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*If you would like to utilize these slides/content, please cite the following source:

Osborne, C., Ristich, J. (2025, January 25). Deeper Learning: Best Practices for ELs in Tier 1 instruction workshop with Oakland Schools, Waterford, MI, United States.

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S3_ Planning for Equitable Assessments.pdf

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*If you would like to utilize these slides/content, please cite the following source:

Osborne, C., Ristich, J. (2025, March 14). Deeper Learning: Best Practices for ELs in Tier 1 instruction workshop with Oakland Schools, Waterford, MI, United States.

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S4_ Interpretive Scaffolds for Meaningful Access.pdf

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*If you would like to utilize these slides/content, please cite the following source:

Osborne, C., Ristich, J. (2025, April 25). Deeper Learning: Best Practices for ELs in Tier 1 instruction workshop with Oakland Schools, Waterford, MI, United States.

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S5_ Expressive Scaffolds for Meaningful Access.pdf

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Last week, I described strategies that empower ELs to understand instructions. This is one of two priorities for an EL teacher; scaffolding student engagement is the second. The first focus enables ELs to understand what we expect of them, while the second one propels them to communicate to their fullest ability.

Comprehensible Output: The Hypothesis

Merrill Swain , the originator of the comprehensible output hypothesis, suggested that people learn language by noticing that one uses it incorrectly. The learner then corrects herself and uses language that correctly follows the grammatical rules (1985). (1998) strongly disagrees with Swain's hypothesis.

When I talk comprehensible output, I am not referring to Swain's hypothesis. Instead, I see comprehensible output to mean anything the student is doing to demonstrate understanding. This can mean engaging in learning experiences or completing assessments. I borrowed the term "comprehensible output" because content teachers usually need help in two areas:

1. getting the EL to understand instruction (comprehensible input) and

2. determining if the EL understands the instruction (comprehensible output).

The output produced by ELs indicates the degree to which they comprehend the instructions and content. With this formative information, teachers can modify instruction.

Comprehensible Output: What Students Can Do

Comprehensible output is (Haynes, n.d). the belief that ELs can communicate at the level of their language proficiency ELs and non-ELs can demonstrate similar understandings in different ways. Indeed, forcing an EL to communicate in ways that are beyond their current language capabilities often frustrates them and creates an emotional distance between them and school - further widening the education gap. After ELs understand the instructions, I offer differentiated tasks that allow them to communicate their understanding in alternative forms and in ways that honor their current language development.

The bottom turqouise section of the diagram below represents the variety of ways ELs can signal that they understand. It is broken up into four sections based on increasing language proficiency starting with Beginning and proceeding to Developing, Expanding, and ending at Bridging. The sequence of these categories also denotes the quantity of words ELs can produce orally and in writing.

For Beginning ELs, maybe all they can do is gesture and repeat a few words, while Bridging ELs can independently merge written text, voice, and images together to create something new and sophisticated.Housed in this menu of options is the belief that communication isn't limited to printed or spoken words - gestures, images and videos also have a valid place within any classroom.

You will find a fully completed diagram at the end of this blog. It's a free downloadable PDF.

Beginning MLs

Even though Beginning ELs are not as proficient in English compared to other ELs, they can still point, label, match, and gesture to show understanding. Though these forms of output are not as linguistically sophisticated as writing extended pieces of text, they do demonstrate comprehension.

Beginning ELs, for example, can be expected to produce oral or written words or simple phrases. Watch this video of me working with Zhang Ho, a 7th grader from China. The science teacher wanted him to know some specific science vocabulary. Based on Zhang Ho's English skills, gesturing while saying the vocabulary words was sufficient evidence of his understanding.

The newer the EL is to English, the more I lean on technology as a crutch to produce comprehensible output. Google Translate is an EL teacher's best friend - always there to help but sometimes adding to the confusion. By providing easy rewordings that simply teacher instructions, Google Translate explicitly honors the importance of students' home languages and frees ELs to display intelligence when their current English level betrays them.

Here's a screenshot from Zhang Ho's history project created in Google Slides . He was expected to analyze the impact of dams. Notice the academic quality of his writing, which he initially wrote in Chinese and then used Google Translate to communicate in English. Zhang Ho's use of the before and after images were additional tools that communicated his analytical thinking. These pictures carried us along his analysis when his words no longer could.

I also recommend watching this by , a passionate, experienced education consultant specializing in EL instruction and author of Carol Salva Boosting Achievement: Reaching Students with Interrupted or Minimal Education. She describes what Beginning ELs can do in a secondary setting even when students have interrupted educations or no prior educational experience. Carol works miracles!

Developing MLs

Developing ELs can transition from gesturing basic ideas to communicating through graphs and images that incorporate simple text. These ELs can be expected to produce text at the sentence level because they have a growing stockpile of basic and content-specific words. They can stitch these words together to form simple - though often grammatically inaccurate - sentences.

Here is a series of images Ayaka drew to demonstrate her understanding of the main ideas in this World Vision's video on access to clean water . Notice how she produced simple sentences with basic vocabulary words to communicate her ideas. Ayaka is morphing from an EL who used to point, label, and gesture to a student who can use images combined with simple sentences to communicate her ideas.

I again depend on technology to scaffold Developing ELs' communication of ideas. Google Slides , Adobe Spark , , and are FANTASTIC ways for ELs to demonstrate their content knowledge and create from their understanding. The video and voice functions in these programs augment the limited text that ELs can produce.

Here's a video that Ho Jung created using Adobe Spark (there's a 10-sec intro). His fellow classmates were writing mini-reports in history class to describe early human life. Because Ho Jung was only able to create simple sentences, his history teacher and I honored his level of English by allowing him to produce basic sentences enhanced by the creative use of voice recording, images, and animation.

More importantly, these freemium programs promote critical thinking - requiring students to evaluate what content to use and how to communicate it. No longer just consumers of content, ELs become prosumers, people who consume and create content.

Expanding MLs

These ELs have sophisticated control of the English language. Educators can expect Expanding ELs to sew sentences together to form a coherent paragraph. Expanding ELs are able to learn text structures such as describe, sequence, cause-effect, problem-solution, and argument . Jennifer Gonzalez, one of my favorite education bloggers, explains how teaching text structures can increase students' comprehension of nonfiction texts.

Gonzalez suggests that as students are reading a text that describes an object, we can outline the traits and details of that object on a diagram. Doing so helps students see how a descriptive text structures sentences and paragraphs. I produced a mini-poster series called Bathroom Brief 18-23 that depicts each of the text structures.

Bridging MLs

Bridging ELs possess a heightened ability to switch from social to formal language on command. They're skilled enough to communicate divergent and analytical thoughts with precision, sophistication, and accuracy. Because of their ability to communicate connections between ideas, Bridging ELs should be expected to produce a central written message with multiple paragraphs and organize a coherent oral presentation aided by visuals, videos, graphs, charts, texts.

Service-learning is an appropriate output for Bridging ELs because of the rigorous demands on literacy needed to conduct research, organize findings, make suggestions, take actions, collaborate with others and reflect on the results. One notable example of service-learning is taken from Matt Colley's history class.

Students were to research a social issue they cared about such as LGBT rights, police brutality, and access to healthy foods. They then analyzed the root causes of the issue. Students were instructed to plan actions they could take to address the problem. After identifying how their social issue is manifested in their own communities , they started planning actions such as creating a petition, meeting with the mayor, and working with the school cafeteria to provide more access to healthier meals.

Service-learning bridges social and academic language because students have to be conscious about using the appropriate register. They use social language to plan and collaborate with classmates, but they shift to academic language when drafting their petition letter, writing an analysis of their survey to send to the superintendent, and organizing their presentation to a potential donor.

Takeaway

Now that I've adopted these two priorities - 1.) develop comprehensible input, then 2.) foster engagement - I see my work from a completely different perspective. I search from the menu of strategies for approaches that can develop comprehension, and I offer a rainbow of options to demonstrate their ideas in a way that honors the language they can produce. With these two lenses, I walk hand-in-hand with ELs as they learn to master English.

Next Post

I hoped you've enjoyed this short detour from WIDA's Essential Actions, though it is a tangent of Action 8's. Please visit the blog again next week when I'll share WIDA's Action 9 and describe ways to create a language-rich classroom. When ELs are creating with language and immersed in language, then they'll truly develop mastery and control of English.

