Emergent Bilinguals

To be honest, it's hard to respond to this reading for a number of reasons.

Firstly, in both of my teaching positions, I was surrounded by emergent bilinguals (love this term, by the way) and felt powerless to help them past what I was already doing for the whole class. Additionally, while reading this, I felt guilt because I felt bad that I have never put extra effort into my ELLs. What kind of teacher does that make me.

As I am running out of ways to format my blogs , I will write this blog similar to a 3-2-1 exit ticket.

Three things I learned/ liked:

• I like the idea of R. E. A. L. instruction. Of course picking relevant texts is important and something I've always done. However, I pick stories that are socially relevant but that doesn't always include languuge or cultural relevance. Engaging is something that not only increases learning but limits distractions. Affirming is powerful but difficult . In a truly diverse classroom, how do I Include the Latino, Asian, White, Native American and African American cultures of my classroom in the one year that I have them. Asset- Oriented Literacy can definitely be a confidence builder for students that can break down the “I can’t” barriers many students build after years of instruction that confuses them. 
• The five rules are great. Although, when I first read the rules, I felt that they were all the same thing, upon further reading them, I learned more. I already do the read and write rules but never in front of the kids. I just show them proof that I wrote the essays too through teacher models I write on the board or use in my PowerPoints. But rules 1, 2, and 5 are truly inspiring. I think kids would love to think of their teacher as a learner as they do teach me so much both informally and formally. But rule number five is a rule I feel is the most important for ALL teachers. Our kids are our future and they are seeing a world of hate, not acceptance. It’s important we teach them to care. 
•  Lastly, all books should have an ACTION TIME section. This was more than inspiring. It gives you clear things you can do to start the action of being a effective emergent bilingual teacher. 

Two things I want to learn more about:  

• Something I’d like to learn more about is how to help develop a growth mindset so that the high rigor expectations aren’t a negative experience for the students who may already feel negative about their schooling experiences from the past. 
• I’d also like to learn more about how to address a student who is verbally fluent in Spanish but cannot read in their first language. Is it then our job to help develop that skill? Will reading the text in their first language be upsetting that they can’t read in a language they feel so comfortable in? Do further chapters address this?

One question I still have:

• Most of these techniques had to deal with reading and classroom culture with some writing sprinkled in. Is there more writing techniques further in the book? 

I look forward to the lesson of emergent bilinguals so I can be proactive in my classroom next year.