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Black and White Landscape Two Page Classroom Newsletter (2)

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New Record Feature in Google Slides Tutorial

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Using Pictures to Teach Phonemic Awareness to MLs - A World of Language Learners

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Have you heard that phonemic awareness is a skill that you can teach with the lights off? While this is true (phonemic awareness is about manipulating sounds orally) for many multilingual learners this means that many of these activities can seem like they are full of nonsense words.

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Starting the Year with Multilingual Learners 

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Starting the Year with Multilingual Learners 

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Tips for Starting the School Year with MLs - A World of Language Learners

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All students have a range of emotions when they start a new school year. Often they are excited to meet their teacher and see old friends. They can also be nervous about having a new teacher, learning new classroom procedures, and having to get to know new classmates.

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Dawn is our guest blogger today, and she's sharing her ideas on how to make vocabulary instruction engaging for our students. Read on to see what she suggests, and be sure to comment with which strategy you can't wait to try in your classroom!

Abolitionist, expedition, alliance, excerpt - all of these are words your students are expected to read and understand in Social Studies. Vocabulary instruction has become more and more important as our children are required to read and comprehend more challenging text - both in the classroom and on state assessments.

When you are approaching vocabulary instruction, you must keep in mind that students will struggle with both brick and mortar words. Brick words refer to those terms that are key to content instruction. These can include the terms you find in your book, as well as key terms to understand your content. Examples include: siege, lieutenant, continent, and filibuster. Mortar words refer to those terms that "glue" the brick words together. They are the words and phrases that are required to place the brick words into context. They bind terms together and are essential to reading and speaking comprehension. Mortar terms include: therefore, consequently, implications, and infer.

But how do you incorporate vocabulary instruction into your already busy day? You have to teach with INTENT! How are you spending your precious time? You already know that copying the vocabulary and definitions from the back of the book doesn't work - so what does?

Images are essential for your ELL students to understand both brick (content) and mortar (academic) words. Social Studies vocabulary words can be easily represented by images - both student and teacher generated. Incorporate images into your word walls, and you can use activities such as:

Be a Mind Reader: Have a student give clues about a selected word while class members try to guess the word.

Guess the Covered Word: Write sentences on the board using the Social Studies word wall words and challenge students to guess which word belongs in each sentence.

Find it First: Call two students up to the word wall at a time. Call out the definition to a word; see which student can find it first.

Seek and Find: Challenge students to search newspapers, brochures, letters, business cards, etc. to highlight word wall words.

Incorporate movement as much as possible into your vocabulary instruction. Can your kids act out the vocabulary words? Add some of these strategies to your toolkit:

Memory Movement: Assign each student a vocabulary term. They must create a physical movement to represent the definition. For example, the term "alliance" can be represented by two students shaking hands. Once the student has created their movement, they walk around the room teaching their term to other students. With each new term a student learns, they need to perform the Memory Movement that was created.

Act It Out: Place all of the terms in an envelope. Challenge your students to pull a term out of the envelope and act out the definition.

Play games with your students throughout your unit of instruction. Most of these games take less than five minutes of class time and can constantly reinforce your vocabulary instruction.

Tic Tac Connect: How do your vocabulary terms connect to each other? Allow your students to create connections on a Tic Tac Toe board where they receive one point for each sentence they can make with connecting terms. For example: Entrepreneurs go into production of goods that can sell on the international trade market.

Multiple Match: Allow students the opportunity to match a definition to a term or a picture. Once they have created their first match, mix the cards up again and challenge your students to match them again but in a shorter time frame. They can do it in a minute, but can they make the match in 45 seconds? 30 seconds?

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog post on Vocabulary Instruction. If you would like more ideas on Social Studies instruction, feel free to check out my blog and TPT store.

About Dawn Viñas: I live and breathe Social Studies instruction. I have taught Social Studies to either students or teachers for over 22 years. I started out as a classroom teacher teaching both 7th and 8th grade Social Studies. I have served teachers as both an instructional coach and as a Social Studies Coordinator. In addition to working with teachers in a school district, I have taught a Methods of Teaching Social Studies class at the university level. I now consult and travel the United States, training teachers in Social Studies methodology and sharing great ideas for Social Studies instruction.

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How to Make Vocabulary Instruction Engaging - Minds in Bloom

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Dawn is our guest blogger today, and she's sharing her ideas on how to make vocabulary instruction engaging for our students. Read on to see what she suggests, and be sure to comment with which strategy you can't wait to try in your classroom!

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Your word wall should have terms and color images. You do not need to post the definition for the word wall to be effective. The image should serve as a definition. Post your word wall

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Today I would love to tell you about how I use thinking stems in my classroom!

Thinking stems are simply a way to help your students start their thought when they are participating in class discussions, answering questions, or sharing ideas. Our students have amazing ideas in their heads, but they often do not know where to begin when they attempt to share those ideas with us through oral discussion or written work. Thinking stems provide a model to our students and help them to better organize their thoughts.

I post thinking stems everywhere in my classroom and I refer to them all.day.long. I want my students to reply in speech and in writing with complete sentences, and thinking stems provide a model and support for them to do just that!

Thinking stems are always posted on our classroom anchor charts to promote classroom discussion and participation during our mini lessons and carpet time:

Before we begin a new reading strategy or concept, I like to write thinking stems that we will strategically use throughout the week on cards that I post at our small group table and at the carpet. This provides a visual reminder for my students and helps them "start their thought" when they want to share their thinking at the table.

I LOVE to use name plates to record our thinking stems because they are durable and the perfect size! These beautiful black and white name plates are from Teacher Created Resources.

Here is our Thinking Stems bulletin board!

It is posted at the back reading table. I use push pins to hang up the name plates so that I can easily and quickly change our thinking stems based on what we are currently learning.

Here's a close up of some thinking stems that my first grades are currently using in their discussions and writing when we share our inferences with one another.

My students also use thinking stems as writing "starters" when they respond to text. Here is an example of how this little one used our thinking stem board to record his inference as he responded to text during guided reading.

In the photo below, we were using my Differentiated Inference Reading Passages. Check out this little sweetie's inference response. She is becoming a pro at using the Thinking Stems board!

You can find my Differentiated Inference Packet by clicking HERE or on the photo below:

Have you ever called on a student who you KNOW knows the answer and is capable of sharing something....but the student just STARES at you? When this happens, I refer students to a thinking stem and I have the student orally say the thinking stem aloud. 7/10 times the student is able to come up with SOMETHING to share about the question I asked. Thinking stems really boost a child's confidence when it comes to classroom participation!

(My kids love when I wear my crown during guided reading. When it's on, they can't interrupt the small group table!" 😉

I hope this post gave you some ideas on how to use thinking stems in your own classroom. They are a valuable tool for our students' thinking and learning!

Happy Thinking and as always -

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Using Thinking Stems In The Primary Classroom - Miss DeCarbo

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Today I would love to tell you about how I use thinking stems in my classroom! Thinking stems are simply a way to help your students start their thought when they are participating in class discussions, answering questions, or sharing ideas.

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On the April 11th #ELLCHAT, a Twitter discussion group for teachers of English language learners, we discussed the benefits of using music and drama in to teach English to ELLs. One of our participants asked the groups' thoughts about bilingual songs that switch between languages.

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Math Instruction for English Language Learners 

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Math Instruction for English Language Learners 

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My dad gave me one dollar bill
'Cause I'm his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
'Cause two is more than one!

- Excerpt from "Smart," by Shel Silverstein

As a student, I struggled with math. I didn't understand why it came so naturally to some students, but not to me. Looking back, however, I realize that I had an advantage that I wasn't even aware of - I understood the language in which the problems were written, even if I didn't understand how to solve them! Although it is easy to assume that many English language learners (ELLs) will excel in math because math is a "universal language" and students may have had prior educational experience that included mathematical instruction, that assumption can lead educators astray.

As I spoke with teachers and did research for this article, it became very clear that making sure that students understand math vocabulary and have ample opportunities to use it are very important. Solving word problems, following instructions, understanding and using mathematical vocabulary correctly - all of these skills require a language proficiency that sometimes exceeds our expectations. We tend to think of mathematics as a subject that does not require a strong command of language. In reality, however, mathematical reasoning and problem solving are closely linked to language and rely upon a firm understanding of basic math vocabulary (Dale & Cuevas, 1992; Jarret, 1999).

For many educators, the challenge of bringing language and math instruction together is a relatively new one. ELL teachers who hadn't taught content areas previously are now being asked to lead or support instruction in the math classroom, and many math teachers who don't see themselves as language instructors are now responsible for providing effective math instruction to ELLs.

High school math teacher Hillary Hansen learned just how big a role language plays in math instruction when she taught her first Basic Math course for ELLs last year. She wanted so much to provide the students with the good foundation they needed, but she felt unable to reach the students or engage them in her lessons, and by the end of the year she was exhausted and frustrated.

That summer she had an opportunity to join a district Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) cohort to receive professional development and support to meet the needs of ELLs in content classes. She learned about the importance of language acquisition, building background knowledge, increasing student language production, and explicitly teaching academic language. She began this school year with a new set of tools and a deeper understanding of the instructional scaffolding ELLs need in order to learn the content while also learning English. I am happy to report that while Hillary still feels challenged and is working very hard, this year has been much more successful for her and her students.

As a result of more effective instruction, her students:

understand the content better and are working together to find creative ways to learn

discuss math more and know how to use the instructional supports their teacher has in place

are comfortable with math and asking questions to get the help they need.

Hillary feels that she is providing them with the foundation they need not only to understand the mathematical concepts, but also to successfully interact within a math classroom in order to continue learning more advanced concepts.

Following are some strategies that Hillary and some of the other teachers I spoke with found helpful this year, and that they recommend as best practices when teaching math to ELLs.

The importance of teaching academic vocabulary

Vocabulary instruction is essential to effective math instruction. Not only does it include teaching math-specific terms such as "percent" or "decimal," but it also includes understanding the difference between the mathematical definition of a word and other definitions of that word.

The following example, used in a presentation by Dr. Judit Moschkovich of the University of California at Santa Cruz, underscores why vocabulary must be introduced within the context of the content (Moschkovich, 2008):

In this problem, the student is instructed to "find x." The student obviously knew the meaning of the word "find" because he/she "found" it on the page and circled it. The student even put a note on the page to help the teacher in locating the lost "x". The student understood the meaning of "find" in one context, but not in the appropriate mathematical context.

I recently helped a math teacher create a Sheltered Lesson, and I was surprised to find that there were some vocabulary words that I didn't understand. My lack of familiarity with the words hindered my ability to do the math problem and gave me a deeper empathy for ELLs who struggle in the same way with vocabulary and comprehending math assignments. Following is a list of tips for explicitly teaching mathematical academic vocabulary:

Demonstrate that vocabulary can have multiple meanings. Help students understand the different meanings of words such as "table" and "quarter," as well as how to use them correctly in a mathematical context.

