Sadie Guthrie-Kretsch

Skit Reflection
1) Identify the 5 stages of language acquisition, key factors (3-4) about each
stage, and at least one effective strategy that can be used with ELL students
from that stage
a. Stage 1 of language acquisition is the pre-production stage. This stage
is often referred to as the silent stage because of their limited verbal
skills. They might not be able to speak but that does not mean they do
not understand what is being said. Their verbal skills may be limited to
simply parroting what the teacher has said. One effective strategy that
can be used with ELL students is using visual and concrete objects to
help the students actively listen to what the teacher is saying.
b. Stage 2 of language acquisition is the early production stage. Students
in this stage of language acquisition may only communicate in short
answers using very few words. Often, the words or phrases they
understand are related to everyday social events. It is best for teachers
to ask yes/no questions that require them to listen but is sensitive to
the fact that ELL students at this stage have a hard time forming
phrases to answer questions.
c. Stage 3 of language acquisition is the speech emergence stage. At this
stage ELL students will be able to form short words or phrases. This is
often the first step to consistent verbal communication. Another key
factor of this stage is that students can understand written English.
Teachers should refrain from asking ELL students at this stage simple
yes/no questions. Questions should force students to form full words or
phrases.
d. Stage 4 of language acquisition is the intermediate stage. At this stage
ELL students are able to express their thoughts and feelings. They are
demonstrating increased levels of accuracy but still may exhibit minor
grammatical errors when speaking and writing. At this stage, teachers
should be giving students the opportunity to write longer essays, and
even present in front of the classroom.
e. Stage 5 of language acquisition is the fluency stage. At this stage ELL
students are able to write and speak with a level comparable to native
English speakers. They produce language that utilizes a variety of
grammatical structures and are ready to graduate from the ELL
program. Teachers can promote ongoing language development by
using activities that are content-specific.
2) Identify the 4 methods of co-teaching, a brief description of each method,
and an example of how each method of co-teaching can be used effectively
for classrooms with ELL students
a. Team teaching This is used where each teacher has a specific job in
the classroom and all are engaged in giving the lesson. This allows
teachers to focus on their particular job. In class team teaching was
used to teach the class about shapes. It helped me as a student
because it allowed me to guess what was coming next. Based on who
was walking to the board I knew if I was going to learn how many sides
the shape had, what it was called, how it was spelled, etc. This form of
co-teaching could be effectively used in an ELL classroom especially if

one teacher has different strategies for teaching ELL students. This
allows ELL students to be taught using strategies that help them the
most, and often times monolingual students can also benefit from
these strategies as well.
b. Parallel teaching this type of co-teaching is used where the classroom
is split into smaller groups. If there are two teachers then both
teachers are responsible for teaching the same information to one of
the groups. This type of co-teaching takes a lot of planning to ensure
that both teachers have the same objectives. However, parallel
teaching also allowed a smaller teacher to student ratio. In the case of
ELL this allows teachers to notice which students need more help than
others, and if it makes sense to divide groups based on level of
achievement. For example, when teaching the life cycle of the
butterfly, we were able to break the groups up into only a couple of
people, now each teacher was only responsible for a few students and
it was easier to identify who was grasping the concept and who needed
more help. It might be helpful to divide groups based on their language
acquisition levels so that each teacher can teach the same subject,
and all students are learning the same lesson, however they are
learning it in a way that best suites how well the know the English
language.
c. Supportive teaching in this kind of co-teaching one person is teaching
while another is going around to the students and helping each one
individually who may need the help. This allows the teacher to
continue teaching those who are understanding the concepts, however
the ones who may need help are not allowed to fall behind, and get the
help they need. One of example of how this can be helpful in an ELL
class is during a math lesson. If you ask the class to follow along in a
math problem some students will be able to but you will have some
who fall behind, this could be because of a lack of understanding the
concept, or because their knowledge of the language makes it harder
for them. If you have someone who can individually help each student
she can go through it at a pace that works for them, however it is not
slowing down other students who may understand the concept.
d. Complimentary teaching this kind of co-teaching involves one
teacher verbally communicating the lesson while the other provides a
demonstration. This could be especially helpful when demonstrating
the scientific method and how to perform an experiment. For ELL
students, visuals help make things more clear than simply speaking
through them. If one teacher talks while another is demonstrating it
helps make the students more active learners and gives them a visual
aid to what they are learning.