Hi, I am Cristina Hawkins and this is my ideology around ELD. As I have worked in the education field for the past 18 years, I strongly believe that every child can learn, every child should be provided with a learning environment that feels safe and comfortable to share out and speak in, as well as make mistakes, which shows learning. I strongly encourage students to speak in their home languages, share cultures, and I want to support them in learning a new language. 

My guiding beliefs in how students acquire a new language is allowing students to have the opportunities for output with peers and adults. This should happen in both social settings and in the classroom. Out on the playground, they are picking up the language through visual cues and in pieces, as well as in classrooms with deep, rich meaningful content-based conversations they are listening to as well as participating in conversations while using the academic vocabulary. To become more confident and fluent in their oral language, they need modeling, as well as lots of daily practice. I strongly feel that all students should practice their oral communication in complete sentences, whether they need sentence frames to support them. 

I feel it’s important to connect to all students; by seeing what background knowledge they come with and make connections to new content, while using KWL charts and visuals. I don’t feel students are going to be able to acquire a language easily if they don’t have support or a positive mindset to help them feel safe to participate or make mistakes. I feel they could feel anxious and shut down, not allowing them to be immersed in the language and practice.  By incorporating students' cultures within texts in the classroom, it allows the books to act as mirrors to language learners, allowing students to be represented. 

For my educator role, currently, I am in a very small rural, low poverty school in Northern California with only 2 students who are classified as English language learners, who are on opposite ends of the EL levels.  I have taught in TK-5th throughout my career, in different communities and some with a large EL population. This is my 1st year as a literacy specialist where I am working with students in small groups supporting struggling readers and also as a coach to support teachers in evidence-based strategies to make teaching more explicit, robust, content rich, and allow them to be more reflective in their teaching practices and inclusive to all students.

Some strategies that I’ve used, and feel are essential to support learners, especially language learners with acquisition include:

• differentiation & small groups 

• Teaching basic phonics to students with explicit instruction to support the complex language

• Focusing on the morphology, syntax, phonology, semantics, lexicon (but I do not believe in teaching things in isolation like it has been done in a previous district)

• Using cognates to connect words/meaning between language

• Using realia or visuals and labels to build vocab for students to access in both languages

• Use content rich instruction and build upon prior knowledge

• Use content pictures with academic vocabulary to help build sentences while simultaneously learning syntax

• Utilizing think/pair/share

• Modeling

• In higher leveled EL’s breaking apart paragraphs to help with comprehension using a graphic organizer and then share out in jigsaws to allow for more output opportunities

• Sentence frames

• Having read aloud texts that have the story in dual languages.

• Another teacher at our site uses multiple languages to count during calendar time and it allows our English Only students to see different languages in the world

• Having designated ELD groups that are leveled based on their ELPAC scores

An ideal classroom or learning environment would have these strategies in place as well as creating safe environments as mentioned earlier and building the relationships between staff and students and between students. It’s an amazing feeling when other students are wanting to learn another language to communicate with the classmate and vice versa, even with adults as well.

We use formative and benchmark assessments and progress monitoring. Formative assessments, while the learning is happening, are conducted by teachers within the classroom from observations, listening to students share, and by looking at their written work. As a district, we do not just take data from one assessment, but multiple ones to have a better analysis of the students. We also take in ELPAC data to see the levels and needs of the language learners. With assessments, for example phonological awareness assessments, we also try to provide directions in both languages so it isn’t a barrier and to be able to see what the student brings with them from their home language. 

For my personal connection and why it’s important to me, I want all students to feel successful in school. I have learned some Spanish and have seen how being immersed in it, having visuals, and explicit instruction has supported myself as a learner. I have also tried to learn Italian to be able to communicate with family in Italy that I have not met and it’s very difficult not being immersed in it or explicitly learning things to be able to acquire the language. Daily oral practice definitely hindered my ability to learn the language. I want to have students feel supported by instructions, visuals, oral practice, being comfortable and willing to try, engaged, and culturally represented in the school.

Individual students have specific learning styles and needs. There’s definitely debunked theories. MSV, Innatism, Notional-fuctional, etc. Didn’t Piaget base his research on his own kids? And everybody just accepted that? What a joke. Makes you wonder what foundations these English learning theories were built on. 

