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I chose this because it gives a greater understanding of what the TELPAS test is. It would be super helpful to someone who has never heard of it.

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TEA designed the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) to assess the progress that emergent bilingual (EB) students make in learning the English language. To view other resources regarding EB students, visit the English Learner Portal.

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I used this because it gives good insight into each level of TELPAS.

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I used this because I believe it is so important to understand the differences in these programs.

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ESL and Bilingual Education: Understanding the Differences - Texas Teachers

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It seems that many people use English as a Second Language (ESL) and Bilingual Education are one in the same, but they most assuredly are not. To help

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I added this because it gives great information on these programs and what they do for students.

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This article gives a really good comparison of first and second language acquisition so I believe it's very helpful!

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This gives a great comparison for first and second language acquisition and helps give a deeper understanding of the topics!

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This explains principles of learning a language super well and is super detailed with the explanations!

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This gives a good visual for a better understanding of the principles!

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This gives really good and in-depth information on how to develop oral language.

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Being able to talk and express your thoughts clearly is vital in life. Yet, too many students are graduating without sufficient experience with group discussions, or arguing their ideas effectively, and they are finding themselves unprepared for the communication demands of college and their careers.

How can we prepare our students for these rigors?

To lay a better foundation for this learning, we can do a few things: we can value oral language development, we can value communication of ideas over grammatical correctness, and we can value oral language as a powerful way to learn and remember content.

Here are three strategies to help develop oral language skills.

Strategy One: Adapt Activities to Include Authentic Talk

Adapting current activities to include more authentic, original, and extended discussions gives students opportunities to contribute more than one sentence to a conversation. Sometimes, we miss the opportunity to encourage language development. For example, many teachers use some form of a jigsaw activity, in which students get into expert groups, read a text, and answer questions or fill in charts. They then go to mixed home groups to share their information. Yet, often what happens is this: students just read aloud what another student has copied from a resource -- and opportunities for oral language development are lost.

To improve this strategy, you can have the experts engage in a discussion of what to put, in their own words, onto paper. Then, they can rehearse what they'll say - covering their papers to avoid reading aloud. Then in home groups, you can have each person glance at their notes, cover them again, and share with the group members, who listen and take notes. You can even ask students to try to speak in paragraphs, starting with a general claim or topic sentence, and then support it with evidence sentences. For example, in this video, notice how the talk evolves as students prepare their ideas for sharing.

Strategy Two: Use Activities that Develop Strong Language

Use activities that allow students to develop a "stronger and clearer" answer, as they talk to different partners successively in an activity. Instead of the all-too-common whole class discussion, with the teacher asking questions and a few students answering, ask a question and have students talk to three different partners. Or have students talk in different groups (see this 1-3-6 activity video).

A crucial aspect of this strategy is that students shouldn't say the same thing each time; rather, they need to build on the language and ideas of previous partner(s) to improve, expand, clarify, and support their evolving answer each time they share it.

Example Activities(from Zwiers, O'Hara, Pritchard, 2014):

Interview Grid:Students talk with one different partner each time, making their answers stronger and clearer each time, taking minimal, if any, notes on the chart. Note that this activity can also work using inner-outer conversation circles, such as the one in this Debrief Circles video.

Opinion Formation Cards: Students receive a quotation from the text (before it's read) that includes evidence for one side or the other of an issue. Students share their quotations and their evolving opinions, with reasons and evidence for them.

Opinion Continuum: Students share where they fall on the continuum of a two-sided issue and why. At the end, they share if they shifted at all along the continuum based on their conversations with partners.

Strategy Three: Use Strong Discussion Prompts

Try to use discussion prompts that foster evaluation in some way. Evaluation is usually needed for ranking, prioritizing, and choosing. For example, if you ask for evidence of a theme or a claim, many students just find the first three remotely evidence-y things they can, and stop there. But if you prompt students to rank the evidence from strongest to weakest, or to find the most influential cause of some war, you can often get deeper thinking and better conversation.

For instance, I was talking with a teacher who was asking this question, "How did the Civil War affect the families in the South?" I encouraged her to simply add "most affect" to force students to evaluate and discuss their opinions. When students evaluate, their ideas often differ. And if you allow them time to argue and negotiate the ideas, lots of learning can happen.

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Key Strategies for Developing Oral Language

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Being able to talk and express your thoughts clearly is vital in life. Yet, too many students are graduating without sufficient experience with group discussions, or arguing their ideas effectively, and they are finding themselves unprepared for the communication demands of college and their careers. How can we prepare our students for these rigors?

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This gives super helpful ways to help ELL's with aural development

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It doesn't take long in a classroom to realize that not all students learn in the same manner. Some pupils need to hear things repeated, some need to see things written out, and others need to use their bodies, movement, or simply learn best by doing things. Back in the 1970s, Walter Burke Barbe and his coworkers identified three learning methods, which today are commonly known by the acronym VAK (Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic).¹ This article, which is the first part of a series, focuses on ESL teaching strategies for auditory learners, especially in our online ESL classrooms.

