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Using Educational Technology —21st Century Supports for English Learners 

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Using Educational Technology —21st Century Supports for English Learners 

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This toolkit focuses on how educational technology can best serve the needs of English language learners. Using findings from a variety of research studies and professional organizations, this toolkit provides guidelines, questions to consider, and links for further exploration for teachers and administrators. Anecdotal evidence from classroom teachers provide real-world application of how technology can support English language learners. 35 min.

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Understanding the Different Levels of ELL Students

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Understanding the Different Levels of ELL Students

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The purpose of this video is to help you know and identify the 5 different levels that your ELL students might be in, as well as some quick tips on differentiating for their needs.

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Understanding the Different Levels of ELL Students

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Download the Google Translate app to your phone or tablet and explore the following functions:
Text
Camera
Handwriting
Conversations
Voice
Then follow directions to download Google Translate to your computer by downloading the Chrome web browser and the Google Translate web extension.
Please explore the following functions:
Translating websites
Translating Google Docs

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Family Guide to Remote Learning

Get an overview of what the New York City Department of Education has done in response to COVID 19 and remote learning. Including:

Guide to Google Classroom

Get step by step instructions for how to access and use Google Classroom.

Guide to Google Translate

Google Translate is a free application that is available on most devices. Google Translate can be used to translate text, handwriting, speech, and websites in over 100 different languages.

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Get an overview of what the New York City Department of Education has done in response to COVID 19 and remote learning. Including: Get step by step instructions for how to access and use Google Classroom. Google Translate is a free application that is available on most devices.

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Strategies for Communicating with ELL Families

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Strategies for Communicating with ELL Families

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Learn how to stay in contact with English learners and their families and how administrators can support that outreach. This article also includes multiple tools, resources, and tips for collaboration. This article is part of Colorin Colorado's guides on Strategies for ELL Success and distance learning for ELLs.

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As schools look for different ways to build successful partnerships with families, good communication remains crucial. There are more options than ever before for educators and administrators to connect with families of English language learners (ELLs) and keep that communication strong. Here are some tips for schools and resources to explore.

Note: Families have a legal right to information from the school in their home language. You can learn more about those rights in the following:

It's essential that schools have accurate contact information for families. Understanding why families' contact information might change, how they prefer to update that information, and how the school can make it easier for them to do so can go a long way in helping everyone stay connected.

Learn more from the following:

1. Find families' contact information.

Start by looking for families' contact information and checking to see if information on file is still accurate. This may be challenging if families' housing and economic situations are unstable. Families who use prepaid cell phones may also change phone numbers regularly.

If you don't have updated contact information for families, consider trying to pass on a message through:

other students or families (including through families' networks among themselves)

an interpreter, family liaison, or ELL educator who knows the family

other educators such as teachers, coaches, and counselors

teachers of other children in the family

community or faith-based organizations serving your students' families.

2. Help families keep their contact information updated.

Ensure that families understand why the school needs updated contact information, especially during the pandemic. You may wish to provide translated emergency contact forms or other tools that can help.

Learn how to make this easier for families in The Importance of Keeping Emergency Contact Information Updated (and keep in mind that families' with limited internet access may not be able to log in easily to parent portals).

3. Ensure that families know how to contact you or the school.

Make sure that families have:

updated contact information for their child's teacher

updated contact information for any other adult who will be working with their child, such as an ESL specialist or special educator

information on contacting an interpreter or getting necessary information in their home language

information on getting technical support in their home language.

You may also wish to provide a translated information form to help families keep this information organized. In addition, ensure that families know that they are allowed (and encouraged!) to reach out to their child's school with questions.

Preferred methods of communication

4. Find out how families prefer to communicate.

Each family will have their own preferences on how to communicate, although there may be some similarities among families from particular communities who are using the same methods. The more you know about how families wish to communicate, the more successful your communication will be. You can learn more about tech tools that can support this communication in How to Use Technology to Engage Multilingual Families.

Phone calls

You may wish to start with a call if you have families' phone numbers. This will also allow you to reach some families who don't have internet access. Google Voice allows you to place phone calls without sharing your phone number. Keep in mind that some families are not allowed to answer their phones while working.

Texts

Some families may prefer to communicate by text. That will allow them to respond at their convenience. You may also wish to text video messages to your students or families with information, greetings, or messages of encouragement. Many immigrant families use WhatsApp and create large texting groups as part of the app.

Social media

Many schools have had success in communicating with ELL families through social media, including Facebook messenger or a dedicated Facebook group with translated information. For example, the Roseville, MN school districts posts bilingual information for families on its community Facebook pages, including translated messages from a family liaison. For more ideas on how to engage effectively with multilingual families in virtual settings, see these ideas from Dr. Karen Woodson.

Email & online communication

Many ELL educators have reported that emails and newsletters are not a good option for their families. Sending out updates doesn't guarantee that families have received them or gotten the important information they need from them. If you don't receive responses to your emails, consider calling or texting instead. Just because families have provided an email address doesn't mean they are using it or are comfortable sending emails to a teacher. Other online options include doing a video chat, sharing a survey or family check-in form (perhaps via Google Forms), or sharing some online learning resources.
Notes:

Assisting families with access to devices and internet may also improve communication, although as our related article notes, the technology alone won't do the trick without strong relationships and tech training and support.

Your district may have policies in place regarding student privacy and online learning, such as restrictions on videos or images of students. Check with your school administrator for clarification as needed to protect student and family privacy, as well as with your families to find out if they have any concerns.

Mail and more

During the pandemic, some teachers have connected with families through creative ways such as post cards or attaching contact information to food delivery. One teacher who sent her phone number via pizza delivery heard back from the family she was trying to contact!

Partnering with families in the service industry

This video features Juliana Urtubey, 2021 National Teacher of the Year.

5. Find out when families prefer to communicate.

Keep in mind that immigrant families may be juggling a number of challenges and responsibilities that impact how and when they can communicate with the school. Some families may:

work outside of the home during the school day, during the evening, or overnight

need to juggle child care and other family caregiving responsibilities during the day

work for employers that have strict rules about responding to phone calls or texts during their shift

follow cultural norms regarding family or gender roles around communication.

The better you know your families, the more you can learn about their schedules and their family's situation during the pandemic.

Language access resources

6. Ensure that families and staff know that families are entitled to information in their home language.

School districts are legally required to provide information in families' home languages. You may need to share information about these rights with families themselves, colleagues, or administrators if families are not getting the information they need in their language.

You can learn more about best practices for increasing families' language access from the following:

7. Identify your language access options.

If you are don't know what your language access options are, contact ELL educators or administrators from your school or district to find out more about your options, which may include the following:

School / district interpreters

Your school or district may have trained interpreters, as well as bilingual staff. It is important to note that bilingual staff and interpreters play different roles:

Bilingual/multilingual staff speak multiple languages. They may also be able to write and translate in those languages, but that is not always the case. They may not have had formal training in translation or interpretation.

Interpreters have received extensive training related to best practices for interpreting/translation, as well as training on specific legal and educational considerations around matters where they will be interpreting.

If your school or district has interpreters, ask your colleagues:

if and when they are able to assist with family communication

what process they prefer for setting up conversations

what has worked (or not) in the past

if there are other translation resources that you should be familiar with

if families have common questions that can be addressed more efficiently

if there are some ways to make technical support in families' home languages more efficient

if there is anything you can do to support their work.

Learn more about in Equity Through Language Access: Best Practices for Collaborating with Interpreters.

District translation hotline

Your school district may offer a translation hotline. Find out if it is currently available and, if so, how you can use it to set up conversations with families. If the hotline's hours don't match your families' availability, talk with an administrator about whether other options may be available.

Translation apps

Ideally, districts will have in-person interpreters available as part of their legally mandated obligations to make information available in families' home languages. However, there are tools that can help fill in some of the gaps, especially during the current crisis.

Talking Points is an app that translates messages between teachers and families in many different languages. Here's how it works:

Parents receive the messages as a text message and do not need to download an app.

It's free for individuals and can be purchased for broader use by districts.

Translations are done automatically but human interpreters are available if needed.

You can send mass texts as well and teachers' numbers are protected.

Illinois multilingual education administrator Sarah Said notes, "It's an application that works as a text message on parents' phones. It enables two-way translation communication with families. You can send mass texts for free! It has been a LIFELINE."

The Talking Points can help give individual teachers more options in reaching out to families directly rather than relying on an intermediary. Please note, however, that it should not be considered a wholesale substitute for professional, knowledgeable interpreters and liaisons who are familiar with:

the language and culture of the families

technical school terms, especially for special education

strategies that can help build trust and community among ELLs and their families.

When to use what method of contact

Keep in mind that some information may be more suitable for texts (shorter messages, reminders, and check-ins) than lengthy or sensitive information, or information that is legally required to be translated. Please take a look at these privacy and security considerations for ELLs and immigrant families if you are considering using Talking Points or other apps.

Supporting learning

8. Identify the information and updates that ELL families will need in their language.

Does planning and communication in your district take ELLs and their families into account? ELL families will need to know:

the school schedule

information about school closures (whether planned or due to weather, etc.)

how to communicate with their child's teacher

how to access lessons, assignments, and updates about their child's progress

access to devices, internet, and technology training and support when learning remotely

information about ELL or special education services and support.

Families may not be aware of the services the school provides around school meals, health care, social-emotional support, how to support learning at home, or parenting tips for managing schedules and routines. Sharing this information broadly and then getting to know individual families is the best to address their priority questions!

Building relationships

9. Look for ways to build relationships with ELL families.

ELL families are valuable partners, yet they are often overlooked in family engagement. The school-family partnership is a two-way street - just as schools have important information they want to convey to families, families have important information about their children and questions they want ask of schools. This partnership is not born overnight, and it may take time to build trust. However, by working steadily on aspects listed above, schools can increases their chances for success, especially when they make it a priority to make families feel welcome and build school-family partnerships.

As you communicate and connect with families, keep the following tips in mind:

In the words of one of our advisors, take time to ask how families are doing, not what they are doing. Like many families, they may be facing complex challenges. (You can learn more about how COVID-19 has impacted immigrant families in this article, as well as by talking with educators or liaisons who know your ELL families well.)

Ask them what their questions are.

Learn more about the families' strengths and interests. Start with low-key topics and avoid asking direct personal questions that may make them nervous. Over time, you may learn more about their prior experiences.

Share something about yourself that helps them relate to you as a person, such as a photo of you with a pet or doing a hobby.

Ask them to tell you more about their children's strengths, talents, and personality. As you get to know the child, share successes and observations that indicate that you are seeing the whole child.

It also helps to keep in mind the following:

Many families may have different perspectives on the role of the family in schooling based on the experiences within their culture. The idea of a "school-family partnership" - not to mention the shift to schooling children at home - may be very new to immigrant families and they may not respond to the school's outreach efforts in the way that other families do. You can learn more about how to engage families and encourage their leadership from our ELL family engagement guide.

Some families and students may be more comfortable in settings that are more oriented to the group as opposed to the individual. For example, some families may prefer group family conferences where they can learn from each other's questions and then break off for smaller individual conversations as needed.

10. Ask families what has worked (or not) so far.

Your families will have helpful insights about their recent experiences with their children's schools. Topics related to communication might include:

getting updates from the school

being in touch with their child's teachers

how they prefer to communicate

questions about technology access and tech support

whether they have had enough information to support their child's learning.

In some cases during the pandemic, families didn't hear back from the school, or schools were unable to reconnect with families. In others, families were contacted by so many different people that they got overwhelmed. Finding out what their experiences were will help planning in future communication.

How administrators can help

Making space in teachers' schedules for the time and effort needed for the above strategies (especially if they do not yet have a relationship with the family) may seem difficult given all that they are juggling. In the long run, however, it will:

fortify those critical connections

allow them to plan more effective and efficient instruction around students' situations.

Administrators can help in this effort by:

acknowledging the importance of this communication

ensuring teachers have the necessary time to communicate effectively with ELL families in their schedules

ensuring that current policies and resources support teachers' ability to succeed in ELL family communication.

Administrators may wish to reach out to staff members, including ELL and bilingual educators, interpreters, family liaisons, and paraprofessionals, to talk about:

schedules

case load

availability

their ideas on how to make communication more efficient.

Closing thoughts

Most importantly, don't give up! While it will be a challenge, as this teacher notes, families you connect with will likely be appreciative to hear from the school:

I spent a chunk of my day today calling families using Google Voice. I didn't get through to most, but the ones I did talk to were SO grateful for the clarification about what's going on. I even got to hear a few of my sweet kiddos' voices. - Megan Kingery

If we can recognize and seize the challenge, there may be some opportunities that come out of this crisis, such as the chance to:

better understand and address inequities within our school communities

improve digital access for all students

strengthen family communication

think creatively about student engagement and instruction in new ways.

We are all in this together. Your ELLs and their families will be powerful partners on this journey - once they are invited to the table!

Acknowledgements

Note: Special thanks to Larry Ferlazzo and the educators who contributed to his Education Week series on distance learning and responding to the school closures early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Communicating with ELL Families: 10 Strategies for Schools

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As schools look for different ways to build successful partnerships with families, good communication remains crucial. There are more options than ever before for educators and administrators to connect with families of English language learners (ELLs) and keep that communication strong. Here are some tips for schools and resources to explore.

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Strategies to Support Language and Vocabulary

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Strategies to Support Language and Vocabulary

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Multilingual Word Walls and Cognate Charts pp.26-28

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This document sets the expectation for the quality of education that ELL/MLL students deserve to have. Each of the principles highlighted in this document address the various stakeholders (e.g., district, schools, teachers, parents, community) and their respective roles and responsibilities in ensuring the academic success of ELL/MLL students.

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Strategies to Support MLL/ELL Student Learning

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Strategies to Support MLL/ELL Student Learning

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Support MLL/ELLs' learning with collaborative work pp.19-25

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Translanguaging in Curriculum and Instruction:A	CUNY-NYSIEB Guide for Educators (2014)

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Translanguaging in Curriculum and Instruction:A	CUNY-NYSIEB Guide for Educators (2014)

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Resources and strategies are aligned to support the NY state literacy standards, with descriptive classroom examples "in action". Instructional Units across grades present both fiction and non-ficton; elementary science ecosystems; middle school math proportions; and high school social studies immigration.

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Teaching ELLs with NYSESLAT K-12 NYC RBERN 2017

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Teaching ELLs with NYSESLAT K-12 NYC RBERN 2017

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Guidance of what and how to plan with NYSESLAT Targets of Measurement of language in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, aligned to state standards.

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not preveiwed yet! -select excerpt: The 1 Reason Your ELLs Aren't Making Growth and to Change That Now podcast 17:21

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not preveiwed yet! -select excerpt: The 1 Reason Your ELLs Aren't Making Growth and to Change That Now podcast 17:21

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How to overcome doubt by making 3 mindset shifts
Why you must believe in your ability to make a positive impact on your ELL students in order to help them make progress
How to determine if you are approaching your students with a deficit or asset based approach and how to ensure you are approaching them through an asset-based lens
Why keeping it simple with routines and structure is beneficial to both you and your students

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The 1 Reason Your ELLs Aren't Making Growth and How to Change That Now [LISTENER FAVORITE]

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Your host, Beth Vaucher, is the founder of Inspiring Young Learners. She is an ESL certified homeroom teacher with over 10 years of experience teaching in the US and internationally. Her background of M.Ed in ESL and Curriculum and Instruction combined with her experience has led her to develop a bestselling newcomer curriculum that has sold in over 90 countries around the globe.