This is cynical, but I also don’t know if it’s time for me to have a personal ELD philosophy yet. I’m a brand new teacher. I can cry until the cows come home about one strategy, but how effective can I actually be? Also, I don’t think it’s authentic for me to go around telling people what to do without any real responsibility for English learners yet. It’s easy to say one way is the best, then get into a classroom and realize my individual students need something else. How can I sit on a high horse about my Educator’s Role when I don’t even know what my principal wants yet? Of course I care about my English Learners. No student should have to suffer in class. Learning English shouldn’t be painful. I personally relate to having different learning needs and know how that affects a student academically and socially. That’s why I do believe in Universal Design for Learning. Accessibility for some learners should be accessibility for all. 

The only things I feel confident asserting are that English Learners should be encouraged to use their language of choice whenever possible, multisensory and multimodal learning is so universally designed, and family literacy is a worthwhile goal. This is based on what I read for the Literacy Review last semester and my own humble experiences.

I know that when I re-taught area and perimeter for third graders this spring, they loved working with flat glass marbles. I know that when I introduced the history of San Fernando Valley with visual primary sources and let my students communicate in their language of choice, everyone was engaged and eager to learn. I know that orthographic mapping engaged all my first graders, English Learners, IEP student, everyone. I also know that translating the key vocabulary and lesson objective kept things clear for everyone. It was also very sweet to see students collaborating to find their preferred translations of key vocab. It was such an amazing discussion opportunity. 

 I lead a nonprofit after school classroom of about 25-37 3rd-5th graders in Chicago. Over 95% of my students were immigrants and below the poverty line. We offered a family literacy program. I wasn’t in charge of it, but it was successful enough to keep getting grant funding. We offered inquiry-based science lessons 1-2 times a week, and the hands-on experiments worked for students of all English levels. We’d have kids who just came from Ecuador, barely knowing a word in English, happily applying themselves to a physics experiment and getting the best outcomes in class. We’d give out writing lessons where students could respond in any language they wanted. Every student locked in, writing haikus or discussing their dream jobs in a variety of languages.  

If anyone is interested in some articles, here are the citations:

Dymoke, S., & Griffiths, R. (2010). The Letterbox Club: the impact on looked-after children and their carers of a national project aimed at raising achievements in literacy for children aged 7 to 11 in foster care. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 10(1), 52–60. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-3802.2009.01143.x 

Hepple, E., Sockhill, M., Tan, A., & Alford, J. (2014). Multiliteracies Pedagogy: Creating Claymations with Adolescent English Language Learners.. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 58(3), 219–229. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.339 

Neumann, M. M. (2018). The effects of a parent–child environmental print program on emergent literacy. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 16(4), 337–348. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718x18809120 

Osborne, C., Alfano, J., & Winn, T. (2010). Paired Reading as a Literacy Intervention for Foster Children. Adoption & Fostering, 34(4), 17–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/030857591003400403 

Rajendram, S. (2015). Potentials of the Multiliteracies Pedagogy for Teaching English Language Learners (ELLs): A Review of the Literature [Review of Potentials of the Multiliteracies Pedagogy for Teaching English Language Learners (ELLs): A Review of the Literature]. Critical Intersections in Education: An OISE/UT Students’ Journal, 3, 1–18. University of Toronto. https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cie/article/view/26307/20173 

Westby, C., & Biersgreen, E. (2022). A Multiliteracy Language Intervention for Refugee Children. Word of Mouth, 34(3), 11–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/10483950221136353c  

Wofford, M. C., & Tibi, S. (2017). A human right to literacy education: Implications for serving Syrian refugee children. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 182–190. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2017.1397746 

I urge all teachers to reconsider stocking Harry Potter in their classrooms.

https://theweek.com/feature/1020838/jk-rowlings-transphobia-controversy-a-complete-timeline

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/j-k-rowling-uses-harry-111221188.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAHDg2vnLjnQ4JL4QG5N_mncQvJqvxztVSkMuVKCxU8X_cILXrhWselrvlNFFIJEkjqVBToVn5PMImEXDynTzuNZ5Ra02K0i83d3hZAZh-SWUhD5s6q9eLGFb0OayR2Gvjc-jSf4NmSePJ2r2D5ChzwHYw4hIaUlkB5Ph5CMDK6u

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/06/jk-rowling-says-to-photograph-women-in-toilets-just-in-case-theyre-transgender/