First of all, it is essential to understand what learning looks like, or better said, sounds like, for an auditory learner. These students prefer listening to a lesson, a lecture, a podcast, or any kind of audio in order to grasp a new concept. They have much better recall of something they have heard rather than seen. Our online ESL curriculums that include music, pronunciation, reading aloud and conversation will be much more effective than a curriculum that is only reading and then taking quizzes.

Many times as teachers, we tend to educate according to our own personal learning style. As we focus on each of the learning styles in this and future blog posts, I would ask that you determine your own type of learning style so that you can recognize your own strengths and weaknesses and plan your lessons according to the needs of your students. This may entail getting out of your own teaching comfort zone, but it will bring better results for your various students. Here are some ideas and ESL teaching strategies for auditory learners that will help them improve their retention and experience success.

ESL Teaching Strategies for Auditory Learners

Strategy #1: Engage your pupils in conversation about the subject matter. If they are learning about the weather, ask them about the current situation where they live. Give them opportunities to not only hear the new vocabulary spoken but also used in context. The students will retain the words better if they hear them used many times and have the chance to speak them aloud as well.

Strategy #2: Ask your students to prepare oral presentations about the subject matter. This ESL teaching strategy for auditory learners is especially effective! It can be something as simple as telling you about their favorite toy for the younger students, using adjectives in the lesson. For older more advanced learners, you can even work through the question words about a subject matter and have the students orally present it at the end of the lesson. One example of this would be "The Best Birthday Party." Go through the questions of Who? What? Where? When? How? and Why? with them, even typing their answers on the screen as they answer. Then have each student read aloud their paragraph so they can speak and hear the words and remember them easily.

Strategy #3: Read aloud. Many of our ESL programs have story time or read aloud passages. This is sometimes used by a tutor or teacher to check reading comprehension or the student's pronunciation. Keep in mind that this is an important time for an auditory learner to speak and listen to the current vocabulary content. Make sure to give those specific learners a chance to read out loud.

Strategy #4: Songs and chants. I think this is probably one of the most fun ESL teaching strategies for auditory learners. These students tend to remember all the lyrics to songs, so it is extremely beneficial to include nursery rhymes or create songs with the lesson's vocabulary. ALO7 has some great songs about Days of the Week, Numbers, Family and Weather. I use them often in my classes and see that the auditory learners thrive with these songs. They will even recall a song when I ask them a question like, "What day is tomorrow?" They will hum the days of the week song to themselves to remember the sequence of the days in the week.

Strategy #5: Make sure the classroom environment is quiet. It is very easy for an auditory learner to be distracted by background noises. I myself am mostly an auditory learner and was recently distracted by fireworks booming outside of one of my student's homes during class one day. My students didn't even skip a beat as we continued on with the lesson, but it was challenging for me to focus. If you have students in your classroom with a lot of background noise, televisions, music, etc., make sure to quiet these things for the benefit of your auditory students. Another important thing for an online auditory learner would be to make sure those specific students have good headphones. You can even suggest some noise canceling headphones to help them focus on their listening.

As you prepare your future lessons, make sure that you include some of these ESL teaching strategies for auditory learners to best engage your students who learn best with this particular learning style. Check that you are incorporating repetition, reading aloud, and as much speaking and listening as possible.

Subsequent posts will address the other learning styles so that you are equipped with ESL teaching strategies for auditory, visual and kinesthetic learners by the end of the series. Implementing activities and games for all three learning styles will make your online ESL classroom sessions a success for all students.

What ESL teaching strategies for auditory learners do you use in your online classroom?

Citations for ESL Teaching Strategies For Auditory Learners:
1 Harrington-Atkinson, Tracy. "Barbe's VAK Learning Style." Paving the Way. April 25, 2018. Accessed March 12, 2019. http://tracyharringtonatkinson.com/barbes-vak-learning-style/.

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ESL Teaching Strategies For Auditory Learners

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It doesn't take long in a classroom to realize that not all students learn in the same manner. Some pupils need to hear things repeated, some need to see things written out, and others need to use their bodies, movement, or simply learn best by doing things.

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This gives lots of good and helpful writing strategies to uses for ELL's in the classroom!

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This also has many helpful ways to help develop those writing and also reading skills for ELL's.

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6 ways to help ELLs improve reading, writing skills - SmartBrief

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Insights is a SmartBrief Education Originals column that features perspectives from noted experts and leaders in education on the hot-button issuessaffecting schools and districts. All contributors are selected by the SmartBrief Education editorial team. In today's column, Natasha Chenowith, professional development manager for Learning A-Z, offers ideas for supporting English language learners.

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This gives a great overview of the different dialects and varieties of english!

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Varieties of English | English Language Learning Tips | Cambridge English

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This gives great information and explanations of the different major varieties to help have a greater understanding.

