Practice: Knowing strengths, needs, and interests will help to make authentic student connections to learning. Building lessons around the student’s interests can help bring relevance to the curriculum we are teaching.  

 
What and educator should know about this issue before working with ELLs:

o   Stepping out of your comfort zone when getting to know your student can help to develop more meaningful relationships. 

o   High literacy scores do not necessarily mean higher levels of engagement; low literacy scores do not mean that the student is not engaged. 

o   An underlying theory relevant to student engagement and success is Lev Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory. This theory brought forth the concept of the “zone of proximal development”. This concept suggests that when a child is working within the “What I need help with” zone they taking an active role in their learning.
Practical strategies that will benefit ELLs:

o   Be inclusive in as many dimensions of identity as possible (ethnicity, gender, friendship circles, race, talent etc.). 

o   Personally, I have done community circles for younger grades. This helps me get to know my students better, and then allows me to incorporate some of their interests in the following lessons I create. For older grades, opening up a dialogue can be just as effective. 

o   What are my students are interested in?

o   Are we involving the students in the lessons we create to ensure they are as engaged as possible?

o   Am I ensuring my students have an identity/voice within the classroom? 

Practice: Build upon prior knowledge by understanding where the student’s strengths, needs, and interest lie. By understanding what the student needs and what interests them, lessons can be formatted in a way that is culturally relevant to them and, in turn, will lead to high academic success and achievement. Differentiation should always be taken into account by providing students with multiple ways to demonstrate learning. 

o   All students learn differently, and these differences may be connected to background, language, family structure, and social or cultural identity.

o   There are three dimensions that make up culturally responsive pedagogy: institutional, personal, and instructional. All three are necessarily to the making of an inclusive school culture. 

o   The sociocultural theory is most relevant to the topic of culturally responsive pedagogy. Lev Vygotsky believed that learning had its basis in social interaction. The interaction we have with parents, teachers, peers, and the culture that surrounds us may be responsible for developing higher order functioning. 

o   The sociocultural theory focuses on the ways that our cultural beliefs and attitudes impact how instruction and learning take place. By understanding that culture plays an important role in development and learning, teachers can better prepare for their students. 

o   High expectations should be coupled with appropriate supports to scaffold new learning experiences. 

o   Expand what is considered “curriculum” and teach to the needs of the students. Recognize that not everything in the curriculum is going to be relevant, and must be made, by us as teachers, culturally appropriate. 

o   What does a classroom look, sound, and feel like, when it is inclusive and culturally relevant?