It's a slam dunk!

"Learning a new language is a lot like learning to play an unfamiliar sport or musical instrument. Time, practice, making and learning from one’s errors, and a keen desire to succeed, are all part of becoming proficient in an additional language."
- Supporting English Language Learners: A practical guide for Ontario educators (page 49)

Our school has a very unique group of English language learners (ELLs) because they are not interested in assimilating with the rest of the students in their class. That is not to say that I think they should have to, as much as I find it puzzling when I am trying to plan group small group instruction: should I encourage mixed, more diverse groups or should I respect their desire to work together with those they are clearly more comfortable with? As I read through the very helpful Guide developed by Ontario educators to help teachers best support our English language learners, I was not able to come up with the best answer for this question. What I did discover though were several useful tips and strategies to use as I coach my students who are learning the "sport" that is called English. 

1. As with any student in our classroom, be sure to build a rapport with ELLs so that they are more likely to take risks.
2. At first it is important to focus on building pragmatic and social oral skills. For all instruction it is important to provide rich opportunities for accountable talk before, during and after the activity or reading. It is helpful if you provide opportunities for ELLs to talk through their ideas in their first language before asking them to share their thoughts in English.
3. It is essential to differentiate instruction for ELLs. Decide on accommodations and/or modifications depending on a student's language proficiency, prior knowledge, learning style and readiness or interest. Some instructional strategies to help accommodate your students in reading may include creating picture dictionaries or personal word walls, preteaching the vocabulary before reading and then recycling those new words in other subjects/contexts, and have them act out a response/answer to a text. The degree to which we have to modify or accommodate for a child will change over time, not unlike coaching in sports changes as the athletes develop in one area, the focus of the training shifts but the skills learn continue to be honed.
4. Teachers need to make content accessible for English language learners. We can help make the content more accessible if we build on the student's prior knowledge. There is a great quote from a Ministry of Ontario document called Many Roots, Many Voices on p.g. 17 "There may be a gap between what the schools expect and what students bring but that does not mean that these students do not bring anything...Effective teachers draw on these resources and build new concepts on this strong experiential base." Some other ways we can make reading more accessible are: provide dual-language resources, simplify the vocabulary and/or sentence structure, recycle new words, highlight new words/key words/intructions/key ideas, use nonverbal cues, use concrete examples (e.g., objects that will appear in the story) and visuals when discussing the text, provide wait time, and check often for comprehension.
5. Celebrate diversity! Everyone in the classroom is learning from English language learners as they are learning from us. I think the easiest way to do that in our reading program is to consider the variety of texts we are exposing our class to in modelled, shared and guided reading times- do your texts reflect the diversity in your classroom/community? I think that ELLs will feel more valued (which will foster more positive self-esteem) if we are reading texts that celebrate who they are. They should also have opportunities to read dual-language texts and texts written in their native language. There are many excellent cites to access such texts if those resources aren't available at your school. On example is a website for culturally diverse texts that you should stay tuned to my next blog to find out more about.
6. Create multilingual signs and bulletin board displays.
7. Provide visual supports or concrete materials to help connect the new learning. Avoid the use of figurative language or idioms as they cause confusion and frustration.

Accommodations that you make for English language learners will benefit all. In this game everyone wins!