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Different Varieties of the English Language | English Dialects

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There are many different varieties of the English language spoken and practiced around the world. We will take a look at a few key types of the language.

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This is a great visual for that shows different ways to teach academic language.

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This lays the strategies and information out in a clear way that makes teaching academic language a more clear concept

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This gives a descriptive and well-laid-out guide to writing language objectives.

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Do you want to know how to write language objectives? Download the Language Objective Guide to use the graphic organizer with this process. This guide will walk you through how to write language objectives step-by-step. You may be thinking what is a language objective? You might not be sure about content objectives. Teacher talk can get a little overwhelming. I know when I first started I had no idea what all these words mean. Here is a list of commonly used words with their definitions.

A content objective tells the student what they will be learning during the lesson. For example, I can analyze the connections and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events in a text. A language objective tells how the students will learn and/or demonstrate their learning through the four domains of language. The four domains of language are reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Here is an example of a language objective: I can write the connections between events in a text.

If you were anything like me, I was confused on how to write language objectives. Here is a step by step process of how to write a language objective. Remember to ask yourself "How will the students show me through reading, listening, speaking, and writing that they understand the content objective?" Below is a video that I made that explains in detail how to write a language objective.

1. Identify the content objective. What do you want the students to learn from the lesson?

2. Think about where your students are in their language learning process. Even in mainstream classrooms where are you students in regards to the four domains of language.

3. Identify the domain that you are asking students to do in the lesson. For example, there is a lesson where the students will be presenting to the class. The domain you are asking them to demonstrate their understanding would be speaking.

Now that you have gathered the information above here is how you write the language objective:

Sample Language Objective (Writing): I can summarize " Little Red Riding Hood" using sentence frames with a partner.

1. Download the Language Objective Guide to use the graphic organizer with this process.

2. Looking at the chart identify the language domain you will be using in class (Listening, Reading, Speaking, and/or Writing)

3. Find the action verb that you will be using. The action verbs vary based on Bloom's Taxonomy. Use the chart in this document to help you in deciding on the action verb.

4. What is the topic of the lesson?

5. Include any scaffolds/supports you will have for the students. A scaffold is teacher added supports for the students so they can master the objective of the lesson.

Take a sneak peak into the Language Objective Guide below!

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Language Objectives: A Step by Step Guide - My Adventures in ESL

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Do you want to know how to write language objectives? Download the Language Objective Guide to use the graphic organizer with this process. This guide will walk you through how to write language objectives step-by-step. You may be thinking what is a language objective? You might not be sure about content objectives.

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This is a great example of what a good learning objective should look like!

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This gives so many good resources to access that provide great methods for teaching ELL's!

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Colorín Colorado is a national multimedia project that offers a wealth of bilingual, research-based information, activities, and advice for educators and families of English language learners (ELLs). Colorín Colorado is an educational service of WETA, the flagship public broadcasting station in the nation’s capital, and receives major funding from our founding partner, the AFT, and the National Education Association. © Copyright 2023 WETA Public Broadcasting.

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This is a great example of a math lesson that's good for a beginner ELL!

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This gives a great explanation of what social studies is like to ELL's and how to teach it to them!

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This gives great insight into how to prepare good and effective social studies lessons for these students!

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Consider the following scenario:

A fifth-grade teacher was preparing her class to learn about the American Revolution. She enlisted the students' help in acting out the events that led to the Revolution with elaborate props and exercises. When the class ended, the students were told they would read more about the Revolution the following day. As they left the room, an ESL student stopped and asked urgently, "But who won?"

This situation highlights some of the challenges that teachers face when helping English language learners, or ELLs, master social studies content:

Background knowledge
ELLs may not have the same background knowledge that their peers have or that textbook authors take for granted, as explained in this video clip with ELL teacher Amber Prentice.

Different perspectives
ELLs bring their own valuable and important experiences to the classroom. Often those experiences can be connected to the content in meaningful ways; however, if different points of view or ideas aren't expressed or identified, students may miss key concepts and ideas in the lesson.

Academic language and vocabulary
ELLs must learn the academic language and vocabulary needed to comprehend and produce new content - all while learning the new content and concepts at the same time!

For content-area teachers with limited experience working with ELLs, planning a lesson that engages them and helps them learn new material may seem daunting. The good news is that there are a number of ways to engage ELLs with social studies content and draw on their own unique background knowledge and perspectives. This article will describe some strategies for planning social studies lessons with ELLs in mind.

In addition, I recommend taking a look at the following resources:

Note: Lesson Planning to Ensure Optimal Engagement of ELLs (Chapter 2 of Teaching English Language Learners Across the Content Areas), is available online and provides a number of helpful resources, including a checklist for modifying lesson plans for ELLs. In addition, Appendix Two of the book (not available online) provides a lesson modification worksheet.

