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Learn how to pronounce names correctly!

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Website which helps you pronounce difficult names

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Valentina Gonzalez's fantastic 3 1/2 minute demo of comprehensible input.

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Comprehensible Input Demo for Language Rich Classrooms Training

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Tips for if you have a newcomer in your class!

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10. Pair your new student with a buddy! Ideally, this buddy would be a patient, kind role model who speaks the same language as your student (and can translate!). When this isn't an option, however, choose a patient, kind English-speaking classmate, who will be agreeable to helping your new student follow your directions.

9. Use lots of gestures and/or quick sketches! If you only use words, your new student will quickly become overwhelmed and/or bored. For example, if you are telling the class about your drive home from school the prior evening when you almost hit a deer, you might do this: "You'll never believe ( hands on cheeks) the scary thing that happened to me yesterday! I was driving home ( hands look like they are moving a steering wheel) when a deer (draw a quick sketch of a deer on the board) jumped (use your hands to indicate a bounding motion) in front of my car!" Don't think you could draw a deer? Ask a student to help by saying, "Tim, you're a good artist...would you come to the board and draw a quick sketch of a deer for Nafiso so she can understand what I am talking about?"

8. Utilize Google Images! I always have my iPad open to Google Images, and I am frequently typing in words to provide a necessary visual for my students. Take, for instance, a lesson where you are trying to teach your students the meaning of the roots - ped and - pod. Use Google Images to show your student what a pedestrian, pedal, tripod, podium, and centipede are, and discuss how they are all related to the word "foot." I can almost guarantee that this action will benefit many students in your classroom, not only your new ELL!

As an ELL teacher, I use Google Images frequently! Just last week, I was reading a task card with an ELL student about a bashful "flower girl." I was worried that this fairly new student from Africa would think it was referring to a female flower, so I popped out the iPad, opened to Google Images, typed in "flower girl," and then showed her the pictures. I used the photo in the upper left corner, and we discussed the American tradition of the bride choosing little girls to throw flower petals during the wedding ceremony.

I'm sure you know this, but it bears repeating: Exercise caution when using Google Images!!! There are times when you do an innocent search, and an inappropriate image is shown. I always turn the iPad so it is facing me only and enter the word I am searching for. Only after I have scanned the images for appropriateness do I turn the iPad to share the images with students!

7. Be aware of how often you use idioms like "hold your horses" and "he let the cat out of the bag" when you talk. These can confuse even advanced ELLs, but new students can be really stumped by them. You might even want to consider telling your other students to raise their hands when they catch you using an idiom! They'll learn to recognize idioms, and you will be able to take the opportunity to explain their meanings!

6. Speak slowly and clearly, especially when you are speaking directly to the new student.

5. Do not correct your student's errors when he/she attempts to speak in English. (I know it's tempting!) Rather, celebrate that he/she tried to communicate in English. If you have an opportunity, then model the correct way to say the phrase. For example, if your student tells you, "Mom have baby yesterday. Girl." then you can respond, "Really?!? Your mom had her baby yesterday? The baby was a girl? How exciting!"

4. Take small steps with writing. Writing is a tough subject for a newly-arrived student who doesn't speak English. Yes, many upper elementary students can write in their native language, but they quickly become bored writing for a non-existent audience, since most teachers do not track down an interpreter each day to translate their writing for them. I think it is wise to let them continue writing in their native language about twice a week. However, I also begin to teach them how to write simple English sentence structures soon after their arrival. I begin with teaching my new students color words (see the freebie below!), and this vocabulary provides the base for beginning the writing process! You see, once they learn the color words, they can write simple sentences! For instance, after I get my other students started on their writing assignment, I walk over to my new student's desk and help him/her find a writing notebook. I open the notebook to a blank page, and draw a large T on the page (forming a T-chart). I write, "I like _____________." at the top of one column, and "I don't like ________________." at the top of the other column. Then, students can write color-related sentences in the columns, like "I like green." or "I don't like pink."

Use sentence starters with new ELLs! They will learn important common sentence structures, and they will have an opportunity to use the vocabulary they have been acquiring!

Picture dictionaries also come in handy during writing. For example, on a following day, you might open the picture dictionary to a food page, and students can write, "I like blueberries." or "I don't like apples."

Other simple structures might include:

After students have learned basic verbs: I can jump. I can't swim.

After students have learned body parts and numbers: I have two brown eyes.

After students have learned clothing vocabulary: I am wearing a red sweatshirt.

After students have learned sports: I play soccer. I don't play tennis.

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Deb's Top 10 Tips When You Are Assigned a Non-English Speaking Student! - Minds in Bloom

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10. Pair your new student with a buddy! Ideally, this buddy would be a patient, kind role model who speaks the same language as your student (and can translate!). When this isn't an option, however, choose a patient, kind English-speaking classmate, who will be agreeable to helping your new student follow your directions.

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Already have a lesson planned? Here's how to blend sheltered strategies into what you've already got planned.

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As educators, we recognize that all students learn best in a variety of ways, and no two are exactly alike. Providing various strategies and utilizing engaging techniques helps to reach a wide array of learners across all subject areas. This can prove to be challenging, yet rewarding. We recognize that students have unique needs and learning goals, and that all students should have an equal opportunity to succeed. Providing flexibility in the way that students access and engage with materials is key.

This holds true especially for those learners who might be classified as ENL, learners that are focusing on English as a new language. This can be broken down further to describe additional student needs. English Language Learners, or ELL students, describes students who might be learning English as a second, third, or even fourth language, and ESL refers specifically to students working towards proficiency with English as their second language, often following their own native language. A crucial part of working with ENL students is remaining cognizant of their unique and culturally-rich backgrounds and needs.

It is important to be fully open-minded while instructing and working alongside ENL students. We have gathered information and strategies designed to help you work with the ENL population in your classroom. Not only will these students learn a lot from you as you work with them, but it is almost guaranteed that you will learn a great deal from them as well.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) - Thinking about teaching and learning in a way that offers all students an equal opportunity to gain knowledge and succeed is the basis of the UDL framework. This framework includes three key principles: engagement, representation, and action and expression. Its goal is to remove barriers to learning by utilizing a wide variety of teaching tools, strategies, and resources. UDL focuses on flexibility that can be adjusted readily to meet an individual's strengths and specific needs. Utilizing UDL in your classroom can reduce the need for specific accommodations and saves time by being proactive by providing supports across the board for a diverse population of learners.

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP) - CRP focuses on multiple facets of student success and encourages students to maintain their cultural identities. CSP uses native culture and language to impact a native learner's achievements in a positive way. CRP accepts student backgrounds, while CSP views schools as places to encourage a student's native culture. It allows students to thrive and show pride for their unique backgrounds while becoming a part of a positive classroom and school culture.

Triple E Framework - University of Michigan Professor Liz Kolb developed the Triple E framework as a way to meet the desires of educators who were looking for a way to focus on learning goals and then incorporate technology as needed and where appropriate. The framework focuses on learning first and technology second, and the principle that effective technology integration happens with positive instructional strategies. Utilizing this framework helps to ensure that students are purposeful in the way they use technology so it effectively helps one to reach his or her goals. This framework applies to all subject areas.

Social Justice Standards - This framework provides guidance to ensure anti-bias education for grade Kindergarten through twelve. Consisting of four domains, identity, diversity, justice, and action, the standards promote knowledge and skills related to reducing prejudice and collective action. These are based on the four anti-bias education goals for early childhood education created by Louise Derman-Sparks. It is important to note that we each have our own biases, and being aware of those is highly beneficial. You can learn more by taking an implicit bias test such as Project Implicit, hosted by Harvard University.

It is important to get to know your ENL students first, including their cultural and religious traditions, prior experiences, personalities, interests, hobbies, and families. This will help you to more fully meet each learner's needs and address challenges that might arise. Look for opportunities to continuously learn more about your students.

While "ice breaker" type activities might be effective and worthwhile for some, reach further and utilize techniques that will make your ENL students to feel more comfortable and willing to share with you and the other learners in the classroom. Be mindful of tuning in to what each student shares with you. Ask questions that let each individual know you are interested in learning more about his or her background, interests, and goals. Building trust may take time, but by being observant and cognizant of unique needs, you can help to ensure that each one feels comfortable learning in your classroom, whether it is in a physical or virtual setting, each and every day.

A critical goal while working with all learners is to make a point to honor each student's culture heritage equally by teaching students in ways that allow them to sustain what is important about their culture. One way to do this is to take a close look at a student's community and support what makes up that particular culture. Consider utilizing literature for different nationalities that share a common theme. This will allow students to feel supported and will help them to be fully engaged. This might require going outside of the curriculum and it may require some additional time to gather appropriate and effective resources. However, this can be applied to all subjects and offers culturally relevant pedagogy and also lends itself to culturally sustaining pedagogy.

Case studies have revealed that it is not out of the ordinary for a broad spread of nationalities and ethnicities to exist within one classroom. This might consist of mostly English-speaking learners combined with a few non-native English speakers. Some students might have little to no English exposure and poor literacy within their own native language as well. Other learners might be multilingual, but speak no English at all, and many come from home environments with parents or caretakers who do not speak any English. Still, other learners might not be fluent in English, but have parents who are, and this can also prove to be challenging for educators.

Allowing students to be advocates for themselves and engaging in strong cultural understanding while remaining open-minded to all perspectives is critical. Providing opportunities for collaboration can be key too. Students that come from other cultures and backgrounds can easily feel left out. Utilizing peers to work alongside them can be a strong strategy, and meeting parents where they are within their own culture is also important. One should not make assumptions about what is occurring at home, but rather should be open-minded and willing to learn and grow alongside the student and his or her family.

The ages of your students and their learning environments are also important to consider. Various strategies will make sense for some elementary learners but may not work for those in a secondary level program. For example, elementary students might benefit from being grouped with other students that have similar needs. This will help to provide them with additional support. High school learners may benefit instead from being matched up with a teacher that they can check in with routinely. This support person can help to make sure they are on track with their goals and help with organization and time management skills, or other needs that the student might have.
Continue to Strategies Back to Top

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TeachersFirst: Adjusting Lessons for ENL/ESL Students

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As educators, we recognize that all students learn best in a variety of ways, and no two are exactly alike. Providing various strategies and utilizing engaging techniques helps to reach a wide array of learners across all subject areas. This can prove to be challenging, yet rewarding.

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Help! How Do I Use Language Objectives To Help My Els?

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Help! How Do I Use Language Objectives To Help My Els?

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This article provides an overview of how to use language objectives in content-area instruction for English learners and offers classroom-based examples from different grade and subject levels.

In this article written for Colorín Colorado, Jennifer Himmel of the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) provides an overview of how to use language objectives in content-area instruction for English learners. Her overview includes:

what a language objective is

steps that teachers can take to create language objectives

how to implement language objectives in a general education classroom

how to align objectives to content and language standards

ideas and resources on how to support teachers as they become familiar with this practice.

Language Objectives: An Overview
Mrs. Shell has been teaching eighth grade math for twelve years. She has deep content area knowledge and wants to provide all of her students with authentic activities and tasks to relate the significance of the mathematical concepts that she teaches to their lives. Mrs. Shell has always felt successful at teaching her classes but this year has been different. Her sections include students with more diverse backgrounds than previous years, particularly more English learners. As Mrs. Shell was beginning to feel frustrated with her inability to reach all her students because of their needs, she learned about one way to make her content more comprehensible to all her students - creating and posting objectives that tell the students not just what content concepts they will learn in each lesson, but also the academic language they will need to learn and use to meet the state's math standards. With this knowledge, Mrs. Shell is now confident that she not only knows what to teach, but also how to teach it so that all her students can be successful.

Generally speaking, academic English is the language of schooling and the language that helps students acquire and use the content area knowledge taught in schools (Anstrom, DiCerbo, Butler, Katz, Millet, & Rivera, 2010).

Teaching content to ELs: The challenge

In my work supporting general education and ESL/bilingual teachers who provide sheltered instruction for English learners (ELs), I have met many teachers like Mrs. Shell. While these teachers want to provide effective instruction for their ELs, often they don't see themselves as language teachers and so they aren't sure where to begin with their students.

These teachers aren't alone, however, and they are facing a challenge shared by teachers across the country. We know that for school-age students, academic language is crucial for school success (Francis, Rivera, Lesaux, Kieffer, & Rivera, 2006). In addition, research allows us to state with a fair degree of confidence that English learners best acquire English when language forms are explicitly taught and when they have many opportunities to use the language in meaningful contexts (Goldenberg, 2008).

Yet while the explicit instructional support that ESL and bilingual teachers provide is essential to English learners' academic language development, English learners receive a majority of their instruction from general education and content area teachers who may not have experience teaching academic language development.

The question becomes then: What do general education classroom teachers need to do in order to support the academic English development of language learners, especially when English learners are one of many types of students they serve?

Teaching content to ELs: The solution

One principle that teachers of English learners can begin to apply immediately is creating and posting language objectives for their lessons. Many teachers are familiar with using content objectives to identify what students will learn and be able to do in the lesson. However, they are less likely to include language objectives that support the linguistic development of their students.

