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Natalia's SpeakingExamples - Gallery Walk

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Educator's Guide to TELPAS and TELPAS Alt

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Educator's Guide to TELPAS and TELPAS Alt

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Rooted Linguistics: Serving Teachers of Multilingual Learners

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English language structures can be confusing for a student who is learning English as a second or other language. Language structures may differ and cause
​English learners to struggle with language structures in English. Enter...The Sentence Patterning CHART.
The Sentence Patterning Chart is an excellent method for exposing learners to English language structures while teaching content. The benefits of this technique are amazing:

lowers the affective filter

engages learners

builds vocabulary

provides oral language practice

imprints into the brain using song

categorizes words

offers an opportunity for shared reading and writing

I learned about this technique several years ago through Project Glad. And over the years, I've seen a few different takes on the Sentence Patterning Chart. As a certified Project GLAD trainer, I not only used the technique with my own students but I also trained teachers in the technique.
Here's how to implement it in your lesson plans to benefit all students:
1. Introduce the chart once students have some knowledge about the unit or theme. For example, if your unit is about farm animals, the sentence patterning chart would be appropriate after students already know about the animals, types, what they do, where they live, etc.
2. Create an outline of a 5 column chart in pencil very lightly so your students can't see the titles of the columns. Title the columns Adjective, Noun, Verb, Adverb, Prepositional Phrase (in that order).
3. Now, with students in close proximity, introduce a column at a time. Start with the noun. You might say something like this:
"A noun names a person, place, animal, or thing." As you are talking, trace over the word NOUN that you wrote in pencil with a colored marker and then draw a sketch of a person, place, animal and thing.
Then you might say:
"Today we are going to make lots of sentences about animals because we've been learning all about farm animals." Then write "animals" under the NOUN column. *The noun you use must be plural.
4. Next, explain what adjectives are. Trace over the word in a different colored marker.
5. Have students turn and teach their partner what an adjective is and share examples of adjective with one another. After a few moments, allow them to popcorn out as many adjectives as they can while you list them under the ADJECTIVE column using the colored marker. When the column is filled, stop to read each word in the list with the class. This can be practiced as a choral reading (read together) or echo reading (you read a word and they echo it back).
6. Repeat step 5 for the verb, adverb, and prepositional phrase columns.
7. Now that the chart is filled, we can move to the chanting and creating sentences using the Farmer and Dell tune. First model by singing this to the tune of Farmer and the Dell:
Adjective, Adjective, Noun.
Adjective, Adjective, Noun.
Adjective, Adjective, Noun, Verb, Adverb, Prepositional Phrase.
Then, place a sticky note by the words students will sing.

View the YouTube Video below to watch a demonstration of this lesson.

My friend, Katie Toppel from Oregon, also loves Sentence Patterning Charts and has used them with students. She presented this topic at TexTESOL in November 2017. To learn about how she uses them click here .

Let me know how your SPC lesson goes! Send pictures too! And connect with me on Twitter @ValentinaESL

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English language structures can be confusing for a student who is learning English as a second or other language. Language structures may differ and cause ​English learners to struggle with...

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A MiddleWeb Blog

There is no time to waste. Our middle grade English learners are relying on us to help them advance in language proficiency quickly. The sense of urgency on our part must rise. Whether we teach ESL, math, science, language arts or another subject, we teach students first and they are counting on us.

Writing supports every curriculum and is a lifelong skill that our students will need post-secondary. Here's how you can build the writing skills of your English learners now:

Model, Model, Model

Each kid benefits from seeing how to write before they DO the writing. BUT for English learners this is even more important because language structures may vary from their native language.

For example, if I want my students to write about themselves describing their age, I might show them that in English we write: " I am nine years old." This is different from other languages like my native language where a person might say, "I have nine years." Modeling what we expect from students gives them a clear goal for their writing.

Be Explicit

With English learners, being explicit with instruction is more than important. ELs have a heavy load. They are learning a new language, learning content, and possibly learning how to navigate a new culture. When we are explicit with instruction, we create a clear path to learning for them.

Content and language objectives are a great way to start when being explicit. For instance, "Today we are going to revise our writing for word choice. We will do this by reading our draft to a partner and discussing sound words." Then use an anchor chart that supports these objectives. Show students how you to do it using clear, actionable steps and let them try.

Anchor Charts

Anchor charts that are clear and interactive and are made with student input are best for all students. If kids can go back to the anchor chart while the teacher is working with a small group and they use the anchor to support their independent learning, then it's a good chart. The best anchor charts have minimal text and are supported with sketches, pictures or graphics.

An anchor chart is like a finger print of the teaching that took place. In some cases, students need their own mini-anchor chart to keep in their writing journal for easy reference. Taking a picture of the chart and printing it small or making a copy of the chart on a sticky note is a way to give the student an artifact from the lesson. On the contrary, if students cannot read the anchor chart, then it is useless to them and becomes nothing more than wallpaper.

Language Level

Know and understand each student's language level and use this information to guide you as you plan instruction. Second language learners may need linguistic supports to achieve success with grade level expectations. As beginners in language, they may first need to use pictures in their writing. Labeling, copying, and talking about the pictures will support their language and writing growth.

The use of leveled sentence and paragraph frames will also benefit students as they continue to learn English. Remember that even students who are near grade level in English will still benefit from support in writing. Academic writing and grammatical structures can pose a struggle for students who are learning content and language simultaneously.

Sentence Stems

The use of sentence stems has become more common. And that's a great thing. However, we can do better if we tailor the use of sentence stems to meet the specific needs of ELs.

Beginner ELs have extremely different writing needs than Advanced ELs. Both have needs and we want both of them to grow in proficiency, but if we prescribe the same sentence stem to them, we are doing a disservice. It would be like a doctor prescribing the same treatment to each patient who walked into his door.

Instead, we need to assess each student and prescribe what they need at the time (not all year because if we do a great job, they won't need the same supports all year).

​Targets

This seems pretty obvious, but it's often forgotten. We all need targets. When I decided to go back to college to get my master's degree, I had to complete an Action Research Project. I had never heard of one before, so in my mind it was a vague project. It was totally new to me. I couldn't imagine how long it needed to be, what sections it had to include, what it looked like in general, etc. I needed examples of Action Research Projects in order to be able to hit the mark.

Our kids need the same, and these examples need to be attainable for them. They should be peer examples and not by adult authors. Yes, mentor texts are great, and I love reading them to my students, too. But I can't possibly expect my ELs to write like Kate DiCamillo right now. I need them each to feel successful, and then I continue to lift the bar. Succeed, lift the bar, repeat. We have to immerse them in the genre.

​Talk

The opportunity to talk and listen to a peer is vital for ELs. In the early stages of language development, they may be reluctant and that's okay.

However, the opportunities for talk should always be present. Structured conversations don't have to take long (35 seconds to 2 minutes) but their value is tremendous! My favorites are using talking heads or Q Triple S A.

We know that the person who does the talking is the one who is doing the learning. Unfortunately, if the talk is mostly coming from the teacher, then the teacher is probably learning more about the subject than the students are.

As a young teacher, I was guilty of being center-stage in my classroom and talking more than my students. I thought it was my job to deliver the content TO them. It was only after I realized that my talking was preventing them from uncovering the content that I had a mindshift. I had to let them do the talking.

I restructured the classroom environment and provided the students a way to discuss, negotiate for meaning, evaluate their thinking, and clarify by holding structured conversations.

Writing Is a Potent Elixir

When students talk before they write, their writing becomes more solid and definitely greater than without talk.

Writing is not just a way to check for understanding. Writing can help students to build on their existing knowledge. It can help them dig deeper into their thoughts and understandings.

​Writing is a powerful way to support learning. ​

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7 Things We Can Do Right Now for Our ELL Writers

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A MiddleWeb Blog There is no time to waste. Our middle grade English learners are relying on us to help them advance in language proficiency quickly. The sense of urgency on our part must rise. Whether we teach ESL, math, science, language arts or another subject, we teach students first and they are counting on us.

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by Valentina Gonzalez

"Learners who know the language can concentrate on the academic content. But learners who do not know the language, or do not know it well enough, must devote part of their attention to learning and understanding the very language in which the content is taught" ( Goldenberg & Coleman, 2010).

Imagine that for a moment. Let it soak in. If you didn't yet know a language well enough, you would need to spend energy understanding the very words and not just the reading. Maybe you've experienced this before. It's a literal struggle, trying to decode and put together sounds, then figure out and translate the words. This can take a toll on a person!

Now imagine a child doing this daily. Or for that matter, doing this all day long . Picture a newcomer in a high school biology class at the end of the day. If they are new to the language, they will most likely have to translate complicated text word by word after having spent every previous class that day translating each word. To help students, we can adapt and scaffold reading instruction to fit their unique needs.

The National Literacy Panel (2000) identified phonemic awareness, phonics, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, and writing as the five key components of literacy. With these components in mind, let's look at a few scaffolds (temporary supports meant to be gradually released) for reading that may work to enhance English learners' success with comprehension.

These reading scaffolds can be implemented in any grade level and content area through whole group, small group, or individual settings for differentiation:

Chunking

Chunking is a technique that breaks larger reading texts into smaller portions for students. When texts are dense or lengthy, they can seem overwhelming. By breaking them down into smaller pieces, we help to lower students' anxiety. Think of a large pizza. Would you eat the entire pizza in one bite? Probably not. It's sliced for us to hold a piece at a time. Then we take small bites from that one piece. It's manageable that way. Chunking texts is especially useful in areas like social studies and science, where text has the tendency to be vocabulary heavy.

Adding in opportunities to talk makes content even more comprehensive. For instance, a routine such as Nancy Motley's Talk, Read, Talk, Write offers students chances to access prior knowledge and build background before reading. Students discuss with a group or partner. Then students read a text with a purpose for reading that is given to them by the teacher. Once everyone has signaled that they are finished reading, they participate in structured discussion again. And finally students write about their reading while using the discussions they've had to support their thoughts. Teachers can chunk reading even more for students who are at beginner levels of English proficiency: talk, read, talk, read, talk, read, talk, write.

Shared Reading

Shared reading (Holdaway,1979) is the act of reading together in unison as a group. All students have access to the text. Shared reading is not just for elementary levels. In primary grades, teachers may read from big books, but in secondary classes, shared reading can be poetry, brochures, an excerpt from a chapter, a paragraph, song lyrics, etc. Teachers can provide each student with a copy of the text or can project the text on a screen for everyone to see. First the teacher models expectations by reading the text. Then the teacher invites the class to read together. This oral reading practice provides students with an opportunity to gain fluency in a risk-free setting. Everyone is reading aloud. Shy students can listen and read aloud as they feel brave enough, and more vocal students gain practice, too. Students benefit from practicing intonation and appropriate rate of speed.

Three ways to differentiate shared reading are Echo reading, Choral reading, and Reader's Theater.

Echo Reading is perfect when students need to hear the teacher model each sentence first while they are tracking print. Then students repeat the sentence. This technique is best for students at beginner proficiency levels or when a new language structure is being shared.

Choral Reading is a typical shared reading experience in which students and teacher read in unison, often with the teacher tracking print. English learners gain fluency and benefit from the low-risk environment. They have the ability to listen and join the reading at their comfort level.