Lesson Planning Strategies

Identify key concepts necessary for understanding the lesson

When choosing your key concepts, keep in mind the following:

Background knowledge
ELLs with limited or interrupted schooling may not have that same level of knowledge as their peers, especially when it comes to historical or cultural topics. When starting a new lesson, look for references or concepts that may need to be explicitly explained.

Language proficiency
Students may already possess content knowledge that they cannot yet demonstrate in English. Look for opportunities to make associations between students' experiences and new content.

Perspective
Students may have a different perspective on the content than their peers. These differences provide an important opportunity for class discussion and learning as long as they are handled in a sensitive and respectful ways.

In addition, plan to find out what students know about the topic you are teaching before getting started. This will help you fill in gaps and build on prior knowledge. A great tool for this activity is a Circle Map, in which you place the main topic in a small circle and add student ideas in a bigger circle around the topic. You may wish to allow ELLs to use their native language with peers for a quick brainstorm before presenting their ideas to the whole class.

Identify content and language objectives

These objectives are a great way to focus on the most important information and language structures you want your students to master. Content objectives focus on the material while language objectives focus on vocabulary or language structures that students should be able to use throughout the lesson (Haynes and Zacarian, 28).

Think about how you are going to:

introduce these concepts using simple language,

break the concepts down into the most basic elements,

keep the objectives visible to students during the unit (i.e., post them on the board or provide a simple outline to keep in binders).

Identify key vocabulary and academic vocabulary

Identify key terms, words, idioms and phrases - TWIPS, according to Dr. Zacarian (19). Choose the vocabulary that your students need to know in order to support their reading development and content-area learning, in addition to key content vocabulary. Remember to prepare student-friendly definitions for TWIPS ahead of time. It may be helpful to look at other social studies vocabulary lists as well.

In addition:

Look for problem areas
Clarify potential areas of confusion, such as homonyms or words with more than one meaning.

Include signal and directional words
Remember that students may also need explicit instruction in signal or directional words ("because" and "explain"), especially those words that are likely to appear frequently in the content materials or activities.

Don't overlook the basic words
There may be many words used through a lesson that native English-speaking students will understand but that ELLs don't know. Keep an eye out for these words, no matter how basic, and make a list of words that your students have questions about so that you can refer back to it when teaching the lesson in the future.

Use visuals and manipulatives when possible
Having a visual reference for new words is particularly helpful for ELLs.

Keep words visible and accessible to students
Post words on a word wall, or try using a "portable word wall" chart that students can put in their binder. The chart might include categories such as new words, old words, people, everyday words, words to review, etc. (Haynes and Zacarian, 59-60).

Remember to include lots of student practice
For students to really know a word, they must use it - or they will lose it. Use new words in class discussions or outside of class in other contexts if appropriate, such as on field trips. Give the students as many opportunities to use and master the new vocabulary as possible, both in writing and speaking activities. You may find this six-step process for teaching academic vocabulary from Dr. Robert Marzano helpful.

Prepare to preview the text

One strategy is a "chapter walk", where students predict what the chapter will be about based on pictures and highlighted features of the textbook.

An activity like this may take some time at first because it's time-consuming to teach. If you use it with regularity, however, it will become easier and quicker, and students will be able to do this on their own at the beginning of a new chapter.

You can also use the "BIG FOX" strategy, published by McGraw-Hill. This graphic organizer helps students pick out important terms and pieces of information before reading. I recommend practicing this strategy with some simple readings about familiar topics before jumping in with the textbook. The students will understand the strategy better if they start out with concepts that they understand.

Prepare multimedia, visuals, and related readings

These resources can be used to build background knowledge and provide context for ELLs, especially when students are learning new concepts and words. Ideas include:

Using photos from books, magazines, or the Internet to supplement textbooks.

Showing brief, focused video clips of history or social studies programs.

Listening to a short podcast or radio clip of an interview or speech.

Discussing additional readings such as related articles, poems, letters, and graphic novels.

Enlist native language support when possible

These strategies can help students identify content they already know, or master new concepts before transferring those ideas and learning how to express them in English:

Collaborate with a bilingual paraprofessional and identify areas where bilingual language support will be most helpful.

Look for related content materials in the students' native language from publishers like Scholastic or National Geographic/Cengage.

Plan group work in which students can use their native language with peers to discuss main ideas or vocabulary words.

Plan to include group work throughout the unit

Peer learning activities such as Reciprocal Teaching and Think-Pair-Share can be powerful tools for engaging ELLs with content learning.

Use modeling and clear instructions to ensure students understand:

how the activity works

their role in group work

the objective of the activity

any key vocabulary or phrases they should be using.

Here are some other tips on group work for ELLs from Haynes and Zacarian:

Assign students group roles that match their language ability (37).

Promote students to new roles as their language skills improve (42).

Make sure that mainstream students understand that they will be working in diverse groups, and that everyone's contributions are important (41).

Keep an eye on the balance of student participation; if some students are speaking more than others, ask them to think of some ways to even participation out (42).