Implementing language objectives can be a powerful first step in ensuring that English learners have equal access to the curriculum even though they may not be fully proficient in the language. This is because the second language acquisition process requires opportunities for the language learner to be exposed to, practice with, and then be assessed on their language skills (Echevarria, Short, & Vogt, 2008).

To this end, language objectives:

articulate for learners the academic language functions and skills that they need to master to fully participate in the lesson and meet the grade-level content standards (Echevarria, Short, & Vogt, 2008).

are beneficial not only for language learners but for all students in a class, as everyone can benefit from the clarity that comes with a teacher outlining the requisite academic language to be learned and mastered in each lesson.

Now let's take a closer look at some examples and how to write language objectives.

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Writing Language Objectives

What is a language objective?

Language objectives are lesson objectives that specifically outline the type of language that students will need to learn and use in order to accomplish the goals of the lesson. Quality language objectives complement the content knowledge and skills identified in content area standards and address the aspects of academic language that will be developed or reinforced during the teaching of grade-level content concepts (Echevarria & Short, 2010).

These objectives involve the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing), but they can also include:

the language functions related to the topic of the lesson (e.g., justify, hypothesize)

vocabulary essential to a student being able to fully participate in the lesson (e.g., axis, locate, graph)

language learning strategies to aid in comprehension (e.g, questioning, making predictions).

Below are examples of language objectives for different content areas and grade levels. They come from the Common Core State Standards for Math and English Language Arts (2012) and state standards in New York and California.
Sources:
How do I create effective language objectives?

Dr. Cindy Lundgren discusses the process of writing language objectives in this excerpt from her Meet the Expert interview.

Language objectives are directly correlated to content objectives. Once a teacher determines the lesson topic from the appropriate content standards, the teacher will want to begin thinking about the academic language necessary for English learners to complete the tasks that support the content objectives. This identification of the academic language embedded in the lesson's content will become the basis for the lesson's language objectives.

You can use the following guidelines to start thinking about appropriate language objectives for the lesson:

1. Decide what key vocabulary, concept words, and other academic words students will need to know in order to talk, read, and write about the topic of the lesson. Those words might be taught as a language objective. They should include technical terms, such as ecosystem, and terms like distribution that have different meanings across content areas. Other terms to highlight are those that language learners may know in one context, such as family (as in parents, siblings, etc.), but that have a different use in science (e.g., family of elements in the periodic table).

2. Consider the language functions related to the topic of the lesson (e.g, will the students describe, explain, compare, or chart information). See the WIDA English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards for examples of these functions for English language arts, math, science, and social studies for all English proficiency levels and grade-level clusters.

3. Think about the language skills necessary for students to accomplish the lesson's activities. Will the students be reading a textbook passage to identify the stages of mitosis? Are they able to read a text passage to find specific information? Will they be reporting what they observe during a scientific demonstration to a peer? Do they know how to report observations orally? Acquiring the skills needed to carry out these tasks might be the focus of a language objective.

4. Identify grammar or language structures common to the content area. For example, many science textbooks use the passive voice to describe processes. Additionally, students may have to use comparative language to analyze two related concepts. Writing with the passive voice or using comparative phrases might be a language objective.

5. Consider the tasks that the students will complete and the language that will be embedded in those assignments. If students are working on a scientific investigation together, will they need to explain the steps of the procedure to one another? The language objective might focus on how to explain procedures aloud.

6. Explore language learning strategies that lend themselves to the topic of the lesson. For example, if students are starting a new chapter in the textbook, the strategy of previewing the text might be an appropriate language objective.

(Adapted from Short, Himmel, Gutierrez, & Hudec, 2012. Used with permission.)

Aligning Language Objectives and Standards

English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards

Developing appropriate language objectives for lessons involves becoming familiar with a state's content area and ELP standards. Whereas the content standards will provide the topic of the lesson and what exactly the students should be doing with that topic (e.g., solving problems, creating models, ranking ideas), the English language proficiency or development standards help to identify language skills and functions that students should be working on to achieve academic language fluency. These ELP standards can help to identify:

communicative tasks (e.g., retelling, asking clarification questions)

language structures (e.g., sequential language, past-conditional tense)

types of texts students need to understand (e.g., informational text versus literature).

English Language Arts (ELA) standards

Other resources in addition to the ELP standards are a state's English Language Arts standards or the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History, Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (CCSS). The English Language Arts and Literacy CCSS might be especially useful to teachers of English learners due to its attention to literacy across the content areas.

Additional resources to consult, especially if a state is a member of the WIDA consortium, are the Model Proficiency Indicators (MPIs) outlined in their ELP standards. The MPIs outline what an English learner at a specific level of English language proficiency can do in a language domain (e.g., listening) by addressing the language functions embedded in an example topic for that content area with appropriate scaffolds or support (Gottlieb, Cranley, & Cammileri, 2007). Classroom texts and other materials (e.g., science investigations, primary source documents) are other good sources to consult when preparing a lesson.

Getting Started

How can I get started?

Careful lesson planning

In creating measureable and student-friendly language objectives that support the content objectives, it is important that learner tasks in the lesson are aligned with the objectives. It is not enough to have well-written objectives that promote language acquisition if the lesson is lacking in tasks that support the objectives. If the language objective for a middle school social studies lesson is for the students to orally retell the key characteristics in a historical event using sequential language, it is important that the teacher previews sequential language with the students, such as providing sentence stems or frames, and builds into the lesson some structured pair work so the students have an opportunity to retell the event to a peer. Therefore, careful lesson planning is another essential step in preparing effective language objectives.

Collaboration

It is also useful for content area and ESL/bilingual teachers to plan lessons together, as we saw with the 7th grade science lesson scenario involving Mr. Zhang and Mr. Lewis. In this co-planning scenario, each teacher used his expertise to better integrate content and language instruction for the language learners. This type of collaboration can help a teacher like Mr. Zhang learn more about the second language acquisition process of his students and can help a teacher like Mr. Lewis become more familiar with the grade-level content expectations that his English learners encounter in content area classes.

How do I know which language objectives are best for my students?

The language objective that the teacher selects will depend on what the English learners in the class need most at that point in the year and what language is most important to understanding the content concepts. If the students have already spent a good deal of time working with new vocabulary, then the teacher might consider having students use that vocabulary to develop their writing skill by writing a summary of the process they followed.

Conversely, the teacher might want to help students become more proficient with a particular type of graphic organizer in order to develop more strategic language learning. As all teachers know, teaching is a dynamic and complex process that requires a multitude of decisions to be made. However, the advance planning required in creating language objectives allows teachers to better anticipate the academic English needs of all students thus increasing the comprehensibility of the lessons.

It is important for teachers to realize that even though their lesson may include all four language skills (it is good if they do, since the language skills reinforce one another), they do not need to post a language objective for every language-related item addressed in the lesson. Teachers address many instructional needs in a 50- or 60-minute class period. Rather than highlighting all language uses in a particular lesson, it is important for the teacher to think about what is non-negotiable in that lesson.

In other words, the teacher should keep the perspective of the English learner in mind and ask, "Of all of the skills and functions addressed in my lesson, which is most important for helping students meet the grade-level standard and develop their language proficiency?" These objectives then must be measureable (i.e., can you see or assess the student's mastery of that objective?) and written in language that accounts for the linguistic and cognitive development of the students.

How can I make language objectives "student-friendly"?

Both of the above objectives are measurable, but both also take into account appropriate developmental stages of the students. Teachers of young students (e.g., PK or K) may even want to consider further adapting the objectives. For example, we have seen kindergarten teachers use symbols such as a pencil to symbolize "write" and a mouth to symbolize "talk" when they post their objectives for the children to see. We have also seen teachers of young learners rely on pictures to show the key terms they want the students to use or to convey the topic of the lesson (e.g., a picture of a ruler and of hands to discuss standard and non-standard measurement).

One way that teachers can ensure that their language objectives are measureable and student-friendly is by using appropriate verbs. Because language objectives should provide students with practice in the four language skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking, verbs related to those skills might include, but are not limited to, the following:

List

Retell

Summarize in writing

Record

Read

It is also important to not equate low language proficiency with limited cognitive ability. Therefore, teachers will want to make sure that the language objectives they create also reflect tasks that fall on the higher end of Bloom's Taxonomy and use verbs (e.g., orally justify) accordingly.

As noted above in the guidelines to creating language objectives, language functions are also a potential source for language objectives. Verbs related to language functions might include:

Describe

Orally explain

Report findings in writing

When should I share language objectives with students?

To help students take ownership of their learning and provide explicit direction to students, especially the English learners who are processing content in a new language, it is important that objectives be stated at the beginning of the lesson and reviewed with the students at the end of the lesson to allow them to assess if they have met the objectives (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2008).

How this happens may differ according to the grade level and content area of the class. Some teachers like to have the students choral read the objectives, while teachers of older students sometimes have them record the language objectives in their journal in addition to asking an individual student to read them aloud. Some teachers, such as those who teach science, like to reveal the objectives later in the lesson, perhaps after the warm up or exploratory activity, so that they can maintain an inquiry-based approach (Echevarria & Colburn, 2006).

Should I differentiate language objectives based on my students' language proficiency?

Although all teachers have students of varying language proficiency and skill levels in their classes, it is not necessary to differentiate language objectives by creating and posting multiple language objectives that reflect these proficiency levels. Rather, teachers should have one language objective that is appropriate for all students to meet. To provide the appropriate differentiation, the teacher would provide different scaffolds (e.g., adapted text, visuals, sentence frames) for students to use in order to reach the objectives.

For example, an appropriate language objective for an upper elementary language arts class might be for the students to be able to orally list text features found in a non-fiction book. For lower proficiency language learners, the teacher may give them a word bank from which to choose the text features; therefore, the students are meeting the same objective but with the appropriate amount of linguistic support from the teacher.

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Next Steps

How can I learn more?

For more information on the SIOP Model, see Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model (Echevarria, Short, & Vogt, 2008).

Although language objectives can be implemented in any lesson design approach, they are especially congruent with sheltered instruction and the SIOP Model. Since language objectives ensure that teachers meet the unique linguistic needs of English learners, they are sometimes easier to implement in the context of instructional practices espoused by the SIOP Model.

Practices that focus on explicit academic language teaching include:

development of key vocabulary

peer-to-peer interaction

meaningful activities that allow learners to practice the academic language in authentic contexts.

Below are other resources that can help you learn more about creating language objectives and about integrating academic language into content area classes.

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Final Thoughts

We realize that it takes teachers some time to become very comfortable with creating language objectives, but our experience has shown that the implementation of language objectives can bring immediate benefits to instruction. Some immediate benefits include teachers understanding more concretely that they are both a content area and language teacher - as one teacher said in a CAL SIOP Model workshop, "I now see myself as a math teacher AND a language teacher".

We have also observed that when teachers consciously plan to meet the academic English needs of their learners, they end up with better planned learner tasks, and students begin to have more ownership of their content area and language learning. When it comes to building proficiency in academic English, as many teachers in our workshops remind us, "If you want to see it, you have to teach it." Therefore, if teachers want to see language development, language objectives are a great first step in helping teachers explicitly teach it.

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Resources

Short, D., Himmel, J., Gutierrez, S., & Hudec, J. (2012). Using the SIOP Model: Professional development for sheltered instruction. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M.E., & Short, D. (2010). The SIOP Model for teaching mathematics to English learners. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Echevarria, J., & Short, D. (2011). The SIOP Model: A professional development framework for a comprehensive school-wide intervention. Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) Brief. http://www.cal.org/create/resources/pubs/professional-development-framework.html

Himmel, J., Short, D., Richards, C., & Echevarria, J. (2009). Using the SIOP Model to improve middle school science instruction. Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) Brief. http://www.cal.org/create/resources/pubs/siopscience.html

Short, D., Vogt, M., & Echevarria, J. (2010a). The SIOP Model for teaching history-social studies to English learners. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Short, D., Vogt, M., & Echevarria, J. (2010b). The SIOP Model for teaching science to English learners. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Vogt, M.E., Echevarria, J., & Short, D. (2010). The SIOP Model for teaching English language arts to English learners. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Jennifer Himmel is the SIOP Manager at the Center for Applied Linguistics, a non-profit organization for language education research, policy, and practice in Washington, DC. She has served as a curriculum developer and research associate for the U.S. Department of Education funded project, Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) that is investigating academic achievement of ELLs in grades 4th-8th, and as a language testing specialist for the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs® language proficiency test. She currently manages the SIOP Model professional development service line and provides technical assistance and professional development in sheltered instruction to districts and schools.

Video Clip: Language Objectives

In this excerpt from her Meet the Expert interview, Dr. Cynthia Lundgren explains the value of writing language objectives when teaching English learners.

Anstrom, K., DiCerbo, P., Butler, F., Katz, A., Millet, J., & Rivera, C. (2010). A review of the literature on academic English: Implications for K-12 English language learners. Arlington, VA: The George Washington University Center for Equity and Excellence. Education.www.ceee.gwu.edu.

Echevarria, J., & Colburn, A. (2006). Designing lessons: Inquiry approach to science using the SIOP Model. In A. Lathman & D. Crowther (Eds.), Science for English language learners (pp.95-108). Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association Press.

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. (2008). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP Model. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Echevarria, J., & Short, D. ( 2010). Programs and practices for effective sheltered content instruction. In California Department of Education (Ed), Improving education for English learners: Research-based approaches. Sacramento, CA: CDE Press.

