Action Plan for English Learners in Classroom
An article in Edutopia dated Apri1 12, 2019, detailed six essential strategy categories for teachers to use to address the needs of English Language Learners (or EL students). (Read the article at https://www.edutopia.org/article/6-essentialstrategies-teaching-english-language-learners ). Select two of the six strategy categories (listed below): • Cultivate relationships • Teach language skills across the curriculum • Emphasize productive language (speaking and writing) • Speak slowly and increase wait time • Differentiate instruction using multiple modalities (writing, speaking, drawing, listening) • Incorporate student native language using technology to preview and review material in their home language From an administrative point of view, develop an action plan for training teachers that have an EL student in their classroom to utilize the two selected strategy categories. Justify the choices made and provide multiple examples of strategies the teacher can use to accomplish the goal of improving performance of EL students. Detail how teachers will demonstrate that they are implementing the strategies in their classroom. Be specific about how and when the training will take place. Include a minimum of two sources per category selected. Kaplan, E. (2019). Six essential strategies for teaching English language learners. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/6-essential-strategies-teaching-english-languagelearners
Sample Solution
An effective action plan for training teachers to use two essential strategy categories to support English Language Learners (EL students) in their classroom includes the cultivation of relationships and teaching language skills across the curriculum. Building meaningful, trusting relationships provides an opportunity for teachers to better understand their students’ perspectives and increase engagement with content (Gonzalez et al., 2018). Cultivating relationships also enables teachers to form partnerships with parents and families that can further enhance learning experiences through home-school collaboration.
Teaching language skills across the curriculum is also a critical element of supporting EL students. This approach is based on “sheltered instruction,” which means that teachers provide material in smaller chunks, repeating key points throughout lessons, using visuals or graphic organizers as aids (Edutopia, 2019). Teachers should explicitly teach vocabulary related to each lesson topic; this helps EL students understand concepts more quickly by providing them with needed context clues (Gonzalez et al., 2018). Additionally, allowing EL students opportunities for speaking practice while discussing topics will help build confidence in their abilities.
In order to successfully implement these strategies into classrooms where there are EL learners present, teacher training sessions must be conducted. During the trainings educators should focus on building relationships first so that more trust exists between them and the student(s) which may make it easier for them to accept guidance from a teacher who does not speak their native language. Using videos demonstrating how effective relationship building works can be beneficial during these trainings as well as additional resources such as books about cultural understanding or online courses about fostering empathy among diverse populations (Crawford & Richterich-Schneiter 2017).
Additionally, practical exercises focusing on sheltered instruction methods could be distributed at workshops or included in handouts for review by all educators involved with teaching EL learners within a school district. These activities could include simulations of different types of lesson plans incorporating visuals and multiple modalities which give participants hands-on practice implementing these strategies effectively when they return back into classrooms with EL learners present (Zepeda 2014). Through continued training initiatives focused around cultivating relationships while utilizing sheltered instruction techniques aimed at meeting the needs of all classrooms regardless of linguistic background – we can work towards ensuring equitable educational outcomes amongst all students.
