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As classrooms become more diverse, teacher responsibilities include teaching both academic content and language skills to English Language Learners. Teachers must deal with English Language Learners from a wide variety of backgrounds. PAL Charter High School has a large number of English Language Learners, and has an English Learner Development (ELD) program to address the needs of these students.
The PAL Charter Academy is cognizant of this population, and realizes it is our responsibility to deliver instruction in a way that is understandable for the students. English as a second language is the method used at the PAL Charter Academy. English Language Learners are prepared to function in the “mainstream” English language classroom.
The PAL Academy recognizes the rich cultural diversity of its students, staff and community. A philosophy of inclusiveness welcomes all students and assures them of the opportunity to excel academically in order to become successful citizens in a pluralistic society.
Parents of English learners are a valuable resource and their involvement contributes to student success. Respect and dignity for linguistic and cultural differences is highly valued.
The purpose of a plan for English learners is to provide a common understanding of goals and procedures to ensure that English Learners receive consistently implemented programs and services to meet their cultural, linguistic and academic needs.
The primary mission of the PAL Academy is to ensure that all English learners become valuable contributing members of a diverse society by successfully meeting academic challenges while acquiring fluency in English.
The English-language development (ELD) standards are designed to supplement the English-language arts content standards to ensure that English learners in California develop proficiency in both the English language and the concepts and skills contained in the English-language arts content standards. The Reading/Language Arts Framework recognizes that not all learners will acquire skills and knowledge at the same rate. The PAL Academy staff is well aware of this fact and modifies for this differentiation.
• Differentiate instruction and recognize multiple intelligences when designing lessons. Activities include different kinds of opportunities, i.e., individual, paired, or group work; as well as tasks that appeal to a range of learners, like creating charts, drawing, gathering information and presenting.
• Teach thematically, when possible, so that students have multiple opportunities to utilize their acquired knowledge.
• Repeat the lesson or concept in different ways, thereby providing more exposure to new learning.
• Repeat vocabulary in a variety of ways through reading, writing, listening, and speaking experiences;
• Infuse activities with higher level thinking skills for the more advanced students. We use activities that compare, evaluate, extrapolate, and synthesize.
• Incorporate fun into the learning. For instance, for Vocabulary – utilize crossword puzzles, matching quizzes, games with pictures, word-based games. For Speaking – utilize pronunciation games; listen and repeat, including songs, jokes, pod casts. For Grammar, we utilize activities such as flash quizzes, and sentence patterns
For Listening and Reading – depending on the level of the students, we use Listen and Read Along; words arid their stories; stories about people (biographies), places and things; easy tongue twisters; poems; and folk tales and stories, to add ‘life to learning’.