Grassroots Approach to Co-teaching for English Language Learners

Eileen Haydock was certainly tenacious. She had strong opinions about nearly anything you can imagine and had no problem expressing herself. Yet, one could not help but be drawn to her strong passion for teaching and unswerving devotion to her young students. As a trained reading specialist and experienced classroom teacher, Eileen knew much about developing her first graders’ early literacy skills. She also had wonderful instincts when it came to teaching English language learners (ELLs). If you were to step inside Eileen’s class, you would observe a room filled with carefully categorized, hand-made posters, which helped her young students connect written words with their corresponding illustrations. She collected and displayed artifacts from her travels so that her first graders could better understand the world around them. Her classroom was filled with rocks, seashells, starfish, and other assorted ocean creatures. She never missed an opportunity to bring the natural world into the classroom. As an avid progressive educator, Eileen provided many hands-on learning opportunities to the delight of her youngsters. Considering the responsive learning environment she created and provided for ELLs, there is little wonder why I chose to approach Eileen with ideas to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) lessons inside her classroom.