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A Guide to Google Translate for Families

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A Guide to Google Translate for Families

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Information and tips to support your child’s
learning at home.

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6 Tips for Engaging Families in the Feedback Process

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6 Tips for Engaging Families in the Feedback Process

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The most impactful plans for student growth engage not only the learner but also his or her family.How can we do a better job of appealing to and including the parents of English language learners (ELLs) as valuable members of the school community?
Here are six keys to successfully engaging ELL parents and families.

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English Language Learners

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

Marmaduke St. John / Alamy Stock Photo

The most impactful plans for student growth engage not only the learner but also his or her family. In fact, research points to parents and caretakers as invaluable stakeholders in students' academic achievement. Unfortunately, parents who are new to English are often left out of family engagement at the school level to some degree. How can we do a better job of appealing to and including the parents of English language learners (ELLs) as valuable members of the school community?

Here are six keys to successfully engaging ELL parents and families.

1. Make It Reciprocal

Engagement is a partnership between the parents and the school to serve the best interests of students. The school is responsible for meeting certain expectations, some of which are legally mandated through the Every Student Succeeds Act, such as provisions for translation of vital school information into students' home languages.

Parents also have specific obligations, which aren't always clear, especially when there are cultural differences-we cannot assume that the American idea of doing school is shared by all families in our community. Teachers can help by explicitly communicating parents' key responsibilities, such as taking an active role in helping their child learn to organize his or her study time. Parents can also be encouraged to monitor engagement, limit distractions, build consistency, and celebrate periods of concentration.

Parents can also set aside a quiet place for their child to learn and read at home, and be available to answer questions. They should utilize school-based technological and translation resources, including bilingual dictionaries, home anchor charts, and web-based language translation applications, if needed. They should also take time to discuss school matters with their child, asking questions about the school day: friends, concepts learned, struggles and discomforts, successes and achievements.

2. Aim for Authenticity

Efforts to engage diverse parent groups must be authentic and meaningful. Begin with a deep dive of your school's unique demographics. What values, interests, and funds of knowledge are represented on campus? Is the school's interest in students' home lives perceived as genuine?

Support authenticity by intentionally fostering a welcoming, inclusive environment where families see reflections of themselves. Work to engage firsthand resources to your school, including bilingual staff members. Champion relationship building through collaboration. Authenticity breeds connection.

3. Use a Culturally Responsive Approach

Where do families' deeply rooted cultural values show up in the school? How do parents' cultural perspectives drive expectations for parent engagement? Do we use these references to ignore, diminish, or empower our families as members of our school community?

To make the shift toward empowerment, be mindful of culturally relevant dates and holidays, and avoid scheduling important events on these days. Ensure that school-based activities, language, and school menus reflect cultural considerations. Be critical of trivial displays of culture. Openly communicate norms for parent engagement, and work to share this information in a variety of ways. Invite student and parent input, and make a point of reframing cultural or linguistic misconceptions as teachable moments.

4. Keep It Simple

Communication is essential to successful parent engagement efforts. We should aim for clarity in all of our exchanges with parents, especially those who are still new to English.

Explore your school's registration paperwork and parent communications from a fresh perspective. What can be streamlined, condensed, or eliminated? Be particularly mindful of acronyms, educational jargon, and terms that may be unfamiliar to parents, including ones related to mental health like trauma.

Look for ways to provide appropriate support for language learning parents. Many of the strategies we use to make content comprehensible for ELLs are also helpful in working with linguistically diverse parent populations. Think: visuals, graphic organizers, and translated or icon-based cheat sheets for potentially unfamiliar terminology (for example, immunizations, English language development services).

Actively facilitate advisory, advocacy, and mentorship roles that are inclusive of caretakers who are learning English.

Intentionally craft and promote volunteer opportunities and teacher aide positions that appeal to diverse parent groups.

Host a variety of parent-school partnership events.

Offer outreach partnerships and community liaison roles that require cross-cultural or multilingual expertise.

Create an accessible bank of relevant tools and resources based on parent interest.

Organize parent-created learning sessions.

Collect input via English-learner parent focus groups, advisory committees, suggestion boxes, surveys, and interviews.

Consistently utilize parent feedback to inform decision making at the classroom, school, and district levels.

5. Increase Capacity

Grow English learner caretakers as leaders in the school community by providing a range of low-risk opportunities for parent input, feedback, and cultural sharing. Here are some ideas:

6. Find Your Way Home

In building and nurturing relationships with ELL families, the value of teacher home visits cannot be understated: They provide essential insight into a student's home life and unique learning needs, and "support academic gains and positive social integration for ELLs." They are linked to improved academic progress and attendance rates. Perhaps most importantly, teacher home visits lay a foundation of trust as the frontrunner to school-based parent engagement.

In the vast majority of cases, our English learner parents have high hopes for their children's scholastic well-being and wish to contribute to that success. When parents feel that they are a part of an inclusive learning culture and have a clear awareness of their role in their child's learning, true partnerships can occur.

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6 Tips for Engaging the Families of English Language Learners

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

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Supporting ELLs in Preschool - Video 7:24 min.

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Supporting ELLs in Preschool - Video 7:24 min.

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Dr. Ann Anderberg stresses: When teachers and parents engage in practices that support oral language development, children can develop strong language skills in both their first and second languages.  Transcript: https://www.easternct.edu/center-for-early-childhood-education/e-clips/supporting-english-language-learners.html

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CECE Early Childhood Videos at Eastern CT State U.

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Supporting English Language Learners in the Preschool Classroom

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This blog post will raise your awareness about the importance of recognizing the multiple assets that our ELs bring. Three strategies to promote ELs' assets are storytelling, celebration, and mindset.

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Note: This post first appeared on k-12talk.com September 24, 2019. That piece is titled Back to School: Promoting ELs' Assets. For more culturally responsive teaching strategies for creating an asset-based environment, visit our ML Resource Library.
The proportion of English learners (ELs) in the United States public school system has reached Gaps such as these have helped lead far too many educators to see ELs as one-dimensional, defined primarily as lacking in areas such as English proficiency, achievement in content areas, and/or ability to graduate. nearly ten percent of all students and is on a nationwide growth trajectory¹. Along with this growth in numbers, ELs tend to experience an opportunity gap, which generally refers to the impact that factors such as students' English proficiency, socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity have on their achievement. For example, 79% of English fluent eighth graders scored at the basic or above reading level in 2017, while only 32% of ELs scored at those levels during that same year². In addition, ELs have one of the lowest graduation rates among all students on a national level, approximately 63% as compared to 82% of all students³. Recent research⁴ on teachers' perceptions of ELs in kindergarten through second grade suggests that classifying students as ELs has a "direct and negative effect on teachers' perceptions of students' academic skills."

That's a lot of bad news, right? It doesn't need to be that way, however.

In this blog post, I hope to raise your awareness about the importance of recognizing the multiple assets that our ELs bring.

An assets-based perspective values students' home languages and cultures and sees these gifts as foundations for future learning, rather than as hindrances to overcome. An assets-based perspective also recognizes that parents of ELs are involved in their children's education and support their children in varied and perhaps unrecognized ways⁵, rather than blaming them for their children's perceived lack of academic skills. It also provides multiple opportunities to honor students' cultural and linguistic backgrounds and incorporate what students already know into their learning. Thus, it stands in direct contrast to a deficit perspective, in which the focus is on ELs' challenges.

The good news? Despite systems which may impede ELs' assets to be recognized, individual teachers possess the agency to chip away at the deficit perspective.

Three Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies for Promoting English Learners' Assets

Engaging in an assets-based approach with ELs requires a shift in our thinking from what we believe is lacking in our students to the many strengths and assets ELs and their families already possess. To do this, we must take time to learn about our ELs' and their families' invaluable personal, cultural, social, and world experiences and draw from these strengths-based understandings to create instructional opportunities that are meaningful, purposeful and appealing to students. Not only will our ELs benefit, but English-fluent students will learn from their EL peers and see them in a new light. Here are three replicable ways to promote ELs' assets.-

1. Encourage Storytelling.

We all love to hear a good story, and ELs sharing their own stories is one way we can build bridges and help foster connections with EL students. Teachers of younger ELs can first model the task of students drawing a personal narrative storyboard or series of images⁶, then have students write a response to the sentence prompt-"What I wish my teacher knew about me." Teachers can ask older newcomer students to write a personal narrative and then share it with colleagues and school administrators.

To begin this project, interview students and ask them to write about themselves in their home languages, offering scaffolding for these tasks. Each of these activities supports the process of learning more about students' lives and experiences so that we, as educators, develop a better understanding of the linguistic and cultural assets that our students bring to our classrooms. One piece of advice: be sure to give EL students the choice to tell as much of their stories as they feel comfortable with or to have the option to not share them at all, as students may have experienced traumatic events that they wish not to share.

ELs and their families who are open to the idea could also publish their stories in school newspapers to reach a wider audience. Artwork can provide an alternative way for students to contribute their stories. (For more on this topic, please see Zacarian & Staehr Fenner's chapter "From Deficit-Based to Assets-Based" in Breaking Down the Wall: Essential Shifts for English Learners' Success.)
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➤ Self-paced. Available year-round. Earn a certificate for 20 PD hours by joining ourCulturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners (MLs) on-demand book study at any time.
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2. Spread the Word About ELs' Success.

To disrupt deficit thinking, I also encourage you to share news of ELs' successes - both great and small - with your school or district. There are many examples, if we are more aware of where to find them, of ways to demonstrate ELs' growth academically or personally. For instance, I love reading each spring about current or former ELs who have become high school valedictorians. These success stories highlight the metalinguistic superpowers ELs develop (not to mention hard work and persistence) as they learn content in a new language.

You can also invite successful former ELs - including those in college, receiving technical training, or in careers - back to your school in person or by video to highlight what helped them achieve. I encourage you to investigate multiple ways to disseminate your message, such as in assemblies, local newspapers, and/or on your school or district's social media channels (with students' and families' permission).
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3. Thoughtfully Confront the EL Deficit Mindset.

Once your awareness of the importance of promoting an assets-based perspective of ELs is raised, you may begin to notice when others make deficit-based statements about ELs. This gives you the opportunity to support a colleague's shift from a deficit to an assets-based disposition⁷.

We need to be thoughtful about challenging others' thinking in order to do so without disrupting our crucial relationships with our colleagues, especially those relationships that are formed in a new school year. All educators - no matter what their title or how many years of experience they have - are positioned to serve as agents of change when it comes to helping others shift ever so slightly to an assets-based view of ELs and their families.

But how can we best challenge others' deficit thinking when we find ourselves in the uncomfortable space in which we hear someone apply a deficit perspective in describing an EL or an EL's family?
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When you encounter such a situation, I suggest following these steps ⁸:

1. Recognize and acknowledge your colleague's expertise.

2. First listen and try to understand your colleague's perspective, even if you may not agree with them.

3. Consider what might be happening on a systematic level to promote EL deficit thinking around this issue.

4. Suggest some potential strategies to them to better support their ELs.

5. Lighten their load by offering to help implement a new strategy or approach to support them in their work with ELs.

6. Follow up on your support for ELs by checking back in with them.

We all have the ability to spread a culture of EL assets in our sphere of influence. If you begin the school year with ELs' assets in mind, you and your colleagues will be better positioned to create a more welcoming environment for our ELs who have so much to contribute and offer. (For more on this topic, please see Zacarian & Staehr Fenner's chapter "From Deficit-Based to Assets-Based" in Breaking Down the Wall: Essential Shifts for English Learners' Success .)
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Three Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies for Promoting ELs' Assets Sketch Note

We encourage you to share this blog post and sketch note with colleagues to continue fostering a shared sense of accountability in the shift from a deficit to an assets-based disposition. You can click here to share our blog post and sketch note on Twitter, or click here to download this sketch note immediately.
Click here to download the Three Strategies for Promoting English Learners' Assets Sketch Note
Sources:
¹ National Center for Education Statistics. (2019). English language learners in public schools. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgf.asp

² National Center for Education Statistics. (2017). The Nation's Report Card. (2017). NAEP reading report card. Retrieved from https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2017/#/nation/achievement?grade=8

³ National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition. (2018). National- and State-Level High School Graduation Rates for English Learners. Retrieved from https://ncela.ed.gov/files/fast_facts/OELA_FF_HS_GradRates.pdf

⁴ Umansky, I, & Dumont, H. (2019). English Learner Labeling: How English Learner Status Shapes Teacher Perceptions of Student Skills & the Moderating Role of Bilingual Instructional Settings. (EdWorkingPaper: 19-94). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai19-94

⁵ Staehr Fenner, D. (2014). Advocating for English learners: A guide for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

⁶ Zacarian, D., & Staehr Fenner, D., "From Deficit-Based to Assets-Based" (2020). In Calderón, M. et al., Breaking down the wall: Essential shifts for English learners' success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

⁷ Zacarian, D., & Staehr Fenner, D., "From Deficit-Based to Assets-Based" (2020). In Calderón, M. et al., Breaking down the wall: Essential shifts for English learners' success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

⁸ Adapted from a 2017 blog post by Diane Staehr Fenner on SupportEd: https://supported.com/supporteds-top-10-ways-support-english-learners-2017

Continue the conversation with us on Twitter:@ SupportEduc

Additional resources: 2021 Online PD Offerings | Free Checklists & Tools | Webinar Replays

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Three Strategies for Promoting English Learners' Assets

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Unlock the potential of your students with these 3 culturally responsive teaching strategies for promoting English learners' assets.

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Perspectives on English language learning: Aida Walqui's archived webinars

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Perspectives on English language learning: Aida Walqui's archived webinars

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Join WestEd Senior Research Scientist Aída Walqui for an engaging online series that highlights scholarly perspectives on the education of English Learners across a wide variety of settings.

conversations with renowned linguists and educators from around the world who have made significant contributions to the study of multilingualism. Representing a wide variety of interests in the field, guest speakers will share the r perspectives from American universities as well as research and development institutions from different countries.

All sessions will have a different, but complementary focus on research advances in the education of English Learners. The sessions are organized thematically (see more information below) and are free to attend.

All registered participants will receive a list of readings and biographies of the guests. Registered participants will also have an opportunity to submit questions for the interviewee up to one week prior to the day of the session.
Who Should Attend? Dates & Times
Sessions will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9 am PT / 12 pm ET (interviews with Australian scholars will be at 3 pm PT / 8 am AU). Each session will run for 60 minutes.
Registration Information
Registration for all sessions is free.

To register, click the unique registration link for each session below. Register for as many sessions as you wish. You will receive an email confirmation and reminders to attend. We look forward to your participation!

Please contact Danny Torres at dtorres@wested.org if you have questions about the series or if you would like more information about registration.