Francis, D., Rivera, M., Lesaux, N., Kieffer, M., & Rivera, H. (2006). Practical guidelines for the education of English language learners: Research-based recommendations for instruction and academic interventions. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction. www.centeroninstruction.org/files/ELL1-Interventions.pdf

Goldenberg, C. (2008). Teaching English language learners: What the research does-and does not-say. American Educator, Summer 2008, pp. 13-44.

Gottlieb, M., Cranley, E., & Cammilleri, A. (2007). Understanding the WIDA English Language Proficiency Standards: A resource guide. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, on behalf of the WIDA Consortium.

Short, D., Himmel, J., Gutierrez, S., & Hudec, J. (2012). Using the SIOP Model: Professional development for sheltered instruction. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (2007). WIDA English Language Proficiency Standards. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, on behalf of the WIDA Consortium http://www.wida.us/standards/elp.asp

You are welcome to print copies or republish materials for non-commercial use as long as credit is given to Colorín Colorado and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact info@colorincolorado.org.

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Language Objectives: The Key to Effective Content Area Instruction for English Learners

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This article provides an overview of how to use language objectives in content-area instruction for English learners and offers classroom-based examples from different grade and subject levels. In this article written for Colorín Colorado, Jennifer Himmel of the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) provides an overview of how to use language objectives in content-area instruction for English learners.

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Great guide form TEA on activities that are sheltered instruction and ALL kids (EL and non-EL) friendly!

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Build a classroom environment that ensures success

One of the best things you can do for a young English learner is to create a safe, thoughtful, flexible space in which their learning needs are addressed and met. The classroom absolutely must be a place where teachers have the time and patience to slow down when language variation makes concepts more difficult than they would be otherwise. Most importantly, learning spaces should reflect a great degree of respect for English learners, an appreciation of their perspectives, and a eagerness to include them in all facets of the collective learning journey: socially, emotionally, and intellectually.

2. Build on prior knowledge

Educators should take steps to gain a full understanding of the student's prior knowledge: what academic language are they familiar with? What mathematical equation-solving strategies, history content, or science concepts have they already mastered? Tools like KWL charts ("Know, Want to Know, Learned") are great approaches to helping a child provide educators with organized insights into a child's previous knowledge. From there, educators can begin to guide students towards reaching their full potential.

3. Incorporate culture at every opportunity

Intercultural interactions are a two-way street. In order to create a respectful learning environment for your English learners, it's important to both recognize (and encourage your other students to recognize) the attributes of their cultures, and to take the time to acknowledge and compensate for moments where a cultural gap might create uneven learning opportunities. These moments could be hard to identify: often, texts and assessments assume that children have some background knowledge that, in truth, is actually culturally variant. With respect and care, such cultural awareness can establish a learning environment in which their cultural difference is not a disadvantage, but an asset.

4. Give visual clues

English learners are a truly impressive group of students: every day, they attempt to reach their greatest academic potential despite a linguistic disconnect between themselves and the resources available to them. To support ELs, teachers can give them a great advantage by integrating non-linguistic tools into a lesson. Visual resources can help students to work through complicated problems, understand foundational vocabulary, and organize their thoughts. These tools will also prevent them from falling behind in other subject areas while they work to improve their biliteracy.

Download the Express Guide for examples and support →

5. Simplify grammatical structures

Like cultural awareness, it's also important to engage in an active linguistic awareness. Consider the grammatical complexity of your sentences, and work to make your verbal message more accessible for English learners. It's important to do this respectfully: ELs should never be treated as if they are less intelligent, or spoken to in an insulting manner. They need educators who are mindful of prior knowledge, language fluency, and view their linguistic background for what it is: a potentially remarkable asset.

6. Teach vocabulary while teaching the lesson

With any group of students, it's important to consider how cross-curricular learning objectives can be incorporated into your lesson, and to seize those opportunities when they arise. But with ELs, taking advantage of every opportunity to incorporate vocabulary practice into any subject is crucial to helping them maximize their time in the classroom. Language spans every subject - and while even English learners with the most limited English fluency might be star mathematicians, their lack of familiarity with vocabulary could impact their performance on assessments.

7. Teach for depth of understanding

When working to provide ELs with a foundational understanding of mathematics that will carry them into higher education and adult success, educators need to focus on establishing a deep, conceptual understanding of core mathematical competencies instead of rote memorization and a general overview. This approach requires a lot of patience: the goal is to establish clarity and a comprehensive understanding. It's a matter of quality over quantity: when students can develop foundational skills, these understandings will be adaptable, flexible, and widely applicable.

8. Teach study skills

Part of empowering ELs to succeed across the curriculum is teaching them not just what to learn, but how to learn. Study strategies are a key element of academic success for any learner: and for ELs, it just could be the leg up they need to keep pace with (and even surpass!) their peers. Guide them in the way they interact with texts, prepare for assessments, and collaborate with classmates. With the right tools, English learners are capable of mastering any subject.

9. Use manipulatives

For many teachers, one of the best perks of being an educator is the opportunity to pivot in instruction, think outside of the box, and provide learners with alternative resources for content mastery. Tactile, visual, and concrete strategies for teaching and learning can be used to effectively teach abstract concepts, and to stimulate higher-thinking science and math. Working with manipulatives can help ELs gain comprehensive understandings of complex learning objectives by tapping into different parts of their cognitive functioning rather than strictly depending on language.

10. Inform and adapt instruction

Working with English learners requires a great deal of fluidity in both instruction and assessment. Since ELs will be coming into your classroom with vastly different prior learning experience and content gaps, coupled with varying language and cultural experiences, it's important to be considerate of the way in which educators deliver content, monitor progress, and assess competency of skills. It's also important to adapt according to those assessments: teachers can use the student data they collect from assessments to understand students and inform further instruction.

11. Use cooperative learning

Teachers of ELs should take advantage of every potential resource to enhance their learning and maximize time spent in the classroom. We've already talked about utilizing visual resources, adapting instruction based on prior knowledge and assessment data, and using tactile manipulatives to master abstract concepts. But we've yet overlooked one readily available resource: their peers! ELs can glean a great deal of collaborative skills, vocabulary acquisition, and social integration through group and paired work.

To discover more about how you can support the English learners in your classroom across the curriculum, download the Express Guide from Number Worlds:

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11 Strategies for Teaching English Learners in Math

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Build a classroom environment that ensures success One of the best things you can do for a young English learner is to create a safe, thoughtful, flexible space in which their learning needs are addressed and met.

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Laura Varlas

At her district's newcomer center, English as a Second Language teacher Barbara Gottschalk would engage parents in a visual exercise: compare a math textbook from 20 years ago to the one in use today. The former, a familiar reproduction of the kind of math newcomers most likely experienced in their home countries, was defined by rows of computation. In the current textbook, however, words abound.

"You could tell just by looking at the two that even a student with a strong background in math will need some language support in a mainstream math class," says Gottschalk, who teaches at Susick Elementary in Troy, Michigan. A student with interrupted or limited schooling, she adds, will need even more language support.

With the Common Core State Standards and, especially, the skills identified in the Standards for Mathematical Practice, mathematics has increasingly emphasized conceptual understanding and reasoning, in addition to procedural know-how. "Language is the entirety of the mathematics classroom," says Megan Rowe, a math teacher at Borah High School in a linguistically diverse district outside Boise, Idaho. "From the language I use when I'm teaching to the language students use when they're reasoning among their peers-I don't know how you could ever teach mathematics now without focusing on language."

Double-Edged Disadvantage

Yet there's evidence across the education sector that many still assume English language learners (ELLs) don't need language support in math, and that belief can create a double-edged disadvantage for such students. ELLs placed in mainstream math courses with little to no language support are more likely to flounder under increased linguistic demands. However, when ELLs are tracked into remedial classes-and researcher Eduardo Mosqueda reports that this is a common and pernicious trend-it severely reduces the likelihood that they will eventually take advanced math courses.

"Once you start looking at math through the lens of language, you see linguistic demand everywhere," says San Diego State University professor Bill Zahner, a former high school math teacher. Without awareness and planning to support ELLs with that linguistic load, language will continue to be a gatekeeper to the advanced courses that lead to in-demand, well-paying careers in STEM fields. For Zahner and others, it's a question of equity: "How do we meet the needs of linguistically diverse students in math?"

Build a Baseline

When working with ELLs, it can be easy to mistake lags in language for gaps in math learning. "Just because they don't have the words doesn't mean they don't know how to do it," says Gottschalk. That's why middle school ESL teacher Beth Morrow's first rule of supporting ELLs in the math classroom is assess, don't assume. Establishing a baseline of where students are in terms of math knowledge and language proficiency helps teachers tailor the content and English supports ELLs receive.

Gottschalk uses a simple, language-free, calculation-based assessment to screen students' content knowledge. But even with pared-down assessments, cultural differences in math notation can make screening students challenging.

"Although there are some common rules that all mathematicians and scientists use, worldwide, they manifest themselves differently depending on the culture," says Cassie Eatmon, math chair at Herndon Middle School in Virginia. For example, long division is set up differently in the United States than in South American countries, and Arabic notation is written right to left. "Subtracting in Arabic looks wrong to us, but it's actually just flipped," explains Gottschalk.

Incorporate Semantic Supports

For newcomers, Eatmon recommends gradually increasing language demands. "Phrase questions that require them to produce a minimal amount of English at the beginning," she recommends. Choice questions (that require a yes/no, true/false, and ways for them to communicate nonverbally via a word card or hand signals) are a good place to start. As newcomers develop confidence with language skills, stretch expectations for discourse.

"Newcomers need special handling for a while," says Rita MacDonald, researcher at WIDA and the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER). "However, students are newcomers for the short term; they are language learners for a long time."

For the long haul, ELLs will need different levels of support to engage in increasingly language-rich mathematics. Visual representations of concepts, word walls, defining word parts (prefix, root, suffix), sentence frames, and note-taking practice-common tools in language arts learning-can be adapted in order to make math-centered conversations more accessible to ELLs. For example, Eatmon recommends adapting the traditional think-pair-share processing strategy to think- write-pair-share so that students will have a script of their thoughts to refer to. "That reduces the burden on ELLs to think and talk [in a new language] at the same time," she explains.

Language in Use

Researchers at WCER have developed six specific moves teachers can make to strengthen all students' reasoning skills in mathematics, especially ELLs ( see Figure 1), as well as seven tactics students can apply when working with ideas in math ( see Figure 2). These strategies develop language through doing mathematics, what MacDonald calls a "language in use" approach. "It used to be a common belief that you had to learn language before you can do stuff. We don't believe that works," she says. "You really only learn language through shared experience, by doing something."

MacDonald recommends introducing and practicing the student moves one at a time and providing prompts and sentence frames to cue students as they clarify, restate, support, challenge, compare, explain, or build on an idea (see http://stem4els.wceruw.org/resources/Student-and-Teacher-moves.pdf for examples). The goal, says MacDonald, is to "get ELLs in the habit [of understanding] that there are so many things they can do when an idea is presented."

Practice with discourse-centered mathematics helps students build the precision that is the cornerstone of math fluency. "In regular conversation, we don't tend to be precise and specific with our language. In mathematics, you need to be, but you don't just jump to that disposition right away," explains MacDonald. You get there through experiences, like needing to explain precisely the constraints of an argument, of having to use a very specific label for something. Those experiences happen in classes where students are practicing math in all four language domains.

Designed for Discourse

In a language-rich, ELL-supporting math class, students learn math through listening, speaking, reading, and writing-the four domains of language. But many classes, not just math, tend to fixate on the listening domain. "Students get all kinds of practice listening," says Gottschalk. "But they can easily go through a whole day of school without ever having to utter a single word of academic English."

"If you set the goal that every single student has the opportunity to speak, every single day," says Rowe, "you start to realize how few opportunities there are-at least there were for me-for students to talk about math."

Rowe has refocused her teaching from "What's the math for today?" to "What's the language for today?" and says that allows her to structure learning that gets to a deeper level of math thinking. "My students aren't just robots that can regurgitate a process or steps," says Rowe. "To learn math, they have to be able to talk about it."

One of Rowe's favorite strategies for eliciting math discourse is the "partner round-up." This strategy can be used to talk through all sorts of mathematical operations. For example, if students are practicing adding fractions, each student receives a card with a different fraction on it. They then find a partner in the class and work together to successfully find the sum of their fractions. Once they do, they trade cards and find a new partner and repeat the process. "This could have easily been a worksheet-20 problems, practice adding fractions on your own," says Rowe. But when it's done as partner exercise, her students get to talk to 20 different peers and hear the different ways they think through and explain a problem. "You go from something that was content-based to language rich, and that makes a big difference especially for ELLs."

Gottschalk's school uses journaling extensively in math class. Language is modeled and practiced as students discuss, and then write about, a problem of the day, she says. Teachers can get creative with how they set up journal prompts. MacDonald suggests, "Here's my favorite wrong answer from the last class. Let's figure out why that was wrong."

