Multicultural and Bilingual Learners

For the week of October 20th-24th we were given three information websites and two information videos regarding multicultual and bilingual learners, otherwise known as English Language Learners (ELL students). Each resource were fairly brief but had wonderful information to help further future special education teachers' knowledge on ELL students and various teaching techniques.

Multicultural Education: A Closer Look

This resorce gives a brief definition of what multicultural education is: education and instruction designed for the cultures of several different races in an educational system. Various pros and cons of having multicultural education are then given. A pro is that multicultural education has the potential to bring all different races together in harmony. A con to multicultural education is that some feel as though multicultural singles out the different cultures and aids in creating stereotypes and prejudices. The final section of the resource gives us a brief overview of how a healthy multicultural can be created. The basics of creating a healthy multicultural education setting is to keep a positive environment for all students and make sure everyone feels support from teachers and administrators. 

Teacher Resources: Multicultural Education

This resource was a very helpful in giving tons of brief overviews of many different teaching curriculums and teaching suggestions. The Power of Words curriculum was my personal favorite area in this resource. It gives a brief overview of the curriculum which is based on words describing various cultures and ethnicities and women and other people in society. It is said it's mainly geared for class rooms of the ninth grade level or above. Another interesting part of this resource was the method of teaching students about history through music. They suggest letting students listen to music from the past to help them learn about different time eras. Overall, this is a great resource to gain a litte bit of information about a lot of different areas concerning multicultral education.

10 Tips for Teaching English Language Learners

This resource was my personal favorite resource we were given to review for this assignment. It gave ten basic tips to help create a welcoming and successful ELL classroom. The tips were as simple as just getting to know your students. Knowing your students can make a huge impact in the classroom. It makes the students feel more welcomed and get more comfortable in the learning environment. As far as the learning aspect of the ELL classroom, a tip was to make sure that the students use SWRL everyday: speak, write, read, and listen everyday in class.

Multicultural and Bilingual Learners Video

This video resource was a video recording of an ELL classroom while class was in session. There were also short personal interview sections of the teacher in which she gave tips on how she runs her classroom and the various simple things she does to make students feel more welcome and to help them furthur their education in a comfortable environment. The video focuses a lot on the accomodations that can be made for the students that will help them succeed much better than if they didn't feel so welcomed and comfortable with their teacher and amongst the other students in the class.

Supporting English Language Learners in the Classroom

This video resource on exactly what the title says, how to support ELL students in class. This video also stressed that the teacher needs to thoroughly assess each individual student to recognize their language proficiency. Not all students are at the same learning level, therefore if the classroom is going at the pace of an advanced student, then the student that has the lowest proficiency level would, of course, be unable to keep up with the class. All possible accomodations should be made for the students so each of them can learn as much as possible and feel that they are advancing as well as all their fellow students.

What techniques I plan to implement into my future classroom

First and foremost, I plan to get to know my students as much as possible. I plan to get a better understanding of their culture and learn a few words from their first language so they know I care about them. I also plan to learn a little about their homelife so I never give them unrealistic expectations when assigning homework. Secondly, I plan to make sure all my students use the SWRL learning technique: speak, write, read, and listen to english everyday. I feel this is the best way for them to learn. Thirdly, I plan for them to have a daily question that they copy down and answer everyday when arriving to class. The Multicultural and Bilingual Learners Video discusses that this gives the students expectations that they must meet everyday and also gives the teacher a chance to take attendance. I think the students should know that they have expectations in the classroom and this is a great everyday expectation for each student to meet.