Dear whoever is viewing this, This week in my EDU220 class, I have learned an more than I can explain about important second language acquisition theories by Krashen and Cummins. Both are major influences on the education system and the way kids are taught today and have everything to do with how we should teach Beginning with m y teacher.... she makes content meaningful by using the BICs found in Cummins theories. With her ELL students in particular, she depends heavily on their social learning and "playground" vocabulary in order to further explain academic terminology. It also builds a sort of invisible ladder for each student because she lets them speak and write in a improper manner at first because "everyone has to start somewhere, and at least they are starting" she says. However,(especially now that it is their 4th quarter), she expects them to sit up straight and speak to her with the academic vocabulary they've learned through out the year....
Blog Post 4: Making Content Meaningful