Opportunities to develop language, through identifying relationships or making generalizations within sets of problems, are implicit in some of the materials teachers have, adds Zahner, but those opportunities are often not highlighted. Zahner is currently working with a team of 9th grade math teachers on a project funded by a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to design secondary mathematics classrooms focused on meeting the needs of ELLs. There's a real urgency, he argues, to provide teachers with resources and supports to unpack the curriculum so that opportunities for discourse and reasoning, not just right answers, are prioritized.

Weeding Wordy Problems

With language at the center of the modern math classroom, it's important to note that not all words are worthwhile in the service of math learning. In fact, there are a lot of nonessential words and distracting or confusing contexts littering math texts. "If you use an example that talks about a horse, it better be the animal and not the gymnastics equipment," Eatmon warns.

Zahner cites a textbook example of a word problem for calculating the slope of a roof. The problem talks about two- by six-inch sized pieces of wood that will be used as vertical supports for the roof. These pieces of wood are unfortunately written as "2×6's." The dimensions of the board are not actually relevant to the rest of the problem, says Zahner. But for a student from Mexico, this aspect of the problem was derailing. "His answers to every other problem were correct except for this one. He got stuck trying to figure out how to use '12,' which is two times six."

Rowe adds that sometimes her students struggle with names. "If there's a Mr. Brown in the problem, they'll wonder who that is and why his name is relevant to the problem." Rowe changes names to simple identifiers: man, woman, or person.

"When we see language complexity popping up, we have to ask, is this necessary to the mathematical development?," says Zahner. "If it's not, can we take it out or plan around it?"

On assessments, Rowe also provides students with a recording of all test questions-audio files saved to Dropbox or Google Drive and represented as a scannable QR code on students' test sheets. This helps because most ELLs' receptive or oral language proficiency is higher than their reading proficiency. Through school-provided devices or students' own phones, students hear Rowe read each question-sometimes word-for-word or paraphrased, with steps to get started, or breaking down the question in ways that they'll understand.

Context vs. Content

In addition to removing unnecessary language, Zahner advises teachers to think carefully about the number and types of contexts used to develop a mathematical concept. Although it may be helpful to use multiple contexts to show students that math concepts are all around them, don't make students master a multitude of scenarios just so they can access the math content. In one text, Zahner's team found 12 different problem contexts used to explain linear functions.

"If you've never driven on a toll road and a problem is asking you to calculate the per-mile toll, but you're stuck on what is a toll?, that's going to stop you from accessing the content," he says. Instead, Zahner suggests focusing on a few relevant, key contexts. One way to do that is to find out what students are interested in and build math problems with those contexts. For example, teachers he works with recently changed a problem about pumping water out of a pool to one about rates for downloading files to your phone. "When the teacher introduced this context, everyone was engaged because all kids have opinions about who's got the good network or good rates."

"Keep in the forefront of your mind, 'What do I want students to do?', and build your question around that," says Eatmon. Simplifying the language doesn't mean watering down the math. Keep expectations high that these kids can do the math you've taught them, she adds.

Equal Signs

Planning for language supports in math helps ELLs communicate their ideas and invites them into STEM, which can have a profound effect on their career and earning opportunities, says MacDonald. "It's this huge, epistemic equity issue."

"If we equitably involve ELLs in math-position them as idea-generators alongside their peers, instead of just passive listeners-their language is going to develop much more quickly because they'll be creating and negotiating meaning together," MacDonald adds.

Eatmon urges educators not to confuse a lack of language for a lack of intellect. With the right supports, it does not take long for their wheels to catch traction and take off, she says. Eatmon has seen ELLs make five to six years of growth over the course of one year. "It's not that they can't do it; it's that they've never been taught."

Figure 1

© 2017 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Used by permission. Stem4els.wceruw.org.

Figure 2

© 2017 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Used by permission. Stem4els.wceruw.org.

Laura Varlas is the managing editor of ASCD Express and a contributor to Education Update.

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Laura Varlas At her district's newcomer center, English as a Second Language teacher Barbara Gottschalk would engage parents in a visual exercise: compare a math textbook from 20 years ago to the one in use today. The former, a familiar reproduction of the kind of math newcomers most likely experienced in their home countries, was defined by rows of computation.

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Tips for teaching math to second language learners - from folks who've been there!

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This is from a teacher in Michigan and is a very handy breakdown (with links) of good ideas for accommodations - especially for beginner and intermediate ELLs.

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Using Science to develop Language

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Using Science to Develop ELLs' Language Skills

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"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka! I found it!' but 'That's funny...'" - Isaac Asimov "Oh, you mean the life cycle." This was my pre-school daughter's response to my long explanation of the metamorphosis of the butterfly.

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One of the greatest challenges in helping English language learners (ELLs) master Social Studies content is the role of background knowledge. The resources below provide ideas and guidance for planning effective Social Studies lessons for ELLs as well as for choosing appropriate academic language and vocabulary.

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One of the greatest challenges in helping English language learners (ELLs) master Social Studies content is the role of background knowledge. The resources below provide ideas and guidance for planning effective Social Studies lessons for ELLs as well as for choosing appropriate academic language and vocabulary.

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Students typically learn about the history of their nation and other nations from the comforting culture of their own country. ESL students who move to the U.S. have the added challenge of learning an additional perspective on history.

Moving from a foreign culture is a historical experience in and of itself, and these students often have a lot to contribute to history and social studies discussions. ESL teachers and social studies teachers need to employ special strategies to effectively reach out to this special population.

Understand the Eurocentric Viewpoint

After working in the discipline for some time, and even from being a student of the subject, you likely have realized that world history in American classrooms is taught from a Eurocentric point of view. History is viewed from the eyes of a European or is centered around European culture and history. Teaching social studies to ESL students requires a teacher to shift to a more worldy viewpoint.

ESL students have not all resided in Europe before coming to the United States, and they do not all hold the same perspective of world history. Recognizing the eyes through which they see history, whether your students are Chinese, Australian, Irish or another culture, should be at the core of your instructional methods.

Cultural Sensitivity

While remaining sensitive to the cultural needs of students should always be a part of your every day approach, this becomes particularly important when you have ESL students in the classroom.

No cultural practice should be belittled. No matter how far back in history your class travels, do not mock a practice.

The ESL student(s) in your classroom may follow those religious or cultural ways. The minute you offend a student, you have alienated him or her from your classroom.

Integrating ESL Students

History courses, much like reading and writing courses, can be particularly overwhelming for ESL students. Unlike their United States-born peers, they have not had the experience of growing up submerged in American culture. Concepts that a United States-born student may have known since birth, such as the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance or the tales of the Civil War or Revolutionary War, may be entirely unfamiliar to an ESL student.

To successfully teach social studies and history, you need to reinforce the knowledge of your ESL students, draw them into the discussion and supplement their knowledge where necessary.

Don't Skip Over the Basics

If you are teaching a course in American history, you might fairly assume that everyone knows who George Washington was or that all of the students are aware of the story of the first Thanksgiving. For a student who has never celebrated Thanksgiving before, this concept can be alien.

Always take the time to go back to the basics and explain the entire story before asking students to picture the events.

Review the Basic Vocabulary of the Subject

With numbers and math, students may be able to quickly translate into their native tongue and to understand the concepts. However, this is often not the case for social studies.

Imagine that you are teaching about the existence of major world religions, and you note that Roman Catholics believe in the Trinity. In your class, you may have an ESL student who comes from an atheist country. He or she is likely going to have no idea what the word "Trinity" even means. Without the basics of the language, the rest of the lesson might not make sense.

Consider providing word lists or reviewing vocabulary with the entire class before beginning a new unit or chapter in the book.

Celebrate Cultural Diversity

As a social studies teacher, you really have the opportunity to celebrate cultural diversity. You can do this in many ways, including:

Assign an activity where all of your students present information about their cultures within their small groups.

Start a culture club.

Have students bring in a food dish from his or her background.

Encourage Learning and Participation

As with all subjects, the ESL student may not have a problem learning the content of the course; but, special care should be taken to help them communicate comfortably with you and their peers. For example:

Remember that just because they don't speak English fluently it doesn't mean that they don't understand the concepts you are teaching.

Simplify your teaching language. Shorter, simple sentences are easier to understand than complex sentences with idioms.

Use visuals whenever possible instead of words. Many times an ESL student will recognize a picture of a famous person in history, even though they don't know the person's name.

Encourage your ESL students to be active members of the class, but do not pressure them into answering questions.

Don't draw attention to the ESL student if the attention seems to make them feel uncomfortable.

Encourage team and group work to encourage participation. Depending on the comfort level of the ESL student, consider making the ESL student the team leader.

Ultimately, social studies classes can provide an arena where students can embrace the differences among themselves. When you have ESL students in the class, encourage their participation and use their experiences to enhance your lesson plans.

These tips for teaching social studies to ESL students can help each student to feel more a part of the class.

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tips for teaching social studies to esl students

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Tips for Teaching Social Studies to ESL Students

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Students typically learn about the history of their nation and other nations from the comforting culture of their own country. ESL students who move to the U.S. have the added challenge of learning an additional perspective on history.

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Digital tools for storytelling.  Great for projects and activities where the students tell you what they have learned/know.

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Kids use green screen-like technology to put photos of themselves (or others) into a story template, then add text and voice recording. In-app templates focus on social stories, like visiting a new place, getting a haircut, or holidays. For ELLs, the templates offer a useful foundation for building social language skills. Plus, the app's voice recording feature offers low-stakes speaking practice since kids can record themselves talking, then can listen and re-record as many times as they want.

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

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Kids use green screen-like technology to put photos of themselves (or others) into a story template, then add text and voice recording. In-app templates focus on social stories, like visiting a new place, getting a haircut, or holidays. For ELLs, the templates offer a useful foundation for building social language skills.

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The more kids speak, even if they are repeating what they hear you say, is key to building language fluency.  The more they practice, the more fluent they become.  This piece from Edutopia has some tips for incorporating speech into your lessons

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I wanted to talk to someone. But who? It's moments like this, when you need someone the most, that your world seems smallest. -- Rachel Cohn, Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
Let's face it -- everyone has something to say some time or another. ESL learners are no different. As a teacher of either online English or classroom ESL instruction, it is important to make your students feel comfortable speaking. They may feel embarrassed about their inability to speak English fluently. Or perhaps they are just shy. As an instructor, you need to ask yourself how you are impacting the learning environment:

Are the students afraid to make mistakes?

Is your instruction on their level?

Do you state clear instructions with examples?

Do your lessons incorporate exciting material and ways to teach?

Are your students motivated and interested to learn?

After you ask yourself these questions and alter your teaching based on honest self-evaluation, you can incorporate more ways to encourage your students to learn English.

1. Build Fluency

The most important thing to remember is that your students need to be speaking English as much as possible. The more they practice, the better they speak. The better they speak, the more confidence they will gain. And this cycle will continue to build fluency. Don't make the grammar lessons the focal point of your instruction. Don't do too much teacher talk and lengthy explanations. Choral responses where the students recite the same "response" -- whether it be a word, phrase, sentence or dialogue -- are an effective tool to build vocabulary skills that lead to comprehension. This method helps to build success for all learners. So get your students to talk, and keep them talking!

2. Focus on Individual Needs

With the current educational journals consumed with such topics as Differentiated Education, Meeting the Needs of All Learners, Maximizing the Disconnect Between the Real World and the Classroom, etc., it is important that you, too, focus on each student. Choose those skills that are the most important for him or her, and tailor your instruction accordingly. While Student A may be struggling with learning the alphabet and initial sounds, Student B might be reading at a fourth-grade level. I'm sure you get the point. Challenge all of your students with material at their own level to ensure language progress. My own teaching mantra is, "All learners can learn if we but know how to teach them." The onus is on you as a teacher. That is the unique skill you have to offer.

3. Provide High-Interest Engagement

We all learn more when we are engaged. Think of times when learning was the most enjoyable for you. Try to emulate those teaching styles. Was it how the teacher interacted with the class and how you were treated with respect, fairness, patience and acceptance? Maybe the teacher planned lessons that involved more than just passive learning. Perhaps there were learning activities with movement, which allowed for maintaining the students' attention levels and increasing their classroom participation. Did you have a creative teacher who used a variety of materials like flashcards, games, magazine and newspaper articles, pictures, photos, fieldtrips, projects, technology, role plays, guest speakers, simulations or question-and-answer sessions? Did they mix it up when it came to working individually and in small groups or whole-class instruction? Did they allow choice in student learning and ask for input as far as needs and interests?

4. Model

How you talk in your lessons, when both focusing on instruction and relating with your students, will increase their language ability. Speak slowly and clearly so that the ESL student will understand. Choose words that are easier for them to grasp. Use visuals whenever possible so that students can also read the directions at the same time. Teaching with two or more modalities heightens understanding and learning. Offer repetition and review until your students have mastery. Always be positive toward them, and continue to praise them for speaking to encourage more speaking. Develop a strong, open and caring relationship toward each of your students, and in turn they will strive to be the best students possible. I guarantee you will have a more successful classroom of ESL students.

5. Allow Time

Learning a language is developmental. There are endless factors in acquiring a language, so it is important that you put this in perspective. When you talk to a student, allow wait time for the response. When they struggle with a certain skill or concept, help them over this hurdle. Everyone learns in different ways, and once you embrace this idea, you and your students will be more apt to enjoy the learning process together.

