Preparing students for the digital age

My Ramblings (in other words, an intro): 

This week I read a few articles about digital literacy and how to promote that in my classroom. In class I was assigned to read, Empowering English Language Learners through Digital Literacies: Research complexities, and Implications. For me this article brought up a bunch of different connections to my own experiences. The second article I read was, Preparing ELLs to be 21st- Century Learners, and this article gave me a myriad of different things to consider. 

Summary of the articles: 

Empowering English Language Learners through Digital Literacies: Research complexities, and Implications. - In this article the focus was on the need to incorporate student culture to create more meaningful learning experiences for our ELL students. These students need to be supported and not just overlooked. 

Preparing ELLs to be 21st- Century Learners- This article gave a lot of strategies and “How to’s” to support your ELL students in the classroom. It discussed including more visual reminders of how to access the different digital learning tools. You need to make sure you are taking an inventory of what your students know and reinforcing those skills by reviewing regularly. 

My interpretation/thoughts: 

Ok, so now to the fun part of the blog where I get to discuss my thoughts while reading the articles. In section 2.4 of the Yang, Wang, and Eagle article(2019), I was presented with the critical theory in regards to ELL students and how they are systematically oppressed in the monolingual classroom. As a co-teacher to many classrooms, and collaborator with a lot of different teachers, I sadly have to say that this was something I could immediately and uncomfortably make note of. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard teachers say, “Well if they are here in America they need to learn English, so why should I go through the hassle of translating everything.” I really wish that wasn’t the reality of education, but honestly, it is. I have had teachers come up to me, asking me how I communicate with different students’ parents if they don’t speak English, and I am floored to find out they don’t use things like language line, or google translate when calling or emailing. They don’t even realize that a language line is a resource available to the school! How can we appropriately educate ELL students if we don’t have effective communication going home? 

I’m certainly not saying I am a perfect teacher, and I have all the answers, because I certainly don’t. In reading this week's articles I realized that I need to stop just giving my students translated copies of readings and expecting them to find any value in it. Students really need to engage in their own learning, and find sources that are written in their native language to help them acquire the content I am covering. Do I then expect them to write a response or summarize what they read to me verbally in English? Yes, because they do need to practice that skill as well. As educators we need to do better at respecting our students’ cultural differences and incorporating them as much as we can into our own classroom culture. 

References

Robertson, K. (2020, February 19). Preparing ELLs to be 21st-Century Learners. Retrieved from https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/preparing-ells-be-21st-century-learners

Yuan, C., Wang, L., & Eagle, J. (2019). Empowering English Language Learners through Digital Literacies: Research, Complexities, and Implications. Media and Communication, 7(2), 128-136. doi:10.17645/mac.v7i2.1912