Encourage students to offer bilingual support to each other. Students will understand material better if they explain it to another student, and the new student will benefit from hearing the explanation in their first language. (Check the hotlinks for a list of bilingual translations of math vocabulary in multiple languages).

Provide visual cues, graphic representations, gestures, realia, and pictures. Offer students the chance to work with objects and images in order to master vocabulary. If there aren't enough items for each student, use manipulatives on the overhead or posted throughout the classroom, and demonstrate the vocabulary in front of the students. For example, Hillary created a Math Word Wall that has three parts: key vocabulary, "in your own words" definitions, and a variety of ways to portray a function. For example, multiplication is portrayed by the following symbols: x, *, and ( ).

Identify key phrases or new vocabulary to pre-teach. This strategy will help students decide which math function they should apply. Example: "more than" means "add." (See hotlinks for more references about math vocabulary.)

The importance of reading and understanding written math problems

Written word problems present a unique challenge to ELL students and teachers alike. In Reading and Understanding Written Math Problems, Brenda Krick-Morales writes, "Word problems in mathematics often pose a challenge because they require that students read and comprehend the text of the problem, identify the question that needs to be answered, and finally create and solve a numerical equation - ELLs who have had formal education in their home countries generally do not have mathematical difficulties; hence, their struggles begin when they encounter word problems in a second language that they have not yet mastered" (Bernardo, 2005).

Teacher Xiao-lin Yin-Croft has encountered this pattern in her classroom of bilingual Chinese students in San Francisco. She has developed a very creative way to use her students' background knowledge of math as a stepping stone for other language learning. She does this by accelerating math instruction at the beginning of the school year and then building on what students have learned in math in reading and other content areas. In Building Bridges for the Future, a Colorín Colorado "From the Heart" article, Xiao-lin explains her strategy:

First, we read math word problems; I demonstrate the logical thinking process while translating words into pictures and, finally, into number sentences. Soon, they start to explain their own thinking after reading complicated word problems that involve several steps. They correct each other, and argue about which number sentences they should use to arrive at the correct final results. As they sharpen their math skills, I capitalize on their enthusiasm to teach them how to extract the most important information from texts, and move them toward the oral and reading fluency they need to understand and discuss more challenging texts.

Even if you aren't accelerating math instruction, however, there are a number of ways to help students master word problems. Krick-Morales offers suggestions in the previously mentioned article, such as explicit instruction of key vocabulary, daily practice of problem solving, repeated readings of the word problem together as a class, and hands-on activities such as movement, experiments, or drawing to help students comprehend the problem. As students become more familiar with math vocabulary, they will be able to solve problems more easily.

The importance of building background knowledge

As the opening quote from the Shel Silverstein poem reminds us, background knowledge plays a critical role in math class! My colleague Hillary found that sometimes her students would get "lost" in a problem simply because they didn't understand the context. Following are some tips to help in building background knowledge of students.

Modify the linguistic complexity of language and rephrase math problems. Students will understand the problem better if it is stated in shorter sentences and in language they understand.

Guide students to cross out the unnecessary vocabulary in word problems. Doing so allows students to focus on the math function required. For example, one problem Hillary's students came across referred to a "school assembly." Even though the meaning of that phrase wasn't important in the solving of the math problem, students didn't know it wasn't important, and the lack of understanding contributed to their confusion.

Build knowledge from real world examples. Try to reinforce concepts with examples that students can picture and talk students through the situation. For example, if you need to paint a room, you need to know how much area will be covered so that you know how much paint to buy. Look for familiar ideas or props that can be used to engage students such as recipes, news stories about the economy, or discussion of personal spending habits.

Use manipulatives purposefully. This is important at all grade levels. Hillary has found math cubes to be very useful in having students represent the numbers in the problems and then manipulate the cubes to get the answer. She used the cubes and the terms "hot" and "cold" numbers when teaching with the concept of negative numbers. Students would use the red cubes as "hot" or positive numbers and the blue cubes as "cold" or negative numbers. As students laid out the number of hot cubes and cold cubes represented, they could easily see if the answer would be a positive or negative number by which color had the most cubes. A problem such as -2 + 1 = -1 would look like this:

The student then removed pairs of cubes - one red, one blue - until they could no longer remove any blocks. The remaining blocks represent the answer.

The importance of increasing student language production in the content area

As I've worked with content area teachers in my district to develop Sheltered Instruction lessons and activities to enhance ELL learning, I've told them, "If a student doesn't say it in your class, they're never going to say it." This is a bit dramatic, but it's true to some extent. When students learn new vocabulary, the opportunity to use it must be presented in class, because students are unlikely to try it out on their own - especially academic words like "parallelogram" or "function"!

Here are some tips to increase student-to-student interaction with academic language in the math classroom:

Have students translate symbols into words, and write the sentence out. Hillary used this strategy to check students' comprehension of problems before they solved them. For example, 3x + 4 = 16 would be written out, "Three times X plus four equals sixteen." This helps students process the operations involved in the question and gives them an opportunity to think through how to solve it. It also gives students a chance to familiarize themselves with important vocabulary words.

Create a "sentence frame" and post it on the board. Write the format of the sentence you would like students to use in discussion and then hold them accountable for using it. For example, "The answer is _______ degrees because it is a _________ triangle.

Have students share problem-solving strategies. This involves asking a simple question such as, "Did anyone else get the answer in a different way?" Then allow enough wait time so students can think through how their problem-solving process was similar or different to the one offered.

Allow students to discuss how they are thinking about math. This is a way of redirecting the lesson from teacher-to-student to student-to-student. For example a student might ask a question, "How do you know what kind of triangle it is?" Instead of the teacher answering and going to the board and pointing out the names and different triangles, the teacher can simply ask, "Does someone have an answer? Or "Would someone like to offer help to Mario?" Allow students to share how they think about the math concept and any tips they have for remembering the information.

Incorporate writing activities like math journals. This is an excellent way for students to process what they've learned and what questions they still have. The journal could start with simple prompts such as, "One thing I learned today..." "One thing I still don't understand..." "One way I can get the help I need..." "The answer to this problem is..." Writing out the answer to a problem is a very important skill to develop because many state math tests require a constructed response to questions.

Challenge students to create their own math problems. This can be a fun activity if students create a problem similar to the ones you have used in class and they exchange problems with a partner. By creating the problem and checking the answer they are reinforcing their own learning.

Using technology

Technology can also be a powerful tool in math instruction for ELLs. Here are some ideas ways you can play with technology in a math lesson:

Look for educational resources that accompany your school's technology tools and programs. There may be online or software programs available for teachers. For teachers who have an electronic whiteboard in the classroom, there are many resources available on links that can be easily accessed and brought into the classroom.

Look for interactive games that offer students a chance to practice their mathematical skills. Nintendo DS has an educational game called Brain Age, which is not language specific. The game provides excellent mathematical training for numbers and tracks results, showing student improvement over time.

Find out what's available online. Vital NY (Video Teaching and Learning for NYS Educators) on Teachers' Domain offers an online library of free media resources from the best in public television. Teachers' Domain resources include video and audio segments, Flash interactives, images, documents, lesson plans for teachers, and student-oriented activities. (Free registration required.)

If students are using a graphing calculator, ensure that they learn how to use it. Based on background and prior educational experience, students might not be familiar with how to use a calculator nor some of the more sophisticated models, such as the graphing calculator. Give students a chance to practice solving problems with their calculators once you have reviewed different functions. Texas Instruments offers numerous activities and product tutorials in their educational materials.

Even if it doesn't come easily at first, there are ways to get ELLs excited about math. By keeping their language skills and needs in mind when planning mathematical instruction (and by helping your colleagues do the same), you will be taking important steps in helping students master mathematical concepts and skills - and who knows? Your students may be the next generation of economists, rocket scientists, and math teachers just waiting for the tools they need!

Note: I'd like to thank my Minnesota colleagues, Hillary Hansen at Burnsville Senior High School and Kim Olson at Hidden Valley Elementary, as well as Xiao-lin Yin-Croft from San Francisco, for providing many of the helpful math teaching tips in this article. It is inspiring to know that there are talented, creative teachers who are always finding better ways to teach and are willing to share the knowledge.
Common Core Math and ELLs: Blog Posts
These posts from our Common Core blog highlight resources that can be used in Common Core math instruction for ELLs.
EngageNY: Common Core and Math
The EngageNY website provides materials focused on curricular examples, standards for mathematical practice, and other materials for professional development.
Discovery Education: Puzzlemaker
Puzzlemaker is a free puzzle generation tool for teachers, students and parents where users can create and print customized word search, criss-cross, math puzzles, and more using their own word lists.
Catherine Snow: Word Generation
Catherine Snow's new website provides information and resources for educators who would like to learn more about Word Generation and how it is implemented. Includes links to comprehensive academic word list that students need to master to comprehend academic content.
Dave's Math Tables: English/Spanish Dictionary
List of English math vocabulary words with the Spanish equivalent.
PBS Teachers: Math Lessons
PBS Teachers offers a database of multimedia math lessons and activities that can be searched by grade or topic.
SMART Notebook Lesson Activities
Browse lesson activities and materials for classrooms using SMART notebook software. Choose the country or region, and search by curriculum standards, subject and grade level.
Colorín Colorado Webcast: English Language Learners in Middle and High School
This webcast features Dr. Deborah Short and discusses effective instructional strategies for teaching English language learner students in middle and high school, such as the SIOP model.
Translating Word Problems
This is a great site for teachers in the elementary levels, as it provides a list of keywords you can teach your ELLs to look for as they read word problems. Also included are useful ideas and tricks to better prepare students to understand written math problems.

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Math Instruction for English Language Learners

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My dad gave me one dollar bill'Cause I'm his smartest son,And I swapped it for two shiny quarters'Cause two is more than one! - Excerpt from "Smart," by Shel Silverstein As a student, I struggled with math. I didn't understand why it came so naturally to some students, but not to me.

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You may have heard that math is a universal language. This is not the case when students are solving word problems. Many students struggle to solve word problems, they can be particularly challenging for ELLs. Here are some strategies for solving math word problems with English Language Learners.

Academic Language

Teach students the important vocabulary for the type of word problems that they are solving. This will help students to begin to figure out that how many more might mean to add and take away often means to subtract. One caution is not to only rely on only teaching keywords to help students solve word problems.

Draw Pictures

Have students illustrate what is happening in a word problem. This can help them to pick out the important information. A picture can also help students decide which operation to use by thinking about if the quantity is increasing or decreasing.

Analyze the Word Problem

Help students answer questions before they try and solve the word problem. Some examples are: What do you know? What do you have to find out? The book Supporting English Language Learners in Math Class has additional examples of questions to ask ELLs as they try and solve a word problem.

Guided Practice

One of the best ways to support ELLs with solving math word problems is to model an example word problem and then have students solve a similar problem on their own. This gives students the chance to work through a problem with support.