Krashen, S. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning . Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Krashen, S. (1998). A Comprehensible Universe. 175-182. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-77626-0.

Swain, M. (1985) Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. In Gass, S. and Madden, C. (Eds.), Input in Second Language Acquisition, pp. 235-256. New York: Newbury House.

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#28. Comprehensible Output: What Students Can Do - ELL Strategies | TanKHuynh

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Comprehensible Output is how ELLs show they understand your content and instructions. Explore the output you should expect from ELLs at every level.

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#111. Using PWIM to support SIFE learners - TanKHuynh

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Teachers can use the PWIM (aka Picture Talk) to teach content and reading English to newcomers, beginners, and students with formal interrupted education.

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1. What is a Graphic Organizer for Writing

A graphic organizer for writing is a teaching and learning tool used for creative writing, comprehension, and literary activities. Graphic organizers help students to organize information and ideas to make them easy to understand and comprehend. Graphic organizers use both visuals and text to show relationships and connections between the flow of events, concepts, and facts. Graphic organizers have many benefits, for example

1. Graphic organizers for writing help visualize and present information and ideas by breaking down complex text and ideas into smaller chunks.

2. Opinion writing graphic organizers help students participate in the learning process through a better understanding of the text.

3. Develop cognitive skills required for creative writing and comprehension, including brainstorming, critical thinking, classification and prioritizing content, idea presentation and categorization, etc.

4. Help connect and make relationships between different aspects of information.

5. Graphic organizers for writing also develop skills for note-taking, listing down essential points, analyzing information, and picking up critical issues.

2. The Graphic Organizers for Writing Examples

The following list gives you ideas of different types of graphic organizers for writing and also for opinion writing graphic organizers. You can use them in suitable conditions according to your requirements.

Different graphic organizers can be used in various grade levels depending on students' skill levels and the course requirements. These organizers are suitable for book clubs and personal reading and writing endeavors too. Let's have a look at the examples for a better understanding.

Example 1: Opinion Writing Graphic Organizer

Opinion writing graphic organizer and planner is a powerful tool for opinion writing. It has the topic and both the favorable opinion and also the opposing opinion. Now, the students need to ponder on both opinions and provide reasons along with supporting information. In the end, they describe their opinion and evidence in more detail and propose an action course. It is a comprehensive document that enables the kids to think on both sides of opinion and understand the underlying reasoning without bias.

Source:EdrawMax Online

Example 2: Persuasive Writing Graphic Organizer

This opinion writing graphic organizer is also a comprehensive and detailed document that uses colors and graphics to add attraction for kids. It is a perfect template for kids to analyze a topic and present their thoughts in a precise yet well-supported manner. The organizer needs students to fill in their opinion and topic sentences supported by three persuasive details. This organizer is based on the divide and conquer strategy. The enormous task of persuasive writing is broken down into small manageable pieces.

Source:EdrawMax Online

Example 3: Writing a Paragraph Graphic Organizer

This PowerPoint template is a compact graphic organizer for writing. It is more suitable for young students who are just starting their writing journey. It is based on the topic of holidays. It gives four pointers to the writer to generate and present their ideas for writing. The pointers are; who do I go with? Why do I like holidays? Where should I go? And What do I like to do?

The lower part is for writing the paragraph. Once the students answer all these questions, they can develop a well-structured piece of writing.

Source:EdrawMax Online

Example 4: Hamburger Writing Graphic Organizer

A hamburger writing graphic organizer is a visual tool for the organization of ideas while writing a creative piece. It has a place for the title of the writing, and later the rest of the blocks can be used for describing different ideas related to the topic. Small and separate blocks allow better organization of information and may result in a more defined structure. It can also be used to supplement reading exercises when the reading material is long and needs more than one session. Each block can be used in one session, and at the end of the activity, the complete structure is formed. This way, students can connect their new knowledge with the previously acquired knowledge.

Source:EdrawMax Online

Example 5: Informative Writing Graphic Organizer

This informative writing graphic organizer supports the students in structuring their creative writing through guidelines. It divides the complete body of the topic into three main parts. '

Introduce the topic

Here, the student will introduce the main topic. The instructions are about grabbing the audience's attention through an interesting fact, question, or a quote.

Develop the topic

This is the most detailed part of creative writing. The students will develop facts to support the main idea. Initially, the writer may even list the supporting vocabulary terms and definitions.

Write a conclusion

Last but not least, the conclusion must contain the gist of the whole write-up in a precise and focused manner.

Source:EdrawMax Online
Example 6: Argumentative Writing Graphic Organizer

The first paragraph of this Argumentative writing organizer contains a brief explanation of your topic and some background information. The second part is about the reasons and supporting details. With each reason, you will provide evidence to support the claims. The exciting part is to give counterclaims and provide facts or examples to refute them. The template ends with the conclusion, where you will also call for action. This is a template of an opinion writing graphic organizer.

Source:EdrawMax Online

Example 7: Details Hamburger Writing Graphic Organizer

This is a graphic organizer for writing that is more suitable for the younger lot. It asks some questions related to the topic of writing exercises. The students will answer these questions to help them brainstorm and connect their information pieces, which can later be used for creative writing. The first part is about visualizing, and the following questions are who? Why? What? Feelings? Where? When? And finally, they will discuss more details.

Source:EdrawMax Online

Example 8: Graphic Organizer for Writing an Essay

This graphic organizer is a very detailed essay writing aide. It consists of eight pages, with each page in a particular format. The main parts of the organizer presented in rainbow colors are

Topic and planning

Introduction

Main ideas 1, 2, 3

Conclusion

Final Draft

Source:EdrawMax Online
Example 9: Writing Process Graphic Organizer

The writing process graphic organizer concisely summarized the complete writing and reading process very effectively on one screen. According to this organizer, there are three stages of the reading process, i.e., preactive, interactive, and reactive. Writing exercise has five steps, i.e., prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Further details of all stages are also included in the organizer.

Source:EdrawMax Online

Example 10: Oreo Opinion Writing Graphic Organizer

This graphic organizer for writing uses a very interesting acronym for students. It says the OREO acronym can be used for writing opinion pieces.

O: Opinion about a topic

R: Reason supporting the opinion

E: Example supporting the opinion

O: opinion restatement in conclusion.

Source:EdrawMax Online
Example 11: Writing A Summary Graphic Organizer

This graphic organizer for writing is specifically for summary writing. Students sometimes face difficulty when they cannot provide a complete summary because of the length of the text and either miss essential points or make it too long. This organizer helps them organize their thoughts and focus on the most critical details coherently.

Source:EdrawMax Online

Example 12: Graphic Organizer for Expository Writing

The graphic organizer for expository writing includes the topic in the center, and the write-up is divided into sub-topics resulting in separate paragraphs. The purpose of an expository essay is to present a balanced, objective description of a topic without proving a point or personal opinion. It allows for a clear and logical explanation of complex information.

Source:EdrawMax Online

Example 13: Graphic Organizer for Nonfiction Writing

This graphic organizer for nonfiction writing guides the students through the process by helping them to write the main idea first, followed by three key details. This is like a part of the planning process. The last feature allows students to take the critical information one by one and then develop a comprehensive piece of writing.

Source:EdrawMax Online

Example 14: Letter Writing Graphic Organizer

In the world of SMS and WhatsApp, this letter-writing graphic organizer teaches the classical skill of writing letters. It is divided into main parts of the letter so that students know where they need to put what details. The use of graphics makes it attractive.

Source:EdrawMax Online

Example 15: Narrative Writing Graphic Organizer

One of the narrative writing graphic organizers is like this. It has a format that is similar to a flowchart. The first box is the title box. After it, there is the box for the settings or characters of the story. The next box consists of the problem of the story. Then, there is the space for writing feelings which the reader gets after reading the story. After the feelings box, there are three subsections that illustrate the story into three events. The last box is for writing the resolution or ending of the story. This graphic organizer will enhance the thinking and writing skills of the students. They will be able to understand the stories easily and can analyze them on their own.

