Stragegies for Helping Ell Students
Strategies for Helping ELL Students in a Palm Beach County Intensive Reading Classroom by Rozanne Sonneborn
Within The School District of Palm Beach County, there is a diverse immigrant population. Although many of these students many be new to this country, the ESOL programs and strategies are not. For the past year, I have worked as a reading teacher at Lake Worth Middle School. According to the Gold Report, in 2011 the school reported a population comprised of 48% Hispanic, 36 % black, 11 % white, and 6% other. Unfortunately, these statistics are not further broken down to represent the large Mayan and Haitian population present at Lake Worth. Approximately 90% of the black population is Haitian and 20 percent of the Hispanic population is Guatemalan, speaking various Mayan languages, making parent contact nearly impossible, as there is only one Q’anjob’al, and Mam translator for the district. About 20 percent of my parents speak these languages. In my classroom, approximately 90 percent of the students are classified as ELL, whom exited the sheltered ESOL classroom. Within this ELL population, approximately 60 percent are classified as ESE, making it quite the challenge to meet the needs of this population, especially as ESE strategists are not required to work in reading classrooms as reading is considered an elective at the middle school level. Funny, all of my students were forced to take reading, as they did not score a Level 3 on the FCAT. In fact most of my 12-14 year old sixth graders are reading at a second or third grade level at best. Words like damp and trousers are bewildering to these reluctant readers, as their English vocabularies are very limited. On a recent vocabulary test, approximately 85% of my students could not use these words correctly in cloze passages. Compounding this problem, many of my students lack the motivation to learn, as they do not have sufficient role models to demonstrate the importance of education. Most of my
Within The School District of Palm Beach County, there is a diverse immigrant population. Although many of these students many be new to this country, the ESOL programs and strategies are not. For the past year, I have worked as a reading teacher at Lake Worth Middle School. According to the Gold Report, in 2011 the school reported a population comprised of 48% Hispanic, 36 % black, 11 % white, and 6% other. Unfortunately, these statistics are not further broken down to represent the large Mayan and Haitian population present at Lake Worth. Approximately 90% of the black population is Haitian and 20 percent of the Hispanic population is Guatemalan, speaking various Mayan languages, making parent contact nearly impossible, as there is only one Q’anjob’al, and Mam translator for the district. About 20 percent of my parents speak these languages. In my classroom, approximately 90 percent of the students are classified as ELL, whom exited the sheltered ESOL classroom. Within this ELL population, approximately 60 percent are classified as ESE, making it quite the challenge to meet the needs of this population, especially as ESE strategists are not required to work in reading classrooms as reading is considered an elective at the middle school level. Funny, all of my students were forced to take reading, as they did not score a Level 3 on the FCAT. In fact most of my 12-14 year old sixth graders are reading at a second or third grade level at best. Words like damp and trousers are bewildering to these reluctant readers, as their English vocabularies are very limited. On a recent vocabulary test, approximately 85% of my students could not use these words correctly in cloze passages. Compounding this problem, many of my students lack the motivation to learn, as they do not have sufficient role models to demonstrate the importance of education. Most of my
References: Beauvois, M. H. (1992). Computer assisted classroom discussion in foreign language classrooms: Conversation in slow motion. Foreign Language Annals an·nals pl.n. 1. A chronological record of the events of successive years. 2. A descriptive account or record; a history: "the short and simple annals of the poor" ..... Click the link for more information., 25(5), 455-464. Chun, D. M. (1998). Using computer-assisted class discussion to facilitate the acquisition of interactive competence. In J. Swaffar, S. Romano, P. Markley, & K. Arens (Eds.), Language learning online: Theory and practice in the ESL and L2 computer classroom (pp. 57-80). Austin, TX: Labyrinth Publications. Freeman, Yvonne and David with Sandra Mercury (2002) Closing the achievement gap: how to reach limited formal schooling and long-term English Learners (pp. 100-119), Portsmouth, NH; Heinemann