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Rooted Linguistics: Serving Teachers of Multilingual Learners

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Sentence Frames
Sentence frames essentially frame a sentence and students add in some verbiage. Think of a picture frame where you add in a picture. Sentence frames look very much like traditional fill in the blank sentences.

Here are some examples of sentence frames:

The square has ___sides/angles.

The ____has ___sides/angles.

The ___are the same/different.

Based on the experiment, I can infer that the ____will increase and the ____will decrease.

My name is_____ and I am ___years old.

The _____ revolted against the ____.

____ is north/south/east/west of ____.

___have ____, however, ____ have ____.

​Both ____ and ____ have ____.

Sentence frames are scaffolds that may fit the needs of English learners at beginning levels of English proficiency. Some students may also benefit from visuals and word banks.
However, sentence frames can be used with English learners at higher levels of English proficiency to teach specific language structures or to teach mortar words/tier II words.
Sentence Stems
A sentence stem is the beginning of a sentence. Think of the stem of a plant. It's not the whole plant, just the beginning of it. It helps students get their sentence started. Sometimes we use the term sentence starter interchangeably. Sentence stems give students the inertia to get their thoughts going. Then their sentences bloom.

Here are examples of sentence stems:

What surprised me was...because....

I think that...for example

First...then...next...

In my opinion....in addition...

Based on the passage, I can infer that...for example....

I don't understand why....

Based on the pattern, the numbers will...

Sentence stems are scaffolds for English learners at all levels of English proficiency. They are open ended.
Personalizing
By thinking of the end in mind, you can level and personalize sentence frames or sentence stems to help English learners progress in language proficiency.

Beginning-Simple sentence structure: ____and ___ are quadrilaterals.

Intermediate-Comparative sentence structure: ___and ___ are quadrilaterals, however ___has___.

Advanced-Complex comparative sentence structure: Although___and ___ are ___, ___is different because...

Why is it important for us to provide students with sentence frames or sentence stems?
Learning to communicate effectively is important for all of us. I think we can all agree on that. But providing students with vocabulary lists will not achieve that goal.

Backward Design
Let's begin with the end in mind again. What is our over-aching goal? If we want students to, let's say, understand and communicate effectively using domain specific vocabulary (vocabulary of our content area), then how will we get them there?

Students will need to hear the vocabulary in context (from the teacher and peers)

Students will need to use the vocabulary in context (in speaking and writing)

To set English learner up for success, we will provide them with linguistic supports that they may use until they no longer need them. Any student can use them, but English learners especially will benefit as they are learning English and content simultaneously.

1. We can begin by modeling the language we want students to use. We want students to hear the language structures and vocabulary over and over again.

2. Then we move to letting them use the vocabulary and language structures with partners. We provide them with sentence frames or sentence stems. They practice verbalizing and hearing a peer multiple times.

3. Finally, we move to writing. Students are asked to write. Some students will rely on the sentence frames or sentence stems as scaffolds. Others will be able to write independently. Either way, students will have had the opportunity to learn from the teacher, verbalized themselves, and heard from peers.

This model takes students through the Gradual Release of Responsibility or I do, We do, You do model.
How do I think of vocabulary?
Start with your grade level standard. Look at what students need to know. Whether it's Common Core or not, your state standards will reveal vocabulary that is critical for your students to master.

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Well, first and foremost, we should care if we want our students to speak like scholars. If we want our students to be marketable after they graduate. If we want them TO graduate! Then we should...

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Teaching Strategies to Enhance Comprehension for EL students

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Teaching Strategies to Enhance Comprehension for EL students

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

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Free guide: 8 Actionable Tips for Supporting ELL students in High School

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Free guide: 8 Actionable Tips for Supporting ELL students in High School

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Rewordify.com | Understand what you read

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

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I'm working in districts where we have been in school for 5-8 weeks. This show is in response to some challenges and reflections on what I want to emphasize more. You can listen to this show right here or on your favorite podcast app.
Listen to "BAP111 Instead of IDK for SLIFE and Newcomers" on Spreaker.
An edited transcript follows with links to what I talked about:

This episode is going to be about lessons learned. I think there's value no matter what you do if you're a teacher, instructional coach, or administrator.

This is that time of the year when the honeymoon is over! LOL. Things are playing out in a certain way depending on what routines you put in place or did not put in place. What I've learned is that in many places where we're not getting things off the ground with students, it's because this strategy is not in place. We are realizing that we did not emphasize the teaching of this skill enough.

So let me offer you the strategy, and then I'm going to tell you why it's so critical for new arrival students. And this one is important for even your highest flyer in your classroom no matter what you teach. And I'm also going to tell you about a fail, so look forward to that. People always say they love hearing about what didn't go right or a non-example when I'm trying things.

So this fail is kind of funny too. All right, so here's the strategy.

The sheltered strategy is to Teach Kids What to Say When They Don't Know What to Say.

Let me say that again. We're going to teach kids what to say when they don't know what to say. Some teachers know this as an "Instead of 'I don't know' poster." We are working to remove "IDK" from our classrooms.

So let's think about it a little bit differently. We're not talking about a poster. Idk is what the students use. Many students text, I don't know Idk. All right?

Teach Ss Day 1 what to say instead of IDK. Opting out is not an option for Learners. @MsSalvac #supportingSIFE #BoostingAchievement @LearnTexas pic.twitter.com/djeBCMzs6p

- Trish Hinze (@TrishHinze) July 17, 2019

Often you will see a poster that says IDK, and it has an X through it in a classroom. The idea is that we are not going to say, 'I don't know' anymore. Instead, we want to encourage other things such as: May I ask a friend for help? Would you please repeat the question? Where can I find more information? May I have some time to think? etc. That's a fantastic poster to have. T he company I work for, Seidlitz Education, sells these great posters of things that say, they're beautiful.

WHY is this Important? Can the Students Tell Us?

If you ask the kids, why is it important to say other things instead of I Don't Know, could they tell us? Have we talked with them about this and let them come up with answers. This offers relevancy.

If I asked you to come up with three reasons why it is important for young people to say something instead of I don't know, I bet you could. As adults, we have built a skill where we might pause and say something like "Could you give me a minute?" Or "Can I ask someone to help me with this?"

Just Google It!

You know, the reality is that we don't use the skill so much anymore. Now we just ask Alexa. Or we ask Google. We google it. That's kind of dangerous for the world, don't you think? In the Boosting Achievement book that I wrote with Anna Mattis, we cite researchers that talk about how a part of our brain is starting to atrophy because of technology. We don't have to think deeply anymore. So then it is more important than ever that our classrooms are places where we can practice thinking, be more curious. Be more curious. Don't just default to I don't know.

