For this artifact I chose to do an inquiry into the cultural topic of islamophobia, its effects in the classroom, and suggestions for teachers to address this difficult and unfortunately very relevant issue facing many of our ELL students. I chose to present the results of this inquiry in the form of an Instagram story which can be found through the link at right.
Although I felt I had some awareness of this topic going into this inquiry, I found many disturbing and surprising statistics and anedotes reflecting the state of anti-Muslim bias in Canada. I also gained a much better idea of the resources and tools available to teachers to make a positive change in this area and I feelmuch more empowered to work towards addressing this issue with my students. There are so many practical guides, including the amazing reading challenge created by Muslim teacher from Toronto, Rabia Kohkar (link to her twitter) which gives tons of great suggestions for books at various levels featuring Muslim characters.
#This final artifact is a reflection on an interview that conducted with an ELL coach, which focused on the role of first language use. In the interview, they spoke about the ways that they allowed students to use their first language in class. This interview and reflection gave me a chance to reflect on my new understanding of the important role that first language use can play in second language learning, and the gap that sometimes exists between theoretical pedogogical best practices and the realities of classrooms (it should be noted however that this person does not teach ELLs in an Ontario school context).
This interview made me consider the choices we make as teachers regarding various teaching practices and the effect that these choices can have on students. How does limiting, promoting, or forbiding first language use affect how students learn? How can we support language learning while supporting the learner and their past experiences and their identity?