Reader's Theater is an excellent method to use with students after they have had a chance to hear a text in its entirety. Reader's Theater can be done by dividing a text into parts and assigning students or groups to read certain lines or paragraphs. English learners benefit from rehearsal time with the lines or paragraphs they will read aloud to the whole group. Some teachers ask students to create props for their characters or parts. Acting out a story is both enjoyable and engaging for students as they participate in listening, speaking, and reading with expression.

Adapted Texts

Adapted texts are texts that have the same content but are at different reading levels. Using adapted texts helps English learners continue to learn content while they are learning English. Many teachers create their own adapted texts, which allows them to control the vocabulary that is embedded. However, creating adapted texts does take time. There are also many online platforms that offer adapted texts such as Newsela, Newsinlevels, and Wordify.

Partner Reading

Providing time and space for students to read together, or partner read, supports English learners with reading comprehension, listening, and speaking. Peer-to-peer interaction is important for English learners' language development. Partners usually read the same text and hold their own copies. In primary grades, and many times in secondary too, students are more successful when the teacher offers explicit modeling of expectations ahead of time. For example:

"During partner reading, I'm looking for partners who are sitting with their knees close to touching. You will take turns reading a page. After your partner reads, you will share what the main idea of their reading was. I'm listening for sentences like: 'The main idea was...' or 'I didn't understand...'"

Primary Language Support

When I was an ESL teacher, the students I taught spoke Korean, Urdu, Japanese, Russian, etc. I was not able to speak all of their languages, but I could still provide primary language supports. I provided my ELs with bilingual dictionaries and taught them how to use them. We also worked hard at valuing all languages. It was important for me to show my ELs that the literacy they had in their primary language was valuable and useful as they acquired English. We labeled the classroom in the students' home languages. I also made it known to them that continuing to read, write, and speak in their primary language was important, and so I encouraged them to read books in their primary language. Anytime we had extra funds, I asked to purchase books in our students' primary languages for the library.

Another way to include primary language support is through preview-review. This technique is sometimes referred to as preview-view-review and takes only a few extra minutes before and after a lesson ( Wright, 2015). It has been found to be effective in increasing comprehension, especially for students at beginning levels of English proficiency. Preview-review includes providing students with primary language support before and after a lesson or a read aloud. Let's look at a classroom example:

The second grade class is preparing to learn about living and nonliving things. The ESL teacher gathers English learners prior to the lesson to preview in their primary language. She asks them what they know about living and nonliving things. They discuss and make a chart in their primary language. The teacher reads a short passage and checks for comprehension, and then they return to the whole group.

The mainstream teacher conducts the whole-class lesson on living and nonliving things in English. The teacher shelters instruction to ensure that ELs comprehend the lesson. She uses repetition, visuals, and gestures. Then she sends them off to read and write with a partner in English.

Following the English lesson, the ESL teacher pulls the ELs back together once again to review what they learned in their primary language. This is an excellent opportunity to clear up misconceptions.
Note that, In this example, the ESL teacher is able to speak the students' primary language. But that is not always the case. It is suggested that if the teacher cannot speak the students' home languages, a same-language-speaking paraprofessional can provide the preview-review.
The bottom line of all this is that, when students enjoy what they are reading and they understand what they are reading, they will feel successful. The more often this feeling occurs, the more they will want to read, and the more their comprehension will increase.

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Teaching Techniques to Scaffold Reading for English Learners

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by Valentina Gonzalez "Learners who know the language can concentrate on the academic content. But learners who do not know the language, or do not know it well enough, must devote part of their attention to learning and understanding the very language in which the content is taught" (Goldenberg & Coleman, 2010).

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Learn Spanish Fast with Spanish Cognates

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SpanishCognates.org offers a comprehensive A-Z list of Spanish cognates. Cognates are great tool for learning English vocabulary, and learning Spanish Vocabulary Fast.

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From frustration...

...to understanding

The ravenous throng scampered toward the delectable viands, which the chef had impeccably arrayed on the table.

The extremely hungry crowd ran toward the delicious food, which the chef had extremely well organized (into rows) on the table.

Rewordify.com simplifies difficult English. Enter hard sentences (or whole chapters) into the yellow box at the top of the page. (You can also enter a web site URL.) Click Rewordify text and you'll instantly see an easier version, for fast understanding. The reworded words are highlighted- click them to hear and learn the original harder word. You can change how the highlighting works to match the way you learn!

Do you dislike dictionaries because they're confusing and unhelpful? You'll love Rewordify.com's clear, easy-to-understand definitions-they change to match the original word or phrase's part of speech, verb tense, and singular/plural form, so they make sense. Our amazing Rewordifying Engine is what makes it all possible, and no other web site has it.

Want to see something now? Click Classic Literature at the top and start reading-easier.

Learn more words faster. Our exclusive Learning Sessions actively teach you words so you learn them. Any time you paste in a block of text, our software finds all the hard words, lets you pick which ones you want to learn, and then teaches them to you in a Learning Session.

A Learning Session isn't an online quiz: it's an effective, step by step process where you hear words and phrases, type them, and read them. The software re-teaches you exactly what you need when you need it, and moves ahead when you're ready. When you've learned a word, the site stops "rewording" it, so the site grows with you as you learn! Learn more about Learning Sessions.

Learn the way you want-from what you want to read. You can change the way the site works to fit your learning style as you read and learn from almost any text passage or web page. See the different highlighting styles in the box? You can pick any of them, and lots more options. Click the Settings link (at the bottom of the page now, or at the top of any page) to see all the choices you have. (The demo text in the box here never changes.)

Chart your progress and have fun. You can keep track of your learning with lots of detailed charts that show how you're doing. Plus, as you use the site, you earn points and get Learning Stars -a fun reward for reading and learning!

Now you can easily get your students involved in their learning: let them select the text that interests them. Let them print and complete the activities with which they're most comfortable. Imagine each student learning vocabulary customized to his or her interests, while you have time to teach instead of typing. Could differentiation by interest or readiness be any easier? You can start doing it today, for free.

You never have to type another vocabulary list or quiz again.

Type (or copy-paste) in any block of text in the yellow box at the top of this page, click Rewordify text, and click the Print/Learning activities button. Here's how. You (or your students!) can select from a rich variety of quizzes and learning activities, with or without answer keys.

Do you need to teach (or not teach) particular vocabulary words and phrases? Rewordify.com gives you the exact control you need for specialized vocabulary instruction. You can make customized word lists so the site rewords and teaches any word or phrase exactly the way you want.

Learn the way you want-from what you want to read. You can change the way the site works to fit your learning style as you read and learn from almost any text passage or web page. See the different highlighting styles in the box? You can pick any of them, and lots more options. Click the Settings link (at the bottom of the page now, or at the top of any page) to see all the choices you have. (The demo text in the box here never changes.)

Chart your progress and have fun. You can keep track of your learning with lots of detailed charts that show how you're doing. Plus, as you use the site, you earn points and get Learning Stars -a fun reward for reading and learning!

Now you can easily get your students involved in their learning: let them select the text that interests them. Let them print and complete the activities with which they're most comfortable. Imagine each student learning vocabulary customized to his or her interests, while you have time to teach instead of typing. Could differentiation by interest or readiness be any easier? You can start doing it today, for free.

Save all your documents online so anyone can read them and learn from them at any time.

Just log in, rewordify something, and click the Share button.

Select how public or private you want the document, enter the title, author, etc., and you're done!

You get a link that you can put in your online lesson plans, teacher web pages, or blog. No more rewordifying the same thing over and over again!

You can view, manage and edit all your documents from any computer. Just log in (or create a free, safe account) and start building your learning library. Here's how to do it.

At Educator Central, you can create and manage student accounts, monitor your students' learning, and get detailed reading and learning analytics that help you make smart classroom decisions. For free. Now.
(In a hurry? Log in. Click Educator Central at the top.)

In a few minutes, you can create student accounts on Rewordify.com, and easily monitor your students' reading and learning progress. Get actionable learning and error analytics as your students read and learn from any document you post, or from any document or web page they want to read.

Imagine each student learning different words based on his or her interest or ability level. It's easy to do: Rewordify.com designs and teaches individualized vocabulary lessons with our highly effective Learning Sessions, so you have the time to teach students the important stuff: how to learn, how to break through obstacles, how to believe the words "I can do it."

As your students read and learn, get detailed charts and reports that tell you what you need to know-by student, by class, or for all your classes.

Effectively match interventions with students, based on detailed error breakdowns that let you see what you need to see in a few clicks.

Student accounts are anonymous, and they keep your students safe and focused on learning.

Start using it now: Log in and click on Educator Central at the top. Read more about Educator Central.

Rewordify.com is free online software. You're using it now. There's nothing to buy or install. It works on any computer, tablet, or smartphone. Just point your browser to Rewordify.com and start reading and learning. Yes, it's tablet-friendly-no mouse needed. Yes, your whole school district can create teacher and student accounts, without entering any personal information. When? Now.

It's fast. Wasting your (and your students' time) is bad. That's why Rewordify.com was designed from the ground up to be lightning-fast and use very little data. The site doesn't have a hundred images of puppies and kittens and a hundred links to a hundred lists. What it does have is speed and ease of use, which are very nice when you have to teach a room full of teenagers. Or adults.

It's an app. Want the app? You're using it. Wasn't that easy? The site is a web app, which is great for you, because you get almost-daily site updates automatically -so you can read and learn, not download and install app updates.

We keep kids safe online. Rewordify.com requires no personal information. Student accounts are completely anonymous and cannot post or share anything. Read more about how we protect children's privacy.

Rewordify.com can display simplified versions of web pages. Our state-of-the-art web filtering technology blocks millions of inappropriate sites and questionable language, to protect kids online and keep them reading only what they should be reading. Read more about how we protect children from inappropriate material.

Difficult English is intelligently simplified with our exclusive Rewordifying Engine

Saves time when reading hard text, improves comprehension and self-confidence, and increases total reading time

Copy-paste entire text passages into the yellow box and press Rewordify text. You'll see a simplified version. Read more.

Definitions are easy to understand, context-aware, and match verb tense and part of speech

Reduces frustration and improves comprehension by maximizing time spent reading versus dictionary research

Copy-paste any text passage into the yellow box and "rewordify" it. Click the highlighted words. Read more.

Learning Sessions actively teach individualized vocabulary lessons with research-proven multimodal techniques

Improves vocabulary and word retention

After you "rewordify" text, you'll see a purple bar at the top. Click the buttons to pick hard words and learn them in an effective Learning Session. Read more.

Site carefully monitors student reading time, learning progress, and learning errors, and gives educators full-color, real-time charts and reports

Gives actionable learning data that helps improve student learning outcomes

Create an account. Click on Educator Central. Create free student accounts. Post assignments online. Get learning data. Make smart classroom decisions based on valid data. Read more.

Site identifies and extracts over 58,000 difficult words and phrases from any text and creates a rich variety of learning activities with answer keys

Saves time when teaching and gives students individualized learning activities

Copy-paste any text passage into the yellow box and "rewordify" it. Click Print/Learning Activities. Pick the quizzes, activities, vocab lists, cloze activities you want, with keys. Print them. Read more.

