This entry is an activity for Teach-Now while working towards a teaching certificate. Specific goals and requirements had to be met by this entry and is by no means designed to be an independent feature.
All of this is hypothetical. Like role-playing
I am an art teacher for secondary students in a reasonably populated school. Each grade is a different level of instruction from basic rendering exercises for practice and skill development to modified and refined executions in various mediums to convey stories while discovering a technique or visual voice.
This year four students in my 10th grade class will be of four different levels of English proficiency. As art is based on varied degrees of skill and is a different language in-of-itself, differentiated lessons are a common practice.
David and Mariana are fraternal twins who recently moved to the region after already spending a few months in the United States after their move from Colombia. David’s name did not prepare me for his low English proficiency that was later classified as Early Production. This graciously made me aware of my cultural blindness pushing me to be more prepared and informed of his background as well as educational efforts to assist his development. At his level, a vast amount of visual cues and gestures associated with class room discussions regarding artists and their related movements will easily be plentiful assisting his language acquistion.
Mariana fortunately has a better knowledge at Stage 3, Speech Emergent. I learned she enjoyed listening to the other children play and that is how she acquired some of her comprehension. She has the ability to join in with some playful chatter but her speech is still laden by errors that cause confusion and some peer laughter. However, her intrinsic motivated attitude keeps her moving to learn to communicate with her English neighbors. I can encourage her development by introducing more academic words regarding art history and art techniques as she enjoys making art as well. Because of her slight advancement and, luckily, her love for her twin brother, she will be a great peer to assist David’s development. During this time, I have suggested that though the temptation may be inviting to not correct his language attempts but encourage him to repeat what he wants to say. Both of their efforts will be accompanied by more art examples and exercises to encourage them describing their stories to the class.
Mayleen comes from an inland China village with her mother and has lived here for three years. Her mother works two jobs and fills in any spare time with additional work to pay for a good home for her daughter. Mayleen respects her mother’s dedication and follows likewise. Her English comprehension is Intermediate Fluency; she is a critical thinker and expresses great observations during class art critiques. She works hard but does not socialize much within class. Because of her language comprehension, she will be a great peer for the final ELL who is also comes from China coastal fishing village.
Jun is a Beginning Fluency student. His work required a lot of communication for bartering and negotiation so he is fluent with his own language. His social attitude encouraged his proficiency within the community but academically he does fall a bit short. His friendly attitude would provide a great social match for Mayleen’s social interaction. Jun does not enjoy art, but as it is a course of visual development, visual cues will assist in his academic vocabulary and grammar development. He and Mayleen will be challenged to present a 30 year period of native art in conjunction with the more familiar art period of the same time.
Throughout the semester, each team of people will experience fluctuations in group sizes to match activities such as art game competitions that will provide a comedic if not festive break thanks to Pictionary, and an in-the-round game of timed portrait drawing where each student will have collected all portraits of their classmates based on their stories. Additional activities such as group critiques will create more challenges of expressing art theories and techniques, and periodic presentations to illustrate the significance of art movements through time and culture. Lessons will always be demonstrations of techniques that will supplement introduction of new vocabulary. As it is a physical expression, there will be plenty of time to eloquently describe the technique as will illustrate the language describing it. Art is a visual voice.
REFERENCES
Ferlazzo,Larry. (March 12, 2012). Edutopia. Do’s & Don’ts For Teaching English-Language Learners. MARCH 12, 2012. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/esl-ell-tips-ferlazzo-sypnieski
Robertson,Kristina and Ford, Karen. (2008). Language Acquisition: An Overview. http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/26751/
For Colombian names: Students of the World. (2002). Penpal Statistics : Colombia. http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/penpals/stats.php3?Pays=COL
For Chinese names: Meaning of Names. (2004 – 2015). Asian and Pacific Names and Meanings. http://www.meaning-of-names.com/asia-and-pacific/