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Five Tips for Getting the ESL Student Talking | Edutopia

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I wanted to talk to someone. But who? It's moments like this, when you need someone the most, that your world seems smallest. -- Rachel Cohn, Dash & Lily's Book of Dares Let's face it -- everyone has something to say some time or another. ESL learners are no different.

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ESL conversation techniques and activities are helpful because talking about something in a different language is more complex and challenging than filling out a worksheet or reading a text and answering questions. You can't just ask your students to "talk to your partner about___". The clearer and more specific a task you can give them, the better the results.

Some good tasks include surveys and interviews, information gaps (each partner has information the other lacks and must request), and sentence starters ("My favorite sport is _____ because...")

All of these can be made easier for beginners by providing the form of the question and the basic structure of the answer, or more challenging for intermediates by making them think up Qs and As.

Most students need constant practice with the 3rd person singular and the auxiliary "do", so it's a much harder exercise to be told "ask your partner how many uncles and aunts she has" (& then convert back: "report to the class-or your group-how many she has") than "Ask: 'How many uncles and aunts do you have?'"

The more advanced your students, the greater variety of tasks they can handle.

Beginning students, for example, can do very simple role plays of everyday activities after practicing a simple dialog on the same subject. Advanced students don't need the dialog, and can take on more complicated situations (see below for some ideas.) Advanced students can also discuss their opinions and preferences much more freely, problem solve, etc.

For extensive lists of ESL conversation topics with suggested questions (mostly Intermediate up) visit iteslj.org, ESL Discussions, or KeepEmTalking (which also has links to related readings. audio, and video including TED talks.) TEFL.net has a set of excellent ESL conversation lesson plans with suggested questions aimed at pre-Intermediate students.

Some ideas for Role Plays:

·Planning a family vacation (with each student in a group taking the role of a different family member-- let your 'contrary' students be the teenagers!)

·Family (or business department) budgeting

·Complaint/returns department

·Resolving problems with a landlord

·Doctor visit

·Job interview

·Receptionist/co-worker: taking & leaving phone messages

Other Good ESL Conversation Starters:

· Corners: Decide on four discussion topics (or points of view on a topic) related to your current lesson or teaching point. Label or designate one corner of the room for students who choose that topic to congregate. This lets each student choose the topic or angle on a subject that interests them most. Students in each corner discuss their topics, then (for an intermediate or advanced class) may choose a representative to present their insights or conclusions to the class.

(If you try this for beginners you might skip the 'reporting back stage.' Beginning topics can also be quite simple: pets, brothers and sisters, favorite foods, etc., and discussions can be quite brief, with possible forms or examples on the board: "I have (a)/ _______." "I have a brother and two sisters." "I like ice cream, but I don't like bananas," "Do you like _______?," etc.)

· Picture activities: finding things in pictures from a list on the board, or describing similar pictures to a partner to discover a certain number of details that are different, or just discussing the pictures. (What's happening here? What do you think they will do next? Why is the man so excited?)

· Line up (partner exchange) for short Q & As: Each student in one line has a question. The student opposite him/her in a second line answers that question (either his personal answer or according to an assigned role), then rotates one student to the left and answers the next student's question. This is similar but shorter (and less open-ended) than a Mingle, below.

· Mingles: Give each student a subject on which to write a question (to get to know each other better; possibly based on that day's lesson or teaching point, or open-ended if the students are able to talk freely and there is plenty of time.) Students find partners, ask and answer each other's questions, and then exchange questions and find a new partner to ask the new question-- continuing as long as most students are interested or class time lasts. This technique is from ESL flow , which gives lots of ways to use it (as well as a large number of other speaking activities according to language level, with related grammar lessons.)

ESL Lesson Plans for Teachers> ESL Conversation Techniques.

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ESL Conversation Techniques-- Get Your Students Talking

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ESL conversation techniques and activities are helpful because talking about something in a different language is more complex and challenging than filling out a worksheet or reading a text and answering questions. You can't just ask your students to "talk to your partner about___".

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by Claudia Pesce 140,626 views

But becoming simply literate is not enough. For academic and professional success, you need to learn how to read well. ESL students, in particular, need to develop the reading skills that will enable them to not only comprehend texts in English, but also obtain what they need to deliver a response, whether this is a written/oral reply or an action they must take. These are the essential reading strategies that you should be teaching your students - at any level.

7 Reading Strategies Your ESL Students Must Know

1. Previewing

Previewing is absolutely essential for students to get a sense of what the text is about. Elements that are usually helpful for previewing are newspaper headlines or titles; images or photos; and signal words or format. For example, if the article has words like first, second, third, etc... at the beginning of each paragraph or is a numbered list, students will get the sense that the text lists steps or is a roundup article.

Reading Exercise: Choose a newspaper article with a great headline. Before reading the article, ask students what they think the article will be about, based on the headline.

2. Contextualizing

It is always helpful for students to learn to place the text within a context. Is the news article centered on something that happens everywhere in the world, or just in one specific location? Is this something that affects you, the reader, or other people in the world? Does the main character in the story go through something you can relate to, or something you have no experience in? These are great questions for students to think about as they read.

Reading Exercise: Before reading this text about Education in Britain, discuss the educational system in the country your students are currently in: How many years of grade school are there? How many years of high school? Students read about what it's like to go to school in Britain and compare it to their country.

3. Visualizing

Some students, especially those who are visual learners, need to "see" the information. Can you see the main character in your mind's eye based on the description? Can you picture the contaminated river as described in the news article? Visualizing also involves organizing the information in a visual way, usually through the use of a mind map or other graphic organizer.

Reading Exercise: Have students read a text like By the Water. After the reading, ask students to record the images that come to mind as they read: I can picture the sun shining on the water and the birds flying above ...

4. Asking and Answering Questions

What questions come to mind when you preview an article? How will the main character solve this problem? Students need to come up with questions they would like answered in the text and pay attention to how they are answered.

Reading Exercise: Read a news article or a piece like this one about the Boston Marathon. After reading the title, ask students to come up with three questions they expect the article will answer and then read to see if they find the answers.

5. Summarizing

After the reading, students should be able to summarize what they've read. This may be a short oral summary or a full paragraph. Summarizing includes a very important skill: getting the gist. What was the main point in the story? Summarizing is not retelling everything that happened as it happened, and students need to not only tell the difference, but also learn to give back information in a clear concise manner.

Reading Exercise: Ask the class to read the story of Helen of Troy. Then, ask them to summarize in just one sentence or two what caused the Troyan War.

6. Skimming

Skimming and scanning are usually considered speed-reading skills because they are not used for intensive reading. They are essential skills nonetheless, and students need to know that sometimes intensive reading is not necessary.

Skimming a text involves running your eyes over it quickly to get the main idea. It also allows you to identify which parts of a long text you might want to read more closely. This skill is particularly useful, for example, for Business English students who have to read long reports that are several pages long. By skimming the report, they can still follow the gist and stop when they find something of particular interest to them.

Reading Exercise: Hand out different magazines or newspapers in English, and tell the class they have five minutes to skim one. After they're done skimming, ask them what stories they remember reading.

7. Scanning

Scanning, on the other hand, allows you to quickly search a text for a particular piece of information. Scanning is ideal when students need to find a phone number in a directory, the date of a historical event or the time their train is leaving.

Reading Exercise: Show the class this PowerPoint slide about Jobs. Divide the class into groups and give each group 2-3 questions to answer. You can use the same questions that appear on the right but in a different order. Each group must scan the text to find the information they need to answer the questions.

Sometimes teaching ESL is more than "teaching English".

We must also teach skills and strategies that will help our students succeed in whatever they choose to do.

What other reading skills do you think are useful for ESL students? Share your thoughts below!

P.S. If you enjoyed this article, please help spread it by clicking one of those sharing buttons below. And if you are interested in more, you should follow our Facebook page where we share more about creative, non-boring ways to teach English.

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7 Essential Reading Strategies Your ESL Students Must Know (and YOU Must Teach)

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by Claudia Pesce 140,626 views But becoming simply literate is not enough. For academic and professional success, you need to learn how to read well. ESL students, in particular, need to develop the reading skills that will enable them to not only comprehend texts in English, but also obtain what they need to deliver a response, whether this is a written/oral reply or an action they must take.

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"Sometimes I don't like the books that I'm reading."

- Charlie Kaufman

Creating reading lessons for your class doesn't always have to be a chore like washing dishes. Reading lessons don't have to be a bore for your students either. Reading can be fun for all ages. It can also create opportunities for more interaction in class.

This article will outline five fun reading activities for ESL students that you can use in most classroom situations. Each activity is quick and easy to create with minimal preparation. Now, let's examine the reading activities.

1. TV Guide Reading Activity

This activity is designed to develop students' scanning skills. Search the internet for a chart or table outlining a TV schedule. Alternatively, this could be a team roster in sports, a sheet with various statistics, or any other genre that has a long list of information organized in a chart-type format. You could also find an infographic online to use instead.

Hand out the TV guide or whichever chart you are using to the class. Ask questions relating to the guide, such as what show is playing at a certain time.

Next, get students to ask each other similar questions in pairs or in small groups. They should scan the chart and find the details as quick as they can.

2. Timed Reading Activity

Find an article online that is appropriate for your students' levels. The article should be something that they are interested in. Topics relating to sports, movies or current events are usually great for most people's preferences. Make sure that the article is divided into many paragraphs and is long enough for the activity.

Give every student in the class a copy of the article. Assign a time limit of approximately 2 minutes to read one paragraph.

Next, after reading a paragraph the students discuss what they read with their partner. They can try to recall main ideas and some detailed information.

Finally, lead feedback and pick a few students to summarize the paragraph for the whole class. Repeat this process for the remainder of the article, paragraph by paragraph.

3. Jigsaw Reading Activity

Jigsaw reading activities for ESL students are generally easy to create. Search the internet for a suitable article for your students' level. Again, it should be long enough so that you have enough material to use. It could be a news article or a short blog article based on a topic that they like.

Divide the article into approximately four sections of equal length. You could split it into more sections depending on the size of the class. Four sections are best if you split the class into four small groups of approximately four students per group.

Next, hand out one section of the article to each group. Each group reads the section silently to themselves for a few minutes.

After they have read their sections, have one member from each group form new groups with members from each of the other groups. The new groups should have a student from every old group so that they can discuss the entire article together.

Finally, in their new groups, each student should summarize their section for their group. Students can ask questions, explain vocabulary and do other critical thinking tasks.

4. Q & A Reading Activity

Questions and answer activities are ideal for most reading classes. These activities can be used with any text or supplementary reading articles that you have access to.

Divide the class into teams. You could split the class in half or into smaller groups of four.

Next, assign one section of the text for each team. Each team should then create questions based on their section of text. It could be a mixture of scanning and skimming questions. They could also be vocabulary-based questions or discussion questions.

After the students have created the questions, each group should ask the other groups their questions. Go in the order of the text, starting with the first group's questions and ending with the last group's questions.

You could make it even more competitive by giving the teams points for correct answers.

5. Sentence Building Reading Activity

This activity takes more preparation than the others. You can take text from any article that you find online which is appropriate for your class's level. Paste the text into a document and set the font size to something larger than 15-point font.

The next step is a bit more time-consuming. In the document that you have created, you need to cut out all of the sentences from the article. Of course, you could just use a portion of the article since this would take time. This procedure could be something that the students do in class themselves if you have enough scissors.

Next, separate the strips of sentences in different random piles. Then, cut out the individual words and use a paperclip to keep them together. Make sure not to mix up the words with the other sentences or the activity won't work.

In class, give the students the paperclips of attached the words. The students should then try to arrange the words into complete sentences. They can do this in pairs or groups.

After they have successfully completed one sentence, they could re-fasten the words to the paperclip and pass it to another group to try.

Other Reading Activities for ESL Students

If you would like more ideas about improving your students reading skills, visit ESL Expat for more ESL reading activities.

Did you find any of these reading activities for ESL students useful for your language classroom?

Please leave a comment below.

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5 Fun Reading Activities for ESL Students - ESL Expat - Medium

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"Sometimes I don't like the books that I'm reading." - Charlie Kaufman Creating reading lessons for your class doesn't always have to be a chore like washing dishes. Reading lessons don't have to be a bore for your students either. Reading can be fun for all ages.

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Easy Ways To Make Reading More Interactive 

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Easy Ways To Make Reading More Interactive 

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How do you deal with reading lessons in your ESL classroom? Do you have your students read silently in class? Do you assign the reading for homework? Many of the ESL-Library lessons have a reading component to them. How can teachers make reading lessons more interactive, communicative, and fun? I wanted to share three methods that have always worked well for me.

1) SUMMARIZE

This method incorporates many skills: reading, listening, speaking, vocabulary, and writing. Students must thoroughly analyze and understand a section of the reading, and only by working together can they understand the entire reading.
Instructions:

First, assign a paragraph of the reading to each student. If you have a lot of students, assign the paragraph to a pair of students instead.

Explain that each student (or pair) will be responsible for relating the information from their paragraph in their own words.

Have students silently read through their paragraphs.

If you want, get them to write out their summaries, but I usually prefer to have them give an oral, and more natural, summary.

To help them and their classmates understand the reading well, have each student (or pair) choose 3-5 vocabulary words that they are unfamiliar with.

