Ms. Morae’s teaches in a newcomer program for sixth and seventh grade English language learners (ELLs) at a middle school in California. All the students in Ms. Morae’s class fall in the beginning levels of English proficiency. Although there are multiple different home languages spoken in the classroom, the majority of the students’ first language is Spanish. The content of the lesson is part of an integrated unit on Cesar Chavez and his life. The focus of the literacy lesson featured is communicating feelings using adjectives in writing (e.g. figurative language, similes). Ms Moraes includes many of the “sheltered” techniques and stategies in her lesson. Sheltered teaching is a second language instructional approach that focuses on delivering…show more content… Moraes also uses the students’ first language (L1) during instruction to support students’ understanding and academic language development. For example, Ms. Morae first poses a question, asking students to tell her what jelly is in English, then poses this same question again in Spanish. In addition, students’ responses in their L1 are accepted and encouraged when seeking clarification. Students are also observed using their L1 during partner activities. James Cummins believes that when learning one language a child acquires a set of skills and implicit metalinguistic knowledge that can be used as a tool when working in another language (Crochunis, Erdey & Swedlow, 2002). Furthermore, when students are able to hear and use their native language in the classroom, they are better able to understand the linguistic input in classroom. This idea is also supported by Krashen’s theory of Comprehensible Input. Stephen Krashen’s Input theory claims that students must understand the input in order to acquire it. This way, ELLs will not only grasp the subject content, but will also simultaneously acquire the English (Crochunis, Erdey & Swedlow, 2002). This instructional practice is especially helpful considering that the students in Ms. Morae’s class are in the early stages of English language
