English Language Learners - Group 2 (1 in Group/section restrictions. Must post first. Subscribe In the back of your textbook is a section called Case Studies - You will need to reference this section to find the assigned case study. Read Case 7: English Language Learners Respond to the questions at the end of the case study, citing pages that fit this situation using proper APA. Enter a subject Paragraph V B IUVA Ev Ev I Q Search X O F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 FO F10 S % & CO 4 5 CO O F TCase 7 English Language Learners The Teacher The Early Childhood Program Lance Scott was beginning his third year of teach- and the Community ing kindergarten when the suburban school district in which he teaches decided to create Due to an increase in available state funding, the superintendent and the local school board saw the a full-day kindergarten program. Lance was necessity of increasing instructional time for 5-year- informed by the school principal, Dr. Cassidy, olds, especially because there had been a recent that the decision makers believed it had be- change in attendance zone demographics. Just come necessary to provide a full-day program five years ago, the number of children classified as to counteract the effects of families' spoken English language learners was less than 1 percent of language on their young children. The empha all kindergartners. The next school year would see sis on English as the required language in local this rise to 6.5 percent, and the prediction in the and state political arenas was the impetus for next 10 years is that nearly 10 percent of all kinder- this decision. Although Lance had taken several gartners were likely to be English-language learners. years of Spanish in both high school and college The general attitude about this change in demo- and had learned a little Bosnian from some graphics reflected at the school and in the com- friends, he was uncertain how to incorporate this munity was that when people came to the United knowledge into his teaching of young children. States, they should plan to acculturate and to speak Besides, many teachers and community members English as quickly as possible. The state legislature were often heard to support immersing ELL into had recently begun discussions about requiring English-only classrooms. So, perhaps, his teach- schools and other institutions to use English only in ing would not need to change in any way, even all communications. with increasing numbers of ELL learners. In the previous two years, Lance had had little Viewpoints of Others contact with families who did not speak English. Even though some of the children in his kinder- Lance was somewhat concerned that there was garten program were immigrants, their families almost no concern being voiced about how chil- were bilingual and communicated fairly clearly dren learn to speak and understand an additional with him in English. One of his kindergarten col- language. Instead, the opinions that were most leagues, though, had a child whose family insisted frequently stated all seemed to reflect political or on a translator for the annual conference as well personal statements about the importance of learn- as for newsletters and notes that the teacher sent ing English for U.S. citizenship. Some comments home. This request was viewed as inappropriate by focused on illegal immigration. the teacher and most of the school staff. The result Lance approached some of his colleagues was that written communication essentially was and the school principal to request information kept to an absolute minimum to avoid any need about professional development for staff tha to translate. would relate to their responsibilities for English296 Case 7 English Language Learners language learning. A common response from col- Questions for Reflection and Discussion leagues was that the school district should hire 1. Explain the perspectives of Lance, the school specialized personnel to handle these issues. The principal, other teachers, and the community. principal did not seem to think that the superin- tendent or school board would support funding 2. What are the professional issues related to for such a position. best practices in early education that need to be emphasized in this case? Lance's Situation 3. Using resources regarding the importance of incorporating children's home language into As the new school year was fast approaching, no their learning, what points would you make firm decisions were made or shared with teachers to support Lance's hunch that seeking profes- about their specific responsibilities for teaching sional development related to ELL is valid? children in their classrooms who were identified as ELL. However, when Lance received his class list of TEXT REFERENCES: Chapter 1 importance of 20 kindergarten children, four of them were identi- families and communities in children's lives, Chap- fied as ELL. He was facing the dilemma of moving ter 2 language differences among families, relat- forward as if full-day programming were his only new challenge, or attempting to find some appro- ing diversity to developmentally appropriate prac- priate information for his professional develop- tice, Chapter 6 immigrant and migrant families, ment related to teaching young ELLs and working Appendix D responding to linguistic and cultural with their families. diversity