ELL+Case+Study+Part+3

**__ Part 3: Personal Plan of Action __**

 * ELL Case Study Parts 1 & 2 || ELL Case Study Part 4 || ELL Case Study Interviews || Partner - School Data || National Data ||

After thoroughly looking over the data collected, what I've learned about Adams City Middle School, and the concern for English Language Learners in the country, I've decided on five plans of action that I would use as a teacher if the students from the study were in my classroom. What I mainly want to focus on is the improvement of the classroom, and improvements amongst the teaching staff. I believe that focusing on the classroom first will demonstrate positive changes for ELLs and aid in the understanding of why teachers need to be more knowledgeable of their students. There needs to be a continuous push for adapted instruction, as opposed to having to solely focus on the following grade year, CSAP scores or the No Child Left Behind Act. While I realize that this is not easy, at the moment, "by focusing on the future and rigidly holding to the arbitrary grade-level curriculum or course of study, we may be reducing the chance for student success and further alienate students from school" (Vitto, 2003, pg. 118). As teachers, we need to conscious of the lesson plans we create and be able to look back at them and think if what we're teaching in class can be truly differentiated for all students.

__1. Visualization of Key Facts of Information__ Having been in different classrooms and reading the observations of other students in the study, there currently seems to be little-to-no visualization as coursework is being taught. There may be an overhead or SMARTboard projection of what the teacher and class are working on "I do, we do"), but the worksheet, graphic organizer, etc. may not be visually stimulating for all students. This is where 'playing school' seems apparent, where students go through "the motions of learning" (Nelson, 2001) where they don't fully conceptualize the processes they're learning or why they are important. Everyone, not just students have multiple intelligences when it comes to processing information and key facts, which is why visualization in the classroom needs to be stressed upon. According to Gardner, there are eight intelligences, where "students' strengths and preferences affect not only the ease with which they learn but also how they can best represent what they know and understand" (Heacox, 2002, pg. 22). ELL students need to have 2D and 3D representations, they need to see the content in action via a documentary or YouTube video. Including these visualizations in a classroom creates no disadvantage, even those who do not need differentiation in their coursework will appreciate the effort going into the class.

__2. Increasing the Amount of Indirect Instruction__ While following my student around the school, I realized that there is hardly any indirect instruction going on in the classroom. Most classes are taught via Direct Instruction, which I believes leaves the students wanting to talk and interject, but necessarily can't. The students also have so much energy, that they need to have somewhere (other than) where then can talk with one another while working on their classwork.The same can be said of ELL students; having group work or small group discussions means that ELLs are able to have fellow students assist them with the class work, whether speaking in Spanish or a mixture of Spanish and English. No matter what reading level, Indirect Instruction allows for the teacher to "take advantage of students' interest and curiosity, often encouraging them to generate alternatives or solve problems" ([|Saskatoon]).

__3. Pulling from the Students Funds of Knowledge/Motivation__ Another action I plan to take is to pull from students funds of knowledge. Adams City Middle School students are very diverse and have seen or gone through many events in their lives that the typical American student has had yet to experience. I believe that by pulling from students' funds of knowledge, there will be a stronger level of engagement in the classroom for all students. As Dalton (2008) states, the "more heterogeneous the participants are, the more information there is potentially available to influence the accomplishment of a successful joint product" (pg. 67), such as a team building activity or small group discussion.

__4. Creating More Opportunities for ELLs__ While English Language Learners have ELD classes as part of their elective, they need more than just one course where using their first language is encouraged. This is not to say that using Spanish in the rest of their classrooms is discouraged; it's just rarely used by the teacher in terms of how they teach and how welcoming the classroom environment is to those who are bilingual. After school programs (on days where the school offers late buses home) play a "significant role in increasing language acquisition rates for ELLs and decreases the time it takes ELLs to re-designate into mainstream English classrooms" ([|After School Network]). While [|Adams County] provides many after school and summer programs, there does not seem to be a program focused on aiding ELLs in acquiring academic English. Whether it be through a grant or through the district, as a teacher I plan to assist ELLs in any way that I can with their English development.

__5. Teacher Education in ELL Education in the District, State and Nation__ In order to best help ELLs, teachers (not including ELD teachers) should have professional learning hours after school so that they can be caught up in the issues and frustrations ELLs face in the classroom. While most professional learning occurs during the day for an 8 hour period, I feel that this is lost time for teachers to get to know their students. Having professional learning hours (or maybe even just an hour) discussing ELLs in the news, the organizations that help them and the methods and techniques teachers can use in the classroom. As teachers, we need to be aware, to be empathetic towards English Language Learners in terms of how they interact with others and how they learn in order to assist them in fully acquiring academic English in the classroom.

__**Reference List:**__ //Adams County Youth Initiative: After School & Summer Programs//. Retrieved October 6th, 2011. http://www.acyi.org/content/after-school-summer-programs

Dalton, S.S. (2008). //Five Standards for Effective Teaching: How to Succeed with All Learners//. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

//Instructional Strategies Online//. Retrieved October 4, 2011 from http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/pd/instr/index.html.

Nelson, G. (2001). Choosing Content That's Worth Knowing. //What Should We Teach?, 59//, 12–16.

Vitto, J.M. (2003). Relationship-Driven Classroom Management: Strategies That Promote Student Motivation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). //Understanding by design//. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.