Reflection on the importance of using a learner’s home language as a resource in the classroom.

From around the world, has found that children who are learning to read in a second language are able to transfer many skills and knowledge from their first language to facilitate their acquisition of reading skills in the second language. The best evidence of this comes from studies showing that students with strong reading skills in the home language also have strong reading skills in their second language. Much of this work has been done on ELLs in the U.S. (August & Shanahan, 2006; Riches & Genesee, 2006).

During class, I found the same conclusion as the above. If the students know their home language well, they will have skills and strategies of the home language and they are confident and don’t afraid to learn other languages. Home language is the best way to reach their best level. It has unpowerful infection to the leaners. You can’t turn it off. ?The students will bring it any way in your class. Home language is a bridge.?

When you teach some vocabularies. ?Plan some relative words first. The words which are familiar in their daily life. They can use their home language first to know what it is. It is good to use their home language to explain it. It will easy for them to follow. Also guide them to compare the differences and make the conclusion to remember.?

Asking and answering questions. Plan the question in advance and try to learn how to speak it in home language. It is a good way if the students really don’t follow, then the home language will be the helpful to make the students understand and assist the students to answer.?

Find a song that are popular and has different language. They know the rhythm and they can sing it in their home language, then while they learn in other language which help them to not only practice the words but also make them feel confident. ?

Reflection on the importance of scaffolding discussions to aid in comprehension for English Language Learners/ Multilingual Learners

Scaffolding a lesson in my opinion it takes longer to teach, but the end product is of far greater quality and the experience much more rewarding for all involved. With all the diverse learners in our classrooms, the teachers need to learn and experiment with new scaffolding strategies. Sometimes, the teachers have to slow down in order to go quickly. Scaffolding a lesson may, in fact, mean that it takes longer to teach, but the end product is of far greater quality and the experience much more rewarding for all involved.

Scaffolding is breaking up the learning into chunks and providing a tool, or structure, with each chunk. When scaffolding reading, for example, you might preview the text and discuss key vocabulary, or chunk the text and then read and discuss as you go.

Pause, ask questions, Pause and review.?

While you teach an article, it is a wonderful way to check for understanding while students read a chunk of difficult text or learn a new concept or content. Here’s how this strategy to plan: Share the reading, then pause (providing think time), and then ask a strategic question, pausing again.

You need to design the questions ahead of time, making sure they’re specific, guiding, and open-ended. (Even great questions fail if we don’t give think time for responses, so hold out during that Uncomfortable Silence.) Keep kids engaged as active listeners by calling on someone to give the gist of what was just discussed, discovered, or questioned. If the class seems stuck on the questions, provide an opportunity for students to discuss in pairs.

Use visual aids ?

There are some tools like pictures and videos. They help kids visually represent their ideas, organize information, and understand concepts such as logical or abstract things.

You need to find the pictures and videos in advance to meet the needs of the topic and make sure they’re specific, guiding, and open-ended. Keep kids engaged as active listeners by the pictures and question them. If the class seems stuck on the questions, provide an opportunity for students to discuss in pairs.

Pre-teach vocabulary

Pre-teaching vocabulary doesn’t mean find all the words from the chapter and having kids look up definitions and write them out. Instead, introduce some key words they know and are interested in. Give time for small-group and whole-class discussion of the words. Not until they’ve done all this should the dictionaries come out. And the dictionaries will be used only to compare with those definitions they’ve already discovered on their own.

With the dozen or so words front-loaded, students are ready, with you as their guide, to tackle that challenging text.

I have learned?more ways to plan the teaching after reading and searching so many articles and vidoes on these topic. I have to use some home language as really hard to explain by the second language but i dont know there are theories supporting as well as scaffolding.?

Practise makes perfect. i know there is still a long way to make the theories into real, but i will try as i am on the way now.