It's a teenage culture kind of thing, right? I'm sure you can appreciate, even for your own child, do you want them to be okay with not knowing? So the first one that I always teach is, May I ask a friend for help? Because I'm trying to create a culture of conversation. And as soon as the student says that, we say, yes. And I'm going to hover around that student, and I'm going to make eye contact, and I'm going to ask them, Are you ok to answer before we come back. I might have to give them the answer. We need them to have a win in that moment in front of everybody. And if they didn't know the answer, they may not be the only one. They're likely not the only one that doesn't know.

Why is QSSSA not Working?

I'm going to talk about the Newcomer classroom. I am always talking about the newcomer student. This week, I was in a newcomer classroom where the majority of the students have missed large amounts of formal education, and we are at high school. The issue is that the students are not turning and talking when we want them to. And we have a really good structure, QSSSA, for students to turn and talk. But they're still not talking to each other as much as we would like for them to, even when we encourage the use of native language. We just don't have it off the ground.

Modeling for Teachers

A part of my job is modeling for teachers. So I decided I would model how to get this strategy off the ground with a class where most of the students are new to the target language of English. I never promise that I can pull off a spur of the moment lesson well. It is a challenge to model because I don't know the kids and I don't know the content. But I'm willing. I feel that it is important to be vulnerable enough to do these things to support the teachers. Even if the lesson doesn't go as planned, we get a chance to debrief and so we are both going to come out better.

Using Native Language

So remember that most of the kids in the classroom don't understand what I'm saying. Now, a lot of these kids speak Spanish, so I'm going to just be honest, my first instinct would be to just say it in Spanish. I speak Spanish. And this is not the moment to worry about language acquisition. This is the moment to worry about teaching a skill so that we can acquire more English! Routines, directions, telling a student how amazing they are...Those kinds of messages we need to get across, however we can get them across. Use your entire language repertoire to communicate these things. We have Google Translate and I will use it or whatever I need to use to help me , might use whatever I need to make sure they understand.

#SeidlitzEdChat
If anyone needs an "Instead of IDK" poster for thier #virtualclassroom here you go! #KeepItSimple #ells pic.twitter.com/BoEbq8SaQY

- Dr. Carol Salva (@DrCarolSalva) May 20, 2020

A key word or phrase is always okay. - Said by Nancy Motley in one of my first ESL trainings.)
But as the instructor, I want to stay in English as much as possible. I'm the model. I would only just pop out of English for a moment and come right back in. I don't want them to think that I will be translating everything. I want them to get comprehensible input (understandable messages) with me staying in English as much as possible. But again, this is so important that I would use my Spanish. Absolutely. Not a problem for me. It always has worked out just fine.

Translation Can't be our Go-To Strategy for Comprehensible Input

I have no problem using Spanish from time to time but the teacher I was working with does not speak Spanish! And another thing is that several kids in there don't speak Spanish! I could use Google Translate and I would still use some Spanish translation, though. I would still do it because the majority were Spanish speaking kids and they just communicate kid-to-kid better than they can with me often. They're friends. So I would do it, but I would be thinking "What about my student that speaks Farsi? What about the child that speaks Arabic? Are they getting it?" And so translation cannot be our comprehensible input default. And as the year goes on, I want to make sure it's not because more kids have more comprehension and I should not need to translate at all anything pretty soon. So anyway, the teacher I was working with didn't speak Spanish, and I want to make sure that I'm trying to model something that they can do easily.

How do I Get Buy-In for This Norm?

Okay, so here's how it looks if everybody speaks English in my classroom. I would write "I Don't Know." on the board and talk about how it is OK not to know answers. I'd give them a scenario in life like if I'm at the bank and they ask me, "What is your husband's mother's maiden name?" I might just need a minute. I might know it, but I might just say, "Can you hang on just a moment? Can you give me a minute to think?" My husband might be in the car, and so I might instead ask them if I could go ask him for help.

Most importantly, I want them to talk to each other. I'd like the students to talk and to tell me why is this important. I want their buy-in. This is a lesson. It is not just, 'Hey, we're going to start doing this today.'

We can just write one thing on the anchor chart and add to it throughout the year. But they need to buy-in. They need to understand why it's important. So I would have that "I Don't Know" written on the anchor chart and at that point, I would cross it out. Then I would add "Instead of..." and we can start writing other things we could say onto that poster.

Poster vs. Anchor Chart

Instead of 'poster,' let's call it an anchor chart. It needs to be big enough for the kids on the other side of the room to be able to read it. Any environmental print needs to be big enough, written in big enough print, that it's usable no matter where you're sitting in the class. And it needs to be referenced. Otherwise, it is just decoration.

On a mission to increase engagement for early ELs, @PantherNation_1 Ms. Carter begins virtual classes with a purpose statement (doubles as fluency practice), images to support growth mindset and @MsSalvac IDK chart 🙌🙌. @MNPS_EL pic.twitter.com/BfUzlt7lb3

- Heather W. Goodridge (@h_woodroof) September 3, 2020

NO FORCED OUTPUT

That's how it goes when everybody speaks English. So now I will explain what I do when they don't comprehend much English.

I want to say, before I start to tell you about the simulation, No Forced Output. That's a mantra in my mind that I'm saying to myself as I walk in front of a class of new arrival students or any students, no forced output. I am not going to force anyone. I'm never going to force a kid to speak in English. When they're acquiring English, it's just so cringy. And it is doing the opposite, the exact opposite of what I want, which is a low-stress environment where they can acquire, consume, and comprehend as much English as possible.

I want that to go as fast as possible. And there's a researcher named Steven Krashen who will tell you it's really all about reading. And he's right, in my experience. I want to get them reading with support, high interest, compelling things, acquiring and understanding these words as they start to understand how they sound and as they start to use them, we get it off the ground, and it starts going so fast.

They have to be comfortable for that. They have to be really comfortable. Not freaked out. So whatever I'm doing in front of the class, they can attend to it, they can see it, they can get it. They can start getting little things. They can be comfortable enough to talk to their partner in a low-stress way.

QSSSA

One-to-one is low stress, so use whatever language, but I want them to talk to each other. Some of them won't even talk to each other in their native language.

Think about that. A turn-and-talk. What could go wrong with a turn and talk in a regular math class? I'm sure you're thinking a lot of things.

They're not talking about what I want them to talk about....

One of them is doing all the talking...

They weren't paying attention, so they don't know.

And on and on...

QSSSA is a routine that helps solve for so many of the challenges we face when we want students to Turn and Talk. It's a top tip. It is our top tip. I work for a company called Sidelitz Education, and QSSSA is always a Top Tip! Chris Hagy of Charleston, SC has a padlet on the technique here. And this script by Michelle Gill is popular:

That routine is one of John Seidlitz' Seven Steps to a Language-rich, Interactive Classroom. It is a fantastic routine. But guess what step one is? Step one is teach kids what to say when they don't know what to say.

Teaching Students what to Say instead of IDK is STEP ONE.