Source:EdrawMax Online

Example 16: Story Writing Graphic Organizer

The starting includes the beginning of the story that is the characters and setting of the story. Then three boxes represent three events that happened in the story. The specific details for each event will be written under each of the respective boxes. The first event will tell what happened at the beginning of the story. The subsequent events will be in the second box. The third box will describe the final events of the story. At last, there is one box for writing the end of the story, what happened as a result.

Source:EdrawMax Online

3. Online Graphic Organizer for Writing Maker

Making graphic organizers in word processing and presentation software has been a norm for a long time. Fortunately, we have access to dedicated drawing tools available online for creating different types of graphic organizers quickly and more efficiently. One such example is EdrawMax Online that can be used online, and its downloadable version is also available. You can use it for graphic organizers for writing along with 280+ different types of other drawings. The cherry on top is their vast library of templates available at templates gallery. You can use the templates right away and can also customize them according to your requirements.

EdrawMax Online

EdrawMax Desktop

4. Key Takeaways

Learning should not be a stressful practice for both the students and teachers. Using tools in the classes such as graphic organizers for writing allow both the stakeholders to focus on the positive outcomes and the learning journey rather than the logistics of carrying out the lesson. Using an online drawing tool makes the process even more accessible and saves a lot of time and effort. You can find out more graphic organizer examples in the Template Gallery.

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Free Editable Graphic Organizer for Writing Examples | EdrawMax Online

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A graphic organizer for writing is a teaching and learning tool used for creative writing, comprehension, and literary activities. It uses both text and graphics to make reading comprehension and creative writing more manageable.

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Graphic organizers and text structure frames

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Free Icons and Stickers - Millions of images to download

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Download Free Icons and Stickers for your projects. Images made by and for designers in PNG, SVG, EPS, PSD and CSS formats

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Artificially intelligent tools for naturally creative humans.

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Expressive Scaffolds for Output - Google Jamboard

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Scaffolds that Establish Comprehensible Input

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Scaffolds that Establish Comprehensible Input

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Excerpt from book: Long-term Success for Experienced Multilinguals, Tan Huynh & Beth Skelton

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Comprehensible Input Strategies from Colorin Colorado

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Comprehensible Input Strategies from Colorin Colorado

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https://www.colorincolorado.org/tags-strategies/comprehensible-input

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Colorín Colorado is a national multimedia project that offers a wealth of bilingual, research-based information, activities, and advice for educators and families of English language learners (ELLs). Colorín Colorado is an educational service of WETA, the flagship public broadcasting station in the nation's capital, and receives major funding from the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association.

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Valentina Gonzalez

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Comprehensible Input Demo for Language Rich Classrooms Training

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Comprehensible Input: What Teachers Can Do

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Comprehensible Input: What Teachers Can Do

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Part 8 of WIDA's Essential Action Series. Click here to return to the first article in the series.

Did you get to read about Ayaka's story in the previous article? It illustrates how Entering ELs can engage in critical thinking activities even though they are completely new to English. In Ayaka's case, we focused on what we could do to help her learn and ignored all the rest until later. As I worked with Ayaka, I only had two priorities - first develop comprehensible input, then foster engagement.

This is teacher speak for: Students can participate if they understand the content and the instructions.

My first priority was to help Ayaka comprehend the instructions so that she can engage with the content. As her content knowledge grew, my role switched from translator to conductor - helping her communicate and apply her understanding. Ayaka's story demonstrated how these priorities directed my work with Entering ELS, and now we'll use the same framework to learn how to instruct ELs along a spectrum of language development.

The Diagram

The diagram below, divided into two sections, is the visual embodiment of these two priorities. The sky blue section represents the strategies that cultivate comprehensible input, which is the belief that students must understand what is being communicated in order to learn (Krashen, 1981). Comprehensible input is broken down into categories based on teacher involvement: Direct Instruction, Joint Construction, Coached Construction, and Monitoring. The most involved teaching occurs during Direct Instruction and is gradually reduced over the next three phases until students can independently use strategies to understand content and instruction.

The turquoise section denotes ways students themselves can demonstrate understanding, known as comprehensible output (Haynes, n.d), which I'll explain in the next post. This section categorizes ELs into four groups: Beginning, Developing, Expanding, and Bridging. This sequence also represents ELs' increasing mastery of English. The more skills an EL has internalized, the less teacher involvement is needed.

Comprehensible Input: What Teachers Can Do

Direct Instruction

At this phase of involvement, teachers are demonstrating strategies that develop comprehension. It's often called "Watch Me Do" or modeling.

My favorite strategy is using ELs' home languages to build understanding of the content and instructions. Teachers can use Google Translate as a tool that uses ELs' home languages like in the image below.

When our history teacher needed Zhang Ho, an Entering EL from China, to understand a project, I used Google Translate to make the directions accessible for him.

I directly taught Zhang Ho to use Google Translate as a temporary crutch to aid his comprehension. Although he watched as I modeled the strategy, I didn't ask for or incorporate his input.

Joint Construction

Once the teacher demonstrates these strategies, his role shifts from modeling to inviting students to participate in developing understanding. It's often referred to as "We Do".

This joint venture of constructing meaning is most appropriate for Developing ELs because they have cultivated enough social language to follow somewhat complex instructions but still require the guidance of an educator.

The main tool used in this phase is prompting. As a strategy is being demonstrated, the teacher gradually invites the students to contribute ideas. I use Joint Constructing to teach students reading strategie s. Below is a dialogue of what that sounds like:

[reading aloud a text] Women in Athens generally had no legal or political rights such as the right to own land and to vote. To summarize a sentence, we have to use our NVD strategy. What does the "N" stand for?
Student: It stands for noun. Mr. Tan: What is the most important noun in this sentence? Student: I think it's women in Athens.
Joint construction is key to an ELs' development because it shows them how to apply the strategies, and it weans them off their dependence on teachers to construct meaning.

Coached Construction

In this phase, the teacher coaches students to practice constructing meaning by reinforcing the strategies they have already learned. This phase is often called, "You do; I observe".

Coached Construction is most appropriate for Expanding ELs because they're capable of making meaning with growing independence.

By observing direct instruction and practicing joint construction over and over again, they've begun to internalize the need to use these comprehension strategies. Now, the teacher observes the students applying strategies on their own and offers suggestions only as needed.

Let's return to the guided reading from above. As students read the next section in pairs or small groups and work together to construct meaning, I observe and prompt them of strategies they could use. It might sound like this:
Airy: Wait, I'm confused by this sentence: "They could not hold (have) public office (work for the government) or go shopping. Dexter: Yeah, me too. I don't understand this symbol " ( ) ". Mr. Tan: Before you worry about the parentheses, let's focus Airy: Oh yeah, we have to find what "they" means. Dexter: Mr. Tan said we have to go back to the last sentence Airy: [reading the previous sentence]. Oh, I think the "they" means "Athenian women". to find the "they". on the word "they".
Monitoring

In contrast to Beginning, Developing, and Expanding ELs, Bridging ELs only need to be reminded of the strategies that establish comprehension. It can also be called, "You do; I check in".
Mr. Tan: Hi, Jessica and Jake. Can you tell me how your reading is going? Jessica: We're at this point in the text. Jake: It's about the housing in Athens. Mr. Tan: What part is challenging? Jessica: The words are easy but there's lots of details. Jake: Yeah. It's like hard to see all the details. Mr. Tan: What strategy did you use to "see" all the details. Jessica: We drew a picture of what the house to show all the details. Mr. Tan: How effective was that strategy? Jake: It helped us understand the details better.
No longer requiring constant supervision, Bridging ELs are usually the most independent ELs and can apply solutions to help cultivate understanding.

I use two methods to monitor Bridging ELs' understanding: 1) Quick Writes and 2) mini-conferences. Both of these approaches provide data on the ELs' progress, and both emphasize the need to provide daily, mini-opportunities for checking in. I'll return to the reading example above to explain what mini-conferences look like.

Takeaway

Nothing robs students of their enthusiasm for school more than the inability to understand instructions. Schools become isolating and disempowering places when students are unable to participate in activities with their peers.

No student should be stranded on an island surrounded by a sea of unfamiliar words.

As English language teachers, we can send liferafts their way. These liferafts are the strategies that make instructions understandable and content accessible. Every time we teach these strategies, ELs are less adrift in a sea of confusion. No matter how far an EL might seem from fully understanding English, we can light their way by making instruction comprehensible.

