Give me some CREDE-T!

So this week, I have to look at the five CREDE standards and connect them to some of the 50 Strategies for Teaching ELL students. I will first list the five standards and then try to address one each day. Here are the five:
1- Teachers and students working together
2- Developing literacy and language skills across the curriculum
3- Connecting school to students' lives
4- Engaging students with challenging lessons
5-Emphasizing dialogue over lecture

For standard 1, I feel this can be addressed with Guided Reading (pg. 222) because the teacher and the student must work together in order to effectively engage each person in the lesson. In my classroom, I use small guided reading groups weekly because our reading series is designed to create small groups with teacher and student led interactive lessons. It is important for the students to feel they have just as much of a right to discuss as the teacher does. In fact, it is popularly felt that students should be discussion MUCH more than the teacher. This leads to higher order thinking and learning. It is still important that the teacher be there to facilitate and guide the students in the right direction.

I prefer to use small groups in almost all my lessons, but especially reading and math. I find I have more individualized time with the students for them to ask questions and get direct answers. Plus, it gives me a better understanding of where each student stands academically.

Until next time...