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"Language of Learning" points out that people believe EL students do not learn at a regular rate becuase they speak another language.

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"Language of Learners" states that ELL students do not learn as much with regular reading instruction. I do not believe this is true becuase all students including ELL's must first start at the basics to build upon their knowledge in complex texts.

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"Language Learning" Kids want to learn about things they are intrested in and will learn more content and how the language itself works.

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"Language of Learning" states that ELL students learn the English language best through providing oppertunities for them to dive deep into complex texts.

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Students will learn and be able to accomplish the goals they need to meet in a lesson whether they feel they are too challenging or not. It's teaching them to comprehend the challenge and use their knowledge to reach the goal.

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The more pre text information the students have, the more they will gain from the text.

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I believe that students who still cannot write are going to struggle getting their ideas on paper. This article didn't mention anything about the challenge some students face when it comes to putting it on paper.

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Assumption
I assumed since my students are coming back after the pandemic crisis, they would not be capable of complex reading and writing.

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"Knowledge Matters" We often assume what our students are capable of doing and learning, not only at their reading levels but at their age/grade as well. An outsider hearing about Mrs. Hayes's class might assume they were 8th graders, rather than 2nd graders. Why is it so surprising to hear of second graders engaged in learning and debating about the Civil War? We need to stop putting them in a box.

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"Knowledge Matters" I honestly cannot argue with this article. For these types of assignments, I often find myself skimming them to get a quick response, but I didn't want to stop reading this one. Mrs. Hayes's teaching style inspired me and made me want to do better and alter how I teach reading completely.

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"Knowledge Matters" Common reading units like "Pumpkins" are not helpful. Those types of units typically do not build quality knowledge the students will use/need on tests or in life.

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"Knowledge Matters" It's important to challenge all students, no matter their reading level, background knowledge, first language, learning disability, etc.

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Background knowledge is more than becoming aware of information.  The background knowledge coupled with experience or a process taken enables students to read a series of actions and chunk them while reading.

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"From simplified to amplified" makes sense, but how do we move to amplified when there is very little English spoken in lower grades?

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There is nothing at this point that I would argue regarding the information presented. The data shows we have not made the necessary gains. All of this makes sense.

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"From pull out to push in..." I agree that we should focus on push in; however, there are students that benefit from pull out. New comers who do not speak any English show greater growth when pulled to work individually with someone.

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I began to reconsider my assumptions about inferences. I thought it was a hard thing to teach students, especially those in elementary, but now I see that if students have some background knowledge about certain things, it is something that can literally come naturally for them.

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I did not necessarily agree with the statement at the beginning of the article that stated, "The more you know, the easier it will be to learn new things." I know a lot, but I don't think it would be easy for me to learn, say, how to do open heart surgery!

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Too many times people in general think EL people (adults and students) are not as "smart" because they do not speak English. This is not true. This is why they are frustrated when we work simply on "dumbed down" phonetic skills only and do not provide them with content rich instruction.

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Children will meet the expectations we set. Whether the expectations are low or high, they will meet them.

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The Aha moment was when it talked about how knowledge helps in remembering new information. It is much easier for me to learn new things about topics that I already know, but it is a struggle when learning something new about something you know absolutely nothing about. Makes me think about the beginning stages of learning multiplication facts vs. learning how to answer algebraic expressions.

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Children need to be given content-rich material and not just focus on decoding.

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I find it hard to argue with the content presented. It is a challenge to support students who struggle in reading while using complex text, but no one ever said teaching would be easy. We owe this to our children to support them in this work.

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Rather than simply assigning rich texts, teachers need to use instructional moves that demystify academic language found in these complex texts.

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Students who are reading below grade level wills till struggle with on level text, however, giving them extra support will benefit them. They still need the content to increase their knowledge.

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If Abril were given a text on her level, her debates would have been about "Pat the Cat" instead of civil war heroes. Instead, she is excited about the heroes she is learning about in this unit. WOW!

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Background knowledge makes you a better reader in two ways. It means that there is a greater probability that you will have the knowledge to successfully make the necessary inferences to understand a text. Second, rich background knowledge means that you will rarely need to reread a text in an effort to consciously search for connections in the text.

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Be strategic in choosing when ELs are removed from class for language instruction. Don't assume that it is fine to pull from non-ELA classes. Math may be their strong area and aids in building academic self-confidence.

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The text affirmed my beliefs when it talked about chunking ideas to gain a greater understanding. Chunking is easier when there is some initial background knowledge.

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Sometimes we assume just because a child has a low reading level, or because they struggle with the English Language, they are not ready for challenging content.

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EL students need to be given content rich material and not just phonetic skills to learn the language.

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Students are capable of understanding complex thoughts even at an early age, teachers just need to give them the opportunity to do so.

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That learning about the Civil War in the 2nd grade level can be too complex. This teacher, Chris Hayes, has "IT." She understands the concept of Core Knowledge.

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Some may think that presenting content-rich literacy to ELL students will be a misfortune to them. (I, personally, don't feel this way.)

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Content is more important than delivery. We want to distribute meaningful content to students to trigger deeper cognitive skills.

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Frontloading complex text can be an additive to gaining knowledge.

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All students will learn more if they have greater background knowledge.

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Students with lower aptitude will still be behind those with higher aptitude.

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Rich background knowledge means you will rarely have to reread a text to find connections.

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The ability to read a text and make sense of it is highly correlated to background knowledge.