Equipping and Encouraging ELL Teachers

Teachers of preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary children must continually work to keep students engaged with the learning process. To do so effectively, they must be willing to be part artist, part mentor, part disciplinarian, part friend, and all teacher. It is a profession requiring deep dedication and substantial stamina!

Teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs) face unique challenges of patience and accuracy because ELL students are typically not merely learning English for casual purposes – it is expected that the students become competitively proficient. Yet the class composition may include fast learners and slow learners – if lessons favor one learner over another, the other contingent becomes restless and disengages from the learning process, forcing split attention by the teacher.

Do we need to mention performance expectations by administration, parents, and peers? Or the boredom factor? Boredom can cause any teacher to evaluate one’s career choice, which can lead to discouragement and disconnection from one’s students. That disconnection can lead to feelings of incompetence and, when coupled with student proficiency results being less than expected, even feelings of failure. Finally, teachers face issues of insufficient resources, support materials, and connection to the creators of the materials they use in the classroom.

The challenges faced by ELL teachers on a daily basis are intimately familiar to the designers of GrapeSEED. The program was designed specifically with teachers in mind. Its development was complicated, but its application is quite simple. GrapeSEED has combined experience, research, investment, design, text, art, and music to give ELL teachers the first fully‐integrated program based on naturally learning principles designed specifically for childhood education – a program that benefits every student in the class.

Instilling Hope

Even the best curriculum is only a tool; the key link in the chain is the teacher. Because only the teacher can instill hope in the young child. And oftentimes in the case of an ELL student, this hope is what can break the cycle of poverty, the cycle of hopelessness.

What better time to instill that hope than in a young child? And all else being equal, who needs hope more than an ELL student?

The reality is that for many if not all ELL students, the hope of a better future begins and ends with success in the English language. Instilling that hope begins with the teacher and that’s the teacher’s privilege every day.

GrapeSEED equipped and trained teachers have every reason to expect a future of success in the English language for their ELL students. To learn more, Contact us!