For Week 3, I chose the article "Mass. House Pushes For Diversity in ELL Teaching." This was delivered to my inbox today from Google alerts and I thought it was appropriate because, in my last blog post, I mention about how ELs have different needs and a "one size fits all" approach doesn't fit all of the EL students and their unique backgrounds. The article discusses how important it is to differentiate the education for ELs because of the diverse backgrounds. Some students are arriving are with families attending graduate school in the States. These families are formally educated in their first language and are aware of on-grade level concepts in their first language. Other students have interrupted education and may not be literate in their first language. Our district sees similar issues to this, living in a university town. We have highly educated students arriving from around the world but we also have service industry families, with priorities of business and work ranking above education/school. Another growing population is the students adopted from other countries.
All of these students and situations are very different and require different teaching styles to reach these students.Last week, bill H.3736 was passed by the Massachusetts House. This bill "would eliminate 'one size fits all' teaching for English Language Learners ( ELL )," ("Mass. House Pushes for Diversity in ELL Teaching"). The article states that the bill will require evaluating the effectiveness of the program and the readiness of ELs to enter the mainstream classroom. It will also require the district to provide training to any teachers working with ELs and/or culturally diverse students. There will be councils created to help advise the district of matters involving ELs and the councils will be comprised of parents and guardians of these students.
I think this bill is a step in the right direction. The ESL population is often overlooked, which is sad. These students and families have so much to offer our communities and our country but they need to feel welcome and I feel like bills like this help those families know that they are wanted, welcome, and deserve an education here.
Admin34, and Admin. "Mass. House Pushes For Diversity in ELL Teaching." Language Magazine. 12 June 2017. Web. 13 June 2017.
I enjoyed your post! My district sees a lot of diversity as well as an urban district. More so than not, we are seeing ELLs arriving into poor settings and many families are not literate in their native language. This is why our POAs (Parent Outreach Assistants) are so important to help make our families feel comfortable. In my class this year I had many families that did value education, some that were illiterate, and others that seemed very educated. I agree that one size does not fit all. I am a part of an ELL leadership committee that meets during the summer and tries to figure out ways to better our ESL program. One of the biggest needs is more training for all staff who work with ELLs...which is everyone in my district!
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