10/2 Post - Danielle Cowper

Every time I come to this class I am amazed at the discipline and additional thought that goes into teaching speakers of a second language. Since I have never thought about this as a profession before, the passion I see in our classmates who wish to make this their life is eye opening to me. Yeah, being a teacher in general is a passionate and grueling job - but to have the skill set to teach both English speakers and ELL is something else. Last week in preparing for my presentation on lesson planning, it was difficult for me at first to relate the presentation back to ELL, since it is not my forte. Once I was able to remove that block from my brain, I got to thinking about the parts of a lesson that are critical for these ELL students. I think the learning style of these students coincides with my experience teaching preschool. Not to say that these students are on a preschool level - but that they both need connecting transitions, repetition, and patience. In teaching preschool, it is important to preface what is going to happen next, how the previous activity will relate to the next, and to be ready to repeat directions. If I were to ever teach ELL, I think these skills will come in handy.