Use Sentence Frames for Reflection

Provide students with sentence frames to help them reflect on how they solve a math word problem.
________ is the answer because __________. The answer is __________. These are the steps that I took to solve the problem. First ____Then___Last_____.
Teaching Materials

Here is a set of math word problems that uses simple language and pictures, to give students practice answering addition and subtraction word problems.

Kindergarten and First Grade Math Bundles - These sets include simple word problems that follow similar sentence patterns and only the numbers change.

Resources

Strategies for solving math word problems for ELLs from Colorin Colorado.

Supporting ELLs in Math Class - This set of books gives teachers language to use with ELLs, strategies, and examples of supporting ELLs in math class.

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Solving Math Word Problems with MLs - A World of Language Learners

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You may have heard that math is a universal language. This is not the case when students are solving word problems. Many students struggle to solve word problems, they can be particularly challenging for ELLs. Here are some strategies for solving math word problems with English Language Learners.

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3 Engaging Total Physical Response Activities for Your Adult ESL Classroom

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Aug 25, 2020 - Today we’re going to talk more about a specific strategy that both children  and adults can use to learn a first, second, or third language. It’s  incredibly simple, but it’s effective: Total Physical Response. There’s no doubt that finding a way to link language to a physical response  works. Think about all of those …

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Speaking in a new language can be a frightening experience. English Language Learners often feel embarrassed that they will make mistakes or are nervous about being misunderstood. This can result in newcomers going through a silent period (when they do not speak but are learning a large amount of language). Even ELLs that have a higher language level can become intimidated during whole class discussions. Brain science can help explain this response. The emotional system of our brain does not function well when it is presented with frustration or embarrassment (Sousa 2011)*. Here are some steps you can take to help your students feel comfortable and improve their speaking skills.

Create a safe classroom environment

This is one of the most important foundations for ELLs (and any student, especially those that are naturally shy) to feel comfortable taking the risk of speaking in class. There is alway a risk of answering a question incorrectly or making a grammatical mistake. If a student trusts their teacher and feels safe in their classroom they are more willing to take these risks.

When I work with small groups of elementary ELLs I try and give them time to share personal news. This allows them a low stress opportunity to practice speaking, helps me to build a personal connection with them and helps build community.

Create opportunities for speaking in partner or small groups

Knowing that there are fewer people listening and more frequent opportunities to respond will help ELLs gain more speaking practice. With partners you can structure conversations so that parner 1 has a chance to speak and then partner 2. For groups give each member a job or a specific time to speak. This helps to prevent some students from dominating the conversation. A student with a lower language level might benefit from speaking second. This way they are able to hear their partners response and follow the same pattern. This also gives them additional thinking time.

Provide sentence frames/sentence starters that connect to the topic

Introduce structured sentence frames and/or sentence stems to the class. This is a great opportunity to incorporate academic language into the frames. Non ELLs may use them as a support as well. Encourage students to expand of the frames if they are able.

Choral Reading

Reading a poem, welcome message, or short reading passage as a group allows all students the opportunity to practice pronouncing new vocabulary words without the stress of others noticing them mispronounce unfamiliar words. This is a great opportunity to expose all students to grade level material even if they would not be able to read it independently.

Structured Speaking Practice

Give students a topic to discuss with a partner. This can be a question to answer, opinion to share, or story to tell. Here are some speaking task cards and picture cards I created that would make great aids for speaking practice.

References

*How the ELL Brain Learns David Sousa

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Improving the Speaking Skills of English Language Learners - A World of Language Learners

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Speaking in a new language can be a frightening experience. English Language Learners often feel embarrassed that they will make mistakes or are nervous about being misunderstood. This can result in newcomers going through a silent period (when they do not speak but are learning a large amount of language).

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Phonics for MLs - A World of Language Learners

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Learn about some of the differences between teaching phonics to ELLs and native English speakers. Also discover some new resources.

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April is National Poetry Month, which makes it a great time for writing poetry. Any point in the year is also a great time to have students write poems.

For English Language Learners, writing poetry can be a welcome change from other forms of writing. Many of the traditional writing conventions are not as strictly enforced in poems. Students can use fewer words to convey powerful messages. Poems are a fun way to play around with language. Here are some ideas for writing poems with your ELLs.

Build a poem

Students take words, phrases, sentences, or titles and create their own poem. The words are already written down, so students are not slowed down by worrying about how they are spelled.

You can have students build a poem by using magnetic poetry tiles. The kids kit comes with an assortment of words all on white tiles. The opposites kit comes with words that students flip over to show the antonym. These kits will work best for ELLs that already know many basic vocabulary words, since they do not have pictures.

For beginning ELL, print out or write down words that they know on cardstock or index cards. Next cut them into tiles. Then they can take part in the same activity.

They can also use hardback picture books to create a poem. Have students go on a scavenger hunt for interesting titles in the library or from a selection of books that you select. Then they stack the books to create a free verse poem.

Make a list

Another way to generate ideas before writing a poem is to have students make a list of words. They can think of the topic or you can assign it to them. I have developed poetry writing task cards to help introduce students to rhyming, alliteration, imagery, and onomatopoeia.

Use Poetry Frames

With a poetry frame, the student does not have to come up with the body of the poem. Similar to a sentence frame, they fill in missing words or are given the beginning of each line of poetry. ReadWriteThink has some free poetry frame templates.

Read Poetry

Reading poetry is one of the best ways to help ELLs get started writing their own poems. The poems act as mentor texts. You can even take a poem and have students create their own version that is similar. You can also get ideas for poetry frames after reading a published poem. Here are some diverse poetry books to check out.

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Writing Poetry with ELLs - A World of Language Learners

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April is National Poetry Month, which makes it a great time for writing poetry. Any point in the year is also a great time to have students write poems. For English Language Learners, writing poetry can be a welcome change from other forms of writing.

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Oct 5, 2015 - Guided reading is an excellent instructional tool, but guided reading for ELLs is equally as effective--and maybe even more important!

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QSSSA - Strategy to support ELL students (examples for each content area)

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QSSSA - Strategy to support ELL students (examples for each content area)

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QSSSA - Strategy to support ELL students

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QSSSA - Strategy to support ELL students

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ELL Strategies are helpful to all students! I thought it would be fun to begin a blog series on different strategies to use with your English Language Learners. Of course the ELL strategies are fun with all students.!

Share A Pizza ELL Strategy

Purpose: To teach how parts make up a whole.

Use:

After a jigsaw reading activity during which each group of students has been given a section of a chapter or article to read.

Teaching a concept or idea that has many parts.

Activity:

Cut a large circle into desired parts. Groups decorate the pizza slice with information from their reading or learning.

It can be words or pictures.

Come back and put the pieces together to make a whole pizza which can be used as a summary.

Here are some examples of ways to use this ELL strategy. I tried this in my first grade classes to teach Science Vocabulary.

Science Vocabulary

Another way to use Slice of Pizza ELL Strategy is in math. To solve a three digit subtraction problem, the students pair up to discuss different strategies to solve the problem.

Slice of Pizza is one of many ELL Strategies!

There are endless ways to use this strategy. Also it can be used across all subjects. I hope that you will have fun trying this with your ELL students!
See other Blog Posts Here!

ELL Curriculum

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How to Use ELL Strategies: Slice of Pizza - Jill Richardson

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ELL Strategies are helpful to all students! I thought it would be fun to begin a blog series on different strategies to use with your English Language Learners. Of course the ELL strategies are fun with all students.! Purpose: To teach how parts make up a whole.

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5 Tips for Building ELLs Academic Vocabulary 

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5 Tips for Building ELLs Academic Vocabulary 

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As you have probably noticed with your ELLs, there is quite a difference in an ELLs' conversational vocabulary compared to their academic vocabulary. According to Jim Cummins (1984), BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) refers to ELLs' conversational, or social vocabulary, whereas CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) refers to academic, content specific vocabulary. BICS generally takes an ELL about 1-3 years to develop, while CALP can take up to 5-7 years. We can help our ELLs grow in their CALP with quality, thoughtful vocabulary instruction. Below are 5 tips for building your ELLs' academic vocabulary.
1. BE SELECTIVE ABOUT VOCABULARY WORDS.
Be selective about which words you choose to take the time to teach.It is important to choose words that are truly important to content area comprehension.For example, when reading a passage on sharks with your 3rd graders, would students need to know a technical word like oxygenated to truly understand the content? Probably not.This is called an incidental word.Incidental words are words that will not interfere with a student's comprehension even if a he or she does not know its meaning. Instead, focus on words like gills, predator, camouflage, senses, species, and migrate.These are words that will aid in students' reading comprehension on the sharks reading passage, as well as help them to comprehend a wide variety of future academic content. Note: I find that the magic number of words to introduce at once is around 3-7.Introducing too many words at once can be very overwhelming and therefore not as effective.
Although especially helpful for your ELLs, previewing vocabulary is really helpful to all of your learners.There are so many ways of doing this from simply writing new words on the board and discussing them, to having students interact with the words as an entire lesson gearing up for the content.

Below is a preview page I use very often with my students prior to reading.I will either give it to them already pre-filled in or I give them a blank one, depending on how much time we have and how difficult the words are.
When we work together to fill in a blank chart, I like to keep the students involved as much as possible in coming up with a definition and example, and then we discuss different options they could use for their visual. If I don't have a blank page specific to a reading passage, I have generic templates made with a simple chart for the word, a visual, and what it means.I have students keep these templates in their academic vocabulary notebooks that are sectioned off by content area (pictured below).
Having many visuals available for your ELLs is key to fostering independence on content area tasks.Some visuals I find to be extremely helpful are flashcards, posters and word walls.I often have the same vocabulary words available in multiple formats to give students an option of which format they prefer to use as a reference.

When reading a content heavy piece, I keep in mind that a picture is worth a thousand words! I like to find pictures on the internet or in books, or (last resort) drawings that will align with vocabulary or concepts that might be unfamiliar.

4. REACH MULTIPLE LEARNING STYLES.
Besides using visuals for your ELLs, getting creative in ways that they can interact with the words is also important to making the words "stick".Have students act them out, write with them, read them in context, discuss them, create their own art work to depict them, or play reviews games with them. One of my ELLs' favorite ways to review words is when I make a Powerpoint of images depicting each numbered vocabulary word (one per slide) with a word bank on the board.Students match which numbered image goes with which word independently and then we go over them. The list goes on and on!Get creative!
5. PROVIDE MULTIPLE VOCABULARY EXPOSURES.
Students need many opportunities to interact with the same vocabulary words. Research shows that students need multiple exposures over time to key vocabulary in order for it to "stick".Often after reading and exposing students to a lot of new content vocabulary over a few weeks, I take time to review all of the words again. Some other ways for ongoing vocabulary review include:

Students simply use mini white boards to write the word of a definition or fill in the blank that you read aloud.

Word search or Crossword review. There are so many generators online, but I personally like to use this Crossword generator. http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/CrissCrossSetupForm.asp

Jeopardy! You can either make a Jeopardy board from poster board, or use a PowerPoint template found online from a Google search.

