and how effectivly schools can teach them.
At Mt. View, the proportion of English learners has nearly doubled since 2016-17, and they now make up about 60% of the school body. That growth is even faster than what's playing out across the country as a whole; from the 2002–03 to the 2021–22 school years, the number of identified English learners nationally grew by 21.3%, according to a recent federal report. (In contrast, the entire K–12 student population increased by only 1.7% during the same 20-year period.)
The increase of the proportion of English Learners call for a change in the way the education department teaches students.
"You know what Ms. Gomez has been noticing when we have our discussions?" Gomez said to the class. "You guys are elaborating in your sentences." While enunciating the word "elaborating," she slowly moved her hands apart to mime out the word's meaning.
How does she move her hands to show the word eloborating?Is it some from of sign language?
"We've engaged in real benign neglect with English-learners and those students who come from generational poverty and families with minimal educational experience," Ms. Kinsella said. "We as a profession have not done a very organized, systematic job of helping these students" progress to more formal ways of speaking and using advanced English.
Lesli effectively shows how unorganized and how unproffesional the current education system is at teaching the English language. Focusing on things like main idea and key details doesn't teach students how to actually absorb an article.
"Many of them couldn't do it," she said. " They didn't know the terms. They know ' main idea' and ' details' because those have been the big thing in kindergarten through 6th grade for so long."
Its incredibly intresting to see that so many students didn't know label various features of an article because schools are pushing thing likes key details and main idea.
Focus on Concept
The purpose of this section is how focusing on grammer or ultra spefic details in writing negativly affects students and distracts them from learning the skills they truly need to effectively write.
conceptual
relating to mental concepts or ideas rather than practical, physical, or highly specific details
Some English-learner experts reject the term " academic language."
This is what I was mentioning in my earlier annotations and I'm really happy that i'm not the only one who though this way.
sequester
to isolate, seclude, or set apart
WIDA edition also offers example topics that are pulled directly from a content standard in the common core and provide teachers with the types of support and scaffolding of academic language that they need depending on students' proficiency.
Lesli give various examples covering the WIDA and goes in depth covering what it does to the readers. She covers the oppositions side before explaining why her side is correct making her writing even stronger
World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment consortium.
dictates alot of things language education based k-12 in 29 states in america
That approach, some experts say, discourages many language learners from engaging more with English, especially orally, for fear of being corrected.
My personal experiences make me side with this argument. Growing up as a non-English speaking family I've always felt like writing with harsh grammer and vocabulary expectations made writing feel boring and made me steer from it.
But must academic language be explicitly taught to English-learners and other struggling students?
Author uses a question to make the reader think to themselves.
"Who is teaching them the language they need for these demands?" said Katherine M. Kinsella, an adjunct education professor at San Francisco State University and a frequent consultant to districts and schools on instruction for English-learners.
Author introduces the evidence by showing the quality of the source she used. I will aim to use this method in my writing.
And it's not just English-learners who may struggle with academic language. Many native English-speakers also fall short of grasping it because it's not what they hear at home.
Lesli make a very strong argument here that I might save for future writing. It never occurred to me that native speakers also struggle with "academic language". This shows that academic language is difficult to everyone and schools pushing one correct language could be a mistake
. For English-language learners, acquiring academic language is often the highest hurdle to clear before they can be deemed proficient in English and be able to fully engage in the kind of rich and rigorous content necessary to succeed later in college and a professional work life.
The premise of "acquiring academic language" confuses me. Society pushes a standard of using complex english in high level academic texts. However, in this article Lesli is using relatively simple grammer and it makes her point stronger to her audience.
academic English often bears little resemblance to the social, everyday language one needs to communicate effectively in most situations.
Useful quote I can use in my paper and one of Lesli key points in her essay.