Next Post

In the next article, we'll explore the second priority when working with ELs - fostering engagement that honors the language skills they do have. I'll return to the diagram to describe the differences between what a Beginning EL can do compared to a Bridging EL and provide specific examples for helping them communicate.

References

Krashen, S. D. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning . Oxford: Pergamon Press.

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#27. Comprehensible Input: What Teachers Can Do | ELL Strategies | TanKHuynh

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Part 8 of WIDA's Essential Action Series. Click here to return to the first article in the series. Did you get to read about Ayaka's story in the previous article? It illustrates how Entering ELs can engage in critical thinking activities even though they are completely new to English.

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A Lesson Template that Works for All Students

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A Lesson Template that Works for All Students

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I often get asked for a lesson planning template that can work for both MLs and non-MLs alike. Now my colleague Beth and I have developed one.

I remember seeing many planning templates from my pre-service training days and others prescribed by organizations. These templates were often designed for teachers who specialize in English language acquisition. But rarely were they accessible to homeroom or content teachers.

As Beth Skelton and I collaborated with Corwin to write Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals (use SAVE20 for 20% discount), we created a lesson template that any general or specialist teacher can use without modification. Additionally, this lesson planning template follows the key principles needed to teach multilinguals content-specific language.

Step 1: End of unit summative

It may seem odd to start a lesson planning session by thinking about the summative assessment, but really, it is odd not to! If lessons are not directly tied to the summative, they become more like activities than intentional learning experiences. By starting with the summative, teachers can anchor an individual lesson to the aggregated product students will create.

Think of the lesson planning template as an orchard ( I've previously used the term "forest "). In the summative, teachers can step back from the detailed work of pruning and collecting the produce of their unit to consider the concepts and skills required to craft a fruitful harvest.

These concepts and skills - like learning the correct way to thin branches or space your rows before planting - become the individual lessons that lead to the integrated (and often impressive!) summative: a well-tended grove lush with fresh, juicy apples.

For example, in a Grade 10 Business class, students have to design a full business plan for a food truck. The business plan is the summative, and all the individual parts of the business plan are taught as specific lessons over the unit.

The individual lessons include both important skills needed to write the plan and, when combined, a composite product that exhibits them as something greater than they were on their own. Educators can both teach the skills needed to grow an orchard and prudently select what type of orchard their students can successfully harvest.

Step 2: Integrated objective

Once we have defined what we want our orchard to produce, we focus on the individual trees, which are the specific lessons. This part of the lesson planning template requires teachers to follow a specific process that includes:

1. identifying what students have to know or do by the end of the lesson

2. writing the exit ticket prompt

3. crafting the model response

4. writing the integrated objective

Teachers can start by identifying the concepts and skills they want students to learn by the end of the lesson. For instance, the business teacher identified that the product of this specific lesson would be a highly descriptive text for the food truck's signature dish. Therefore, the exit ticket for the lesson had students produce a signature dish paragraph.

The problem with many planning templates is that they don't explain how to teach a lesson's underlying vocabulary and composition to MLs. To clarify this aspect, our template has a prompt for teachers to produce a model response. With the model, the teacher can analyze the words, phrases, and sequencing of ideas that students might use in their writing.

This analysis reveals the content-specific language teachers have to teach in this lesson. After the analysis, the teacher can finally write an integrated objective with both the content and academic language expectations.

Step 3: Comprehensible input

Teachers now have a clearer picture of what they want students to learn and the academic language required in that lesson. Now it's time to think about how to make the content and instruction accessible to students.

We compare this part of the lesson planning template to the nursing rain and sunlight that makes organic growth possible. To establish comprehensible input, there are various scaffolds that teachers can use:

For this lesson, the teacher knew that the instructions for the signature dish had to be comprehensible, so they decided to use a linguistic scaffold for greater clarity.

The teacher annotated the model response, intentionally identifying how to start a signature dish and pointing out the sensory-based words in the model response. This annotated model response was shared with students for them to analyze and thereby internalize the academic language needed to meet the task's expectations.

Step 4: Discipline-specific output

The last phase of this lesson planning template for MLs is to plan students' academic language output - our bountiful harvest of fresh Granny Smiths and Honeycrisps. Scaffolding output in an orchard could mean supplying gardeners with a ladder to reach the entire Malus domestica when shaping the branches.

Without scaffolding output, students are less likely to use content-specific concepts accurately or communicate their ideas effectively. To scaffold the output, we consider the:

sentence

organization (the sequence of ideas)

and context (the purpose for communicating)

To scaffold the food-specific language students need to use in the signature dish, the business teacher provided a list of highly effective adjectives related to meals. This provided scaffolding on the word level. Though students eat daily, of course, they do not usually speak about their meals descriptively or purposefully to highlight the flavors. With this linguistic scaffold, students can sound like restaurant owners who write persuasively and vividly about their dishes to entice customers.

Scaffolding output could also mean modifying a summative assessment. In our orchard, perhaps the overseer carefully selects seedlings to plant from dwarf apple varieties that provide a balanced amount of challenge and success.

Conclusion

I used to drudge along with my lesson planning using school district-provided templates because I felt like I was completing a document for the school, not for my students. I knew that the template was supposed to help me think about my lesson design, but it never felt particularly useful.

With this lesson planning template geared to fully include multilinguals, I hope planning becomes a highly structured and intentional activity that both makes the lesson accessible and assures achievement is within reach for all students.

We believe that as teachers consistently plan with our lesson planning template, they will create the conditions necessary for student growth over time. When teachers are able to celebrate their students' success, it's all due to diligently toiling at the lesson planning level. Time to get planting!
For a copy of our lesson-planning template, please use this link.

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Ep 155. A Lesson Template That Works for All Students - TanKHuynh

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This article shows how to effectively plan a lesson for multilinguals

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Article: Building Justice Into Exams for MLs

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Article: Building Justice Into Exams for MLs

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Content-based exams are supposed to gauge students' understanding of discipline-specific skills and concepts. But for many multilingual students, exams are a reading and writing test in disguise.

Take for example this matching vocabulary question on a Grade 7 science test where students have to choose the matching word for this definition: an organism that produces its own food by absorbing solar energy. In the unit, students learned what a producer is; however, when reading this sentence, the unfamiliar words (bolded) make this matching task a reading comprehension one.

This task would be more equitable if students had this version of the test: an organism (a living thing) that produces its own food by absorbing (taking in) solar energy (sunlight). Adding the synonyms and accessible definitions behind the unfamiliar words prevents this test from becoming a reading test.

This is what we mean by justice for experienced multilinguals, the largest group of multilingual learners between grades 4-12. Justice means scaffolding for students' success without lowering the expectations. Students are held to the same expectations but receive appropriate support.

In the matching example above, students were still expected to know the definition for producers, but we intentionally scaffolded the test by providing synonyms for academic terms that were not explicitly taught in the unit. Notice how we did not re-write a simplified definition void of academic terms. This would reduce the grade-level expectations.

In our book Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals (2023), we offer additional suggestions for engineering exams so they are equitable (see Fig. 1 below). Another exam engineering technique we encourage teachers to use is separating multipart questions into their individual questions and sequencing them in a desired order.

For example, the same Grade 7 science test might ask: Describe how the food chain in the picture below is balanced and describe what would happen if the sea lion were taken out of this food chain using the word trophic cascade. We would write the questions separately as:

1a. Describe how the food chain in the picture below is in balance.

1b. Describe what would happen if the sea lion were taken out of this food chain, using the word trophic cascade.

Two separate questions are justice for experienced multilinguals because students are prompted to provide answers to each one. A combined question can become a reading test for students because they might only provide the answer to the first or second part of the question. As a result, they would lose points and not show their full understanding because they missed a single word in the sentence: and.

Another way justice could show up in this assessment is by providing a labeled image for some questions. For example, if the question asks students to describe the energy transfer in a food chain consisting of an orca, sea lion, otter, urchin, and kelp, we recommend adding labeled visuals of each of these organisms.

An experienced multilingual student might know the concept of a food chain but may not yet know the organisms in this specific food chain. Labeled visuals scaffold students' ability to more clearly and fully communicate their ideas.

