Educating ELLs (English Language Learners) - Learning by Building Connections

Every student steps into the classroom with a wide variety of background knowledge and experience, both linguistic and cultural. The diversity that exists among ELLs is "as diverse as the students themselves" (Morahan & Clayton, p. 9, n.d.). Helping students access their background knowledge and use it as a means to new learning is one way in which teachers help students build schemata. A schema is the conceptual framework in which a person organizes thoughts. Teachers can gain a great deal of knowledge and understanding on how to educate ELLs by inquiring about the unique experiences their students have encountered. A student's background knowledge and mental connections, as well as their personal and cultural experiences, influence success in learning new material (Rea & Mercuri, 2006). According to Morahan and Clayton:

Connecting new information to previously learned concepts of experiences makes knowledge more accessible for the learner and allows the learner to see where new concepts fit in with prior knowledge. This can be done by questioning students about their past experiences and encouraging students to make connections between new material and old. (p. 27)

Therefore, before the teacher does anything it is important to consider the student's prior knowledge. One cannot assume that every student in the classroom shares the same experiences and has the same background knowledge to understand the text. If a student does not know much about a certain topic, making sense of the reading will be quite challenging and their motivation will decline as the lesson progresses. ELLs would have to depend on their limited knowledge of the language to decipher what they are reading, and they will more than likely get left behind (Brown, 2007; Rea & Mercuri, 2006). Once a teacher learns what each student is capable of she can continue from there and build on their strengths. This entails beginning with what a student does best and working toward things that are more difficult for the student. Teachers can look at what knowledge her students have at the beginning and use it as a basis for teaching (Graves et al., 2007).

It is also crucial for students to feel comfortable, valued, and supported in their classroom. In fact, "the way that a student feels upon entering a classroom will largely affect the amount that he or she learns in that classroom" (Morahan & Clayton, n.d., p.18). One main thing that is often lacking in classrooms is honor and respect for students' cultures. All ELLs, no matter what their background, come into the U.S. school setting with much to share, regardless of educational background, socioeconomic status, or personal experiences. They come with a variety of cultural influences including family and the cultures associated with their race, religion, or ethnic background (Morahan & Clayton, n.d.; Echevarria et al., 2006). All students have assets to bring to the classroom. Their cultures are rich in traditions, beliefs, and values, and all of them are different. Seeing these differences as an advantage will make all students feel valued and demonstrate to them the need for respect and appreciation of differences, even differences that are not as easily understood (Morahan & Clayton). It is easy for teachers to forget that some ELL students have spent a huge amount of time within their cultures and their families so it is an important part of who they are and it should be honored and supported. An easy way to do this is to invite ELLs to share some of their cultural traditions with the class. This will allow the other students to understand these traditions and it will also give status to these traditions (Graves et al., 2007).

Another easy step toward fostering students' cultures is through literature. Providing literature that accurately represents a number of different cultures can provide students different perspectives on culture and allow ELLs to better connect with the text. Teachers should try to select texts that are related to the life experiences and cultures of the students in the class (Morahan & Clayton, n.d.; Graves et al., 2007).

At one school in Denver, many of the students in Kristi Sutherland's seventh grade class were Mexican. These students had an extreme lack of interest in reading due in part to the fact that they could not connect with what they were reading. After finding the picture book, Going Home by Eve Bunting, there was a tremendous spark of interest by the students and even students who never respond were ecstatic. Students were able to connect with the family in the story who was returning to Mexico for Christmas, and were therefore able to better understand the story (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007).

Storytelling is also a useful means of developing language skills and comprehension. Sharing stories allows students to reflect on their own lives as well as the lives of their peers, and it helps them better understand themselves and how they learn (Simich-Dudgeon, 1998). In fact, "verbal interaction, based on students' personal experiences, can support the acquisition of content-specific thinking and language" (Egbert & Simich-Dudgeon, 2001, p. 24). Teachers can first model their own story, while going through the strategies used to communicate their meaning. When teachers share personal stories it supports the classroom environment and allows students to feel more comfortable talking about their lives. Students in the beginning stages of learning English can put stories together with help from family members. These students can use illustrations, drawings, pictures, music, graphic organizers, and drama to aid in the presentation of the story. Storytelling activities should be connected with reading, writing, and other skills. Also, students' storytelling can help teachers assess their knowledge of the specific content area as well as their language abilities. (Egbert & Simich-Dudgeon, 2001; Simich-Dudgeon, 1998).

Storytelling should be followed by the Language Experience Approach (LEA) or Writer Workshop, depending on the students' level of English proficiency. Lower level ELLs would benefit more from LEA because there is much more teacher support involved, and students use the language that they are most comfortable with (Frederickson, 1999; Simich-Dudgeon, 1998). During LEA students tell their story to the teacher and the teacher writes everything down. Higher level ELL students would benefit more from Writer Workshop. During Writer Workshop students form small groups, which include English speaking peers as well as ELLs who are at different proficiency levels, and create a story together. This type of activity will give ELLs the opportunity to develop both listening comprehension and sound discrimination, as well as their creative writing and reading skills (Simich-Dudgeon, 1998).

Teachers encourage students to become aware of their thought processes and strategies they use to accomplish certain tasks. This process is known as metacognition. ELLs must be taught how to apply this type of learning strategy to all types of learning situations. After completing an assignment students can reflect on what they have done by asking themselves questions about their understanding of the story. One way to go about this is through a think-pair-share. A student shares what they learned from the assignment with another student, and then, as a pair, they will share their information with another pair of students. They all work together to discover, for example, whether they understood the assignment or thought the same way. A strategy like this can help clear up confusion in the classroom. Students can also write in a metacognitive journal. One half of the journal could be titled "What I learned" and the other could be "How I came to learn it." As a result, students become aware of how they learn and what strategies work best for them (Rea & Mercuri, 2006).

In one middle school, all of Barbara Fagan's 20 ELL students were reading at a low third grade level so she introduced strategies to help them think about what they were reading. One strategy introduced was the T-chart, which is similar to a metacognitive journal. As they read an informational book they were able to keep track of important details and vocabulary that was unfamiliar to them. This type of graphic organizer helped these students organize the information as they read and guided them in their comprehension process (Fagan, 2003). Rea and Mercuri (2006) explain that for a metacognitive strategy to be effective students must "understand why they need to know it and why it will benefit them, see examples of the strategy, know when and where it is appropriate to use the strategy, and be able to monitor themselves" (p. 55).

It is crucial that a teacher monitors and assesses the needs of the students in the classroom and uses strategies that are most beneficial for them. Since all students learn differently, not all strategies work the same for each student, so the teacher must be prepared to switch to, or use in conjunction with, another strategy if the initial strategy did not work.