The students I teach are participants in the first grade science based, dual language program. The groups are devised into one-third Spanish dominant, one-third English dominant and one-third balanced bilingual. The majority of my learners are predominantly of Hispanic descent, with the remaining from African American descent. At the early stage of language, cognitive, personality and social development, I recognize that not all children progress at the same rate through these stages of development. The majority of my learners are impacted with everyday challenges that many children do not experience throughout child development. Understanding the type of factors that affect the children throughout their development and selecting educational tools to benefit them can serve as guidance.
Strategies that I will use:
The strategies I will use to teach my dual language students are
the Five Standards for Effective Pedagogy
adapted from the
Teaching Alive Program
created by the Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence. This program is designed to help teachers meet the needs of English language learners, but serves as a valuable resource for any classroom (www.crede.ucsc.edu).
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- Joint Productive Activities:
Teachers and students producing together
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- Language Literacy Development:
Developing competence in the language and literacy of instruction across the curriculum.
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- Contextualization: “
Making meaning.” Connecting teaching and the curriculum to experiences and skills of students’ home and community.
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- Challenging Activities: C
hallenge the students toward cognitive complexity.
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- Instructional Conversation:
Engaging students through dialogue with a goal that guides conversation with students.
