The COVID pandemic has taken a toll on all of us, but the grand effect is has had on our children is unmeasurable. One of the greatest effects have been on subpopulations such as our English Language Learners. There has always been an academic gap among ELs, but the pandemic widened the gap. These students have definitely faced unique setbacks in comparison to their English-speaking peers. I am the kindergarten through 4th grade EL teacher at my school.
Even though our district had the option of in person learning last year, over 80% of my EL families opted to keep their children at home and do distance learning. These families faced enormous challenges attempting to support their children to learn remotely through Google Meets or Zoom. While I have always promoted speaking their primary language at home, not having the opportunity to collaborate and communicate with native English speakers on a daily basis has really put my EL learners at a disadvantage, socially, emotionally, and academically.
My concerns for my ELs during the COVID pandemic are:
*Not gaining academic English language input and having exposure to native English peer models. This has caused language and cultural barriers.
*No experiential learning or hands on learning where language learners learn best. It was hard to build background knowledge and pre-teach academic vocabulary, have access to visual representations, provide sentence stems, and allow time for oral rehearsal.
*Providing language scaffolds and supports in an online environment was not ideal.
Goals:
My focus will be on social emotional learning, building background knowledge, and supporting academic vocabulary through literature and classroom activities. Students range in their English language proficiencies in speaking, listening, reading, and writing no matter their grade level, therefore the books can be used across grade levels. Thank you for your consideration!
About my class
The COVID pandemic has taken a toll on all of us, but the grand effect is has had on our children is unmeasurable. One of the greatest effects have been on subpopulations such as our English Language Learners. There has always been an academic gap among ELs, but the pandemic widened the gap. These students have definitely faced unique setbacks in comparison to their English-speaking peers. I am the kindergarten through 4th grade EL teacher at my school.
Even though our district had the option of in person learning last year, over 80% of my EL families opted to keep their children at home and do distance learning. These families faced enormous challenges attempting to support their children to learn remotely through Google Meets or Zoom. While I have always promoted speaking their primary language at home, not having the opportunity to collaborate and communicate with native English speakers on a daily basis has really put my EL learners at a disadvantage, socially, emotionally, and academically.
My concerns for my ELs during the COVID pandemic are:
*Not gaining academic English language input and having exposure to native English peer models. This has caused language and cultural barriers.
*No experiential learning or hands on learning where language learners learn best. It was hard to build background knowledge and pre-teach academic vocabulary, have access to visual representations, provide sentence stems, and allow time for oral rehearsal.
*Providing language scaffolds and supports in an online environment was not ideal.
Goals:
My focus will be on social emotional learning, building background knowledge, and supporting academic vocabulary through literature and classroom activities. Students range in their English language proficiencies in speaking, listening, reading, and writing no matter their grade level, therefore the books can be used across grade levels. Thank you for your consideration!
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