It was interesting to know how the author developed an ESL social studies course for seventh graders. The author wanted to teach a course that would bridge the gap between what her students could do and what they needed to do. To design a course the author brainstormed and decided that the document should be as explicit as the author could make it. And the author made the syllabus graphically and organized the goals and objectives.
The author’s idea for success of this course design was the students’ autonomy as well as competence. The author decided to transfer the responsibility for learning from the teacher to the students themselves. One of the ideas was a “contract”. Teacher would give each student a “contract”. The contract itself enabled students to develop and schedule their own study plan, thus transferring learning responsibility to the students.
The author had been considering the course, she had been thinking about the relationship between language and content. Then she decided to use “CALLA” as a textbook. I read “CALLA” handbook before for the other ESL class. “CALLA” is an instructional model that develops to meet the academic needs of ESL students. I think the author’s choice is right.
In this article, the author’s main goal is for students to be able to function competently and autonomously in the mainstream classroom smoothly. This goal encompasses the three areas of language, content, and strategies. I think this course design is quite well designed. I understand that the students in a content-ESL program are faced with a formidable task: learning academic content and learning academic language at the same time. I think the author’s idea and efforts of this course design will work well with careful execution (teaching) to ease the ESL students’ heavy burden.
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