My students represent the full range of San Francisco's energy and diversity. Speaking over 15 languages and with families from across the globe, they come to my (currently on-line) classroom excited and ready to learn.
Almost half of my students are English Language Learners (ELLs).
These students, many of them from Central and South America and Asia, are striving to learn not only the critical Social Studies skills of historical thinking and citizenship, but also English (a second or often third language for them).
My Project
We know that students learn language best through using it often, in authentic and meaningful ways with as much access to the spoken word as possible. In these pandemic times of distance learning, my English Language Learners (ELLs) are at an incredible disadvantage. In a live classroom I use whiteboards, a document camera, manipulatives and the traditional pen and pencil to bring language alive each day. In our current distance learning environment, it is impossible to replicate this authentic language learning. Additionally, my ELLs are missing the many moments of the school day when they would normally be surrounded by the English language: in the hallways, on the bus ride to school, in the cafeteria and in their classrooms. Not only is the language development of my ELLs lagging far behind normal rates, the literal and virtual "distance" of distance learning is causing many of my ELLs to feel excluded, overlooked or misunderstood. Now, more than ever, it is vital that my curriculum and teaching methods speak to them and about them.
An iPad will be a bridge to greater equity and access for my most needy students.
An iPad would ensure I can bring my ELLs worlds alive in the classroom through dynamic language and visuals. I can use the iPad as a digital whiteboard. I can also load documents and images we can work on and annotate together. Students can share images and language from their homes and worlds and, with the iPad and iPencil, I can respond to these and "bring them alive," via language, for everyone. Furthermore, I can record lessons and share with students for them to review and study on their own. Recording also ensures that students who miss class or cannot attend consistently will always have access to our lessons afterwards.
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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