It is essential for teachers to discover methods to teach social-emotional knowing and character development to assist their trainees develop the skills necessary to process the events of 2020 and to stand firm and prosper in (for lots of trainees) a distance learning or hybrid environment. This can be challenging, especially for ELL teachers.

I teach a first grade dual language immersion program at a grade school outside of Madison, Wisconsin. Our school district has made character advancement a main focus and Ive discovered some specific methods and resources that can be valuable for early primary school teachers– and specifically for ELL instructors– who are attempting to teach SEL and character advancement from another location.

Double immersion in grade school

My district has around 400 English students and about 5 years ago it chose to develop a double immersion program to much better serve these trainees. Our Two-Way Immersion program is a district-wide program housed at my school and particularly serves students who learn academic content in two languages: English and spanish. I teach the English side and my mentor partner Kristina teaches the Spanish side. We share 2 accomplices of students, both comprised of English and Spanish speakers. The program has been a success. Its incredibly gratifying to see the growth of the Spanish speakers in their acquisition of the English language and the development of English speakers in discovering Spanish when they formerly didnt know any Spanish.

Character advancement for double immersion classrooms

Whether teachers are in a traditional class or a double immersion class, its important to embed SEL and character education into everything they do. We utilize the Biliteracy Unit Framework as our literacy curriculum, and we also integrate SEL and character advancement lessons and utilize the teaching tolerance standards.

My district has around 400 English students and about five years ago it decided to produce a dual immersion program to much better serve these students. Our Two-Way Immersion program is a district-wide program housed at my school and specifically serves trainees who find out scholastic material in two languages: Spanish and English. Whether instructors are in a traditional class or a dual immersion classroom, its crucial to embed SEL and character education into everything they do.