From Watering Down to Challenging
We all know what happens when we don't water a plant enough - it doesn't grow. And we all know what happens when we water a plant too much - it doesn't grow. Seems simple stuff, right? However, I wonder how many of us teachers will be honest enough to openly admit that we have at some point inadvertently hindered the growth of our students through ‘watering down’ our tasks and assessments for them in our attem pts to give them access to the lesson content. When it seems a plant is not growing as well as the rest, the impulsive reaction may be to give that plant even more water. This is a scenario we must do our upmost to avoid as practitioners when it comes to providing more tools, more support and an easier route to the LO for our non-English speakers. A book well-worth a read is ‘Breaking down the Wall: Essential shift for English Learners’ Success’ by Calderon et al , which provides some interesting strategies to avoid over-watering those precious plants in