Of Course, Some Practical Ideas and Strategies

     Of course, I couldn't leave this blog without providing some practical ideas that you may want to use in your classroom. I think the above quote is a great way to think about teaching in general but for the case of EAL learners it is especially important. No two students language skills will develop at the same rate or in the exact same way. Each student will reach benchmarks at their own pace but these are some things that you may want to use to help your students feel comfortable and keep them engaged in their learning!

Impact on Future Students and Changes to Teacher Identity

dobrý den, sbohem (Czech)

     Throughout my inquiry project I have gained valuable knowledge and have realized that some of my ways of thinking have changed. I have made some changes to my teacher identity will have a different approach when it come to teaching newcomer students and EAL learners. Some strategies that I have learned and ways of thinking that I have been exposed to have helped shape how I think about immigrant and refugee education.

So What Are The Answers?

Let me return to my inquiry questions...

My broad question is: 

• What are the most effective strategies teachers can use to create safe spaces within schools for immigrants and refugees?

My sub-questions are:

•  How can we make community education spaces comfortable for immigrant and refugee students? Does place based education help EAL learners gain valuable English skills? 
• What are the benefits of having EAL students use their native language in order to make them feel comfortable? How can we incorporate space into this strategy? 
• How can different places assist for our assessment of English benchmarks according to the Common Framework of Reference (CFR)? (The CFR and various other EAL documents can be found here).

     I believe that my completed research (through readings and community engagement) has aided in answering the above questions. It has also presented me with new questions.

I will first start by addressing my sub-questions individually...

Helpful Resources (Reference List)

     There were many helpful books and articles that helped shape my thinking when it came to my inquiry project. There are so many resources out there that sometimes it was hard to narrow down exactly what I should read or watch. My project didn't go exactly in the direction that I had originally thought (specific strategies are hard to come by and some strategies may not work in all situations) but these resources helped me along the course of this term.

The Community Connection - Expanding the Space (ELC and Community Engagement)

The spaces in which I chose to do my community engagement and our ecological learning community each had their own unique qualities and allowed me to observe how they made a safe and welcoming space for the people who frequent their place.

Since I am attending the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, SK), I will speak to the organizations and places that I visited within my community (similar places may exist in other communities). I will discuss practices and ideas that I got from visiting these different places and how they can be brought into creating a safe classroom and school.
There were some recurring themes within all these spaces. One of the things I learned through talking with the Saskatoon Public Schools EAL Superintendent was "you can't anticipate everything".  This simple, yet powerful quote, I think sums up EAL education and creating a welcoming and safe space for these students. Another recurring theme along the same lines that came from my meetings with the Saskatoon Open Door Society and Global Gathering Place was - there is no one size fits all. There is a reason that these places have such a diverse array of programming, everyone needs something a little different in order to be successful.