Scaffolding content-specific expectations

In addition to making each question more comprehensible, we can also scaffold the content-specific output for students. Both question 1a and 1b (above) require a detailed description and an explanation of a food chain that is balanced or out of balance. However, students are not yet trained biologists. Therefore, justice would mean structuring the response so that it mirrors what a biologist would say.

We suggest providing a sentence starter to start students' responses and to prompt their thinking, not provide an answer. The sentence starter for 1b would be This food chain is an example of a trophic cascade because... This sentence starter does not provide the answer for students. It provides a frame for the claim.

Instead of simply providing the sentence starters, teachers can explicitly teach students how to write their own starters that incorporate words and phrases from the question. If the sentence starter was not given or explicitly taught, a student might provide a limited response without any explanation such as The orca is forced to eat the otter. This would result in students missing out on the opportunity to fully demonstrate their understanding.

From: Huynh and Skelton. Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals. Corwin, 2023.

Justice is both teacher- and student-facing. For the teacher, justice means engineering exams so that the grade-level expectations are met with equally supportive scaffolds that prevent exams from being reading and writing tests. At the teaching level, justice would mean educators are asking What are the barriers to students successfully performing at the highest levels on this exam? At the school level, justice would mean all teachers asking this question.

For justice to be student-facing, we encourage educators to teach their students to be metacognitive (Hattie, 2021). One form of metacognitive thinking is realizing that they need support and knowing how to ask for this support. We can teach students to develop metacognitive thinking by teaching them to ask themselves this question: What do I need to produce my best work?

The march for justice is collaborative

When experienced multilinguals and teachers collaborate, they walk side by side on a march for justice. We can teach students that - when they are taking an exam - they have the ability to:

* ask for labeled diagrams when they haven't yet acquired the words
* request combined questions to be separated
* check with the teacher to see if their first sentence in their response is matching the question's intent

Depending on the exam question, teachers might not be able to provide the support, but at least students have the awareness that if they need support they know how to ask for it.

All of these examples are also learning strategies, which are actions students can take to boost their achievement. Teaching metacognitive strategies occurs when teachers explicitly point out a strategy they just used and how students can use that same metacognitive strategy in other contexts.

As educators, we are responsible for providing appropriate scaffolding for students, especially multilinguals. However, for students to be truly independent, we encourage them to use metacognitive strategies and advocate for themselves. When teachers and students collaborate, they both join the march where justice thrives in every corner of the school.
References
Hattie, J. (August, 2021). Visible Learning - Home. www.visiblelearningmetax.com; Corwin.

Huynh, T, and Skelton, B. Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals. Corwin. 2023.

Tan K. Huynh and Beth Skelton are co-authors of Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals (Corwin, 2023).

Tan Huynh is a career teacher, consultant, and author specializing in language acquisition and literacy development. Tan has taught students from 5th to 10th grade in public, private, charter, and international schools. He has served as a language specialist and a secondary social studies teacher. He is also the coauthor of DIY PD: A Guide to Self-Directed Learning for Educators of Multilingual Learners (Seidlitz Education, 2021).

Tan shares teaching strategies on his blog, podcast, and online courses with the hopes of celebrating teachers who answer the call to serve multilingual learners. He writes for MiddleWeb at the blog The Unstoppable ML Teacher. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.

Beth Skelton, M.Ed., is a presenter, coach and consultant. Beth has taught English learners at many levels and worked in a variety of school settings across the US and around the world. She is also the coauthor of Putting it Together, student and teacher materials for adult English Learners.

Her areas of expertise include Harvard Project Zero; the International Baccalaureate English B course; instructional coaching; the WIDA standards, Marzano's Strategies that Work for English Language Learners, Kagan Cooperative Learning, Total Physical Response, and the Common Core for English Language Learners. Visit her website and follow her on Twitter.

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How We Can Make Sure Our Tests Are Fair to Multilinguals

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For many multilingual students exams are a reading and writing test in disguise. Language specialists Huynh and Skelton show ways to make sure testing is just.

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Content-based exams are supposed to gauge students' understanding of discipline-specific skills and concepts. But for many multilingual students, exams are a reading and writing test in disguise.

Take for example this matching vocabulary question on a Grade 7 science test where students have to choose the matching word for this definition: an organism that produces its own food by absorbing solar energy. In the unit, students learned what a producer is; however, when reading this sentence, the unfamiliar words (bolded) make this matching task a reading comprehension one.

This task would be more equitable if students had this version of the test: an organism (a living thing) that produces its own food by absorbing (taking in) solar energy (sunlight). Adding the synonyms and accessible definitions behind the unfamiliar words prevents this test from becoming a reading test.

This is what we mean by justice for experienced multilinguals, the largest group of multilingual learners between grades 4-12. Justice means scaffolding for students' success without lowering the expectations. Students are held to the same expectations but receive appropriate support.

In the matching example above, students were still expected to know the definition for producers, but we intentionally scaffolded the test by providing synonyms for academic terms that were not explicitly taught in the unit. Notice how we did not re-write a simplified definition void of academic terms. This would reduce the grade-level expectations.

In our book Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals (2023) (use SAVE20 to save 20% for US and Canada addresses), we offer additional suggestions for engineering exams so they are equitable (see Fig. 1 below). Another exam engineering technique we encourage teachers to use is separating multipart questions into their individual questions and sequencing them in a desired order.

For example, the same Grade 7 science test might ask: Describe how the food chain in the picture below is balanced and describe what would happen if the sea lion were taken out of this food chain using the word trophic cascade. We would write the questions separately as:

1a. Describe how the food chain in the picture below is in balance.

1b. Describe what would happen if the sea lion were taken out of this food chain, using the word trophic cascade.

Two separate questions are justice for experienced multilinguals because students are prompted to provide answers to each one. A combined question can become a reading test for students because they might only provide the answer to the first or second part of the question. As a result, they would lose points and not show their full understanding because they missed a single word in the sentence: and.

Another way justice could show up in this assessment is by providing a labeled image for some questions. For example, if the question asks students to describe the energy transfer in a food chain consisting of an orca, sea lion, otter, urchin, and kelp, we recommend adding labeled visuals of each of these organisms.

An experienced multilingual student might know the concept of a food chain but may not yet know the organisms in this specific food chain. Labeled visuals scaffold students' ability to more clearly and fully communicate their ideas.

Engineering exams

In addition to making each question more comprehensible, we can also scaffold the content-specific output for students. Both question 1a and 1b (above) require a detailed description and an explanation of a food chain that is balanced or out of balance. However, students are not yet trained biologists. Therefore, justice would mean structuring the response so that it mirrors what a biologist would say.

We suggest providing a sentence starter to start students' responses and to prompt their thinking, not provide an answer. The sentence starter for 1b would be This food chain is an example of a trophic cascade because... This sentence starter does not provide the answer for students. It provides a frame for the claim.

Instead of simply providing the sentence starters, teachers can explicitly teach students how to write their own starters that incorporate words and phrases from the question. If the sentence starter was not given or explicitly taught, a student might provide a limited response without any explanation such as The orca is forced to eat the otter. This would result in students missing out on the opportunity to fully demonstrate their understanding.

Fig. 3.1. Exam engineering strategies

Exam Engineering Technique Places to use this technique

Written instructions, multiple choice, matching, creating graphs

Sentence Starters

Short and long responses, fill-in-the-blank, interpreting graphs

Written instructions, multiple choice, matching

Matching, short and long responses, fill-in-the blank, labeling diagrams

From: Huynh and Skelton. Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals. Corwin. 2023

We suggest providing a sentence starter to start students' responses and to prompt their thinking, not provide an answer. The sentence starter for 1b would be This food chain is an example of a trophic cascade because... This sentence starter does not provide the answer for students. It provides a frame for the claim.

Instead of simply providing the sentence starters, teachers can explicitly teach students how to write their own starters that incorporate words and phrases from the question. If the sentence starter was not given or explicitly taught, a student might provide a limited response without any explanation such as The orca is forced to eat the otter. This would result in students missing out on the opportunity to fully demonstrate their understanding.

The march for justice is collaborative

When experienced multilinguals and teachers collaborate, they walk side by side on a march for justice. We can teach students that - when they are taking an exam - they have the ability to:

* ask for labeled diagrams when they haven't yet acquired the words
* request combined questions to be separated
* check with the teacher to see if their first sentence in their response is matching the question's intent

Depending on the exam question, teachers might not be able to provide the support, but at least students have the awareness that if they need support they know how to ask for it.

