Melissa Blazejak
ePortfolio: Educational Technology
Research Project
For my research project, I created a website dedicated to ELL resources for elementary teachers. This website can be used by almost any teacher because the content can be modified to meet different grade levels.
I developed this website because while I was an ELL instructor, I did not have any background in ELL education. I had to rely on the Internet to give me a crash course in this type of teaching style and due to this I started collecting ELL resources from the web.
This site is great for all types of teachers because the strategies used are universal and can be used by general education teachers and ELL instructors. All the resources and strategies used are designed to benefit ELL students in a general education environment. The following gives a brief description (and link) to each portion of the website. To view the entire project click here.
The home page provides an overview into ELL education. On this page, I describe what ELL education is, different types of preschool programs to help jump-start an ELL ‘s education, and how ELL students have to meet a specific set of standards on top of meeting the Common Core State Standards.
/ FAQ
The about page describes what the website is and why it was created. The FAQ, or Frequently Asked Questions, describes the difference between ELL and ESL, how this type of education is different from general education, and who can use the website.
The lit review highlights the 4 main areas of concern for ESL instruction. These concerns include building empathy, language acquisition, academic language, and building background knowledge. It is important to have empathy for ELL students because they are in a foreign country learning a new language. Having empathy reassures the students that you understand where they are coming from. Academic language and background knowledge are important because they are the backbone to all education. When you understand the terminology used in school, you can build on your own experiences to help you learn more about the topic. Language acquisition is important because if you understand how ELLs learn a language, you can use that knowledge to help instruct them.
The strategies pages consist of YouTube videos that show how specific strategies are used in ELL instruction. There are 4 different categories of strategies: Academic Language and Vocabulary, Building Schema, Reading Comprehension, and Other Strategies. All the reading comprehension strategies can be used in all content areas, there were just so many that they got their own category. The other strategies page consists of science, math, and social studies strategies.
The web resource page features the top websites with ELL content. These websites offer tips and advice, as well as, worksheets and lesson ideas. These websites are a vital tool for ELL instruction because they are all geared towards ELL students.
The print resource page consists of books that all teachers should own! These books also offer tips and advice, as well as, lesson plans and activities designed for ELL students. Most of the print resources came from teachers in my district and they were nice enough to let me borrow them for this project!