Running head: LANGUAGE DIVERSITY PLAN

Language Diversity Plan

Shuang Wu

Statement of philosophy: Language is something so common that we may not even pay attention to it when we use it as our native language. But in our world, many people have to use their second language or their third language for working and studying. Could you imagine a young kid who can only speak English has to use a new language which he may never heard before or used at home for school? Over the 15 years there are about five million English Language Learners studying in the public schools in the U.S. 80% of them speak Spanish as their first Language and 20% of them represents over 400 languages. How could we include them in our classroom with their native English speaking peers? I believe the fundamental idea is to understand. In one hand, we do not only have to make our input comprehensible to them so they can follow the contents and have ample language inputs to help with their language learning. On the other hand, we also have to understand them, understand their backgrounds and needs.

Running head: LANGUAGE DIVERSITY PLAN

Teaching Strategies Student background knowledge: It has been proved in many researches that students background knowledge provides a basis for understanding, learning, and remembering. So understanding students background and design classes which can associate to their backgrounds can lay a solid foundation for their learning. They may know or understand the knowledge very well, help them to associate this obtained knowledge with newer one in their second language will make the learning process easier and more rewarding. Students and family assets: there are many assets a family and a culture can contribute to, as long as we are willing to explore and identify them. A lot of times, students may not even realize the precious assets they have. Such as languages, their diverse experiences, their learning experience, their family history, their culture practice, etc. To find out these assets, understand them and utilize them in the class will not only enrich our own teaching practice but also help the students to identify themselves and build their confidence in personal development. Talking about family history, family preference, family members, family traditions are something I would love to incorporate in my lessons. Instruction and learning activities: Culturally, based on the students background knowledge and their assets, we can develop lessons which include components to manifest them. For a language class, it might be fairly easy to incorporate, because instead of teaching Chinese and its Culture, I can include as many cultures as possible to

Running head: LANGUAGE DIVERSITY PLAN

compare and contrast the linguistic and cultural features. Linguistically, besides using vocabulary appropriate for students, using pictures, realia, there are many other strategies that could be used in our classroom, such as Graphic Organizer, Total Physical Response, Adapted readers theater (ART) and Concept Attainment. With these strategies, students are allowed to use alternative forms for receiving information and expressing their understanding of information and concepts. These could help to reinforce the concepts and information presented, with a reduced linguistic demand on the students (Echevarria, 2009). .

Graphic organizer: New ideas and concepts presented in a new language can be overwhelming for language learners. Graphic organizers take the information, vocabulary, or concept and make it more understandable by showing the key points graphically. A graphic organizer can capture and simplify a teachers many potentially confusing words. While there are many forms of graphic organizer depending on the learning task. It could be a problem/solution chart or a web with a topic with descriptor words. For order students, a concept diagram could be used. (Echevarria, 2009). Total Physical Response (TPR): TPR can be used to introduce many academic concepts concretely and comprehensively. The teacher models academic oral language accompanied by a visual or concrete support. Each key vocabulary word or concept is represented by a gesture or pantomime, allowing students to associate new information with a picture or real object and an action (Beeman & Urow 2013).

Running head: LANGUAGE DIVERSITY PLAN

Adapted readers theater (ART) is similar to TPR but minimizes the emphasis TPR places on associating a specific vocabulary word or phrase with a specific movement. In traditional readers theater, the students read a text and act it out; in ART, the teacher summarizes or paraphrases a text as she and the students act it out. Through the teachers narrations and the interaction and movement of the students, the concepts and vocabulary are previewed (Beeman & Urow 2013). Concept Attainment: In concept attainment, based on the work of Burner, Goodnow, and Austin (1956), students are provided with a series of appropriate and inappropriate examples of a concept. By analyzing these appropriate and inappropriate examples, students are able to formulate a definition or a description of the concept, even if they are unable to name it using specific formal language. The teacher then provides the formal language (Beeman & Urow 2013).

Management Strategies: Learning environment: In Vygotskys influential theory, it is stated that individual learning originates in social interaction. So encouraging students social interaction will greatly help with their language output and also motivate their learning in a nature way. To do so, the classroom environment has to be very inclusive and supportive so every student feel valued because of their difference and feel safe to interact with others.

