Remote learning made it challenging for English learners to practice speaking skills. This district is finding ways to help.
In The News Piece in Chalkbeat
April 28, 2022
Amaya Garcia and her team's report on educating English Learners during the pandemic were featured in Chalkbeat.
For many teachers of English learners like Benitez, working with students to build oral language skills has been especially crucial this year.
That’s because remote learning made those skills harder to practice last year. A report released this month detailed some of the common challenges: Students had fewer opportunities to talk with their classmates online, and teachers who specialized in language support often got pulled away to help with other duties. The charts and word banks that students rely on as they learn to speak a new language were harder to share in virtual classrooms, too.
“Kids, especially younger kids, just did not have opportunities to use language in the way that they normally do,” said Amaya Garcia, a co-author of the report who researches education policies that affect English learners for the think tank New America. “For a lot of the people that we spoke with, that was a real area of concern.”
Read the full article here.