I read through Hehir's ableism article a few weeks back and found that the type of education that the handicapped students that were mentioned in the article seemed to mirror closely what I have read (and to a much lesser extent, seen) in regards to the teaching of English language learners (ELLs).
Instead of creating deeper connections with the content areas that are being taught, the students are being instructed in a way that overly focuses on their disability. While having English as a second language is not an actual disability, the type of instruction that the students receive tends to completely focus on that instead of trying to make the content accessible. While it is important that students develop the skills to read and write in English autonomously, I feel as though we are doing a disservice to students when we place them in science classes that uses instruction focused nearly entirely on reading comprehension. We are not helping the students gain a deeper understanding of the material, we are teaching them the skill of the English language and letting them fall behind compared to their English speaking peers.
It is equally distressing to read about this sort of thing happening to disabled students who would otherwise be able to grasp the grade level content if only the correct accommodations were made to allow it.
Matt, I've actually thought of this myself when talking about English Language Learners. We need to be sure that we teach these students the content-area material that they are expected to learn. Obviously, we don't want to completely ignore what ELLs need to develop their English language skills. We must find an appropriate balance between content-area material and English language skills. These students, like you said, don't have a disability; they're just assimilating into and learning a brand new culture and language. We need to be sensitive to that and be sure that we don't treat them unfairly.
ReplyDelete