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Laurie Wolhart, an ESL Teacher at McKinley Elementary School in Owatonna, Minnesota

Laurie Wolhart, an ESL Teacher at McKinley Elementary School in Owatonna, Minnesota, responds to issues based on her reading of chapter 7: Practice/Application in Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model by J. Echevarria,, M. Vogt, and D. Short, (2004). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Mastery of content knowledge for ELL students in a mainstream classroom is a daunting challenge for teachers and students alike. To be successful, ELLs need to have multiple ways of practicing the content vocabulary and material to be learned. A native speaker, in most cases, begins the unit of study with a broader vocabulary base and basic understanding of common themes and ideas. This is due, in part, to their wider variety of life experiences than ELLs have had, and also their stronger command of the English language.

Many ELLs struggle in content classes such as social studies and science. In addition to the new content that everyone has to learn, the ELL is also trying to fit the “new” into an existing knowledge base that has gaps or holes in it. This creates another barrier in making the new content meaningful to them. Native speakers do not have this extra layer of learning that must occur before the ELL can master the new material.

If mainstream teachers do not recognize this double layer of learning and allow for extra practice and manipulation of the content to be learned, most ELLs will fall short of mastery and their gaps and holes in their knowledge base will continue to grow and broaden.

Effective sheltered teachers understand the need to create many
opportunities for English learners to practice and use all four language
processes in an integrated manner. Throughout the day, ELLs benefit from
varied experiences that incorporate reading, promote interactions with others, provide the chance to listen to peers’ ideas, and encourage writing about what
is being learned (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004, p. 120).

When I began putting my collaborative teaching schedule together last fall, I approached the second grade team and shared my goal for supporting ELLs in their content area learning. Since the second grade ELL students were not clustered, I was not able to collaborate by physically being in their mainstream classroom. However, I chose the “next best” scenario and discussed how I could still collaborate with them even in the form of a pull-out model. The teachers agreed that the ELLs had struggled with the science and social studies content learning in previous years and were, for the most part, excited about this new type of ELL support. Over the past months, they have kept me updated on what units of study they were covering and how they would be assessing the material. As I’ve developed my own unit plans for these chapters, I’ve attempted to integrate all four areas of language learning into my lessons. In the unit we just completed, Celebrating America, the students experienced a wide variety of activities and had numerous opportunities to connect with the material. Some of these activities included: listening to trade books read to them on the topic, completing a KWL chart together at the beginning and end of the unit, matching vocabulary words with their definitions with partners and also as teams, playing “Jeopardy” to review the main ideas of the unit, discussing holidays and months as they completed their activity guide, and writing a short, “silly story” about an animal who is experiencing a favorite holiday.

The classroom teachers tested on this unit last week and the second graders did a great job! One teacher even came into our ESL classroom to announce that the chapter test scores of her ELLs were the best so far this year! The kids were so proud of their accomplishment and her praise. They had experienced that inner satisfaction of knowing they had mastered the material…finally.

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