Lisa Hendricks- TE 845 Final Reflective Essay
Format
I developed my
professional development session for the faculty at the school I taught at last
year. It is a K-7 building with about 36
teachers plus additional support staff and administrators. We have one ELL teacher for the whole school,
but have many students who qualify for some level of ELL services.
The focus of my
professional development hour is instructional strategies that benefit ELL
students. I chose this focus for a
number of reasons. The first was that it
was applicable to all students, no matter what grade level. Since the school teaches so many grade
levels, I wanted to choose a topic that would be valuable for all of the
teachers involved. Second, I wanted to
address instructional strategies because they can be applied across all
curricular areas, thus they have the potential for having the greatest impact
on students. If teachers are only able
to change one or two things about their teaching style, but these changes are
implemented throughout the day, their students will benefit enormously. I was also aware that these strategies, while
beneficial to ELL students, are beneficial to all students. If I can focus my presentation on ELL
students, but still benefit everyone else in the classroom, it’s a win-win
situation for everyone involved. My goal
for this presentation is that by the end of the hour, teachers will have one or
two techniques ready to implement into their classroom. Being ready to implement means that they will
have decided not only what strategy they will use, but also when and how they
will use it.
Having watched my
colleagues struggle with how to support their ELL students in their general
education classrooms, I chose to create a more standard presentation. My presentation is less interactive because I
want to provide my teachers with information.
This would be followed up with more interactive sessions, but I want to
provide teachers with as many ideas as possible, so that they could choose a
few strategies to add into their repertoire immediately. Though this is a lecture-style presentation,
I have tried to include many examples of my different points, so that teachers
have many ideas to pull from. I also
want my presentation to encourage open dialogue, so that teachers can ask
questions throughout the presentation, rather than having to wait until the
end.
At the end of my
presentation, I give my audience a chance to think about all of the techniques
I have presented. I then want them to
choose one or two strategies that they can immediately implement into their
classroom. Because I want the strategies
actually implemented, I am asking the teachers not only to list the strategies
but also to be specific about how they will implement them. I want the teachers to think about what content
area(s) the strategy will be used for, when during the day it will be used, and
if it is a visual, where in the classroom it will be placed. Implementation of these strategies needs to
be thoughtful, not haphazard, so I’m giving teachers the chance to think
thoughtfully about how they will implement the new strategies. Then, after some time to think, I will give
the teachers time to share their ideas with others. Collaboration time is always important, so I
want the teachers to have time to share their ideas with one another. I hope that this will encourage some teachers
to try more than one or two new ideas and it may help some teachers clarify
their plans for implementation.
I plan to end the
session with a reminder that we will be meeting again to talk about our ELL
students. Too often professional
development is a one-time occurrence. I
want teachers to know that they will have support when working with their ELL
students. I will encourage teachers to
implement the strategies they have learned about and to record any questions, concerns,
or frustrations they have so that they can be addressed the next time we
meet. If teachers feel supported in
their endeavors, then they are more likely to try new things that will help
their students.
Content
As
mentioned above, the focus of my presentation is instructional strategies that
benefit ELL students. I begin by
addressing one of Samway and McKeon’s (2007) myths, that teachers should not
teach ELL students content knowledge until they have mastered English (p.
38). I want teachers to understand that
it is important that our instruction begin as soon as a student enters our
classroom. While it may be challenging,
we have strategies that can help the student learn, if we don’t use any
strategies, we’re not moving the student forward. I also want to emphasize, that while it may
seem counter intuitive, teaching through the content areas is actually to our
benefit. Because ELL students often have
some background knowledge in their first language, we can use that knowledge to
build new knowledge (Samway & McKeon, 2007). Teachers have a starting point. If we try to teach in isolation, we work from
nothing. Before addressing the
strategies, I also wanted to be sure that teachers know they are responsible
for teaching content information, even if students are pulled for ELL
services. Sometimes teachers assume that
because a student is pulled for extra support, they are no longer responsible
for instruction; I wanted to address this misconception head on before moving
forward.
The list of
strategies that I use in my presentation came from Samway and McKeon (2007, p.
39) but they also align with best practices for brain based teaching and
learning. I see the goal of both as
getting students engaged in learning so that they can make connections, with
English and their first language, to grow their understanding of content. I used the list of strategies as a starting
point for the strategies I would address in my presentation, then I added in an
explanation of the strategy and/or examples of what implementation of the
strategy could look like. I wanted to
add examples of how these strategies could be implemented into the classroom. Where I could, I also tied in information about
the brain from Eric Jensen (2000, 2005).
Jensen has studied brain based teaching and learning, and it made sense
to add in his information if teachers are trying to get the most out of their
students. Again, these techniques work
for all students, but when paired with techniques for ELL students, can surely
enhance their learning experience.
Throughout my
presentation, I also tried to add in pictures of my own classroom, to represent
that these strategies can and do work in the classroom. I would tie those experiences in with how
they benefit ELL students. While
discussing the benefits of collaboration, for instance, I would discuss how I
often put my students in groups for projects.
In third grade, we “grew” worms in order to study decomposers. Students worked in groups of four. All of my students were able to learn the
content information and were able to participate in all of the activities
because they had the support of their peers.
If a student had a question, he/she had three other people to ask and
could hear an explanation three different ways, in addition to my explanation
if something was confusing. My ELL
students didn’t struggle learning the content because they had others to help
them when they were confused, and they could help their teammates when they
understood what was going on. When
discussing field trips, I can reference the many field trips I took my students
on. These trips created numerous visuals
and a concrete experience for students to draw upon once we were back in the
classroom. All of my students were able
to refer back to the field trip and it immediately brought back emotions and
memories that the students could draw upon to connect with current learning.
The
last slide reiterates why we need to use these strategies- because they affect
student learning across all content areas.
No teacher is excluded from using these strategies because the students
will benefit from their use in all classes.
The last piece of information I leave teachers with is that we have to
set the bar high for our students; if we don’t then they are less likely to
succeed on their own. Samway and McKeon
(2007) state, “low expectations can have a profoundly negative impact on
learners” (p. 41). I want my teachers to
know that they have to challenge their students so that their students know to
push themselves. Without that
encouragement, it’s easy for anyone to take the easy road and not try as
hard. We need our students to do their
best so that they can achieve for themselves.
References:
Jensen, E. (2000).
Brain-based learning: The new science of teaching & training.
(Revised
ed.). San Diego, CA:
The Brain Store
Jensen, E. (2005).
Teaching with the brain in mind. (2nd ed.) Alexandria,
VA: ASCD
Samway, K.D. & McKeon, D. (2007) Myths
and realities: Best practices for
English
language learners (2nd
ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
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