Have each student (or pair) define their vocabulary words (via a dictionary: English-to-English is best) and write out each definition in their own words.

Get each student to write down an example sentence for each word; this will ensure that they've truly understood the word.

Once all the students are finished their reading and vocabulary, have each student (or pair) present their vocabulary and their summaries (in the order of the original reading).

Then, in pairs or as a class, answer the comprehension questions and correct them before you let the students see the entire reading.

Many of the ESL-Library lessons are formatted in short paragraphs that are ideal for using this method (for example, in Famous People, Famous Places, Famous Things, Holidays, etc.). I usually have students write their words and definitions on the board for their classmates to see and copy down, but I get students to read their example sentences out loud as it usually takes too long to have them write those out, too.

2) CUT UP & REARRANGE

This works best for short readings or dialogues. This method ensures that students think very carefully about the meaning of each sentence.
Instructions:

Divide students into small groups or pairs.

Hand out a cut-up version of the story or dialogue.

Have students try to arrange the sentences in order. It helps to tell them which sentence is first.

Encourage them to tell each other why they think a particular sentence comes next.

Circle through the groups, pointing out sentences that are not in the correct position. (It helps if you bring the original around with you for easy reference.)

To make it fun, you could have a prize for the team or pair that finishes first.

ESL-Library has a whole section with dialogues that are all ready to cut up! Check out our Traveling in English section.

3) READ OUT LOUD

This technique easily turns a reading exercise into a listening exercise for a bit of variety. Students listen to you, the teacher, read aloud as a class activity.
Instructions:

First, read through the comprehension questions as a class.

Read the story out loud.

Give students a few minutes to answer what questions they can.

Read the story out loud a second time.

Give students a bit more time to answer the questions. Then correct them as a class (and hand out the reading for reference or self-study, if desired).

Alternatively, read the story out loud twice in a row, and have students try to answer questions in pairs before correcting in order to incorporate some speaking. To make it even more communicative, higher-level students can pair up and each read half the story aloud to the other, then try to answer the questions together. If students are reading out loud, you can circulate and correct their pronunciation as needed, or note some common pronunciation errors to go over as a class at the end of the activity.

Share

What are some other ways to make reading lessons interactive that work well for you? It would be great if we could share our preferred methods in the comment section below!

Read on, my friends, read on... Tanya

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3 Ways to Make Reading Lessons More Interactive

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How do you deal with reading lessons in your ESL classroom? Do you have your students read silently in class? Do you assign the reading for homework? Many of the ESL-Library lessons have a reading component to them. How can teachers make reading lessons more interactive, communicative, and fun?

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6 Surefire Ways to Get ESL Kids to Write

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6 Surefire Ways to Get ESL Kids to Write

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by Claudia Pesce 71,681 views

Anyone - whether they are an ESL teacher or student - will tell you the four main skills you need to develop when learning a second language are speaking, listening, reading and...writing. Naturally, learning to speak the second language is often the priority. Listening is essential for speaking, and students easily practice listening skills through movies and songs. Reading is also a skill they may develop easily with the vast amount of material available on the Internet. But writing is usually the skill that is most poorly developed, nowadays only practiced in short emails or abbreviated chat messages.

It is very easy to work on the first three skills in the ESL classroom, but improving writing takes a real conscious effort both on your part and your students'. Need to beat their reluctance to write? Here are some sure-fire ways to do it:

How to Help Your ESL Students Improve Their Writing: 6 Effective Ways

1. Give them a good reason
Say the words " writing assignment ", and you'll most likely hear students groan. Writing is a chore. It's hard work. And you shouldn't deceive them by saying it'll be fun. Writing is a skill that must be honed through practice. But why would they put in the hard work? What's their motivation?

It's easy to find it in Business English students. Most need to write business emails and texts. But what about teens and young learners? In these cases, you'll need to convey the importance of good writing skills. It is essential for them to know how to communicate, not only in speaking, but in writing. And you must make it clear that sending a text message in English does not constitute good writing. Writing is a skill that will prove to be tremendously helpful in the future and they must understand that.

2. Schedule regular writing assignments
Teachers often also prioritize the other skills above writing. It is harder to teach and more time-consuming to correct. Make sure you schedule regular writing assignments every month - you may choose to make it once a week, once a month, or at the end of a unit. Business English students may have more frequent, but shorter assignments. But make sure they are assigned in regular intervals. Students will soon learn to expect them and will be less reluctant to complete them.

3. Guide them
Needless to say, in most ESL classrooms, simply saying, " Write a story of 200 words " won't suffice. The extent of your guidance should be proportional to your students' level. The lower the level, the greater the guidance. As they advance in their English studies they will need less and less guidance, till one day they become more independent writers.

For beginners, it's a good idea to start with short writing prompts or sentences they have to complete. Then, you make the prompt more of a general idea about what they should write, rather than just a sentence: " What would you do if you won the lottery". Here you'd expect them to write several sentences using the second conditional. Finally, they will be ready for more creative, free writing.

At first, you'll need to provide opening and closing expressions for letters. You'll need to instruct them on structuring their texts into paragraphs: introduction, supporting paragraphs and closing. You may even include some phrases they have to use somewhere in their text.

Hand out templates, bibliography, writing style guides and anything they can use to help them in their writing. Soon enough, they won't need the templates anymore.

4. Use peer correction
In some levels - and particularly in Business English students - you may choose to have students correct each other's writing assignments. This way, you won't have piles of papers to correct, but they will also learn from each other's mistakes. Go around the classroom, supervise and answer questions.

5. Give them the option to revise their work
Did someone misinterpret the task? Did a student make too many mistakes? Ask them to revise their work and give them the chance to submit it again. Make sure they understand this is not punishment for turning in poor quality work, but rather a chance to learn from mistakes and make improvements on their writing.

6. Make it a positive experience
Try to offer two pieces of praise for every negative point: " Maria, you used great vocabulary and your punctuation is excellent. Now you need to work on using the right verb tenses. " By mentioning the things they did right, no matter how small they may seem, you'll be letting them know they're on the right path. Pure criticism and a paper full of red marks will not encourage them to continue practicing!

Show them how useful learning to write in English can be. For speaking they have to think quickly, but in writing they have more time to gather their thoughts and organize ideas. Practicing writing can also do wonders for their speaking!

Don't forget that at BusyTeacher.org we have all of the resources you need to help your students improve their writing skills.

Fresh out of ideas for writing prompts? Try our very own Creative Writing Prompts online or worksheets you can print for your class, or purchase the whole set of 300 creative writing prompts plus 100 graphic prompts (it's only $9.99!). How about note taking strategies? We've got those, too, plus ways to organize writing content. With over 300 writing worksheets and activities all ready for you to download, you have no excuses to not teach writing!

P.S. If you enjoyed this article, please help spread it by clicking one of those sharing buttons below. And if you are interested in more, you should follow our Facebook page where we share more about creative, non-boring ways to teach English.

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6 Sure-fire Ways to Help Your ESL Students Improve Their Writing

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by Claudia Pesce 71,681 views Anyone - whether they are an ESL teacher or student - will tell you the four main skills you need to develop when learning a second language are speaking, listening, reading and...writing. Naturally, learning to speak the second language is often the priority.

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Improving Writing Skills: ELLs and the Joy of Writing 

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Improving Writing Skills: ELLs and the Joy of Writing 

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"The meaning of even a single word is rather more complex than one might imagine."

- Editors of the American Heritage Dictionary, 1980, p. viii

"Teacher, do we need our pencils today?" my Puerto Rican elementary students would urgently ask when I came to their classroom to escort them to my English as a Second Language classroom. I was a student teacher in a Massachusetts elementary school, and it took me awhile to figure out the correlation between the pencil and hallway behavior. If I replied, "Yes, you should bring a pencil," the walk to my classroom took 15 minutes and involved a lot of disruptions, student squabbles, drifting students and other various misbehaviors. As a student teacher, I was very focused on keeping order and creating a challenging learning environment. If I replied, "No, you don't need a pencil today," the walk to my classroom took about five minutes, even with a stop at the drinking fountain.

So, what was the correlation? Writing. The students knew that if they had to bring a pencil they would have to do writing in the class, and they dreaded it. If they didn't need a pencil, we would be working on projects or doing more verbal work, and they liked that. What they weren't expecting was that half-way through my student teaching, I bought 10 boxes of pencils and kept them in my classroom, so they never had to bring a pencil to class - I had plenty to go around. This improved the hallway behavior, but still left me with the question of how to improve ESL student writing when they were frustrated by the practice and went to great lengths to avoid it.

I have been teaching ESL for many years and there is no perfect solution to this problem; however, I do believe I have added quite a few writing activities to my bag of tricks and improved my ability to differentiate writing tasks based on student ability. As I improved my ability to ensure that each student would be successful in the writing activity, their confidence increased, and they were less likely to engage in disruptive behavior. You know what I'm talking about - the long, dramatic search for a pencilâ€¦ and then paperâ€¦ or the meandering walk about the room to get yesterday's writing draft, or the ever popular, "15 minute pencil sharpening" session. I hope some of the writing activities I share with you will help you to reduce anxiety in your ESL students and increase their language and writing skills.

There is a very important correlation between writing and language development. As students develop language skills, they often develop listening skills first (lots of input they can understand), then speaking (they begin to formulate their ideas in the second language), then reading (they can understand the sound/symbol correspondence of the new language and make sense of the words) and finally writing (they have enough language to express their own ideas in writing). This is not true for 100% of language learners, but it is true for the majority of them. Why is writing often the last skill to emerge? It almost seems that reading would be more difficult because the student needs to sound out words and understand the author's message. It would seem writing might be easier because students are sharing their own ideas already in their heads and simply putting them on paper. However, writing requires a lot more processing of language in order to produce a message.

First the student must have an idea, then think of the appropriate way to say it, then start to write it and spell it correctly, and then create another sentence to continue to communicate the idea. If we add the students' worry that they are making huge, embarrassing errors or that their ideas aren't very good in the first place, then we begin to understand the complexity involved in writing in a second language. In fact, the way we communicate, or the way students put their ideas on paper, is largely influenced by their culture. In some of my classes, my Asian students were very confused when I told them to revise their writing because this was a "first draft." In their experience they had always written an item once and submitted it as "the final," and then the teacher would correct it. The idea that they had to write it over again didn't make sense to them. Students from other cultures may have developed a storytelling style that involves laying out a lot of background information and detail and takes quite a while to get to the point. In most western writing, we expect a topic sentence or a lead paragraph that will tell us what the point is, and then everything written after that leads to a direct conclusion. Many of my students had great difficulty connecting their ideas this way.

With that said, teachers have a big task in improving ESL student writing skills, but the payoff for instructional dedication can be great. A researcher on adolescent literacy at the University of Minnesota, David O'Brien, did a study on improving the reading skills of adolescent students. All of the students were involved in a six week study and during that time they were responsible for creating brochures and other types of communication on computers. They had criteria to input a certain amount of text and graphics to create a final project. This required lots of thought and revisions to achieve the final result. At the end of the six weeks the students took a reading test and the majority of them had improved their reading skills significantly. This was a very interesting result, considering that the teachers had not focused on teaching reading skills. The conclusion was that students used meta-cognition to process language and work with it in a more meaningful way, so that consequently their reading skills improved even though they were mostly working on writing.

Additional positive academic results have been seen in the "90 90 90 Schools." These are schools that researchers have identified as 90% poverty, 90% students of color and 90% achieving standards. This is a most remarkable combination in the educational world. The researchers examined these schools and found one common denominator among them - they all focused on developing writing skills. Each school had an agreed upon writing curriculum and methodology that was used at all grade levels, and student writing was prominently displayed throughout the building and in classrooms. Students used writing in all content areas to demonstrate academic concepts learned. In the end, 90% of the students in these schools were able to pass state grade-level tests based on the academic standards.

Now that I have hopefully convinced you that all your hard work will pay off, I would like to introduce some effective writing activities. I would like to acknowledge that there are many types of effective writing instruction used in classrooms today, including process writing, graphic organizers as writing planning tools, vocabulary stretchers, etcâ€¦ and all of those are beneficial to ELL students. For the purpose of this article, I will focus on a few writing activities that I think are particularly useful when working with students with a wide-range of English language skills.

How to differentiate writing activities:

With some pre-planning, a teacher can create a writing assignment that will allow every student to be successful. For example, the teacher may give a writing assignment that has A, B and C levels (or they can be number or color-coded).

ELL students at Level A copy a sentence or short passage exactly as it is written. This helps beginning-level students who are not very familiar with the language, but may be able to interpret some of the information as they copy it.

Level B students receive a paragraph or two that has blank spaces in the text. The students write the word or phrase that completes the sentence. This allows the student to write an amount that is not overwhelming and helps them comprehend the information.

Level C students write on their own, but perhaps they receive paragraph prompts or are allowed to look in a book, but must put the idea in their own words. After some practice with this system and getting to know your students' English language skills, you will be able to create a system that works best for your class.

Language Experience Approach

The Language Experience Approach draws on instructional techniques used with younger children who have not yet developed literacy skills. In this approach, the teacher presents information to the students, or they have an "experience" of some sort - for example, a field trip, or acting out a scene in a book. Then the students tell the teacher what to write on the board to explain the experience. This may be useful as an activity for a volunteer or teacher's aide to use with a small group of ESL students during literacy time. Here are the steps.

