Valentina Gonzalez is a former teacher who has served 20 plus years in her own classroom, a district facilitator for English Learners, a professional development leader, and an educational consultant. Her work has been focused on literacy, culture, and language. She still delivers professional development for EL education and is an accomplished author.
She explains how many schools send the wrong message to EL students when they put their classrooms in outdoor portables, storage closets, and other less than desirable spaces. Students feel when they are consistently getting the short end of the stick. It is important that teachers speak up to their administration to make sure ESL classes and students are not overlooked.
We discuss literacy. It is one of the most important things to support our learners to do. It is crucial to make sure we are getting to know students and how they read. One great way to do this is to listen to them read in their native language. This helps students feel seen and heard. I can gather a lot of information about how comfortably they are reading even if I don’t understand the language. As you listen, you want to identify what they can do and use that as a starting off point for what to work on next.
In every lesson in every classroom, students should be practicing all four domains – reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Valentina explains that she does not have a favorite domain, but says that speaking is really great for many of our ELs because speaking will lead to good listening, reading, and writing. She describes how we all learn our first language by listening and speaking and then learn to read and write later. You cannot read and write if we cannot listen or speak.
She also speaks about how language should be learned in context of grade level curriculum and not taught in isolation. The picture word inductive model is one strategy that she recommends for introducing content in any class. Students get to pull from their funds of knowledge in order to label the picture. After spending some time at the word level, labeling the picture, students can move on to the sentence level and then the paragraph level.
What you will hear about inclusion and advocacy:
- The most important first steps when teaching literacy to english learners
- The language domain that is the focus for all others
- How we can collaborate with teachers even in difficult situations
- A glimpse into Valentina’s day as an educational consultant
Resources
As mentioned in the episode, I am linking some useful resources!
- The ESL Teaching Roadmap monthly membership
- ESL Teacher Support – 1:1 coaching session with Ieva Grauslys (©Simply Ieva)
- 25 Authentic Speaking Activities for Your ESL Classroom
- Simply Ieva ESL Teachers Pay Teachers Store
- Follow me on Instagram
- Join the Simply Ieva Facebook Group
- Simply Ieva Youtube Channel
Valentina’s resources:
- Reading & Writing with English Learners: A Framework for K-5
- Krofne with Baba
- Valentina’s website
- Twitter @ValentinaESL