Theme: Theories and Labels in the Education of English Learners
View the Session Recording Read the Session Transcript Listen to the Audio Recording
Guadalupe Valdés is Bonnie Katz Tenenbaum Professor of Education at Stanford University. A thoughtful and prolific intellectual, Dr. Valdés has led the field of educational linguistics with her research and insights on a diversity of topics including sociocultural diversity and identity, theories and methods of instruction for English Learners, measurement of progress, and the role of educational policies on the attainment of minoritized youth and their communities. Among her numerous publications, Con Respeto: Bridging the Distances between Culturally Diverse Families and School, An Ethnographic Portrait and Learning and Not Learning English: Latino Students in American Schools are classics in the field.
Discussion Topics:

The role of theory in the formulation of policies and practices suggested for English Learners and their teachers

The role language - both family languages and English - play in the academic and civic development of English Learners

How language is conceptualized, talked about, and curricularized in education; as well as recent developments in parental engagement

View the Session Recording Read the Session Transcript Listen to the Audio Recording
Ofelia García is Emeritus Professor in the Urban Education and of Hispanic and Luso -Brazilian Literatures and Languages at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She has published extensively on multilingualism, the sociology of language, and the education of minoritized students and their teachers. García has also been working with teachers and conducting research at a New York City school for many years. Her most recent work studies translanguaging in society and classrooms.
Discussion Topics:

The evolution of multilingualism and the role it plays in everyday life, schooling, and society

Proposals for English Learner and teacher education

Perspective and projections on the future of multilingualism in America

The work of education linguists in classrooms

Theme: English Learners in the United States: History and Civic Participation
View the Session Recording Read the Session Transcript Listen to the Audio Recording
is the Lee Jacks Professor of Education, Emeritus at Stanford University. An experimental psycholinguist by training, he is best known for his work in the areas of bilingualism and policies for the development of English by immigrant students. Dr. Hakuta is the author of numerous research papers and books, including his landmark Mirror of Language . He chaired a National Academy of Sciences report Improving Schooling for Language Minority , and co-edited a book on affirmative action in higher education, Compelling Interest: Examining the Evidence on Racial Dynamics in Higher Education .
Discussion Topics:

A n exploration of historical and current debates on educational access for English Learners

Perceptions of multilingualism

Policies affecting the education of immigrant students and children of immigrants in the United States

The role of standards and assessment

The need for theoretical understandings to evaluate the effectiveness of programs

View the Session Recording Read the Session Transcript Listen to the Audio Recording
is University Research Chair in Democracy and Education at the University of Ottawa and education columnist for CBC Radio's Joel Westheimer Ottawa Morning show. He is co-founder and executive director of Democratic Dialogue, a research collaborative dedicated to the critical exploration of democratic ideals in education and society. Among his many publications, Westheimer is author of the critically acclaimed Among Schoolteachers: Community, Autonomy and Ideology in Teachers' Work and What Kind of Citizen? Educating Our Children for the Common Good .

Citizenship education - what it should entail, and how it is misconstrued in educational reform movements

The role of civic education in the development of English Learners

The connections across levels of schooling

The Inequality Project and its potential for classes characterized by socioeconomic, social, and linguistic diversity

Theme: The Education English Learners Need and Deserve
View the Session Recording Read the Session Transcript Listen to the Audio Recording
George Bunch is Professor of Education at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research focuses on language and literacy challenges and opportunities for students learning English as an additional language in US K-12 schools and higher education, and on policies and practices designed to serve such students. Dr. Bunch received a Midcareer Award from AERA and a Spencer Midcareer Grant for 2017-2018. His most recent book is Amplifying the Curriculum: Designing Quality Learning Opportunities for English Learners, co-edited with Aída Walqui.
Discussion Topics:

The educational challenges and opportunities for students learning English as an additional language

Features of quality education for English Learners

How to prepare and continue the education of teachers who work in classes where English Learners interact with students whose family language is English

Theme: The Education of English Learners in Other Countries
View the Session Recording Read the Session Transcript Listen to the Audio Recording
Alice Stott is Director of Learning and Development at Voice 21, a UK-based charity dedicated to raising the status of speaking in schools. She previously taught at School 21 and is coauthor of Transform Teaching and Learning Through Talk, published in January 2019 by Rowman & Littlefield. The work of Stott and her colleagues on has been studied and evaluated by a team of researchers at the University of Cambridge led by Neal Mercer .

Reasons that the UK has found it imperative to develop oracy as an integral part of the curriculum in multilingual, multiethnic schools

The importance of cultivating the joint work of educators, professional developers, and university researchers to focus on the development of oracy

What has been able to accomplish in British schools

Learnings from the British experience and suggestions for the United States

View the Session Recording Read the Session Transcript Listen to the Audio Recording
Jennifer Hammond is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Education, University of Technology, Sydney. She has taught for many years in the fields of language and literacy education, English as an Additional Language (EAL) education and research design. Her research interests are in literacy development, classroom interaction, and the implications of socio-cultural and systemic theories of language and learning in EAL education. With colleagues, she has completed research into the nature of high challenge, high support pedagogies designed to meet the needs of EAL students, including students of refugee background, in mainstream classes. She has published widely in these areas.

The sustained educational work on language carried out in Australia under the initial leadership of Michael Halliday

The development, implementation, and research around t he importance of talk in learning

Advantages for the education of newly arrived English Learners offered by teachers who have expertise in planning and enacting substantive conversations about key curriculum concepts

Australian work on the development of teacher expertise to engage students in "high challenge/high support" pedagogies

View the Session Recording Read the Session Transcript Listen to the Audio Recording
Beverly Derewianka is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Wollongong, Australia. She has worked in the field of Language Education at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels and has spent over thirty years as a literacy/EAL teacher educator at the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels.

Dr. Derewianka has acted as consultant to various curriculum bodies nationally and internationally, contributing to policy design and assessment procedures. She has written a number of books for teachers based on her research into students' literacy development. Her publications include Exploring How Texts Work , A Grammar Companion , School Discourse: Learning to Write Across the Years of Schooling (with Frances Christie) and Teaching Language in Context (with Pauline Jones).

Although officially retired, she currently works with schools in all states of Australia and overseas supporting teachers in raising students' literacy outcomes.

The sustained educational work on language carried out in Australia under the initial leadership of Michael Halliday

The development, implementation, and research around a meaning-oriented approach to language

The knowledge of language teachers should have , the knowledge of language their English Learners should develop

Australian work on the development of teacher expertise to engage students in "high challenge/high support" pedagogies

Theme: Rethinking and Strengthening the Work on English Learners
View the Session Recording Read the Session Transcript Listen to the Audio Recording
is a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Loyola Marymount University. She is also the founding director of LMU's Center for Equity for English Learners (CEEL). Dr. Lavadenz is a former bilingual and ESL classroom teacher. Her research interests include the education of Latino and bilingual teachers, the experiences of the Central American immigrant community, public policy affecting language use and education, educational equity, and biliteracy development. She holds a Ph.D. in Education, Language, Literacy and Learning from the University of Southern California.

The impact of educational policies and practices for culturally and linguistically diverse students

Work promoted as founder of the Center for Equity for English Learners at Loyola Marymount University

Reflections on teacher education and professional development

The role of teacher associations in the education of English Learners

View the Session Recording Read the Session Transcript Listen to the Audio Recording
is Associate Professor and Teaching Program Chair at Oregon State University. Her research focuses on the language and literacy development of multilingual children and adolescents from immigrant backgrounds. Recent and current research projects include an eight-year longitudinal study of bilingual writers across adolescence and early adulthood, an ethnographic exploration of the home language and literacy practices of Spanish-speaking preschoolers from immigrant families, and a mixed-methods study of teacher and peer interaction and social networks in middle school classrooms .

Longitudinal research on the development of English Learners' writing skills and the implications of that work for educators' practices

The creation and use of categories for English Learners and the consequences that follow

Home language and literacy practices of Spanish-speaking preschoolers from immigrant families

The role of critical dialogic interaction in education.

View the Session Recording Read the Session Transcript Listen to the Audio Recording
is a Professor of Teacher Education and School Improvement at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research centers on understanding second language literacy development, teachers' professional development, and the discourses of educational reform in the United States. Using an institutional perspective of second language learning she analyzes how classroom practices shape and are shaped by the contexts of public schooling. Her most recent book is Teaching and Researching ELLs' Disciplinary Literacies. Systemic Functional Linguistics in Action in the Context of US School Reform.

The development of multiliteracies with English Learners

How to prepare teachers to work equitably with linguistically diverse students

Research on how classroom practices shape and are shaped by the context of public schooling in the United States

Adaptations and research on Hallydayan perspectives on language and learning to classrooms in the United States

View the Session Recording Read the Session Transcript Listen to the Audio Recording
Diane Larsen-Freeman , Professor Emerita from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, has taught generations of second language specialists, conducted research in second language development, and reviewed and synthesized research literature, activities that have led to the publication of leading articles and books in the field.

Dr. Larsen-Freeman has also written books on English grammar from a discourse perspective and has directed the popular grammar series, Grammar Dimensions: Form, Meaning, and Use. Among her many contributions to the field, she developed an ecological theory of second language development.

Second language acquisition and why we should now refer to it by different terms

The role of agency in language learning

Ecological theories of language development

The process and method of teaching additional languages

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WestEd is pleased to announce Aída Walqui will lead a new National Research and Development Center to Improve Education for Secondary English Learners at WestEd, which is one of two new IES-funded R&D centers that will focus on innovative solutions to improving opportunities and achievement for English Learners in secondary settings.
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Perspectives on English Language Learning: Aída Walqui in Conversation with Leading Scholars

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This Event Has Ended. Find Links to Archived Session Recordings, Transcripts, and Audio Recordings Below. Join WestEd Senior Research Scientist Aída Walqui for an engaging online series that highlights scholarly perspectives on the education of English Learners across a wide variety of settings.

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Identifying ELLs with Specific Learning Disabilities: Facts, Advice, and Resources for School Teams

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Identifying ELLs with Specific Learning Disabilities: Facts, Advice, and Resources for School Teams

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How can school teams improve the accuracy of identification of ELLs for disabilities—especially for language and literacy-related disabilities? IN THIS BULLETIN we provide practical advice and resources that educators can use to prepare for and conduct school team identification meetings.

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EmpoweringELLs.com/blog includes examples of teachers' feedback - recorded and written comments - on Billy's essay, and Billy's comments of why he made revisions.

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This is Part 12 of the transforming Instruction Through Technology series. This article focuses on using Screencastify as a tool to provide feedback.

What is the meaning of the word "assess"?

The Latin etymology of the word means "to sit beside". I know what you're thinking - tech is suppose to free teachers to work with more students, not have to sit right beside them. This is particularly true for providing feedback on writing pieces, which is usually a long and painful process for the teacher.

I remember making copious annotations on students' writing to help them improve their grammar and organization of ideas. Sadly, however, these notes were to little effect. My students seemed to remember very little of my notes and continued to make the same mistakes again and again.

I needed a better way of providing feedback.

Screencastify

When I attended an EL conference in 2017, one participant shared that he used Screencastify as a tool to allow him to virtually sit beside each student as he gave feedback. Screencastify is a cloud-based screen recording program. You simply add it as an extension to your Chrome browser.

The best features of Screencastify are that teachers can:

1. save videos on Google Drive

2. publish videos on Youtube

3. make unlimited videos of any length of time for students

4. crop the length of videos

5. display their face in a preview box (optional)

6. pause, resume, and playback the recordings

Here's a video of feedback that I provided to one student.

Providing Feedback on Writing

I no longer give written feedback on students' writing. Instead, I record my feedback and send them a link. As students watch the link, I give them instructions to make changes to their writing. Sometimes, I will point out a mistake or a change that needs to be made. They then have to figure out how to best follow up on that recommendation.

For example, I might say, "I noticed that you spelled The Capitol with a lowercase "c". It's the name of a city. What do you think we should do to this name?" They show these changes in two ways:

1. making changes directly into their Google Doc

2. explaining their changes using the Comment function

What students write in the comment box is as important if not more than the actual change they make to their writing. Commenting on the changes forces students to internalize their thinking about the change. It is like teaching students to fish instead of giving them a fish.

Sitting Beside Students

Using Screencastify is just like sitting next to students as I provide feedback. I am able to:

1. prompt like I do during in-person conferences

2. show genuine excitement when a student writes thoughtful ideas

3. meet with each student at the same time

4. provide complex, in-depth feedback

But I'm not the only one who loves it. My students have responded very positively to Screencastify because it:

1. provides one-on-one, personalized feedback

2. Is clearer than written feedback

3. allows them to replay sections when needed

Efficient vs. Effective Feedback

Does Screencastify take a lot of time?

I spend the same amount I do when I used to provided detailed written feedback. The difference now is that the feedback is actually followed up because it is more meaningful for students than written feedback.

Written feedback is more efficient but not as effective as recorded oral feedback. I'd rather invest time in a process that is effective even if it's not the most efficient process.

Leaves vs. Trees

I can use Screencastify to give two kinds of feedback:

The Leaves: copy edit (grammatical corrections)

The Trees: revision (big picture, structural comments)

You have to know what kind of feedback you want to provide when using Screencastify. If not, the videos can become really long, and, consequently, the students often become bogged down by making the grammatical corrections instead of thinking about how to structure writing so that their ideas are more fully understood.

Takeaways

Sometimes we're drawn to the glittery nature of using tech tools in our class. However, when we meaningfully integrate technology such Screencastify to provide authentic, personalized feedback that students comprehend, we elevate technology from a gadget for show to a tool for learning and instruction.

If you're interesting enhancing learning for ELs by integrating technology, please consider reading ELL Frontiers: Using Technology to Enhance Instruction for English Learners by Heather Parris, Lisa M. Estrada, and Andrea Honigsfeld. By purchasing this book, you also support this blog.

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#70. Recording Feedback with Screencastify - ELL Strategies | TanKHuynh

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This is Part 12 of the transforming Instruction Through Technology series. This article focuses on using Screencastify as a tool to provide feedback. What is the meaning of the word "assess"? The Latin etymology of the word means "to sit beside".

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The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review

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The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review

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This literature review provides a high-level overview of various research studies and instructional practices that can support ELL/MLs acquire important language learning skills. 21 min.

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These bilingual parent resources offer tips on helping your child learn to read, succeed in school, and learn a new language. They also provide information about the U.S. school system and share ideas on how to build a relationship with your child’s teacher and school.

In addition, you can find fun reading tips and games, bilingual booklists, ideas for using the public library, and videos of children’s authors, illustrators, and musicians. Resources are organized by topic.

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As a parent, there are many ways that you can help your child succeed every single day! These bilingual parent resources offer tips on helping your child learn to read, succeed in school, and learn a new language. They also provide information about the U.S. school system and share ideas on how to build a relationship with your child's teacher and school.

In addition, you can find fun reading tips and games, bilingual booklists, ideas for using the public library, and videos of children's authors, illustrators, and musicians. Resources are organized by topic.

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As a parent, there are many ways that you can help your child succeed every single day! These bilingual parent resources offer tips on helping your child learn to read, succeed in school, and learn a new language. They also provide information about the U.S.

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Rebecca explains what the strategy is, why it is important, and how to implement it with Anchor charts, Interactive notebooks, and Student-centeredness.

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This post may contain affiliate links. You pay the same, but I make a small commission. Please, see my full disclosure for further information.
Are your bilingual students struggling to make meaningful cross linguistic connections in the classroom? One minute they know exactly what they are doing, but once the language of instruction changes they feel completely lost and overwhelmed? No, you are not a bad teacher! And yes, your students are learning. They are just struggling with translanguaging, or the ability to access different linguistic features in all known languages. To promote translanguaging, we must implement strategies for bridging between languages, and the preview view review strategy is the perfect place to start.
If you would like to learn more about the preview-view-review strategy and eight other killer teaching strategies for your dual-language or bilingual classroom, click on this link to get my FREE guide. In this guide, I am sharing nine teaching strategies that will help you set your students on a path towards biliteracy and bilingualism. These are strategies you can start implementing immediately and see amazing results. Click here to get your own copy of the free guide. You can thank me later!
The preview view review strategy is one of many dual language teaching strategies used to help students make connections between the target language and their first language. Preview view review helps bilingual learners by previewing and reviewing the content of the lesson in the students' dominant language. We are not translating! We are building schema and summarizing learning in the dominant language, but most of the instruction is still happening in the target language.

