Teaching ELLs

In today's educational landscape, cultures from all over the globe are found in classrooms throughout the US. In many well-funded and well-to-do districts, each foreign language has a teacher who is fluent and has the resources to teach English to these learners.

However, this is not always the case.

The Arizona Daily Sun writes of a school in Arizona who has suffered repercussions from the state's choice to no longer teacher ELL students in bilingual classes. The kindergarten class in question featured at least 4 different languages, with many of the students being very unversed in English. The teacher, Sara Henderson, was unable to speak many of the languages presented to her in the class.

This same district found themselves so strapped for ELL teachers that they combined 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade ELL students into one classroom, effectively making the class into little more than a place to send students to be babysat for 8 hours a day.

Henderson found herself putting in mass amounts of money to ensure each student had proper learning materials. She found herself at such a loss that she began recommending to parents that ELL students be placed in traditional classrooms, believing that they would learn more.

Henderson eventually decided her efforts not worth it, and resigned from her teaching position.

This is one of the many problems still looming in public schools that must be tended to. Minorities must be accounted for to ensure that each student has equal opportunities. We will fail as a service until this can be ensured.

-William "Buddy" Tyree

Sources:

Adams-Ockrassa, Suzanne. “Teacher Shortage: 24 Students, 5 Languages, 1 ELL Teacher.” Arizona Daily Sun, 1 Oct. 2017, azdailysun.com/news/local/teacher-shortage-students-languages-ell-teacher/article_e4e66b60-163f-5a61-a92e-6b59397f844d.amp.html.

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