Help and Garcia

Garcia told us to ask for help when needed. It might be harder to find or take more time, but if you really care about the learning of a child you will find a way to support them. Using our text Affirming Diversity is a good resource for techniques on helping ELL students. Not one book or technique will be enough for all students. You can not use something that was not designed for the students. Most teachers have a theory for your students and their learning. Your approach to learning will affect your teaching Garcia stated. If you go in thinking everyone is a blank slate and they all can learn then your students will succeed. If you label them as student's who must learn English first or conform to your theory will fail. They will not succeed at the level needed. Teachers must find ways to make their environment a language rich environment. The days of sitting there and listening and then taking a test are over. The students need to experiment with their language on a daily basis.

CREDE lesson and culture

Bringing in more culture to this lesson would be to give them options on different ways to show me that they understand fall. They might be able to paint a picture. Some may want to physically show me examples from outside. Or some might even like to explain it with using their words or acting it out. Just as Garcia stated, " the teacher needs to be respectful and responsive to the students". Being responsive he stated was to understand their culture and bath them with language. Let the students use their language. In my lesson I might need to let the children use their language more. Let them talk more and give details of their picture. Less lecture from my part and more language from them. Having them practice their English is the the only way for them to become proficient. Garcia told us that we need to responsible and resourceful. We need to make sure everyone is working together on learning. If we don't pay attention to make sure if certain students are engaged then they will slip to the wayside.

CREDE lesson

The lesson I did this week that I am reviewing was on Fall and finger painting. First I read a book about crafts from around the world and how they were made. This was a non-fiction story with real photographs of crafts and people doing them from around the world. I believe that I was implementing the CREDE standard of developing literacy and language skills across the curriculum because this was an art and science activity, but by pulling the book into the lesson I brought in literacy and culture. Working with the students in a small group put together the teacher student working together CREDE standards. By finger painting the leaves in the fall colors and having them paint them falling off the tree brought in the real life to school because it is fall currently and these things are happening. We discussed the season and why it happened while painting.

Using CREDE standards

I believe that I use many of the CREDE standards daily in my lesson plans. Using the first standard in a Pre-K classroom is imperative for learning. Teachers and students must work together. We work together to pick the theme and topic for instruction. One of our state standards is that we work on the child's level and level of interest. Using language skills across the curriculum is also something that is very evident in my room. Everyday we have to read 3-5 books and have activities to accompany them. We have many opportunities for the students to use language with teachers or socially. We are told to give them time to answer and build off of their interests. Connecting to the children's home life can be more difficult since they are all so different. I try to give them many opportunities to express interest in their home life and school. We try to make the connects by reading non-fiction text and discussing how it is similar to their home life. Making lessons challenging and engaging also be challenging. Every child comes to me on different levels and having different experiences. I try to make everything seem so exciting by using fun books, paint, or manipulatives. We try not to lecture at all because their attention span is only about 5-10 minutes long. I have to change activities often and we use lots of dialogue during the duration of the day.

CREDE

CREDE standards

1.Teacher and students working together

2.Developing literacy and language skills across the curriculum

3.Connecting school to students' lives

4.Engaging students with challenging lessons

5.Emphasizing dialogue over lecture

These are the CREDE standards presented from the DVD by Dr. Roland Tharp

These standards are things that all teachers strive to achieve daily with all students not just ELL. They seems so easy. Most teachers are probably doing most of them daily without even realizing it.

I know that in a Pre-K classroom we are very hands on and use lots of pictures in everything that we do!

Yet again

I hope this time I can remember my information. I have created a 3rd blog now to blog about my Master's class. I have finally wrote down the information so I can remember how to get back here and to tell others how to find it. Wow all this is so different then just writing a paper. Sometimes I wonder which will be more stressful!