Looking for more ideas for supporting your ELLs? Check out this blog post on 10 Steps to Build Reading Comprehension in ELLs.

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Five Tips for Building ELLs' Academic Vocabulary - Raise the Bar Reading

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As you have probably noticed with your ELLs, there is quite a difference in an ELLs' conversational vocabulary compared to their academic vocabulary. According to Jim Cummins (1984), BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) refers to ELLs' conversational, or social vocabulary, whereas CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) refers to academic, content specific vocabulary.

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I love using short films to teach reading comprehension skills, and my students love watching them!

Why do I love using them?
Show a short film and students are engaged! Visual learners and students who typically struggle with reading comprehension, including English language learners (ELLs), have greater success practicing comprehension skills with shorts. Most shorts do not have dialogue, they're all action. My students, regardless of their level of language proficiency, "get" the lesson more easily because the shorts are visual.

Where can you find short films?
My go to place to find great shorts is YouTube. Be careful to always view films before showing them in class. You don't want any unexpected surprises! Also, sometimes there is an advertisement to get through at the beginning, so I always set it up beforehand, that way it's all ready to go for the lesson.

Which reading skills can be taught using shorts?
Just about ANY reading skill can be taught with shorts: making connections, asking questions, sequencing, predictions, drawing conclusions, plot, character development, theme, and this list goes on and on!

Learning what the skill looks like visually, and practicing with a media kids are already familiar with, is an effective first step in students applying the skill to their reading.

One of my absolute favorite lessons to teach is "theme." Last year, my fifth graders were having trouble grasping the concept, so I searched for a good short film to visually "show" them theme, and I found the perfect one!

I describe theme as the heart of the story. I then share common themes found in stories, such as, perseverance, family, friendship, hope, honesty, self determination, courage, etc. For this lesson, my students watched the film twice. The first time was simply to enjoy the story. After their first viewing, I asked them to share what they noticed about the film. Then I asked, "What do you think the message or big idea was in this film?" They shared lots of thoughts, and I noted the common ideas the group came up, which were love and hope. Then I showed the film again. This time I set the purpose to look for symbols of love, and evidence of hope. After the second viewing they shared many of the symbols of love, and they noticed that the song lyrics sang about having hope. Discussions got pretty deep, which made my teacher heart happy;) To support my beginning ELLs, I printed pictures of the different scenes that symbolized love (couples- turtles, birds, whales, clouds).

By the end of the lesson my students had a good understanding of the skill, and they were ready to practice looking for a theme in their own reading. We continued to practice during guided reading, and spiraled back to theme as we read throughout the year.

Day and Night: Compare/Contrast, Author's Message

Home Sweet Home: Asking Questions This short is a bit long (10 minutes).

Kiwi!: Drawing Conclusions (Warning- this one is sad.)

Joy and Heron: Problem/Solution, Story Elements, Lesson/Message (Compare with "Dustin")
Take Me Home: Inferring

Jinxy Jenkins and Lucky Lou: Compare and Contrast

Soar: Predictions, Plot, Story Elements

Sweet Cocoon: Story Elements, Drawing Conclusions

Changing Batteries: Drawing Conclusions, Inferring (This one is sad too.)

A Fox and a Mouse: Plot, Character Development, Setting, Conflict

Snack Attack: Flashback

Dia De Los Muertos: Character Development, Symbolism (blue flower)

One Small Step: Plot, Theme, Character Development

The Box: Making Inferences, Making Prediction, Character Development, Story Elements

Spring: Making Inferences, Plot, Mood

The First of Spring: Compare/Contrast, Character and Plot Development

The Present: Character Development, Asking Questions, Cause and Effect

Monsterbox: Plot, Asking Questions, Drawing Conclusions

La Luna: Theme, Character Development, Plot, Symbolism (hat)

Pip: Character Development, Story Elements

Wings: Theme, Making Inferences, Draw Conclusions

and

The comprehension skills listed above are simply suggestions; there are many more skills that could be taught with each of the films listed.

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Using Short Films to Teach Comprehension Skills

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I love using short films to teach reading comprehension skills, and my students love watching them! Why do I love using them? Show a short film and students are engaged! Visual learners and students who typically struggle with reading comprehension, including English language learners (ELLs), have greater success practicing comprehension skills with shorts.

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Guest post by Deb Hanson of Crafting Connections
Do you have any ELLs in your classroom this year? According to the National Center for Education Statistics, an estimated 4.4 million students in the United States are ELLs (English Language Learners)! Today I invite you to ponder some questions in order to determine whether your classroom is as ELL-friendly as it could be!
1. Do you make use of environmental print?
Use anchor charts. Consider putting the word "horizontal" across the top of your door frame and "vertical" down the side of it. Use your wall space as learning tools!
2. Do you use graphic organizers?
Venn diagrams, flow charts, and Tcharts all assist ELLs learn content because the visual arrangement supports the concept being presented.
3.Do you read aloud to your students?
As you read aloud, you will model fluency and support comprehension as you "think aloud" about the story's characters and plot.
4. Do you encourage independent reading?
As teachers, we all know that students become better readers by reading, and that independent reading is vitally important! Make it a priority in your classroom that students have time to read independently each day, and encourage students to read outside of school, too!
5. Do you provide visual supports as you teach content?
I personally love to use vocabulary cartoons because they engage and motivate students. At the beginning of a unit, give student pairs a vocabulary word. They work together to create a cartoon, linking word, and example sentence that helps explain the meaning of the vocabulary word. Then, you can share and refer to the cartoons throughout the unit!
6. Do you interact with vocabulary?
For example, if "rotate" and "revolve" are two target vocabulary words in your science lesson, have students get up and move! Play a game of Simon Says where everyone stands in a big circle. When you say, "Simon says 'rotate,'" students turn their body around once, but at "Simon says 'revolve,'" students walk in a big circle around a central object.
7. Do you provide sentence frames?
Advanced language structures can be tricky. An anchor chart with easy reference to these structures can be extremely helpful.
8. Do you use popsicle sticks?
Sometimes ELLs like to "fly under the radar" and passively watch as their classmates answer all of the teachers' questions. Get a can of popsicle sticks and write your students' names on them. Furthermore, institute a "no-raised hands" policy. Then, when you ask a question, randomly choose a popsicle stick and ask that student to answer your question. Students will quickly realize that all will be held accountable to be active class participants. They will be much more engaged if they know that they could be called on to respond at any moment.

Perhaps you are thinking right now that most of these suggestions are simply good teaching strategies for ALL students... and you are absolutely correct! I once heard someone say the following statement, and it does ring true: All students can benefit from these strategies, but ELLs depend upon these strategies!
What other ELL-friendly strategies do you use in your classroom? Deb Hanson has taught 16 years in a school district in Nebraska. She has taught second grade, Reading, and ESL. She has a passion for working with English language learners. Deb is the creator of the Crafting Connections blog where she enjoys sharing her strategies with others.

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Guest post by Deb Hanson of Crafting Connections Do you have any ELLs in your classroom this year? According to the National Center for Education Statistics, an estimated 4.4 million students in the United States are ELLs (English Language Learners)!

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Slides Translator automagically translates text in your Slides. Communicate across multiple languages with ease! Now includes Voice Typing in over 60+ language dialects! Works with: Overview Permissions Reviews Communicate across multiple languages in your Slide Deck with ease! Slides Translator lets you select text in your Slides, automagically detects the language, and translates it to the selected languages in the Sidebar.

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So much of communication goes beyond words and what is spoken. It is all about how you say it, am I right? Body posture, facial expressions, reactions, all of those nonverbal components of language play a HUGE roll in the overall message. I don't know about you, but all those unspoken underpinnings of language really trip up my kids. It's hard to find good ways to practice this skill, that is why I love use silent clips!

My kids think it's cool that we 'watch movies' in speech. Sure kid, think whatever you want...as long as we can practice those inferencing skills we've been tackling for the past few weeks 😉 Silent clips, aka silent shorts, engage kids because it gets away from the typical worksheet or card game and let's face it, technology is pretty darn engaging to them.

WHY I LOVE THESE VIDEOS

These clips lend themselves to sooooo much language, there isn't much you can't target with these.

They are FREE!

They appeal to a variety of ages, which means I can use the same in clip with all my kids in my K-5 building.

They work great for mixed groups.

They are usually only a few minutes long, hence the name silent short. This means I can do a few videos in a session and get more practice in.

They can be generic or have popular characters. It is always fun when kids see characters they recognize and are familiar. This can also help getting them engaged too.

HOW TO USE SILENT CLIPS

There are lots of ways to use these clips in therapy. I will link some of my favorites at the end so you don't have to hunt through Google. I will typically use 3-5 videos in a session depending on their length. I have tried using one for more of a 'whole group' type of session, but found it was too much for my little ones. After each video we will use it to address either all student goals or focus on one student's goal per video. That way, everyone gets practice either way.
Language Therapy Ideas
Clip from Simon's Cat .

You can address pronouns and basic concepts by pausing the clip at different moments and asking students to state where certain characters, using the correct pronoun to identify them. " Where is Simon? " "He is on the branch."

Discuss the actions during and after the clips targeting different verb tenses.

Answer WH questions about the clip.

Have students talk about their favorite scene using complete sentences

Watch the video before hand, which I would recommend doing any, and jot down a few vocabulary words that pop out at you. You can watch the clips and then talk about the definitions, and then synonyms and antonyms.

When its done, ask what they think might happen next to work on predicting.

Work on narrative language. Have kids create and tell the story of the clips and while including details and correct sequence.

Social Language Ideas Short Film from Frozen

These clips are an inferencing gold mine! How did they feel? How did you know?

Since they are silent, everything is non-verbal and implied. These are fabulous for working on recognizing facial expressions and body posture. Since they are animated, all of these elements are typically over-exaggerated which helps when kids are just learning what to look for.

Perspective taking can be targeted too. I like to pause the clips after a big reaction from a character and they guide the kids to identify why the character might react that way. What might they say? I like to use this Social Response Organizer to help my kids work this out

Turn taking can be worked on too. Since the back and forth of communication is mostly physical it is easier to identify. Then you can have kids re-create the events and practice the 'feeling' of back and forth that will then lead into conversation.

Commenting. Working on what characters could say vs what should be kept in their heads.

Were the behaviors in the clips expected or unexpected.

CLIPS
Now that you have some ideas here are some great clips you can use right away. I recommend running the link through a site called Safetube. Safetube is a free site that allows you to watch videos without the ads or images that are not necessarily school appropriate popping up.

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How to Get Kids Talking with Silent Clips - The Speech Bubble

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So much of communication goes beyond words and what is spoken. It is all about how you say it, am I right? Body posture, facial expressions, reactions, all of those nonverbal components of language play a HUGE roll in the overall message. I don't know about you, but all those unspoken underpinnings of language really ...

