Guiding Principles Written Assignment

Autumn DeGraeve
7806675
EDUB3506 (A41) – Principles and Procedures of Second Language Education
Dr. Sreemali Herath
March 24, 2022
 English Language Learner’s (or ELL’s) in Canada have been steadily increasing in
Canada over the years and that is why it is important that teachers start looking into ways to help
the ELL students in their classroom. ELL students can come from a different country and know
zero English, while others can be Canadian born, but rely more on their mother-tongue that they
learn from their parents and family members at home. Coming from an extremely small rural
town, I was never really exposed to students who moved from a different country or were even
born into a family with a first language other than English. Because of this, I never experienced
what it was like to have an ELL student in one of my classes and was never exposed to how
teachers might do things differently in order to accommodate for those students. I felt very
unprepared to be placed in a classroom where I could potentially have ELL students as I would
have likely still held them to the same expectations I had for other students in the class.
However, after taking this course, I have come to realize that even though you do not want to
single out the ELL students by providing them with easier work or really breaking down the
information, there are ways where the ELL student can remain in the classroom and you can
provide a lesson with different activities or approaches that can be used with every single
student, while still allowing the ELL students to grasp the material better and feel more
comfortable to share their ideas and speak in class. Throughout the class, there were many
presentations where we learned about different approaches teachers could use when teaching
ELL students and the textbook Adding English: A Guide to Teaching English in Multilingual
Classrooms shared various guiding principles that would help not only ELL teachers, but other
teachers as well to better prepare them for having ELL students in their classrooms. These
guiding principles also provided different approaches for teachers to use based on where the
student was at and depending on what subject was being taught. Throughout this paper, five
different guiding principles will be focused on and discussed in their entirety and these principles
are: parental involvement, inclusive displays, building phonemic awareness, increasing
comprehension in the classroom, and finally responding to written text. For each principle, there
will be a brief discussion of the principle that will also provide a research-based rationale, there
will be an explanation of how each principle can be applied to classroom practices, and then
finally, how each individual principle has expanded my understanding about what it means to be
an ELL teacher.
 When it comes to getting kids accustomed to a new possible environment (if they just
recently moved to Canada) as well as a new language, having parental support will be a huge
benefit for the kids. But how can we as teachers have parents being more involved with their kids
schooling? How can we have them more involved if they also are not strong with English? After
thinking about these questions, I decided to focus my first guiding principle on parental
involvement. Parental involvement is extremely important and should encouraged in every
school because of the benefits it brings to all students, not just ELL students. If parents are more
in tune with what their children are learning in their classrooms, they will be better equipped to
help their children at home. They will also be more aware of the classes that their children
struggle with and will be able to make sure that their kids are putting in the work for those
classes. As stated by Spreeuwenberg (2022), “Parent involvement helps extend teaching outside
the classroom, creates a more positive experience for children and helps children perform better
when they are in school”. From this statement, we can see how truly important parent
involvement can be to a student’s success in school. For ELL students, parent involvement might
need to be approached slightly different as it is possible that the parents are also English
language learners. Throughout the textbook, there are quite a few different strategies presented to
us in order to accommodate the parents, but I am only going to focus on a few. One way to
incorporate more parental involvement into the classroom is to communicate effectively. As
some parents may be learning English as well, or if they do not understand certain things as
clearly, it may be more effective to communicate with the use of documents in their own
language. This way, you can go over with the parents any important information that they may
need, and they will be able to understand you better by reading what you have written down.
Another way is to make meetings more accessible. As Coehlo (2016) states in the textbook, by
putting meetings at different times and in different locations outside of the school may make it
easier when it comes to speaking with the students’ parents. This is because depending on when
they work, they may be passing by the school at a certain time, and this may work best for them
to meet. Coehlo (2016) also states in the textbook that “Personal telephone calls in the home
language, usually in the evenings, are an effective way of communicating with parents and
inviting them to meetings” (p. 30). One final strategy from the textbook that I would like to focus
on is that we “ensure that classroom and hallway displays depict people from many cultures in
many settings.” (Coehlo, 2016, p. 31). By doing this, we may pull in more parents to help out
within the school, and we can even assign the parents tasks to find posters or pictures from their
culture and/or language to put up around the school/classroom. A couple of points that I briefly
would like to add from the presentation we had by Claudine Calaguian, Justin Cumming, and
Joey Rodrigo-Candappa included communicating with parents with more than just written
documents. Some of these were having meetings with groups of parents and including a
translator to make sure the right message is getting across, showing support for student’s cultural
needs, clearly communicating classroom behaviours, etc. While this principle can be quite
explanatory, it has definitely expanded my understanding of what it means to be an ELL teacher.
This is because by including parents into the students schooling, you are showing that you want
them to have that support in their own culture and language as well. You are also providing the
students with an easier way to adapt to their new environment without overwhelming them.
Being in a new place and learning a new language can be frightening but knowing that they have
their parents there to help them along the way will make things a lot less stressful.
Next, I would like to look at my second guiding principle, inclusive displays. Inclusive
displays are definitely something that I have never seen a lot of in schools, even in some today.
