TPE 7: Teaching English Learners
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Knowing your English Learners
One of the most important thing a teacher can do is to learn about their students. This is just not on an academic level, but on a personal and respectful level where the student understands that you care about them and that you are going to do whatever it takes to make sure that they feel safe in your domain so that they can comfortably learn. Teaching to the English Learners One of the best way to teach to an English Learner is to understand and getting to know their background culture. By researching and using information that the students are familiar with, they automatically become an expert in an area that they can share with the class. This is essential when you are trying to motivate the English Learner and building classroom unity. Teaching with a Different Approach A benefit to teaching towards English Learners is that the native speakers benefit from the learning as well. For instance, if you are doing a story for a group of third graders who are learning the fable "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" it would be beneficial for both the native speakers and the English Learners to see various pictures of the country as seen in the United States. Have the students explorer the differences between a rural and urban area through series of pictures and come to a conclusion themselves on what each of those words mean without ever giving the students the dictionary definition. You can solidify the experience further by allowing the students to speak to each other. Using this method, the English Learners are not only building their vocabulary, but engaging with fluent speakers as well so that they can observe and learn through a group effort. Tough Boris Tough Boris is an interesting book because it is a picture book. Most students who are English Learners like picture books because the visuals help them describe a scene or character. Using something that is non-threatening and beloved by native and non-native speakers, the lesson allows for the teacher to guide and teach the students on how to use descriptive words to describe a character. The best part about reading through a picture book is that you can read it more than once, which is beneficial to the English Learner. |
| CA- CCTC: TPE's (Teaching Performance Expectations) |
| Standard : A. Making Subject Matter Comprehensible to Students |
| TPE : TPE
1: Specific Pedagogical Skills for Subject Matter Instruction TPE 1 is divided into two categories intended to take into account the differentiated teaching assignments of multiple subject and single subject teachers. Multiple subject credential holders work in self-contained classrooms and are responsible for instruction in several subject areas; single subject teachers work in departmentalized settings and have more specialized assignments. These categories are Subject-Specific Pedagogical Skills for Multiple Subject Teaching Assignments (1-A), and Subject-Specific Pedagogical Skills for Single Subject Teaching Assignments (1-B). |
| Component : TPE 1A: Subject-Specific Pedagogical Skills for Multiple Subject Teaching Assignments |
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Standard Area : Teaching
Reading-Language Arts in a Multiple Subject Assignment Candidates for a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential demonstrate the ability to teach the state-adopted academic content standards for students in English-Language Arts (K-8). They understand how to deliver a comprehensive program of systematic instruction in word analysis, fluency, and systematic vocabulary development; reading comprehension; literary response and analysis; writing strategies and applications; written and oral English Language conventions; and listening and speaking strategies and applications. They know how to strategically plan and schedule instruction to ensure that students meet or exceed the standards. Candidates create a classroom environment where students learn to read and write, comprehend and compose, appreciate and analyze, and perform and enjoy the language arts. They understand how to make language (e.g., vocabulary, forms, uses) comprehensible to students and the need for students to master foundational skills as a gateway to using all forms of language as tools for thinking, learning, and communicating. They understand how to use instructional materials that include a range of textual, functional and recreational texts and how to teach high quality literature and expository text. They understand that the advanced skills of comprehending narrative and informational texts and literary response and analysis, and the creation of eloquent prose, all depend on a foundation of solid vocabulary, decoding, and word-recognition skills. Candidates teach students how to use visual structures such as graphic organizers or outlines to comprehend or produce text, how to comprehend or produce narrative, expository, persuasive and descriptive texts, how to comprehend or produce the complexity of writing forms, purposes, and organizational patterns, and how to have a command of written and oral English-language conventions. They know how to determine the skill level of students through the use of meaningful indicators of reading and language arts proficiency prior to instruction, how to determine whether students are making adequate progress on skills and concepts taught directly, and how to determine the effectiveness of instruction and students’ proficiency after instruction. |