Software allows users to change the difficulty level and presentation style of the output text

Improves engagement by allowing easy differentiation by learning style and readiness

Copy-paste any text passage and "rewordify" it. Click Settings. Change the text presentation style, "rewordifying level" (difficulty level), even the highlighting style. Read more.

Site works as an app on any device, using a minimum of data

Allows for easy district rollout on nearly any existing device while conserving Internet bandwith

Point any device's browser to Rewordify.com and it works like an app. Here's how to make an app icon on your home screen or desktop.

Site calculates accurate text complexity measures, including our exclusive READ score

Improves engagement and learning through the selection of appropriate reading materials

Rewordify any text passage. Click the Stats button. Read more.

Site's browser app (bookmarklet) extracts most web pages to Rewordify.com for learning in one click

Improves engagement and total reading time through independent selection of high-interest materials

Install our free browser app. Browse the web. At any page, click the "Rewordify text" button. Read the extracted text on Rewordify.com.

You can post any document and share it publicly, privately, or with a password

Increases reading time and organization of learning materials

Log in. Paste in a document and "rewordify" it. Click the Share button, share it, and get a link. Post the link to your teacher page. Or, add it as a Rewordify.com assignment. Here's how to post documents. Here's how to create assignments.

Site calculates points and displays Learning Stars based on total minutes read and words learned

Increases reading time and engagement by making the site more fun

Log in and start reading and clicking on the purple bar to do Learning Sessions. Points and Learning Stars will display. Click My Learning/My Documents to see charts of your progress. Read more.

Over 300 pieces of classic literature are available

Improves comprehension of the classics-from Shakespeare to Douglass to Austen

Click Classic literature at the top. Or, type a word like Frankenstein into the search box at the top.

Here's what to do next:

First, do the demo. You'll be an expert in five minutes: Click here for the demo.

Learn the site, step by step. Our First-Time User Guide clearly shows you how to get started.

Teachers: Learn about Educator Central and all it can do to help improve student learning outcomes. Also, you can print lots of free, full-color literature to help you get started in the classroom.

Have some fun. Are you up for a vocabulary challenge? Play Rewordo. Be aware: it's not easy.

Browse some classics. Want to be more sure of Shakespeare, or brush up on Bronte? Scroll to the top, and click the Classic Literature link. It's a fast way to get started using the site. Or, use the Search bar at the top. Try entering the word raven to understand the deal with Poe, that black bird, and the "Nevermore" thing.

Check out the goodies. You can install our One-Click Learning browser applet that lets you rewordify most web pages in one click. Our cool (and free, of course) School Clock tells you the current time and date, what class period you're currently in, countdowns to the next period, and more. You can customize it for any school's schedule, and make as many different School Clocks as you have different day schedules. Use it now.

Show the love! Please tell us about mistakes the site makes when "rewording" and defining words. That feedback is the single most valuable thing you can do to help the site (and learners around the world). Click here to contact us. Do you want to help defray the site's operating costs, and read a great thriller at the same time? You can! Get your copy of Electric Dawn.

Contact us. We want to help you! Please use the Contact page with any questions or comments.

Site summary: Rewordify.com helps with reading comprehension and vocabulary development by simplifying English to a lower reading level. It lets you reword a sentence or reword a paragraph. It will simplify English by reducing text complexity. It's a dictionary alternative that will improve comprehension and teach vocabulary. It's an important part of reading instruction and vocabulary instruction for ESL students, people with reading disabilities, people with a learning disability, or anyone who wants to improve reading skill.

35650 / 9.0

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Rewordify.com | Understand what you read

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Rewordify.com helps you read more, understand better, learn new words, and teach more effectively.

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CommonLit | Free Online Reading Passages and Literacy Resources

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CommonLit is a comprehensive literacy program with thousands of reading lessons, full-year ELA curriculum, benchmark assessments, and standards-based data for teachers.

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Marzano's Six Step Process

In "Building Academic Vocabulary" (Marzano, 2004), Marzano outlines a comprehensive approach to learing the context specific academic vocabulary, or the brick words that students encounter in their reading. The first three steps help us introduce new terms during the frist lesson; the last three steps help students practice & reinforce those terms over time.

Remember: Describe, Describe, Draw, Do, Discuss, Play

Step 1: Describe - Instead of a standard definition, teachers give students a description or explanation of the word or term using examples and visuals. The goal is to appeal to learners of ALL types in order to help them understand new vocabulary.

Step 2: Describe - Students are asked to give their own description or explanation using their own words. By listening/reading student descriptions/explanations, we can assess mastery or provide help. Students record descriptions in their personal notebooks to reference later.

Step 3: Draw - Students draw representations of the new vocabulary word/term. Acceptable ways to complete this task include: drawing pictures, designing symbols, making graphics, creating cartoons, finding a visual on Internet or magazine. This can be done individually or in groups.

Step 4: Do - Give students more practice using new vocabulary words/terms. Have them participate in activities such as: identifying prefixes, suffixes, synonyms, antonyms, related words and additional visuals.

Step 5: Discuss - Students discuss words/terms as they work with/in partners, triads or groups. This conversation is more effective when structured. Monitoring discussions clears up any confusion students may have.

Step 6: Play - Students participate in games that reinforce deep understanding or new vocabulary words/terms. Examples of games include: Jeopardy, Wordo (like Bingo), Charades, Pictionary, Scrabble, etc...

If you like what you see be sure to follow along with #SiglerNation on Twitter. You can follow Matt Arend on Facebook and Twitter.

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7 Steps...Language Rich Classrooms - By, John Seidlitz by McClure Marshals | This newsletter was created with Smore, an online tool for creating beautiful newsletters for educators, nonprofits, businesses and more

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by Natalia Heckman "The assumption has been that if students read enough, they'll simply pick up writing skills, through a kind of osmosis. But writing is the hardest thing we ask students to do, and the evidence is clear that very few students become good writers on their own" (Hochman, 2017).
A written language is an organized system of symbols. It's a logical structure guided by rules - for the most part. To be able to read, we need to be able to decode. In order to write, we have to encode. The encoding and decoding processes happen at all levels of the language system: words, sentences, discourse (paragraphs). We use phonics to decode words. We use syntax to decode sentences. Decoding is a necessary step to comprehension. Being able to use the rules that govern a written language is necessary, and it's also one aspect of literacy.

Can we acquire a foreign language naturally, simply by speaking it? Absolutely!

Can English learners figure out how to write and read by just "picking it up" naturally? Unfortunately, this is very unlikely. Research shows that full literacy is not something that happens accidentally, or on its own. So, hoping that our students will "break the code" of a written language through haphazard exposure to text and occasional written tasks is unrealistic, to say the least. While reading/phonics is a topic of constant debates, syntax is frequently overlooked. Why should we focus on syntax in every classroom? Why is syntax worth our time as we build lessons focused on language acquisition?

Rigorous Syntax Instruction: Why Is it Necessary?

To improve reading comprehension: The ability to grasp syntactic cues is one of the strongest indicators of reading proficiency. Students may know the words but fail to recognize connections between ideas and follow the trail of logic that is dependent on their understanding of sentence patterns and sentence structure. For example, according to Hochman and Lemov (2017), students often fail to understand coordination and subordination of ideas. The more complex the texts are, the more low-frequency syntactic features they contain. For example, participial verbal phrases are almost nonexistent in social oral communication, but they are common in written texts of various genres (Schleppegrell, 2004).

To ensure comprehensible written output: Trying to write without understanding syntax, or sentence structure, is like driving without knowing the rules of the road. As we learn a new language system, someone has to show us the ropes. Faced with a written task, English learners may struggle with the process (how to write) even more than they struggle with the message (what to write). By focusing on the target form (an example of what a sentence should look like) and providing scaffolds (such as sentence stems and frames), teachers can help students produce output that is accurate and comprehensible.

To ensure growth of students' language proficiency: Sufficient oracy and lagging literacy are the characteristics we often observe in our long-term English learners stagnating at intermediate/advanced levels. Expectations of near-native proficiency in reading and writing require that our students surpass the threshold of social language and become fluent academic readers and writers. Developing a broad and varied repertoire of complex syntactic features and cohesion devices necessary for written proficiency growth is not feasible without some targeted syntax instruction.

Demystifying Syntax: What Does this Word Do?

My father is a mechanical engineer. Days on end, he tinkered on our family car more for fun than out of necessity. I remember sitting in the garage looking under the hood of the vehicle, mesmerized by the intricacy of its insides and bugging my dad with questions like, "What does this part do?" Although I was about 10 years old, my father could explain to me, clearly and succinctly, which parts of the engine did what and how these parts working together "made the car go." As a language teacher, I want to lift the metaphorical hood and show my students how the parts of a sentence work together to make the sentence "go."

Asking function questions to each word in a sentence demystifies syntax for our students and shows them how sentences are made. Rather than getting bogged down into technical identification of parts of speech and types of sentences, I would focus on what each word/phrase does (its function) and how it serves the purpose of communication (contributes to the overall message).

Practical Application: What Would it Look Like in the Classroom?

Once we set the goal of giving syntax due attention, what actions can we take that will ensure our students' success?

Focus on one syntactic feature at a time: It is important to frontload specific language tools, but it is a teacher's decision what type of syntactic element is necessary for a specific lesson (Dutro & Moran, 2002). For example, if students work on contrasting characters, they will benefit from learning to build sentences with "while," "unlike," "on the contrary," and "nevertheless" according to a given sentence template. This sentence type is a language tool and the language form English learners need to express differences between characters in speaking and consequently in writing during the course of the characterization lesson.

Make models accessible: For model sentences to be effective, they must be aligned to the language proficiency of the students. As we model sentence structure, we need to make sure that our mentor sentences (the examples we use) are easy for all students to understand. Complexity of the vocabulary in a model sentence may detract from students' ability to focus on the structure of the sentence.

Provide abundant opportunities for scaffolded output: Let students do it!Pointing out a syntactic element and explaining how it is constructed is just the start. Syntactic dexterity does not come simply from exposure but from abundant opportunities for hands-on practice. Sentence-level practice is never a waste of time! Several types of scaffolded activities will solidify the skill and ensure its transition of the target element into students' independent writing.

Consider the following gradual release process as you teach a new syntactic element or a sentence pattern:

Step 1. Provide Models
This is the I DO of the lesson, where teacher models and students watch. Teachers may start by displaying the mentor sentence and breaking it into blocks of meaning by asking questions to identify the syntactic and logical purpose of each block.

Step 2. Have Students Identify Patterns
Students work with familiar texts to identify the target element in the writing of others. Students may work in groups with partners to complete scavenger hunts or sorting activities. It's a great time for teachers to see how well students understand the pattern and clarify any misconceptions.

Step 3. Have Students Construct Sentences Based on the Patterns
Sentence combining, sentence unscrambling, and building sentences with the help of sentence patterning chartsare just a few activities that provide opportunities to work with a particular sentence structure. Students construct sentences according to the displayed pattern, using word banks or phrases that they manipulate to fit the pattern.

