Understanding Identity

For educators, it is absolutely paramount to understand students' backgrounds and their self-identity. Their background is rooted in who they are, and their self-identity is the greatest aspect of who they are. Self-identity can stay the same over time, but for adolescents, it is often ever changing or in the process of being found. As a future educator, I will only be able to reach and engage students if I have the ability to understand where they individually are in their self-identity. Attached is a Venn Diagram comparing some similarities and differences between my identity and my ELL partner's identity.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10rmY_BZGQEYtJjSu0d0ueBGY2GfGG5tl62pcCo71wyQ/edit

WIDA Levels

To aid educators in assisting and evaluating ELL students and the progress of their English, the organization WIDA has set up levels of proficiency in regards to speaking, writing, reading, and listening to the English language. These WIDA levels vary among different grade clusters, and the organization breaks down English into five English proficiency standards, including social and instructional language, language of language arts, language of mathematics, language of science, and language of social studies. Within all of these different areas of language, WIDA has different degrees of comprehension ranging from 1-6, described, respectively, as Entering, Beginning, Developing, Expanding, Bridging, Reaching. In all of these varying degrees of proficiency, there are certain standards that the student needs to meet before that student can move up another level in that particular category. Within the four skills that it takes to communicate with English effectively, students can be at different levels in regards to listening, writing, speaking, and listening. As a future educator, it will be imperative for me to understand my students' WIDA levels on a personal basis so I can further assist my students in the learning process. ELL students are often highly intelligent and motivated to learn, but without having that solid basis of understanding the English language, challenges and barriers are bound to pop up along the way. WIDA levels provide educators a guide to help truly understand where their student is at in understanding English, as well as guide to best suit their educational needs in and outside the classroom when it comes to communicating information with English.

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Assisting ELL Students with Assignments

Over the course of my tutoring experience with my ELL student at Winooski High School, I have noticed a few different scaffolding techniques specifically catered to assist ELL students while they complete their homework. During a homework assignment that I was helping my ELL partner with, we watched two videos assigned by the teacher that consisted of two different people in the school board talking about their opinions about having school all year round. In both of the videos, there were subscripts so the students could read what the speaker was saying while he or she was saying it. The speakers often spoke at a fast pace and the video quality was not the best, so the subscripts were greatly appreciated by my ELL partner when we were comparing and contrasting the two videos at the end. Another scaffolding technique popped up while my ELL partner was assigned to read a rather lengthy document outlining the rise and fall of Nazi Germany. The document contained lots factual evidence and insight, but also had a fair amount of tricky words for ELL students to understand. The teacher provided the students with a handout that had definitions and explanations to not only words tricky words found in the document, but also to ideas related to the topic perhaps explained in more simple English terms. As a future educator, it will be important to provide scaffolding resources to not only my ELL students, but to all my students so they can have the adequate support while they complete independent assignments. If students have the support they need while they are independently completing assignments, they will be more inclined to be engaged on the topic and compete the assignment.


   
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