Here is an example of this strategy in action. A fourth-grade teacher is preparing to teach 'central idea' in Spanish. But some students in her class are only learning Spanish. 'Central idea' is a tough concept, and the teacher wants to make sure all students understand it. So she shows students a quick video in English about 'central idea.' Now, Spanish language learners have some background knowledge on the topic. This will help them understand the rest of the lesson. At the end of the lesson, the teacher wants to get a sense of where her students are. She poses a question in English, and students turn and talk to a friend. The teacher targets any students who are learning Spanish by listening in as they talk to their peers. This can help the teacher detect any misconceptions and address them in the future.

Why is preview view review important?

As bilingual teachers, it is our job to teach our students how to make those cross language connections which will help them develop two languages simultaneously. The goal is always to promote bilingualism and biliteracy.

Research shows that " multilingual students who learn about how their two languages are similar and different achieve higher levels of academic achievement" (Dressler et al, 2011, de Jong, 2011). This means that we should encourage students to examine both languages to determine their similarities and differences and create connections. But students won't know how to make these connections if we don't teach them how. We have to use dual language teaching strategies for bridging language every day. One of these strategies is preview view review.

How to implement the preview view review strategy in your classroom

Implementing this strategy in the classroom is easier than you think! Best of all, it only takes a few minutes before and after each lesson. But the payoff is huge! Once I started to implement this strategy in my classroom daily, I saw huge growth in my students. Here are three easy ways that I have used this strategy in my class.

Anchor charts are your best friends

Whenever I introduce a new topic, I always create an anchor chart with my students. This anchor chart is the perfect place to record those cross linguistic connections you are making with your students.

I often use our preview time to review the previous lesson (if we are still working on the same concept.) This allows me to pull out the anchor chart we create on day one to add words in the other language.

Pro tip #1: Assign a color for English and a color for Spanish. Many people use blue for English and red for Spanish, but you could choose different colors if you want to.

Pro tip#2: Be careful that you are not translating every word. You want students to do some thinking on their own. If you translate everything, you are doing all the work for them.

Up the engagement with interactive notebooks

I love using interactive notebooks that go with the anchor charts I am creating. I teach fourth grade, and I am a huge proponent of teaching note taking skills in upper elementary. Note-taking is a great way to improve focus and content retention. Interactive notebooks are great tools for note-taking because it allows you to give students a skeleton of the anchor chart you are creating. Students only have to fill in the blanks with some information, which saves a lot of time and helps students stay organized.

To make it easy for my students to take notes in class, I have created printable anchor charts and interactive notebook pages that go together. As we complete the anchor chart together, students add the same information to their notebooks. You can read more about how I use these anchor charts and interactive notebooks in my classroom by clicking here.

Anchor charts and interactive notebooks can support second language acquisition in your classroom.

During the preview portion of my lesson, I always have students write the keywords I am adding to my anchor chart on their interactive notebooks. My students always have a red pen and a blue pen in their pencil boxes. If the information they are writing is in English, they use a blue pen. If the information is in Spanish, they use the red pen. This helps them discriminate between the languages.

Make it student-centered

The preview view review strategy is all about the students and helping them make cross language connections on a regular basis. So it is important that you don't become the 'sage on the stage.' I like to use the gradual release model of instruction to slowly shift the responsibility onto my students.

Whenever we begin working on a new concept, I always lead the preview portion of the lesson. I need to explicitly make those linguistic connections for all my students. However, I always get students to participate during the review portion of the lesson. I love using 'turn and talks' for that. I ask students a question that summarizes what we did throughout the lesson, and they share their answers with a partner. If needed, I give them a sentence stem to scaffold the conversation. As they talk, I walk around and listen. In the end, I either ask who wants to share or call on a specific student who had a really great answer (I always check with that student privately before calling on them. I do not believe in cold calls!)

As the week progresses, I begin to get students more involved during the preview portion of the lesson as well. Sometimes, I even ask if one of my students wants to lead that part of the lesson. This is something that requires practice, but after you have been using preview view review in your classroom for a while, your students will know exactly what to do. If you struggle with relinquishing control in your classroom, just remember that you can always interject if things start to take a wrong turn!

Preview view review for the win

I hope this has helped you see how you can use the preview view review strategy in your classroom for bridging language and promoting translanguaging. This strategy has completely transformed my instruction, and I know it can do the same for you. Best of all, it is quite simple to implement. Just remember to be very intentional about it.
Also, don't forget to download my FREE guide with nine teaching strategies for dual-language teachers. It's a must-have! Click here to get your own copy.
Happy teaching!
Related resources: Translanguaging in Curriculum and Instruction: A CUNY-NYSIEB Guide for Educators
Okapi Educational Publishing video
Note-Taking: A Research Roundup A Third Way - A Third Space: Bridging Between Languages

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Three easy ways to use the preview view review strategy in your classroom - The Dual Language Hero

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This post may contain affiliate links. You pay the same, but I make a small commission. Please, see my full disclosure for further information. Are your bilingual students struggling to make meaningful cross linguistic connections in the classroom? One minute they know exactly what they are doing, but once the language of instruction changes they feel completely lost and overwhelmed?

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Improve Learning for ELLs from Reading Rockets

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Improve Learning for ELLs from Reading Rockets

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It is resolution season! In January we reflect on past joys and concerns from the previous year, and take the opportunity to make a resolution that will improve our lives in the New Year. Of course, we all know that resolutions are hard to keep and can often be unrealistic. The expert advice I've received on resolutions (mostly advice from women's magazines) states that you are more likely to be successful if your goal is specific and measurable. So, instead of saying, "I want to save more money" you might say, "I want to save enough money each month so that I can buy a new computer in August."

Teachers are always looking for ways to improve in the classroom; to assist with any of your New Year's resolutions that relate to instruction, I will recommend five specific and measurable actions you can implement to assist ELL learning in 2009. To increase the likelihood of success and continuity, I suggest teachers pick one item and stick to it for the rest of the year. It is better to do one thing consistently and do it well than to try to do all five and possibly lose focus and motivation, becoming a Jack of all trades and master of none. I also suggest teachers employ the "support group" method to ensure success and use the chosen strategy as a topic for a professional learning community. Sharing successes and challenges with colleagues will help you all grow professionally, and more students will benefit academically.

All of the following strategies have been featured on the Colorín Colorado website, and the Resource section has links to helpful articles and websites for further support. When choosing an instructional strategy, frame it as a specific and measurable goal and display it next to your desk to remind you of what you want to accomplish.

2. Explicitly teach English language vocabulary and structures.
Specific and measurable resolution: I will identify, teach, and post key academic vocabulary and structures for one content lesson each day.
In, "What Teachers Need to Know about Language" by Lily Wong Fillmore and Catherine Snow, the authors state that:

Teachers play a critical role in supporting language development. Beyond teaching children to read and write in school, they need to help children learn and use aspects of language associated with the academic discourse of the various school subjects. They need to help them become more aware of how language functions in various modes of communication across the curriculum. They need to understand how language works well enough to select materials that will help expand their students' linguistic horizons and to plan instructional activities that give students opportunities to use the new forms and modes of expression to which they are being exposed. Teachers need to understand how to design the classroom language environment so as to optimize language and literacy learning and to avoid linguistic obstacles to content area learning (Wong Fillmore & Snow, p. 7).

The need to understand English language structures and language acquisition theory is increasingly important as the number of ELLs increases in classrooms. However, very few teachers have had the formal training required to be prepared to identify and teach the English vocabulary and structures found in specific content areas. When I first started teaching ESL, my students knew way more about grammar than I did. I joked with them, "I don't know English; I just speak it."

Content teachers can begin by reviewing a content area lesson and identifying not just the vocabulary that every student needs to know, but other vocabulary words and grammar structures that ELL students may not be familiar with. See the Hotlinks section for resources on how to provide explicit instruction on English vocabulary and structures.

I hope that this list of "Five Things" will be helpful as you set academic goals for the rest of the year. You may find, of course, that if you create your own they will be more meaningful, and you're more likely to stick with your plan. I hope you will be able to pick at least one thing and give it a try. The other thing I have learned from the resolution experts at women's magazines is that baby steps are better than no steps at all. So give it a try and go easy on yourself if it doesn't go as well as planned or if you get busy and don't keep up as well as you'd like. The most important thing is that you explore an instructional area that you know will improve the academic achievement of ELLs, and commit yourself to continued improvement in 2009. Happy Teaching in the New Year!

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Five Things Teachers Can Do to Improve Learning for ELLs in the New Year

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It is resolution season! In January we reflect on past joys and concerns from the previous year, and take the opportunity to make a resolution that will improve our lives in the New Year. Of course, we all know that resolutions are hard to keep and can often be unrealistic.

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Modifying Instruction for ELLS: Scaffolding and Supports

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Modifying Instruction for ELLS: Scaffolding and Supports

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So, last time, I introduced you to 7 ways to modify instruction for newcomer ELLs. The first one on the list was Scaffolding and Support, so that's what today's post is going to focus on. You might want to put on a helmet, because I'm about to throw a lot of information your way!

What is scaffolding & support?
Scaffolds and supports are strategies used by the teacher or tools that are provided to the learner. These tools and strategies provide students the "boost" they need to be able to access the content, understand input, and communicate knowledge despite a lack of English proficiency.

Doesn't scaffolding make it too easy? What if they don't need it?
Scaffolds areessential for newcomer ELLs. ABSOLUTELY. ESSENTIAL.

As students gain proficiency, you can easily remove scaffolds and supports that you have put in place to allow them to function more independently! Scaffolds can also be switched so that you can use them to support students in reaching beyond their current level of proficiency.

What students will need to access the language and content will vary from student to student and based on the student's actual level of proficiency. It's important not just to consider their overall score, but also their scores for each subdomain- students may need more support in one language domain than in another.

Scaffolds should be appropriate for proficiency level!
If you remember in my last post, we talked about what newcomer ELLs are able to do in terms of processing and producing language. For our newcomer students, we are providing very simple input with simple sentences, common phrases, and basic words and expressions. Our expectations regarding production should be based around learned words and phrases, small chunks of language, and basic vocabulary usage. This is what we need to be scaffolding students toward, so the strategies we use and the supports we choose should be geared toward that level of language proficiency.
What types of scaffolds and supports can I put in place?
As you know, I'm in a WIDA state, so when introducing teachers to scaffolds and supports, I always turn first to those three types identified by WIDA- Graphic, Sensory, and Interactive. The suggestions contained within the chart are really just a jumping-off point- this list is certainly not exhaustive.

WIDA also offers a list of possible supports divided by content area. Again, this list is not exhaustive!

Here are some of my favorites scaffolds and supports for newcomer students, all of which are pretty easy to begin implementing:

Personal Word Walls: Personal word walls are a great tool to provide your newcomer ELLs! They can fill theirs with words they need to learn and carry it from class to class. With each new word, they can include a drawing or even the word in their native language. You can also use Picto4Me to create personalized, visual word walls!

Word banks: Word banks are one of the easiest tools you can include for your ELLs, especially on activities where they're expected to produce language. For newcomers, one of the most difficult things is often remembering the vocabulary they need in order to express an idea or demonstrate knowledge. Word banks for newcomer ELLs should include words that they've already learned and that are relevant to the topic.

Classroom Word Walls: You may already have a word wall, but are you using it to full potential? Classroom word walls can be an excellent scaffold for newcomers when used effectively- they should be visible, interactive, and relevant . You can also find some excellent math word walls in my TpT store!

Sentence Frames: Sentence frames can really help students at all levels, but they're particularly effective for newcomers who have little to no understanding of the structure of the English language. They may have the mathematical ability or scientific knowledge to answer a question, but they don't have the language to communicate their answer. Sentence frames to the rescue! When using sentence frames, review and model them for students so they know how to use them effectively. After a few days of students using these frames in speaking and writing, you can usually remove them!

Visuals: The use of visuals is more to provide support to your newcomer as he or she is processing input. If the student can associate a word or phrase with a visual image, then they are more likely to understand and acquire the word into their own "language bank". You can create class picture cards using images from a Google search, insert images into powerpoint, add images to your word wall. Really, any way you can incorporate visuals is excellent. Another great way to incorporate visuals is to use picture dictionaries- ask your ESL/ESOL specialist if they have any you can borrow. Pictured below are some of my favorites from Oxford, or you can also create your own picture dictionary!

Technology: Technology is a great way to help your newcomer ELLs acquire English. As a note though, I recommend no more than 30 minutes of solo computer time a day for newcomers. It is really important that they participate with whole group activities and interact with peers during class time!

Learning Chocolate: Great website that helps students practice vocabulary (with visuals) using all four language domains!

Quizlet: This is a great choice for helping ELLs learn new vocabulary with pictures and audio. Learn more with this article.

Read&Write for Chrome: This great tool is from TextHelp, and it has many great functions to help your ELLs, like text-to-speech for reading documents and webpages, translation and annotation tools, and even speech-to-text! Learn more with this article.

Rewordify: This is a great tool for simplifying the language used in a text. It's not perfect, but it's a great starting point. Be sure to proofread, and simplify further if needed. Learn more here.

I hope these tips, tools, and strategies for scaffolding and support help you as you modify instruction for your newcomer ELLs! Don't miss the next post in the series- Comprehensible Input.

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Modifying Instruction for Newcomer ELLs: Scaffolding and Supports

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So, last time , I introduced you to 7 ways to modify instruction for newcomer ELLs . The first one on the list was Scaffolding and Supp...

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ESL Teacher Toolkit - Inspiring Young Learners

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This article from Educational Leadership examines the characteristics and needs of this student population, with three student profiles, and offers schools ideas to on how to better support their learning.

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Recent data show that approximately one-third of all English language learners in grades 6-12 in New York City are actually long-term English language learners (New York City Department of Education, 2008). The term refers to English language learners who have attended U.S. schools for seven years or more. Although national data about these students have not been gathered, it appears that significant numbers currently attend middle and high schools across the United States.

In spite of their numbers, long-term English language learners mainly go unnoticed in schools or, worse yet, are misunderstood and perceived as failures. By better understanding the characteristics and needs of this student population, schools can do a better job of supporting their learning.

Who Are They?

With a team from the Research Institute for the Study of Language in an Urban Society, we are currently in our third year of research on long-term English language learners in New York City high schools. The first phase of this research, which we conducted in the 2007-08 school year, consisted of interviews with 29 long-term English language learners and their teachers and administrators to identify the characteristics and education needs of these students. During the second phase, which is currently underway, we are piloting a program of support services specifically targeting long-term English language learners in two New York City high schools. The focus is on English and Spanish biliteracy development and explicit literacy instruction across all content subjects.

Speak different languages and come from all over the world.

Are often orally bilingual and sound like native English speakers. However, they typically have limited literacy skills in their native language, and their academic literacy skills in English are not as well-developed as their oral skills are.