A lot of material posted on the walls or on bulletin boards are of English words, Canadian
culture, or white scientists, historians, mathematicians, etc. Having inclusive displays can be
very beneficial to the ELL student because they may see themselves. They can see that even
though they may not quite understand English, there are still people out there and in history that
have done something amazing. Even having displays on the wall in other languages or cultures is
something that could make these ELL students feel more comfortable. No longer will they be
looking at the bulletins trying to determine what the letters, notes, phrases, or words are saying.
Instead, they can follow along with the rest of their classmates and stay in the loop of what is
happening within their school and community. As stated by Coehlo (2016), “Students are more
likely to feel a sense of ownership and inclusion if classroom exhibits reflect their lives and
work, or the lives and work of people with whom they can identify” (p. 42). This quote alone
explains why it is so important to have these inclusive displays. Different ways to incorporate
them into your classrooms, is to display pictures and biographies of the students. This way, the
students can look up and see themselves and know that they belong and when family members
come to visit, they can also see how their child is settling/fitting in. Another way to do this is to
have words or material hung up as I mentioned before and even including the students to create a
display. For example, you could have the children write the phrase, “You are incredible” in their
language and then together, this phrase can be put up on a bulletin board for every single student,
teacher, and visitor to see. It might also be beneficial to change the displays throughout the year.
An example of this could be focusing the words and pictures that are hung up based on what
topic you are learning. If the students are learning about grade 10 chemistry, they could put up
images and words in different languages and have people from different cultures represented.
Then when you move on to grade 10 ecology, the board can be switched around in order to fit
the new topic. As I mentioned at the beginning of this section, I never grew up having various
displays or inclusive displays up in my classroom. So, after learning about this guiding principle,
I think it has helped me expand my understanding on what it means to be an ELL teacher. Being
an ELL teacher means being open to changes within the classroom and encouraging the use of
visuals and phrases around the classroom in different languages (even if you are unsure on what
they mean). By doing this, you are making your ELL learners feel comfortable, welcome, and
represented. It also helps you to build a stronger relationship with your students.
The third guiding principle that I would like to spend some time discussing is about
building phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is “the ability to perceive sounds and subtle
differences among sounds.” (Coehlo, 2016, p. 66). This ability is very important when it comes
to speaking and understanding the English language because certain words can be said
differently but spelt the same so understanding the differences is why this guiding principle
needs to be considered when teaching ELL’s. By understanding and building their phonemic
awareness, students will feel more comfortable to read aloud in class (or in public) and will
become surer of themselves when they speak. Building phonemic awareness can be a bit of a
tricky situation, especially when English is not your first language. Thankfully, the textbook
provided us with a few strategies to think about in the future. The first strategy that stuck out to
me was to have the teacher read aloud often. Instead of having the kids read on their own and
possibly confuse themselves, having the teacher read aloud is a simple fix. When the teacher
reads, it also allows the students to sit back and listen to the rhythm and intonation patterns of
English that the teachers use. They can also watch how the teacher moves her mouth in order to
make the correct sounds. Another strategy is to read the same statement many “different ways,
using intonation to communicate different meanings.” (Coehlo, 2016, p. 66). By doing this, you
can have the students sit back and pay attention to the way you are speaking and then have them
determine what the differences are in meaning. Another strategy that I really enjoyed and will
definitely encourage my students to do in the future is to use recorded books in order to listen to
what is being said while they follow along with a copy of the text. This way, they are able to not
only hear how certain words and intonations are said, but also rewind the recording if they are
unsure and want to hear the text again. As a previous and current student, I learn best by listening
to what my teacher is saying instead of reading something and trying to make sense of it. While I
know that there are other students who learn best this way as well, the strategies that were
provided in the text for helping to build a student’s phonemic awareness has helped to expand
my understanding of what it means to be an ELL teacher and has helped me be more prepared
for certain situations if I am in them. It is important to remember that the students may not
understand something the first time around reading or hearing it, so it is important to remember
to be patient. It is also important that as an ELL teacher, you keep encouraging your students to
keep practicing and undergoing repetition. They are sure to get frustrated with themselves, so as
a teacher, it is our job to keep them motivated and to find ways to make their learning a little bit
easier. By having them hear words and topics aloud will help them understand everything easier
and will allow them to hear what they may or may not be saying right.
Another guiding principle that I found to be important was how to increase composition
within the classroom. When in school, it is necessary that all students are able to comprehend
and understand the material that they are being taught. If they do not, then they may become
frustrated and slowly gain a dislike for the subject at hand. While I talk about this guiding
principle, I would like to use the example of reading comprehension. “Reading comprehension is
the ability to read text, process it and understand its meaning.” (Oxford Owl, n.d.). There are
many different ways that you can begin to increase reading composition within the classroom
according to Coehlo (2016), however, I am only going to focus on a select few. Sometimes,
textbooks and papers can use big words that may be unknown to the students, especially if they
are an ELL student. In order to alleviate the stress of trying to understand what this big word is,
it may be helpful to simplify the vocabulary for the students. This may require you to slowly
work your way to the word by introducing the topic with pictures and videos before finally
introducing the word to the students. Making sure to repeat and rehearse the new words with the
students will also be extremely helpful. When doing this, you may start off by verbally saying
the word. Then you may move over to the board or the PowerPoint slides and either write or
point out the word while saying it a second time. Have the students then repeat the word back to
you so that they can practice saying it out loud as well and can hear themselves say it. New
words are difficult for ELL learners as they may have a different word or phrase for the object.