Step 4. Provide Additional Patterns to Deepen Understanding
Teacher displays amentor sentence and a sentence stem (or a paragraph frame) that students have practiced before. Students build original messages according to the pattern. Teacher encourages students to share sentences orally to check with each other and hear multiple examples of completed frames from peers of various language proficiency levels. The goal is to deepen understanding of the pattern and to reach the minimum threshold of accuracy needed for comprehensible output. Teacher's in-the-moment feedback is crucial at this point.

Step 5. Encourage Students to Use Patterns During Independent Writing
Students complete a writing task independently. Students are encouraged to incorporate the practiced elements into their own writing to communicate an idea. Some errors may still occur as the students implement new elements independently. These errors do not always indicate the lack of understanding but may simply point to the need for more practice.

As we move students from basic to more complex structures, it is important to provide a safe environment where errors are perceived (and even encouraged) as an expected and inevitable attribute of risk-taking.

Want to learn more from Natalia? Visit our events page to register for her upcoming trainings.
References:
Wright, Wayne E. (2015) Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing, Inc.

Hochman, J. & Wexler, N. (2017) The Writing Revolution. San-Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass

Dutro, S & Moran, C. (2002) Rethinking English Language Instruction: An Architectural Approach S Educational Partnership Center, University of California, Santa Cruz. Retrieved on July 11, 2020 from file:///C:/Users/nheck/Downloads/Rethinking%20English%20Language%20Instruction.pdf

Schleppegrell, M. J. (2004). The language of schooling: A functional linguistics perspective. Routledge.
Zwiers, J. (2008) Building Academic Language. Newark, DE: Jossey-Bass/International Reading Association.

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Building Better Sentences: Rigorous Syntax for English Learners

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by Natalia Heckman "The assumption has been that if students read enough, they'll simply pick up writing skills, through a kind of osmosis. But writing is the hardest thing we ask students to do, and the evidence is clear that very few students become good writers on their own" (Hochman, 2017).

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Graphic Organizers & Templates - Literacy - Reading

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by Valentina Gonzalez

Scaffolds are temporary supports meant to be released when no longer needed. Think of buildings that are under construction. When the building is in the early phases, more scaffolding is necessary to sustain the structure. As the building progresses, less scaffolding is needed. Finally, before the construction is complete, the scaffolding is removed.

Scaffolding our instruction for students, English learners or not, is similar in theory. Assessing when and where the scaffolds are needed, and removing them at the right time is critical. Keeping a scaffold for too long can create a crutch for some, and students may become dependent on scaffolds that remain too long. The goal of a scaffold is to support students toward future independence.

These 8 writing scaffolds can be implemented in any grade level or content area:

1. Sentence Frames

Sentence frames are highly structured. They are basically sentences with fill in the blanks that support students at earlier stages of language proficiency. Here are a few examples of frames:

The ___has ___sides.

The ____revolted against the___.

A ___is larger/smaller than a ____.

2. Sentence Stems

Sometimes sentence stems and sentence frames are used interchangeably. However there a difference between the two. As shown above, a frame provides a tight grammatical structure. A stem, on the other hand, is as the name indicates, just the "stem" or base of a sentence and not a whole sentence. Students must continue the thought. Sentence stems give students just enough structure to begin more elaborate writing. Here are some examples of sentence stems:

Based on the experiment, I can conclude that...

In the beginning I thought..., but now I think...

One way that ___and ___are alike is that....

On the other hand, they are different because...

3. Mentor Texts

Mentor texts are also known as exemplars. They are models of high-quality writing for students. While adult-authored books or articles are often a main source of mentor texts, it is also effective to use high-quality student-authored examples. One teacher I know would save the original student samples of writing to use as exemplars. Another made digital copies. (Either way, always be careful to remove any identifiable information such as names.) Mentor texts set students up for success because they show students what the target is, which makes it much easier to achieve. Sometimes using student-created exemplars makes the target seem more attainable for students.

4. Interactive Word Walls

Interactive Word Walls (IWWs) are large, thematic or unit-based graphic organizers filled with rich vocabulary and visually supported with graphics and real objects. IWWs are often co-created with students rather than premade by the teacher. They can be used as scaffolds for writing in all content areas because students can easily take the language from the unit-based word wall and use it in their writing.

5. Model Writing

Model writing is similar to the Read-Aloud; in fact, some call it Write-Aloud. When we write in front of students in real time, we have the opportunity to "think aloud" and model what effective writers do mentally. This helps to make the writing process visible for students. Students see how an idea moves from the abstract to a concrete piece of writing. Modeling writing in all content areas helps students develop the language of the domain. For example, when we model how to write a lab report, we can share with students the language structures and academic vocabulary that scientists use. This modeling process supports students as they go off to write on their own.

6. Quick Writes

Not every piece of writing students do has to be lengthy. In fact, quick, daily writing is an effective way for English learners to practice writing in a low-stress setting. Long essays and pages of writing can be intimidating for students who are learning the structures of the English language. What's the saying? "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Breaking a task into small chunks (or "chunking" the task) makes it seem doable. A Quick Write is a short writing task-usually about 3-10 minutes. Author and teacher, Larry Ferlazzo writes about the power Quick Writes, or Micro-writing, holds for ELs here in an article for ASCD. He shows how this type of writing can improve English learners' confidence and language proficiency.

7. Language Experience Approach

The Language Experience Approach has been around for a long time. It is a method of shared writing in which students and the teacher write together after a shared experience. This is actually one of my favorite techniques because it builds community, models writing, and increases student participation and engagement. Students listen, speak, read, and write.

Begin by sharing an experience (like a field trip, science experiment, movie, book, etc). Next, have students talk about the experience with partners or a group, and come up with sentences to share with the teacher. Then lead the class in creating a text about the experience on chart paper (or under a document camera) as students share their sentences with you. After you write each sentence, have the class read it aloud chorally. (This provides tons of reading practice for fluency.) When the shared writing is complete, the class rereads the whole piece. Finally, lead the class in discussing organization, revision, and editing. Students can suggest adding and deleting sentences and decide to change words or punctuation. To see an example of what this can look like, check out Carol Salva's use of LEA here!

8. Mentor Sentences

Think of a mentor in your life. Who did you imagine? Someone you look up to? Someone you try to emulate? Mentor sentences are sentences students try to emulate. Jeff Anderson, author of Mechanically Inclined and Patterns of Power writes about the effectiveness of mentor sentences. The sentences that we choose can come from Read Alouds or we can make up our own sentences using information relevant to our students and our class.

For instance, suppose we had a visit from the fire department and the kids couldn't talk about anything else. So my mentor sentence may have been, " While waiting anxiously to hear all about the apparatus, a crowd of kids huddled around the fire truck ." First I read it aloud, and then we read it chorally. I then invited students to discuss the sentence with their partner or in groups. What did they notice? What did they observe about the sentence? I called on a few students randomly. Some noticed that there was a comma. One student said that the sentence was in the past tense, and we asked how he knew. He said, "Because the word 'huddled' ended with an -ed." Another student said that it looked like two sentences stuck together. We talked more about that and discovered that the first part of the sentence wasn't a complete sentence but a phrase. Finally, the students wrote their own sentences modeled after the mentor sentence. Some students used this frame:

While waiting ______to hear all about the_____, a crowd of ___huddled around the ____.

One student wrote: While waiting eagerly to grab all the kibble, a crowd of dogs huddled around the food bowl. To add to it, he drew a group of dogs around an empty food bowl.

If you have students who struggle with writing, try some of these scaffolds to support them along the way to independence and success!

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8 Ways to Scaffold Writing for English Learners

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by Valentina Gonzalez Scaffolds are temporary supports meant to be released when no longer needed. Think of buildings that are under construction. When the building is in the early phases, more scaffolding is necessary to sustain the structure. As the building progresses, less scaffolding is needed.

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by Carol Salva Is it really a good idea to spend time having students write in content-area classes? The answer is YES! Here are some reasons and a few ideas on how to make writing time practical.
I have been a content-area teacher, both with and without in-class support, and everyone will agree that content teachers have a very heavy load. The stakes are higher than ever, and we could run through a very long list of issues facing teachers today, from grading to insignificant planning time. The issues are real, and time is limited! However, the more I work with teachers, the more I see examples of the value in integrating writing in all content areas.

A Concrete Example from the Field

In our trainings and in our book, Boosting Achievement, Anna Matis and I frequently mention a master teacher, Joseph Maurer. Joseph's math class was an excellent example of how writing and producing language in content areas can boost achievement of all learners. I was fascinated by Joseph's class, not only because he had documented years of impressive standardized assessment scores, but also because this was an anomaly for the area. Joseph taught in an area that was predominantly Hispanic and over 95 percent Free and Reduced Lunch (low socioeconomic status). And yet, he was able to close achievement gaps for so many students.

Mr. Maurer was utilizing several high-impact teaching strategies, but the one that struck me the most was writing. The students in Joseph Maurer's classroom had math journals that were filled with reflective writing about their math learning. There was a great deal of language being used, in class both orally and in writing. I was so thrilled about the learning environment that I requested to have my own son (who is not an English Learner and is gifted in the area of math) placed into Mr. Maurer's Algebra class. Anthony would tell me that Mr. Maurer was a great math teacher and that he let the students talk about math a lot. I noticed that his homework included fewer calculations and more writing reflection with sentence stems such as "I solved this problem by..." "I noticed..."

Mr. Maurer began offering staff development with me, and he strongly recommended that other math teachers incorporate writing into their instructional minutes. In our trainings, he shared that writing is basic to thinking, and according to Fulwiler (1983), writing promotes introspection and speculation. Additionally, in content areas, Fulwiler offers that students can use writing to individualize their instruction. Writing is personalized by nature because the author enters the writing wherever they are in their thinking.

A Practical Approach

Writing to learn in a content classroom need not be time consuming or misaligned with the lesson. For example, students can do a two-minute quick write to reflect or a short journal entry to warm up. Or, a favorite among content teachers is a short writing piece that serves as an Exit Ticket at the end of class. Content teachers have told me that Exit Tickets are valuable for many reasons:

"I get a check for understanding."
"It's a great formative assessment."
"The kids have to think about what we did today."
"I don't care how they write it; I want them to reflect on the science we learned."

YES! These are all great thoughts on how Exit Tickets can be powerful for content-area teachers.

As these comments suggest, writing is already happening as part of many content teachers' pedagogy.

I suggest a simple tweak to the idea of an Exit Ticket to get even more bang for your buck. For any classroom, I suggest that teachers consider framing the lesson so that we begin class by telling students what the Exit Ticket will be and including a sentence stem as part of the Exit Ticket. The sentence starter directs thinking and can help a teacher explain the learning intentions.

If we review the Exit Ticket with the learning targets, now our Exit Ticket is doing "double duty" for content area teachers. Not only will students use writing to reflect, but they also have an opportunity to understand the learning targets from the beginning of the lesson. Reviewing the objectives ahead of time, including the expected Exit Ticket, is a way to communicate the success criteria. It ties to what John Hattie (2009) calls "Teacher Clarity." Hattie describes Teacher Clarity as communicating the learning intentions and success criteria for the learning intentions (Almarode, 2017). His work supports that this effort has a significant effect on learning outcomes.

