When effectively teaching English language learners's (ELL's) science, do we first let students explore or do we first provide them with vocabulary and language skills?  My interest area that I am researching is, "What are effective teaching strategies for working with ELL's during science instruction?"  I'm interested in exploring the two aforementioned questions because I've become a bit confused about how to combine the "best teaching practices" that I have learned in different courses here at Drake together.  I learned in my Introduction to Teaching English Language Learners course and Methods of Teaching English Language Learners course to provide students with background information and important vocabulary before the lesson.  I learned how to use the Sheltered Insturction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model.  In our science course, I've learned that students should first explore and have an experience before actually focusing on the language and more abstract parts of the content.  The ideas from the courses in some sense conflict.

After reading Inquiry Science, Sheltered Instruction, and English Language Learners: Conflicting Pedagogies in Highly Diverse Classrooms  by John Settlage, Anne Madsen, and Kerri Rustad, I learned that an effective way to teach students in science is to provide them with an inquiry-based experience first and to then match the vocabulary and language with the experience.  The authors of the article used observations of their own classrooms to justify their opinions.  By encouraging linguistically diverse students to initially interact with science "hands and minds on" in a shared experience, students develop background knowledge.  The inquiry-based approach additionally promotes bringing various cultural viewpoints to the lesson.  I see this idea linking to my previous post about the multicultural science view of science education.

The authors also allude to the fact that sometimes ELL's are unfairly assessed because teachers do not understand the student's achievment becuase of language or cultural barriers.  Page 48 of the article has a nice table that organizes the language and cultural barriers into three categories: "linguistic issues, ultural influences issues related to language, and acquisition development."

We've been discusssing various learning theories in class, including developmental learning theory.  I'm linking what I've learned from the article and with the class together to come to the idea that letting students experience science first and then providing the language is likely the most effective classroom strategy for working with ELL's during science.  By letting students experience the science, they are participating in a concrete experience.  The language/vocabulary that is later provided to the students is a more concrete experiences.  Learning theory tells us that by moving from conrete representations to more abstrac representations, students will more likely retain the content.

Knowing that I may have some difficulties assessing ELL's because of limited language development, I will need to make sure to provide alternative opportunties for students to show what they have learned.  Using alternative assesments is something I may research more and discuss in my next blog post.
--------------------------------------------
Settlage, J., Madsen, A., & Rustad, K. (2005). Inquiry science, sheltered instruction, and English language learners: Conflicting pedagogies in highly diverse classrooms. Issues in Teacher Education, 14(1), 39-57. Retrieved from ERIC database.