Question

What is an effective SEI strategy used in the classroom? Why does this strategy work? Does these teaching concepts tie to the students background?

Answer 1

• Structured English Immersion (SEI) is a technique for rapidly teaching English to English Language Learners.
• Cooperative learning strategies- Lecture-style teaching excludes ELLs from the learning in a classroom. We don’t want to relegate them to the fringes of the classroom, doing a separate lesson with a classroom aide or ESL teacher. Working in small groups is especially beneficial to ELLs who have an authentic reason to use academic vocabulary and real reasons to discuss key concepts. ELLs benefit from cooperative learning structures. Give students a job in a group, and monitor that they are participating.
• Lessons be made visual-Using books with pictures and asking students questions about what they predict will happen next. Using audio books or videos to help student listen to the information through visual content.
  
• Strategies like asking students to contribute their own cultural experience in the classroom. This may mean asking students to show how a topic connects to their lives or to give an example of a particular idea as they would experience it in their native country.
• Students can bring music or art from their culture and describe its significance and meaning to their classmates. Students can also interview their parents in order to learn more about their memories and experience. This strategy helpd to understand about the background of the students as well as learn the content as well.
• There are many ways to bring educational content to life through art, and to use art as a starting point for discussing different cultural traditions. For example, in a history class, teacher may offer students a couple of different artistic representations of historical events from different perspectives, and ask whether a particular perspective resonates with their experiences.
• Using artwork that depicts day-to-day events and celebrations can also be a provocative starting point for a discussion about the similarities and differences between other cultures, and a way of affirming the students' daily lives, traditions, and lifestyles in the classroom.
• Students are a great resource for sharing music, and older students especially like to share music, discuss the meaning, and connect it to content. If the song is in a language some students do not understand, ask the student to translate it and discuss the meaning. Songs from other countries often describe political events or re-tell folk stories in poetic form.
• As students share insights with the teacher and with each other, they will develop appreciation for other cultural perspectives and they may find that there are more similarities than differences among them and that might prove to be the greatest lesson of all.