What About the Student Who Can't Yet Write?

Everyone can reflect. Everyone can put something down on paper. According to Carroll and Wilson in Acts of Teaching (2007), even pre-literate children have intention when they scribble or draw. We want the learners in a safe space to reflect on what they understand, what they wonder, and/or what they are confused about. So allowing any reflections and minimizing corrections of spelling or mechanics can support both content-area learning and writing ability as students internalize the new writing structures they encounter.

The sentence stem we mentioned in the Exit Ticket example above also gives your English learners an opportunity to write a complete academic sentence. If they are just gaining the ability to write (in English or in any language), you're offering them a chance to practice forming English words at the same time. So we allow native language to negotiate meaning, we ask everyone to use the sentence stem, and then we set students off to reflect in a way that most supports their learning.

Am I Supposed to Teach Students How to Write?

Yes, but in a way that makes sense for your subject. Teachers who are unfamiliar with teaching spelling, grammar, and the mechanics of writing need not despair. Spelling, grammar, and mechanics are not the main goal in a content-area classroom. The content is the main goal. Begin with a two-minute quick write, a writing warm up, or the Exit Ticket example above, and be sure to include a sentence stem that includes academic language of your subject. Consider how much language and writing students will produce over the school year if they write just one academic sentence each day. Over 180 days, these structured writing activities will go a long way to teaching the language of any content area...and they should also go a long way in boosting the learning of the entire class.
Read more about writing to learn with emergent English learners.

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by Carol Salva Is it really a good idea to spend time having students write in content-area classes? The answer is YES! Here are some reasons and a few ideas on how to make writing time practical. I have been a content-area teacher, both with and without in-class support, and everyone will agree that content...

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Transforming Resources You Have to be Accessible to EL's

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Transforming Resources You Have to be Accessible to EL's

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by Carmen Nguyen

During this time of uncertainty, we are faced with many challenges that detrimentally affect and change how we are teaching. Whether we are teaching in a traditional face-to-face setting, completely virtually, or a hybrid of the two, it remains true that, as educators, we will continue to create, find, or purchase a variety of resources for the students we serve. Unfortunately, it is also true that the Lexile level of the grade level resources we have access to is not always appropriate for the various students in our classrooms. It is often difficult to find resources that are authentic and challenging and address grade-appropriate concepts, but are also at the students' reading level. As educators we find ourselves adapting, changing, or supplementing the resources we have in order to teach our state-mandated curriculum.

Now, let's simply consider how to adapt the text in the resources we use in our classroom to make them more accessible for students who are not yet able to read grade-level appropriate text. Too often when text is adapted, it is stripped of all of the features we initially selected it for. It is important to take note that exposing students to complex text as well as the meaningful language structures found within the text offers students avenues for literacy development as well as grade level readiness. So offering a balance is key to ensuring students are able to meaningfully interact with the text. ASCD offers a publication that provides an in depth resource to understanding and evaluating text complexity.

There are several online platforms that provide leveled text and websites that will adjust the level of the text, but many times the adjusted text is still not what you need, or the information you needed is now removed. The following steps will help guide you in adapting texts or resources yourself while maintaining the rich features in the original text.

Step 1: Determine the Goal for Using the Text

Before you begin adapting a specific text or resource, you must determine what the goal of reading or using the text is. Are you using the text for students to acquire knowledge about a specific concept or topic? Or are you reviewing the text features to analyze the text for a specific purpose? The goal is really driven by the standards you are teaching, and how you adapt the text will vary based on a variety of factors:

Different content areas

Types of text

Whether the students will be interacting with the text independently, in a partnership/group, or with guidance from the teacher

Whether the text you created is an electronic version or printed

Step 2: Read Text Using Different Lenses

This may sound obvious, but in order to adapt the text you will have to read the text thoroughly and possibly multiple times using different lenses. The chart below describes the lenses you may need to use:

Read the text simply to determine what the text is about.

Identify what you would like for the students to learn from reading the text (ties back to the goal for selecting the text). What are the key points? What must remain in the text? What information is necessary for students to accomplish the task?

Identify vocabulary, phrases, or possibly even sentences that may be potentially difficult for the reader, are central to understanding, are used frequently in the text, are cross-curricular, have multiple meanings, and contain affixes (include sections that had you reference another part of the text or sections you may have had to reread for understanding). It is always good practice to categorize the vocabulary you identify into three tiers.
- Tier 1: Commonly Used Words
- Tier 2: Cross-Curricular Words
- Tier 3: Content Specific Words

¡Colorín Colorado! offers a great article with a further explanation on the differences among the tiers.

If you have text in an electronic format or that is short and you do not mind typing in, this can be easily done using the Longman Dictionaries Vocabulary Checker.

Is the information necessary for the students to accomplish the task?
Simplify

Delete

Is the information written in a clear, concise manner?
Leave it alone or Enhance

Enhance,Simplify, Delete

Are there vocabulary words that a student must know to meet grade level expectations?
Enhance

Simplify or Delete

Does the text contain charts, tables, pictures, diagrams, photographs?
Leave it alone or Enhance

Enhance

You may also find it beneficial to review the scoring rubrics found on the ASCD publication referenced above.

Step 5: Select and Add Features to the Text to Enhance the Readability

When selecting features to add to the text or resources, make sure to reference the goal for using the text (step 1) and be mindful of who you are scaffolding for (step 3). When you are learning or just beginning to dabble with adding features to text or resources, it is common to over scaffold. As you gain practice and find what works best for your students, you can gradually remove scaffolds. The same concept applies when you model for or guide students: you provide substantial supports at the beginning, and as students become successful, you gradually remove the supports. The chart below provides possible features that may improve the readability of text/resources and can be done either on printed or online resources:

Simplify Text
- Use simpler language or language that mirrors student proficiency level
- Remove unnecessary or confusing words and nonessential information
- Add redundancy if appropriate (repeatedly name objects/people/concepts)

Chunk Text
- Create smaller, manageable sections within the text
- Add additional headings

Add Visual Supports
- Use consistent charts, tables, pictures, diagrams, and photographs to support text
- Add captions to pictures when appropriate
- Add clear labels to visuals

Vocabulary
- Identify, highlight, or bold key vocabulary
- Provide a word bank with visual supports
- Add student-friendly definitions to the text
- Use synonyms if not essential vocabulary

Text-to-Speech
- Add oral read aloud to the text (add QR codes for printed text)

Here are a few examples to help you visualize potential ways to adapt text/resources.

A last piece of advice is to not overwhelm yourself with too many supports. Begin with embedding features that will give students just enough access and move forward from there. Yes, adapting texts or resources does take time and practice. But all things worth doing take time.
References:
Close Look at Close Reading: Teaching Students to Analyze Complex Texts, Grades K-5
by Diane Lapp, Barbara Moss, Maria Grant and Kelly Johnson
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/114008/chapters/Understanding-and-Evaluating-Text-Complexity.aspx#:~:text=What%20exactly%20does%20the%20term,answers%20to%20Questions%205%E2%80%939.
Selecting Vocabulary Words to Teach English Language Learners Mathematical Thinking and Communication Access for English Learners
By Dridcoll, Nikula, DePiper
From ¡Colorín Colorado!
https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/selecting-vocabulary-words-teach-english-language-learne

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Transforming the Resources You Have into Accessible Formats for All Students

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by Carmen Nguyen During this time of uncertainty, we are faced with many challenges that detrimentally affect and change how we are teaching. Whether we are teaching in a traditional face-to-face setting, completely virtually, or a hybrid of the two, it remains true that, as educators, we will continue to create, find, or purchase a...

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Imagine you are a second grade student born in America, and you only speak English. You've attended English schools until now. But your father's job has relocated your family to France, and now you are in a classroom filled with students and a teacher who only speak French (a language you have never spoken). The science teacher hands you a book and signals for you to read it. You open the book and find that it is filled with pictures...no words. First a group of horses. A mare feeding a foal. A colt running wild. Then a group of pigs, chickens, cows, etc. Instantly, you begin to think about the information you know about animals. What they are called, where they live, what they eat, etc.

Though you aren't able to communicate this information in French yet, you are able to follow along with the class and think in English using the schema and background knowledge you have about animals.

Why Use Wordless Picture Books?

While wordless picture books have commonly been used with emergent readers and primary students in elementary grades, they are also useful when developing English in older students. Books that lack words allow for students themselves to produce language needed for each page, think critically about the ideas, and engage in deep inferencing to develop a plot and theme while building language skills.

Wordless picture books are accessible to learners who speak any language, as seen in the example above. No matter the language our learners speak, they can interpret pictures almost instantly in their minds. When we use wordless picture books with students, we are able to communicate with them at many levels.

As an ESL teacher, I had students who spoke several languages all in one classroom at the same time. Each student was unique. They had

various proficiency levels in their native languages and in English,

different background experiences, and

different educational histories.

But all of my students could access a visual representation at the same time. Using wordless picture books allows learners to think and process information using their own linguistic repertoires.

Wordless picture books lend themselves to opportunities for oral and written storytelling. The power of sharing a story and interpreting visuals in multiple perspectives is great with wordless picture books. When books include words, readers are somewhat limited to the ideas and text held by the author. However, wordless picture books give readers freedom to interpret the visuals through their own eyes, thoughts, and experiences.

Using wordless picture books with English learners can support all language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Listening: students listen to a partner or the teacher "read" or interpret the pictures from the book

Speaking/Reading: students share their interpretation of the book with a partner

Writing: students write captions or text for wordless picture books, or students create their own wordless picture books

How Can I Implement Wordless Picture Books With My English Learners?

Students love wordless picture books! They are fun because students get to interact with the book by adding their ideas.

Wordless picture books can be shared or interpreted together as a whole group. It's important to begin with ample modeling of the art of storytelling through shared experiences. After much modeling, encourage readers to try with a partner, and then be sure to make these books available for independent reading.

Students can also write captions or text for wordless picture books. This exercise shows learners that each page or picture tells readers something new and expresses main ideas and details. Take time to model for students how to glean the main idea and supporting details. When modeling writing for students, weave in authentic grammar instruction too. "Should we put a capital here? Why?" "Do we need a period at the end?" "Is there a word missing in this sentence?" "Let's read it one more time together to make sure it makes sense."

Once students see many examples of wordless picture books, they can create their own, too. Drawing is an excellent way to process information and is known for boosting memory while increasing recall of information. In addition, allowing students to create provides space for self-reflection and creativity.

Make Space for Nonfiction

Not all wordless picture books are fiction. Students can create nonfiction picture books related to information they are learning in specific content areas or to share their own lived experiences. In an Edutopia article, Kathryn Fishman-Weaver wrote, "Art gave the students I worked with new ways to process and tease out meaning, and to share their lived experiences." The student-created wordless picture books can be used to teach younger students, too.

A Short List of Wordless Picture Books

When considering which books to use with your students, think about not only grade level and content, but also student choice and interest. Allowing students to self-select wordless picture books to read gives them a sense of freedom and autonomy. English learners at earlier language proficiency levels will benefit from reading books that the teacher has already read to the group. The list below is not an exhaustive list but it's a good start for those interested in trying out wordless picture books with students.

