(NAME-MCE) Question to post

[Barbara Acosta]

Yes, you can support ELLs in a class that is not equally mixed. This does
NOT mean tracking. Tracking means that students are placed in relatively
permanent groupings according to perceived ability. This approach is unjust,
and assures that students in the lowest levels never have an opportunity to
get into the higher tracks that better prepare them for college. 

In contrast, you can conduct cooperative learning with mixed ability groups
and combine this strategically with leveled (temporary) groups by ability
(e.g., for short, targeted lessons by English language proficiency). The key
is that your groupings are temporary, and that you are providing
opportunities for students of all ability levels to interact and cooperate
on tasks that everyone can be successful on (e.g., the higher level students
for a particular skill can learn by teaching their peers, while the lower
level students are challenged to move beyond their current level). 

You can also be conscious of setting up a variety of tasks so that your ELLs
are the higher level students on at least some tasks. (Do something that
requires their home language, cultural knowledge, nonverbal knowledge etc.).
Every child is stronger in some skills and knowledge than others. Knowing
your students well will help you to build on these strengths.

To effectively teach integrated classrooms of ELLs and native English
speakers, teachers must receive AMPLE and ongoing professional development
in areas such as:

- sheltered English methodologies

- differential instruction

- cooperative learning

- multicultural education

etc.

A final word of wisdom: What works with native English speakers can often be
harmful to ELLs. But what is good for ELLs is good for all students.

Hope this is helpful.

Barbara D. Acosta, Ph.D.

 

Message: 3

Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 11:46:39 EDT

From: Jrd255 at aol.com

Subject: (NAME-MCE) Question to post

To: name-mce at nameorg.org

Message-ID: <d28.6f71c31.33257e5f at aol.com>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Currently in my school, our E.S.L. population has increased. In order to
service all these children our principal has grouped all E.S.L. students
within one general education classroom per grade. The problem is that this
then becomes an E.S.L. class because the ratio between E.S.L. and non E.S.L.
does not support English language learners because the class is not equally
mixed according to achievement levels.

The teachers of these classes are having difficulties supporting these
students.

My question is should E.S.L students be grouped and tracked within general
education classroom?

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