English Learners

Lau v. Nichols (1974) was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Supreme Court decided that the lack of additional language instruction for students with limited English proficiency in public schools violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. Schools are required to give sufficient language instruction to students with limited English so that they receive equal educational opportunities.

I have encountered many English Language Learners in the school where I have done my Service Learning hours and as I have substitute taught this school year. I have been particularly interested in the progress of these students because my teaching experience has been in foreign language learning and because I currently teach online English to non-English speaking students. In addition, I have experienced the stress of living in a country where the language is foreign to me.

Because of these personal experiences, I have watched to see how English learners are being supported in the classroom. Although I have seen students identified as English Language Learners leave the classroom to receive additional help learning English, I have also observed that many English learners are not receiving the support they need. One student in my Service Learning classroom illustrates the problem that I have observed in other classrooms. This student speaks English, but it is obvious that English isn't her first language. She tries to hind behind other students so that she is not noticed and called on by the teacher. She whispers her questions when a teacher or aide is nearby because she doesn't want to make a mistake in speaking. She often gets behind on assignments because she doesn't understand the instructions and doesn't want to ask for help. I have seen this behavior frequently in other schools and in other classrooms.

With the influx of more and more ELL students in our schools, there is an increasing demand for teachers and resources to help these students and meet the demands of our laws requiring equal educational opportunities. I am not sure what the best solutions are to this dilemma, but I believe that it is an issue that administrators and teachers will increasingly struggle to resolve in their schools.

Diversity

I have observed that there is a wide range of reading abilities in the service learning classroom where I volunteer each week. Some of the students in the class are able to read very quickly and have a high level of reading comprehension. Other students are able to read fluently but have a more difficult time understanding what they read. There are a few students who have probable reading disorders and have a very difficult time keeping pace with their peers in completing assignments because of their low reading levels.

The teacher that I work with does an excellent job helping students of all reading levels make progress. She makes sure that students with reading disorders are referred to specialists that can determine what strategies need to be implemented to help them with their disability. She works with slower readers in small groups each day reading books on their level. She frequently dissects words phonetically to help low level readers sound out words and practices sight words with flash cards. The teacher uses her aides to work with students with reading delays on assignments that require more reading time. Students with reading disabilities are sometimes given accommodations to help them finish assignments at home or modified requirements to help them keep up with their peers. 

I am happy to report that I have seen a lot of progress in the reading ability of all the students that I have observed in the past two months. I am frequently asked to have the students do a timed reading with me at the beginning and end of the week. They are required to do the specific reading alone, with another student, or in a small group several times during the week. With practice, the students are almost always able to read more fluently as the week goes on.

Engaged Learning

Our Service Learning classroom uses a variety of methods to get students focused, eager and ready to learn. One of these methods is to get students to move by having them sing and clap songs to learn multiplication facts. I have noticed that the students are able to recall multiplication lists by learning these songs. When they have to do multiplication problems or long division, they first write a list of multiples on the side of their papers. Most of the time they write the list while they are singing the song to themselves.

The cooperating teach is skilled at helping the student develop independent problem-solving skills by encouraging them to find various ways to solve problems. I have noticed this the most when they work out long division problems. Long division is a new skill for the fourth graders and many students struggle with these math concepts. To test their understanding, the teacher will give them a division problem and ask them to solve it any way they choose. Many students can find a way to solve the problem with a few clues and by following the examples other students show them. The objective is to have them use any technique that they are learning to solve the problem.

Another method the teacher uses to engage the students is to encourage them to discuss with each other the things that they are learning. The class has recently read a series of passages about various activists who made a difference in their communities by organizing protests, promoting charity causes and educating the public about important issues. The students discussed how these people helped improve the lives of others. The students think about heroes in their own lives and discuss how these people make a difference in their families or communities.