Ask students to reflect on their group work after they have finished an activity. Haynes and Zacarian include a chart in their book with some guiding statements for student reflection (48).

Plan plenty of opportunities for students to interact with the content

Give students lots of opportunities to engage with and review the material in different ways:

Graphic organizers
Use graphic organizers to review key concepts and vocabulary words.

Flash cards
Have students make their own flash cards with pictures, definitions, key facts, etc.

Working with the text
Teach students to underline, highlight, and make notes. You may also find that sticky notes, Wikki Stix, and highlighting tape are a big hit with students (68). According to Haynes, some school districts order extra textbooks for their ELL classes so that teachers can keep a highlighted copy on hand as a student reference.

Use acting
Have the students write skits about the material they are learning, or create an activity in which students provide a physical representation of a particular event or vocabulary word.

Be creative and flexible with writing assignments

Writing can be an important way for students to show what they've learned:

Be creative and flexible
When choosing writing activities for students, be creative and open to different ways for students to express their new knowledge. I have seen students successfully convey what they learned by writing letters, poems, news articles and mosaics with vocabulary key points. Writing an essay may be more difficult for ELLs, and although they need to learn how to write a good essay eventually, they should be allowed to demonstrate their learning through a variety of writing activities.

Look for writing exercises that relate to the topic at hand
This may include a biography or autobiography, a letter from the point of view of a historical figure, or a short news article about a famous event.

Provide models
Give ELLs explicit structures and sentence frames to follow. Frames may vary in complexity and specificity, but they will help students to model correct structures and usage from the beginning.

Plan to adapt homework and assessment as needed

While it's important to have high expectations of ELLs, it is also important to have realistic expectations of the amount of work they can do. Haynes and Zacarian note, "The teacher's goal should be to making learning accessible and meaningful for every student without lowering expectations or sacrificing rigor" (104-105).

They continue in Chapter 7 of their book to provide a number of helpful rubrics and step-by-step procedures for evaluating your homework and assessment activities with ELLs in mind. In Twenty-Five Quick Tips for Classroom Teachers, Haynes suggests that teachers "adjust homework assignment to your ELLs' English language proficiency (and) modify assessment so that your ELLs have an opportunity to show what they have learned."

As you look for ways to help your students learn this new content, remember that you aren't just teaching them required social studies standards - you are helping your students adjust to a new life and country. That preparation has a potentially significant ripple effect because your students may be helping their own parents navigate this new country as well, and they may need to prepare for a U.S. Citizenship exam one day in the future.

Through social studies lessons, you also can prepare your students to be engaged and well-informed participants in our society and democracy, an opportunity they might not have had in their own country due to their religion, gender, or ethnicity. When you think about it that way, teaching ELLs to master new social studies content is so much more than adapting a lesson plan - it's a chance to prepare a new generation of young people to lead us into the future.

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Preparing an Engaging Social Studies Lesson for English Language Learners

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Consider the following scenario: A fifth-grade teacher was preparing her class to learn about the American Revolution. She enlisted the students' help in acting out the events that led to the Revolution with elaborate props and exercises. When the class ended, the students were told they would read more about the Revolution the following day.

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This explains what formative assessments mean to ELL's and how it's used for them!

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The Latin root word for "assessment" is assidere which means to sit beside. In my work as an English Language Learner (ELL) specialist, I advocate for educators to intentionally sit beside their students to more deeply understand and support their learning trajectory at the classroom level. That is to say, I strongly advocate for an intentional formative assessment approach for ELLs.

Schools can go beyond traditional summative and interim measures to ensure a more balanced assessment approach that brings to light the nuanced and complex process of academic language development. By implementing formative assessments for ELLs, educators can develop a "language lens" that uncovers and showcases the growth of this culturally and linguistically diverse population.

Where do we start?

First, we can examine what comprises our current assessment systems in place. We have large-scale, "big data" summative assessments that give us "big data" once a year on student proficiency. We also have interim assessments that measure growth against benchmarks periodically throughout the year, often with the audience largely being district and school-level stakeholders.

These summative and interim assessments provide "snapshots" of ELL performance and are not always reliable or valid on the ELL population. Therefore, we need to ask ourselves if we have systemic, systematic formative measures in place that provide feedback on teaching and learning specifically for our ELLs? Do we have a "photo album" approach of ELL development? If not, we can add specific formative practices into our assessment system that celebrate student growth and provide next steps for instruction at the classroom level.

What are some effective formative assessment practices for ELLs?

What's important to remember is that formative assessment is flexible and intended to focus on feedback for both the teacher and the student. As an initial step, I highly recommend that teachers keep portfolios of student writing samples to show individual student growth over time. Through portfolios like journals and learning logs, student work can be the centerpiece in conferences and school data meetings.

Next, I suggest that teachers work with students to co-create appropriate goals for using more sophisticated academic language. It's critical to promote student ownership of the assessment process through goal setting, self-assessment as well as peer assessment opportunities.

