Activity 1: In the short video clip "Becoming Aware of Print" the student is receiving instruction early and is receiving support in English at home by having reading time. She is getting lots of practice and the parent is building anticipation in reading. This support is crucial in both ELLs and First language learners because it builds student interest and desire to read, which will increase the amount read and in turn will increase vocabulary and ability. The old adage says "practice makes perfect" and this is certainly true with reading. In "Finding the Right Book" it also notes that students should push themselves and challenge themselves in their reading. In "Teaching ELLs to Read" it is addressed that many times in other languages students do not have the opportunity to have this background in reading and come to school with varying literacy levels which will then impact their English language learning.
Activity 2:
In a regular education English classroom that is learning a short story there are many opportunities for support for ELLs for example affixes in vocabulary to help students understand their vocabulary more. In addition, teaching homophones in a writing lesson so students use the correct homophone choice. These skills to help ELLs are everywhere and opportunities exist in regular education classrooms for this type of differentiation, it is just difficult for regular education teachers to know to do this when they have not had ELL teaching instruction. It is important to help the regular education classroom teachers. The video clip addresses academic language, which is heavily used in regular education classrooms. It's important to try and help students master the skills for social language while also supporting the academic language.
