ELL REFLECTION As I have student taught this last semester, I have learned a few important lessons when addressing

and satisfying the needs of cultural and linguistic diversity. (1) When you address the needs of your ELL students who need extra support, authentic and meaningful experiences and concrete activities, all your students will benefit! (2) Building off of students pre-existing knowledge and abilities is the best way to achieve success. Once again this will benefit all students. It is important to ensure that misunderstandings are due to content and not language barriers. Assess students understanding in their L1 whenever possible and build from there! (3) Altering the context of curriculum content to fit the common interests and real life experiences of students, particularly for those who are not native to the U.S. and dont know or understand our culture and life here, will better enable students to apply the content in meaningful ways, and therefore in successful ways (4) Know where your students are coming from. Get to know them. Understand their culture as well as their personal interests. At the risk of being repetitive this is important to do with all students! Knowing where students come from and what their lives and families are like and what they are interested in, will empower you to relate to your students and better meet their needs (5) Explicit vocabulary instruction and language development is necessary for success in all subject areas not just language arts. (6) Simple differentiation in lessons and daily activities will best support all students. Many of students are pulled out several times during the day for various supports and interventions. However, I feel their time in my classroom is just as valuable if not more. But it wont be if I just ignore them and wait for the specialists to come get them. Supporting the various needs of all students, particularly ELL students, all comes down to good teaching. By engaging in effective, best practices of instruction you will best support every need present in your classroom. My abilities to effectively address and satisfy the various needs of students in my classroom can be seen in the list of diversity practices provided above as well as the lesson plan posted above. The list of diversity practices includes all the strategies that have been put in place in my classroom to support the needs of my ELL students (as well as all students). As objectives are stated, instructions are given clearly, cultures, languages, and students experiences and interests are tied into the core content, manipulatives are used, modeling and scaffolding is provided, language is simplified, etc. I am establishing an environment that supports the different needs of all students.

The attached lesson plan demonstrates my ability to differentiate lessons according to ELL levels of students in my class, use engaging activities, utilize students L1 language, post language and content objectives, teach vocabulary needed to succeed, build off of background knowledge, etc. to best help all students, with all their varying needs, succeed. And success is what I desire and even expect. Despite all challenges and the need to address a range of needs, I have high expectations for students to give me their best efforts, working hard and staying on task, and achieving that success they will need to succeed beyond my class.