When I was an ELL in grades 7-8, I didn't experience much (if any) scaffolding or differentiated instruction from my teachers. I think, back then, my school operated under the assumption that ELLs learn best by observing and remaining uninvolved in class until they demonstrate a desire to participate. As a result, I was left out of all of my classes for about a semester (but I learned a lot this way too!). Perhaps because of my experience as an ELL, I always find it refreshing to read articles like this that suggest teachers provide differentiated instruction such as the scaffolded reading experience to ELLs. The pre-teaching of key vocabulary (terms that are specific to each subject) is a great idea to help everyone in class. I think this is especially helpful to ELLs because it helps them establish confidence in their reading abilities as they see other native speaking students also struggle with confusion with vocabulary. As a math intern, I actually think the subject of mathematics lends itself well to teaching ELLs English! Math problems are often short and clear and ELLs can acquire many basic reading skills from just tackling math problems (that's actually how I learned English when I first came to America). As someone who has gone through the English language learning phase, this is a subject that's close to my heart and I'm really glad that education is moving toward a direction of differentiated instruction for all learners. Thus, my one piece of advice for teachers that have ELLs in their classrooms is to not be afraid of them and involve them in class in a non-stressful way (meaning don't make them read out loud in class if they're not comfortable doing that)!
The article on word gap as a result of different family environments paints a scary picture to how chance (which family you were born into) can play a great factor in your vocabulary and reading scores. I'm not too terribly shocked, to be honest. I figured experiences are a significant factor in people's learning (Piaget's theory on learning stressed experience and interacting with your environment). What I found interesting is the ratio of encouragements and discouragements and how it correlates with family socio-economical statues and eventually student's vocabulary and reading scores.
As education is moving towards a more hands-on and student-centered approach, I think establishing a good class environment is going to be a top priority! Students are expected to do more discovery-inquiry tasks in groups and you can't simply do well in this kind of environment without having a healthy classroom environment! As Maslow's hierarchy of needs tells us, we need to have our safety and esteem needs met first before we can strive for self-actualization. Students have to feel safe to learn, talk, ask questions, try, succeed, and fail in their classrooms. Chapter seven in Zemelman's book Subjects Matter contains some wonderful tips for teachers to help their students feel empowered inside the classrooms. I really like the part about that suggests giving students a sense of control inside the class and holding in-class conferences to get to know all the students (and set goals). What I consider to do with my honors geometry class next semester is to give them the option of arranging the test dates with me. I want my students to learn to negotiate with authority figures (in this case, me!) in an assertive way and I think tests are something teachers have a little flexibility over (it doesn't hurt that much to move a test one day back, but it can help the students tremendously!). As an intern, I'm beginning to see the difficulty of learning about all 80 students in your class in one semester! I think the one-on-one conference is a great way to get to know all the students and help them set goals!
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