Can Wordless Picture Books Be Used in Remote or Distance Learning?

The short answer is yes, they can. Remote or distance learning can be defined as learning situations where the teacher and the student are separated and unable to interact in the same classroom setting. Yet, not all families have access to computers and the internet, so providing instruction that is accessible to all children is important. If your school is using remote or distance learning for any reason, wordless picture books are one way to accommodate English learners because they lean on the total linguistic repertoire and not solely on English. Using a child's whole language repertoire, we can build the target language.

Teachers who have prior notice of school closures have the luxury of pulling together wordless picture books from the public or campus library and distributing them to English learners with choice boards such as this one.

What Does Reading a Wordless Picture Book Look Like?

Reading is more than decoding words. Wordless picture books provide students with the opportunity to analyze visuals, synthesize ideas, infer meaning, and create language structures to support their thoughts. Students are encouraged to narrate the pages.Older students benefit from being told that this practice will support their English development.

This is where the Gradual Release of Responsibility fits right in. Copious amounts of modeling for students will yield greater gains. Students who know and understand the expectations for reading a wordless picture book will be more successful. Show students exactly what reading a wordless picture book sounds like, then move to guided practice. Read wordless picture books together as a class or in small groups. Some students will need the support of questions such as "What is happening in this picture?" or "What makes you think that?" and "What will happen next?" Finally, have students practice reading wordless picture books independently and with partners.

If students have access to technology, they can record themselves reading wordless picture books on platforms such as Flipgrid and Seesaw. Students can watch their peers read and comment on their videos. Providing English learners with a model and sentence stems for sharing will enhance their experience. For instance, have them introduce the book with a stem like, "Today, I'm going to read a book to you called..." or "This is a wordless picture book I made. It's a (how to/all about/fiction/nonfiction) book. Let me share it with you." And after they read, have them comment with phrases like, "My favorite part was when..." or "I like this book because..." Or, they can ask questions about the book for their fellow students to answer, themselves.

Final Thoughts

Author Tanny McGregor recently shared the hashtag #WordlessBookWeekend on a Twitter chat. It's filled with ideas for wordless picture books and how teachers are using them with students.

No matter a student's language, language proficiency level, or grade, and no matter what content area you teach, wordless picture books can support learning. Wordless picture books are fun, engaging, multimodal, and interactive. Give them a try, and be sure to share with us how it goes with your students.

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The Potential of Wordless Picture Books for English Learners

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by Valentina Gonzalez Imagine you are a second grade student born in America, and you only speak English. You've attended English schools until now. But your father's job has relocated your family to France, and now you are in a classroom filled with students and a teacher who only speak French (a language you have...

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We all know reading is critical for our students' success - there's no arguing that. But when it comes to helping our students, particularly our ELs, improve their academic literacy and develop a passion for reading, it's tough to find just the right formula. So when I found out from Anita Robinson, the principal at Frisco ISD's Staley Middle School, that they'd seen a huge gain in English learner STAAR reading scores at the eighth grade level - from 16 percent to 61 percent 'Approaching Grade Level' - within , I knew they were doing something right.

I had to know what happened, so Anna Matis and I scheduled some time to sit down in Frisco with some of Staley's teachers, hoping to find out how they were driving such incredible results. We met with several teachers to find out what they were doing with the kids to inspire this kind of growth, but it wasn't until we sat down with one of the social studies teachers, Paul Somodevilla, that we were finally able to suss out exactly what Staley Middle School was doing differently.

What it came down to was that the principal, Ms. Robinson, was doing two major things to increase the actual amount of reading students were doing inside and outside of class - thus making a massive difference in their test scores. Principal Robinson took the initiative to do two things within the school:

When I asked Paul what he thought had helped dramatically improve the eighth-grade EL reading scores, he said, "I think it was the fact that all students were reading in class every day." He stressed that while reading in class every day to improve reading is, theoretically, a no-brainer, it's so easy to let that time slide to make way for other, more immediate tasks. But Principal Robinson found ways to help teachers get past this.

Paul explained to me that she had told him daily reading was expected in every content-area classroom. She made sure he included it as one of his goals for his teacher evaluation process. She made sure he integrated daily reading into his curricula, and when she'd do walkthroughs, she'd ask him what the students were reading that day.

Paul and his fellow eighth-grade teachers found resources, such as articles from NewsELA, that aligned to the standards, and they created activities to help ensure students were learning from what they read. For example, students would read passages, process what they'd read by drawing what the passages contained, and then explain their drawings to their neighbors while teachers walked around listening to the conversations.

By setting a clear, non-negotiable expectation, Principal Robinson made sure that daily reading time became a priority in every classroom. But she didn't stop there.

Here at Seidlitz, we've always been big proponents of Free Voluntary Reading - where students independently read self-selected texts - and followers of two of its chief advocates, Stephen Krashen and Donalyn Miller. And we're not alone. Countless administrators and teachers are fans of Free Voluntary Reading (FVR), but they don't all see the kinds of gains we saw at Staley MS. The difference here was that Principal Robinson didn't just advocate for FVR; she put systems in place to make sure it happened.

All the teachers at Staley Middle School had been trained on the importance of free voluntary reading, but there was more to it than that. Every single eighth-grade student was required to have three books checked out from the library at all times, and Principal Robinson collaborated with the librarian to set up activities and procedures to ensure the students always had access to books that would captivate them. They conducted student surveys to identify interesting books, and they tracked down high/low titles (high interest, low reading level) to be sure there were plenty available for struggling readers. They also held activities and events in the library, such as speed dating with a book, to promote the students' interest in books. (We found this great blog that explains the speed dating with a book process in detail.)

Then, they took the books outside the library: advisory (home room) teachers were required to set aside thirty minutes, three to five days a week, for their students to engage in free voluntary reading - supervised, of course, by their teachers, who'd been trained to maximize success with the FVR approach outlined in Robert Marzano's Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement.

Just like daily content-area reading, Principal Robinson's dedication to turning Free Voluntary Reading from a "nice to have" to a "must have" ensured the students spent significant time at school browsing the library and reading the books they found there. The result: dramatically improved STAAR scores and, along with them, more students who'd developed a passion for reading.

Every school has a handful of teachers who are dedicated to getting their students reading widely and frequently, and when even just one teacher makes this commitment, you'll see a big impact on his or her students' reading scores. But when school leaders get involved, making content-area and free voluntary reading a priority for an entire grade level, the results will be incredible.

These two strategies - making content-area reading nonnegotiable and systematizing FVR - helped Staley Middle School's eighth grade STAAR reading scores skyrocket from 16 percent to 61 percent 'Approaching Grade Level.' If you're looking to achieve similar results on your campus, we recommend you rally your administration to follow Principal Robinson's lead.

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Improving English Learner Reading Scores: Here's to You, Ms. Robinson!

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by John Seidlitz We all know reading is critical for our students' success - there's no arguing that. But when it comes to helping our students, particularly our ELs, improve their academic literacy and develop a passion for reading, it's tough to find just the right formula.

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lead4ward makes a difference in the lives of students by helping educators focus their work, creating structures that give teachers and students a sense of hope and confidence, and supporting leaders with systems they can trust.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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This versatile pre-writing or publishing tool is easy for young storytellers to use. Dozens of photos sorted into categories including culture, people, family and fun, serve as inspiration for prompts. Kids can tell stories using the in-app recording feature. Teachers can also create custom prompts with their own images and voice. Giving ELLs a safe space to tell stories about their lives and experiences validates their unique contributions to the class community.

Students can create impressive video slideshows using research resources built right into the app. They can capture screengrabs from an interactive map, safely search for images from the Web and access image archives from trusted sources like the Library of Congress. Kids put the slides in order, add text, music and narration, and then export the final project as a video file. Shadow Puppet Edu supports ELLs in developing academic vocabulary in both collaborative groups and independently. Students can use it to review new concepts, present research, track progress, explain their thinking and more.

Just as with the original Toontastic app, Toontastic 3D is a storytelling app that's inspired by puppetry, theater, and animation. It employs a "Story Arc" with five sequential scenes to guide story structure (setup, conflict, challenge, climax and resolution). Kids move characters around each scene as they record narration and dialogue. For ELLs, Toontastic 3D can be an invaluable tool for building writing skills or practicing story analysis. Students can storyboard a piece of original writing or a story they read in class, and then bring it to life with fun settings and quirky characters.

Students or teachers can create and share media projects that incorporate video, image, voice, or even drawings. Once posted, projects can be open to text, voice or video comments from a select group or from all VoiceThread members. It's a natural fit for a range of student presentations and projects such as explaining research or retelling a story with original artwork. Alternately, teachers can create a VoiceThread to solicit student commentary. For ELLs who sometimes are hesitant to speak up in class, VoiceThread gives them a chance to thoughtfully craft their presentations or comments and contribute their ideas with confidence.

This formidable tool is like a superhero version of PowerPoint. Users can import photos, PDF files, movies and more from many sources to use in a presentation. Students can learn how to present information using multiple forms of expression (images, text, video and audio) through digital technology. Students can edit the audio in their presentations, which gives ELLs a chance to self-assess and revise before presenting to their peers and teacher. Plus, allowing students to create multimedia presentations can take some of the focus off the speaking task, and can give creative, tech-savvy students a chance to shine.

Sutori
(Middle/High)

Sutori* is a tool for creating interactive timelines and stories. Students can craft multimedia projects with text, images, videos, "Did You Know" call-out boxes, click-to-reveal text links, and multiple-choice quiz questions. Sutori offers collaboration features, allowing students to co-create stories for group projects as well. Teachers and students can access pre-made stories and view or contribute to a collection of community submitted stories. Sutori is another great option for empowering ELLs to share their stories and knowledge without the stress of an oral presentation.
Erin Wilkey Oh is Executive Editor of Education Content for Common Sense, creator of Graphite, a free service for educators in search of the best apps, games and websites for learning. Tools included here have received high ratings on Graphite by educators and by the editorial staff at Common Sense. Go to Graphite to read full reviews of digital tools and how teachers use them for learning in class. *This post has been updated to include Sutori.

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7 Storytelling Apps That Get English Language Learners Talking | KQED

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This versatile pre-writing or publishing tool is easy for young storytellers to use. Dozens of photos sorted into categories including culture, people, family and fun, serve as inspiration for prompts. Kids can tell stories using the in-app recording feature. Teachers can also create custom prompts with their own images and voice.

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by Valentina Gonzalez Do you feel like there is just so much curriculum to teach that you don’t have time to ask students to stop and talk? Let’s think about that. Why don’t we allow students to di…

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Seesaw creates a powerful learning loop between students, teachers, and families

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Will Millard

Speech and communication lies at the heart of classroom practice. It is the predominant way in which teachers provide instruction and support to their students and is central to how most students engage with the curriculum. This article examines how teachers can support oracy in the classroom, drawing on research commissioned by Voice 21, an organisation working with UK schools to support the teaching of spoken communication skills, and undertaken by LKMco, a think tank working across the education and policy sectors.

What is 'oracy'?

