Hello there!
If you are reading this, you are probably an English Language Learner (ELL) specialist teacher in British Columbia.
There are so many questions that I had when I first started teaching ELLs/Emerging Bilinguals(EBs). I felt like I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Now, after almost ten years of servicing this specific population of students, I’ve learned a lot but there’s still so much to learn. Lifelong learner, indeed.
Here are the top 5 questions (and answers) about starting your journey as an ELL teaching Specialist:
What are the goals of ELL direct instruction?
PS: I now remember why I stopped using Weebly to write blog posts, as the formatting between edits in google docs and this blog platform are maddeningly atrocious. Moving on!
If you are reading this, you are probably an English Language Learner (ELL) specialist teacher in British Columbia.
There are so many questions that I had when I first started teaching ELLs/Emerging Bilinguals(EBs). I felt like I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Now, after almost ten years of servicing this specific population of students, I’ve learned a lot but there’s still so much to learn. Lifelong learner, indeed.
Here are the top 5 questions (and answers) about starting your journey as an ELL teaching Specialist:
What are the goals of ELL direct instruction?
- Ultimately, the goal of intensive language and/or specific content-based instruction is to gradually transition students into mainstream classes, once they become proficient enough in English to access the curriculum with limited direct guidance. Some students may come with high academic achievement in their L1, some may have interrupted or limited prior schooling, and some may speak a different dialect of English that makes the fast-pace of in-class learning challenging.
- Additionally, we want them to:
- “develop and maintain a sense of self-worth;
- develop and preserve a pride of heritage;
- develop communicative competence at a level commensurate with the student’s peers, according to the full extent of the student’s potential, in the areas of listening, speaking, reading, and writing;
- become oriented to those aspects of methodology, curriculum, and extra-curricular activities that differ from those of the student’s previous experiences (academic language); and
- develop an understanding of and appreciation for cultural differences and similarities” p22
- This is dependent on the district that you teach in and the student population of your area. Here on the island and in my district, we have a small team of 12 ELL Specialists for our K-8 schools and some teachers service more than one school. In metro Vancouver though for example, “the number of students whose first language is not English may outnumber or significantly compare to English-only speakers” (CONT 941 ELL Specialist course outline, 2022).
- You may work with small groups of students in the classroom or in a separate room. You may support EBs at higher levels of proficiency by co-planning, co-teaching, or consulting with the classroom teacher.
- Sometimes your role might be sheltered-instruction direct support teacher, sometimes you might support EBs in class, and sometimes the best way to support learning is to also support other students with SEL or other specific learning needs.
- Triangulate (Bilash, 2009) assessment. That is to say - gather data from various multiple and ongoing styles and kinds of assessment. This includes: conversations, observations, and products:
- Casual conversations with students can help you to understand a student’s oral (listening/speaking) proficiency and they also support the building of strong and trusting relationships;
- Observational data can be recorded as a checklist or anecdotal notes. Pro tip: only observe a small number each class, this way you can observe over a longer period of time and across different types of groupings and activities; and
- Look at the pieces that the students produce, with and without support.
- Some districts use specific assessments such as the IPT for oral, or a district-created assessment. These should align with the BC curriculum continuum of descriptors as outlined in the BC Standards.
- Consult the BC ELL Policy Guidelines (2018). If a student is a Newcomer, the assessments should take place as soon as possible, but they can also occur “at any point if there is an indication that the student might need ELL services in order to successfully access the provincially prescribed curriculum.”
- Know your students! You may have an excellent plan of service or activities that worked for your set last year, but if it’s not “bespoke” (aka informed-by) the students that you currently have, then it’s not going to be accurate to their current knowledge and levels of English ability. In terms of assessment, this is the key to providing tailored services above.
- According to Reider and Zimmerman-Orozco (2009), the “heart of effective (ELL) instruction (and therefor assessment) should be on acquiring the language focus that will help students to access regular classroom instruction, not on covering an independent timeline of discrete English proficiency skills.”
- It is important that we advocate for informed assessment practices. We need to think about the core competencies, co-construct assessment practice with learning teams, and differentiate assessment.
- It’s important that Admin and staff at each school know the cultural and linguistic makeup of their local community.
- Check the school/district websites, and documents such as BC’s Policy Guidelines for English Language Learning and English as a Second Language Learners: A Guide for ESL Specialists.
- In Victoria, for example, we have:
- Intercultural Association of Greater Victoria
- Support Network for Indigenous Women and Women of Color (SNIWWOC)
- The Greater Victoria Public Library has excellent programs to engage students and youth.
PS: I now remember why I stopped using Weebly to write blog posts, as the formatting between edits in google docs and this blog platform are maddeningly atrocious. Moving on!