All of these examples are also learning strategies, which are actions students can take to boost their achievement. Teaching metacognitive strategies occurs when teachers explicitly point out a strategy they just used and how students can use that same metacognitive strategy in other contexts.

As educators, we are responsible for providing appropriate scaffolding for students, especially multilinguals. However, for students to be truly independent, we encourage them to use metacognitive strategies and advocate for themselves. When teachers and students collaborate, they both join the march where justice thrives in every corner of the school.
References
Hattie, J. (August, 2021). Visible Learning - Home. www.visiblelearningmetax.com; Corwin.

Huynh, T, and Skelton, B. Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals. Corwin. 2023.

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Ep 157. Engineering equitable assessments - TanKHuynh

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When exams and reports are not scaffolded, they become reading and writing test, which is inequitable for MLs.

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Article- The Five Pillars of Equitably Grading ELLs _ Colorín Colorado.pdf

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Reflection: 5 Pillars of Equitable Assessment

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Reflection: 5 Pillars of Equitable Assessment

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Article- The Five Pillars of Equitably Grading ELLs _ Colorín Colorado.pdf

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When students learn new information, they need a hook to hang it on. Background knowledge is that hook.

Having the right background knowledge is critical to ensuring that students understand a lesson. This knowledge provides a foundation on which the rest of the lesson can be built. For ELLs, it can make a significant difference in their comprehension of the lesson and any related materials or texts.

When thinking about background knowledge and ELLs, it's helpful to think of two areas:

accessing students' existing knowledge

building new knowledge.

Finding out what your students know about a particular topic can help you figure out how to make meaningful connections to their experiences, which is an important step in making your instruction more culturally responsive. This can also help you be strategic about which background knowledge to provide.

Here's a step-by-step process to help you think through important considerations for ELLs when looking at the background knowledge needed for your lessons.

Recommended reading

To see more research about the academic and cognitive benefits of culturally responsive instruction, see Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond.

1. Identify key background knowledge needed for the lesson

Review your lesson plan and:

look for key concepts, events, and references that students will need to understand the lesson

take a second look for areas that you may be taking for granted, such as names of places, daily activities that may vary across countries, cultural customs, and events from pop culture, etc.

identify vocabulary needed to comprehend the content

determine what background knowledge is most critical for students to understand the lesson.

Video: An overview of background knowledge and ELLs

ELL teacher Amber Prentice discusses the necessity of accessing and building students' background knowledge before a lesson begins.

2. Identify students' existing background knowledge

Find out what background knowledge your students have on your lesson plan's topic. You can do this by:

Note: Choose strategies that match your students' language and literacy levels. For example, having students speak in groups may be a good fit for younger students who aren't writing yet or for older students with interrupted formal education who are still developing literacy skills. Graphic organizers are helpful to use with younger students who have some language background or older students who are acquiring new language skills.

During this process, keep in mind that:

ELLs bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to their classrooms.

ELLs' background knowledge varies greatly from one student to another.

ELLs' background knowledge will likely differ from students who were raised in U.S. (and that students' background knowledge will vary by U.S. regions too!)

By getting individual student input, you will have a better idea of what students know about a topic. Then you can look for ways to connect the content to things that are familiar, students' experiences, and their funds of knowledge.

For many more ideas on accessing and activating students' background knowledge, see How to Connect ELLs' Background Knowledge to Content.

Note: ELLs may bring different perspectives or frames of reference to the topics you are discussing, such as in the example at the end of the article about how many continents there are. It's important not to frame background knowledge as a question of what's "right" or "wrong," but to approach these teachable moments with an open mind and encourage all of your students to do the same.

Video: Story setup: Pre-reading strategies for comprehension

Buffalo teacher Michelle Lawrence Biggar shares pre-reading strategies that will help lay the groundwork for ELLs before tackling a new text. Strategies include previewing vocabulary, activating background knowledge, and introducing academic concepts (such as literary elements) important to the text in an ELL-friendly way.

3. Build background knowledge students need

Once you have identified some areas of background knowledge your students need, build that knowledge by:

using pictures, real objects ("realia"), maps, or personal experiences. Relate material to students' lives when possible.

pre-teaching important vocabulary words and concepts

explaining concepts and labeling them with key words ELLs can remember. For example, "This is the Statue of Liberty. Liberty means freedom. Liberty means libertad. The people of France gave us the Statue of Liberty..."

Home language connection

You can also use resources in students' home languages, such as books or videos. If you work with bilingual colleagues, such as teachers, paraprofessionals, or family liaisons, ask them if they have any recommended resources. And if you don't have any bilingual support available, considering connecting with a PLC online to find more resources. Other ELL educators around the country have a wealth of knowledge to share, particularly around low-incidence languages where there might not be as much material.

Video: Pre-teaching concepts and vocabulary before a lesson

ESOL specialist Katy Padilla collaborates with a fifth-grade team to plan a science lesson about vascular plants. You can also hear more about the planning process from Katy's related reflection interview.

Video: Teaching ELLs the names of all 50 states

ELL teacher Amber Prentice explains how she teaches ELLs the names of all 50 states in her middle school geography lesson.

4. Target background knowledge needed to understand texts

When reading grade-level text with ELLs, it's important to think carefully about which background knowledge (and how much) to provide.

Build text-specific knowledge by providing students with information from the text beforehand, particularly if the text is conceptually difficult or has an abundance of information that is important. For example, if there are six main topics on the animal kingdom, highlight them beforehand.

Establish the purpose for reading (e.g., "Now we are going to read to find out about a country called France. What are some things we might learn about France as we read?")

Select a specific comprehension strategy for students to use.

Look for books that students will find relatable. For more recommendations on selecting these books, see our related tips on using "mirror" books with students.

For more in-depth discussion of how much background knowledge to provide when reading grade-level texts, take a look at these blog posts from Dr. Diane Staehr Fenner, which discuss an American Educator article from Dr. Tim Shanahan on this topic:

5. Avoid assumptions

It is critical to avoid making assumptions about what background knowledge students do or don't have. Not only is this important for instruction, but it is critical for creating a welcoming classroom environment in which students feel respected.

For example, Dr. Ayanna Cooper shares a story in the video below about U.S. history teachers who mistakenly thought their Haitian student was an African American student who had a deep knowledge base about U.S. history. As mentioned above, the better you know your students, the better you can plan lessons that will give all students access to grade-level content.

Videos: ELL educators speak about background knowledge

Recommended Resources

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Background Knowledge and ELLs: What Teachers Need to Know

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When students learn new information, they need a hook to hang it on. Background knowledge is that hook. Having the right background knowledge is critical to ensuring that students understand a lesson. This knowledge provides a foundation on which the rest of the lesson can be built.

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Some people like surprises, like when someone throws you a surprise birthday party. But in education, surprises tend to leave ELs confused, not energized. There's no context for learning the new information and nothing for them to tether current learning to past experiences. Before surprising your ELs with new information, building on their background knowledge helps provide solid ground for them to build on new knowledge.

In this third article in the Sheltered Instruction Series, I share the key points of building background knowledge.

Building background knowledge is so important that it is considered a key component of sheltered instruction. In Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model (5th Edition) (SIOP Series) , Echevarria, Vogt, and Short recommend three things when trying to establish background knowledge :

Make clear links between past learning and new concepts

Emphasize key vocabulary terms (2017).

(Side note: If you happen to purchase this book, it supports the blog).

Explicitly link concepts to students' background experiences

I'm currently teaching a 10th grade English unit around the concept of Because this was the first unit of the year and because I didn't know my students in this class, it was difficult for me to connect to their background experiences.

Instead, I had students connect to the universal concepts in the texts we viewed.

For example, we read The Hunger Games to start exploring this concept of heros. As we read, we identified other concepts such as:

By looking at this list of universal concepts , students could easily find personal experiences that connected to these concepts. For example, Vina connected to the concept of control by explaining how her parents control her in different ways and to different degrees. She then analyzed how the Capitol controls the districts in different ways, the cruelest of which is by creating the Hunger Games.