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English Language Learners benefit from easy access to sight words and from seeing vocabulary words in many places. It is important to refer to word walls and other labels to help students get into the habit of using them. Here are some ways to display words around your classroom to support ELLs.

Interactive Word Walls
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click on an Amazon link and make a purchase. This does not cost you any extra money.
Interactive word walls allow students to work with the words in some way. Often students are able to take the words off of the wall back to their seat with them. Both the teacher and students use the word wall on an ongoing basis. This helps teach students how to use the word wall and gives them practice reading and using the words.

I had a magnetic word wall in my classroom. My chalkboard was magnetic, so I added magnetic tape to the back of sight words. Sometimes, when students asked for help finding words, I would take down two or three words and have them identify the word that they are looking for. Then they would have the word at eye level to copy. I used gym floor tape to separate the letters.

Some other ideas for setting up a word wall is to color code the words. You can color code them by parts of speech or language level. A temporary word wall is helpful when your students are learning about a specific subject that has vocabulary words they will use multiple times. Pictures are a helpful tool to use for these new words.

Portable Word Walls

When I traveled to other classrooms, or worked with students that need fewer words to choose from, I used a portable word wall. This way I can display words and allow students to interact with them even when I am in a different room. I made from three file folders glued together. Each word was attached with velcro. Just like with my magnetic word wall, students could take the word that they wanted with them to copy.

Illustrated Vocabulary Words

To help students with writing, I created sets of vocabulary folders. They are made with sheet protectors in folders with brads. I have seasonal words organized by parts of speech as well. These make great posters for a seasonal writing center.

Labels

Lower level ELLs benefit from having labels up around the classroom. This is also beneficial for all students that are at the beginning stages of reading and writing. You can quickly make labels yourself using sentence strips, index cards or sticky notes. For a more colorful version, I have made illustrated classroom labels and labels for book categories.

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How to Display Words to Support ELLs - A World of Language Learners

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English Language Learners benefit from easy access to sight words and from seeing vocabulary words in many places. It is important to refer to word walls and other labels to help students get into the habit of using them. Here are some ways to display words around your classroom to support ELLs.

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Teacher Laura: Systematic ELD Sentence Frames for Kindergarten | Sentence frames, Ell students, Sentences

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Nov 12, 2012 - I have been working extra hard this year figuring out how to teach all of my ELL students now that our district has eliminated ESL teachers....

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Khan Academy | Free Online Courses, Lessons & Practice

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Don't Accept "I don't Know" Based on Seidlitz 7 Steps

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Vocabulary development BICS/CALPS

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Station choice board

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Speaking Practice- Explaining Math Problem

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Get beginning and intermediate ELs speaking and writing! First, a photograph is posted. Then students generate a word bank by telling what they see in the picture. ask for one word at a time. No matter the level of the ELs, everyone can come up with at least a word or two. Get additional details by asking about colors and quantities of items they see. Once your word bank is sufficient, use those words to create varying lengths of sentences. Ask students to create a 3 word sentence, then a four word sentence, then a five word sentence, and so on. Ask, "Who thinks they can come up with a 4 word sentence?" My students all start thinking and counting on their fingers, then quickly a hand shoots up, then another. Students will love it! This activity should be heavily scaffolded for beginners. Students orally create the word bank and sentences, but write the words and sentences on the board using correct spelling and grammar. Then they copy. I am a big believer in modeling for beginners, and model a LOT!

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The English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework in California call for Designated ELD instructional time. It's a protected time in the school day where teachers use the California ELD standards to teach critical English language skills. The state of California has left it up to districts to determine the amount of time for this designated block. My district has chosen for our schools to have 30 minutes of designated ELD instruction. Our English Learners go to a different classroom (from their homeroom) for ELD instruction at their level. English Only students stay in their homeroom classroom and teachers teach lessons using Speaking and Listening standards. If you're not teaching ELD during this designated time, it is your obligation to teach the Speaking and Listening standards to the EO students.

This year my EL students go to another classroom to receive designated instruction with the ELD standards at their level, so my EO students stay with me. I have come up with different ideas to incorporate the Speaking and Listening standards during our 30 minutes of Speaking and Listening instruction, to make the most out of the standards and the 30-minute block.

1. Story Line Online
I use this website at least once a week, while incorporating a review of CCSS language arts (by using my Speaking and Listening Graphic Organizers). This website is FREE, and there are multiple stories to choose to play for your class. I love it because an actor reads the story, and then the book's illustrations come to life. It's a great start for a student discussion on characters, plot, setting, and actions.

2. Math Talk Monday
I love using our 30 minutes of Speaking and Listening to reinforce math concepts that have already been taught. I do this by having students " Reach Consensus." I do not like teaching new concepts during this time since I have four English Learners leave my room for their ELD time, so I like to give students a review sheet of concepts we have already learned. Students complete the practice or review sheet on their own, and then once they're done, I put them into groups of 3-4 students. Students are given a role for the group, either a leader or collaborator. The leader leads the students in a discussion about their answers, then the students "reach consensus" about their answers.

Here's an example of my students in action.

3. Academic Vocabulary
Another good use of Speaking and Listening time is the instruction of Academic Vocabulary. I have had a lot of success teaching one word a week to my class, in a direct instruction format.

There are a lot of activities for Academic Vocabulary as well. Students have discussion opportunities with Academic Vocabulary during this time as well.

4. What Would You Do?
I also use this time to give students an opportunity to think about social situations, while having a class discussion. I read a social situation to my class and give them the time to process what they would do in that situation. Then, I hold a class discussion on their opinions and how they would handle certain social situations. Grab these free cards to get yourself started.

5. Read and Respond
Another fun activity I do with my students is a read and respond activity called " Read, Write, Roll."

It's a great way for students to practice comprehension skills, while also keeping up on their communication skills.

Speaking and Listening activities should be engaging for students. I also always try to incorporate a review to reinforce skills we have already learned. It's also a great opportunity for students to build their communication skills and 21st-century learner expectations.

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The English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework in California call for Designated ELD instructional time. It's a protected time in the school day where teachers use the California ELD standards to teach critical English language skills. The state of California has left it up to districts to determine the amount of time for this designated block.

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12 Great ESL Listening Activities & Games (Plus Free Worksheets) | JIMMYESL

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Do you struggle with finding interesting ways to teach ESL listening skills? Maybe you have an activity or two already but you want to be able to mix it up and keep things interesting. By the end of this article, you will have 12 interesting English listening activities that you can use with ESL students of various ages and skill levels.

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Reading engagement is an important part of a student's motivation to read. When you are motivated to read, you are more likely to increase the amount of time that you spend reading. This is important for English Language Learners, as they need many exposures to text. When a student is motivated, he or she is better able to learn new material. Feeling frustrated can lower one's motivation to practice reading. This also impacts how engaged they are with the text that they are reading. In both cases being motivated and engaged helps and encourages ELLs to read more. Here are some ways to help ELLs stay engaged in reading.

Access to Diverse Books

Students enjoy reading books that are relevant to their everyday lives. Diverse books are beneficial for all children but are particularly important for ELLs. Students that come from diverse cultural backgrounds need to read about characters and topics that are equally diverse. I have collected Lists of Diverse Books for ELLs to help you start to expand your collection.

As an ESOL teacher I had my own classroom library. My students enjoyed picking books for independent reading from my collection. I allowed them to bring books home with them. I loved seeing their excitement when they are able to pick out a new book to borrow.

Student Interest

Another key way to keep students engaged in what they are reading is for them to read about topics that they are interested in. During the beginning of the year, you can have students fill out an interest survey to get a general idea about what they enjoy reading. You can also get ideas from a graphic organizer designed to help students generate writing topics for reading materials.

Reading Level

It is a balancing act to find books at the correct level for ELLs. The book should be close enough to the student independent reading level so that it is not frustrating. At the same time ELLs, especially as those in upper elementary school and beyond, want to appear to be reading books at the same level at their peers.

Some categories of books that are great for ELLs include graphic novels and Hi/Lo Books that are written at a low reading level, but with content that is appealing to older students.

Recommendation

A positive recommendation from a classmate carries a great deal of weight in convincing students to try out a new book or series of books. Consider having students give a short book talk about books that they enjoyed reading. This is a great way to help them practice summarizing the text, but can also spark interest in other students trying out the book.

Familiar

After reading a books to students allow them to reread it independently. Another way to provide ELLs with familiar text to reread is through reading short phrases and sentences for fluency. For a beginning reader, repeated reading of a text helps them to increase their reading fluency and vocabulary.

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How to Keep ELLs Engaged in Reading - A World of Language Learners

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Reading engagement is an important part of a student's motivation to read. When you are motivated to read, you are more likely to increase the amount of time that you spend reading. This is important for English Language Learners, as they need many exposures to text.

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Graphic organizers are visual tools that help make content more comprehensible for English as a Second Language (ESL) students. They organize information, show relationships, and make connections to new material in a visual format. ESL students are able to understand new concepts and ideas much easier

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by Claudia Pesce 35,107 views

Explanations are all fine and dandy, but sometimes we need to pick up a board marker and organize concepts, vocabulary or grammar in a way that is easier and much simpler for our ESL students to grasp. And graphic organizers will help you do just that! Here are some of the most popular, and more importantly, what you can use them for in your ESL class.

8 Ways to Use Graphic Organizers in Your ESL Class

1. Venn diagrams are perfect for comparisons and contrast. There are two circles that overlap in the middle. Students compare two things and write what they have in common in this overlapping space. The differences are written in the spaces that don't overlap.

How to use it in your ESL class: Compare how Christmas is celebrated in the US to the way it is celebrated in your home country.

2. This graphic organizer is ideal for brainstorming, whether you are trying to elicit vocabulary or come up with ideas for a writing assignment. You write the topic in the center and students contribute related ideas to fill out the other circles.

How to use it in your ESL class: Write " Sports" in the center and have students brainstorm different types. From each sport, you can have circles with words related to each particular sport. Sports => Tennis => racket, net, ball, etc... Draw the cluster on the board and work together as a group or hand out individual copies for vocabulary review.

Game: Hand put copies of a cluster with a topic ("Clothes", "Weather") in the center and a certain number of supporting circles. The first student who fills out all of the circles correctly wins.

3. This is a handy way to show a sequence of events and helps students place them in the right order.
How to use it in your ESL class: Students help you place a series of events that took place in the past within the time line: (" Joe went to school at 4pm. His mother made dinner at 6pm. Joe came home at 7pm.") Students practice the Past Perfect: " By the time Joe came home, his mother had already made dinner. "

4. This one is also useful to describe a sequence of events or the steps in a process.
How to use it in your ESL class: Try this sequencing activity on how to wash your hands. Use the prompts for the different steps; students must put them in the right order and use the sequencing words. Flow charts are also great for this type of activity.

5. Students write down the main goal in the center circle. Students come up with reasons for accomplishing this goal, and finally facts related to these reasons.

