My students enjoy the opportunity to go to school, love to read and are interested in learning about everything. They have a love for learning and for the heritage and culture they are growing up in. These EL learners come from homes where the primary language is German. The families at the colony are very supportive of education.
My multi-grade Hutterite students live in a colony setting and begin their early years of schooling not knowing the English language.
With the opportunities offered to them through collaboration, these students develop oral communication which increases their understanding of a second language and allows them to become more proficient.
What I love about my multi-aged students is the tremendous work ethic they have outside of the school day. This work ethic follows them into the school through daily activities. They begin their day learning German and continue the day learning the English language while attending school.
My Project
Utilizing the Teacher Caddy, all materials needed for a task will be placed in the middle of a circular table which creates a safe collaborative learning experience. Having all materials with-in a hands reach is ideal for students to be on task and to begin having conversation utilizing academic vocabulary without loosing classroom time to gather items needed. Time will be spent discussing.
Utilizing sentence starters will assist students in focusing and organizing their thoughts before they have the conversation.
EL learners grow in vocabulary when they have good modeling and repetition through collaborative conversations. Examples of sentence starters include: "I agree because", "I disagree because", "I Wonder" "I notice" and "Could you tell me more" Students will also pick up on correct English grammar and sentence structures to use in the future when sentence starters are used.
The timers will be used to keep students focused while working in collaborative tasks. Tasks will be focued around all content areas. Each student will have a role, one-being time keeper.
The large clear containers will be used to store the manipulatives with the small containers used to give each student their own manipulative to solve problems. The manipulatives will be used to drive the academic discussion.
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