interactive group work
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interactive group work
Interactive group work has many advantages including student security, interactive language and an increase in motivation. Many ELL’s feel more comfortable and confident in a small group setting as evidenced to how much they participate and speak in my small pull out instruction. However, some teachers are afraid of group work or feel it is a waste of time. Others have no control of their classroom or how to manage group work. In addition, some teachers do not plan group work carefully. As educators we must observe teachers performing group work effectively so that ELL’s can foster in class and not just during pull out instruction.
I agree with this approach whole heartedly. It could be utilized in classes of all ELL's as a way for them to negotiate meaning and provide feedback to each other. This often helps them come up with the proper grammar together. Also, they are probably more confident among other ELL's, and less embarrassed by mistakes. I also see this approach having value in mainstream classrooms. One of the oldes strategies in the book is to pair a struggling student with a successful one. They can develop a type of buddy system. Who knows? Perhaps we can inspire the next generation of ESL teachers through such exercises.
I agree that interactive group work can be an asset to student growth. Learning from each other can be so beneficial. Also, it provides opportunity for authentic, meaningful language to be practiced, which is an essential component of English instruction. It will also provide practice interacting with other students to hopefully increase their confidence, as affective factors also are an important component of educating children. Groups should be fluid though; it's helpful to have them with same ability level sometimes and varying ability levels at other times. Your comment about the buddy system reminded me of something our ELL and Gifted teachers did. For Earth Day, they partnered up to plant a garden for our school. I heard that the students all had a great time, and gifted students were paired with ELL students and conversations blossomed. Who knows, maybe a future ESL teacher was inspired by that activity!
Interactive group work
I often use group work in my general ed classroom with ELL students. Sometimes I use homogeneous groups and sometimes heterogeneous groups are more beneficial. I think it depends on the lesson. Interactive group work does allow the students to use authentic language and feel more secure discussing the topic in a small group of peers. I have seen many students feel more confident participating during a whole class discussion after small group work. I think interactive group work should definitely be considered when working with ELL students.
Initiating Interactions and Interactive Group Work
I use interactive group work in my classroom a lot. At the beginning of each year, a lot of my students refuse to talk to me or to answer my questions. I usually have survival phrases translated that I use. I also noticed that the ELL students do not talk to me but talk to their classmates. This doesn’t mean that I stop having that one way conversation with those children in English. I talk to them like I do with the rest of the class. I usually start getting answers from the ELL’s few weeks down the school year. I use group work to facilitate an activity for my ELL students. I usually put the more fluent speakers with the shy or less fluent ones. I model for them the modified activity first and then I let them do the activity while I am monitoring it. This way the students start interacting gradually until they feel comfortable interacting with me. With continuous repetition and modeling, my ELL students learn English gradually and start interacting throughout the different activities.