That is step one for a reason. We need low-stress environments where everybody is willing to take risks. See, I don't want to force them to speak in English, but I do want to arm them with something they can take anywhere they go in the building and also not be so worried that they're going to be called on. So this "Instead of "I don't know" poster that we're creating, I have a little one for you.

They're about six to a page and you can just print them out and cut them up and tape them to the desk. Tape them to their agenda. Have a big one on the wall and also tape these on their Chromebook and everywhere so they can take it with them because it's a skill. It is what they might need at the doctor's office. To use in math class. To use everywhere.

The Fail

Okay, so I'm walking to the front of a classroom where kids do not speak English. The class is for that. And these are new arrival students. And it's at the beginning of the school year and it's specifically for students who have missed education. So imagine there's not much comprehension across the board. So I went up there and I wrote, I don't know on the board. And you see kids, they're looking at it quizzically. So I think, "I'm going to explain this like I always do, but I'll just use gestures."

So for whatever reason, I pointed to my eye in my face. Ha! I'm going to try not to laugh because it was so ridiculous. So I pointed to my eye, but then immediately I was like, no, not that kind of eye .. I. And I pointed to my chest and I saw a kid mouth "me" as soon as I pointed to my chest. He mouthed me and I was like, yes, like me... I. And another student pointed at me, like at the teacher, and said, I? No, no, no... now my mind is racing. I'm thinking, God! Because you know what? I did this for a living, for years. But every time I go in front of a class, I get slapped back into reality of how hard it really is. It is not easy to teach, period. But you forget how intentional you need to be to teach newcomers effectively. But I need this vulnerability. I need to be up there so that I can help. I don't have to have a magic wand and do anything perfectly. Or say "just do this!" I was up there so we can figure out things together. And I know there's a way to do this with newcomers. I'm just thinking, "Why didn't I think about this before I walked up here??"

I was like, no, I (pointing at my chest). Of course some kids got it. "I" is a very common high-frequency word. I like, I am here. Okay, let me just go on to "Don't"... the word "Don't." So I pointed to the word don't, and I said, Say "don't", and everybody repeated it.

I wagged my finger like, no... like you're shaming somebody.

Don't... don't... Don't

And one of them said, "no." And I said, yeah like "no." But he was saying, "I no?"

No. So when I was shaking my finger back and forth, they were getting "no" like yes or no. So I was like yeah, it's no...but it's don't. And I'm trying to think, how do you say don't? How do you convey don't without saying no? Because the next word is know!

I don't know.

So then I was like, okay, don't. Just say don't, and then no. And then point into my temple....know.

I know they're thinking, "I no no? And that no is with a K??"

Okay, right there. Let's just stop. This all happened in just a few seconds, right? To me, it is so funny.

Making Things Harder Than They Need to Be

It is so funny because I'm just making it so much harder than it needs to be. As always. As always, I'm making it way harder than it needs to be. Let's back up. I could have said it in Spanish because one kid finally did say "No Se?" That's beautiful. Yes! Throughout the school year, if they say it in Spanish, I'm going to say, yeah, exactly. Or if they get it, yeah. I don't care if they translate to each other all year long. I just don't want that to be their go-to either. But anyway, as soon as he said , I wrote And they're like, yeah, okay. But there were still kids in the class that don't speak Spanish. But I did see that they can help each other understand this. I saw a kid turn to another kid and make the gesture like shoulders up, palms up. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Yes. That kids should be teaching. LOL!

That kid should be teaching. Because here's how I'm going to always do it from this point forward. They all got it when I made this noise, when I shrugged my shoulders, when I put my palms up, and when I made the "I Don't Know" sound... it isn't even a word. It is a sound. So that gesture with your shoulders up and your palms up, that resulted in 100% of them getting it. And they started laughing, and they're like, okay, we get it.

I can also invite our kids who do have literacy in Arabic or something else to come and write that over here on this anchor chart. There's nothing wrong with the native language. In fact, it's powerful. But I want the English words big as that is our target language in this class.

So they understand this is what we're talking about. But they needed to understand, just like any class, what does it look like in a class? So let me circle back that little moment that I had in front of that class. That little fail, I call it, was such a fantastic learning opportunity for me and for the teacher. At least I know it was for me and I hope for him because we debriefed afterward that we're just making it harder than it needs to be.

Collaborate with Like Minded Educators

This is the kind of thing I get better at because I reflect on it. I am reflecting on it right now in this podcast. But I want to talk with or communicate with other educators to remind me of the basic things that are most powerful. And things like 'When is native language okay?' Again, A keyword or phrase is always okay for the teacher. I mean, when is native language okay for the students in an ESL classroom?

Always, always allow and honor their native language.

Students can use your entire language repertoire in this class because I have a language target. I have a language objective today. Our language objective is "We will use language such as "May I ask a friend for help?" and "Would you please repeat the question?"

That's our language target today. And we all repeated it at the beginning of class in unison because that is low-stress. I'm not forcing anybody, but if we say it all together, you know, and we used it several times in the class, and I'm constantly bringing them back into English. The ones who can speak English, the ones who are able to repeat, the ones who are we're constantly coaching for that through the entire 39 minutes. But you have to use your native language.

It's a source of comfort. Your funds of knowledge live there... everything that you're able to express.

I have a kid who speaks Spanish and a kid who speaks Arabic sitting together. And they do great, but they do use some of their native language. Their common language is English, but they can communicate with each other using everything they have.

We want to create a culture of conversation. And that conversation, we cannot force it all to be in English. But there's more and more English as we are going through the year. I promise this is the answer. Low-stress environments, low-stress opportunities for output.

Opportunities for output. No forced output. And tons of comprehensible input. Tons of messages that you start to understand, what does that person mean? What are they trying to get across to me in this language?

Comprehensible input would be in the target language of English in that classroom. But comprehensible. So me making that gesture really exaggerated...it's comprehensible. It was more comprehensible than anything else I was doing up there. So we just played around with it. We're just playing around with it.

Partner with Students. Be Transparent

And you know, what is great about what happened is the kids don't forget it. The kids won't forget it if it's a fail like that. I'm just transparent with them. I was always telling my students that I'm learning how to be a better teacher every day. That's what other people say, too.

I have heard Instructional Coaches say they don't model because they don't want to take the power away from the teacher. NO. You won't take the power away from that teacher. I don't believe that for a minute. Let's hold students to a higher regard. Partner with the students. I'm trying to get better about that. Right when I walk in, if they let me introduce myself, I want to say "Hi, I'm Dr. Salva. Your teacher and I are both learning. We're always learning. I hope for you that your whole life you will be learning. So today we're going to try some things together because I want to learn, and he wants to learn. And we're always working together to get better at things, to get better at teaching you. And so what I learned from you, too. And you guys learn from us. So we're going to try some things in here and see how they go."

I mean, that's just transparent because we're all still just on this journey, all of us, me, the teacher, the principal, the kids, all of us. Hold them in high regard. We are all learning together, okay?