Fall into two main groups: (1) transnational students who have moved back and forth between the United States and their family's country of origin and have attended school in both countries; and (2) students who have received inconsistent schooling in the United States, moving in and out of bilingual education, English as a second language, and mainstream programs in which they received no language support services.

Have often not resided in the United States continuously, despite the fact that they may have been born in this country. So the U.S.-born label can be misleading.

Experience inconsistent schooling because of frequent moves or incoherent language programming within and across the schools they have attended. Thus, many have significant gaps in their schooling.

Perform below grade level in reading and writing and, as a result, struggle in all content areas that require literacy. The overall school performance of long-term English language learners is low, with poor grades and grade retention commonplace, making this population at high risk for dropping out.

Have different needs from those of newly arrived English language learners, yet language programming at the secondary level is typically intended for new arrivals. In addition, most educators are unfamiliar with the specialized needs of this population, a problem compounded by poor data about these students in their school records.

What Are Their Stories?

Three students whom we interviewed for our research give a human face to the issue.

José Miguel: Transnational with Schooling Gaps

José Miguelis a 10th grader who has experienced significant transnational and intranational moves (Menken et al., 2007). He was born in Mexico and came to the United States when he was 2 years old. For five years, his family lived in New York, where he began school. His family then moved to Virginia for his 2nd grade year. After completing only part of that school year, he went to live in Mexico for nearly two years. He did not attend school during that time. When he returned to Virginia, "They put me in 4th grade," he said, "because of my age." He spent two years in Virginia before returning to New York City, where he attended one middle school and where he is now in his second year of high school.

Because of his frequent moves, José Miguel has faced considerable inconsistency in the programming he has received. He began in a bilingual program in New York City but received English-only instruction in Virginia. His English acquisition was then interrupted when he moved to Mexico. Since returning from Mexico, José Miguel has only received English as a second language instruction in middle and high school, without native language support. His high school first placed him in a Spanish foreign language class, but his proficiency in Spanish caused the school to quickly move him to French class instead.

As a result of his education experiences, José Miguel believes that his literacy skills are more developed in English than in Spanish. He can read Spanish, he noted, "but not perfectly." His grades average 75 percent.

Sandra: U.S.-Born, with Inconsistent U.S. Schooling

Sandra is an 11th grader who was born in the United States and has remained in this country her entire life. She was born to immigrant parents-her mother came from Ecuador and her father from Puerto Rico. At home, she converses in Spanish with her parents and in English with her siblings. Among her friends, English is her language of choice, with one exception: "When we talk about our parents," she said. Sandra feels equally comfortable speaking both languages.

Sandra's academic career has spanned a total of five New York City schools: three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. Language instruction has been inconsistent. She recalled how the teacher in an early grade "used to write sentences in Spanish and then do the same sentences in English." As she moved into 4th grade, her teacher and fellow students were bilingual, "But we didn't do no work in Spanish," she explained. In fact, she received no Spanish instruction until her sophomore year of high school, when she began taking a Spanish course intended for those learning it as a foreign language. She easily passed that course because of her oral proficiency and was then placed in a Spanish class for students from Spanish-speaking backgrounds. (These are common in schools with large numbers of Spanish-speaking students.) This class posed new challenges for her because of her limited literacy skills in the language. As she explained, "It's like words that I've never seen before, I've never spoken."

Sandra is also enrolled in an English as a second language class. But she doesn't go to it because it's too easy-"like a baby class," she said. For example, the teacher "takes a paragraph and she does a dictation. And she tells us what to write, and she reads it," or she asks the students to write about a vacation they took.

Her English language arts class, on the other hand, is too challenging for her. One task that the teacher asks the students to do is a critical lens,which requires students to interpret a quotation and write a persuasive essay, drawing on different literary genres. Said Sandra, "And I be stuck, like how am I supposed to write what that means?" Sandra's average grade in 11th grade is 55 percent. She admitted, "I feel embarrassed. I usually get low grades."

Akousa: Foreign-Born, with Inconsistent U.S. Schooling

Akousa is a 12th grader whose family emigrated from Ghana when she was 7 years old. Before arriving in the United States, she only spoke Twi. Akousa experiences rigid language separations in her personal life and schooling. She explains, "I speak Twi the most with my father and stepmother. I have to speak English with my brother because I feel like it's more easier for me. I, like, spit it out." With bilingual friends, she uses both English and Twi, yet she points out, "I'm trying to speak my language to my people who come from where I came from ... because it's my native language and I should be proud of it. I shouldn't let it slip out of my mind." Although her personal life has been bilingual, her schooling has been completely monolingual in English; there are relatively few Twi speakers in New York, and thus no bilingual programs in that language.

Akousa started school in the United States in 3rd grade, although before beginning that year, she was out of school for somewhere between a few months and a full school year. So far, she has attended two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. Akousa received English as a second language services in elementary and high school; in middle school, she experienced a three-year absence of any language support.

Although Akousa feels comfortable speaking English and Twi, her schooling experiences have led to English dominance in her literacy skills. She never formally learned to read in Twi, yet English literacy poses a great challenge for her. She explained, "The big words, I don't understand them, you know, so confusing." When asked to specify her greatest weakness, she responded, "Oh! Writing ... Like when they give you an essay to write ... I have to really think deep and sometimes I misunderstood what they say." Akousa's average grade in her senior year is 69 percent.

What Opportunities Have We Missed?

As research has shown, native language literacy ability is one of the greatest predictors of academic performance in school for English language learners (Ford, 2005; Thomas &amp; Collier, 1997). Research is also conclusive that teaching students to read in their native language promotes higher levels of reading achievement in English (Goldenberg, 2008). Students who have the opportunity to develop and maintain their native languages in school are likely to outperform their counterparts in English-only programming and to experience academic success (Baker, 2006; Krashen &amp; McField, 2005; Thomas &amp; Collier, 1997). This is because the literacy skills that students learn in their native languages transfer to English (Cummins, 2000).

However, the long-term English language learners we studied rarely had the opportunity to hone their native language skills. For instance, Akousa has been taught in English only, and she never formally learned how to read and write in her native language. The majority of English language learners speak Spanish, but the rest speak more than 400 languages, which makes it difficult for schools to include less prevalent languages, such as Twi, in their programming. But schools can still focus on developing all students' native language literacy skills through several approaches: by using bilingual paraprofessionals or local volunteers; by implementing after-school enrichment programs; and by providing, when possible, texts in students' native languages for classroom use.

In addition, students like Akousa are often placed in mainstream classrooms for long periods of time without receiving language support. This lack of support is explained by the fact that the majority of mainstream teachers feel unprepared to work with language learners (Nieto, 2002).

José Miguel missed two years of elementary school altogether, a period when literacy is a central focus of schooling. When he returned from Mexico to the United States, he found that the 4th grade curriculum already demanded high levels of literacy and that his peers had a stronger literacy foundation than he did. He is still making up for the time lost.

Moreover, although José Miguel and Sandra were enrolled in bilingual education programs in early elementary school, these programs were not always pedagogically sound. For example, in Sandra's experience, the teacher used to write the same sentence in English and Spanish on the chalkboard. But this concurrent translation approach has proven to be an ineffective pedagogical tool, as students simply wait to hear information in their dominant language and disregard the other language (Crawford, 2004).

Whatever the caliber of these bilingual education experiences, they were not sustained. For Sandra's and José Miguel's remaining years in U.S. schools, instruction has taken place in English only.

In fact, the vast majority of immigrants to the United States receive instruction only in English, the misconception being that doing so will help students learn English better and more quickly. But the English language programming offered to these students in high school is often mismatched to their needs. English classes are either too easy-like a "baby class"-or too difficult, as in English language arts classes that demand high levels of English literacy.

Foreign language classes are a missed opportunity to support long-term English language learners' literacy development. Schools rarely offer foreign language classes targeted to long-term English language learners. Instead, Spanish classes, for example, are usually intended for either native English speakers who do not speak Spanish or for native Spanish speakers who arrive in the United States with high levels of Spanish literacy skills. Spanish classes would have been particularly helpful for José Miguel and Sandra if teachers had used them strategically to develop the students' native language literacy skills and address their gaps in schooling.

What Can We Do?

To ensure that English language learners have the opportunity to build a strong foundation in their native languages and to support their acquisition of English, educators and administrators need to promote bilingualism and biliteracy development in grades K-12. Secondary schools must develop specialized programs for long-term English language learners, tailor English as a second language classes to students' needs, and focus on literacy development across content areas and languages.

Spanish language and literacy courses, to help students develop a strong foundation in academic Spanish.

English as a second language courses, in which long-term English learners are taught separately from new arrivals so that instruction can focus on literacy in English rather than on the development of oral language proficiency.

Content-area courses-such as math, science, and social studies-that focus simultaneously on content and literacy learning.

Teachers plan collaboratively throughout the year to develop units with embedded language and literacy skills, which they then teach across all subjects. For example, teachers at one school chose to incorporate into their instruction a focus on comparisons and the academic language structures that comparing entails-descriptors such as larger than, greater mass than, more robust than, and so on. In social studies, students analyze two different time periods, comparing and contrasting them as they familiarize themselves with the terms. In science, students compare asexual and sexual heredity. In all language courses, students may work on nonfiction autobiographies to develop more sophisticated use of language and deeper understandings about the genre. Regardless of the subject matter, all teachers must see themselves as language and literacy teachers and be prepared to teach language through content.

On a wider scale, it is essential that U.S. schools develop more coherent language policies to reduce the movement in and out of bilingual education, English as a second language, and mainstream programs. Schools also need more accurate data about the English learner population so that they can do a better job of both placing and serving these students. For instance, schools need to know not only when the students arrived in the United States, but also whether the students have been here consistently. Because no system like this is currently in place, schools must take it upon themselves to learn about their incoming students by asking them about their previous schooling and the length of time they have attended U.S. schools.

Long-term English language learners are a significant and growing secondary population, so it is of pressing concern that schools take notice of them and meet their needs.

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The Difficult Road for Long-Term English Learners

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Schools have increasingly large numbers of long-term English language learners. So what can they do to meet their needs?

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WIDA Performance definitions: Speaking and Writing K-12

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WIDA Performance definitions: Speaking and Writing K-12

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For academic content in ELLs' native language

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The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Math, Social Studies, & Science

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Having academic content available in the native language of English Language Learners is valuable for several reasons. One, it's useful for teachers who use the widely-respected and thoroughl...

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For Leaders: School and District Models for Equitable Family Engagement

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For Leaders: School and District Models for Equitable Family Engagement

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Explore strategies and models of how schools and districts have committed to meaningful family engagement and building relationships between staff and families.

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Utilizing Preview/View/Review Video (6 min.)

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Utilizing Preview/View/Review Video (6 min.)

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Elementary teachers show how they plan and model implementation of this dual language strategy.

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Preview-View-Review in Dual Language: Vocabulary Development - Part 1

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CREATING A POSITIVE CLASSROOM CLIMATE FOR DIVERSITY

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CREATING A POSITIVE CLASSROOM CLIMATE FOR DIVERSITY

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While intended as PD for college faculty, this 16 page document is rich in equity practices and topics such as:
Why classroom climate is important for learning.
Acknowledging the value of diversity
Preparing to create an inclusive classsroom climate
Examining your classroom behavior, as the teacher
Setting ground rules for class discussions
Responding to violations of ground rules
Problematic assumptions about student behaviors and microaggressions
Grading practices

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view video 5 min applicable for student acquiring English or a foreign language
Read blog for why comprehensible input is important, and some ways of providing it without dumbing down content.

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I'm sorry for having such a huge gap between my first two newcomer posts, and this one. The end of the school year was just so darn busy! The second tip I shared in the wayback to help you modify instruction for ELLs is to use comprehensible input, so that's what we'll focus on today.

What is "comprehensible input"?
Comprehensible input is a hypothesis of second language acquisition first proposed by Stephen Krashen in the early 80's. The hypothesis states that our ELLs learn and acquire language when they receive input (written or oral) that is only slightly above their current language level (i+1). In other words, the oral and written input we provide students should be mostly understandable, with only a few words or structures that are unknown or new to the student. Students will be able to understand the message, and will acquire new language in the process.

At the newcomer level, comprehensible input is comprised of short, simple sentences, known or learned words and phrases (i), with a few new words or language structures added to get that +1 in the i+1.

This video, while it is foreign language teachers discussing the use of the target language and comprehensible input, is a really excellent illustration of how you can make content comprehensible in the target language for ANY language learner- whether it's a student acquiring English as a second language, or a student acquiring a foreign language.

Why is comprehensible input important?
The image below illustrates about how much a newcomer student might be able to understand when attention is not given to ensuring that the input is comprehensible.

As you can see, the student is really only understanding high frequency words, a few numbers, and some articles and common prepositions. Is the newcomer understanding enough in this scenario to learn new information? Is the newcomer understanding enough to even know what they're being asked to do? At best, we can tell that it seems like some sort of math problem.

When the input a newcomer receives is not comprehensible, they're likely to simply shut down. When the student shuts down, no further learning is possible- of language or content.
How can I make the input I provide to my newcomers comprehensible?
There are many ways to ensure that the input you provide your students is comprehensible. The image below shows a few.

You can also provide visuals with oral or written input (visuals, visuals, visuals!). In one of the schools that I worked with this past year, the ESOL department chair created a shared Google Drive folder, with subfolders for subject area and topic. As the teachers went through the year and taught certain topics, they added images from Google and elsewhere to the shared folder. Since many topics span grade levels, it was easy for teachers who needed images for a topic to find what they needed to enrich learning and make input comprehensible. The teachers still continue to build and use this shared resource of visuals for their ELLs.

Another great way to make oral speech comprehensible is to use a lot of gestures and body language, or to even act things out for and with students.

Making input comprehensible does not mean "dumbing it down".
Its important to remember when you focus on comprehensibility that you are simplifying the language, not simplifying the content. It is possible to convey complex ideas in simple language, especially if you are using appropriate scaffolds and supports, as discussed last time!

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Modifying Instruction for Newcomer ELLs: Comprehensible Input

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I'm sorry for having such a huge gap between my first two newcomer posts, and this one. The end of the school year was just so darn busy! The second tip I shared in the wayback to help you modify instruction for ELLs is to use comprehensible input, so that's what we'll focus on today.

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ELL Resources by Grade- Colorin Colorado

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ELL Resources by Grade- Colorin Colorado

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These resources for English Language Learners (ELLs) from Colorín Colorado are age-specific and are organized by grade. Some resources may be adaptable for younger or older students.

Each section contains a variety of resources, including articles, videos, webcasts, tip sheets, and recommended websites.

What You'll Find in This Section

This section focuses on the early education of young English language learners (ELLs). Resources include a webcast, classroom strategies, parent tips, research and policy recommendations, and recommended books and websites.

These resources offer grade-specific ideas for teaching and supporting English language learners (ELLs) in early and upper elementary school. Ideas include tips for classroom teachers as well as ESL teachers.

This section focuses on the early education of young English language learners (ELLs). Resources include a webcast, classroom strategies, parent tips, research and policy recommendations, and recommended books and websites.

These resources offer grade-specific ideas for teaching and supporting English language learners (ELLs) in early and upper elementary school. Ideas include tips for classroom teachers as well as ESL teachers.

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These resources for English Language Learners (ELLs) from Colorín Colorado are age-specific and are organized by grade. Some resources may be adaptable for younger or older students. Each section contains a variety of resources, including articles, videos, webcasts, tip sheets, and recommended websites. This section focuses on the early education of young English language learners (ELLs).

