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This article offers strategies to early childhood educators as they are instructing English Language Learners in language and literacy development. Highlights in this article include instructional strategies, explicit vocabulary activities, exposing students to multiple opportunities to speak with both peers and adults, and encouraging language development inside and outside of the classroom. These strategies are helpful in thinking about guiding my ELL students to improve their oral language skills.

This article describes the incorporation of web conferencing in a foreign language classroom with the purpose of improving listening and speaking skills. Although the number of students in the study is small, the authors provide very specific recommendations for the implementation of this technology in the classroom. This technology allows students more time to practice and interact with their L2 since the conferencing can be done outside of the classroom.

Having teachers experience "a day in the life of an ELL" can be powerful professional development-and at one school it's reportedly helped close the achievement gap. ELL 'Shadowing' Brings Instructional Gaps to Light, Liana Heitin (2011) Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2011/08/24/ell_shadowing.html Retrieved on 10/19/15 Great article with a fresh new idea!!!! This article tells the tale of "A teacher or administrator follows an English-language learner to several classes." I have "shadowed" in a classroom before, usually to observe the teacher. But the purpose of this shadowing is to look specifically at the student's use of academic language. Statistics show "English-language learners spend less than 2 percent of the school day improving their academic oral language." That number is completely unacceptable. I think we as teachers could all benefit from "shadowing" students. It does not have to just be ELL students we shadow. Reviewing data and becoming educated about the students who struggle would help with the shadowing process. Maybe we could start with shadowing the students who aren't improving in order to better understand why they are behind.

(Week 8: Javon and Kim) I found this article on UMUC in the online Library. Traditionally, classrooms are not assessment-centered focus. Most often students take an assessment after learning specific content, but in an assessment-centered learning environment, the teacher and students have a road map for learning and is more positive. Author and Professor, Steven L. Turner, PhD., raises an article on creating an assessment-centered learning classroom. He does this by presenting PILOT -an acronym for an assessment strategy. PILOT Assessment Strategy P- Preassessment The purpose of Preassessment is to evaluate a student's knowledge about a particular subject that will be taught. Turner suggesting asking a series of questions to gain this information (i.e. "What is the student's current knowledge about this unit", "What students are interested in this topic?" etc.). Preassessment surfaces student thinking and information that helpful for teachers and those designing curriculum and assessments. I-Identify student strengths and areas of need (readiness) Identifying the areas where students are strong enables them to be more engaged in the topic. Students are also able to self-assess to identify where they presently are, become aware of their challenged areas, and what it will take for their progress. L-link differentiated classroom learning experiences to district standards and learning goals Linking the classroom learning experience to standards and benchmark testing have proven to be successful. Curriculum that links with the Common Core Standards - what students in K-12 should learn in language arts and math, strengthens foundational knowledge for students. O-offer multiple in-class assessment opportunities Offering multiple assessment methods allows the student to take control of their learning while putting them in the "driver's seat." Although this step could be time consuming it shows the student that the instructor cares and is conc

("Week 8" Group Members: Beth and Ruchel) The article explores a study conducted to see the patterns of within-group variability in the emergent literacy skills of preschoolers who are at risk for academic difficulties. The study can be used as a helpful resource to determine the relationships between early patterns of literacy performance and later reading achievement.

WEEK 4, Name: Julie - 2ND Grade Teacher SMART Goal: At least 80% of students in grade two will be reading level K books or above by the end of 6 weeks. SUMMARY: This article focuses on reading instruction, and discusses why it is important for parents and educators to familiarize ourselves with what scientific-based research tells us about teaching reading comprehension. The topics covered in the article includes scientific research on phonemic awareness, phonics instruction, fluency instruction, vocabulary instruction, and text comprehension instruction. The article determines that there is not a one size fits all solution in reading comprehension intervention. For instance, the article states that students that have underlying decoding or fluency weaknesses would most likely also need instruction in vocabulary and comprehension strategies.

SMART Goal: Given one month, students in below grade level reading groups will be able to increase their reading level by at least one level. This resource is useful for teachers looking to improve the reading abilities of young students. When discussing phonics instruction, this article aides educators in articulating the significant relationship between letters of written language and sounds of spoken language to developing readers. In addition to addressing the fundamentals of phonics, this resource offers methods for fluency instruction, such as repeated oral reading.

WEEK 8 - (Chris Baugher, Patricia Bankis and A. Burns) Assessment is the key to good instruction. It shows us what students know and allows us to adjust our instruction. Assessment is tied to learning goals and standards, but students must own the assessment process as well, as they must be able to articulate what and how they are being assessed -- and its value.

This article provides five useful strategies to help students improve and to improve assessments. There are two key factors in this article which ring true for me. The first is "formative assessment and feedback along the way" (Miller 2015) where students are given specific feedback on their assessment on how to improve and continue forward (Miller 2015). "Formative assessment allowed students to experiment and, yes, sometimes fail. However, they were given the tools, both through feedback and instruction, to improve and move forward to success." (Miller 2015). What this entails if differentiated instruction; something my district and school are pushing for. The second is "student ownership of assessment process" (Miller 2015). Giving students choice, options, and freedom allows students to take ownership and responsibility for doing something all while doing their best on it. In addition, students will know more about what is being asked of them or what they're supposed to do in order to earn a higher grade or preform the task more effectively. "These methods mean that assessment is no longer done to students, but with them, putting the focus on the student and learning" (Miller 2015). Hopefully with these implementations and integration, students can feel the focus from assessment scores to learning content and gaining understanding.

This article is useful when considering big picture assessment objectives. In my own experiences, I have touched upon each of these strategies when conducting an assessment, but I've never built each of them into one assessment. The (5) strategies mentioned in this article include: Aligning Essential questions at the beginning of a unit to standars, building in written assessment components for students to describe/explain in writing, creating performance and project-based assessments to demonstrate understanding and application of concepts taught, regular and on-going formative assessments and feeback to help teachers to better tailor instruction to meet each learner's needs, and involving students in the decision-making process when choosing activities and when determining diagnostic measurement tools. As a World Language teacher, I think that these tasks which are challenging in themselves to build into curriculum, become extremely difficult in the L2 setting. I'm wondering how L2 instructors find themselves doing each of these things on a regular basis. Do they conduct all of it in L2, as it is suggested that L2 teachers do, or does some of this end up being done in English?

Week 8: Partner: Cecile Droz This article discusses a new way to give student's warm-up exercises. Instead of having them complete them at the beginning of class, the students will complete the warm ups up to 3 days before they are due. The warm-ups will prepare the students for the upcoming week of assignments. The best type of warm-up assignments give the students a scenario that they are familiar with. It is important for the educator to determine if there are any misconceptions by looking at the warm-ups to determine what concepts need to be addressed again.

Although not everything described in this article applies necessarily to all subjects, the idea that teachers need to be more aware of the prior knowledge students have before they present new materials is very interesting. In second language, for example teachers use students' oral and written productions to assess their command of grammar but before any cultural or historical unit, it would make sense to address prior knowledge and rectify what needs to be rectified before introducing new ideas/material.

The use of warm-ups as a combination of extension, priming, and pre-assessment is novel. This gives students time and mental space to make a prediction and then bring it to class, prepared and ready to learn. I will definitely be employing this in a class I am designing next year.