BAP005 – Four Messages for Language Learners

If nothing else, every language learner needs to hear these four messages:

  • You are important
  • What you are learning is important.
  • We will not give up on you.
  • You CAN do it.

We cover these four messages in Episode 5 of the podcast. You can listen to it here.

If you have attended one of our Seidlitz Education trainings, you may have seen a slide with these four messages.  Relaying these to our language learners is something we can all do immediately.  It sounds basic, but I find that I need to reflect on how I relay these messages explicitly, in my lessons and also in my actions as I interact with my students.  I want to thank Edna Martinez in Katy ISD for making such a great slide out of these.

She did it within 24 hours of being in the training and shared it on Twitter. This made me think about how very important these basic messages are to my language learners.  So I break each one down in the podcast this week.  I also mention what I am reading now, which is Building a Community of Self-Motivated Learners, by Larry Ferlazzo.   I see a strong correlation here.  When we use researched based practices, we see many ways we can convey these messages to our students.  I strongly suggest that book and checking out other resources by Larry like his collection of the best posts on Motivating students.

So here are some of the points I  make in the show about these four messages:

You are Important.

What you are learning is Important.

  • Tracking print. Why I am asking them to do that? They need to know how it relates to Balanced Literacy
  • What is Balanced Literacy (How much of this do secondary teachers need to know?  Students need to know?)
  • Theories of 2nd language acquisition.
  • Growth mindset lessons.
  • Not Grit lessons but awareness of grit
  • Developmental assets
  • How students can learn their new language and gain literacy without you.
    • www.newsinlevels.com and other ways to track print without the teacher.
    • videos with captions and other things your English learners can read.

We will not give up on you.

You CAN do it.

  • We need to believe this about our students.
  • With every fiber of our being, we need to approach every day with the firm belief that our students CAN overcome.
  • Move from “Every child can learn.”  to “Every child can  be a leader!” and “We can LEARN from every child!”

BIG thanks to Emily Francis for putting a different spin on these messages.  How do they affect our own learning?  Ask yourself if you believe these things about your own growth.  If not, reach out. Your PLN is here for you and we can help!

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