Module 8 Teaching English Learners

S.D.A.I.E S.D.A.I.E. also known as Sheltered English is a style of teaching established to provide meaningful instruction in the content areas. SDAIE is important because it allows students to learn English and the content simultaneously. Students will then be allowed to move forward in their academics. English is to be acquired through content comprehension.

When the teacher develops lessons the teacher tries to include hands-on-activities, guarded vocabulary, cooperative learning and visual cues. Hand-on activities: engage the learner in meaningful experiences. For example having students reenact a scene from a play. Guarded Vocabulary: a wide assortment of teacher behaviors surrounding language. The teacher is conscious of the words that are used and how they are introduced. Cooperative learning: takes advantage of the student’s strengths and builds upon student weaknesses. For example Having students in small groups or pairs can result in a reduced stress environment. Visual cues: provide a visual way to describe key words and concepts. For example: pictures, models, gestures, and body language. A teacher can also build a Word Wall with common vocabulary accompanied with a picture.

Diversity, Second Language Acquisition, and SDAIE Second Language Acquisition Theory: Provides understandable and meaningful language, which then provides a low stress environment. There is little emphasis on error correction and grammar. Also it utilizes student skills in the student’s first language (L1) Techniques that can be used to Achieve comprehensible Input Visuals Gestures Speaking slow Repeat and Review Simple syntax Stress high frequency vocabulary Maintain a low student anxiety level

Scaffolding This is important because many English learners may need assistance in comprehending key concepts in a lesson. Scaffolding allows the student to receive guidance from the teacher. Here are some ways to use scaffolding in the classroom. Modeling: actually showing students how to do a process or activity Bridging: makes the lesson relevant through personal experiences Schema-Building the use of graphic organizers to compare and contrast or cluster concepts. Meta-cognitive development: Student realizes how they gain knowledge. Thinking aloud. Contextualization: This helps make content meaningful

“A Conversation with Lisa Delpit” Main Ideas Teachers must be explicit with their instruction. They need to demonstrate to their nonmainstream students that there are differences between standard English and their nonstandard dialects. This does not mean that students cannot be taught in their own dialects. Students need comprehensible input, which is any form of language that they can understand.

“A Conversation with Lisa Delpit” Main Ideas Finally, teachers need to teach students, not a particular curriculum. Teachers must enter into an open dialogue with students and parents. This way, teachers can know what their students need. Depending on students’ linguistic background and their prior knowledge, different students will require different kinds of instruction. It is up to the teacher to provide this specialized instruction.

Why are these main ideas important? Lisa Delpit’s ideas have critical ramifications for teachers of nonmainstream students. Since we will all be teaching in Southern California, we will all be teaching nonmainstream students! As future teachers, we should remember that students will not enter our classrooms at the same level of English. We will have to break through language barriers and impart knowledge of standard English. Most importantly, we have to make sure that students know that mastering standard English will empower them; they will be able to participate in the culture of power and be able to make independent choices.

Implementation of Main Ideas in the Secondary Classroom Teachers should be aware that their nonmainstream students will need specialized instruction. By grouping together students from similar linguistic backgrounds, they can help lessen the anxiety of nonmainstream students. Teachers should use Delpit’s idea of strategies: “processes or procedures that literate people consciously control which enable them to comprehend and compose text” (541).

Implementation of Main Ideas in the Secondary Classroom Strategies, according to Delpit, gives students “access to a major medium of power, written language” (541). Again, this brings us back to the idea of explicitness. Rather than stringing students along in a lesson so that they “discover” the meaning of the lesson at the end, teachers need to be explicit about what they are teaching from the very beginning.

Implementation of Main Ideas in the Secondary Classroom Teachers must also remember that the real point of literacy is to improve students’ communication. When students can communicate, they can participate in the culture of power beyond their classrooms and homes. Thus, teachers should keep the “big picture” in mind: nonmainstream students CAN learn, but specialized instruction and attention is necessary.

Test Questions What can teachers do to ensure that their nonmainstream students acquire the codes of power? Why might it be beneficial for EL students to work in groups rather than individually?