Sheltered Instruction for Teachers of English Language Learners: The Promise of Online Mentoring

Abstract

Hi I like basketbol and I'm tall. I'm friendly with every one. I like to go to the mall a lot. I'm from Mexico but I think that is a great oportunity to learn two lenguages. I'm Proud of myself. I love animals expecialy cats. ... I'm pretty sure that I will be a good teacher when I grow up. And I think I'm pretty but I'm not sure about that. When I get mad is thanks to a boy. ... Oh and one more thing I'm so silly and not funny. -Rosa, 12-year-old English language learner in a sheltered English class hy my sprin brek wos borin cos i diren bon naten des ste sterin the wall cos i wos panish cos i hit my breter cos hi wos roin in the hausi end thas hoan i hit may broter. [Hi, my spring break was boring because I didn't do nothing just sat staring at the wall because I was punished because I hit my brother. He was running in the house and that's why I hit my brother.] -Jorge, seventh grade English language learner in the same class Both Jorge and Rosa (all names are pseudonyms) are adolescent English language learners (ELLs) in the same seventh grade sheltered English class, a type of instruction in which students receive extra support in learning the language while still learning grade level content. Despite the disparity in their levels of English fluency evidenced in the above excerpts, both students have been placed in the second and final year of sheltered courses in their middle school. In the coming academic year, both will exit into a full day of regular courses for which they must be prepared to undertake grade-level academic concepts in a language that they are still struggling to make their own. In short, both are doing what Short and Fitzsimmons (2007) have recently called double the (p. 1) of ELLs in U.S. schools as they try to learn the English language while simultaneously trying to keep pace with their peers with what can seem an even faster-paced curriculum. Meeting the needs of both Jorge and Rosa, with such a discrepancy in their language levels, can be challenging even to the most experienced language teacher. This article documents how two educators-Jessica, an ESL specialist, and Paige, a researcher interested in language learning-teamed up to find a way to help shelter teachers who are new to the instruction of English language learners. In a two-year project, we matched cohorts of Jessica's students in one-on-one writing partnerships with preservice and inservice teachers who were taking courses focused on ELL pedagogy. In this online writing project, Jorge and Rosa, together with their ELL peers, interacted in a weekly writing exchange that we hoped would be a mutually beneficial experience for the students and inservice teachers. We anticipated, for example, that the ELLs would be more motivated to write when using technology to correspond with a partner outside the school context and that, as a consequence, they would also write more fluently and more confidently in English. We also anticipated that the teachers would benefit from the opportunity to better understand adolescent language learners through a personal one-on-one relationship. This article documents how online writing became a practical, engaging forum for teachers to discuss language learning and teaching and, specifically, to learn how to teach writing to ELL students. Learning about language learners Demographics are changing in many parts of the country, making it quite common for teachers to find a wide variety of ELL levels in their classrooms. In the decade between 1995 and 2005, for example, the overall school population only grew by 3.7%, while the population of limited English proficient (LEP) students grew by 57% (NCELA, 2005). Within the ELL population in secondary schools, 44% are first-generation students who were born outside the United States (Capps et al., 2005). Due to such rapidly changing demographic patterns, many teachers in public schools who work with ELL students are not trained language specialists. …