10 Academic Challenges

1. Early childhood students already have a limit vocabulary in their primary languages so
adding an additional will prove to be challenging. To help my students, I will make sure I
use translanguaging to help bridge the two languages together. I will try to make sure all
of the students have a firm foundation of basic words before I start introducing more of
the academic vocabulary.
2. Part of early childhood is teaching many social skills and appropriate behavior. One of
the primary challenges for an ELL student in an early childhood classroom could
possibly be dealing with many cultures and varying customs into an American classroom.
This lack of understanding could even negatively influence the students academic
growth. As the teacher, I would make sure that I educated myself on some of the common
norms of each respective culture and acted as a model for my students to learn from. By
doing this, I am allowing the students to adopt part of the American culture while still
keeping and celebrating their native countrys customs and ultimately adding to their
academic success. This is especially true when teaching the second grade ELL students
the Social Studies concept of classroom communities and rules.
3. Another Social Studies standard for second graders includes identifying the role of a
government and its leaders. Learning a whole new cultural is especially difficult when
ELL students are learning a new language as well. Everything they know is changing and
it all seems new. To help them, I will compare the American culture to that of their home
country to help them better understand what is the same and what is different. Relating it
to what they know will helpfully allow them to make deeper connections and fully
understand the material.
4. As an early childhood teacher, I am anticipating it being difficult to teach English
Language Arts. With the lack of foundational English, it will be challenging to assign
independent reading assignments in a second-grade classroom. To alleviate any potential
difficulties, I will try to use books that are bilingual to help the ELL students transition
between languages.
5. Learning and writing letters will prove to be difficult when teaching my second grade
ELL students. Many of the letters in various languages are pronounced differently
causing much confusing, specifically in the domain of speaking. To help the students, I
will incorporate more group activities in order for the students to listen to their peers and
model their language.
6. Second graders are supposed to learn question words in English Language Arts; however,
this can be difficult for ELL students if they arent familiar with the words. The structure
of questions varying depending on the language being spoken. In order to help my
students, I will provide them with sentence structures as well as translation for each word
7. Teaching mathematics will also be difficult can it be more of an abstract concept,
specifically addition and subtraction in a second-grade classroom. With ELL students, it
may be hard for them to understand any explanation I could give. I will always try to use
manipulates to help the students visualize the material being taught.
8. The second-grade science curriculum includes the study of animals. Visuals will help all
students be able to better identify what they are learning, but especially ELL students. I
 will also put the translation in with the picture. I will tape a key with both visuals and
translations to their desk for them to use throughout the rest of the unit. This should serve
a as simple reminder, so they do not feel as overwhelmed while learning the rest of the
material.
9. As for science, the academic vocabulary can be extremely challenging and are not always
able to be translated. If it can be translated, the students may not even be familiar with
that word because of their limited vocabulary in both languages. As a result, I will
include photographs and other visuals to help them better understand the material being
taught.
10. Experiments are a part of the science curriculum for a second-grade classroom.
Following instructions that are solely in English can be challenging for ELL students, so I
plan to provide them in both their native language and English as well as include visuals
of each step.