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NYSED Performance Level Descriptions by Domain and Grade

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NYSED Performance Level Descriptions by Domain and Grade

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See also Targets of Measurements  http://www.nysed.gov/state-assessment/targets-measurements

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Subscribe to receive news and updates from the New York State Education Department.

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Assessment for ELLs: Assessment Loop video 5:30 min.

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Assessment for ELLs: Assessment Loop video 5:30 min.

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This video takes viewers through an assessment loop (i.e., pre-assess, teach, post-assess, re-teach) that can help support ELLs in language acquisition and reading comprehension. The classroom teacher employed a variety of informal assessments to determine if students were understanding the information (i.e., gestures, verbal response, written response). Another important aspect of assessment, highlighted in the video, is the collaboration between the teacher, reading specialist, and an ESOL teacher. By looking at the breakdown of questions (item analysis), these educators discussed potential language barriers (vocabulary terms) that likely contributed to students not answering the question correctly. Having a conversation with peers makes for a stronger educational team to better help struggling students.

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Web-Based Tools for Expression of Knowledge

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Web-Based Tools for Expression of Knowledge

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English Language Learner and Multilingual Learner Parent Resources NYSED

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English Language Learner and Multilingual Learner Parent Resources NYSED

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In this section of our website, you will find information about how children are identified as ELLs, the kinds of programs available for ELLs, when students can exit ELL programs and services, and how you can obtain additional information . . .

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The Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages at the New York State Education Department strives to provide students whose home languages are other than English access to equity and excellence in education. If your child's home language is other than English and he or she is learning, or on the way to learning English, your child is becoming bilingual. Congratulations! Bilingual children have unique assets and advantages and have great opportunities ahead. The New York State Education Department strongly values bilingualism and strives to provide the best setting for your child to develop his or her full language potential.

We invite you to learn about the educational programs available for newly enrolled students with home or primary languages other than English who need support in reaching English language proficiency. These students are called English Language Learners (ELLs) or Multilingual Learners (MLs). We recognize that these students are not only developing English skills but becoming biliterate or, in some cases, multilingual children.

With more than 200 languages spoken within its borders, New York State is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse places in the world. Having more than one language is among our students' greatest assets. Thus, educational programs for ELLs across New York State aim to draw on the home or primary language as a resource to ensure that all students are able to excel academically.

In this section of our website, you will find information about how children are identified as ELLs, the kinds of programs available for ELLs, when students can exit ELL programs and services, and how you can obtain additional information, materials, and resources from local schools.

We believe parents and families play a fundamental role in determining which program best addresses the social, cultural, and academic needs of their children. We are excited to partner with you and look forward to working with you throughout this process.

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The Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages at the New York State Education Department strives to provide students whose home languages are other than English access to equity and excellence in education. If your child's home language is other than English and he or she is learning, or on the way to learning English, your child is becoming bilingual.

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Cross Language Connections During Preview, View and Review - Video 5:30 min 

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Cross Language Connections During Preview, View and Review - Video 5:30 min 

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In this video, Vivian Pratts breaks down the concept of Preview, View, Review. This is a technique in which a teacher takes a few minutes prior to teaching a lesson and a few minutes following the lesson to briefly discuss it with the students, activate prior knowledge and summarize key concepts for the topic to be taught or read. The majority of instructional time is still in the target language, but educators build a space for preview and review in the student’s dominant language... The view becomes the educator’s guided reading lesson in small group instruction for guided reading.

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Find a Rep

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In this video, Vivian Pratts breaks down the concept of Preview, View, Review . This is a technique in which a teacher takes a few minutes prior to teaching a lesson and a few minutes following the lesson to briefly discuss it with the students, activate prior knowledge and summarize key concepts for the topic to be taught or read. The majority of instructional time is still in the target language, but educators build a space for preview and review in the student's dominant language.

A few minutes in the dominant language at the beginning and the end of the lesson have been shown to increase student learning by allowing students to activate schema and solidify essential concepts. In each part of the structure, the educator adheres to the name language of the part of the structure. In other words, if the educator does a preview , view , review and the target language is in English, that is considered the view . The view becomes the educator's guided reading lesson in small group instruction for guided reading.

Cross-Language Connections During the Review Stage

Pratts also discusses how cross-language connections can be done during review because there is high leverage in terms of student meaning-making and students also developing biliteracy . The sound systems , syntax and grammar , rules for punctuation , similarities and differences, and conjugation are powerful instructional points that educators can share with students when doing cross-language connections .

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Cross Language Connections During Preview, View and Review

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Find a Rep The store will not work correctly in the case when cookies are disabled. JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. In this video, Vivian Pratts breaks down the concept of Preview, View, Review .

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Inclusive Classrooms: A Primer for Teachers

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Inclusive Classrooms: A Primer for Teachers

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This resource includes videos, texts, guides, and strategies for literacy instruction, peer support, accommodations and modifications, assistive technology, and Universal Design for Learning as well as links to websites, blogs, and media about inclusive classrooms. An inclusive classroom is a general education classroom where students with and without learning differences learn together. Inclusive classrooms are welcoming and support the diverse academic, social, emotional, and communication needs of all students.

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When inclusion is done well, everyone in the class benefits. It strengthens the ability of all kids to work together, understand and value different points of view, think critically, and be successful learners.

Inclusive classrooms also reduce stigma. Imagine this kind of learning community:

Understanding inclusion

Is it inclusion?

This chart, developed by inclusion expert Nicole Eredics, can help you understand what inclusion is and isn't.

Child spends the majority of the day in the general education classroom.

Child spends the majority of the day in a special education classroom and goes to a general education classroom for one or two periods.

Child's desk is included with the other groups of desks in the classroom.

Child's desk is away from the other desks in the classroom.

Child has access to and is included in classroom lessons and activities that are adapted or modified to meet his/her special needs.

Child works on his/her own curriculum.

Child attends outside activities with the class including assemblies, field trips, enrichment classes, and recess.

Child is given alternate activities and options with other special education students.

Child is an independent, valued, and respected classroom member.

Child is looked upon as helpless, needy, and dependent.

The child's paraprofessional facilitates access to the curriculum and classroom activities.

The child's paraprofessional determines access to the curriculum and classroom activities.

The paraprofessional encourages child to complete work as independently as possible, while providing support when needed.

The paraprofessional does not provide many opportunities for the child to complete work independently and "hovers."

Child receives specialist support (therapy, speech, and language) with minimal disruption to the class routine and program.

Child is pulled from the classroom lessons and activities for specialist suport without consideration for what the child will miss.

The teacher can identify your child's strengths and areas for improvement.

The teacher refers to the specialists and paraprofessionals to identify child's development.

Child can name classmates and has many common classroom experiences.

Child does not know classmates and does not have many common classroom experiences.

The trend toward inclusive general education classrooms

Can special education students thrive in general education classrooms? Watch Carl Cohn, a former superintendent, talk about the trend toward inclusive classrooms (also called inclusion classrooms). Hear his tips on what to ask if a school suggests your child should be in a separate, self-contained classroom. Learn more at Understood, 4 Benefits of Inclusion Classrooms.

Read about a New York City public school program called ASD Nest in this article from The Atlantic: What School Could Be If It Were Designed for Kids With Autism.

Inclusive Learning: Everyone's In

This video, "Meeting the Needs of the Whole Child," overview is part of the Edmonton Public Schools' Inclusive Learning: Everyone's In initiative. The District was selected as a change agent for Alberta's Action on Inclusion initiative - to share information about best practices to welcome, include and support students' needs in the classroom and community. (Edmonton Public Schools, Alberta, CA) View all of the "Inclusive Learning: Everyone's In" video >

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Inclusive Classrooms: A Primer for Teachers

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When inclusion is done well, everyone in the class benefits. It strengthens the ability of all kids to work together, understand and value different points of view, think critically, and be successful learners. Inclusive classrooms also reduce stigma. Imagine this kind of learning community: "Inclusive classrooms are filled with diverse learners.

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Peer Learning: Fostering MLs' Oral Language

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Peer Learning: Fostering MLs' Oral Language

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Culturally Responsive Teaching MLs Padlet by Snyder & Fenner

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WIDA World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment: a source for valid and equitable access for ELLs

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WIDA World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment: a source for valid and equitable access for ELLs

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Guiding Principles for Instruction, with web links

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WIDA Performance Definitions Listening and Reading K-12

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WIDA Performance Definitions Listening and Reading K-12

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This 45-minute webcast is a thorough introduction to assessment for teachers of English language learners. Dr. Lorraine Valdez Pierce will discuss performance-based standardized assessments; assessment as a tool for informing instruction; use of assessment to reinforce reading comprehension; and student self-assessment and self-monitoring.
Dr. Pierce will also provide practical advice on how ESL and classroom teachers can collaborate when assessing English language learners and making decisions based on those assessments. Tips on record keeping and rubrics are also included.
Transcript and recommended resources and sample assessment tools of observation checklist, self-assessment rating scale, and analytic scoring rubric will be found on https://www.readingrockets.org/webcasts/1003

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Teaching ELLs Online: How to develop Students' Language Skills - Colorin Colorado

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Teaching ELLs Online: How to develop Students' Language Skills - Colorin Colorado

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This blog post provides several options for teachers and students to use when they need translation assistance. Many of these tools are Google-based which means they can be used on a mobile device as well as a laptop or desktop computer. Many of these suggested tools come with a "how-to" or helpful hints. 24 min for reading article; 3 min video showing students you care.

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How can educators of English language learners (ELLs) provide students with ample opportunities for language development in online settings?

This article and the related slide deck offers some concrete tips and strategies to continue developing language skills in a virtual setting, including oral language practice and structured literacy development.

These strategies can benefit all students ― not just ELLs ― and can be adapted for use in hybrid and in-person settings as well. Many of these ideas will also offer great opportunities for collaboration and co-teaching on behalf of ELLs as well.

ELL Instruction During COVID-19

Slides for PD

You are welcome to use these slides!

ELLs need to learn content and language at the same time. Yet given how challenging it has been for so many ELLs to access instruction during the pandemic, many students have had limited grade-level content or language instruction ― a situation which further exacerbates the inequities that were in place before the pandemic.

ELLs may also not have had access to regular progress monitoring or assessments of their language skills. That's why embedding instruction focused on students' language skills across the curriculum and in all learning environments is so critical as we think about ELL instruction.

Technology access

At the same time, some ELLs and their families may not have had the technology access they need, including:

devices

internet

tech training

tech support in families' home languages

log-in information.

If this is the case for your students, take a look at this article on how to expand technology access for ELLs and their families for more ideas.

Looking for silver linings

There is some good news, however:

In short, the need is urgent, but progress is possible, especially when instruction takes students' strengths, assets, and interests into the account.

Building Relationships with ELLs in Online Settings

The first step to supporting students' language development is to build strong relationships. One of the most important aspects of teaching in any environment is creating a comfortable, safe learning space. If students do not feel welcome and safe, or if they are experiencing significant stress, shock, or trauma, it will be much harder to learn a new language. No amount of scaffolding or engagement strategies will penetrate what Stephen Krashen calls the ' affective filter.'

Names matter!

When getting to know your ELLs', it's important to get their names right, both in spelling and pronunciation. This strategy list offers tools and activities related to students' names.

Getting to know your students and building relationships with them is an ongoing process that should be a part of every lesson, especially in online and hybrid environments.

For ELLs, those relationships are even more critical in distance learning settings because they allow educators to:

plan more effective instruction

maximize student engagement

identify and draw upon students' interests and strengths

create an environment in which students feel more comfortable in using their new language skills

connect content to students' lived experiences and funds of knowledge through meaningful instruction

look for clues to students' circumstances at home that may impact their access to learning.

Building relationships: Online strategies for ELLs

Some strategies that teachers have found effective for building relationships and increasing student interaction in online environments include the following:

Daily check-ins

'All about me' presentations

Show and Tell opportunities

Have students present their pet, their favorite toy, an important artifact in their home, the meaning of their name, an article of clothing, an important photo, etc.

Provide sentence frames as necessary or encourage newcomers to share in their home language. If you are using breakout rooms, students can discuss their item in their home language and report out to the group in English.

Scavenger Hunts

Have students leave the screen to (safely!) find items related to the day's lesson. For example, find a tool you use for measuring; find something that begins with Z; find something that helps the environment; find an item you wear in the winter; etc.

Ask students to bring the item back to the screen in a given time and explain how the item meets the challenge.

Before and after class open-mics

Small group instruction

Use breakout rooms and small group instruction time to get to know students and create a safe, comfortable learning environment.

Encourage students to make personal connections to the text or content.

For more ideas for building relationships with multilingual learners in an online environment, read:

Video: Showing students you care

Corpus Christi teacher Christine Price talks about the importance of showing your English learners you care as you are getting to know them.

What Language Skills Do ELLs Need?

The next group of strategies is organized by four language skills: speaking, listening, writing, and reading. These are called the four domains of language, and students must master all four domains to attain academic proficiency in a language. Drs. Andrea Honigsfeld and Maria Dove note that they like the acronym SWIRL, which includes "interaction" in the list:

One way to think about the domains of language is "input" and "output:"

Comprehension: Listening and reading are skills related to understanding language.

Expression: Speaking and writing are skills related to expressing, or producing, language.

Image credit: Input and output in language development. WelchEducation.com. Used with permission.

Keep in mind...

Students may be stronger in one domain than another.For example, a student who speaks English proficiently may not be as advanced in writing.

ELLs need explicit language instruction, scaffolding, and modeling across all four domains ― both in person and for virtual learning. You will find multiple examples from each domain in the strategies below.

Students may also need guidance in learning the differences between social and academic language, especially in online settings. For example, what is the difference between the language students use to write a science report vs. the language used in a chat message?

Technology is not a substitute for best practice. Start with your goals for instruction, and then match the tech tool (or tech-free strategy such as these offline ideas for ELLs) to the lesson. For example, a dynamic video will not be useful to ELLs if they don't have the language needed to understand it.

When you can, limit yourself to introducing one new thing to ELLs at a time.

Figuring out what works will take a lot of trial and error! While many educators have tried these strategies with different groups of students at different age and language proficiency levels, not all of them will work in every setting with every group of students. Everyone is learning how to best meet their students' needs in this new environment.

For additional ideas on supporting students' language skills, see our sections on Teaching ELLs and Distance Learning for ELLs.

See related tips from Kristina Robertson in the related videos below:

Comprehension Skills: Listening and Reading

When students feel comfortable in the learning environment, they are ready to understand what they hear or read, even if there are some unfamiliar words or structures in the language. Providing students with " comprehensible input," or language at a level they can understand, is essential for language acquisition. Comprehensible input also gives students the vocabulary and context they need for speaking and writing, or productive language.

In other words, comprehensible input leads to language output. The following listening and reading strategies increase comprehensibility for language learners.

Listening: Online Strategies for ELLs

In a face-to-face setting, teachers rely on the following to assess comprehension during oral instruction:

However, it's harder to gauge a student's listening comprehension in an online or hybrid environment. During the past few months, educators have discovered many strategies that make online instruction more comprehensible and give teachers important immediate feedback from students.

The following tips will support your language learners as you give oral instructions and make your content instruction more comprehensible.

Chunk your instruction.

Whether you are providing directions or new information, break the input into small, bite-sized chunks. These chunks of information in a virtual environment may be as short as 2-3 minutes depending on the age and language acquisition level of your students. To ensure that each chunk of instruction is comprehensible in an online or virtual environment:

Add visuals to slides for key concepts or directions.

