Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Lazy Teachers ESOL students, which I teach, particularly need detailed, clear instructions from their teachers in order to grasp what they are expected to do on their assignments. At times I am frustrated by the lack of time teachers put into preparation for their students, and how this particularly puts English language learners at a disadvantage. Two cases in point: I regularly have my students bring their work from their other classes to me so I can assist them. There is a teacher who regularly gives the students, as a handout, a teacher's lesson plan printed off the internet. In other words, rather than generate a handout for the students, this teacher prints out instructions to the teacher, and gives them to the students and leaves it up to the students to figure out what they are supposed to do. But the handout is full of instructions that read "The teacher will..." A bit confusing for ELL's who bring these handouts to me for disciphering what they need to do. Another teacher gave a student a handout about a science project. The handout explicitly stated "Here you will find several websites that will assist you in finding a topic...," but not a single website was listed on the handout. I guessed that the teacher had printed out a web page without looking at it carefully, and this sentence was a hyperlink to the websites referred to. How was I to help this student when the teacher had provided so little guidance? Part of my job as the ESOL specialist, obviously, is to train the teachers how to bridge the language gap for ELLs. Too often, however, they are seen as "my students," rather than "our students." 10:03:13 PM    comment []trackback []