Welcome friends! I thought when I become a full-time consultant, I’d have more time on my hands to create content. Unfortunately, it has become quite the opposite, so I’m sorry for the inconsistency of my episodes. I hope to have quite a few ready for November and December soon. Now that we’ve had a chance to discuss the importance of learning space design, let’s dive in to supporting the language learner. Having been a language learner as a child, I am more sensitive to the needs of my students who are acquiring English as an additional language. In addition to my school experiences, I often reflect on my experiences in Germany where I was walking around constantly in haze. I felt so disconnected from the social interactions of small talk at the grocery store, talking with my neighbors, and being a part of the community. I’ll never forget this one spring afternoon as I’m walking down the street to absolute silence. Usually, the neighborhood was bustling with the sounds of children playing, subway trains and buses, and people talking in the streets. On this particular afternoon, there was nothing. As I turned the corner, a few police officers hurried across the street and started talking rapidly at me. When I explained that I didn’t speak much German, they explained in English that a WWII bomb had been discovered near my home and that everyone within a four block radius had been evacuated. They were in the process of deactivating the bomb, so everything was well. My pleasant afternoon turned into a somewhat shaky reality that learning how to read and write signs is very important. Tying into our classroom design, this is how your English language learners feel in your classroom. They are continuously coding and decoding language, symbols, mannerisms, and responses in order to replicate and fit into the social construct that is your classroom. What is your role in the process? Are you making it easier or more difficult for your learners? LabelsIt may sound like such an old school strategy, but I believe a classroom is more inclusive of language learners when spaces are labeled with words and pictures. This not only provides each section of the learning space The things that greatly helped my German acquisition and acculturation were the visual cues that guided society. Through simple images and symbols, I was able to guide myself through several social situations with grace and minimal language. This was a huge turning point in feeling like I could operate within society. Another turning point was finding simple terms to order food, asking for items in the grocery store, being able to read labels, and knowing the difference between shower gel and body lotion. This all sounds rather simple, but it made my life so much easier to navigate in a foreign country. Having all of your materials labeled in the host country language and language of instruction is a huge support for your learners. Even better is having pictures of the items on each container, so they are able to acquire new academic vocabulary words at a faster rate that is within context of their daily lives. Learning space design has a huge impact on how your language learners progress and adapt to their new environment. What are some simple things we can do to make it easier for them to adjust and acquire an additional language? VisualsAt this point, you are wondering how visuals are different from the pictures on all of your resources. Visuals go far behind doing this alone. I was an English language learner at such an early age that I don’t remember much of my language acquisition experiences. I do remember what it was like to teach within a dual language classroom. Here are some things that helped me to acquire more German vocabulary.
Visible ThinkingNow, you must be really perplexed. Isn’t a visual a way to show visible thinking? Not quite. Visible thinking is when learners are actively reflecting, analyzing, synthesizing, and summarizing their thinking. This process requires a bit more.
Visible thinking has really helped me to discover misconceptions in an easy way without completing a test or quiz. When I think of my acquisition of German, it was the visual tools I used in my language class that helped me to sort and process the German language. I was able to make connections to Spanish conjugation, which helped greatly to categorize it in my mind. Here are some tools that will help your English language learners Anchor Charts: I know teachers love their anchor charts, especially if they are Pinterest worthy. The problem with these charts is that learners don’t have any part in creating them. We use them as an exemplar and often laminate them to use with learners, year after year. The problem with this is that we don’t have the same learners each year.
Visible Thinking Routines: I don’t hide my love of Harvard Project Zero’s Visible Thinking Routines. They are simply amazing. They give all the power to the learner, but also all of the responsibility to do the thinking. Our role is to set the stage and they take off through collaborative and individual reflections.
That’s probably a bit more than what you were expecting, but this is what happens when I don’t have time to do this every week. All of the ideas bottle up until I must share them. I hope to see you next time!
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