As you can tell by the long video, I am very passionate about this topic. I didn't get to all of my points, but I felt like I was able to share my genuine beliefs through the video. I attached my "script" that I used as a guideline to express my philosophy in case that's easier to read. Hope you enjoy and I look forward to learning from you!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FRhOw61RQU2XRihfiqSAuhcTJgBADBBQaSYGzcl0fss/edit?usp=sharing

My name is Judi Arel and I teach first grade in a rural title one school outside of Sacramento, California. 80% of our students are classified as English Language Learners and it common for teachers to have more multilingual learners in the classroom than single language students. My teaching experience is working within grades TK-1st grade, although I have some experience providing intervention for 2-3rd grade students. In working with the primary grades, English Language Development is a key component of my daily instruction. I practice it in whole group, small group, explicit instruction every day. I believe an inclusive classroom environment provides EL students with the opportunity to embrace their individual cultural backgrounds, grow a deeper understanding of theirselves, while also providing them with the opportunity to engage in academic learning in meaningful ways. I use a lot of visual supports for my English Learners, including, picture cards, anchor charts, sentence frames, and connections to their home language. I only speak one language and when I attempted to learn Spanish, it was so challenging for me that I dropped the classes. I use this as a tool to connect to my Spanish speaking students because I understand how overwhelming learning a whole new language can be in an academic setting. I connect new learning to their home language by telling students that we can practice new vocabulary words in English and Spanish so I can practice learning new Spanish and they can practice learning new English. We do daily vocabulary instruction with picture cards. We practice using these words in sentences during partner talks. We build a lot of background knowledge through shared reading activities and partner reading. We spend a lot of time working collaborating with peers so each student has the opportunity to share their experiences and connect with a peer in the classroom. We include the cultural backgrounds of diverse learners by having monthly themes where we invite guest speakers into the classroom to share their cultural practices with everyone. I personally believe that English Language Learners deserve the same educational opportunities as every other student. Each student comes to the classroom with a unique and diverse background and each student has academic, social, and emotional needs that we must do our best to meet as educators. Every student deserves a learning environment that feels welcoming, safe, and nurturing. My commitment to English Language Learners is the same as my commitment to all of my students. I am committed to helping them reach their full potential by holding them to high expectations and providing them with the tools necessary to succeed.

(I tried making a video, but my extreme fear of public speaking was so overwhelming, I could not get my thoughts out in video format.)

ELD Philosophy

EED 626

After recording, I realized my video is a few seconds shy of 5 minutes, so I wanted to share an additional thought. I recall that as a kindergarten teacher, one of my colleagues once reflected that in kindergarten, we support language all day, which is absolutely true. It really made clear to me the value in the roles of both integrated and designated ELD instruction. We can incorporate language supports throughout the day and throughout content areas to help students access grade-level materials. And designated ELD time allows for that specific and strategic support that language learners need to become effective communicators and further engage with grade-level content. Communication is the key, and we as educators have the power to foster language-rich classroom environments for students to learn, explore, and grow!

My ELD Philosophy

I believe students learn languages best when they are talking and working with others in real and meaningful ways. This helps them support each other's learning process while staying engaged. 

English learners bring special skills and cultures to the classroom, and as a teacher of ELD students, it is my job to find out what those skills are and use those strengths to help them learn English.

I use different teaching methods to support language learning, making sure lessons are engaging, clear, helpful, and match the grade level they are working at. (Some examples: In my class students learn through discussion circles for engagement, lots of repetition, interactive games such as word bingo, using music/songs, poetry, art, theater, think pair share, group activities, reading diverse literature, peer tutoring. All these teaching methods are not just fun but important because through them students practice negotiating meaning as they work together through lessons and games.

I want my classroom to be a welcoming and comfortable place where every student can learn and grow. Also, a place where every learner feels important, no matter how much English they know.

As an ELD teacher, I assess my students daily through observations and monitor their progress through short verbal and written quizzes, every two weeks.

My English learners’ success is very important to me! I was in their shoes, so I understand the importance and urgency of learning the language. As an ELD teacher, I make sure to get to know my students by having one on one conversations with them and by getting to know their families. I support and stand up for my students. I help them grow in their language skills, build their confidence, think more deeply, and feel proud about who they are. My goal is for every English learner, who passes through my class, to succeed as someone who speaks, reads, understands two languages, and who is ready to do well in today’s diverse world.