6 common Mistakes made with ELLs

In my English language learners class we are getting ready to have our Celebration Of Knowledge! This celebration of knowledge covers our knowledge about English language learners so far. One topic that I find important for teachers to understand is the six common mistakes made with Ells. By understanding these six mistakes teachers get an insight as to what NOT to do instead of just learning what to do.

The 6 mistakes are:

1. Banning the use of their first language-Students need to keep using their native language. This is how they probably communicate at home  and with their families.

2. Being fooled by a students' ease of use with predictable language- Just because you may hear an Ell interacting with their peers does not mean they understand the academic language. 

3. Over-correcting errors- This will just put the student down and they will lose all self-confidence.

4. Encouraging parents to speak only English as home- This goes along with number one banning the use of their first language. It's part of their culture. 

5. Assuming students understand classroom instruction because they are listening- This not only happens to Ells. This could go for any student in the classroom. Just because a child is watching you teach and give directions does not mean they understand. 

6. Forcing students to speak- Let the child be ready to speak. They may become aggravated and less motivated if you are constantly forcing them to speak. 

Readers Theater

Just this past Tuesday we all got together for our weekly children's book club meeting. We discussed the first couple of chapters from the book The World According to Humphrey, by Betty G. Birney. As a group we wanted to really focus on how we would be able to use the book as a mentor text. Children can easily make a connection with the book by relating themselves to the characters. Whether it be a child not speaking up in class like Sayeh because of their accent or English speaking abilities to being like Raise-Your-Hand-Heidi.

We can use the book to:

Show the author's style- The author likes to have Humphrey speak a word three times every now and then like when he says,"SAD-SAD-SAD" or "SQUEAK-SQUEAK-SQUEAK." She also likes to sum up the chapter with a short tip about hamsters. We see the author using a lot of  humor as well. On page 30 of the text it says, Willy pointed to my potty corner, which I thought was unspeakably rude of him.  Little details like this will help the children to mimic and create a style for themselves during writing time. 

After discussing the book we decided to get into groups to create readers theater excerpts. Each group was assigned a chapter that we had already read, which then had to be text coded (laid out like a script with parts highlighted). Readers theater is a great way to get students engaged and to understand dialogue. It's also beneficial to English Language Learners since the readers theater creates more of a visual for them. It allows students to really see the emotions and characteristics of the characters from the book. We will be presenting these to the entire club next Tuesday and it's going to be so much fun! I'll let you know how they went!

We also got scholastic book order flyers!!! So exciting!!

I Love Children's Book Club!

In honor of Valentines Day yesterday I would like to show some love to my book club at Shippensburg University. This book club is based on children's literature and is to help further our understanding of what we talk about in our reading classes. We just had a meeting last Tuesday and I created these adorable bookmarks from paint samples to give out. It was extremely simple and inexpensive to do. The idea came from onefantastichousewife.blogspot.com.

Our first book that we are reading and talking about is The World According to Humphrey, by Betty G. Birney. This book will have students laughing hysterically as the little witty class pet hamster helps his classmates. While we are reading the book we stop and think about what we can talk about with our class, such as certain characteristics of the book or why the author decided to do what she did throughout the book.

Here are group pictures of us holding some of our favorite mentor texts! I will keep you updated on what we talk about in each of our meetings. 

"It takes a BIG heart to help shape little minds"

This is my first ever blog post! I just wanted to say that I couldn't be more excited to share my experiences as a preservice teacher. While it is a lot of work it's very fun and exciting to be an elementary ed. major. I am also taking on a reading minor that I just started over winter break. I can't wait to be able to apply what I have learned and to use all of these great ideas I have come across. Stay tuned!