It is Saturday, 10:21 PM and I am home. As Ruth, Kristen, and I left our last workshop, everyone was packing up and most had already left. We were really glad, however, that we had attended these last sessions, as they were very well presented and stimulating. Both presenters were from Hunter College. The first, Ann Ebe, spoke about a research study she conducted exploring the relationship between reading proficiency and the cultural relevance of texts read by third-grade ELLs. The results were very interesting. ELLs scored significantly higher on miscue analysis and comprehension measures when given culturally relevant material to read. The presenter gave out a rubric for judging the cultural relevance of children’s books.
Following that, in the same room, was a presentation by her colleague from Hunter, Laura Baecher, on another research study on the subject of push-in versus pull-out models of ELL instruction. The premise of this session was that there has been a gradual shift toward push-in models because of an assumption that pull-out is the least effective model for Ells and that Special Ed “inclusion” models can be applied to ELLs. Actually, push-in has yet be proved more effective for ELLs and, like anything else, is only as effective as how well it is implemented. The effectiveness of a push-in approach is highly dependent on the degree of collaboration and planning between the classroom and ELL teacher. Options for push-in include one teacher teaching the lesson while the other records important information, students moving through stations, parallel teaching, and pulling some students into a smaller group for pre-teaching. The presenter stressed that the ELL push-in teacher needs to define the language goals for the ELL students in the classroom. This was all really interesting and a discussion ensued on state-mandated services for ELLs. Someone there said that WIDA states are required to offer ELLs at different levels a certain number of hours of instruction. We were very surprised to hear that and I do not know if it is true, but will try to find out.
That's it! I am home now. Hope you enjoyed this dicussion-Linda
nice
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