How to use it in your ESL class: Students write down their goal for the ESL course, for example, " speak English more fluently". One of the reasons may be " need to speak English at work". The supporting circles may be " boss only speaks English" or " all company communication is in English ".

You can also adapt the graphic and make it "cause and effects", for example, global warming as the cause, and its various effects " extreme weather", " increase in average global temperature" " melting of the glaciers ", etc...

6. You can use this graphic in the same way you'd use the Word Cluster - it's a different graphic, but it serves the same purpose. In this case, the topic goes in the center and the supporting ideas on the spokes of the wheel.

How to use it in your ESL class: Write " Ways to Be Healthier " as your central topic. Students contribute ideas such as, "Eat more fruits and vegetables", "Walk or ride bike instead of drive", "Sleep at least 8 hours a day", etc...

7. With the use of triangles you can go from a broad topic to a more specific one (inverted triangle) or vice versa. The triangle is a classic for the Food Pyramid where you put the foods you should eat the most at the bottom and those you should have small quantities of at the top.

How to use it in your ESL class: Use the inverted triangle and write a very general topic at the top and following with more detailed information. General topic: The weather => The weather has been changing in recent years => We are having more extreme weather events => These events include tsunamis, superstorms, and flooding due to heavy rains => The population will need to prepare for these events.

8. Tell your students that they must write a story in English, and most will freak out. Give them a story map to get started, and they will calm down.
How to use it in your ESL class:

Option 1 - Hand them out completely blank

Option 2 - Fill in some of the details. You can fill in the same details (same character or same problem, for example) for each and see how students still come up with different stories.

Option 3 - Fill in different details for different students. In some cases you provide characters, in others a problem, etc...

You may choose to copy the graphic onto the board and complete it as class. Or hand out copies for each individual student to complete. Use them to introduce or review content. You'll find these and more at Education Place and lots more at TeacherVision.

Never underestimate the power of using visuals - graphic organizers can really clear things up for your ESL students. Also, as you work together to complete one, you can maximize student talking time.
Which of these do you use on a regular basis? If you have any success stories to tell, share them 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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8 Ways to Use Graphic Organizers in Your ESL Class

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by Claudia Pesce 35,107 views Explanations are all fine and dandy, but sometimes we need to pick up a board marker and organize concepts, vocabulary or grammar in a way that is easier and much simpler for our ESL students to grasp. And graphic organizers will help you do just that!

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Supporting writing through listening and speaking 

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Supporting writing through listening and speaking 

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For many children learning a new language they go through a similar progression of language acquisition. Listening skills come first, then speaking, then reading, finally writing. With this information in mind, I find it helpful to integrate language skills. This also has the added benefit of helping students generate ideas in multiple ways and helping children that learn in different ways to be successful. Here are some ideas to help students listen and talk before they begin writing, including Speak then Write activities.

Fisher, Frey & Rothenberg (2008) state that "English language learners need access to instruction that recognizes the symbiotic relationship among the four domains of language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing."** There is not time to start with only listening and speaking the way children learn a first language. Integrating the language domains helps ELLs to aquire the literacy while learning vocabulary through listening and speaking.

1. Think Pair Share

One activity I came across takes a common classroom structure (Think Pair Share) and reformats it to be even more beneficial to ELLs writing.* Students can fill out a graphic organizer to record their ideas as they are talking and listening. Afterwards they have additional ideas to use as they are writing about the topic.

2. Using Visuals

Visuals help to give ELLs a common ground to build their conversation on. For lower level students it allows them to sometimes use nonverbal communication such as pointing to part of the picture as they are speaking or refer to it as they are listening. Students can then use the same images as part of a writing activity. The continuity helps students to incorporate new vocabulary into their writing.

3. Speak then Write Activities

I created a set of Speak then Write activities for students that come with colorful images. One set also integrates animal life cycles so that they can be used as a part of science content instruction as well.

Sorting Cards

There are colorful cards for stages of animal and plant life cycles. Students place them on a life cycle sorting mat and can then use question prompts to talk about the pictures with a partner.

4. Differentiated Graphic Organizers

I have 3 levels of graphic organizers. One has the pictures already put in order. Students only have to write about the pictures. This can be as simple as one or two words, focusing on vocabulary. For the other two levels students cut out and glue the pictures onto the organizer. Students can also use the organizers to help complete an animal research project. They can read books or watch video clips about the animal and use the organizer to record the information that they learn about each stage.

Learn More

For even more speaking and writing ideas to use with ELLs check out my post Integrating Speaking and Writing for ELLs.

References
(Includes affiliate links)
*Moving From Spoken to Written Language With ELLs

*Content-Area Conversations: How to Plan Discussion-Based Lessons for Diverse Language Learners

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4 Ways to Support ELLs Writing through Listening and Speaking - A World of Language Learners

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For many children learning a new language they go through a similar progression of language acquisition. Listening skills come first, then speaking, then reading, finally writing. With this information in mind, I find it helpful to integrate language skills.

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I've been using a Word Wall with my high school students for 9 years now, and the results have been incredible.

I have 90-minute classes, so I'm able to give my students 8-10 minutes of free reading time each day. I put this time at the BEGINNING of the class for several reasons.

1. I express that free-choice reading is SO important in helping students with many aspects of their personal and student life that it deserves to be first in my class.
2. If you save it for last, students will be more likely to talk and not read.
3. It settles a class down and sets the vibe for the remaining portion of the class.

During these 5-10 minutes of reading time, students are to find ONE word that they don't know, find challenging, or like the sound of while reading. They write this word and sentence down immediately then continue reading. Then, I give them around 3 minutes to fill out their Frayer boxes on the word they found. Since I'm in a 1:1 classroom, they do this digitally in their Classroom OneNote Notebooks. Here is what it looks like:

If you would like this strategy, plus more vocabulary strategies for classroom OneNote, follow my OneNote Pinterest Board and download my free vocabulary notebook found in my collection!

My daily schedule goes like this:
1. Free Reading
2. Vocabulary
3. Daily Grammar Practice ( See how I incorporate music into my grammar program here: link)
4. Main Lesson

Monday Vocabulary Time:
By finding a new word each day, they will end up with 5 new words each Monday. It is on this day that I walk around the room and pick out the best of the best words. As I'm walking and checking work, I keep students busy by practicing roots words or reviewing their former words (more on this in a minute). I will ask the students with the best words to go up to my computer and type in their word, part of speech, sentence, and definition. I repeat this for all 3 classes (I'm on a block schedule) and end up with around 15-20 great words and sentences from YA books. I personally narrow these down to the top 10 that I see most often in literature and in life. I often teach a variety of grades (10th-12th), but have never had an issue with using the same list for all classes. It has always worked out well for me. I try to get the same amount of words from each class to be fair.

Tuesday Vocabulary Time:
After I have the vocabulary list all nice and neat (remember the students did the work), I project the vocabulary list of the week up on my board, and students copy the information. Since they aren't hand-writing these, I want them to do something with them, so I make them color-code the context clues in the sentences. I label each week's words a different color. For example, Red words 1 (I also color-code my Onenote notebook for an easy way to organize) More on why I color-code in a minute. This is what my student's notebook looks like after they have highlighted the context clues.

Wednesday Vocabulary Time:
Students review words with partners or play a game such as Kahoot, Quizlet, or ball toss (toss the ball and the catcher must call out the correct definition or they are out). I especially love using Quizlet because I simply copy and paste the words by using the "import" function (i.e. less work for me).

UPDATE! I've recently started incorporating a new game, and it might just be my FAVORITE! It's called Word Sneak, and I got this idea from my students. They were playing around and trying to make up funny sentences with the words, and I told them that we should use that as a game. They informed me that game has already been invented and is on The Tonight Show. Since I'm normally asleep by 8:30 each night, this explains why I've never seen it. 😉 #partylikeanEnglishteacher

So, anyway, watch this clip to get an idea of the game then download my FREE game template here to play!

Here is a picture from my Instagram with this game in action:

I share all of my ideas first on Instagram, so be sure and follow me there! @Bsbooklove

Thursday Vocabulary Time:
Vocabulary Bingo: Students draw 9 boxes (3 across and 3 down) and put the new set of words in the boxes. When you build your wall up, you can use more colored sets. For example, I say, "9 boxes with any blue or red word." Once they have their boxes made, I make up sentences and have students put an X on the word that fits with the sentence until someone gets a bingo. I have a little box full of candy and toys for the winners.

I'm always surprised how much big kids like toys like these!

Friday Vocabulary Time:
We play a different review game each Friday. Here are the ones in rotation:

* The fly swat game. I have two fly swats and make a bracket with 8 teams (I just have my students number off to 8). The teams go up against each other until the bracket gets to a winner. The first person to swat the correct word on the wall gets to move up the bracket. I do single elimination so this game doesn't take too long.

*Quizlet Live. This is my students' new favorite game!!!

*Others mentioned above such as ball toss, word sneak, Kahoot or bingo.

I also give a quiz each Friday over the new set of words PLUS last week's words OR ....and here's where it gets complicated to explain... the same colored set of words. For example, my quizzes will go like this:

Week 1- Red words
Week 2- Red words plus new Blue words
Week 3- Blue words plus new Yellow words
Week 4- Yellow words plus new Green words
Week 5- Green words plus new Orange words
Week 6- Red words 1 plus new Red words 2
Week 7 Blue words 1 plus new Blue words 2
etc.

I use sentences with context clues for my quizzes. Since we practice highlighting context clues on Tuesday, this really helps them to search for these on the quiz. I differentiate by highlighting the context clues for certain students.

*As you can see, having a color-coded visual of words makes it extremely easy for teachers and students to constantly review new words.

*If you are trying to add more Greek and Latin words into your curriculum as I am, you can focus on a root a week and have students try to find these roots in their reading. You can also add quiz questions regarding these roots.

*Word Walls set the atmosphere for easy, no-prep games to add fun to your classroom.

*Students love being able to look at this wall and add words to their writing (I always put a huge smiley face when I see a word wall word used in student writing).

*Students take ownership of their vocabulary instruction.

*It helps set a routine for your class which is very beneficial for behavior problems.

*It promotes good reading skills

*It promotes free-choice reading. We do a book project every 9 weeks, and it's the best day of the year. I absolutely LOVE the creative projects my students come up with. Want to get a FREE download for my Fun Foodie Book Project Choices? Sign up for my newsletter to receive your free download!

*Word Walls give you an instant inspiration board when you want students to practice writing grammatically correct sentences. (For example: Tell them, "Use one blue word and one yellow word to form a compound sentence using a semicolon")

For a free vocabulary template, click here: 5 New Words a Week Template

Want to see my newly updated Word Wall letters to match my new Harry Potter-ish themed classroom? Click Here: Harry Potter Secondary Classroom

Want more teaching and time-saving tips? Be sure to follow me and sign up for my newsletter using the prompt above!