Allowing ELs to connect to concepts in this way:

1. Values what ELs bring to class as assets,

2. Fosters greater comprehension of content and

3. Develops ELs' critical thinking skills

Make clear links between past learning and new concepts

Because this was the first unit of the year, I didn't have any prior units to connect new concepts to past learning. Instead, I decided to connect concepts between the resources used in our , which included:

We started by watching and reading articles related to Thistle Thorns a social enterprise that supports women escaping from prostitution, trafficking and drug use. Students identified several concepts from these resources (ie: service, compassion, abuse, escapism, seeking belonging).

The next class, we went to visit a Lao-based social enterprise called Xao Ban . Students toured the facilities and interviewed Ms. Nongnut, the founder, to learn how one might consider her a hero. Once back in class, they had a Harkness ( student-led discussion ) to compare the concepts from Thistle Farm and Xao Ban.

Though these two social enterprises were different in many ways, students were able to identify concepts that were similar to both. We didn't just move from video to article to field trip. Instead, we purposefully returned to the previous resources to make sense of the current resource.

Emphasize key vocabulary terms

Lacking proficiency in academic vocabulary is one of the main reasons why many ELs experience the fossilization of their English skills . It also significantly impacts their achievement because ELs are not able to access academic text or communicate using academic language.

In my unit on heroes, I emphasize key academic command terms , such as:

Then, I make sure the assignments we have circle back to and reinforce those vocabulary terms. One way to do this is by brainstorming writing topics for homework based on the resource we reviewed in class. The topics themselves need to use one of these key academic words. For example, after reading the New York Times article about N.F.L. players' responses to Trump's tweets, students identified three writing prompts they might explore further in writing:

Describe the conflict between President Trump and some NFL players.

Compare NFL players with the characters in The Hunger Games.

Argue your opinion about how the NFL players are protesting Trump.

I know what you're thinking: These aren't words related to the Heroes Unit! But our priority should be helping ELs develop academic language proficiency , not just learn content for one unit. By integrating these terms in the lesson, ELs understand them when they're expected to:

describe a phenomenon,

sequence events,

compare ideas,

describe the cause-effect relationship,

identify a problem,

suggest a plausible solution or

argue a claim in there other classes.

Takeaways

Surprises can be unpleasant, but we can make learning experiences less surprising by building background knowledge between new content and students' experiences. These three ways to build background knowledge bridge this divide. Without them, it's certain that some students will be left behind by the divide in experiences, while others forge on ahead.

Echevarria, J., Vogt, ME, & Short, D. (2017). Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model. Fifth Edition. New York: Pearson.

Nora, Julie, and Jana Echevarria. No More Low Expectations for English Learners . Heinemann, 2016.

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#83. Start with What They Know: Building Background Knowledge - ELL Strategies | TanKHuynh

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Building background knowledge is one component of sheltered instruction. When this happens, it provides an avenue to access content for ELs.

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*If you would like to utilize these slides/content, please cite the following source:

Osborne, C., Ristich, J. (2024, December 6). Deeper Learning: Best Practices for ELs in Tier 1 instruction workshop with Oakland Schools, Waterford, MI, United States.

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S2_ Building and Acknowledging Background.pdf

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MagicSchool.ai - AI for teachers - lesson planning and more!

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Join over a million teachers saving hours of time using the #1 AI Platform for Education, MagicSchool, to help lesson plan, differentiate, write assessments, write IEPs, communicate clearly, and more!

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How to add subtitles and translations to ANY YouTube Videos

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Critically reviewed and rated for bias

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Multicultural and Social Justice Books - Social Justice Books

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Curated Booklists Carefully selected multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators on 90+ topics. Reviews of Children's Literature Critical reviews of children's and young adult books from a variety of vetted sources, consolidated here for easy access. Articles & News Articles about selecting children's literature and news about Kid Lit.

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Beyond the classroom... How can we get to know our students to build on their assets?

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WIDA: Illustrated Guiding Principles of Language Development

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WIDA: Illustrated Guiding Principles of Language Development

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Share these with colleagues, administrators and parents. You can find translated versions here: https://wida.wisc.edu/resources/illustrated-guiding-principles-language-development

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I am here to share my understanding and knowledge on how to work with ML learners.

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I'm here because I want to support classroom teachers with culturally responsive ways to support ELs. I also want to help us move with and beyond having empathy.

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I am here to learn more about my position and how to do it well. This is my first year as an EL teacher. Although this is my 20th year in the profession, I feel like a first year teacher taking on this new role and new learning. Thank you for letting me join the group.

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My Role is ELA Coach-I am here because I am hoping to be able to share what I learned with some of the teachers that I support.

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My Role is ELA Coach-I am here because I am hoping to be able to share what I learned with some of the teachers that I support.

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My role is ELD teacher. I also support other teachers in the building. I am here because I want to learn more about tier 1 instruction so that I can improve my instruction and also support general education teachers in their tier 1 practices.

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My role is ELD teacher. I also support other teachers in the building. I am here because I want to learn more about tier 1 instruction so that I can improve my instruction and also support general education teachers in their tier 1 practices.

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I'd like to learn about other ways to support teachers beyond just pulling students out. I think shifting mindset is a big part of that. I'd like to learn more about ways to shift the mindset from these students are the ELD teacher's students to these are all our students, even from the beginning as Newcomers.

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I am here so I can continue to build my ELD toolbox and support our ML students to the best of my ability. I love the challenge that comes with learning about so many different cultures I have on my caseload. I want to be able to share what I learn and help staff understand that ELD is a huge part of our school.

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I'm here to see how best practices of ML learning from this series compares with what I'm learning about ELD through grad school and how gen ed teachers can best support our ML learners.

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I am here because I am always looking for new ideas/ best practices for supporting ELs, to share with teachers. I truly believe that effective Tier I instruction is the cornerstone of student success.

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I'm here because I'd like to learn how to support the teachers in my district with providing instruction to MLL students.

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I am an Elementary EL para and I am here to get strategies for teaching and supporting my EL students.

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I am here because I want to help my teachers learn Tier 1 strategies for teaching content and language standards.  I want to be able to work alongside them to help them feel comfortable and confident getting our ELs the same access to our curriculum. 

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I am here because I want to help my teachers learn Tier 1 strategies for teaching content and language standards.  I want to be able to work alongside them to help them feel comfortable and confident getting our ELs the same access to our curriculum. 

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Developing & Maintaining an Asset-Based Lens

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*If you would like to utilize these slides/content, please cite the following source:

Osborne, C., Ristich, J. (2024, November 9). Deeper Learning: Best Practices for ELs in Tier 1 instruction workshop with Oakland Schools, Waterford, MI, United States.

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S1_ Best Practices for MLs in Tier 1 Instruction.pdf

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The way we talk to students matters. The way we talk about students also matters. If there was a fly on the wall of your classroom walls or your teachers’ lounge, what would it observe? What would it overhear? Yes, we all have those moments that we need to vent- but our words can provide an insight…

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Join us on Zoom for shared learning and interaction on the option that is most interesting to you! This series is designed for EL…

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Power of Asset-Based Mindsets - Google Jamboard

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Please take a few minutes to complete the survey, and add your "why" for joining this series.

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Suggested Text:  Long-Term Success for Experienced Mutilinguals

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Suggested Text:  Long-Term Success for Experienced Mutilinguals

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Tan Huynh & Beth Skelton

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Now is the time to push past the limits of the long-term English learner (LTEL) label and embrace a new way of honoring secondary multilinguals' valuable life experiences and academic potential. By focusing on experienced multilinguals' strengths and what teachers can do, you'll discover new avenues for teaching the academic language skills required for them to process content lessons and clearly communicate discipline-specific ideas.

This concise guide presents an easy-to-implement cross-curricular instructional framework specifically designed for secondary content teachers. Practical, research-based, and classroom-tested this book includes:

Four essential actions that foster the conditions for experienced multilinguals to reach the highest grade-level content and language proficiency

Specific strategies with "try it out" prompts to encourage implementation

Templates and anchor charts for structuring lessons

Vignettes and stories from both the student and teacher perspective

There is nothing lacking with experienced multilinguals. All they need are the right conditions to unlock their potential-so they can express themselves as the mathematicians, scientists, historians, writers, and artists they know themselves to be.

