Gibbons Ch. 1&2

For the reading this week, Gibbons chapters 1 and 2, we learned about 3 different views of learning (empty vessel, progressive, and collaborative), scaffolding, the importance of talking during learning, and group learning. While all of the information that I gathered from reading these two chapters was helpful and informative, the part I found most helpful was the information about group learning. More specifically, the explicit examples that were given about how to make instruction giving more descriptive and more comprehensible to all types of learners (especially ELLs). I had never thought about the importance of scaffolding instruction so that students can grasp the instructions in a variety of manners.
Although I did find the section on "Clear and Explicit Instructions..." very useful, the part I greatly appreciated was the explanations of many different activities that assist ELLs with two different types of comprehension (English language and academic). For example, the Find the Difference game was particularly interesting because I think it is a game that most students would find very entertaining and I also think that the game is a great way to address many ELL students' discomfort with speaking aloud in an academic situations. ("I can say what I want, but not for school work and strangers." pg. 1) By playing this game with a peer, I believe that most students who feel uncomfortable in typically "academic" situations would feel significantly more comfortable and in fact may not even feel as though they are learning at all.
In my field placement, I have learned the importance of working in groups, and this observation has been confirmed through this week's reading. I am working with a CT in a 2nd grade classroom at Rayla Elementary in Haslett. My CT has her class set up in 5 groups- in other words the children are seated around 5 circular tables and regularly work with the peers seated at his or her table. The children very much seem to enjoy working in groups and I have noticed that many of the children who find academics more challenging really bennefit from working in groups with students who are much more adept at academic challenges. I think this observation could also be applied to ELLs although we do not have any in my current field placement.
I look forward to gaining a new wealth of knowledge from this book! I am very interested to see the other ideas Gibbons has for successfully teaching ELLs in an integrated classroom.