Because of this, using lots of visuals such as pictures, posters, toys, etc. will be helpful to
demonstrate and provide hand-on activities for the students. They will also then be able to see
the object, say the English word for it, and then associate it with what it might be called in their
own language. Encouraging peer tutors is one final strategy I would like to point out because
“students in the early stages of learning English benefit from the help of bilingual peer tutors
who can clarify instructions, provide translations of key words, and help you check
comprehension.” (Coehlo, 2016, p. 205). Learning new vocabulary and increasing your
comprehension can become quite frustrating so it is important for ELL teachers to be
understanding, supportive, and patient with the students as they are doing this. Some students
learn at different paces, so it is also necessary for ELL teachers to make sure those students who
are behind do not fall in the cracks and get forgotten about. ELL teachers are some of the most
creative teachers as they need to find ways to make sure that all students are getting the proper
education that they require, but they do not want some to feel that they are holding the class back
and are becoming so frustrated with themselves that they want to give up altogether.
Finally, the last guiding principle that I would like to touch on is responding to written
language. “When students speak, you probably focus on the message rather than the form in
which it’s delivered and are, therefore, less likely to notice errors.” (Coehlo, 2016, p. 206).
However, when students start writing, little errors start to pop up and are now noticeable. The
following strategies on how ELL teachers should respond to written text are something to
definitely keep in mind because some students may be very self-conscious of their writing and
might become skeptical of ever writing again if all they see on their papers are red marks
everywhere. It could hurt the students’ self-esteem and they may be embarrassed. Having so
many marks on their paper will also be overwhelming and the student’s might not learn what
they did right or what they did wrong and how to fix it. Some of the strategies shared by Coehlo
(2016) are to flag the common errors seen among all the students, don’t correct the mistakes for
them, be selective on what you right or wrong, and finally, be patient. If there are common errors
seen in multiple students writing, flagging them will be a huge benefit to the students because as
a teacher, you can see what they are struggling with and come up with a plan on how to make it
better. You may need to set time aside in class to re-explain the topic, give the students more
practice with it, etc. Another big thing to do is to not correct the errors for the students. When
you are making all of the corrections, it not only is overwhelming (like I mentioned above), but
the students will not learn anything. They will learn more if they are able to see where they
might have gone wrong, but then make the correction themselves. If you notice an error more
than once throughout their writing, “underline each occurrence of the error” (Coehlo, 2016, p.
207). You also will want to practice being selective. There is a high chance that there will be
more than one error, especially with ELL students just beginning to learn the different sentence
structures and proper use of words so you want to make sure to deal with only certain errors
instead of every single one. Finally, and most importantly, be patient. Even if you are able to
help students correct their errors and have extra lessons going over the proper word usage and
sentence structures, they are learning it for the first time so as an ELL teacher you have to
understand that those errors will not go away overnight. Lastly, This guiding principle really
wraps up my understanding of what it means to be an ELL teacher. Once again, you have to
make sure that you are patient. Sometimes, it might not be easy, and it might become frustrating,
but you have to remember that these students are learning something brand new that you learned
when you were possibly very young. Or if you were an ELL student yourself then you know the
struggles of learning new phrases, words, and sentence structures. As an ELL teacher, you want
to make sure that you are not focusing on “oh you are wrong, that’s not how it is done” but
instead on “how can we improve and what different approaches can we try to make thing easier
for you”.
To conclude, there are so many resources and strategies available to people if they decide
to become an ELL teacher. They are multiple strategies that you can take with you into your
classrooms in order to not only make the ELL students feel more comfortable and welcome, but
also feel supported. ELL teachers are absolutely amazing and in my eyes are one of the most
patient, supportive, understanding, and opening individuals to help these students get the proper
education they need when learning English.
 References
Calaguian, C., Cumming, J., & Rodrigo-Candappa, J. (2022). A welcoming environment –
Chapter 1: English language learners from far and near. Google Slides
Coelho, E. (2016). Ch. 10: Creating a Supportive Language Learning Environment. In Adding
English: A guide to teaching English in multilingual classrooms (2nd ed., pp. 201-220).
University of Toronto Press
Oxford Owl. (n.d.). Teaching comprehension background questions.
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/welcome-back/for-school-back/pathways-page/
pathwayslist/teaching-comprehension/background-questions-tc/questions-about-
comprehension/what-is-reading-comprehension-and-why-is-it-important
Robertson, K. (n.d.). Twelve things teachers can do to support ELL success in the new year.
https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/twelve-things-teachers-can-do-support-ell-
success-new-year
Spreeuwenberg, R. (2022, February 18). Why parent involvement is so important in early
childhood education. https://www.himama.com/blog/why-parent-involvement-is-
important-in-preschool/