1. Experience something - for example, the students have listened to the story, "The Little Red Hen" and then acted it out.

2. The teacher stands by the board or a large sheet of paper and says to the students, "Tell me the story of the Little Red Hen."

3. As each student tells a part of the story, the teacher writes it down on the board, just as it was stated. For example, a student might say, "The Little Red Hen work so hard and nobody want help her." This continues until each student has spoken or the story is finished.

4. Then the teacher tells the students, "Let's read the story together and listen to see if the story makes sense and if there is anything we want to change."

5. After reading the story, the teacher asks students if they want to change anything. For example, one student may raise her hand and say, "I think it should say, "worked" not "work." The teacher may ask other students if they agree or disagree.

6. If the suggested change is correct, the teacher offers praise and moves on to the next suggestion. If the suggested change is not correct, the teacher should help the student analyze the suggested change. For example, if the student says, "I think it should say, â€˜The Little Red Hen she worked so hardâ€¦." The teacher would ask if others agree and see if there is discussion, then the teacher could point out that the Little Red Hen is the pronoun or "name," so in English we don't need to put it in twice. We can say "She worked so hard." Or "The Little Red Hen worked so hard."

7. When students have analyzed and corrected the whole text, the teacher may either circle a few more spots where students missed corrections and they can be challenged to figure out what the change should be, or the students can be instructed to copy the text with the corrections included.

8. As a final activity, students are instructed to take the story home and read it to three people and bring it back with signatures.

After this activity, usually even beginning-level ELL students are able to read the story to others because it was their experience, it is in their own words, and they have worked with the text in a meaningful way.

Sentence Auction

This activity helps students analyze common writing errors through a personalized activity since they are trying to buy their own sentences. Once a week or once a month, a teacher can hold a "Sentence Auction." The teacher takes sentence examples from student writing - some of which have errors and some that don't, and writes them on a handout or overhead projector. The identity of the student who wrote each sentence is not revealed. To begin the sentence auction, each student is given an "account" of perhaps $300. The students are told to "bid" on the good sentences. The winner is the student with the highest number of "good" sentences.

1. The teacher takes on the persona of an "Auctioneer" and opens the bidding at $10.

2. The teacher reads out the sentence confidently exactly as it is written. "Him want to go to school very bad." Who will give me $10?"

3. The students take turns bidding until the teacher decides who has "won" the bid.

4. Some sentences will not sell because students will know they are "bad." Just leave those sentences and move to the next one.

5. After all the sentences have been sold, the teacher goes through the list and the students say whether the sentence was good or bad. If they agree that it was a bad sentence, then the teacher asks them to explain how they can make it a "good" sentence.

6. Finally the students can count how many "good" sentences they have (since they may have bought some bad ones) and a winner is declared.

7. The teacher may want to give a little prize or certificate to the student. In a variation of this activity students can work in pairs or groups to buy the sentences.

Error correction

I have never "corrected" my students' writing mistakes, at least not in the traditional way. I have always told my students, "If I correct your English, I improve my English; if you correct your English, you improve yours." I handled corrections in one of two ways: either I identified what errors I would be looking for in the writing submission or I told them I would only circle five errors in the whole paper. If I pre-set the errors I would look for, for example correct use of past tense, I would only correct past tense errors, even if I saw other glaring errors in the paper. Sometimes this was hard to do, but I wanted to maintain the students' focus on the writing improvement we were working on. If I set a number of errors I would circle, for example, five, then I carefully chose those five and ignored the rest. When I returned the papers, the students were responsible for correcting their own mistakes. If they weren't sure how to do it, they could check with a classmate, and if no one knew, then I would assist. Invariably the students would ask, "Are these the only errors in the paper?" and I would tell them no. They might be disappointed, but they came to understand the value of correcting their own errors when they submitted a piece of writing.

Quick Write

One of the challenges for ELL students when they approach writing is their anxiety about writing their ideas correctly and writing a lot of information in English. This may feel overwhelming when a student is assigned an essay. In order to get students comfortable with the idea of just putting ideas on paper and not worrying about mistakes, we do regular "quick writes." For "quick writes" I give the students a topic and then tell them to write as much as they can for five minutes. They need to keep their pencils on the paper and even if they can't think of anything to write or they are worried about how to spell things, they are supposed to keep writing. At the end of five minutes, the students count how many words they were able to write and they keep track in a log. The objective is that they will see progress in the amount of writing they are able to do in five minutes' time and hopefully apply this fluency to their essay writing.

Cinquain poems

Cinquain poems offer great flexibility in working with ELL students of a variety of language levels. The basic Cinquain formula is as follows, but teachers can modify it as needed according to the student language level.

One noun
Two adjectives
Three gerunds (words + ing)
A short sentence.
A one-word summary
An example of a Cinquain a student might write:
Home
Warm, happy
Loving, welcoming, helping
People you love.
Family

There really is no wrong way to do a Cinquain, students can put key vocabulary words together any way they like to create the message they desire. Teachers may want to use Cinquains to reinforce new content vocabulary and concepts as well.

With these writing activities to try in your classroom, the only thing left is to buy a few boxes of pencils, hand them out to your ELL students and help them discover the possibility of joy in writing. Teachers who use a variety of activities and strategies to help ELL students become comfortable with expressing their ideas in a new language and finding success with small writing tasks, will give their students' confidence for a lifetime of self-expression. I offer this Cinquain poem to sum it up.

Writing
Fun, creative
Thinking, sharing, revising
Lots of ideas.
Proud
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Improving Writing Skills: ELLs and the Joy of Writing

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"The meaning of even a single word is rather more complex than one might imagine." - Editors of the American Heritage Dictionary, 1980, p. viii "Teacher, do we need our pencils today?" my Puerto Rican elementary students would urgently ask when I came to their classroom to escort them to my English as a Second Language classroom.

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Most assignments we assign in a writing class are created for the sole reader-the teacher. However, there is no reason students should write only for their teacher. Sharing their ideas with a broader audience can increase student motivation, encourage them to further develop their writing skills, help them connect and interact with many people from all over the world, and in some cases, even assist someone. In this post, I'd like to share a few examples of projects that you can implement in your course to help your students write for an audience beyond the classroom.

Review of a Product
Online product reviews are very common. Unbiased and well-written reviews can be very helpful to users, byers, and customers. The purpose of product reviews is simple: to help people decide if the product is effective and worth purchasing. As a teacher, you can create a course assignment in which students would write an online review of a product they are familiar with. To do that, students would have to examine the product carefully, perhaps even take notes on its positive and negative attributes, then think of why they initially bought the product and what they expected to get out of it. They could also consider answering these questions: Did this product satisfy your expectations? Why or why not? Would you recommend that others buy the same product?
To prepare students to write their review, you would develop several classroom activities and tasks helping them become familiar with genre characteristics of product reviews, and organizational and stylistic features. Students would also learn how to express their informed opinion about the selected product and how to contextualize the review within their experience.

Creating a Wikipedia Entry
Creating a Wikipedia entry would be an excellent assignment for an advanced-level writing course in which students are working on academic research skills. In addition to rhetorical, organizational, and research skills, which you would need to cover in class to help students compose their article, you can also use the following (or other available online) materials in order to guide the students through the process:

I also suggest that you encourage students to write on a topic they are familiar with or feel passionate about. This project can also be done as a group assignment.

Blog on English Learning (or Any Other Topic)
Blogs are a very popular writing genre, and hundreds of blogs are being written every day for various reasons, including establishing yourself as a professional; attracting potential customers and clients; exchanging ideas, thoughts, materials, and experiences; and meeting new people. In a writing course, a blog assignment can be a great opportunity for students to practice their writing skills, express themselves in a written form, share their experiences with others, and of course, reach to the readers beyond the classroom.

This assignment can be developed in many different ways, but the main point is blog regularity. In other words, students have to produce a series of entries in order to complete this project. Therefore, you should encourage them to write on something that they deal with on a daily basis. For example, they can write a blog on their English language learning experiences, or intercultural experiences (if applicable), or provide tips to other language learners or students studying abroad, or simply share their thoughts about a certain concept or problem. Options are numerous! You can also ask all students in the class to respond to each other's blogs to establish a sense of interaction and further motivate the writers.

Writing an Analysis of a YouTube Video
You can also ask students to write a constructive and detailed analysis of a YouTube video and post it as a comment. Students would learn how to objectively evaluate a video by considering its positive and negative features. They would also learn about various rhetorical skills, including summarizing, forming, and supporting an argument; providing counterclaims and supporting them with examples; analyzing and evaluating; and proposing.

Responding to a Comment on a Video/Article
Instead of writing a detailed evaluation of a video, students can respond to a comment that other people provided on a video, article, or blog entry. Because students' responses would probably be less detailed than full-fledged analyses, you can require several responses on various pieces (all of the same genre or various genres). Students would learn such rhetorical skills as arguing, providing counterclaims and supporting them with evidence, and expressing their opinion.

Sharing a Recipe on a Cooking Website
There are lots of cooking websites out there, where people share their favorite recipes and exchange culinary skills. This could be a great opportunity for students to share with the whole world something that they enjoy cooking or/and eating. From a rhetorical perspective, sharing a recipe is a chance for students to learn how to describe a process in a succinct yet clear manner. You can also encourage students to take pictures to supplement their step-by-step descriptions.

Alternatively, as a class, you can create a class cooking blog, where all students would post their favorite recipes. Finally, students can also create their own cooking blogs if they wish. They can be also thematic, for example, how to cook Chinese food from local ingredients (if you are teaching a class outside of China). Options are numerous! One important thing to remember, though: The descriptions of the recipes have to be students' own, not copied from other websites or other electronic or materials.

School Newsletter
Finally, if your students don't feel comfortable sharing their writing with the entire world, there are certainly other options of a smaller scale, for example, a school newsletter. Students could describe their intercultural or language-learning experiences, for example, or share thoughts about current events or report on participating in events and activities sponsored by the local community.

What Are Your Ideas?
Please feel free to share your ideas about projects teachers can implement in their writing classes to help students write for an audience beyond the classroom.

About Elena Shvidko

Elena Shvidko is an assistant professor at Utah State University. She received her doctorate in second language studies from Purdue University and her master's degree in TESOL from Brigham Young University. Her work appears in TESOL Journal, System, Journal on Response to Writing, TESOL interest section newsletters, and TESOL's New Ways series. Her research interests include second language writing, multimodal interaction, interpersonal aspects of language teaching, and teacher professional development.

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7 Projects to Help Students Write for Audience Beyond the Classroom | TESOL Blog

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Most assignments we assign in a writing class are created for the sole reader-the teacher. However, there is no reason students should write only for their teacher. Sharing their ideas with a broader audience can increase student motivation, encourage them to further develop their writing skills, help them connect and interact with many people from all over the world, and in some cases, even assist someone.

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Collaborative writing! Like telephone, but writing! Super cool!

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I have used this activity with children and adults from pre-intermediate level and up. At the end of this activity, students usually get a funny story written by at least seven students or pairs of students from their class.
Preparation

Make copies of the worksheet (or you could use a blank piece of paper, lined if possible).

Prepare questions for the story (see procedure below).

Procedure

Tell the students that they are going to write a story together. They can write in pairs or individually.

Give out the worksheet or blank paper. Make sure the students write their names at the top.

Tell the students what their story is going to be about and ask them a question. They have to write their answer on the worksheet. The questions should be who/what/when/where/how questions.

I usually use this activity when I cover the topic of aliens with a class, but you can use this activity for most topics. I tell the students that they have seen an alien and they are going to write a story about what happened. Then I read out or write on the board the first question:

When did you see the alien and where were you?

After the students have completed the answer for the first question they fold the worksheet over so that their answer cannot be seen and then they pass it to the student/s on their right. Then you ask the second question and the procedure is repeated with the remaining questions. Here are the rest of the questions I usually ask:

Who were you with?

What were you doing?

What did the alien look like?

What did you do when you saw the alien?

What happened in the end?

The students shouldn't read what the previous student/s have written. This makes the end result even more amusing.

When the students have completed all the questions tell them to open out the worksheet and pass it to the person whose name is written on top.

Tell the students to read their stories. Usually they get a few laughs!

Ask a few students to read their stories to the class.

Alternatives
This activity can be used for many other topics. Here are another few examples:
Meeting someone famous

1. What famous person did you meet?

2. Where did you meet them and who were you with?

3. What was the famous person wearing and how did he/she look (e.g. glamorous/ taller than I thought/ not too beautiful)?

4. What was he/she like? (e.g. friendly/ funny/ annoyed)

5. What did you do when you saw the famous person?

6. What happened next? (e.g. He/she signed an autograph/ walked away)

1. Where and when did you go?

2. Who did you go with?

3. Describe the place you went to.

4. What did you do there? (e.g. snowboarding, trekking, swimming, climbed a mountain)

5. What sights did you see? (e.g. The Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China)

6. What was the weather like?

7. Did you have a good time?

Error correction
If you would like to correct some of the students writing errors take note of the most common errors and write their sentences (or change the sentence so that the student can't be identified) on the board for the students to correct. Alternatively, you could make a worksheet for the next class to correct these errors.

