Brick Walls

I'll start my blog off by discussing "brick walls" ELL students seem to hit when it comes to the subject area of Language Arts. It is hard for an 8 year old to learn to write in narrative, expository, and descriptive modes anyway...throw a language barrier into the mix...borderline impossible! That's what I thought in August of 2009 at least! Being put into a classroom, as a first year, with 6 ELL students was quite overwhelming to say the least. These children were from Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Spanish background. As the year progressed and we explained to mom and dad the importance of help at home and how much practice was needed just with basic things like reading out loud and learning basic vocabulary, 3 of those 6 students progressed to general ed. students! They ended the year with language not being a factor in their ability to learn. They learned to overcome the obstacles with the help of myself, at home, and the ELL teacher. Proud! On the other hand, the 3 students that didn't make much progress were those students whose parents did not speak english, no family member spoke english, and had no motivation to succeed. I found these students struggling so much when it came to basic Language Arts grades. Proper grammar usage in their speaking was suffering because of their lack of support so you can only imagine their grammar usage on paper. I just believe that if these kids are properly supported it is so hard for them to overcome the "brick wall" or barrier if you will. What does everyone think about ELL children and learning to write in the modes? This was just a little jump start!