Our Classroom

The classroom my students and I share is a relatively normal-sized elementary classroom with relatively normal-looking features, decorations, and arrangement. Yet our classroom, known as the EL (English Language) room, is a special place.

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Welcome

In our classroom, students from Young-5s all the way to 5th grade come and go throughout the day. Some come for 30 minutes a day. Some stay for an hour and return for a check-in later in the day. Still others visit just once or twice a week. But all students that share this room have a super-power ... they can understand or speak at least one other language in addition to English. Last year, over 25 languages were spoken by students or their families in our elementary school building, including Somali, Arabic, Burmese, Kinyarwanda, Nepali, Karen, Swahili, French, Vietnamese, and Bosnian, to name a few.

Throughout the day, groups of 7 to 18 students walk from their classrooms to our classroom, most for a 30 minute English Language Development (ELD) lesson. Each grade level has a designated 30-minute slot. In addition, students who are newcomers to the United States or who are at beginning levels of EL learning have 15-45 minute small group or 1-on-1 lessons with myself or the EL interventionist. These lessons are based on students' particular learning needs. The smaller groups are often multi-grade. Additionally, some students stay an extra 30 minutes to use the Imagine Learning computer program.

The Format

What We're Learning

The EL groups meet for English Language Development. This looks like lessons, aligned with the literacy topics students are working on in their classrooms, that focus on the language development needed to engage in that topic. For example, if 1st graders are learning about characters, we also will learn about characters but will focus on developing the reading, writing, listening, and speaking language domains needed along the way. We also use science and social studies as launching points for language learning. Finally, we think and talk about home languages and cultures.

Over 80 students come and go in our classroom each day. Around 30 of them were born in other countries and moved to the US, some as refugees. About 20 are at the beginning stages of learning English. Some students grew up speaking one language at home while others grew up in multi-lingual homes. Some students' families are fluent in English, while others are fluent in 3+ other languages. Each student needs some support or scaffolding in their English Language Development, but this looks very different for each child based on this wide array of backgrounds.

Students

Classroom Layout

The carpet: most whole-group lessons take place with students sitting here, near the whiteboard and projector.

The tables: a variety of group and partner table configurations allow flexible grouping.

The computer station: students have access to a quiet place to do computer work when needed.

The cubbies: students have a space where they store their materials for our class and pick up and replace these items when we start and end class.

Classroom Tools

Projector: I use our projector to share photos and videos to support vocabulary and concept development.

Texts: We have multiple copies of multi-level texts. Students can also check out books to borrow.

Word Wall: We add words as we learn them. Students who find the word get to sign their names on the wall.

Scaffolds and Supports: Sentence frames, accountable talk, and strategy posters are available for us to refer to. Students may choose to use noise-blocking headphones, whisper-phones, read-aloud tools, and special seating.

Kindergarten: when learning about the reading topic of nonfiction texts and the science topic of plants, we grow our own bean plants, using our observations as the basis for writing, talking, and reading more on the subject.

3rd: when we study nonfiction texts and text features, students engage in an extensive research and writing project on an animal of their choice.

5th: while exploring author's purpose, students make brochures, posters, slideshows, or essays and choose how to present them according to topic and purpose.

Some Favorite Projects

Student Work

The work we do revolves around the 4 language domains: speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

We practice speaking with partners, small groups, and in presentations using sentence frames and new vocabulary words or concepts. We listen to partners or presenters and follow directions, identify or summarize information, and compare, evaluate, and synthesize. We read chapter and picture books, articles, and opinions. We write to reflect, to share knowledge, and to engage.

To see examples of what students work on in each of these areas, please visit the student gallery!