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How and Why to Use Word Walls with Older Students - Building Book Love

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I've been using a Word Wall with my high school students for 9 years now, and the results have been incredible. How: I have 90-minute classes, so I'm able to give my students 8-10 minutes of free reading time each day. I put this time at the BEGINNING of the class for several reasons.

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Vocabulary strategies for older students 

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Vocabulary strategies for older students 

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Teaching vocabulary in high school? It can be difficult but also rewarding. In this post, read about ideas for teaching vocabulary to older students. Included, details for a simple but meaningful fun vocabulary activity to extend learning.
TWO WAYS STUDENTS ACQUIRE NEW WORDS

Word knowledge directly impacts students' reading comprehension. Vocabulary experts agree that in order to comprehend what they read, students need to know between 90 and 95 percent of the words they will confront in a text. If a student approaches a text with that level of readiness, he or she will be able to determine the main idea and make educated guesses about the meaning of unfamiliar words, which is how that student acquires new vocabulary indirectly.

For this reason, one of the best ways you can introduce your students to new words is by allowing them opportunities to learn vocabulary indirectly through reading experiences. Students can and should read on a daily basis - at all ages. Reading books at the appropriate reading level is the best vocabulary extension activity you can provide in any content area. Still, teachers need to introduce students to new words directly as well.

KEYS TO DIRECT VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION

What are the keys to effective direct vocabulary instruction? Pinpointing the answer to this question can lead to powerful transformations in the way you approach vocabulary in your classroom. According to research, several key factors play into ensuring that students learn the words instead of simply memorizing them.

1. Size

The list size needs to be small and manageable. Determining an appropriate number for your students might be a process of trial and error. It depends on your students' age and ability, their existing background knowledge, and the sophistication of the words you are asking them to learn.

In my high school classroom, lists consist of ten to fifteen words, and I allow students two weeks to interact with them on a daily basis before I expect mastery. Less is more. Quality over quantity. When it comes to vocabulary lists, the cliches apply.

2. Presentation

Students need to hear and see the word used in meaningful and specific ways before we can expect them to do so on their own.

When I introduce words, I always do so via direct instruction, never by assigning a list and asking them to look up the definitions on their own. As I introduce the word, I engage students in meaningful discussions, whereby I can help them understand the word's derivatives and connections to the real world.

Direct instruction is a perfect time to use mentor sentences and allow opportunities for teens to see the words used contextually in literature.

3. Practice

Students need to have ample opportunities to interact with the word every day. For this reason, I always make time for my students to study their words during class. You'll know when students have actually learned the words. They'll use them in their speaking and writing, and they will refer less to their notes during review. I always try to keep a fun vocabulary activity on hand to keep practice fresh.

Using brain-based vocabulary approaches will help to ensure the practice time you provide is worthwhile. When I complete a vocabulary unit, my students know we will continue coming back to those words throughout the year. This repetition reinforces the likelihood that students will retain the new words.

4. Engagement

Students need to be engaged when learning about new words. Teachers can accomplish this goal through choice and differentiation as well as by pulling in topics of interest. For instance, referring to current events, school controversies, and pop culture are just a few examples of how engaging students through associations will make learning more valuable and memorable. When teachers help students to truly love and appreciate learning new words, magic happens.

DIFFERENTIATING VOCABULARY

I have a passion for differentiating vocabulary instruction by learning styles and abilities. I'm always devising new ways for students to think about their words...different angles that might offer another perspective on how to use a word or remember it. In one of my favorite differentiated vocabulary assignments, I offer my students countless angles for approaching words on any list. Through creative questions, I prompt my students to analyze a word in unique ways. For instance...

Fun Vocabulary Activity 1

Think about the meaning of this word: abase. I f you were to give this word a rating (think movie rating) for its appropriateness, what rating would you give it, and why?

This question would first require students to review the meaning. Abase means "to behave in a way so as to belittle or degrade someone. Then, students would need to think about that definition deeper. Does a word like abase deserve a G, PG, PG-13, or R rating, and why?

Obviously, there's no one right answer. Students might respond that it should be rated PG-13 because parental guidance is advisable when children are being mean to others. They might further explain that bullying is common in high school, which is why they rated it a PG-13 instead of just PG. Asking students this one simple question has allowed them to make connections to real-life (bullying and the idea that parental guidance is necessary when one child is abasing another), which strengthens their connection to the word.

Fun Vocabulary Activity 2

Here's another example:
Create an acrostic poem using the vocabulary word. Make sure the poem reflects an aspect of the word and illustrates how you think about it.
Students might then provide a written explanation of their acrostic.
The vocabulary word abase has a negative connotation. When I think of this word, I'm reminded of people who are afraid of those who degrade others. Students who are abased might be scared to go to school for fear of being belittled. Bullies often antagonize people by shaming them. Sometimes they do this in person, but more, often, they do it on social media. When victims are abased, their self-esteem is impacted.
A SIMPLE VOCABULARY EXTENSION ACTIVITY

After my students interact with a vocabulary word through the task cards and supplemental exercises, it's easy and effective to ask students to reflect on what they have learned with a fun vocabulary activity that encourages them to extend their learning.

Using the numerous answers they provided during the differentiated vocabulary practice, I ask them to select the associations they made that are the most powerful. I ask them, Which connections really help you to understand this word? Which connections helped you to have the "Ah ha! I get it!" moment? Using those responses, students create a mini poster. They can do this artistically by hand drawing, by making a collage, or by compiling ideas digitally.

Then, I use these posters to create a word wall. Each student will connect with vocabulary word differently, so the posters can be extremely unique. When they see their words displayed on the wall, it helps them to take ownership of their learning and feel proud they have contributed to their environment - win, win!

RELATED RESOURCE:

Looking for a fun vocabulary activity? They are my jam. Click on the image below to view the details of the differentiated vocabulary practice assignment that allows students to interact with their words from various angles in meaningful ways.

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A Fun Vocabulary Activity for Middle or High School - Reading and Writing Haven

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Teaching vocabulary in high school? It can be difficult but also rewarding. In this post, read about ideas for teaching vocabulary to older students. Included, details for a simple but meaningful fun vocabulary activity to extend learning. Word knowledge directly impacts students' reading comprehension.

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Vocabulary acquisition sounds like a big fancy word, but really, it just means making sure your students can understand and use a word in the appropriate context. Many English Language Learners struggle to acquire vocabulary at the same rate as their English speaking peers, which widens the achievement gap and frustrates the teacher and the students. Now, there's no magic spell to close the achievement gap, but there are some ways to narrow it!

Handing students a list of words and definitions is not effective, especially for English Language Learners. Students need exposure, repetition and authentic practice with a word before being held accountable for it. ELL's need to be able to use a word across the four domains of reading, writing, listening and speaking. One strategy I use is the six-step process by Marzano. It is a framework meant to provide the background knowledge and scaffolding that students need to use a vocabulary word. I've outlined how I use the steps using examples from my science class, but these strategies will work for words in any content area.

1. Teacher introduces vocabulary

I start off by teaching each word explicitly, using pictures, videos, songs, and lots of student friendly examples. I give each student a word card after I've explained it, and they hold it at their desks. I'll stop after every few words and say, "Who has wedge?" The student will hold up their card if they have it. Then, depending on the level of the student, I may ask her to spell it, read the definition, or give me an example. I do that until each student is holding at least one word. Then to collect them, I'll say "Bring me the word that means to push or pull something." Or, "Bring me the word that's spelled S-C-R-E-W." Making the words interactive from the very start makes my students more engaged, and gives them more chances to connect with a word.

2. Students restate the example in their own words

3. Students create a picture or symbol to represent the word

I do these two steps together as one activity. My students fill out a vocabulary wheel where they write the word, the definition, a sentence of their own, and draw a picture. This can be done as a collaborative activity, too! In groups, one student can write the word, another writes the definition, and another draws the picture. Then switch roles for the next word.

4. Students engage in a hands-on activity with the word

This is where the fun really begins! My students LOVE to play SCOOT, go on scavenger hunts, make crosswords and wordsearches, and quiz each other.

During our Simple Machines unit, we went on a hunt around the school to find examples of simple machines. We took pictures with our iPads, then sorted the pictures into machine categories. That activity not only enriched their vocabulary, but it addressed multiple intelligences, too!

5. Students discuss words with one another

Using our word cards or their vocabulary wheels, I let my students partner up to quiz each other on the word. It takes a lot of modeling by the teacher to show them what kinds of questions to ask, but since we do this for every unit, they've gotten the hang of it!

6. Engage students with words in different forms and in different activities

Vocabulary acquisition doesn't stop at the end of the chapter! This is where your spiral review comes in. Using the words even when the unit is over gives extra repetition and a deeper connection with the word. I keep all our words in a little organizer next to our pocket chart so I can quickly find them. So for an exit ticket or closure activity, I'll grab our word cards out of the pouch, let each student pick one, and then make a 10 finger sentence for it. If you upload your words to a site like Quizlet or Spelling City, students can interact with the words at home or during a technology center.

There is definitely not a one-size-fits all way to teach vocabulary, but these are some of the strategies that have worked for my ELL's. I hope they work for yours!

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Vocabulary Strategies for English Language Learners

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Vocabulary acquisition sounds like a big fancy word, but really, it just means making sure your students can understand and use a word in the appropriate context. Many English Language Learners struggle to acquire vocabulary at the same rate as their English speaking peers, which widens the achievement gap and frustrates the teacher and the students.

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We want to make sure our ELLs understand everything from seemingly simple directions to heavy lesson content throughout the day. Besides more formal testing, you can also use non-verbal cues like thumbs up, thumbs down, or thumbs sideways (for “not sure”). It’s important to make sure ELLs know that it’s completely okay to let you know they didn’t understand something. As you consistently check for their understanding, they’ll become more aware of monitoring their learning, too.

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Have you ever heard of the Silent Period? If you have English Language Learners in your class, I'm sure it's something you're familiar with. If you're new to teaching ELL's, it can be a daunting challenge to face, but I have some tips to help you get through!

I'm going to give you a brief overview of the term, but I'm mostly focusing on how to best help the students in your class- not just your ELL's, your native-born students as well.

Taking risks can be scary. Taking risks in a classroom with 40 expecting eyes on you can be downright terrifying. The Silent Period can keep hold of a student for any length of time, from 2 days to 4 months to over a year. Something to note is the Silent Period doesn't always mean complete silence- more on that in a bit!

TPR, or Total Physical Response, is a technique used by many world language teachers to make vocabulary stick. It's not a strategy often talked about by English Language teachers, but I am here to tell you that it works! When students repeat an action in correlation with a word, that word gets cemented in their brains. Want to try it? Many preschools teach vocabulary with American Sign Language, but I don't know any ASL, so I came up with my own gestures to suit my students' needs!

Please, please, please let your students talk. I know you have rules and procedures for when students are allowed to speak and when they're not, but learning language requires speaking, and not just on command. Case in point: I have a kindergarten friend who is still in the silent period (unable to answer teacher questions) after 1 full year of being continually "shushed" by his well-meaning teacher.

