Communication Is Key In Reading

This past week, in class, I presented a journal article to the rest of the students.  I honestly can say that this was THE most beneficial article I have ever read.  I am still new to teaching, only in my second year, and I am constantly learning new things to use in my classroom. One of my biggest challenges is helping my ESL (English as a second language) students to be on the same level as others in our class.  The article I read, and presented to my reading class, hit on some very important facts that may help my students be more successful.

My article was about an elementary school in San Diego, that implemented a school wide literacy framework to help them be more successful.  This school had some of the lowest scores in the state, it was in the poorest area of the city, 100% of the students qualified for free lunch, and over 70% of the students were ESL. The administrators, teachers, and parents worked for many years to collaborate on a framework that would work for their students.  After a few years, the results were incredible, and the school was much more successful in testing.  The basis of their framework is that learning is social.  Even though they have a high ESL population, this was always part of instruction.  Being social helped their students be more successful.  The belief in the framework was that if oral language is not present, how is a child supposed to read and write successfully?  Students increased their oral language through both whole group and small group instruction.  During centers/stations, the students were expected to work collaboratively 100% of the time.  Another positive result to this literacy framework, was that the school's math scores also improved.  The school has since produced frameworks for other areas of study.

I loved reading and presenting this article.  It gave me a new understanding in how ESL students might learn more successfully.  It seems like common sense that an ESL student needs to increase their oral language, but I have never thought about that as far as instruction is concerned.  Because of the success this school found with their literacy framework, I am going to increase collaboration time during activities and centers.

What do you think?  Do you already have students collaborate often in your class?  What are the positive/negative outcomes of implementing this in your classroom?