So Instead of, 'I Don't Know.'

Here are some things for my journey of learning lately on supporting teachers:

It's not a poster. The strategy is not a poster because a poster is just decoration. If the kids aren't using it, if we haven't implemented it. And so if you look around your room and it is a small thing where kids can't access it, or if we only talked about it one time, that's where we learned, okay? We haven't emphasized it enough.

We haven't made it a norm. We haven't made it our default. We haven't spent time making sure our highest kid in the class uses it, because we ask them questions that they would need to use it like, "Can you tell me more about that?" Or "Can you say it another way?" Or "Why? Why do you think that?"

Are we using this to help with rigor? Those kinds of higher-order questions would have your highest kids going, hhhmmmmmmm.... So you can offer them, "Okay, do you want a moment? Do you want to use something from the poster?" We want all the kids to see that it's for all the kids. So your highest kids have to buy into it. And if we want our students to buy into this technique, we need to give them the relevancy. We need to explain all of this and make sure they all understand why it's important.

Motivation - Helping Them Find It

We had kids speaking in their native language to each other and coming up with ideas of why it's important because that was the thing. We need buy in from students. We need them to buy into this.

Larry Ferlazzo has written a lot on how to help kids be intrinsically motivated. I'll link to one of his articles. Here are the four things.

I say them all the time. (I'm a Larry Ferlazzo groupie.) The researchers agree. If you want kids to be motivated, if you want people to find their motivation, intrinsic motivation, put these four things in the environment.

Relevancy like I just said, why is it relevant? How is it relevant? Why is it relevant to you? Why should you care.

Relatedness that's relationships. Teachers have relationships with students, and students have relationships with each other, and we want to work on those because it really helps motivation. So relevancy, relatedness another one is:

Autonomy or choice. So I give them that anchor chart, and you can choose whatever one you want to say. But how much choice you have in anything helps you be more motivated about doing it. And then the fourth thing that Larry writes about is:

Competence. A sense of competence. That doesn't mean I've mastered it. It means I feel myself getting better at it. I've had a little win.

So that whole technique instead of I don't know, it's not a poster, it's a skill. What do you do when you don't know what to say? What can you say? So that's what I was saying.

Recap on Some Things That Can Go Wrong

What can go wrong is that we can have it to where it's just a poster. It may even be a poster that they can't read. So to offset that, to mitigate those challenges, we would use it more often. Explain it. Explain the relevancy.

Have kids talking to each other, your relationship with them, hold them in high regard that you want their opinion about why it's important and even using it, explain to them, we're doing it in here, not because I'm the teacher and I want you to answer it's because your voice is important. Your voice is important. And you may just need a moment. You may just need your friend to remind you of something. You may not know the answer, but that's okay. You know a lot of other things, and together we know a lot.

Don't Force Output but Expect Them to Use These Phrases?

So it may sound counterintuitive. Like what I'm saying is make sure they know what to say, but don't force output. Okay...I don't care if they say it in Spanish. I don't care. I mean, once they're comfortable. If I get a brand new student that come this week, I'm going back to relatedness. I'm going to have a conversation with them one on one, and I'm going to use Google Translate to make sure they know that they are in a safe place. That I'm not going to randomly call on them. They're new. I'm going to respect their need for support, but I'm going to have a lot of conversations with them. They're going to be pretty comfortable sooner versus later. They will be ready because they're in a classroom where we do these things and they're going to see this is how we roll in here. This is a very safe place. So when I do finally call on them, it's okay for them to answer in whatever language. It's okay for them to use their entire language repertoire to answer.

Or they can even give me a signal.! They can even point to it in the book when they are new or nervous. And I'll say, "Yeah, right! The answer landforms. You see this? Landforms. What he's saying is 'This week we are studying landforms'. That is the right answer! Let's all say that..."

If I'm trying to get complete sentences out of everyone's mouth, we can do them in unison. And I can honor this child, whatever their language.

So think about your language learners. If you're teaching language learners, they have different proficiency levels, and so a brand new student is not the time to force output, but they can be included. Inclusion! They can understand way more than they can say usually. So let's make them comfortable. They can attend, they can repeat, and in low-stress environments it all works better. Remember, low stress opportunities for output.

Low-stress output could be one-to-one. That would be a whisper read to my teacher. That would be with the students getting comfortable talking to the person next to them one-to-one.

A Culture of Conversation

And I can walk around and listen. I can get a formative assessment. That's better than me calling on one student that doesn't know the answer or only calling on the professional answer. Always, if I call on somebody and they don't know the answer, they can ask me something from the poster, or they can even point to the one on the poster and I can say "Yeah, this one says, May I ask a friend? Let's all say that. May I ask a friend? Yes. Okay... everybody. Ask your friend what do they think? And we'll come right back to this person."

But again, I'm going to make sure they have a WIN. See, with QSSSA, and Teaching kids what to say instead of IDK, you're well on your way to a very language rich, interactive classroom. I'm just asking you to respect the need for support of a brand new student, but in a way that allows them to acquire the language as quickly as possible.

I'm going to wrap up the show now and thank you for helping me reflect that's, what I just did. This is my journey of learning. And thank you to everybody that's allowing me to work with them and support them in their classrooms, in their districts, with training, with modeling, with coaching. Reach out. If you have any questions about that, you can find me on Twitter. I'm @DrCarolSalva or Come over to Facebook with us. I'm also on Instagram but I don't check that regularly. Sorry.

Last Thought

One more thing on "Instead of I don't know." Think about the cumulative effect of that over a person's life. Think about a student, what effect you're having if you help someone build that skill right now over the course of their lives. A person who doesn't just go, "I don't know," especially in this age of technology. What does that do for them in their working groups, in their lives, as they walk through their day, as they get their first job, as they get their next job? Look at the long game, always. Let's look at the long game and realize the effect. That's what I'm asking you to do is realize YOUR effect. Little things add up and they have major effects over a person's life. So that relatedness that relationship you're building with that student, it makes a difference. Hold them in high regard. Hold every one of them in high esteem. Their voice is important, and you want them to have that skill so that as they go through life, they can show what they know and they can get the answers they don't know, and they can add to their knowledge because the sky's the limit.

Please stop and reflect on the huge impact you're having on students. Thank you for everything you're doing.

Bye.

PS: Check Out Upcoming Events! We have a lot of places we can meet IRL!!

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I'm working in districts where we have been in school for 5-8 weeks. This show is in response to some challenges and reflections on what I want to emphasize more. You can listen to this show right here or on your favorite podcast app. Listen to "BAP111 Instead of IDK for SLIFE and Newcomers" on Spreaker.

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The new question-of-the-week is: How can you best differentiate instruction for English-language learners in a "mainstream" classroom?
There are millions of English-language Learnes in U.S. schools, and many - if not most - of them are in mainstream classes with students who are much more proficient in English. Given that situation, how can teachers best differentiate instruction for ELLs in their classrooms?

