Teacher Extraordinaire - Portfolio of a Teacher and Lifelong Learner

I find displays a fundamentally important part of teaching, as they give students a place to look to double check concepts or vocabulary. One thing that I've found of utmost importance this year, is putting up grammar displays, placing them in visible places and putting the same displays into grammar center boxes. The reason why I find these displays so fundamentally important, is that they act as a crux to help support students who don't yet have the concept down pat, as they complete tasks that support the learning of the concept, not only in class but also in centers. It helps them be problem solvers, as it gives them a place in the classroom (or center box) that they can use to help themselves. Students do in fact make reference to the displays to support their own learning. Below are just a few of the displays I made this year. If you would like, you can print them off and laminate them and have them for your own classroom use. The ones below are all for grammar, however ...

This portfolio entry is related to the I hate English read aloud, also outlined on this portfolio. It also makes mention of the modifications made for one ELL student. It explores a bullying situation and potential perspectives, both from the ELLs (English Language Learners) and other students involved. The names and place names have been changed, to protect the people involved. Safety of a learner in the environment is paramount, and this paper explores the situation and attempts that were made to alleviate it.

There was an issue with the bullying of ELLs (English Language Learners) in my grade 5 practicum classroom. While most of my students spoke languages other than English, twenty five of the twenty seven were second generation. If they had ever been English Language Learners, by grade 5 all of the second generation students were fluent. As a result of the bullying issue, a community circle was held while the ELL were in ESL class one morning, so they would not feel put on the spot. Later that week, this read aloud was completed. Many questions from this read aloud were originally written by a peer, who designed this lesson for a grade two or three class. While reading picture books may seem 'childish', I have found that many fifth graders enjoy them, if they age appropriate and used with a purpose in mind. Read Aloud – I Hate English Social Justice/Equity This book tackles the issue of alienation as a result of being unable to speak English. This book was chosen fo...