A Final Reflection

Looking back on this program, there is a lot to reflect on. The amount of knowledge and realizations I have had around English language learning has been incredible. Prior to this, I was an educator who put ELLs in their own `silo` of learning and I certainly had no understanding of what our ELL Specialist could provide. I had no knowledge of cultural awareness, except around celebrations, food, clothing, etc. I did not understand who a refugee was. I also didn`t realize all the terrific strategies and frameworks that I, as a classroom teacher, could implement to help our ELL students in the classroom, no matter my level of understanding of the language acquisition process. I realized that traditional assessments were not serving this group of students, but I was unaware of how to provide other opportunities for them to share their learning or higher-order thinking. 

Looking back, there is one particular thing I wish I had known all along: the difference between social and academic language acquisition. I can reflect on many students I have taught that I felt were proficient in English; they were categorized as level 4 in ELL and operated seamlessly in the classroom. However, their academics were lacking in areas. They struggled to read or to write; they struggled to connect some concepts (but were amazing at creating connections in others). Previously, my concern would jump to a learning disability. Through my learning and reflection, I now understand there was likely a gap in their academic language acquisition. They required more opportunities to practice using academic vocabulary and language structure in each of the modalities; they needed specific lessons and more variety in activities to gain this skill set. I wish I had known then what I know now.

Upon this reflection, I hope that somehow some of these basic facts about ELLs can become a part of the teacher education programs in our province. Having knowledge of these big ideas assists educators in better understanding their students and therefore giving us the opportunity to know how to best help them. I feel that there is so much that can be done to provide a more equitable education for this group of students by all educators, even without a full understanding of the language acquisition process. Educators should know about the difference between social and academic language acquisition. They should know the definition of cultural awareness and how it relates to behaviours, attitudes, family, etc. Educators would benefit from explicit knowledge of frameworks like UDL and RTI; it would be easy to motivate classroom teachers to incorporate these frameworks as they are in the best interest of all students, not just ELLs. If educators realized that small changes like cultural representation, variety of materials, and encouraged use of home language in the classroom could boost and reaffirm student identities, I think the majority would make some effort to address these things. We all want our students to succeed, but we can`t help if we don`t know what we don`t know.

Moving forward, I intend to become an advocate, or ambassador, for ELLs, whether I move into the specialist field or remain in the classroom. I think the best thing I can do, outside of my own classroom, is to provide fellow colleagues with opportunities to learn about their ELLs and how to best support their learning needs. My goal is to provide simple ways that fellow educators can assist their ELLs; I plan to provide direct strategies and resources that can be easily implemented in the classroom. If my colleagues do not feel overwhelmed and observe that these strategies are directly related to their work tasks, they are likely to be on board. Once the staff has some basic knowledge and related experience working with ELLs, I think their engagement around ELL education will increase, as they can provide feedback and have discussion. I feel this is the opportunity for some in-depth learning to occur (once there`s buy-in). I`ve already been in discussion with my administration and he is considering how to provide me with some collaboration time with our current ELL Specialist. She and I have some ideas for mini workshop sessions during our professional development days throughout the year. We hope to encourage more in-class support by explaining and demonstrating what it looks like through strategies that will not eat up a lot of personal time for collaboration. We hope to make it feel easy and approachable for other educators. Small steps are better than nothing for our ELLs! I`m excited to see how this grows as we move forward and to take this knowledge and these experiences with me as I move forward in my career.