Oracy can be seen as an outcome, whereby students learn to talk confidently, appropriately and sensitively. This article focuses on oracy as a process, whereby students learn through talk, deepening their understanding through dialogue with their teachers and peers (Alexander, 2012). Oracy involves teachers and their students thinking carefully and deliberately about the sorts of spoken language they are using, and this will vary across subjects and with different age groups. Different types of talk will be appropriate at different points in the learning cycle, and Robin Alexander outlines five key types of 'teaching talk' (Alexander, 2008):

1. Rote: imparting knowledge by getting students to repeat key pieces of information to impart facts, ideas and routines.

2. Recitation: using questions to test students' knowledge and understanding, to check students' progress, and stimulate recall.

3. Instruction: telling students what to do and explaining key facts, principles or processes in order to transmit information.

4. Discussion: encouraging the exchange of ideas within a class, to share information.

5. Dialogue: using structured questions and discussion, helping students deepen understanding of key knowledge, principles and processes.

What are the benefits of developing teachers' and students' oracy?

Developing classroom talk has a wide range of benefits on students' outcomes during school, and beyond. In particular, structured dialogue during lessons, where students are encouraged to participate verbally and given space and time to reflect upon and discuss complex ideas, is linked with:

Cognitive gains, including improved results in English, maths and science, the retention of subject-specific knowledge, and 'transference' of reasoning skills across subject areas (Jay et al., 2017);

Personal and social gains, including attitudes towards learning, enhanced self-esteem and self-confidence, and a reduction in anxiety (Hanley P et al., 2015); (Gorard et al., 2015), and;

Civic engagement and empowerment, increasing children and young people's ability to debate issues, while also increasing understanding about social issues and ability to manage differences with others (Nagda and Gurin, 2007).

Recent Education Endowment Foundation-funded evaluations indicate raising the quality and rigour of classroom talk has a range of positive academic, personal and social outcomes, in particular for children eligible for free school meals (Gorard et al., 2015); (Hanley P et al., 2015), and in terms of teachers' confidence (Jay et al., 2017).

How do teachers use oracy?

Teachers recognise the importance of developing oracy in their lessons. Drawing on the results of a poll of over 900 teachers, 11 interviews with oracy experts, and 26 interviews and focus groups with teachers, school leaders and students in thirteen schools, LKMco's research with Voice 21 highlights work taking place from the Early Years up to post-16 provision, in mainstream and special schools, and in the state and independent sectors (Millard and Menzies, 2016).

In the poll, over half of teachers said they model the sorts of spoken language they expect of their students, set expectations for their students' oracy, and initiate pair or group activities in most of their lessons. Early Years and primary teachers, and essay-based subject teachers, tend to initiate such activities with greater regularity than their colleagues.

Exploring the strategies used in classrooms to support students' language learning, Dockrell et al. (Dockrell et al., 2012) find teachers use some strategies more regularly than others. Their analysis of language learning environments, opportunities and interactions in 101 Reception and Key Stage 1 classes using the Communication Supporting Classroom Observation Tool (CSCOT) found:

Small group work was the most common language learning opportunity across the year groups studied;

The use of gesture and open questions were among those used regularly by teachers, while;

The encouragement of new words, turn taking and listening skills were among the interactions observed less regularly.

One particular type of verbal interaction that features heavily in whole class teaching is teacher-led recitation, in which the teacher asks a question, a student responds, and the teacher evaluates their answer. Studies of classroom discourse suggest this form of interaction is highly prevalent throughout schooling, and that the questions themselves tend to seek predictable answers. While this has its uses, it is of limited use in prompting students to explore more elaborate ideas.

What are the barriers to better oracy?

Despite the importance teachers place on developing students' oracy, LKMco's research found there are barriers to them doing so (Millard and Menzies, 2016). A lack of time is the most common, cited by 31% of teachers. A quarter of respondents talked about avoiding oracy-based activities for fear of making shy or under-confident students uncomfortable. Consequently, the students who might potentially benefit most from such activities can miss out. Another common concern, cited by one in five respondents, is that discussion and dialogue will lead to disruption, prompting some to avoid such activities altogether.

An additional challenge faced by teachers and schools wanting to develop and extend oracy is that there is 'nothing to show for it'. Interviewees felt this was a response to 'high stakes' accountability, wherein teachers feel under pressure to ensure students produce lots of writing.

How can teachers and schools overcome these barriers?

Individual teachers, groups of teachers, and whole schools can work to support their students' oracy. Teachers can:

Set clear 'ground rules' for talk during lessons (for example, by clarifying how and when students can contribute to class discussions, and what 'active listening' involves). Whole schools can also set expectations in this regard, such as in terms of how students should speak to their peers, and to staff and visitors.

Model the talk they expect from students (in terms of tone and etiquette, as well as vocabulary and content).

Ask great questions, encouraging different sorts of thought processes at different stages in the learning process. For example, teachers might prompt students to recall information at first, before then encouraging a deeper exploration of ideas.

Scaffold students' interactions and responses during lessons, for instance, by using sentence starters.

Provide students with feedback on both what they say, and how they say it.

Seek and give colleagues feedback on their classroom talk during development lesson observations.

Teachers at Eastwood Primary School in Keighley, for example, make video recordings of students at work, and then help the children evaluate their interactions in lessons. Riz Saleem, a year 6 teacher, said students reflect both on the content itself and on how they interact with one another. They might say, for example, "'Miss, we don't think we made eye contact with each other, and we think we need to...build on each other's ideas." This feedback is then used to inform future class work. Staff at the school said this has helped the students - many of whom speak English as an additional language - develop their confidence and skills as communicators.

Teachers should ensure their expectations of students' ability to engage in dialogue are challenging but reasonable. Talking Point, a website run by the children's communication charity I CAN, has a progress checker that teachers working with students of all ages may find helpful when establishing expectations for classroom talk ( Talking Point, 2018).

Promoting oracy in the classrooms has the potential to help diversify and strengthen pedagogy, and deepen learning.

Learning through talk: Deepening subject knowledge through oracy

Amy Gaunt

What could an oracy-rich classroom look like and how could it support students to refine their subject knowledge and develop their understanding?

At School 21, in Stratford, East London, teachers provide students with opportunities to learn, both to and through talk. In practice, this means that students are encouraged to develop and revise their understanding through sustained and productive dialogue with their peers. When engaging in discussion, for example, students must have a system for turn-taking, and they must ensure that everyone has a chance to contribute and that when somebody speaks, their ideas are respected. Introducing 'ground rules for talk', as advocated by Dawes et al. (Dawes et al., 2004) has been particularly effective at teaching students the conventions of group talk and ensuring that everybody's voice is valued.

To ensure that the contributions students make to group discussions improve their reasoning and develop their understanding, students are also taught a number of 'talk moves' or 'roles'. These encourage students to develop and interact with their own and other's ideas by, for example, challenging, clarifying or probing a group member's idea. Students are also taught to build or elaborate on each other's ideas, rather than merely stating their own thoughts with no relation to what has been said previously. They are taught when to introduce a new line of enquiry or summarise a discussion and are encouraged to consider how these 'moves' can help further their thinking as a group.

The Oracy Framework, developed in conjunction with teachers at School 21 and Cambridge University, provides a lens through which to view the oracy skills required to engage in effective group talk, and can be an effective way of framing the teaching of these skills ((Mercer N et al., 2017); see https://impact.chartered.college/article/mercer-identifying-assessing-student-spoken-language-skills/)

Teaching students the oracy skills they require to learn effectively through talk ensures that group talk develops both students' thinking and understanding. Anna Kyrk, Head of Curriculum at School 21, has developed a talk-rich approach to teaching Year 7 science, which provides students with plenty of opportunities to develop their scientific subject knowledge and understanding. She explains one strategy that has been particularly useful:

'Representing a scientific concept as a story, through pictures, has been a really effective way of immersing students in big scientific concepts. The students decode the stories through discussion in groups. I then layer in the key vocabulary needed to identify the processes of complex ideas such as genetic mutation, variation and natural selection. By the end of a 40-minute session, students are able to explain these processes, using the story to support their explanations. My role is to listen in, to guide the discussion and move the students' understanding on through talk and effective questioning.

Becoming an oracy teacher has changed my practice significantly. In our classroom, I am not the holder of knowledge and my job is not to 'fill up' the students. We talk to discover, then we communicate what we have found out, backed up by the subject knowledge and key vocabulary that we have developed through talk. We are explorers together.'

References

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Speaking up: The importance of oracy in teaching and learning

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How can teachers support oracy in their classrooms? Will Millard Speech and communication lies at the heart of classroom practice. It is the predominant way in which teachers provide instruction and support to their students and is central to how most students engage with the curriculum.

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by Nancy Motley

At the end of my first year of teaching, my principal asked what my plans were for the summer. After outlining my still-fuzzy summer agenda, she volun- me to include getting ESL certified in those plans. She explained that it would be great for my career, that I'd earn a $500 stipend ($84.32 after taxes, right?), and most importantly, that she really needed me to help our English learners next year. Always up for a challenge, I agreed. Despite having had very little professional development regarding English learners, I was a good test taker and earned my certification. Upon returning to school for my second year, I had a class roster that included a majority English learners.

While I was, admittedly, ill-equipped to meet my students' linguistic needs, I did know a few things, one of which was that they needed to talk. My English learners would not acquire more English unless they had a chance to use it. Knowing this, I did " think pair shares" and " turn and talks " all the time. Multiple times in each lesson, my students were able to talk with a partner or their table mates about what they were learning. They became less shy, and I felt confident that they were all acquiring more English.

That second year of teaching was hard work, with many ups and downs, but as my students and I entered "testing season" we were all feeling good. However, the feeling only lasted until I received my students' TELPAS (Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System) results back. Less than 50 percent of my English learners had increased at least one level in their language proficiency. I was devastated and felt like I had failed them. I was speechless when I saw that even in the speaking domain , only a handful of my hard-working students had demonstrated growth. How could this be? They talked ALL the TIME!!

I wish I could go back to my second-year-teacher self and tell her, "Talk isn't enough!" The opportunity to speak (which was plentiful in my room) is not equivalent to a structured plan for students to use the language of the lesson. You see, even though my students were talking a lot, they were only using the words in English with which they were comfortable.

Let's look at an example. Imagine my class was solving a two-digit by two-digit addition problem (15 + 44) for their math warm up, which is a review of the previous day's learning. In this scenario, I asked my students to turn to their partner and explain how they solved the problem. Here is what typically happened:

Alicia (to Michael, her partner): Umm...I did 5 and 4 and got 9 and then did this one (pointing to the tens place) for 5, so I got 59.

Michael (at Alicia): Me too. 59.

Did Michael and Alicia do what I asked them to do? Yes...with the words in English that they were comfortable with and already "owned." Did they acquire more English as a result of this opportunity to talk? I do not believe so.

In order for our English learners, Michael and Alicia, and any other students to acquire academic English, we've got to ensure they are actually using the words and phrases about which they are learning. This is easier to accomplish than you might think. All we have to do is them to use them. Simply put, we tell them the words we want to hear right before we ask them to speak. I call this targeting the talk.

