EDSD 7081 Week 11 Blog

Over the years during my teaching career, I have taught several students that were deaf.  One of these students had a cochlear implant and one did not.  I truly enjoyed learning sign language and seeing these students read lips.  The child with the implant had a greater advantage of learning to hear and speak appropriately than the child that did not have one.  These students received speech services, sign language, and had an interpreter to help with instruction.  I loved watching their interaction with one another.  During the beginning of the year they had a hard time getting adjusted to the norms of kindergarten and seemed lost.  As the year progressed, they became more comfortable and would write words for communication.  They would also point in the classroom so that their peers understood them.  This was quite an experience for me, them, and the other students in my class.  This course has deepened my perspective on the services that should be offered to hearing impaired and bilingual students.  The Major Assessment Project that I did was based on a Hispanic child that I taught several years ago.  Through research, I found numerous ways to help him with language and literacy development and his parents, too.  One way that I want to try in the future would be to provide multiple experiences for language use.  Colorincolorado.org offered strategies to be used for English Language Learners. 

5 Classroom Strategies: Language

Provide explicit, systematic instruction in vocabulary.

Children require multiple exposures to words in order to develop a rich understanding of their meaning and use. Teachers should make a point of introducing interesting new words for children to use.

• Presenting vocabulary thematically helps children make associations between words and scaffolds students' learning
• Read-alouds that include explanations of targeted vocabulary can support word learning Ensure that ELLs have ample opportunities to talk with both adults and peers and provide ongoing feedback and encouragement.

English language learners need lots of opportunities to engage in social interactions with other children and adults. For group activities, pair English language learners with children who have strong English language skills, and make sure that all the children who speak the same home language (L1) are not grouped together

Provide opportunities for self-directed activities so that ELLs can choose activities that match both their interests and their language abilities

Encourage child talk by providing prompts when children need help in expressing themselves

Use open questions, or questions that can have multiple answers, to help ELLs expand their own utterances

Expose ELLs to rich language input.

Exposure to rich language, whether through shared book reading or through teacher talk, has been shown to enhance children's oral language development

One effective strategy is for the teacher to provide an ongoing commentary on activities that are taking place in the classroom in order to expose children to language associated with the immediate context

Structure the classroom space and routine to provide scaffolding for ELLs' language learning.

Arrange the classroom in a way that supports each type of instructional activity that will take place, and then keep changes to the physical environment to a minimum. Once ELLs learn which activities take place in various parts of the classroom (e.g., centers, circle), the physical environment will cue them as to what they are to do and how they are to behave in that area

Predictable classroom routines can also provide scaffolding for English language learners by allowing them to anticipate what will happen each day, including the type of language they will need for each activity

Encourage continued L1 language development.

Strong L1 skills support both language and literacy learning in English:

• Encourage parents to talk and read to their children in their home language as a way of strengthening children's L1 language skills.
• Incorporate children's home language in the classroom when possible. Songs and videos can be used effectively for this purpose if teachers do not speak their students' language

These strategies would definitely help me when planning instruction for English Language Learners.  This would also teach me things that would be beneficial.  In the future, I want to continue learning ways to teaching bilingual students.  I find this very interesting and want these students to build a strong foundation and master their skills in kindergarten. This will help me be a scholar of change when reaching these students.