Teaching Grammar In ELL Context

I am trying to find different ways of introducing the course components in my syllabus. This is my first trial with Powtoon.

Setting Goals

Goal setting helps enhance your learning experiences. Here is one that I prepared for my young self years ago. I feel extremely proud of myself having accomplished nearly all of them.

FOR THE DIGITAL NATIVES

It is time we find new ways of engaging our digital natives. Here are some suggestions that you can use in your classes.

How Can Effective Leadership Support Classroom Teachers’ Work With English Language Learners?

“ Immigrants constitute the fastest-growing group of students in U.S. schools, and many demographers predict that by 2025 approximately 20% to 25% of students enrolled in elementary and secondary schools will have limited proficiency in English (Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco, & Todorova, 2008).” 

   It is an eye-opening and yet shocking reality that one faces in Elfers and Stritikus’ article “How School and District Leaders Support Classroom Teachers’ Work With English Language Learners.” The article discusses the role of school and district leaders in supporting classroom teachers’ work with second language learners and how this intentional support may be part of broader teaching and learning effort in school communities. The article reveals the ugly truth that English learners often do not have access to appropriate instructional curriculum and materials, yet attempts to address these issues may be structured in ways that inadvertently deprive students of learning opportunities. 

Inadequate Teaching & Other Schooling Conditions 

    Two studies quoted in the article resonated with me the most. DeJong & Harper, 2005; Rumberger & Gándara, 2004 talk about the attempts to integrate students in structured English immersion classes without well-trained and well-supported teachers who can end up robbing them of the specialized help they need. In my previous school, the high school students were streamed in English classes based on their language test scores in IELTS, which was the biggest mistake ever. IELTS is an international language proficiency test that can not be used as a placement test for streaming students. It took me a year to explain the difference between a placement and a proficiency test to the high school leadership and that urgently we needed an English placement test prepared by professionals in this field. However, I wasn’t heard nor given a chance to bring up a solution for the misconduct. The students were the ones who suffered the most. Being placed in classes where they were set to failure, those instructional hours got wasted in those classrooms without helping any of those low achievers who needed the help most. We didn’t have well-trained teachers either. It wasn’t easy to be part of their classes as an ELL support teacher. Some of the teachers hesitated to open their doors for an outsider-as they call. It wasn’t my place to teach them how to teach but offer some support with the techniques I know work well with ELLs. As some district-level leaders put it in the article, I did “go with the goers” and prioritized training and collaboration for those most likely to take up the strategies in their classrooms. 

Not Only For ELLs, This Is For All 

    I think the most feasible and effective way to engage teachers and maintain a system of supports for serving ELLs is -as one of the district schools in the article does- to convince the teachers that the focus is not only the English language learners but all students to benefit from additional instructional strategies for success. In the article, the district leader explains, “We’re not calling it ELL specifically because we want to get buy-in from everybody, so we’re framing it as cross-curricular best practices for English language development, which ultimately when you think about our population, that really is all of our students because we have a high level of poverty here in our community.” In short, they sought to shift the conversation to provide a rich environment that valued all students and the languages and cultures they represented (Hawkins, 2004). 

“Breaking The Mold” 

  So, my question is, as one of the schools mentioned in the article did, can we break the mold of leadership and focus directly on instruction by creating a system in which the distributed expertise of teachers could be accessed by other teachers within institutions. Why not? Is it that difficult to give a chance to people to take initiative and decide what they need to do? As in my scenario, my leadership didn’t have the will or energy to listen to what we were saying, but it is sometimes better to sit back and let things happen, which can positively impact the whole culture of a building.

Source:  Elfers, A. M., & Stritikus, T. (2014). How School and District Leaders Support Classroom Teachers’ Work With English Language Learners. Educational Administration Quarterly, 50(2), 305–344. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X13492797

IATEFL LTSIG & TDSIG Joint Event

IATEFL LTSIG & TDSIG Joint Event, Istanbul, Turkey 26-27 May 2012 (26 May 2012 - 27 May 2012) This is a first in my life that my proposal as a presenter in an international conference has been accepted. I am very much excited about this event that there are butterflies in my stomach since I saw the approval message in my mail box. I will be talking about the implementation of technology for classroom purposes as well as teacher training. I have been holding a series of ICT workshops for the ESL teachers in my institution for quite a while and have recieved a great deal of positive feedback from them. I would like to share them with the audience. If you would like to attend the event, refer to the link above..

READY TO TECH?

We have recently started a new series of technology training sessions at Marmara University, School of Foreign Languages. The teachers are collaborating and sharing their reflections. We offer ready to cook courses weekly. Supporting each other in a field of unknown helps us gain confidence in teaching to the 21st century generation. Are you ready to tech with us? Then follow my blog, there are lots to offer.

CALL or Not To CALL, That's What Matters!

Sometimes, I feel desparetly hopeless to motivate my students. Then, I expect a fairy to appear and wave her magic wand to turn them into creatures who are well primed with the information which I struggle to give them. Especially in the early morning sessions, while trying to wake them up, I often find myself as a stand up performer who tries to grab their attention. When they can barely open their eyes, I try to teach reported speech, passives, if clauses. Who cares whether they learn them or not? I care OF COURSE!! This is my job and I thoroughly madly in love with it.

After a long day, having finished eight lessons and feeling completely exhausted, I sat quietly, musing on the events of the day. What was it that made me so frustrated in teaching? What was that "THING" leaving a gap between me and my students? How could I construct a bridge across to lead them to my world of education? I came up with the idea of "TECHNOLOGY" eventually.....

The next morning, my subject was totally out of the course pacing and I gave them a short survey inquiring the hours they spend in the chat rooms or social networks on the internet. I was overwhelmed by the results proving the fact that they were all digital natives leaving in a virtual reality. They were socializing, gardening and even creating virtual lives there.

That's how my adventurous journey started in the world of technology. I am trying to integrate computer skills into my syllabus these days. I now put most of the workload on their shoulders. They are learning how to search for a specific kind of information, how to sort the material out and how to qoute. Many of them are better than me at computer skills. That's why, I called this blog "My Education".They are teaching me the skills I lack and I am teaching them a new language from a different perspective. You see, it is a "win win situation" for both sides and you are always welcome to join us in this adventure.