How can we define the role of the EL teacher? After the Common Core implementation, it was made clear that more rigorous standards meant more challenging and complex academic language for all students. But how does the role of the English Learner teacher is affected by this?
To understand the new EL teacher's role, it's crucial to clarify one key point. That is the shift from what once was called "reading" standards to the now called ELA or English Language Arts standards.
With the previously used standards, the idea of reading standing alone and "disconnected" from writing, listening and speaking skills, was based on the notion that learning is linear. So, there was a time in the schedule for reading and separate time for writing.
Now, all the skills have to be integrated into one block of time called ELA instruction. So one of the main shifts with the common core implementation is that we are not talking about reading anymore, but instead, we call it ELA. These standards complement the idea that learning occurs in a spiral way as opposed to straight and linear one.
Due to this main shift, which is so hard for so many mainstream teachers to wrap their heads around, the role of the EL is to provide support to help teachers understand how to make sense of the importance of integrating all language domains in the process of planning their lessons.
For well-trained, highly qualified EL teachers, this idea is not new. In fact, every effective language lesson in any language you are learning incorporates reading, listening, speaking and writing.
So the role of the EL teacher is to collaborate even more now with classroom teachers to ensure those standards are taught.
For example, when EL teachers and classroom teachers are working on a unit, the EL teacher can offer support by being responsible for the teaching of the vocabulary of the unit or by reinforcing the skills that the students need more practice with.
The EL teacher can also frontload concepts and skills before the students see them in their classrooms, so then it will be easier for the classroom teacher to continue with the lesson without having to re-teach the concepts to EL students who might have not grasped them.
Depending on the time, the ideal EL classroom would provide students plenty of opportunities to develop all skills under the ELA standards. Sometimes EL can go along with the classroom teacher and keep the same pace. Other times the EL teachers are either behind, so they can re-teach, or ahead so they can frontload.
With careful planning and collaboration, it can be done!
