Use the information below to answer the question that follow.
A middle school ESL teacher and a general education mathematics teacher co-teach a class that includes expanding-level English language learners. The class is working on a small-group cooperative learning project. Each group identifies a possible location for a class field trip and then creates a trip budget and a plan for raising the money to fund the trip. At the culmination of the project, each group presents an oral proposal to the class, and each group member is responsible for presenting a portion of the proposal.

The teachers want to support the English language learners' communicative language development by promoting their active participation in group activities and discussions during the project. Which of the following strategies would likely best address this goal?
  1. Assigning each group member a role (e.g., researcher, graphics developer, scribe, treasurer) with specific duties appropriate to his or her strengths.
  2. Placing the English language learners together in a group and encouraging them to use their first language when necessary to facilitate communication.
  3. Circulating among groups and periodically grading students on their group participation to ensure that all group members are contributing to group discussions.
  4. Rotating English language learners to different groups on a regular basis to provide them with opportunities to interact with a variety of native-English-speaking peers.
Explanation
Correct Response: A. Assigning students at the expanding level a specific role appropriate to his or her strengths is an effective strategy for ensuring each student is an active member in the group. Students at this level have enough technical language in English to be able to participate in a discussion but may need more structure, such as in the form of an assigned role, to promote their engagement. B is incorrect because students at the expanding level are able to adequately use academic English to participate in a group assignment such as the one in this scenario. Grouping them together would limit their exposure to more challenging language, which is important in supporting their ongoing language development. C is incorrect because it does not provide a support or structure to promote active participation of English language learners; it simply puts them in competition with their English-speaking peers for the participation grades. D is incorrect because rotating the English language learners through a variety of groups during the project would not be beneficial; rather, the students would likely feel estranged from all the groups as a result of not being a permanent member of any one group during the assigned project.
Was this helpful? Upvote!
Login to contribute your own answer or details

Top questions

Related questions

Most popular on PracticeQuiz