Label visuals with key vocabulary.

Add gestures for key vocabulary when appropriate.

Speak clearly and directly avoiding idiomatic expressions, unless you are teaching these phrases.

Teach students to use the captions function of your video conferencing platform.

Give students the opportunity to process.

After presenting a chunk of information, students need time to integrate the new knowledge or understanding. There are many effective ways students can process information in an online or hybrid environment. After presenting for a few minutes, you can ask students in an online or hybrid environment to:

Show what they understood through: Signal their level of understanding through: Extend their learning through: Share their learning with a:

A drawing or image

Notes in English or their L1

A breakout room conversation in English or L1

A question in the chat box

A student poll

A brief written or verbal summary

An icon in the chat

Thumbs up/thumbs down

A scale of 0-5 w/ fingers

A sticky note on Jamboard or Padlet with a question or comment

Looking up a word or concept to clarify understanding

Ask questions.

While orally presenting information, ask frequent questions at varying levels of complexity. These questions will:

When using questions, keep the following in mind:

Give thumbs up or down (w/ fingers or an emoji)

Type Y/N in the chat

Nod or shake head

Stand up or sit down for yes or no

Hold up a yes/no or green/red card to the camera

Type the response in the chat box.

Write the response on paper and hold up to camera

Hold up the response on a prepared vocabulary card

Unmute the microphone and say the response

Post the response on the screen and ask students to point to their response

Write a short answer in English or home language

Draw a quick sketch to show the answer

Talk to a team in a breakout room about the answer

Type the answer in the chat box.

Tell someone in your learning environment the answer, even if that 'someone' is a stuffed animal.

Using Chat Blasts
If students are posting responses in chat, ask them to:

That way, everyone has the chance to type the response before everyone hits the 'return' key

For more ideas on strategies for checking listening comprehension in a virtual environment, see Erick Hermann's article Ways to check for understanding virtually with culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Reading: Online Strategies for ELLs

When students are asked to read a text in an online or hybrid environment, they may need even more scaffolding and support than in a face-to-face environment. Fortunately, there are many online tools and strategies teachers can use to make the text more comprehensible and provide supports for language learners at all proficiency levels. Before asking students to read a text on the screen or in hard copy, support their comprehension with the following strategies.

Build background knowledge: Tips for using video

Teach key vocabulary.

Teaching vocabulary is an important strategy across all four domains, including reading. Here are some strategies you can use for ELLs:

Identify important words that ELLs need to understand the text.

Provide more common or simplified definitions of key words (called glossing).

Provide translations of key words.

If students speak a language related to English, like Spanish, look for cognates (liberty ― libertad) that can support their understanding.

Give students multiple opportunities to read, hear, and use new words in other listening, speaking, and writing activities.

Look for ways to incorporate native language supports.

Students' native languages are a powerful resource when used appropriately. For example, you may wish to:

Learn more about what using students' language can look like in:

Keep in mind that translation tools are not foolproof and may not provide a perfect translation. If you work with bilingual colleagues, talk about what kinds of appropriate and accurate resources are available and whether there are ways to collaborate around content.

Engineer the text for students at intermediate levels of language acquisition.

For an example of engineered excerpt from the Gettysburg Address, see our related slide show.

See additional examples in the following resources:

Support comprehension during online reading.
Read aloud
During the first exposure to the text, read it aloud, track the words on the screen with your cursor, and ask students to follow along. Use voice inflection, strategic pauses, and the highlighter pen to focus students' attention on key parts of the text. Students may also read along with you with their microphones on mute. This gives them practice reading aloud in a safe environment.
Ask questions
Use the questioning techniques described above to check for reading comprehension. If students have difficulty answering questions about the text:
Sketchnote
Have students make quick sketches of what they understand in the text.
Word-Phrase-Sentence Visible Thinking Routine
To use the Word-Phrase-Sentence Visible Thinking Routine with students, follow these steps:

The strategy is adaptable to synchronous or asynchronous virtual classes as well.

After reading, give students additional comprehensible reading input about the text.
Kahoot!
Create a synchronous or asynchronous Kahoot! (an online game platform) that asks students to engage with the content of the text. Provide supports for each question such as visuals, translations for essential words, and clear choices. Students can make their own Kahoot! for their classmates as well.
Sequencing
Use Jamboard, Seesaw, Google Slides, or other platforms to create an interactive sequencing activity. Write sentences from the text in mixed up order. Have students work in teams to drag and drop the sentences into the correct order.
Matching
Use Jamboard, Seesaw, Google Slides, or other platforms to create an interactive matching activity. Find pictures that represent different parts of the text. Have students drag and drop the chunk of text that best fits each picture. Students can find pictures for the next section of text independently and create their own matching challenges.

Production Skills: Speaking and Writing

As noted above, speaking and writing are examples of productive language in which students are producing language independently. This is a challenge to figure out in virtual spaces, but it is critical for language development and student engagement. Here are some ideas to help.

Speaking: Online Strategies for ELLs

When students are no longer in front of us with a partner nearby, it's more challenging to have them 'turn and talk' about the content. However, providing them with an opportunity to discuss the topic, use academic language (the language of schooling) in a structured way, and process content is critical in online and hybrid environments. Comprehension increases when students can process the input from listening and reading through structured speaking and writing opportunities.

Also keep in mind that ELLs may need extra time to speak and share their thinking, especially in online settings where technology, student hesitation, or other factors at home may have an impact on how students respond. ELL expert and blogger Valentina Gonzalez shares strategies for increasing wait time in her blog post Wait Time Can Make or Break Your Lesson.

The following suggestions provide students frequent, structured, and supported speaking opportunities in online environments.

How to organize speaking opportunities
Whole Class Discussions
Facilitating a whole class discussion virtually is possible, but it requires clear structures and protocols to be successful. For example, you might structure a whole class discussion like this, which is described in more detail in this blog post on the QSSSA method (Question-Signal-Stem-Share-Assess) from Valentina Gonzalez:

Pose an open-ended question for the whole class discussion.

Give students time to process their answer individually.

Provide language supports such as sentence starters, labeled visuals, and word banks.

Ask students to process the answer in different ways such as writing a note, drawing a picture, or making a connection to what they already know about the content.

Ask students to give you a signal, when they are ready to respond. Some signals that may work include putting a thumb up, standing up, or turning off (or on) the camera. Randomly call on one student using sticks, dice, or an online randomizer.

Allow the student to ask for help or provide additional language supports, if necessary.

Have that student call on the next speaker and ask the same question or a follow-up question.

Breakout Rooms or Small Group sessions
If your synchronous online video conferencing platform has the option for breakout rooms, you can use this regularly to encourage student-to-student interaction:

Give clear expectations for how students should interact with each other.

Let them know you will join rooms regularly to listen to their discussions before you send them to an unsupervised Breakout Room.

If you don't have an easy breakout option, consider scheduling students into supervised small group sessions to gain the same benefits. In either case, support student-to-student conversations with a shared document that provides scaffolds and guidance for the interaction. This document could contain a labeled visual, sentence frames, and directions on who speaks first. When students return from the breakout room or in the small group session, randomly call on someone to report out.

Example:

Activity: Explain your math process Time Keeper

1. Use mental math to add up the 'favorite' numbers in your group.

1 minute to use mental math to add the numbers

1 minute/person to explain their process

2. Explain your mental math process. Use the word bank and sentence frames below.

3. The person with the highest 'favorite' number goes first.

Individual speaking opportunities
In addition to synchronous discussions in breakout groups, small groups, and whole groups, students can gain valuable speaking practice through asynchronous online platforms such as Flipgrid and Voxer. In both of these platforms, teachers can give a supported speaking prompt and students can record a voice or video message response. Teachers can provide visuals, sentence frames, and word banks to support student responses as needed and students can listen and respond to each other as well.

In addition, you can encourage students to share answers in English or in home language with someone at home ― including a stuffed animal.

For more ideas on how to increase student talk time and different speaking activities you may wish to try, see the following and think about how you might adapt these activities online:

Writing: Online Strategies for ELLs

Teachers tend to require more writing for formative and summative assessments because it's more challenging to assess orally. However, before asking students to write an extended piece or assessment, language learners need regular, supported, and structured opportunities to write during class and build language skills in vocabulary, sentence complexity, and cohesively expressing multiple ideas.

When students have frequent, brief opportunities to write about their ideas, questions, and understanding of the lesson in a low stakes environment, they develop stamina and skills necessary for more formal writing tasks later in the lesson or unit. The following micro-writing activities support language learners throughout the online lesson before they are asked to write a final product.
Paper Chat box Jamboard, Padlet, Seesaw, or other platform
Many platforms allow students to collaborate on writing a response to a prompt. You can provide supports on the Jamboard, Padlet, or Seesaw page and ask students to post a note with their responses. They can respond to each other's ideas by typing questions or comments to another's post. You can share these responses with the whole class on your screen and provide feedback on content and language after each written activity.
Shared documents or slides
Like the platforms mentioned above, a shared document or slide also offers students the opportunity to collaborate on a written response or assignment during class. They can both type into the same document simultaneously and make comments on their collaborative work. As the teacher, you can observe what they are writing in real time and make decisions about which students would benefit from a small group session to focus on an aspect of language development or other skill. Developing all four language domains in an online or hybrid environment is a new challenge for most educators.

What are sentence frames?

ESOL specialist Sheila Majdi explains what a sentence frame is and how she might use this strategy with ELLs.

An Opportunity in Crisis

The challenge of setting ELLs up for success in the midst of difficult circumstances is daunting. However, during this difficult year, many teachers are discovering new strategies, tools, and practices that will be a part of their teaching beyond the pandemic.

As Kristina Robertson notes in her introduction to Colorín Colorado's Distance Learning Guide for ELLs:
Teaching online is like traveling to a new country. You're not really sure where anything is, you are afraid to try new things because you might be embarrassed, and you miss the ease of your old daily life and the ability to connect seamlessly with others. On the other hand, it can be very exciting to see student learning in new and different ways, you can take pride in the growth you experience while learning new instructional strategies, and you will make connections that sometimes can be even more meaningful because you have the opportunity for one-on-one interactions.
We are excited to be part of your journey to support your English language learners' success! Thank you for all you are doing on behalf of your ELLs.

Professional Development Resources

Discussion questions

1. During COVID-19, what examples are you seeing of the following?

Challenges your ELLs are facing

ELL success stories or strengths

2. What is an idea from each section that you can use immediately?

What are some ideas you can use in the coming weeks or months?

3. What are some of the technology tools you already have available that you can use to support language development?

4. Did you hear an example of a new tool you might try?

5. Hold an academic discussion in your breakout group about one of the main ideas of this article. Use academic discussion moves such as:

Adding a new idea

Building on an idea that was presented

Asking a clarifying question

Evaluating how an idea might work in your setting

6. Write a sentence frame for one of the following scenarios:

agreeing / disagreeing with a classmate

presenting the results of a science experiment

explaining how to solve a math problem

7. What kind of projects, texts, or writing assignments are most popular with your ELLs? Which are most challenging?

8. What are your main takeaways from the article?

More activities

Try one of the strategies from the article in a group, such as the Word-Phrase-Sentence Visible Thinking Routine.

Use this article for a jigsaw reading in groups.

Assign groups to breakout rooms to discuss one of the language domains and related strategies.

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Teaching ELLs Online: How to Develop Students' Language Skills

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How can educators of English language learners (ELLs) provide students with ample opportunities for language development in online settings? This article and the related slide deck offers some concrete tips and strategies to continue developing language skills in a virtual setting, including oral language practice and structured literacy development.

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11 Easy Tips to Really Engage wth Families- with humor

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11 Easy Tips to Really Engage wth Families- with humor

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Numerous studies confirm that actively engaged families play a major role in improving academic and behavior outcomes for their students. What are the barriers or limitations to families attending school events? What can be done differently to increase family involvement? Here are tips to move from involvement to engagement!

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PBISApps | Teach By Design—11 Easy Tips to Really Engage with Families

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Numerous studies confirm that actively engaged families play a major role in improving academic and behavior outcomes for their students. It’s time to stop simply involving families and start really engaging them.

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Multilingualism and Translanguaging Strategies in the Classroom 9 min video

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Multilingualism and Translanguaging Strategies in the Classroom 9 min video

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This video succinctly provides the definition of and strategies for supporting translanguaging in the classroom. It also presents four goals of translanguaging: (1) support students as they engage with complex content and texts, (2) provide opportunities for students to develop academic language practices, (3) make space for students' multilingualism and multilingual ways of knowing, and (4) support students' social emotional development and multilingual identities.

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Multilingualism and Translanguaging in the Classroom (REL Pacific)

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Holding students accountable for coming to class prepared can be a challenge—one that may not be “fixed” simply by using an accountability task. It may take time and a combination of strategies: ensuring strong alignment between assignments, in-class work, and course goals; being transparent about assignments and expectations; not lecturing over content students didn’t prepare; and varying your accountability tasks to maintain students’ motivation. But addressing this challenge will pay off when you see the result: dynamic in-class activities and discussions in which all your students able to engage and contribute.

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Twelve Things Teachers Can Do to Support ELL Success in the New Year

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Twelve Things Teachers Can Do to Support ELL Success in the New Year

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Here are some specific and measurable actions you can take to support your English language learners' success. Text and videos: for Strategies for Instruction; Strategies: ELL Family Engagement; and
Strategies for Collaboration & Advocacy

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During the New Year, we reflect on past joys and concerns from the previous year and take the opportunity to look ahead. During these difficult times and uncertain times, it is especially important to take time for reflection, identify our strengths and challenges, and consider where our efforts will be most effective.

In this article, I will recommend some specific and measurable actions you can implement to support the success of your English language learners (ELLs). You may wish to focus on just one of these strategies so you can work on it consistently, or try different strategies at different times through the year. Many of the strategies can be used in any learning setting, whether you are in-person, hybrid, or remote for the coming months.

I also suggest teachers employ the "support group" method and use the chosen strategy as a topic for a professional learning community. Sharing strategies, achievements, and challenges with colleagues will help you all grow professionally, and more students will benefit academically. It will also provide the team with much-needed support and you can use some of these ideas to jumpstart collaboration.

Note: We have added some ideas around advocacy and collaboration to this article due to the additional responsibilities and uncertainties educators are currently facing.

Strategies for Instruction

1. Look for ways to build relationships with your ELLs.
Specific and measurable goal: I will try one new strategy that can boost my connections with students.
When asked for their top piece of advice for working with ELLs, veteran ELL educators often talk about the importance of building relationships with their ELLs and how the time invested in those relationships pays dividends in the future. There are lots of ways to support those connections with strategies such as those in the article below, which also includes many tech tools that can be used online or in-person with students.

Recommended resources

Videos: Building relationships with ELLs

2. Increase ELL students' English language production and peer interaction.
Specific and measurable goal: I will use one or two key strategies that can support oral language in my instruction and share ideas that work with my colleagues.
There are two key items students need in order to further develop skills in a new language - time and practice. There is nothing teachers can do to rush language acquisition, but there are many ways to provide opportunities to practice their skills in the classroom. If activities are structured to support student-to-student or group interaction, ELLs will need to use their oral language skills to explain concepts and contribute to the work. This gives teachers an opportunity to gauge what the student has learned, and it demonstrates student progress in language development.

