Preservice Teachers' Strategies to Support English Learners
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The School of Education seeks to prepare students as educators to lead classrooms, schools, colleges, and professional development.
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The School of Education was formed in 2012 from the merger of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.
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2012-present
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- College of Human Sciences (parent college)
- Department of Curriculum and Instruction (predecessor)
- Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (predecessor)
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Abstract
Although English language learners (ELLs) are one of the fastest growing groups of students in the United States, many teacher preparation programs have yet to require preservice teachers (PSTs) to receive training in effective practices for teaching ELLs. We examined a four-week field experience pairing an elementary PST with an ELL. We examined the strategies PSTs used to support ELLs as they implemented cognitively demanding mathematics tasks. Through interviews, observations, and written reflections, we found that the PSTs tried to support students, with varying degrees of success, by allowing for multiple modes of communication, including visual supports, pressing for explaining, and checking for understanding. Implications for teacher preparation are discussed.
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This paper was published in Bartell, T. G., Bieda, K. N., Putnam, R. T., Bradfield, K., & Dominguez, H. (Eds.). (2015). Proceedings of the 37th annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University. Posted with permission.