Resources for Teaching ELL students

This information comes directly from an article entitled "How Can I Help My English Language Learners?" in the SEPT/OCT edition of Instructor magazine. These are some resources listed as being great ELL sites:

www.colorincolorado.org

This bilingual website for families and educators focuses on teaching ELL students how to read. 

www.teacher.scholastic.com

Scholastic's site offers classroom strategies and a wealth of research on language acquisition.

www.soundsofenglish.org

ELLs can listen to pronunciation of English words, including difficult beginning and ending sounds.  The site also features links for teachers.

www.ccsd.net/ellp

This extensive website outlines one district's ELL program implementation. Its helpful detail is both broad and specific.  Click on programs.

This year I have several ELL students in my reading group. I am focusing a lot on using visuals and picture representations of the words we blend.  I noticed one day that the kids did not hear the difference between the words hug and hog. The slight differences in vowel sounds are difficult for them to decipher, so I starting using my Boardmaker program to print small 2"x 2" pictures to accompany all of the words used during blending. That way, not only are they doing phonemic awareness and phonics exercises, but they are building vocabulary as well. 

Visuals can also be a great way to facilitate communication with parents who speak little or no English. 

Hug Haven

Teaching first  graders has its share of frustrating moments. I have two boys this year that are proving to be particularly challenging--it's no wonder.... one little boy's mother is in prison and the other boy is living with a foster family and I don't think it's the first one. The life situations that these kids are facing are nothing I can ever relate to. I try to put myself in their shoes and understand where they are coming from, but regardless, it is hard work. Sometimes they tire me out.

Seth, who is a foster child, likes to spin. He holds his arms out, looks up, and spins around. I think it's his way of letting his environment fade away. I would probably want to make the same thing happen if I was in his position. I am sure his environment has changed so many times in the short 6 years he has been around that he has realized sometimes he just wants to ignore it. I have a hard time getting Seth to follow directions and sometimes repeat the same thing 10 times to no avail. He has some language issues, probably due to his living situation at a young age, and as a result has a hard time processing directions. With this in mind, I patiently repeat and repeat, coaxing him to take action! 

He spins.

I repeat.

Being a teacher requires a LOT of patience. Many people tell me they don't know how I do it and sometimes I don't either.

But then I get the hugs.

Everyday before Seth gets on the bus, he wraps his arms around me and gives me a big hug. He has a huge smile on his face and in that moment I know he is happy. And so am I.

That small moment at the end of each day makes all of the other moments of frustration fade away. In those moments I know I make a difference in the lives of children who need someone to love them and care about them. If I can be that person, it is all worth it. 

Non-fiction for kids

The curriculum I use for reading uses weekly themes that tie together all of the literature we read each week. This week our theme is pets. The kids really enjoy talking about the pets they have and how they take care of them as well as animals that don't make very good pets. 

I went to the library today and found some great non-fiction series about pets. 

Scholastic: A True Book, Your Pet [cat] series

Susan Blackaby [Dog] For You: Caring for your [Dog] series

My First Pet Library from the American Human Association: My First [Dog]. 

These types of books are great to teach kids more information about certain topics and to teach them the nature of non-fiction books.  My program focuses on the use of photographs instead of illustrations and the presentation of real information about real people, places, or things in non-fiction books. Students should be able to differentiate between books that are fiction versus non-fiction, real versus make believe. 

These books are still too challenging for my group to read independently, but they are great for shared reading and for talking about how to care for pets, what pets need, etc. 

I also found some cute fiction stories about pets and aniamls:

Some Dogs Do by Jez Alborough

What Pet To Get? by Emma Dodd

Dog Breath by Dan Pilkey

Good Dog Daisy! by Lisa Kopper

Bad Dog School by Barbara M. Joosse

My Cat Copies Me by Yoon-duck Kwon

Cat, Cats, Cats! by Leslea Newman

My Cat, The Silliest Cat in the World by Gilles Bachelet

When the Silliest Cat Was Small by Gilles Bachelet

and of course my class favorite....Bad Dog Marley

A few books about the death of a pet:

The Forever Dog by Bill Cochran

Jim's Dog Muffins by Mirian Cohen

If you are a teacher, make sure you get a special library card for educators as you will be allowed to borrow books for a longer period of time!

Kid Writing

Sometimes when you look at the writing of a child, it is hard to decipher any meaning in what is on the page. Many of my first graders use unconventional spacing in between letters and words and their frequent use of mostly or only uppercase letters makes the message they are trying to convey pretty unclear. I want to know them better through their stories, so I pour over their writing looking at each letter and thinking about the sound it makes, trying to piece together the thoughts they have put down onto the page. 

 Although the words may not be spelled correctly, they are made up of letters representing the sounds students hear when they say the words.  Some letters may be missing, but sure enough when you say the sounds of the letters that are there, you hear the word they wanted to say. They are doing a wonderful job writing stories about their lives and I just love to read them. It is almost like decoding a secret, encrypted language. When I figure out the meaning I am so thrilled to know what they were trying to say.

