Assignment #3, February 13, Research of the topic "CALLA: Sheltered Content Instruction for ELL's" :Tamarah Shuer

In our six months together in the Fellows program, we have been told not to say that our students “can’t” do anything. Instead, we are told to talk about what they “can” do. However, when we have discussions in class, we easily fall back into talking about what our students “can’t” do. We say, “my students can’t read,” or “my students can’t study” or “my students can’t add” out of shock or frustration. We struggle with these statements because we know that our students have the ability to do these things, but in the classroom they simply do not perform. The problem is not that our students lack intelligence but that they lack a set of learning strategies. While the book The Learning Strategies Handbook is a guide for ESL and bilingual teachers, the learning strategies described in this book can apply to urban teachers of all kinds.
The Learning Strategies Handbook uses CALLA, the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach, as a framework for explaining twenty-seven learning strategies than can be used in the classroom. These learning strategies range from Set Goals to Ask If It Makes Sense to Summarize. Instead of teaching learning strategies alone, teachers use the content of the course as the material for teaching learning strategies. For example a mathematics teacher would use algebra content to teach the Taking Notes strategy, and a history teacher would use the Civil War to teach the Predict strategy. While the strategy is used to teach content, it also is explicitly named during the lesson and reflected upon after the lesson. By focusing on the strategy, the student learns to model the strategy and eventually can use it independently.
CALLA also splits up the learning process into five phases: preparation, presentation, practice, evaluation, and expansion (7). These five phases are meant to transfer the learning process from the teacher’s responsibility to the student’s responsibility. By using learning strategies, students become independent readers and learners.
An important part of using learning strategies is that the teacher and the students believe in their power. The Learning Strategies Handbook advises that teachers use “mini-experiments” where students attempt the same task with and without a learning strategy. Then, the students can compare their comprehension of the two tasks and be convinced of the usefulness of the strategy. As an ESL math teacher, I am planning to implement some of these strategies in my classroom. I think that they are useful to not just sheltered language classrooms but also in any urban setting where students lack learning skills.