How can collaboration strengthen formative assessment?

A critical step in strengthening ELL formative assessments is to create and sustain collaborative time to analyze student work. Evidence-based conversations between educators about what students are producing can directly lead to ideas for effective student feedback and instruction. Professional learning communities are also opportunities for collaboration with ELL specialists to deepen content teachers' understanding of language and literacy. One final tip is to consider building data walls of multiple measures of ELL data quarterly to facilitate data-driven coaching cycles and team planning. In these ways, we can offer a "photo album" approach to show progress over time, celebrating students' journey of academic language development.

We know that ELLs are a diverse group of students with unique assets and varying factors affecting academic performance. Many educators need support in reaching ELLs and teaching academic language yet they often don't know where to start. By implementing more formative assessments for ELLs with the appropriate language supports, teachers can better understand their students and become stronger teachers of academic language. After all, all teachers are indeed language teachers!

Formative Assessment Ideas

Journals or learning logs to show growth over time in a portfolio

Academic conversations to explain new learning

Cornell notes or graphic organizers to structure note-taking

Student-teacher conference or small group discussions to recount learning

Exit slips to show "I think..", "I wonder...", "I still want to know..."

Fill-in-the-blank or "cloze" activity using sentence frames

Reciprocal teaching

Recording student language through technology

Drawing or role playing

Gallery walk of student work where students give each other feedback on stickies

Word or concept sorts based on unit themes or student-created categories

One word or one phrase response using whiteboards

Self-checklist or peer-checklist

Label or sequence visuals like pictures, photos or realia (real life objects)

Student-generated questions for peers

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Formative Assessment for Language Learners - Confianza

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Featured on Getting Smart By Sarah Ottow The Latin root word for "assessment" is assidere which means to sit beside. In my work as an English Language Learner (ELL) specialist, I advocate for educators to intentionally sit beside&n

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This is an example of a formative assessment for younger students!

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These are super cool and fun ways to teach ELL's with technology!

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Traditional pencil, paper and chalkboard teaching methods are no longer enough to captivate and educate the modern student.

In our modern world, technology can and should be used to make learning English more engaging and exciting.

Visual and audio media, online games, apps and more will grab the attention of your English Language Learner (ELL) students and save you time on lesson planning.

Read on for seven effective ways to spice up your English lessons using technology, and the benefits you and your ELL students will reap.

Contents

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

1. Use Apps

Apps are simple and often free tools for reinforcing the topics you're covering in your ELL classroom. You can also use them for warm-up and homework activities.

You can have your students use apps on their smartphones, or use tablets in the classroom if you're able to.

Quizlet: With Quizlet, you can create flashcards and interactive activities that help your students learn, review and practice grammar and vocabulary through interactive drills and exciting games. Your students can access the wide range of learning material on their Android and iOS devices.

iMovie: This app allows for the simple creation of short films and editing. You can use iMovie to enhance speaking-based lessons by having students create their own short movie clips with scripts they've written. Then, hold a screening so they can show off their work!

Find more of the best apps for ESL teachers here.

2. Listen to Podcasts

Podcasts are highly effective listening and comprehension tools for ELL students. They can also help students expand their vocabulary and learn to speak more naturally in both formal and informal settings.

6 Minute English from BBC provides short episodes where two people speak at a slightly slower pace than normal, so learners can follow along. Each episode is complete with a transcript, vocabulary list and question of the week. Also check out The English We Speak from BBC for vocabulary-focused lessons.

Culips provides several series of podcasts, including English conversations at various speeds and podcasts on idioms and common expressions, along with detailed study guides. Build a whole lesson around an episode or use them to add a little something to your class.

Voice of America: Learning English covers a wide range of topics, from technology and culture to lifestyle and health. There's a variety of programs to choose from, including "Words and Their Stories" and "Let's Learn English."

There are podcasts for all different interests, ages and language levels. With such a wide selection, you can find a podcast to go along with practically any lesson topic!

Find a few more podcasts you can use in your ELL teaching here.

3. Play Online Games

Using games is an engaging way to teach and reinforce essential language skills and concepts. Games use rewards, which can make learning fun and competitive.

And playing games isn't just for children: many teenagers and adults also enjoy games and will be excited to play them while learning English. With games, they can practice what they've learned without feeling like they're doing more work.

ESL Games World is your one-stop shop for English learning games. Here you'll find both online and printable games for the whole spectrum of English learners.

ESL Games Plus has a ton of fun games covering various topics that you can play in the classroom or have your students play at home for extra practice.

British Council has games for kids learning English and a couple addictive vocabulary games for ELLs of any age. These games pair well with the plethora of other online resources they provide to learn or teach English.

Find more games to play with your ELL students here.
4. Show Films and TV Programs

Airing films and TV shows in the classroom is a wonderful way to expose your ELL students to native English speakers. The visual component also helps ELL students comprehend what's being said.

