5.12 Demonstrate skill in assessment and instruction with English language learners from diverse backgrounds and at varying English proficiency levels.
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Keeping Up With Kharina! Working with English language learners from diverse backgrounds is an integral part of being an educator today. Teachers must be able to meet the needs of students from different backgrounds and varying levels of English proficiency. The students must be welcomed into the classroom and made to feel safe. Once the student feels as though they are a part of an inviting classroom community, they must be assessed. The Student Oral Language Observation Matrix (SOLOM) should be administered early on to determine the student's proficiency level. When a proficiency level has been determined, the educator can begin to plan accommodations and strategies to assist the English language learner's progress in the classroom.
I had the pleasure of meeting Kharina within the first few weeks of school. She was a bit shy at first, but as soon as she was comfortable with me, she became an insatiable chatter box. After a week of observation, I administered the SOLOM. Her comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, and oral grammar were quite good and almost on level with her peers. Her pronunciation, however, was poor, and it was challenging to understand her speech. She did not let this stop her though. She had a million questions for me, and nine hundred ninety-nine thousand of them were "Why?" She wanted to know how everything worked. She wanted to know the reasoning behind my every action. She is a highly inquisitive student with an infectious smile. I spent a great deal of time working with Kharina one on one. However, she is a very social student and craves interactions with her peers. One of her favorite activities is making up stories that she, then, shares with her peers. She also likes to Buddy Read with students with higher reading levels. "Their books are more exciting," she told me once. I planned a series of activities that would give Kharina a chance to work with her peers. I made sure that they were on material that she knew as we had worked on it previously. This gave her the opportunity to shine in the classroom, and it bolstered her confidence. I will strive to include more activities that help showcase Kharina's talents. In my future classroom, after assessing each of my English language learners, I will make every effort to accommodate their needs and make them feel included and safe. |