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I have used this activity with children and adults from pre-intermediate level and up. At the end of this activity, students usually get a funny story written by at least seven students or pairs of students from their class. Preparation Make copies of the worksheet (or you could use a blank piece of paper, lined if possible).

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. Why does Ms. Brewer give students the option of using sentence frames?

2. How can you create a sentence frame that encourages varied responses?

3. What makes sentence frames an effective strategy for English Language Learners?

School Details

Stevenson Elementary School
14220 Ne 8th St
Bellevue WA 98007

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Using Sentence Frames to Jumpstart Writing

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To help her students get writing, fifth grade teacher Stacy Brewer gives her class sentence frames. The sentence frames help students start writing by providing them with a structure to work with. Stacy describes how this strategy is particularly helpful for English Language Learners because it provides them with language and makes writing less intimidating.

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Ideas for finishing the year strong!

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First Person
This is an adapted excerpt from the authors' new book, The ELL Teacher's Toolbox: Hundreds Of Practical Ideas To Support Your Students, which comes out this month.
Teachers and students may feel like they are limping across the finish line at the end of the school year. During the last quarter, when testing is finished and spring is in the air, teachers and students can be tempted to go on cruise control. However, this attitude can result in a loss of valuable learning and practice time, especially for English-language learners who benefit from as many language-learning opportunities as possible.

While the last several weeks definitely present challenges, they also provide opportunities for students to consider what it means to "finish strong," to set goals and plans to make them happen, and to experience success.
'Finishing Strong' Goal-Setting Activity
Here are some ideas for encouraging English-learners to finish strong and boost their learning during the last few months-and final days-of school.

Activities for the Last Two Months of School

We can teach English-learners the concept of a strong finish by using simple sports metaphors to illustrate pushing through fatigue in order to "play" their best until the end of the school year. Runners don't slow down at the end of a race. Basketball teams don't stop shooting the ball in the last quarter. However, understanding this concept is easier than actually applying it. One of the ways we help students do so is through a goal-setting activity.
Visual Displays of Learning
Ask students to think about what they would like to accomplish before the end of the year. This might be a goal related to learning English, academic skills, or behavior. We pass out goal sheets and work with students to complete them. Then, every Friday for the last several weeks of school, we give students time to reflect on their progress and fill out a weekly check-in chart. The chart prompts them to think about what changes they might need to make the next week to stay on track.

As teachers, we also complete the weekly check-in for our own goals. Students love holding us accountable.

The final quarter of the school year is a great time to ask English-learners to reflect on the progress they've made throughout the year. In our experience, asking them to create visual displays of their learning makes this process even more creative and engaging.

Here are a few ways for students to visually represent what they've learned:

● Divide students into groups, assign each one a topic the class has studied, and have students create posters containing the five most important things they learned about a given topic, along with an image to represent each one.

● Have students individually draw a picture or create a storyboard of their best moment in class during the year. They can use it as a springboard for writing about the experience.

● Have students create a map or timeline of the school year on a large sheet of paper, including important learning topics, memorable activities, school events, field trips, and holidays.
Advice for Future Students
● Have students design a visual representation of their reading journey, such as a chart, a timeline, a map, or a bookshelf, which contains the titles of the books they've read independently and as a class.

Activities for the Last Two Days of School
Class and Teacher Evaluations
During the last week of school, we often ask students to reflect on the class, including the routines, topics of study, learning strategies, and projects, and think about what would be helpful information to share with new students the following year. Students can work in small groups to brainstorm ideas and can then choose from a menu of options, such as writing a letter to new students, making a list of advice for how to be successful, or creating a handbook for the class.

Teachers can share these projects with incoming students during the first week of the new school year-and we've found that students really pay attention to what their peers have to say.

Asking English-learners to evaluate the class can offer valuable feedback for teachers while prompting students to consider their own learning strengths and challenges. Over the years, we have given students anonymous surveys about our class and our teaching, which give students a chance to offer honest feedback.

Teachers can consider which areas they'd like feedback on and then work backwards to design the questions. For example, if we want feedback on our relationship-building efforts, we might include the following fill-in-the-blank question on a survey: "My teacher cares about what is happening in my life ___ (a lot, some, a little, not at all). If we are interested in how students felt about the level of challenge in our class, we might ask: "The work in this class was ___(too hard, just right, too easy)."

Some of the questions can also be designed to prompt students' reflection on their learning processes, such as "Which activities helped you learn English the most this year and why?" or "What could you do differently or better to help yourself in this class?"

What Not to Do

It's difficult for students to finish strong when their learning environment doesn't reflect a spirit of strength. Don't take work off the walls early and pack all your books away when you are expecting students to engage. Nothing says "School's out!" like bare walls and bookshelves.

Don't do a countdown of the number of days left in the school year on your board. For some of our students, the summer doesn't represent a carefree time of rest and rejuvenation. They may already be experiencing feelings of anxiety, which can be heightened by the constant reminder of how the school year is quickly coming to an end. We also want students to know that we want to be there with them, even if we have momentary dreams of the vacation to come.
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Helping English-Learners End the School Year Strong

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First Person This is an adapted excerpt from the authors' new book, The ELL Teacher's Toolbox: Hundreds Of Practical Ideas To Support Your Students, which comes out this month. Teachers and students may feel like they are limping across the finish line at the end of the school year.

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Great idea for vocabulary!

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Quick, Draw! with Google may not seem like a great tool for ESL students. But learn how it can be used for innovative learning in this blog post.

At the recent TCEA Convention and Exposition, I learned about an experiment from Google called Quick, Draw!. Quick, Draw!, which launched last November, is a game built with machine learning. Players are prompted to sketch an object on a 20-second clock using the mouse or touchscreen. While the player doodles, the neural network throws out its best guesses of the subject, stopping mid-sketch if it guesses correctly.

How Quick, Draw Works

I gave it a try on my laptop and my iPhone. However, I have to admit, I'm not very good at it. My first time playing on the laptop, I only got two out of six. My iPhone try went a bit better, but that's probably because the objects were fairly simple.

An interesting feature of Quick, Draw! is the insight players can gain about how the network works. After you complete a game, just select one of the drawings and you'll see two sets of results. Let's use my pathetic attempt at a bee as an example (try not to laugh). First, you see what kind of object the computer thought you were going to draw.

Scroll down and you'll see the images that the neural network thinks a bee looks like.

Give it a try and see how many of your doodles can be recognized.

Classroom Uses of Quick, Draw!

So, I asked myself, how can this be used in the classroom? I was quickly reminded of the Quick Draw strategy, where students are asked to respond to a piece of text (literary or expository) through illustrations. Students are encouraged to quickly draw as many simple sketches as possible. The notion is for students to capture as many details as they can during the time period.

I can easily see Quick, Draw! being used with English Language Learners, especially those who are at the low-beginning to mid-beginning levels in writing English as their second language.

Some ideas for classroom application include:

Have students summarize one of their illustrations, describing what they just drew through a voluntary share aloud or a Timed RoundRobin.

Ask students to screen capture one of their images and write a story about it.

Have students listen to the words the computer is guessing to see how many they recognize.

For images that weren't recognized, have students identify and define the images the machine thought they were drawing.

During whole-class sharing, allow students to speak about one of their illustrations that couldn't be guessed and have the entire class share details of how they would have drawn the image.

Allow the students to explain some of their illustrations that might have special connections in their lives.

Let students make predictions or inferences about their illustrations.

In Conclusion

Quick, Draw! by Google is a fun and quick way for students to learn. If you are looking for more ways to incorporate drawing into your classroom, check out Drawing to Learn on the iPad for more lesson ideas.

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Quick, Draw! with Google - TechNotes Blog - TCEA

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Quick, Draw! with Google may not seem like a great tool for ESL students. But learn how it can be used for innovative learning in this blog post. At the recent TCEA Convention and Exposition, I learned about an experiment from Google called Quick, Draw! .

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How to use icebreakers to get your kids (all of them!) immediately engaged!

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By Walton Burns
Every year I used to do the same icebreaker in my ESL class. On the first day, I put students in pairs and wrote a few topics on the board such as name, favorite animal, and what you did over summer. Then I had the students ask each other questions like, "What's your favorite color?" and "What did you do this summer?"

Once they had shared their information, each partner would report one interesting fact back to the class.

This activity satisfied the requirements of an icebreaker. It got students talking, breaking the proverbial wall of ice. They shared some information about themselves. Students liked it well enough, but it was hardly engaging or memorable.

My first effort to get beyond icebreaking

Then one day, in a class that fell during last period, I decided it was time to do something different. It might be fun to have students talk about which teacher they liked most and why.

Suddenly, students were heatedly discussing Mrs. Jenkins' jokes and Mr. Franklin always wanting to talk about the news. Adolescents love to dissect teachers, and they often have strong opinions! This activity was a perfect storm, letting them do both (with a few reminders to keep the dissections respectful and relevant. We stayed away from any "dark side" conversation).

I ended up turning the first 20 minutes of class into a debate, breaking students into teams by favorite teacher. And let me tell you, those self-identified groups stayed bonded for months. The kids had really built rapport with each other - and it probably didn't hurt their favorite teachers either.

I've never recreated the total success of that day, but I did rethink my first-day-of-school activities. Since then, I've strived to go beyond perfunctory icebreakers. In fact, I no longer try to do traditional icebreaking activities. I prefer community-builders.

Personal, meaningful, concrete

So what exactly is a community builder?

A lot of traditional icebreakers ask students about things that really aren't all that interesting to tweens and teens, like their favorite food. And asking what animal they want to be doesn't really tell you anything about them (if they even have a favorite animal).

Some icebreakers ask students to share something interesting or unusual about themselves. But few teenagers want to stand out. I'll spare you my 7th grade nicknames after my classmates heard me tell all about the summer my family spent in England.

On the other hand, a good community builder gives students a topic they can and want to talk about. It focuses on topics that are personal, immediate, and concrete. By personal, I mean the student can relate to the topic. They see how it affects them.

Meaningful topics are ones students actually care about here and now. And concrete questions are clear and specific. If your icebreaker starts with imagine you are an alien hovering over Earth 100 years in the future, it's probably too abstract to get a good conversation going.

Working - and doing the work together

A lot of icebreakers have students working alone to collect and then report information. Even when talking to another student, the task is basically a solitary one. By contrast, a good community builder gets students working together.

In the debate we organized in that last-period class, students were remembering key details, assembling arguments, developing support, and making their presentations - doing it together. They were working as a team and teamwork is a key way to build community.

For adolescents whose social life is often in a constant state of flux, it was also great to show them that they could work together with strangers, or even students they didn't like. When we have a common goal, we all have an impetus to work together.

And, while it may not seem so at first glance, the work my ESL students were doing was real classwork: thinking critically, expressing opinions, hedging or qualifying statements, using transition words, rephrasing and summarizing! They were already practicing English on day one. They did something real in class and that always feels good. And don't we always love tricking students into working and learning.

Meaningful work, meaningful fun

Working together toward a common goal can help students get to know each other better than asking about each other's favorite color.

And I learn a lot more about my students when I watch them work together in pairs, small groups and teams. Kids this age come in every variety. And it quickly comes out who is detail-oriented, who likes to criticize, who is the eternal optimist and so on.

It's also good to start the year off with some fun. Fun in the classroom is important to building bonds. When people are having fun, they are relaxed and more receptive to each other. People do bond with people they laugh with, and when students are having fun they often forget they are working.

But we don't want to do activities that are empty fun. And when students are engaged in a lively topic, it becomes interesting and fun for them, even if it isn't a traditionally "fun" activity like a game.

A few examples of community builders

So if icebreaker is a poor term for what we want to do on the first day of class, what are some good community builders?

► As you might guess, I find that debates are great activities that students can get lost in. Talking about their favorite teacher or favorite subject seems to work well generally. I also like having my ESL students debate the best way to learn English or ways to prepare for a test.

These are topics students know and have something to say about, and can share their prior knowledge. At the end of a debate, students can present the results in a variety of creative ways from a poster to a presentation.

► Another great activity is a textbook scavenger hunt. Prepare a list of questions that will direct students to some of the topics they'll be studying in the class such as, "What does the picture in chapter 2, page 23 show? What do you think that chapter is about?" This helps students engage with the textbook and the class and start to relate to what they'll be learning. Done with a partner, they will learn to appreciate that other students know things they don't. And vice versa.

You can even ask more subjective questions such as, "Find a page that you think will be interesting to study" or "Find something in the book you already know, and explain it to your partner." This gives students a sense of ownership of the subject and the class.

Let students share with the class and the teacher what they are excited to learn and what they think will be difficult. And of course, jot down their answers to help you adapt the class to your students' interests and needs.

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Walton Burns is a teacher and award-winning materials writer from Connecticut who began his career teaching in the Peace Corps in the South Pacific. Since then, he has taught in schools and tutored around the world. As a writer, he has been on the author team of two textbooks and written lesson plans and activities for private language schools. His latest book is 50 Activities for the First Day of School..

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Don't Break the Ice, Build Your Community

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By Walton Burns Every year I used to do the same icebreaker in my ESL class. On the first day, I put students in pairs and wrote a few topics on the board such as name, favorite animal, and what you did over summer.