This three-part series will explore that important question.

Today, responses will come from Valentina Gonzalez, Jenny Vo, Tonya Ward Singer, Carol Ann Tomlinson, and Nélida Rubio. You can listen to a 10-minute conversation I had with Valentina, Jenny, and Tonya on my BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

I've been teaching English-language learners for 17 years. Here are sources of advice I recommend:

Of course, you'll also want to explore previous posts that have appeared in this column about Teaching English-Language Learnersand on Differentiating Instruction.
Response From Valentina Gonzalez
Valentina Gonzalez is currently a professional-development specialist for ELLs in Texas. She works with teachers of English-learners to support language and literacy instruction. In addition to presenting, she writes a monthly blog for MiddleWeb focused on supporting ELLs. She can be reached through her website, elementaryenglishlanguagelearners.weebly.com, or on Twitter @ValentinaESL:
There is a misconception that differentiating for English-learners means that we take the summative assessment (which could be a project, worksheet, or test) and accommodate it by adding visuals, eliminating choices, allowing the use of translation devices, etc. In classrooms across the country, mainstream teachers have either been turning in these assignments to their ESL colleagues in hopes that they will make the work easier for ELLs to access or they've been accommodating them on their own. Accommodating a summative assessment is only one piece of the puzzle, and if we wait until it's time to work independently to accommodate, then we are too late. The best ways for mainstream teachers to differentiate instruction for English-learners is BEFORE the independent work is required. Differentiating for ELLs means accommodating three categories of our teaching: verbal, procedural, and instructional. Verbal Differentiation This is about the way we present information. It can take many forms. Simply slowing down our speech can support ELLs as they listen, process, and translate the input. Rephrasing and clarifying ensures that students have full comprehension. Sometimes the gestures and total physical response we incorporate into our verbal instruction can maximize student comprehension, too. The use of visuals is huge with English-learners but supports all students as well. All of these techniques require little planning but do require intentional thought. Let me give you an example. If I am conducting a read aloud, I will might preteach some key vocabulary to a small group of my English-learners who are at the beginning stage of language proficiency and possibly a few students who struggle with vocabulary. If I'm lucky enough to have a co-teacher, the co-teacher may gather this group and also introduce the book to the students. While reading the book to the class, I will ensure that I make my reading and thinking visible to the students. I will enlarge the text under a document camera, so students can see what I'm reading. If there are pictures, I will show them and provide opportunities to talk about the visual and the text. Students will turn and talk about the text. Procedural Differentiation The way we group our instruction makes a difference, too. From whole group to small group to individual. This type of differentiation supports students with the gradual release of responsibility. Our goal is for students to do things we are teaching them with ease and automaticity. Differentiating the way we instruct the groups of our students supports their independence. By beginning with whole group and keeping that a short mini-lesson, we can show students how to do "the thing." We model. Model explicitly. Be as explicit as possible. This is how it's done. In reading and writing workshop, this is the mini-lesson ,and it is usually about 10 minutes of the lesson. Next is group work or WE do. Working with a group is moving toward independence but still with support. In a balanced literacy classroom, this can be seen during guided reading, small groups, shared reading, and shared writing. Working in small groups allows for a lower teacher-student ratio. This type of setting is highly effective because it lowers the affective filter and gives students more opportunities to participate and interact with peers as well as with the teacher. And finally, students move toward independence with YOU do when they work alone to apply what they have learned with their teacher and peers during the I do and WE do phases. During reading and writing workshop, this can be seen while students are reading and writing on their own. Instructional Differentiation Using graphic organizers can be extremely powerful if students are explicitly taught how and when to use these tools on their own. There are many types: story maps, Venn Diagrams, T-Charts, tree maps, word webs, semantic maps, etc. If students understand the power of using graphic organizers for reading and writing, then they can pull these tools out at any time to enhance their comprehension and structure their own learning. Instructional differentiation also includes the use of exemplars and touchstone texts that match students. Students need to see attainable goals so they are able to meet our expectations. Giving each student the same example or goal to reach does not allow for differentiation. Not all students are ready for the same goal. Students are all on their own path in their learning journey. Providing each student with an attainable target seems difficult, but it's really not that challenging. What I do is save student samples and use them as targets, exemplars, or touchstone texts depending on the content area. Keep a constant pulse on your language learners. Where are they in language and content development, what do they need next, what supports do they no longer need? Learning content and language simultaneously seems challenging, but it can be achieved with proper planning, engagement and ongoing teacher support. Response From Jenny Vo
Jenny Vo earned her B.A. in English from Rice University and her M.Ed. in educational leadership from Lamar University. She has been teaching for 22 years and is currently an ESL ISST(Instructional Support Specialty Teacher) in Katy ISD in Katy, Texas:
An English-language learner's lack of English proficiency does not mean that they cannot learn the same content as the native English-speaking peers. However, we cannot expect them to learn the same content in the same way. There should be some differentiation in your instructional strategy and in your materials. Being an English-language learner does not mean you are deficient in learning. Lack of language does not equal lack of intelligence. With linguistic support, ELLs can learn and master the same content in the mainstream classroom as their native-English-speaking peers. Provide them with the differentiation and support they need, and you will see what they can accomplish. Response From Tonya Ward Singer
Tonya Ward Singer is a keynote speaker and author who consults internationally to help K-12 educators transform teaching for equity and ELL achievement. Tonya's best-selling book, EL Excellence Every Day: The Flip-To Guide for Differentiating Academic Literacy (Corwin, 2018), is the go-to resource to help teachers ensure English-learners, and all students, thrive with rigorous literacy. Her first bestseller, Opening Doors to Equity (Corwin, 2014), was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education via Teach to Lead's Leadership Lab and featured in a spotlight by the Gates Foundation:
Effective differentiation for English-language learners (ELLs) begins with two essential teacher mindsets: 1. That we value our ELLs' assets; and 2. That we expect excellence from every ELL. Yes, we can teach at a high level, we can actively engage students, and we can use awesome strategies. But none of these efforts will raise ELL achievement if we don't have these two mindsets in place. Value ELL Assets Valuing ELL assets begins with the recognition that multilingualism is an asset, not a liability. Differences in background (language, culture, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic level, and/or life experiences) than the teacher or a school's majority population are just that: differences. Seek to understand the unique assets of each ELL you serve. ELLs are an incredibly diverse group of students so they cannot nor should not be summed up as a single group with a single set of needs. In addition to their widely diverse interests, strengths, life experiences, and prior schooling, ELLs come to learning with a range of proficiency levels in English and other language(s). Essential reflection questions:

What strengths in language and learning do students bring? How am I connecting my teaching to students' background knowledge, home language(s), and experiences?

