dtcyh6 — 2024-12-10 23:30:39 UTC

Before this semester began I, admittedly, was completely unaware of how to equitably treat MLLs in my classroom. Throughout this semester, I learned about the major impact, both positive and negative, that a teacher can have on these students. A teacher who is overwhelmed and has never taken a class like this might assume that there is not much to be done to help MLLs and treat the student the way we saw in short movies like Immersion. A teacher who has taken this course and puts in the effort to care about MLLs can make all the difference in that student’s academic success. My ultimate goal in my future classroom is to create an atmosphere where every student feels welcomed and supported. Taking extra care to ensure that the MLLs in my classroom have every opportunity to succeed is a major aspect of creating this atmosphere.

My philosophy relating to MLLs has grown a lot this semester. While I began with no idea how to foster a positive atmosphere for these students, this course gave me lots of great ideas on how to provide such a classroom. The most important aspect to me would be to ensure that the tasks I ask of these students play to their strengths in the English language. If the MLL is great at writing and reading, but not so great at speaking English then I will not force him or her into a situation where they will have to speak. Instead there are many ways to get around this, like making group work and assigning specific roles that I know students can succeed in to ensure no one gets embarrassed. One aspect of building skills in this area of education that I love is that some of these skills and ideas can also be used for other students in my classroom. If a student is absolutely terrified of speaking in front of the class then it would be unfair of me to force the student to without providing adequate scaffolding to make the presentation easier. Whether that be giving sentence starters or staying before or after school to help the student become more comfortable. Being the teacher that does a little extra to help students succeed will help every single student in the classroom and especially the MLLs that may need the extra support the most.

For Social Studies, it is important to incorporate the cultures that MLLs come from into the course. To do this I could create a fake marketplace in my classroom and allow the students to set up stands selling items from their chosen culture. This would provide students with a choice and give them the oppurtunity to celebrate and explore the culture of their choosing. The goal of this marketplace would be to learn about and celebrate all of the students' cultures and create a more unified community in my classroom.

Danny Chmura's philosophy for MLLs by Danny Chmura