It says  I say  And so 

Get to know your students  Important to learn students’  Plan to embrace the 
personalities, background,  resources and experiences 
language, culture and  the students bring to the 
educational background to  classroom to enhance their 
connect them to their learning  learning. Access prior 
for better engagement and  knowledge to plan, learn 
effective lesson planning.  about students’ interests and 
find what motivates them to 
I’ve had troublesome students  create connections. Offer 
in the past where when I  culturally relevant 
made the extra effort to get to  instruction.  
know their interests and 
utilized those interests to 
create meaningful lessons, 
their engagement level went 
through the roof.  

Develop learning strategies  Use multimodal methods of  Well organized lesson 
and critical thinking skills  teaching. Accessing different  planning. Develop language 
scaffolds for  objectives as well as content 
comprehensibility help  objectives. Be willing to 
students understand in  adapt instruction and 
multiple ways to aid  methods to whatever 
perception and promote  happens in the classroom.  
understanding. 

There are certain things in 

language that can’t be taught 
one-dimensionally. For 
example I’ve taught music for 
many years and there’s always 
99 different ways to show a 
student what dynamics is.  

Be ready to adapt and  Student confusion or  Use quick comprehension 

improvise  misunderstanding do happen  checks constantly to see if 
during lessons. To teach  changes need to be made to 
effectively, we need to  the lesson. Plan ahead and 
evaluate quickly in real time  predict where issues might 
and adjust according to what  come up. Be ready with talk, 
tasks and materials 
 students know and what they  according to student 
do not know.   responses. 

All of my students learn at   

their own individual pace. In a 
band or choir setting, it’s a 
“leave no one behind “ 
mentality so I always plan for 
hurdles in tough areas of 
music. The students who are 
ahead can use this time to 
review and strengthen their 
knowledge.  

Constructive feedback  Understand language  Response to a student’s error 

developmental levels of  delivered strategically and in 
students and know  a timely manner to suit the 
appropriate instructional  language development level 
strategies for each level.  of the student. Timeliness is 
Important to assess  more important with oral 
accordingly and to be specific  feedback than with written 
in that assessment while  feedback.  
connecting to what the 
student is already doing well 
in.   

Transparency and honesty is 

more important now than ever 
in teaching. I try to show my 
students that by consistently 
giving them motivation 
through constructive 
feedback. 

Reading Comprehension  Read aloud frequently while  Providing reading materials 

providing strong oral and  with students’ interests, 
written language models for  hobbies, cultural and content 
students to follow. Cultivate  background knowledge can 
students’ ability to use oral  be helpful. Provide L1 
English and create  assistance if needed. 
opportunities for them to use 
it. 

When I first moved to Canada, 

my ELL teacher and I always 
read out loud together. She 
 used relatable materials I was 
familiar with and had interests 
in (i.e. Korean folk tale, sports I 
enjoyed etc.) could translate in 
my mind from L1 to L2 to gain 
understanding quickly.