Does every student feel a sense of belonging and connection in my classroom community of scholars? How do I cultivate a strong sense of belonging for each ELL in my "mainstream" class?

Expect Excellence from Every ELL Teacher expectations can make or break student learning. (Gerson, Holt & Papageorge, 2015, Carrasqulillo & Rodgriguez, 2002, Darling-Hammond & Schon, 1996). We know this, yet we get stuck. I, too, was stuck back in my early years in the classroom. When my students struggled, I found myself protecting them from that struggle-even with high expectations right from the start. Modifications I made to my lessons, at a superficial level, might have looked like differentiation, but they weren't. To be honest, I was "watering down": I simplified my language and I lowered my expectations. The result? Over time, this kind of approach leads to long-term ELLs, students who have been in U.S. schools for more than six years and are still designated ELLs. There is a better way . . . Differentiate with Strategic Supports With the two above mindsets in place, we differentiate for ELLs in the very same way we differentiate for all students in a mainstream classroom. We engage in ongoing inquiry about our impact ruled by the following reflections:

1. EXPECT: What are my goals for student learning? What aspects of language must students understand and use to excel with these goals?

2. ENGAGE AND OBSERVE: What can students now understand and do in relation to these goals? What language choices do students make and what do these choices reveal about their assets and next-level goals for language learning?

3. SUPPORT: What instruction and supports will I provide to help students build from current understandings and language use to succeed with the goals?

4. REFLECT: How did my instruction impact student learning? How will I adapt my approach to ensure every learner thrives?

In short, there is no magic-wand approach to differentiating our ELLs' instruction in mainstream classrooms. First, we must shift from shopping for nouns ("ELL strategies" or silver-bullet solutions) to owning the verbs (Value, Expect, Engage, Observe, Support and Reflect) that are essential to impactful and culturally relevant teaching. Only then will our school ignite teachers' agency and efficacy to teach for ELL excellence in every classroom, every day. Response From Carol Ann Tomlinson
Carol Ann Tomlinson's recent book with ASCD is Differentiation and the Brain: How Neuroscience Supports the Learner-Friendly Classroom, 2nd Edition (ASCD 2018); she has also authored Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom (2010) with Marcia B. Imbeau. Carol's career as an educator includes 21 years as a public school teacher and 12 years as a program administrator of special services for struggling and advanced learners. She was Virginia's teacher of the year in 1974. More recently, she has been a faculty member at the University of Virginia Curry School of Education, where she is currently William Clay Parrish Jr. Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership, Foundations, and Policy:
Many teachers feel a bit lost as they think about how best to differentiate instruction for students who are not yet fluent in English. It's important to remember that those students often feel powerfully lost as well. There are many straightforward ways to make the classroom more successful for students who are trying to learn both content and the language of the classroom simultaneously. Here are five ideas to consider: 1. Do whatever you can to be welcoming as the students come to your class. A smile and a warm greeting can go a long way in reassuring a student that they matter. Invest in guiding all students in your class to be supportive of one another and make time in the early days of school for students to get acquainted and to begin working together whenever possible. Working with peers can provide rich opportunities to use English while also lessening a sense of aloneness in the classroom. 2. Get to know your students. Surveys, checklists, notes to you, peer interviews that can be shared with the class, posting photos, and many other strategies can jump-start the process of learning about students while they signal your interest and begin to build a sense of community or team in the classroom. 3. Use formative assessments to understand where students are in relation to key content-but be sure ELLs can read and respond to the assessments so that their responses provide you with accurate information. That may sometimes mean you've had someone translate the assessment into the student's language, or that the student can answer the questions orally in his/her own language with another student or ELL support teacher or parent volunteer translating the answers into English for you. Sometimes students can draw what they know better than they can write it. The goal is for you to know what the student actually knows rather than planning from misinformation. 4. Think about your curriculum as a highway that all of your students will travel but also plan in regular "exit ramps" that allow students at key points to work on their own needs for a time. Those exit ramps are key to differentiation. They enable students to work on needs in reading, vocabulary, writing-whatever will best facilitate their growth in the content of your class. 5. Strategies like learning contracts, learning centers, and personalized homework support you in providing students with work tailored to their needs. Think-Pair-Shares feel less risky than answering in front of the whole class, and they also model oral English. Websites and apps that provide reading material at varied reading levels, podcasts, or materials designed to help ELLs with language growth are helpful as well. There are many such sources. A few interesting ones are Newsela, Learning A-Z, Vocabulary Spelling City, STORYWORLD, and Fluent U. The Smithsonian's news site offers Teen Tribune, Tween Tribune, TT Junior, and TT Espanol. At each level, the site provides articles on a variety of contemporary topics at multiple reading levels. It's also helpful to scaffold the work of ELLs (and other students ) with lists of key vocabulary, digests of content, options to work with partners, examples and visuals, graphic organizers, and other supports that facilitate student support. As often as you can, check in with the students one on one to see how they are feeling about their work. Ask for their suggestions about what is most helpful to them in learning and follow up accordingly. Help them track their progress. Let them know you want to be part of their success. It's nearly always the case that strong teacher-student connections lead to greater student growth. Response From Nélida Rubio
Nélida Rubio is a teacher at Rockwood Elementary School in the Calexico Unified school district in Calexico, Calif. She has been teaching English-language learners for 22 years. She is a member of the Instructional Leadership Corps, a collaboration among the California Teachers Association, the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, and the National Board Resource Center at Stanford:
Any teacher can read books, attend trainings and conferences, participate in specialized programs for ELLs, and/or even have the background of being an ELL themselves, yet differentiating instruction for an ELL in a mainstream class does not have a one-size-fits-all solution. There are many very efficient strategies including trends like providing sentence frames or word walls for ELLs, but none serves all ELLs. A sentence frame is of no use when a student does not understand the words around the blank they need to fill. Word walls are great for those who know their meaning and use, but not for those who do not understand their context. And then there is the common belief that translating for a child or providing cognates will help the ELL, not when the content is brand-new and there is nothing the child can make connections to. Differentiating for an ELL is much more complex than knowing and applying strategies. Each individual learner has different language experiences acquired either at home and/or school, their attitudes toward the new language differ, and their languages have unique structures. There is nothing more effective when differentiating instruction than truly knowing the learner's background and language abilities in order to encourage language development. A teacher needs to research the individual's cultural origin by interviewing the child, their parents, or colleagues who might also know about the learner's background. Educators must take the time to focus on what the student can understand and produce, instead of limiting their own view with what the pupil cannot do. I recommend class projects or activities that promote sharing students' background sin a way that uncovers information crucial for the teacher. For example, students can create an All About Me Poster in which a student may include visuals that tell about their favorite activities, pictures and/or facts about their family history, lists of what makes them unique, goals they want to achieve, and other information a teacher might want to know about. Learning about the student's interests will help teachers encourage language development through the use of high-interest content. Moreover, a family night is ideal to make connections with families. Parents and students can be given a questionnaire with questions such as how long a student has been in school, how well they have performed academically, how they feel about learning a new language, and questions to find out their concerns about home-school connections. If technology is available, families can record a clip or what I call a selfie video in which families answer the questions. By participating in such activities, the learner acquires a sense of belonging, thereby motivating a positive attitude toward language development. In addition, gathering as much information as possible about their students' literacy background and native language is essential when planning for differentiation. Researching the similarities and differences between the native language and English language will help target instruction. For example, if the language structures in their native language are close to English structures, transfer of skills will make language development easier, especially if the child has a strong literacy background. Knowing students' level of English allows teachers to scaffold content through the use of level-appropriate questions. It is quite impossible for a level 1 student to explain their reasoning with a verbal complex response, but they will most definitely be able to identify a response with a visual or by answering a yes/no question. Teachers must be committed to getting to know their ELLs and adjust their curriculum to enhance each learner's language. Adjusting the use of effective ELL strategies and/or using simple questioning techniques that require responses at the learner's ability level will not take away from the content. Most importantly, when ELLs feel that their teacher knows them, their affective filter is lowered, and language becomes accessible.
Thanks to Valentina, Jenny, Tonya, Carol, and Nélida for their contributions.

