Candidates model and facilitate the use of digital tools and resources to support diverse student needs, enhance cultural understanding, and increase global awareness. (PSC 4.3/ISTE 5c)
I created this English Language Learner project to help two English language learning students become more efficient English language speakers. This project was designed and differentiated based on the ability levels of each student. The goal of the project was to refine and increase these student’s technology skills while immersing them in the content of the standards content standards. One of the students has a good baseline of the English language and has a supportive bi-lingual home. The other student has very limited English language skills and comes from a completely Spanish speaking home. Throughout the project, I worked with both students three times a week for 45 minutes for three months. Collaboratively, I worked with them on fluency, vocabulary building, immersive reading, peer tutoring, and writing in both Spanish and English and incorporated appropriate digital tools to complete projects and build language skills. The students chose reading materials that were geared toward their interests and readiness levels. The English Language Learner project demonstrates mastery of standard 2.5 because while creating this project, I included several research-based strategies to ensure that I was implementing digital tools appropriately to reaching the English language learning goals the students and I had set. I also included real-world aspects that connected students with various cultural elements that were personalized toward them and their experiences and interests. For example, The ELL students participating in this project were allowed given several options of pre-selected short books, such as “Who was Sonia Sotameyer?” “Abuela”, and “Sophia Valdez, Future Prez”, all of which are lower-level Lexile texts, but contain Spanish words and content to make the students in this program feel less intimidated by language barriers and to help them understand that I valued their culture and background, building rapport amongst these students. While creating this project, I learned that activities must be considered carefully to create equitable learning experiences for all students. As public education teachers, we have diverse populations of students in our classrooms who all deserve educators who are culturally responsive to their needs. We also have a wide spectrum of students with disabilities who have specific learning needs that must be met through differentiation. If I were to improve anything in this project, I would include more extension activities to make the project more culturally responsive for some of my student’s backgrounds. There were several parts of the project geared towards this area of diversity, but I would take closer inventory of my students and devise more activities to make their learning experiences more meaningful by connecting through cultural backgrounds. While working through this project, I learned that when working with ELL students, constant adjustments and considerations must be made based on the student’s individual progress, readiness, and comfort levels. I learned that ELL students must feel supported in their environments to be successful. Learning a new language can be very intimidating and stressful. If the ELL learner feels intimidated and unsupported, they are not going to be successful. Creating a positive learning environment and making constant adjustments based on readiness are the most important concepts in successfully teaching ELL learners. If I were to do anything differently with this project, I would have included more than two ELL students in the group. I believe that there is power in student collaboration and peer tutoring, and I believe that adding more students would have promoted positivity and collaboration in their learning environment. The technology skills the students both gained and refined through this project directly align to the technology improvement plan located within our school’s improvement plan. The implementation of this project also directly aligns with differentiation goals for ELL learners contained in the School Improvement Plan. The impact can be assessed by the student’s products at the conclusion of the project.