Here are two  of my favorite journal entries from last week. The writing is very hard to see, but look hard! The stories are there.

Sam
 

"Dinosaurs lived millions and millions of years ago. 

They aren't alive anymore.

 If you were there you would get killed."

Michelle

"I have friends."

I have to admit, when I first looked at this piece, I thought to myself, "Michelle did not do what I asked, she just wrote down a few random letters and drew a picture." Then I stopped myself and remembered the fantastic book I read this summer about the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing. There was an example that looked just like this and the author found many wonderful things to compliment. 

I gave it another try. I asked Michelle to read to me what she had written. 

She read, "I have friends."

Of course that is what is says! She wrote down the first sound of each word and she drew all of her friends to illustrate her topic. This is wonderful. Michelle is a beginning writer. English is her second language and she did a wonderful job. She even included the date at the top of the page! Michelle will eventually learn to put spaces in between her words and to write down all of the sounds rather than just the first, but this is a great beginning! Michelle's friendships are obviously important to her since she wrote about them in her journal. Imagine if I did not acknowledge all of the great things she did in this piece?!

There is more to kid writing than meets the eye!

So far, So Good

What a difference in the number of posts from the teacher on summer break and the teacher in September!

So far I am beyond impressed with my class this year. This is the first year that everyone in my class has come from a full day Kindergarten class which makes a world of difference in their skill level when they enter First Grade. I am thrilled to see the things that they are already capable of doing. Mostly, I see they have a better ability to follow directions and stay on task compared to other groups I have had. I feel lucky.

Surprisingly, when my students were assessed with DIBELS, 11 of 25 students were identified for Title 1 support which indicates they need supplemental reading intervention to meet the First Grade benchmark standards in reading. That is almost 50% of my class! Despite this high number of students identified as needing extra support, I find my group to be hard workers and happy learners.

I have especially been impressed with their math skills. I think they are already mastering skills, like place value, that my class last year was still struggling over in the spring! It is wonderful to be able to challenge them and have them welcome the more difficult work. Earlier in the week, I gave each student a 100 board with a few numbers filled in, but most of the spaces blank. I asked them to write in all the missing numbers. You could have heard a pin drop on my floor! They were so engaged and enthusiastic. When it was time to get in line for PE I was trying to coerce them away from their work and they were telling me, "Wait, I am almost done, I want to finish." I gave a few students an entirely empty 100 board and one of those students said to me. "Mrs. T. this is too easy, I think next time I will have to write 100-200!" He is so excited about learning, he knows how to differentiate his own instruction. I love it!

I am finally getting to experience what I have read about in so many books. Kids being excited about learning and wanting to learn more, and more, and MORE. It is a great feeling. :0)

At my school, despite the fact that First Graders are 6, the students regroup for reading in order to be in reading groups appropriate for their skills. We are torn about this process because developmentally, it is appropriate for 6 and 7 year olds to remain with one teacher in order to develop a relationship and sense of belonging and trust with that teacher. On the other hand, we have SUCH a broad range of skills amongst the kid this year. It is difficult to teach the same lesson to one student who has an Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) score of 0 words in one minute and another who reads 124 words in a minute. These children have different needs!

I volunteered to teach the lowest group this year and I love it. My class consists of 14 students, 6 of which are English Language Learners, and one student with Down syndrome who does not yet use oral communication. Several of my students have very low phonemic awareness skills, struggle to pay attention, and are not yet proficient in relating sounds (phonemes) to letters (graphemes). I am so excited to work with students at this level because they have so much room for growth this year. They are a wonderful little group and I am enjoying teaching them very much.

Sometimes I feel like I need to stand on my head and juggle with my feet in order to get them to pay attention to my lessons, but I know they will come so far this year and I know that my expectations for success will help them make great gains.

So far it has been a great year. I am finding myself more motivated and more excited to go to work in the morning. It reminds me of when I was student teaching and I was almost disappointed on Friday afternoons because I loved working with my class so much. I can't say that I am disappointed when Friday afternoon rolls around now, but I do feel like this will be a terrific year.

Buddy Walk

Today I participated with some colleagues and friends in the 2008 Buddy Walk which was hosted by the Down syndrome Network of Oregon. Chris Burke, also known as Corky from the TV series Life Goes On, was there performing with his band. It was so cool to meet him! My friend Meghann and I were pretty star struck. It was wonderful to see how an individual with a disability can accomplish so much.

My buddy for the walk was my former student, Maria. She is 8 years old, LOVES Hannah Montana, dancing, and cheerleading, and she has Down syndrome. It was such a pleasure to be Maria's teacher last year and equally special to spend the day with her. Maria took me up on stage to dance with Chris and his band. We learned sign language for I love you and friends forever. She had so much fun singing and dancing and so did I. :0)