Week 13 Assignment 1

Devoiry is a fourth-grade student who is highly social and personable. Her parents are both Israeli, and Hebrew is the language spoken at home. I observed and worked with Devoiry both during classroom instruction and recess.

I enjoyed every minute of my experience working with Devoiry and learned a lot about assessing ELL proficiency levels and differentiating instruction for these students. Noting an ELL's oral, reading, and writing proficiency is important; one needs to be able to see these students' strengths and weaknesses in order to differentiate instruction accurately and appropriately for them.

There are many English Language Learners in our classrooms today, and teachers have to know how to effectively educate these students. Teachers should assume that all students can and will succeed. A teacher’s expectations of ELL students affects their learning and performance. If you believe your students can succeed, they will. Teachers can use what they already know about literacy instruction and what they know about the ELLs in their classroom to enhance their learning by valuing linguistic differences. Instead of giving ELLs achievement goals lower than their classmates or teaching them at a lower grade level, treat linguistic differences as resources and not obstacles.

While working on this keystone project, I noticed that students are better able to comprehend the text when encouraged to relate to the text in their primary language. This method of allowing students to use their primary language as a resource instead of viewing it as an impediment is a strategy I’d like to use during literacy instruction in my own classroom. By allowing English Language Learners to use their primary language, we are helping them build upon that foundation, and they can then transfer this knowledge into their learning in English.