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Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals

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This practical, easy-to-implement, cross-curricular instructional framework includes strategies, implementation prompts, templates, and essential actions that create the conditions for experienced multilinguals to process content and clearly communicate discipline-specific ideas.

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Resources: Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals

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Resources: Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals

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Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals | Online Resources

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Valentina Gonzalez

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Rooted Linguistics: Serving Teachers of Multilingual Learners

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English Language Learners

In higher grades, multilingual students need to develop a grasp of academic English. Here's how to help them acquire the skills they need.

Min Woo walks into his favorite class, math, sits down next to his partner, and reaches into his backpack for the folder with the papers for their current project. They are learning to think like city planners by using angles and lines to plan out the roads and buildings for a new city. Mr. Nguyen, the seventh-grade math teacher, greets each student by name at the door. When the bell rings, he gestures to the board where the next step for the project is posted.

To get the class started with the next step in their city planning project, he tells them to read the prompt with their partners, making sure to restate the directions in their own words or ask each other questions about the prompt. Min Woo reads aloud, " Draw at least two parallel streets and two transversal streets to form acute and obtuse angles." Puzzled, he asks his partner, "What does transversal mean?" His partner points up to the poster on the wall with labeled angles and lines. They study the poster and then start talking about how they want to draw the parallel and transversal lines for their city streets. When Mr. Nguyen calls the class back from their discussion, Min Woo and his partner are ready for the next step.

Mr. Nguyen knows that several of the students in his math class are still classified as English learners, even though they have been in the school district for many years. Because he wants all students to experience success in his math classes, he thoughtfully provides content instruction with scaffolds for academic language development.

Labeled visuals

Time for partner discussions

Step-by-step instructions for solving problems

Chunking the final performance assessment project into shorter daily tasks

In the lesson described in the previous paragraph, Mr. Nguyen used the following scaffolds:

None of these scaffolds "water down" the grade-level expectations of the lesson but rather provide the necessary support so that experienced multilinguals can meet these high expectations. In fact, providing the right scaffolds at the right time exemplifies equitable learning. In the hands of a skillful teacher, scaffolds stretch students' skills, proficiency, and confidence.

Since most of the experienced multilinguals in his class no longer receive any direct, specialized English instruction, Mr. Nguyen knows he not only has to teach the math curriculum but also the academic English skills required to process and communicate the math-specific ideas.

If teachers provide appropriate scaffolds, experienced multilinguals like Min Woo are capable of learning new content in English in grade-level content classes. As experienced multilinguals reach higher levels of English proficiency, their English development needs become less obvious, but the academic language demands continue to increase.

For many learners, these increasingly challenging academic language demands make them feel like they have finally reached an apparent summit on the mountain only to discover another higher peak ahead. Scaffolds give them support to reach the highest peak, even as the trail gets more difficult.

Some experienced multilingual students like Min Woo have greater proficiency in spoken English than in reading and writing in English. Therefore, when they answer questions and participate in class discussions, teachers may assume they will also be successful on the written exam. However, when these students do not perform as expected, some teachers may be tempted to label them as "lazy," "unmotivated," or "unfocused." We offer a different way of thinking about these responses and provide a framework that will address the academic language needs of these students in every content class.

We introduce the concept of academic language and advocate for teaching this type of language meaningfully within the context of the content classroom. Experienced multilinguals need high grade-level expectations coupled with high support to engage in content classes. In addition to teaching complex content and the academic language of each discipline, we suggest that experienced multilinguals benefit from explicit instruction in effective learning strategies. These strategies help students learn, transfer skills to other content areas, and become more independent learners. We share several of these learning strategies, which are anything a student does to boost their understanding of new content and use of academic language. Finally, we provide an overview of our framework for designing equitable content instruction that supports and stretches experienced multilinguals as they develop academic language proficiency across the curriculum. This framework serves as the outline for the rest of the book.

Academic language is more than just vocabulary words. It includes complex sentence structures, transition phrases, and organizational patterns used for different purposes like writing lab reports, arguing a claim, or analyzing a poem. Each of these purposes requires students to use academic language differently (WIDA, 2020). When students learn the language to justify their choices of lines and angles in math class, they can transfer that language to justify choices in science or language arts class. Teaching this cross-disciplinary academic language helps students succeed in the long-term.

Honigsfeld (2019) explains that academic language is "not something students have or do not have; it is something all students use daily to learn" (p. 49). While experienced multilinguals have generally acquired the ability to communicate clearly in most social situations, they are still developing the ability to use academic English. Developing this "academic language proficiency helps students achieve long-term success at school" (Dutro & Moran, 2002, p. 231).

Experienced multilinguals may also have different linguistic abilities in different fields and content areas (Walqui & van Lier, 2010). One experienced multilingual student may find the most success in a math class, while others triumph in social studies, sciences, or the arts.

The various dimensions of academic language are often described through an architectural metaphor (Dutro & Moran, 2002; Zwiers, 2008). The first dimension-vocabulary words and phrases-is like the bricks that form the foundation of the structure or text. Next, the sentence structures are like the mortar that connects the bricks to form the walls of that building or academic work. In the next dimension, the organizational features such as transition phrases and paragraphing conventions are like the roof, windows, doors, and interior design. As economics teacher David Carney says, "If students don't write with academic phrases and organization, their essays read like a pile of bricks; there is no cohesion" (D. Carney, personal communication, February 2022).
From Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals (pp. 36-42) by Tan K. Huynh and Beth Skelton, Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. (Readers in the U.S. and Canada can save 20 percent when buying the book by using that link and the code SAVE20.)
Finally, the context for the written or spoken project is like the neighborhood or community, in which the structure is located. Students need explicit instruction in each dimension of discipline-specific language in order to succeed on classroom assignments and assessments.The bricks in Min Woo's math lesson are the words and phrases used to describe the angles and lines. The walls of this lesson are formed with the sentences that explain the relationships between the lines and angles. Finally, the entire house structure will be completed when he organizes his presentation. The purpose of the presentation will be to explain the location of each line. He will have to justify the layout of his street map to the audience. The context or audience for this project is the presentation to the town council. As apprentice city planners in the math class, Min Woo and his classmates will develop mathematical reasoning as well as the mathematical-specific language needed to share their developing understanding.

When Mr. Nguyen asks students to justify their choices for placing the lines and angles on the city map, the sentence structures and organization they use must justify their decisions, not just describe the lines and angles. As math teacher and author Molina (2012) writes, "the phrase 'the problem with math is English' applies to all students, not just those whose native language is not English" (p. 1). Therefore, all students in the class will benefit from explicit instruction in using math-specific academic language to be successful engaging with this project.

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Scaffolding for Experienced English Language Learners

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In higher grades, multilingual students need to develop a grasp of academic English. Here's how to help them acquire the skills they need.

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Ep 151. How to Teach Academic Content to Multilinguals - TanKHuynh

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When teachers explicitly teach the language of their content, this is what it means to be a teacher of language.

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Suggested Text: 7 Steps to a Language Rich, Interactive Classroom

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Suggested Text: 7 Steps to a Language Rich, Interactive Classroom

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Author: John Seidlitz & Bill Perryman

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Author: John Seidlitz & Bill Perryman

7 Steps to a Language-Rich, Interactive Classroom, 2nd Edition, provides a seven step process that creates a language-rich, interactive classroom environment, one in which all students can thrive and succeed. Topics include differentiating instruction for students at a variety of language proficiencies, keeping all students absolutely engaged, and creating powerful learning supports

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7 Steps to a Language-Rich, Interactive Classroom (2nd Edition) - Seidlitz Education

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This book provides a seven step process that creates a language-rich, interactive classroom environment, one in which all students can thrive and succeed. Topics include differentiating instruction for students at a variety of language...

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Webinar: Long-term Success for Experienced Multilinguals

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Webinar: Long-term Success for Experienced Multilinguals

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Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals free webinar

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The teacher resources concerning accessing prior knowledge are very useful. I copied a couple to pdf for sharing tomorrow. R.Stephenson

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The teacher resources concerning accessing prior knowledge are very useful. I copied a couple to pdf for sharing tomorrow. R.Stephenson

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Deeper Learning Series: Coaching Padlet 

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Deeper Learning Series: Coaching Padlet 

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The Importance of ELL Strategies - Immersion (Moises in Math Class)