English Language Learners Standards and Objectives and Methodologies

1. Principled Eclecticism

1.1. The teacher proposes a variety of exercises, both written and oral, to improve the learner’s accuracy, fluency and communicative ability.

1.2. The teacher corrects errors immediately if the scope of the classroom activity is accuracy, but if the scope of the activity is fluency these errors will be corrected later on.

1.3. The teacher develops all four linguistic capabilities (reading, writing, listening and speaking).

1.4. To improve pronunciation the teacher uses drills, where students repeat automatically the phrases spoken by the teacher.

1.5. The teacher helps the student personalize the use of grammatical and lexical elements used in class.

1.6. The teacher introduces exercises of guided discovery for new grammar rules.

1.7. At times the teacher may translate – but only if they know both languages very well and believe it is the most efficient way to provide the meaning of a new concept in that moment, especially for abstract ideas.

1.8. The teacher is committed to developing a wide range of resources in order to give relevant, stimulating, and productive lessons.

1.9. SOURCE: The Principled Eclecticism Approach to Teaching English. (n.d.). Retrieved June 20, 2016, from http://blog.tjtaylor.net/method-principled-eclecticism/

2. WIDA Standards

3. PUSH-IN

3.1. Scaffolding Understanding : Using graphic organizers, visual aids, peer help, or home language help, and removing these supports as students’ skills develop.

3.2. Purposeful Grouping; ELLS need to have extended interactions with peers of varying English proficiency levels, who can provide ELLs with a range of models for how to use English words or structures appropriately, as well as abundant, personalized feedback on ELLs’ own developing English use.

3.3. Background Knowledge : Provide ELLs with relevant background knowledge or activate their existing knowledge about the topic being studied. Besides increasing student interest, this allows students to focus more fully on the instructional goals, rather than being overwhelmed with too much new information at once. It also allows ELLs to bridge new knowledge to old knowledge, increasing understanding, and it helps some ELLs fill in contextual information (such as American political history or cultural details) that they may not have due to coming from different cultural backgrounds.

3.4. Extended Discussion : ELLs learn new vocabulary best through extended discussion with their classmates after reading or between multiple readings

3.5. Valuing Linguistic Differences: Learning about ELLs’ home cultures and languages, treating cultural and linguistic differences as resources rather than obstacles, and reaching out to students’ homes and communities to build learning opportunities together.

3.6. SOURCE: 5 Key Strategies For ELL Instruction. (2013). Retrieved June 21, 2016, from https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2013/10/25/strategies-for-ell-instruction/

4. SIOP  Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol