I saw this happen in my classroom with three ELL students who were foreign exchange students from South Korea. They all came into our classroom within the same month. David was the more experienced and more fluent English speaker between the three students. Eric was an eager learner and asked lots of questions whenever he did not know what an English word meant. Chanyoung was very timid and afraid to speak because he had no confidence in his english. David and Eric took it upon themselves to help Chanyoung whenever they felt it was needed. Chanyoung gave looks of "help!" to his comrades and they quickly came to his rescue. David usually knew what to do and Eric usually came straight to me with a direct question in mind. Chanyoung rarely came to me for help; instead he relied heavily on his classmate translators.
When David and Eric returned to South Korea after three months, Chanyoung was left alone in our classroom. He became even more quiet than ever before. However, he began to ask more questions to me in private. His desire and ability to survive in the English speaking classroom became evident.
This is so interesting, because I also see this is in my internship classroom since I don’t have my own yet. There are a few ELL students in the class and one ELL student who is relatively new. He struggles with the English language, however my cooperating teacher doesn’t let that get in the way of his learning.
ReplyDeleteSpecifically my cooperating teacher allows the other ELL students to help translate information for him, and he is so accepting of the help and willing to learn. He is not shy and is always asking his peers for help. The other ELL students who know a lot of the English language translate directions, and or anything else the student needs. My cooperating teacher uses a lot of visuals and hand gestures to support what she is saying to help with his learning as well.
Something so fascinating that I find my cooperating teacher do is she allows the student to share his story, ideas and or comments in Spanish since he feels more comfortable with his native language and then she has one of the other ELL students translate it for the class. It is amazing at how happy this student is that he is a part of this class.
I think that this is excellent because the student must have wonderful things to bring to the conversation, but feels limited because he is not yet proficient in English. I wish that this was a possibility with the student in my classroom, however, no other students speak Albanian. What you said reminds me of the writing piece about cultural acclimation that Maria shared with us in class. We saw the student's writing in English and then we saw the student's writing when it was translated from his native language into English. It was AMAZING to see how the student possessed such a sophisticated way with words, but as teachers, we would not have been able to tap into the knowledge if we hadn't encouraged use of the most comfortable language.
DeleteThis one conversation that Ballenger captures also sheds light on the kind of classroom environment she promotes: one that embraces children's culture, their home/family languages. Ballenger believes they can learn and participate in the classroom even if they are not speaking English. It allows those who can't yet articulate what they want to say in English to still be able to share their ideas and shine. Ballenger sends two very clear messages throughout her book: (1) Even young children hold valuable knowledge and contribute insightful ideas, and (2) The language you speak does not determine your intelligence or capabilities.
DeleteAlso, remember Rubens? The child who Ballenger noted as one of the children who claims he has forgotten to speak Creole. When this conversation heated up and he began disagreeing with another student, he switched to Creole to make his point. Though Ballenger doesn't know why he does this, she noticed it. It's like speaking in Creole was instinctual at that moment.
In my student teaching experience, there was a boy who came to the 5th grade from Iran in the middle of the year. He was a really nice boy with a quiet disposition and a sweet smile. When he came, my supervising teacher made several adjustments to make him feel as comfortable as he could. He arrived in December speaking no English. She translated the schedule on the board into Arabic and wrote it out on new cards and posted it on the board next to the English schedule. We labeled various items around the room, like the computer, chair, closet and sink, underlined chunks and circled the whole word. During Reading Workshop, one of us would sit with him and read books like Go, Dogs, Go! or similar books. During math, the teacher paired him with a strong math student who helped teach him math games on the computer. During Writers Workshop, he would often use his artistic abilities to express himself, rather than using the English language. By the time March came, he was a vibrant member of the class, and was speaking much more English than he had when he arrived. I was so impressed with the teacher's devotion and dedication to making him a successful and happy student.
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