Wow! It is predicted that in the next 20 years over half of the students in America will be "members of language, ethnic, and socioeconomic minority groups" ( George, Raphael, and Florio-Ruane 2003). I am not sure why that figure shocks me-- I have certainly witnessed our ELL population grow in the last decade. As a general rule, there are very few ELL students that are also served as ESE (Special education) students at our school. I generally teach the ELL students in the Inclusion setting. Not surprisingly, about 1/3 of the Ninth Grade Literature repeater class that I co-taught last year was ELL students. Of course these students have a difficult time with our literature classes! They are given only selections written in English and must write essays in English. I have always thought this to be unfair-- it seems that we are only assessing their English skills, not their grasp of literary concepts.
This article gave specific ways to improve on this situation. First of all, I have never considered how I need to be aware of the ways that my white, middle, class Discourse might intimidate certain students. I love the idea of allowing ELL students to be the experts regarding their culture (Discourse) for their classmates and the teacher. It seems that if the classroom were more of a give and take regarding different cultures, and we truly created a classroom "quilt" of culture, that all students learning would be enriched.
I also found it interesting that the "straightforward" questions may be the most difficult for ELL students. I had no idea that many cultures value using metaphor and hypothesis to make a point. It seems that this is a skill that should be shared with all students, as it is the higher level thinking for which we are striving.
I love this article because it forces the reader to view instruction from a different lens. Metaphor and hypothesis will be critical lenses for teachers and students as the Common Core State Standards are rolled out and assessed.
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