EEND 681 Module 6 Discussion
ELL Support Using Technology
Hello Class,
Teaching co-taught biology I focus a lot of my differentiation on students with IEP's and 504's. Especially because we have a separate ELL biology class at our school. Since our school is made up of students from the Aurora-Naperville area, we have a lot of students who don't speak English as their native language. Our Spanish-Speaking population is very high, and because of job transfers to the Naperville area, we have 12 different languages as primary languages in our school. Although the language of biology is a foreign language to almost all freshmen, it is important to differentiate the material to help out those students that don't speak English as their primary language. Using technology to do this makes sense, as it provides lots of opportunities to work with the material inside and outside of class.
The article, The Impact of Using Technology in Teaching English as a Second Language, brings up a lot of important things to keep in mind on the benefits of technology as an aid for ELL students. Using technology makes sense, I even have an adult friend that used the popular infomercial software program to learn Spanish before a two week trip to Mexico. That friend, was in Spanish class with me for four years, but sadly neither of us have retained much of that second language. He said that the software taught him more than four years in the classroom. The survey data shown in the article seems to reiterate this and shows that students themselves have confidence in technology aiding them in understanding a second language. A staggering 98% of students surveyed believe that technology can improve their English vocabulary.
One aspect that comes to mind right away is our new text book. The online presence of our text was a huge factor in choosing it last year. The online platform has many tools and an tab dedicated to ELL learners. This tab includes reading the text, an English to Spanish Dictionary, and diagrams and animations that help Spanish speakers in our classroom.
As a teacher of a diverse community, it is critical to keep ELL learners in mind when designing lessons and the curriculum in general. They have to learn all the material that a English language speaker has to learn, but at the same time have to deal with language details. I think of the struggle I would have to learn a science topic in another language to get a grasp on how difficult it must be for some on my students. Luckily, we have a great ELL program at our school, with amazing ELL teachers that help us make sure these students have the opportunity to learn and succeed at our school. I know that they utilize a lot of technology in their classrooms, but this article showed me that students have a lot of faith in this technology aiding them in their journey at our school.
Thank you,
Jim Nielsen
Hello Class,
Teaching co-taught biology I focus a lot of my differentiation on students with IEP's and 504's. Especially because we have a separate ELL biology class at our school. Since our school is made up of students from the Aurora-Naperville area, we have a lot of students who don't speak English as their native language. Our Spanish-Speaking population is very high, and because of job transfers to the Naperville area, we have 12 different languages as primary languages in our school. Although the language of biology is a foreign language to almost all freshmen, it is important to differentiate the material to help out those students that don't speak English as their primary language. Using technology to do this makes sense, as it provides lots of opportunities to work with the material inside and outside of class.
The article, The Impact of Using Technology in Teaching English as a Second Language, brings up a lot of important things to keep in mind on the benefits of technology as an aid for ELL students. Using technology makes sense, I even have an adult friend that used the popular infomercial software program to learn Spanish before a two week trip to Mexico. That friend, was in Spanish class with me for four years, but sadly neither of us have retained much of that second language. He said that the software taught him more than four years in the classroom. The survey data shown in the article seems to reiterate this and shows that students themselves have confidence in technology aiding them in understanding a second language. A staggering 98% of students surveyed believe that technology can improve their English vocabulary.
One aspect that comes to mind right away is our new text book. The online presence of our text was a huge factor in choosing it last year. The online platform has many tools and an tab dedicated to ELL learners. This tab includes reading the text, an English to Spanish Dictionary, and diagrams and animations that help Spanish speakers in our classroom.
As a teacher of a diverse community, it is critical to keep ELL learners in mind when designing lessons and the curriculum in general. They have to learn all the material that a English language speaker has to learn, but at the same time have to deal with language details. I think of the struggle I would have to learn a science topic in another language to get a grasp on how difficult it must be for some on my students. Luckily, we have a great ELL program at our school, with amazing ELL teachers that help us make sure these students have the opportunity to learn and succeed at our school. I know that they utilize a lot of technology in their classrooms, but this article showed me that students have a lot of faith in this technology aiding them in their journey at our school.
Thank you,
Jim Nielsen
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