This is a case where Silent Period doesn't mean silent, because when he works independently in my room, he chatters constantly in what seems to be toddler babble. It sounds like this: "Ok, yes, ready, HELLO, you ready? Superman. ok, got it, perfect! Chris can do! Yay! I see, fish, big, yellow, HELLO, ready? ok, one two three, ok Chris." It may not seem like it, but all of this chatter is GOOD chatter- in fact, it's GREAT chatter. This chatter tells me that he has words up there, even if he doesn't have the structure for them. Now I can direct my questions with the words I know he knows. I heard him say the word fish and big, so I may point to a picture and ask, "Chris, is the fish BIG or small?" I'm putting his babble to good use and gently guiding him towards phrases and sentences.

In the example above, Chris has and uses some social phrases like, "You ready?" "I can do it!" "Ok, Chris!" I've also heard him say, "My turn!" which made me nearly burst into tears of pride. This is all Social Language, which develops first and quickly. Academic Language is much slower to develop, and takes years and years to master. Keep thinking back to your own baby at home- he learned to talk to and about toys well before learning the ABC's, and it was probably a few more years before he learned colors and shapes. ELL's follow the same pattern; they pick up the language that is used daily, and struggle more often with abstract or situational language.

I learned this the hard way. A few years ago, I had a 4th grade student in the Silent Period, and we worked one on one for close to 90 minutes a day. When he was able to complete a sentence frame or answer a question, I used to jump for joy and clap my hands. After a while, I noticed I was getting no reaction from him, and my praise was not motivating him to continue on. This puzzled me, because don't ALL kids like cheering and clapping? Big fat no.

I read through some studies on his culture and realized that if praise is given, it is because the child has done the equivalent of a triple salchow (you know, from figure skating!). Students in his country were not praised for completing something they were already expected to do, and when praise was given, it was short and curt. This threw me for a loop! I quickly reigned in my enthusiasm and found a new system of praise: a check on his paper, which was silent and tangible- something he could relate to.

Teaching students who are in the Silent Period is not an easy task, and it may often seem like you aren't getting results. Hang in there- even though you can't see or hear the results, they are swirling around in that sponge of a brain, germinating and getting ready to spill out. If you're looking for some ways to encourage social and academic language, read this post! Or, check out some of my Speaking and Listening activities over at TPT. And believe me: patience, persistence, and positivity will pay off!

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Have you ever heard of the Silent Period? If you have English Language Learners in your class, I'm sure it's something you're familiar with. If you're new to teaching ELL's, it can be a daunting challenge to face, but I have some tips to help you get through!

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Group work provides ELLs opportunities to use academic language with their peers. Speaking in small groups can feel less intimidating, so you might be surprised to see an ELL talk more than in a formal whole-group setting. Group work also naturally has social conversation opportunities build in. This could be the setting when your ELLs will talk the most in the classroom.

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Sentence stems are simply incomplete sentences that you begin for students to finish. They can range from simple to complex, verbal to written, and academic to social. By giving students a framework for sharing, you show them correct sentence structure and give them a chance to practice. Also, it allows them time to think about the content of their responses.

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When I first started teaching 5th grade, I had a pretty serious misconception about students and writing. I thought that students would be able to express themselves verbally and in writing about what we were learning. Wrong-o, Ari. There were a few that were articulate, but as a group, my students needed some scaffolding.

Hello, sentence stems. Sentence stems help students communicate what they are thinking about, help many students with special needs, and provide focus for our lesson.

In this post, I've provided some basic sentence stems for social studies, math, and science.

3 Tips for Using Sentence Stems

1. Make sentence stems optional.

I've found that the students who need the sentence stems KNOW they need it and will use it. As students get more comfortable with explaining their thinking, many will naturally use the sentence stems.

2. Model how to use sentence stems when responding in notebooks and aloud.

Unless students have used them before, they may not know what to do with it a blank line. Show them your expectations and how it can be helpful. Have students practice using sentence stems when answering questions with a partner. You can practice with easy ones like "My favorite subject is ___ because ___."

3. Keep a list of sentence stems handy for you and your students to reference.

Sometimes my brain hurts and I just need things to be readily available. I made 3 printable pages of sentence stems for social studies, science, and math that you can download and have on-hand. Download this free resource now.

Hopefully this post gave you some ideas on how to implement sentence stems in your classroom!

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When I first started teaching 5th grade, I had a pretty serious misconception about students and writing. I thought that students would be able to express themselves verbally and in writing about what we were learning. Wrong-o, Ari. There were a few that were articulate, but as a group, my students needed some scaffolding.

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Students need to be given clear examples of what is required of them.

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Here is a checklist of ways to support your ESL students. 

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Here is a checklist of ways to support your ESL students. 

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Newcomer students receive some support from an ELD (English Language Development) teacher in most elementary schools. The majority of their time is spent in their grade level classroom. Here are some strategies for supporting a newcomer student both in their grade level classroom and areas to focus on during targeted language development lessons.

Create a Welcoming Environment

Helping the student feel safe and comfortable is your main goal. Teach survival vocabulary at first so that the student can express their basic needs. Label items in the classroom. Include words in the student's native language. This might also help the rest of the class learn a few new words. Know that the student may go through a silent period. This should be expected.

Survival Vocabulary

During the first few weeks, a newcomer student is in school, and they may need help navigating the school building and expressing basic needs.

Get a FREE set of survival phrases and picture vocabulary HERE.

Differentiate Assignments

In the beginning, you will likely do more modifying of the assignment. The learning goal might be different for your newcomer student. You might instruct them to listen to a read-aloud and try to remember five new words from the story. During writing, give them simple sentence frames so that they can practice basic vocabulary. If the class is working on writing a personal narrative, the sentence frame might be: "I live in a _____."

Over time you will provide more accommodations such as vocabulary sheets and sentence starters so that the student can achieve the same results on an assignment as their classmates.

"Teachers can encourage better learning outcomes by providing opportunities for students to actively participate and interact with one another in relation to the subject matter (Haynes & Zacarian, 2010)." For a newcomer, this might mean having pictures available as part of a science unit that the student can point to and sort until they are comfortable speaking and writing.

Use Peer Tutors

A peer tutor can be an effective way to support a newcomer student. Even a responsible kindergartener can take on this role.

Shadow a Student

In kindergarten, a newcomer can complete most tasks that other students are working on but may need to see them in action or hear the directions repeated. They can have a partner they follow and work on the same activities in parallel. In the beginning, they may be primarily copying, but that is fine.

Playing a Review Game

This is a great activity for math. The partner can go over the rules of a math game. While the students are playing, the partner is reviewing math skills and the newcomer student is practicing math and practicing speaking English.

Consider giving the newcomer speaking prompts of helpful phrases while they are playing the game. This includes: "Your turn" "My turn" "Please say that again" "Can you show me how"

In upper grades, a peer tutor can read simple directions as a newcomer student is practicing basic vocabulary.

Use Visuals and Modeling

Modeling the steps to an assignment and behavior expectations is beneficial for all students. This is especially true for ELLs. Consider showing an example of a finished assignment. Writing out directions with a visual is helpful for all students and can help them stay on track when they are working independently. For a newcomer, they might only comprehend a small part of the directions when you are verbally giving them, but be able to understand more as they review the visual and writing directions. In addition, visual pictures can help students to learn new vocabulary.

Practicing Basic Vocabulary

It is important for a newcomer student to take part in most of the activities that the rest of the class is participating in through differentiation. It is also important for them to learn basic English vocabulary so that they can communicate. Have one or two responsible students work with the newcomer student as a peer tutor. The peer tutor can play a vocabulary game, read a book, or go over the directions for basic vocabulary practice.

File Folder Games are a fun way to practice basic vocabulary. I have ready-made sets available to help save you time.

Also, take a look at this basic vocabulary mini book and supporting worksheets. The worksheets are an easy way for a newcomer student to practice writing basic school vocabulary. Their peer tutor can read the vocabulary words to them and then the newcomer student can work independently writing them.

Provide Phonics Instruction

Phonics instruction will look different depending on the student's age and previous literacy experiences. For young students in K and 1st grade, phonics instruction is typically built into the language arts curriculum. For a newcomer, you might need to add additional pictures and review concepts from earlier in the year.

Some modifications to make for whole-class phonics lessons is if a newcomer isn't ready to spell words, have them practice reading them, matching the words with pictures, or only having to write one missing letter instead of the entire word.

Older students that are literate in their native language might not require much phonics instruction, especially if the language that students can read and write in uses the same alphabet as English. They may only need an overview of sounds/letters that are not part of their native language.

Other students are literate in their native language, but that language uses a different alphabet than English. These students will benefit from a quick overview of the English alphabet and letter sounds.

Finally, some students are older and are not literate in their native language. They will require the largest amount of instruction that is different than their native English peers. Use a systematic phonics program to introduce the letters and sounds of English. Include pictures and go over vocabulary. Use decodable texts that are respectful of the student's age and do not appear like they are obviously created for young children. You may only have a short amount of time available for phonics instruction. Having a scope and sequence will allow you to make the most of your time.

Get a Newcomer Phonics Set which is designed to quickly introduce the letters and common spelling patterns of English along with basic vocabulary. The set is designed for upper elementary students.

Build in Grammar Instruction

Similar to phonics instruction, newcomers in early primary grades may not require much grammar instruction separate from what students are already learning in the general classroom. Simply supplement with visuals and review previously taught concepts.

For older students, integrate grammar lessons with content material. One strategy is to use a sentence patterning chart to review parts of speech and sentence structure. Then create sentence frames and give students vocabulary to complete them. Another strategy is the picture inductive method, where you label a picture and then use the words from the picture to create sentences.

Use Materials that Highlight the Newcomer's Culture

In elementary school, newcomers will range from those who have never attended school before to students who can read and write in their native language.

Find Read Alouds that Have Words in the Student's Native Language

Sharing a book with familiar language is a great way to make your newcomer student feel more at ease. It is also a great way to show other students in the class how it feels to not understand everything that is being said and build empathy. Here are some resources for finding bilingual audiobooks.

Unite for Literacy - This is a large database of short books with photographs. Many of the books are available in multiple languages and have a read aloud feature.

The Fable Cottage- This site has audiobooks available in multiple languages. The available languages are English, Spanish, German, French, Italian. There are additional fairy tales available on a partner site thespanishexperiment.com.

Include Books about the Newcomer's Culture

Check your classroom library and see if it has books with characters and settings from the student's culture and home country. Look for both fiction and nonfiction books. Your school and public library are great places to find books to supplement your collection. For book ideas, I have lists of diverse books on a variety of subjects.

References & Resources
Newcomer Vocabulary Practice Bundle Print and Digital The ELL Teacher's Toolbook https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oela/newcomers-toolkit/chap3.pdf

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Supporting Elementary Newcomers - A World of Language Learners

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Do you have a newcomer student in your classroom? Here are some strategies for supporting newcomer ELLs in their elementary classroom...