With FluentU, you can turn screenings into personalized language lessons.

FluentU's authentic videos-like music videos, movie trailers, news segments and more-include interactive subtitles that help students learn new vocabulary and better understand what they're watching.

You can hover over any word to show a quick definition or click on it for a more in-depth breakdown of its meaning and how it's used. You can even add the word to a vocabulary list and then quiz your students later on all the new words they've learned.

By combining your movie and TV lessons with FluentU, you can create a fully immersive learning experience.

You can also enhance your video lessons with worksheets that will turn pure entertainment into productive language learning.

5. Take Your Class on a Virtual Field Trip

If you don't have the time or resources to take your class on an actual field trip, use technology to take your ELL students on a virtual one! Discovery Education provides many different field trips organized by topic, such as sports or the environment.

Expose your students to other cultures and countries by taking virtual tours of famous places around the world with AirPano. Or go on a tour of the Louvre to practice adjectives and art-related vocabulary.

These tours are incredibly visual and provide a great opportunity for students to practice describing what they see.

Before going on your field trip, provide your students with a worksheet of questions they'll have to answer at the end to encourage careful listening and active engagement. You may even ask them to write a short report about what they witnessed at the end of the lesson or as homework.

6. Teach with Smartboards

Smartboards are interactive whiteboards that can be used to enhance any type of educational setting. They allow teachers to incorporate pictures, diagrams and other types of resources into their classroom notes.

For English teachers, smartboards are especially useful for turning language lessons into hands-on learning experiences. If you're able to convince your school to get one, or if you already have one available, they're a must-use tool!

Here are a few ways to use a smartboard in your ELL classroom:

Brainstorming sessions: Whenever you want to conduct a brainstorming session with your students, a smartboard can help. You can organize words and phrases in a chart, list or mind map. To make it more interactive, have your students come up and add their own ideas or examples.

Review grammar and vocabulary: A smartboard allows you to keep a list of vocabulary or grammar structures to one side of the board without the risk of someone erasing it. With the rest of your space, you can go over examples or more detailed explanations of how to use them.

Display reading or video material: Instead of struggling with an outdated projector, smartboards make it easy to display reading material or media in an interactive way. You can point, click, highlight text, and drag and drop items right from the board.

7. Access Language Learning Websites

There's a wealth of worksheets, activities, lessons plans and other types of ELL resources for teachers available online. Many of these resources are even free!

As an ELL teacher, utilizing language learning websites will save you so much time in your classroom planning.

E nglish Club offers a range of all things ESL from beginner to advanced levels for both teachers and students. You'll find ELL handouts, activities, homework PDFs and more here. They even have a tool you can use to make your own worksheets!

Onestopenglish from Macmillan Education provides thousands of resources you can use to enhance your ELL lessons. From worksheets and flashcards to audio and video resources, theres's something for all ages and levels here.

Using English is another useful site is for both English teachers and students. You'll find an impressive selection of quizzes, tests, handouts, lesson plans and reference materials to use in your ELL classroom here.

Find more of the best websites for you and your students here.
Why Technology Is an Effective Tool for ELLs

Students can progress and practice at different paces. Technology helps you create a learning environment that's conducive for all different levels of English learners. The ability to digitally track your students' progress, strengths and weaknesses is also a useful tool when planning lessons and activities for your class.

It provides more opportunities to reinforce new language skills. Learning and mastering a new language takes a lot of repetition. Technology makes it easier for students to practice what they've learned in the classroom.

Students can learn through real-life situations. Technology provides so many ways to expose students to real-life situations in English. This can be through movies, television shows, video clips and even face-to-face interactions with apps like Skype and FaceTime.

Challenging new concepts can be presented visually and aurally. Students can only get so much from textbooks and worksheets. Using technology will help hold their attention and allow you to explain difficult concepts in easier-to-understand ways with visual and audio resources.

Technology makes the lessons more engaging. Technology can spice up your lessons, especially for the more dull parts of learning English (hello, grammar). And your students are more likely to retain the information if they are genuinely engaged and inspired while learning.

The ability to converse in the English language is a gift. As an ELL teacher, you get to share it with the world!

What better way to present the gift of language than by using technology for ELL students?

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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Modernize Your ELL Classroom: 7 Ways to Teach English with Technology | FluentU English Educator Blog

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Using technology to teach English is a great way to engage your ELL students and save you time on lesson planning. But where do you start? Check out these 7 effective ways to add technology to your ELL classroom, plus specific resources to help you get started.

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This explains the purpose of using technology in ELL's education and the impact it has on them!

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Role of Educators in Technology-Enhanced Language Learning

ACTFL strongly recommends that a language educator be responsible for the planning, instruction, assessment, and facilitation of any language course, leveraging technology to support language learning. Language instruction is best guided by language educators rather than solely delivered via a computer program or by a non-content specialist:

Research does not support the isolated use of technology for acquiring a language.