Let's go back to the example above. What are the academic words or phrases I would want to hear? How about "ones place," "tens place," "sum," "equals?" I might want to focus on phrases like "number sentence" or "solved the problem." So how do I "target their talk" toward these terms? I ask them to use them. Here are some options for how that might sound:

Please explain how you solved the problem to your partner. I'm listening for you to use the words "ones place" and "tens place."

When it is your turn, use this stem: "I solved this addition number sentence by..."

As you talk with your partner, use the words from our anchor chart. Let's read them together: "addition," "equals," "sum."

If I had used any of the phrases above, the overwhelming majority of my class would have followed those directions, which would have resulted in each of them actually using the academic English of the lesson.
My "go-to" phrases for targeting student talk:

"It should sound like this..."

A few less direct ways to target student talk:

"Remember to use your words from the ______ (word wall, anchor chart, smart board)."

"Open your journals/notes, and use them while you talk."

Can you imagine how much language our students will acquire if everytime we ask them to speak to each other, we use one of these phrases? When we consistently target student conversation, they not only use the new vocabulary, but they become more comfortable with speaking in a more formal and academic way. We are "normalizing" academic conversation.

I'd suggest picking one or two of the phrases above and practicing. In order to remember, I like to post these phrases in various places in my room to serve as visual reminders for me to do it. While it might take some practice to build this habit, it is worth the effort. I can promise you that when we target student conversation, we do not end the year with disappointing TELPAS scores. We finish with a classroom full of students who have dramatically increased their proficiency in academic English.

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by Nancy Motley At the end of my first year of teaching, my principal asked what my plans were for the summer. After outlining my still-fuzzy summer agenda, she volun-told me to include getting ESL certified in those plans. She explained that it would be great for my career, that I'd earn a $500 stipend...

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ESL English Language Learning - Adult Literacy - Listening & Reading - Audiobooks - Stories

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ESL English - Adult Literacy - Listening, Reading, Audiobooks, Short Stories, Songs, PET exam

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Listenwise | Listening Comprehension Matters

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Listening comprehension matters | Listenwise

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Explore the best podcast lessons for grade-level rigor. Curriculum aligned lessons with literacy & language supports, great for English Learners. Free sign up!

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Наведите указатель мыши на выделенный красным английский текст, чтобы увидеть его перевод на русский язык.

Jessica:

It's Thursday, December 21, 2017. Welcome to our weekly program, News in Slow English! Hello to all our listeners! Hi Joshua.

Joshua:

Hi, Jessica! Hello, everyone!

Jessica:

In the first part of our program, we're going to discuss current events. We will begin with a discussion about the vote on Thursday by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to repeal rules that ensure a fair and open internet, also called "net neutrality." Next, we'll talk about the Norwegian Parliament's decision to decriminalize all drug use. Then, we'll have a conversation about the discovery of a solar system that is more than 2,500 light years away. The discovery was made by NASA scientists using artificial intelligence developed by Google. And finally, we'll talk about a new item added to UNESCO's "intangible heritage" list -- the Neapolitan technique of pizza twirling.

Joshua:

Jessica, the repeal of net neutrality is a very serious thing. I would say it's terrible for many internet users and internet companies.

Joshua:

So, let's choose this story as the Featured Topic for our Speaking Studio this week.

Jessica:

Very good, Joshua. But now let's continue with the announcement. The second part of our show will be dedicated to American culture and the English language. In the grammar section of our program, we'll illustrate the use of today's topic: Superlatives. And we'll conclude our program with another English expression: "To get out of hand."

Joshua:

Very good, Jessica! Let's get started!

Jessica:

Yes, Joshua -- there's no time to waste! Let the show begin!

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News in Slow English | Learn English Online

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Наведите указатель мыши на выделенный красным английский текст, чтобы увидеть его перевод на русский язык. Jessica: It's Thursday, December 21, 2017. Welcome to our weekly program, News in Slow English! Hello to all our listeners! Hi Joshua. Joshua: Hi, Jessica! Hello, everyone! Jessica: In the first part of our program, we're going to discuss current events.

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Boosting Your English Listening Skills

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab has been providing online English listening comprehension activities for ESL and EFL learners since 1998. Visit Randall's other Web sites at DailyESL.com, EZslang.com, and Trainyouraccent.com for more language practice.

General ESL Listening Quizzes

Activities focus on everyday English comprehension skills at three levels based on content, voices, vocabulary, and natural speed. A combination of adult, teenage, and children's voices are included.

Explore More English Listening Activities

Randall has created a variety of other ESL listening activities to improve your comprehension, speaking, vocabulary, and cultural awareness.

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Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab - English Listening

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Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab helps ESL and EFL learners improve their English listening comprehension skills through conversations.

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Open a world of reading. Try Sora, the new reading app for students, by OverDrive.

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After only a few weeks working with Summit K12, I have seen a wonderful change in my students' disposition towards reading. They are more eager to become independent learners. They are using the skills, not only in their ELA classes, but also in their other core classes. The information we gathered from the pretest allowed students to have a better picture of their growth. ~ ESL Specialist, McAdams/Kranz J.H., Dickinson ISD (TX)

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What Makes Summit K12 Programs So Effective? ... K12's online, standards-based supplemental curriculum will close gaps and ensure growth for all students.

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Easily create beautiful interactive video lessons for your students you can integrate right into your LMS. Track students' progress with hassle-free analytics as you flip your classroom!

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Have you ever tasted an Arab taco?

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Where the Wonders of Learning Never Cease | Wonderopolis

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Where the Wonders of Learning Never Cease

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We're living in a digital era; at a time when everything from ordering groceries to learning new skills is highly accessible and convenient. This is especially true for language learning. Now you can improve your English with just a couple of taps - all you need is your phone, laptop or computer, and good internet connection.

Whether you're jogging or commuting, podcasts are a great way to get a better grasp of any foreign language. They're the perfect way to complement your language classes and pick up some new vocabulary during your commute or workout. To get you started, we've rounded up 11 of the best podcasts for English learners of all levels.

Elementary-level podcasts

_Learn English
_Let's start with Learn English - a fantastic podcast from the British Council. The episodes are discussion-based and cover everyday vocabulary and situations. What's more, "Learn English" offers a wealth of free support material. Not only can you download each episode's transcript, but you can also take short quizzes to test your recently acquired knowledge. It's the best way to retain all those new words and make lightning-fast progress.

_Voice of America
_Do you want to improve your English while listening to current and interesting topics? Then, Voice of America: Learning English is for you. This information service has different kinds of audio programs that are narrated at slower than normal English speed. What's more, each program caters to different interests. The "American Mosaic" program discusses pop culture in the United States - like the new movies, for example. Meanwhile, history buffs will enjoy "The Making of a Nation", which talks about U.S. history. And that's just the tip of the iceberg: additional programs focus on science and even grammar - so not only will you learn English, but you'll get super smart, too!

Espresso English
With simple, clear and practical lessons, Espresso English is a fun yet effective way to pick up a little bit of English every day, whenever it suits you. Each lesson is only 5 - 10 minutes long and designed to teach you a lot in a short space of time. You'll learn English grammar, vocabulary, phrases, idioms, and more in no time!

Intermediate-level podcasts

_6 Minute English
_With its 6 Minute English podcast, the BBC has managed to create a fun way to learn English. The episodes are based on everyday situations and feature a discussion between two people, Nick and Alice. The topics are so entertaining - addressing questions like "Are bears back to stay?" or "How much is your spouse worth?" - you'll forget you're learning English. Plus, each episode has a transcript and a vocabulary list with definitions.

_Podcasts in English
_ Podcasts in English is remarkable if only for its sheer variety. Indeed, the website offers a wealth of podcasts for every level. What's more, the episodes are quite short -normally under 5 minutes - perfect for those pressed for time. They also address entertaining topics, which include such gems as "10 remarkable facts about the world cup" to "planking," and there's a wide range of quality support material.

_Culips ESL Podcast
_This one has something for everyone with over 600 episodes covering every level. Culips ESL Podcast features seven brilliant series with topics such as "Chatterbox", aimed at helping you to get used to English conversations at normal speed as they interview someone with an interesting story to tell. While "Speak Easy" teaches you how to perfect your accent and speak in clear and comprehensible English. Culips also offer free, downloadable study guide samples!

Advanced-level podcasts

_The English We Speak
_In The English We Speak, the BBC focuses on idioms and expressions - one of the final steps in mastering the language. The podcast features a light conversation between two people who take up one fun and popular idiom every week. One of my favorite episodes focused on expressions like "eye candy" and "sweet tooth." And the best part? You'll hear idioms used in context, which is the best way to pick up new vocabulary and polish your English.

_Splendid Speaking
_Perfect your language learning by listening to Splendid Speaking's fascinating podcasts. Designed to support advanced learners with reasonably good English communication skills, each lesson features interviews and discussions with non-native English language speakers, who carry out short tasks or give presentations. The recordings then include expert feedback on their performance. It's a very instructive and helpful way to learn as you listen in and hear how other learners are grappling with the language, and then learn from their mistakes alongside them!

_All Ears English Podcast
_Lindsay and Michelle's approach to language learning is "Connection not perfection". They aim to help you relax, have fun, and learn real, natural American English in their All Ears English Podcast for intermediate to advanced English learners around the world. In their 10 - 15 minute lessons, the two cheerful and very motivating Americans discuss and share tips on how to use everyday English vocabulary and idioms, expressions, and phrasal verbs, and how to make small talk in American English. They also offer useful tips on American culture, customs and etiquette.

_Luke's English Podcast
_Fancy a laugh while you learn? Then look no further than Luke's English Podcast. Luke is a qualified English teacher from London with 18 years teaching experience. Oh, and he's a stand-up comedian! Luke's multi award-winning podcast offers an insightful learning resource, with over 600 audio episodes, transcripts, and videos, including a special series on phrasal verbs - all of which aim to make you laugh while you learn. Episodes cover topics such as "Quintessentially British Things", "British Comedy" and "British Music" - so you'll learn a lot about life in Britain too, including a solid introduction to good old British humor!

_This American Life
_ This American Life is a weekly public radio program and podcast, featuring compelling, funny and often very surprising stories with intriguing plots - little movies for radio, as they call them.

Each week they choose a different theme and curate stories based around it. The focus isn't specifically on English language learning here, instead This American Life offers a great opportunity for English learners to get used to different regional American accents, while listening to unusual and interesting real-life stories from around the country - you'll be hooked from the first story!

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Learn English with these 11 free podcasts ‹ GO Blog | EF GO Blog

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Podcasts are the perfect way to complement your English classes and pick up some new vocabulary during your commute or workout.

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Educational Hip-Hop Songs & Videos for All Subjects, K-12

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Flocabulary is a library of songs, videos and activities for K-12 online learning. Hundreds of thousands of teachers use Flocabulary’s educational raps and teaching lesson plans to supplement their instruction and engage students. Our team of artists and educators is not only committed to raising test scores, but also to fostering a love of learning in every child.

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TED-Ed celebrates the ideas of teachers and students around the world. Discover hundreds of animated lessons, create customized lessons, and share your big ideas.

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News in Slow Spanish offers a unique language learning experience with engaging content at a slower pace to help all learners. Covering a range of topics and difficulty levels, it features current events, grammar, expressions, and original miniseries.

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