Kathleen C. Rende
In this kindergarten classroom, I have a unique population. I teach in a dual language kindergarten classroom where half my students are learning a second language through content. Throughout the day I must integrate different teaching strategies to make content comprehensible to all students in the classroom. By creating an interdisciplinary unit to explore the concept of energy with my students, I can allow the student to investigate that topic with their diverse and individual learning styles.
One of our main goals of the dual language program is the development of oral language. New words and vocabulary are best learned while the concepts for those words are being experienced. When the students carry out the lesson with the teacher, they are always encouraged to talk about the experiences before, after and during to allow for the greatest manipulation of language. By creating a situation where children learn in a small group I help them gain skills like listening and thinking critically about the process in which they and their peers acquire information.
Sheltered instruction plays a major role in teaching a population of second language learners. Strategies such as instructional conversations, demonstrations and modeling can establish optimal learning of concepts and vocabulary. (Richard-Amato, p.302-303) Sheltered instruction includes other methods like contextualizing a lesson to make it meaningful to a child’s life. The use of graphic organizers or hands on activities can help a student gain a better and deeper understanding of the content and the language.
In my classroom, the students work in activity centers for most of the day so the teacher led activities will always have a follow-up center that usually consists of a writing/journal center where they will respond to whatever concept they explore in the teacher led activity center. All concepts and activities need to be clearly presented to the students before hand. All activity plans are written with content and language objective to ensure that information is presented to every student with his/her developmental language levels in mind.