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It's titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching.
Just a reminder-you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And if you missed any of the highlights from the first seven years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. The list doesn't include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the "answers" category found in the sidebar. Look for Part Two in a few days.
How can you best differentiate instruction fo an English Language Learners in a "mainstream" classroom?

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Response: Ways to Differentiate Instruction for ELLs (Opinion)

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Valentina Gonzalez, Jenny Vo, Tonya Ward Singer, Carol Ann Tomlinson, and Nélida Rubio discuss ways to differentiate instruction for English Language Learners.

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What will readers learn?

This website contains articles about language instructional practices that support multilingual learners. Each article has an infographic that synthesizes the essential information from the article. The intention of sharing these resources is to provide strategies to educators who work with multilinguals.

At times, my resources can be used across the various content area, while at other times, are more relevant for just language specialists. I know that many of you are busy and do not have time to sift through the literature, books, articles, and videos and cannot attend conferences. It is my job to curate these resources for you.

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Welcome | ML Instruction | Empowering ELLs

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Sharing ELL strategies that work. Helping ELL teachers implement classroom-tested, research-backed ELL strategies that develop social and academic language

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by Carmen Nguyen

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

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

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

Step 1: Determine the Goal for Using the Text

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

Different content areas

Types of text

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

Whether the text you created is an electronic version or printed

Step 2: Read Text Using Different Lenses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Delete

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

Enhance,Simplify, Delete

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

Simplify or Delete

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

Enhance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Transforming the Resources You Have into Accessible Formats for All Students

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

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I have several "Best" lists providing recommendations to teachers of different content subjects if they have English Language Learners in their classrooms (I'll share links to them in a moment).

However, we're all very busy, and some teachers are not going to create the time to go through a bunch of posts and articles.

That's one reason I previously published The Best Videos For Content Teachers With ELLs In Their Classes - Please Suggest More. That list contains what I think are the best short (four-or-five minutes each) videos that can show helpful examples to - as the title suggests - content teachers.

Today's list is basically a text version of that one - I'm sharing a handful of short pieces that can be scanned by a content teacher to get basic helpful advice for teaching ELLs.

I'm intentionally keeping this list short. However, if you think I've missed any excellent overviews out there, please do let me know.

Here are the "Best" lists where I have a longer list of specialized content resources:
The Best Resources For Teaching Common Core Math To English Language Learners The Best Resources For Teaching The Next Generation Science Standards To English Language Learners The Best Resources On Assisting ELLs With Special Needs - Help Me Find More
Here's a more generalized list:
The Best Sites For Learning Strategies To Teach ELL's In Content Classes
My books on teaching ELLs also have extensive chapters on teaching Social Studies and Art to ELLs.

Here are my recommendations for articles giving The Best Advice To Content Teachers About Supporting English Language Learners:

Do's & Don'ts For Teaching English Language Learners is an excerpt from one of the books Katie Hull and I have written.

Four Surefire Techniques for Engaging English Language Learners is an excellent article by Valentina Gonzalez.

A Quick-Start Guide for Teaching English-Language Learners is by Wendi Pillars.

12 Ways to Support English Learners in the Mainstream Classroom is by Jennifer Gonzalez.

Supporting ELLs in the Mainstream Classroom: Language Tips is from Colorin Colorado.

ELLs: Try These 5 Scaffolds in Any Subject is from Valentina Gonzalez and appeared in Middleweb.

5 More Things English Learners Need From Classroom Teachers is from The Teaching Channel.

18 Ways to Support Your English Learners is by Valentina Gonzalez.

The American Educator, the excellent publication from the American Federation of Teachers, has published an exceptional issue on teaching English Language Learners - all its articles are available for free online. Among them is one that Katie Hull and I wrote titled Teaching English Language Learners: Tips From The Classroom.

3Q1) The topic of teacher speech means a lot to me, and I couldn't fit it all in one tweet! I had many personal connections while reading. #Ellchat_BkClub #META @SIOPModel @PearsonPreK12 pic.twitter.com/A68KR1uT5B

- Ashley Snider (@mrssnider843) May 15, 2019

10 Scaffolds to Support EL Learning, Part 1 is a great post by Judie Haynes.

Wendi Pillars has created a great infographic on differentiated instruction for ELLs.

Supporting ELLs in the Mainstream Classroom: 12 Strategies for Language Instruction is from Colorin Colorado.

3 Essential Roles for Monolingual Teachers is by Tan Huynh.

gave me permission to share this excellent Google Slides presentation on scaffolding for ELLs in "mainstream" content classes.

Improving Outcomes for Emergent Bilingual Students: Scaffolding Up is by Valentina Gonzalez.

Tips for Comprehensible Instructional Language is from Confianza.

Graded Language and Why English Teachers Should Use It is from My Life Teaching in a Korean University.

63 Supports for English language Learners - The Ultimate List is from Kid Inspired.

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The Best Advice To Content Teachers About Supporting English Language Learners

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I have several "Best" lists providing recommendations to teachers of different content subjects if they have English Language Learners in their classrooms (I'll share links to them in a moment). However, we're all very busy, and some teachers are not going to create the time to go through a bunch of posts and articles.

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Rooted Linguistics: Serving Teachers of Multilingual Learners

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​What does it mean to make content comprehensible?
Imagine for a moment that you are sitting in a classroom in a foreign country surrounded by new classmates and a teacher speaking a language that you don't speak. Keep in mind, you have to stay all day and you are expected to follow directions, do the work, and understand the language.

