A Useful Strategy

I think that an immense amount of visual aids is an incredibly useful strategy for teaching ELL’s in the classroom. When a picture is given, there is less question of how to explain a concept or a term. The child, hopefully, if given enough pictures would be able to understand the teacher even if they cannot translate a single word in their mind. Giving the children visual cues will also help them express themselves in conversation as well. If they cannot come up with a word, maybe if they can find a visual they can tell the teacher or other students what they are trying to say. Vibrant wall art could be really helpful.

ELL Strategies in My Classroom

There is only one ELL student in my classroom right now and she appears to be proficient in the language. I have never seen any communication problems with the student and my teacher, to my knowledge, has not needed to make any changes to the classroom to incorporate this student. What I have noticed is that a lot of activities in our classroom are done in small groups or in partners. This could be very helpful if there were to be an ELL student with more intense needs. Another student in the class could help and be an assistant for the child. At the same time, it would be beneficial for the student to spend time with the teacher in the small group setting. In this way the teacher could explain things more in depth for the students and keep the student engaged as opposed to the student being lost in whole group instruction. A specific focus could be given to the student without neglecting any of the other students because they are busy doing their own work and assignments. Hopefully the student would also feel more cared for since they are getting individual attention in the classroom. Maybe this would make the classroom a less scary place for the child because they are given added support from the teacher and the other students in their grade.