Running head: LANGUAGE DIVERSITY PLAN

Building a community and Organizing the classroom: Due to demographic of the class, peer tutoring can be practiced according to students first language or students proficiency level. In many researches and pedagogy articles, native-language tutoring is a practice which is supported and encouraged extensively for ELLs. The idea behind it is largely associated with Cumminss concept of Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). It is believed that the students CALP, their L1 language and literature skills can be transferred to their L2 CALP. So any help in their L1 can greatly help with their L2 development. However, with large number of immigrants population from very diverse cultures and languages backgrounds, it is very hard to provide tutors or resources for students with all the languages needs. For example, in East High school, we can find tutors in Spanish or Vietnams and Chinese, but it is very hard to find tutors in other minor languages, such as Karen. So how can we utilize students L1in our classroom with five or six or even more different language background? One thing I think I would love to practice is peer tutoring. If we can find enough students who share the same L1 language, we could put them in a group so they can scaffold with each other using their native language. Sometimes, if there are students who demonstrate stronger academic or language performance. They can be leaders in the group. Also, if there are not enough students who share the same language, students can group according to their English proficiency level or academic performance. The rule is to incorporate students with different levels. ELLs will benefit from working with English-proficient and academically capable peers in groups according to Vygotskys Zone of Proximal

Running head: LANGUAGE DIVERSITY PLAN

development. A learner can better accomplish tasks with the assistance of a more capable peer. However, in practice, we may see in group activities, students might go off-task more often because they use L1 for irrelevant topic. Students are disengaged because of lacking of confidence or being board. In order to successfully implement peer tutoring, there are something I would emphasis and pay extra attention to. They are: Clear expectation, Clear instruction, Clear role assigning and responsibility description, Ample modeling, Teachings of Learning strategies, (especially for students who do not have formal education system) (note taking, using dictionary, memorizing skills), Self- and peer monitoring mechanism, Languages sharing center and Effective feedback and appreciation system. Interacting with parents and families: meeting parents and families provides a great opportunity to know students. Interacting with the parents and families will help us to know the students background and their family or culture assets. But we may have to keep in mind how to properly address problems or request help from the parents. Some parents cannot speak English, how to communicate with them might be an issue. Sometimes, the student has to be the interpreter between the teacher and the parents. We many have to apply other strategies such as written forms so the parents may able to keep record and ask help from their community afterwards.

Running head: LANGUAGE DIVERSITY PLAN

Assessment strategies Pre-assessment: As discussed before, knowing the students background is very important. That includes knowing their academic skills or knowledge background. One way we can get the information is through pre-assessment. If we have to pre-assess their content knowledge, one thing we have to pay attention is the language requirements we might overlook in our assessment. We should provide many alternative ways so the student can show their knowledge and skills. For example, instead of relying on written exam, we may have a drawing task so they may able to show the concepts or doing the assessment as a group. Varity of formal and informal assessment: For our ELLs, we have to make sure we are able to provide assessments that we can find both evidence of for the content objectives and language objectives. Because they may understand the content objective very well but they are not able to understand or use right English to demonstrate their ability. Or they have reached the language objectives but just simply do not know the contents. So including variety of assessments is crucial in the class. Portfolios, individual projects, group projects are some assessments we can incorporate culture-related components and give ample of times for the students to develop the content and languages and reinforce their work with the learning products. Giving feedback: For ELLs, feedback is very valuable to them, because they see it as a confirmation for their efforts and also the direction for their future work. So providing positive feedback to ELLs is a good way to validate their efforts. We also have to be cautious about corrective feedbacks. Some cultures are very open to corrective
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Running head: LANGUAGE DIVERSITY PLAN

feedback and see them as the cares or efforts from the teacher. However, some culture is very soft on corrective feedback. Students might feel embarrassed or discouraged with the negative feedback. So the teacher may need some opportunity to make these corrective feedbacks private, such as an individual talk after class, or a private log with the corrective feedbacks as the future personal objectives. Grading policies: I think the general grading policies should be kept the same all the time in the classroom to make sure the consistency, the fairness in the classroom. However, we need differentiate rubrics for ELLs in the classroom because they have to demonstrate both language and content abilities in the class. So we could allow them use additional resources or support in the classroom.

Running head: LANGUAGE DIVERSITY PLAN

References: Beeman, K. & Urow, C. (2013). Chapter 6: Building background knowledge. Teaching for biliteracy: Strengthening bridges between languages (pp. 78 87). Philadelphia, PA: Carlson, Inc. Cummins, J. (1984). Wanted: A theoretical framework for relating language proficiency to academic achievement among bilingual students. Language proficiency and academic achievement, 10, 2-19. Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. J. (2009). Making content comprehensible for elementary English learners: The SIOP model. Allyn & Bacon.