How would you do? Would you become frustrated? Would you get off task? Maybe begin to fidget, doodle, or get mad? Sometimes when our ELLs experience this, they react in ways that we may not understand. Learning a new language, culture, and content is not an easy task by any means. It's important that we respect the job they are doing and support them through it.

The best way to support their content needs is to make content comprehensible.

​Let's begin by watching this short video that will help to explain what that means. You will experience what your ELLs go through when they don't know the language in the classroom.

​So after watching the video, hopefully you've come away with at least 2 things:
1. a feeling for what your ELLs experience when they don't speak the target language yet they are expected to do everything that everyone else is doing in class--Empathy
2. you get the gist of comprehensible input--making language accessible to students even when they know the language yet--it's doable even if the two of you speak completely different languages!

How do achieve this in our classrooms on a daily basis?
There are many ways and not all of them will work all of the time for every student.

1. Top of the list, #1 for sure is to know each student individually, their needs, their assets, and their language levels. Find out about their proficiency level in English as well as their academic history in their native language. Then you can leverage that in your classroom.

2. Used slowed speech to enunciate words and make clear distinctions between words. Have you ever heard someone speaking a language your not familiar with and it sounds like just a blob of sounds? If we don't enunciate, we sound like that too. We can end up sounding like Charlie Brown's teacher if we aren't careful with our speech.

3. Point to objects while we talk about them. If I want my students to take out a pencil, then I'll grab one and demonstrate. If I want them to turn to page 358, then I'll write that on the board or open my book to that page and show them. The power of pointing and talking is endless. So simple yet effective and minimal planning necessary.

4. Repeat and rephrase as needed. Once may not be enough for most of the students in your class, but for ELLs it probably won't do justice. Multiple opportunities to hear vocabulary or instructions helps students internalize and recall it.

5. Use tons of visuals or real objects. The more the better! Research has found that our brain processes visuals 60,000X faster than text. Visuals enhance recall and storing of information. The more modalities we can incorporate into our instruction, the more successful our students will be.

Making content comprehensible doesn't take a great deal of prep work. We just have to be intentional about it. We have to remember that our students who are learning language, learning new content, or struggling with content benefit from comprehensible input. The biggest mistake we make is assuming our students don't need it.
​

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Language & Content: Making Content Comprehensible

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​What does it mean to make content comprehensible? Imagine for a moment that you are sitting in a classroom in a foreign country surrounded by new classmates and a teacher speaking a language that...

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MSHS (2022) - Learning Language- What's the Secret (Secondary Version) 

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MSHS (2022) - Learning Language- What's the Secret (Secondary Version) 

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To help students at all language proficiency levels incorporate higher levels of academic language into their speech and writing, teachers can incorporate the use of sentence frames, sentence starters and signal words with students at a variety of proficiency levels.

Using sentence frames, sentence starters and signal words to improve language
By Erick Herrmann

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INDUSTRY PULSE
Do you use sentence frames, sentence starters and signal words in your classroom?

For students to be college- and career-ready, they must gain academic language proficiency. Academic language is much more than just the vocabulary of the subject area being taught. It includes understanding and being able to produce complex sentences utilizing the key vocabulary of the subject area as well as functional words and phrases that show comparison, sequencing, description, cause and effect, and more.

Sentence frames provide a frame of a complete sentence for students, while sentence starters are - as the name implies - a starter for students who must complete the sentence. Signal words are those words and phrases that clue in the reader or listener to the purpose of the message. Each of these ideas will be explored in more detail in sections that follow.

Language Functions

To begin the discussion on sentence frames, starters and signal words, it is helpful to explore the notion of language functions and their related forms. Language functions are the purposes for which we use language. These include giving and understanding directions, sharing our needs and likes, asking and answering questions, describing the world around us, and more. Each language function has related forms, or of varying complexity. These forms are the structure of language and include the complexity of the sentences as well as specific signal words that indicate the language function.

Some language functions appear more frequently in the study of academic subjects, including compare and contrast, sequencing, and asking questions. Students are often asked to compare characters in a story or important events in history, summarize a list of events and more. Sentence frames, starters and signal words can help them to be more successful in learning both content and academic language.

Sentence Frames

Sentence frames provide an opportunity for students to use key vocabulary while providing a structure that may be higher than what they could produce on their own. For example, if students are to compare two ocean creatures, they might say something like "Whales have lungs, but fish have gills." In the preceding sentence, the simple frame is "______ have ________, but _______ have _______. Note the sentence can be filled in with any content; this differs from closed sentences that often have only a few possibilities.

To increase the complexity of the sentence, we can change the frame to incorporate a different structure and higher-level academic terms. Note how the following examples increase the level of language used:

___________ have ___________, however ____________ have _______________.

Whereas __________have ___________, _________have ______________.

Despite the fact that _____________ have _____________, _________ have ____________.

To develop sentence frames, think through the variety of ways you could respond to a prompt, explain a concept, etc. Texts can provide you with ideas of complex or compound sentences as well; remove the key vocabulary and look for the structure of the sentences. These can be dissected and shared with students.

Consider posting sentence frames around the room, and encourage, or even require, students to use them in their oral or written responses.

Sentence Starters

Similar to sentence frames, sentence starters provide a partial frame for students to begin their sentence or idea. However, sentence starters only begin the idea, and students must complete the idea from there. For example, students sequencing a series of events might use the following sentence starters in their oral or written summaries:

The first thing that happened was ...

After that ...

The following important event was ...

Earlier in the story ...

Immediately following that ...

Note the sentence starters include a variety of academic terms, some at higher levels than others. As the teacher, it is important to know the language proficiency level or each of your students. To help students move to higher levels of academic language proficiency, challenge them with sentence starters that are just above their current language level.

Signal Words

Signal words are the academic terms that signal to the reader or speaker the purpose of the writing or utterance. Signal words include transition words such as however, therefore and despite, and words and phrases specific to particular language functions. These words, often abstract in nature, can and should be taught to students in context. Similarly to sentence frames and starters, students can be encouraged or required to build these words into their oral and written responses.

Sample signal words and phrases:

Cause and effect: If ... then, for this reason, so, because, one reason for, thus, consequently, accordingly

Description and elaboration: Includes, belongs, is called, explain, for example, in other words, described, such as

Just as with sentence frames and starters, signal words can be posted around the room to promote a print-rich environment, so students are immersed in academic language. The signal word posters can be referred to as students read and discuss the topic at hand. They are also a useful reference and reminder to all in the class to ramp up the level of language used in the classroom.

Erick Herrmann is an educational consultant specialized in teaching English learners, and he runs Educating English Learners. Erick has worked with thousands of teachers across the nation to help them improve their instructional practice and increase academic achievement for all students.

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Using sentence frames, sentence starters and signal words to improve language

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To help students at all language proficiency levels incorporate higher levels of academic language into their speech and writing, teachers can incorporate the use of sentence frames, sentence starters and signal words with students at a variety of proficiency levels.

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