2nd Vblog

 https://youtu.be/GnPEOVe_TRc

For my second blog, I interviewed one of our ELL teachers in 4^th grade, Brenda Garcia. Mrs. Garcia has been teaching for over 13 years. She has been in multiple campus for teaching before coming to Taylor Ray. Her first language was Spanish living in Mexico, until 5 where she started her English and phonics and such. It was hard at first for her to speak both English and Spanish just to not feel embarrassed but not sure how respond at some points.

When it comes to her students, Mrs. Garcia talks about her bilingual students and talk about anchor charts, a preview in lesson in Spanish, and then whole groups in English and then back to Spanish to review. She also as accommodations such as extra time, small group support, and resources online to use, as well as books for other subjects for science and social studies. For social studies, her bilingual students are learning mostly in Spanish, sometimes English as sometimes science but for math, both Spanish and English are languages for students to practice their English, coming to the United States. These teaching methods are not only for 4^th grade but can be for all grade levels, especially as students go into middle school.

For future ELL teachers, the message is to not assume and give love and support for them and students will pick up cues and get support they need. Give the content to the language they use more before explaining in English, protecting their language. "We acquire language when we understand messages or obtain comprehensible input. That is, we acquire language when we understand things we hear or read (Wright, 2019, Pg.54)."

 

References: 

Wright, Wayne (2019). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and. Practice. Caslon Publishing. Third Edition.