I can’t think of any time since I have been a teacher that things go right perfectly. Mistakes are a part of life and the learning process. Teachers with ELLs in their classroom often make some very common mistakes according to the blog I read this week. I can say from observation that these mistakes can sometimes be true about other student populations as well. I’ve narrowed the list down a little to what I think might be mistakes someone would want to fix sooner versus later. Here is the list:
Lack of English proficiency confused with lack of intelligence
This seems like a no brainer, but it’s still happening. Too often teachers forget that ELL students come to them with very high intelligence, they just don’t know English well enough yet to show off their ability.
Viewing ELLs through the deficit lens
Like the first one, this mistake is happening far too often. I think that no child should be seen through the lens of deficit instead of assets. Too often we focus on what students can’t do and the ‘extra work’ we might need to do in order to ensure their success. Meanwhile, we miss the rich culture and diversity having the ELL student in our class brings! It’s all about tapping into the student’s strengths, something we want to do with all students and ELLs are no exception.
Confusing prior knowledge with background knowledge
I sometimes find myself guilty of this mistake. Background knowledge is the defined as information essential to understanding a topic/problem. Prior knowledge on the other hand is defined as knowledge students already know from instruction and experiences in life. To assume that students have no, or very limited, prior knowledge is to assume that they come to us as empty vessels with nothing to offer. However, that is not true! By the time students reach second grade they have had 7 – 8 years worth of experiences that we can tap into in order to build their background knowledge. This is true for the ELL student as well. What’s more is that ELL students might have some very unique prior knowledge that you or their non-ELL peers will never experience. We must start tapping into that prior knowledge of ELLs to further their language instruction.
You can read a lot more about mistakes that teachers make with ELL instruction as well as some tips to overcome them in Larry Ferlazzo’s blog post “Nine Mistakes Educators Make When Teaching English-Language Learners”.