SolteroChapter2

=Chapter 2 - School Structures: Schoolwide Response for ELL Education= __Schoolwide Approaches to Educating ELLs__ by Sonia W. Soltero

Chapter 2 Summary Written by Donna Hendry

The requirements of NCLB have important implications for everyone involved in education because ELLs are almost certain to be part of nearly every classroom and school.

A school culture and climate must be aware of the pitfalls that having ELLs can create; the feeling that somehow ELLs are broken, and the teacher needs to 'fix' them because this pits educators against each other, and collapse the positive climate. This can also affect the students when their culture, langue and class are viewed by the school and society as inadequate and negative and better explains academic underachievement of language minority students. Many ELLs and their families have other factors that can affect learning, like poverty, violent environments, poor health that should be taken into consideration. The needs of refugee ELLs are quite different than the needs of working-class urban ELL's and must be considered. In addition, ELLs are often isolated from the rest of the students, both lingually and physically. This creates disconnect between them and the rest of the school.

The importance of team-teaching and collaborative planning was discussed, including how it affects teachers and students. One of the reasons that is pointed out that this is so important is that in traditional bilingual classes, students are separated from their English speaking peers, removing another venue for them to expand their English acquisition.

It was also discussed the need for more TESOL and Bilingual teachers, and how the numbers have been steadily declining. Programs are very limited, making it even harder to create new teachers. In addition, very few colleges and universities (fewer than 1/6) expect their preservice teachers to take any sort of course in ELLs.

I found it interesting to note that it was anti-German/anti-immigrant sentiments after WWI that prompted the states to create what was essentially anti bilingual laws.


 * Important Terms:**
 * Vision** is a statement of a view of the world that a school is working toward based on a shared understanding of a stet of goals to be achieved. (p. 41)


 * Mission Statement** includes the ways in which the stated vision will be accomplished.

A **Safe School** is normally understood to include physical safety, but just as important is the psychological and emotional safety of all members of a school, especially that of students and families from different cultures and language backgrounds.


 * Coercive relations of power** are found in school practices that aim to assimilate them and make them give up their home culture and language.


 * Collaborative relations of power** value and recognize the sources of knowledge that ELLs have even though they may be outside the dominant discourse of schools.