Interaction with a language educator is critical to building spontaneous interpersonal skills needed for real-world communication.

Intercultural competence is best acquired through human interactions and meaningful experiences facilitated through a language educator.

Educators use content knowledge, research-informed teaching strategies, and effective technology applications to support language learning.

Role of Technology for Learners

Technology can and should be used by language educators to enhance language instruction, practice, and assessment, as articulated in the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages. Through the purposeful use of technology:

Students read, listen to, and view authentic, engaging, and timely materials from the target culture.

Students practice interpersonal skills as they interact via video, audio, or text in real-time with other speakers of the target language.

Students collaborate on presentational tasks with their peers or teacher, anytime, anywhere.

Students work at their own pace as they access online content and/or utilize computer adaptive programs managed by their teacher.

Students practice discrete skills with engaging online games and applications.

Students benefit from differentiated instruction where multiple applications can be used to assess students, assign varied tasks, track data, give real-time feedback, and manage classrooms and lessons.

The use of technology is not a goal in and of itself; rather technology is one tool that supports language learners as they use the target language in culturally appropriate ways to accomplish authentic tasks. Further, all language learning opportunities whether facilitated through technology or in a classroom setting, should be standards-based, instructor-designed, learner-centered, and aimed at developing proficiency in the target language through interactive, meaningful, and cognitively engaging learning experiences. ACTFL acknowledges a role for hybrid, online and distance learning instructional models aligned with state and national standards and facilitated by language educators. The development of technology is best driven by the needs of the language learner, supporting the kinds of interactions our students need to become college, career, life, and world-ready.

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The Role of Technology in Language Learning

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ACTFL strongly recommends that a language educator be responsible for the planning, instruction, assessment, and facilitation of any language course, leveraging technology to support language learning. Language instruction is best guided by language educators rather than solely delivered via a computer program or by a non-content specialist: Research does not support the isolated use of technology for acquiring a language.

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These are great ways to engage their families and get them involved with their child's learning

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6 Tips for Engaging the Families of English Language Learners

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Schools can better support students who are still learning English by working to involve their families in their education.

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These are just a few great methods for how to engage their families and communities around them.

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Mission Statement

Waller ISD shall implement efficiently the Title III, Part A Section 3114 (a), 3115 (a), and (c)(3)(A)(B) which requires engagement activities for parents, family, and community. All activities and training related to parent, family, and community engagement shall be aligned and coordinated with other district programs to supplement language acquisition. Activities and training shall include effective approaches and methodologies to enhance language instruction for English Learners (EL), immigrant students, and their families.

Vision

Increase engagement of English learner parents, families, and members of the community through the provision of information, tools, and online resources to improve academic outcomes for English learners.

Year-Round Engagement Program

Waller ISD Parent Engagement Activities

Campus Specific Parent Engagement Activities - Schools will work together in a parent-school relationship with on-going, goal-directed communication and culturally responsive support. These supplemental activities will support the responsibilities for the academic success of students. This shared responsibility seeks what is best for the second language acquisition and academic success of students and families, both individually and collectively.

Summer Parent Academy - The Bilingual/ESL Department will host activities every Friday in June to provide parents with the necessary tools to promote students' academic achievement, second language acquisition, support in navigating the school system, and community resources.

Parent University for ELs - Parent University is dedicated to help parents become full partners in their children's education by increasing family involvement in schools and empowering parents to become the most effective advocates for their children. These free courses equip families with new or additional skills, knowledge, resources, and confidence to support student achievement.

Waller ISD Family Engagement Activities

New Arrival Center (NAC) Family Nights - All parents and students are encouraged to attend a Family NAC Night once a semester specifically developed for recent immigrants. The focus is to help parents and students to understand the district school system and American culture. Additional services are offered to students and/or their families in these activities. These services include access to educational organizations that provide counseling, computer or technology training, mentoring, campus tutoring programs, etc.

Houston Hispanic Forum Career & Education Day - Waller ISD provides the opportunity for families to attend the Career and Education Day hosted by the Houston Hispanic Form which offers educational growth to develop talents, abilities, and achieve professional and personal goals.

Waller ISD Community Engagement Activities

ESL Adult Classes - Waller ISD, in partnership with Wharton Community College, serves English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for adults in our community to improve their English language skills to be able to contribute to our district English Language Learners' academic success.

Back to School Fair - The Back to School Fair assists families to prepare for a successful school year by providing backpacks and school supplies, as well as useful health and community resources.

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Bilingual/ESL / Family/Community Engagement Program (Title III, Part A)

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Waller ISD shall implement efficiently the Title III, Part A Section 3114 (a), 3115 (a), and (c)(3)(A)(B) which requires engagement activities for parents, family, and community. All activities and training related to parent, family, and community engagement shall be aligned and coordinated with other district programs to supplement language acquisition.

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These are great, well explained ways that educators could advocate for ELL's

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This is a fun visual with more ways that you can advocate for ELL's!