Teachers can also informally assess for correct use of language structures and academic vocabulary. If ELLs are having difficulty with phrases or vocabulary, the teacher will be able to offer guidance or further instruction to support language development.

Recommended resources

Albuquerque teacher Ali Nava walks her students through a cooperative paragraph summarizing the beginning, middle, and end the children's book Burro's Tortillas and uses the exercise as an opportunity to practice their writing skills.

3. Explicitly teach academic language vocabulary and structures.
Specific and measurable resolution: I will identify one key area where my students need more practice in academic language and look for ways to support their language development.
In, "What Teachers Need to Know about Language" by Lily Wong Fillmore and Catherine Snow, the authors state that:

Teachers play a critical role in supporting language development. Beyond teaching children to read and write in school, they need to help children learn and use aspects of language associated with the academic discourse of the various school subjects. They need to help them become more aware of how language functions in various modes of communication across the curriculum. They need to understand how language works well enough to select materials that will help expand their students' linguistic horizons and to plan instructional activities that give students opportunities to use the new forms and modes of expression to which they are being exposed. Teachers need to understand how to design the classroom language environment so as to optimize language and literacy learning and to avoid linguistic obstacles to content area learning (Wong Fillmore & Snow, p. 7).

The need to understand academic language structures and language acquisition theory is increasingly important as the number of ELLs increases in classrooms. However, very few teachers have had the formal training required to be prepared to identify and teach the English vocabulary and structures found in specific content areas. When I first started teaching ESL, my students knew way more about grammar than I did. I joked with them, "I don't know English; I just speak it."

Content teachers can begin by collaborating with ESL teachers to learn how to identify the academic language demands of content-area lessons and how to scaffold academic language and vocabulary instruction. With practice, it will become easier to review a content-area lesson and identify not just the vocabulary that every student needs to know, but other vocabulary words and grammar structures that ELL students may not be familiar with.

Recommended resources

Video: What are sentence frames?

ESOL specialist Sheila Majdi explains what a sentence frame is and how she might use this strategy with ELLs.

4. Build on ELLs' background knowledge to support comprehension.
Specific and measurable goal: I will elicit background knowledge from ELLs in one content area through a variety of activities, including questioning and graphic organizers.
Learning something new is like stacking building blocks. The more you have, the higher you can go. ELLs come with many building blocks, but it takes practice learning how to identify what they are. That is where the teacher's skill at drawing on background knowledge becomes so important.

Teachers can work creatively to elicit background knowledge from students on content topics in order to increase comprehension of the material. This may be as simple as taking the time to do a "K/W/L" (Know, Want to Know, Learned) chart, or as individualized as asking questions about the topic: "Has anyone ever visited the jungle? A jungle is like a rainforest. What do you see in a jungle?" Students can share their knowledge and see how it is connected to new academic information.

Recommended resources

Videos: ELL educators speak about background knowledge

5. Increase opportunities for writing.
Specific and measurable goal: I will choose one targeted activity that focuses on developing a certain skill such as creative vocabulary use, the correct format of an essay or the peer editing process.
The ability to write effectively and accurately to convey a message is a critical skill for a college student and in most careers. Students need to have many positive opportunities to develop writing skills in a variety of formats in order to strengthen their communication skills, and for ELLs, this is particularly important. Depending on their writing skill level in their first language and their English language abilities, writing may be frustrating. Students need to engage in a variety of writing to develop an understanding of different types of writing and to identify their strengths and weaknesses as a writer.

I want to underscore the importance of interacting with writing in a positive way by examining creativity and word usage, in addition to the mechanics of writing. Many ELLs will focus negatively on problems with mechanics and miss the strengths they display in their writing. We write the way we think and speak, and by analyzing our writing we begin to analyze our thoughts and speech as well. When students discuss their writing, they are able to see their thoughts and statements from someone else's perspective and they gain awareness of their own language development. In this age of technology where a lot of communication is done electronically, it is more important than ever that students develop the ability to state their thoughts clearly and accurately in writing - as well as to know the difference between texting a message to buddies and sending an email to the boss.

Recommended resources

Strategies: ELL Family Engagement

Multilingual families are legally entitled to information in their home language. Here are some ideas to improve and expand outreach and partnerships with ELL families.

6. Start positive, strengths-based conversations with families.
Specific and measurable goal: I will contact one family each week to share a success story about their child.
No matter what language they speak, ELL families want their children to succeed as much as any other family. Regular, open and friendly communication from the teacher can make a big difference in ELL parent engagement, especially if families are intimidated by the U.S. school system.

It can also feel daunting to call an ELL family, but often there is someone in the family who speaks enough English to interpret the message for the parent, or the parent speaks enough English to understand a simple message. It may also be possible to get help from a bilingual school staff member to assist in making a quick phone call.

ELL families will be very pleased and excited to hear positive news about their child and will feel more comfortable asking questions and visiting the school in the future. The more informed the families are, the more likely it is that the student will get support at home and families will have the information they need to help their child be successful.

Recommended resources

Video: Our parents value education and their children's teachers

ELD Specialist Diana Alqadhi explains how the fact that teachers are held in high esteem in Yemeni culture helps strengthen family partnerships at her middle school.

7. Try a new tool to support family engagement.
Specific and measurable goal: I will try a new way to reach out to a multilingual family.
There are more tools than ever before to support multilingual family outreach. These include the app TalkingPoints, as well as innovative ways to use social media and video conferences with families. The more you know about resources and staffing your district has in this area, the more effective your outreach will be!

Recommended resources

Video: Partnering with families in the service industry

This video features Juliana Urtubey, 2021 National Teacher of the Year and the 2021 Nevada Teacher of the Year, sharing her experiences in partnering with families who work in Las Vegas.

Strategies for Collaboration & Advocacy

8. Look for ways to collaborate informally with colleagues.
Specific and measurable goal: I will reach out to one colleague to see if we can increase our collaboration.
There are a lot of ways you can initiate collaboration on behalf of ELLs with very small steps.

If you are a classroom or content-area teacher, you can:

send your ELL or bilingual colleagues a question about a student or an area of instruction where you'd like some support

ask your ELL colleagues to share some favorite strategies with you.

If you are an ELL/bilingual teacher or specialist, you can:

write a letter to colleagues introducing yourself and some of the ways you collaborate with others

invite colleagues to share questions about their ELLs with you

approach a content-area colleague and ask them how their ELLs are faring.

There are a few different benefits to this kind of collaboration:

Students can benefit as more teachers' capacity for ELL instruction increases.

Staff get to know each other's areas of expertise better.

Colleagues can team up to ask for more support for formal collaboration opportunities for ELLs.

Staff can increase the number of voices speaking up for ELLs, which is more critical than ever during COVID-19.

Recommended resources

Video: Tips for collaboration from an ESOL specialist

ESOL specialist Katy Padilla shares some of the tips she's learned in her experience collaborating with classroom and content-area colleagues.

9. Identify an area where you'd like to advocate for your ELLs.
Specific and measurable goal: I will choose one topic where I would like to see change for our ELLs and identify some small steps I can take to make a difference.
When you consider how your ELLs are currently doing, you may feel overwhelmed by a constellation of factors that are impacting them. Try identifying one issue that you think could make a difference if it were to improve or change. This might be an area of instruction, family engagement, language access, services and support, or creating a more welcoming environment at the school. For some ideas on first steps you might take to work on that issue, take a look at the following resources.

Recommended resources

10. Help administrators develop their capacity to serve ELLs.
Specific and measurable goal: I will reach out to one administrator to set up a conversation about our ELLs.
Communicating with administrators about ELL instruction, support, and family engagement can make a big difference. Not only can it bring important issues to administrators' attention, it can help them understand the role and value of ELL educators and why collaboration on behalf of ELLs is so valuable.

Try reaching out to an administrator with a question, issue, topic, or resource you'd like to share related to ELLs, such as the issue you identified above. Keep in mind, however, it doesn't have to be a big question to get the conversation started. Even though everyone is working within challenging circumstances right now, shining a light on ELLs' experiences, challenges, and needs can help put some important changes in motion.

Recommended resources

Learn more about the laws and regulations relating to the education of ELLs in the following article:

Video: What administrators need to know about what ESOL specialists do

Dr. Karen Woodson shares an overview of the expertise that ESOL educators bring to their schools and districts.

11. Strengthen your network of support.
Specific and measurable goal: I will take one step to expand my network of support, such as reaching out to another colleague or joining an online community of educators.
There is a lot of wonderful work being done and shared in schools, districts, professional learning communities, and online networks. If you need some ideas, encouragement, or validation, these can be powerful connections to make. There are recommended resources and ideas in the article below to help you get started.

Recommended resources

12. Keep returning to self-care & reflection.
Specific and measurable goal: I will share one self-care goal with a friend or colleague so we can check in about it in the near future.
Even if self-care is the last thing you've been able to think about during COVID-19, it's never to late to bring it back into focus.

Keep conversations going with your colleagues about what self-care means to you and what might help support it at the school level.

Don't give up on trying to make the self-care you need for your physical and mental health a regular part of your routine.

Share your success stories with colleagues to help boost motivation.

Take some time for reflection. While the reflection article below focuses on end-of-school-year questions, they could be used at any time during the year.

Together, colleagues can support each other and each other's self-care as part of their important work on behalf of students.

Closing Thoughts

I hope that this list will be helpful as you set goals for the upcoming year. You may find, of course, that if you create your own, they will be more meaningful, and you're more likely to stick with your plan. I hope you will be able to pick at least one thing and give it a try. Baby steps are better than no steps at all. So give it a try and go easy on yourself if it doesn't go as well as planned or if you get busy and don't keep up as well as you'd like.

The most important thing is that you explore an area that you think will support your ELLs' success, and commit yourself to continued improvement in the coming year. All the best in the New Year!

Video: Bonus Tips from Kristina

Here are some bonus tips from Kristina for educators ELLs!

Video: Try one new thing at a time

Video: When a new strategy doesn't work

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Twelve Things Teachers Can Do to Support ELL Success in the New Year

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During the New Year, we reflect on past joys and concerns from the previous year and take the opportunity to look ahead. During these difficult times and uncertain times, it is especially important to take time for reflection, identify our strengths and challenges, and consider where our efforts will be most effective.

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All educators are teachers of language, but not every educator has time to learn the strategies to teach language. That's the purpose of Bathroom Briefs (BB). Each Monday, I physically post a new BB in the faculty bathroom. They offer a quick, easily accessible strategy that can be used cross-content.

You are free to use these, modify them, translate them as needed. Please just reference that you got them from the site. I'd love to see them and share them on Twitter, so please tag me (@TanKHuynh) in your tweets when you tape them up in your schools or when you create your own.

In the December 2019/January 2020 issue of ASCD's Education Leadership, Bathroom Briefs was featured as something newsworthy for teachers.

I've created classroom-ready posters for these academic command terms for you to post in your classroom. I hope they support your ELs in all classes, not just their English.

Bathroom Brief # 6 to 8 will be sharing sentence stems with you. I have found it an indispensable tool to scaffold EL's production of ideas. However, the legendary Jana Echevarría strongly encourages that we differentiate the sentence stems. She recommended that they not be too basic for the more advanced students nor be too complex for the developing ELs. If we have a group of five ELs, there might be three different sentence stems to support ELs to share their thinking.

Here's an article she wrote on the topic called " Are Language Frames Good for Learners?" When Jana recommends something, I listen because she is one of the creators of the sheltered immersion (SIOP) approach.

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Bathroom Briefs | ELL Strategies | Empowering ELLs

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ELL Bathroom Briefs are one page infographs offering quick, easily accessible ELL strategies that can be used across cross-content areas.

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WIDA English Language Development Standards and Descriptors

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WIDA English Language Development Standards and Descriptors

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WIDA = World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment: a source for valid and equitable access for ELLs

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These ELD standards were developed in 2004 by a consortium of states called WIDA (World-Class Instruction Design and Assessment). In September 2011, WIDA released revised ELD standards for 2012 which include "cognitive function" (Bloom's revised taxonomy). They outline the progression of English language development in the four domains of Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing through five levels from novice to proficient. Click on "Downloads & Products/Standards" to go directly to wida.us to be sure you have the most recent version.

The Performance Definitions for Listening and Reading and Speaking and Writing provide an incremental overview of the language acquisition process from Level 1 Entering through Level 5 Bridging. These incorporate five language standards in each of the four domains (Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing):

Features of Academic Language

The give teachers a basic overview of each student's abilities based on the annual proficiency test (ACCESS) results. Keep in mind that each student will have a separate score for each domain. Generally, Speaking and Listening proficiency develop more rapidly than Reading and Writing, although there are always exceptions.

Here are the detailed CAN-DO Descriptors Key Uses 2016 from WIDA. Note that the grade level grouping has changed. Instead of Grades 1-2 and 3-5, Grade 1 is now stand alone and there are now new groups for Grades 2-3 and Grades 4-5. Click on "Downloads and Products/CAN-DOs" to go directly to wida.us to be sure you have the most recent version.

The charts below include a column where you can add student names to the corresponding proficiency level to create a quick class profile of your ELLs. (WIDA has plans to update the Class Charts so they match the revised grade level clusters.)

Here is a set of charts that list one domain at a time for each grade level. There is more room to add your students' names. CanDo Namecharts with new clusters by domain and grade level.

Model Performance Indicators (MPI)

The Model Performance Indicators (MPI) are examples of language usage from each of the four domains (Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing) presented in a developmental sequence across language proficiency levels and grade level clusters. They incorporate the language and instructional supports necessary for English language learners to progress towards mastery of state academic content standards. They include both formative and summative examples. Regardless of the grade level or content area, MPIs for Levels 1,2, and 3 incorporate visual or graphic support, realia, or manipulatives to provide students access to meaning through multiple modalities. MPIs for Levels 4 and 5 assume students are exposed to and working with grade level material. These charts were developed by the NC Department of Instruction:

Confused about the difference between CAN-DO Descriptors and MPIs? WIDA makes a clear comparison with this chart:

NC Department of Public Instruction has released a 64 page document on If you scroll through it, you will find good sentence frames that model how to teach ELD standards within each content area .

Hampton Brown's "Avenues" Correlations K-5

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More Than English: Teaching Language & Content to ELLs

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These ELD standards were developed in 2004 by a consortium of states called WIDA (World-Class Instruction Design and Assessment). In September 2011, WIDA released revised ELD standards for 2012 which include "cognitive function" (Bloom's revised taxonomy). They outline the progression of English language development in the four domains of Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing through five levels from novice to proficient.

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Student self-assessment 15 min podcast MS/HS 

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Student self-assessment 15 min podcast MS/HS 

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(start at 0:50) The guest in the podcast speaks to the importance of having students measure their own learning--whether the measurements were teacher- or student-created. If students are given autonomy in measuring their own learning, they will be more motivated in the learning process. NOTE: This podcast is better geared towards middle/high school teachers/students, but the strategies and suggestions could be adapted to students in lower grades.

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Sara Cotterall joins me to discuss getting learners to self-assess. We discuss how self-assessment can boost student motivation, how to encourage learners to keep records of their learning, and how to incorporate self-assessment into learner evaluation.

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Student Self-Assessment (with Sara Cotterall) - TEFL Training Institute

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Sara Cotterall joins me to discuss getting learners to self-assess. We discuss how self-assessment can boost student motivation, how to encourage learners to keep records of their learning, and how to incorporate self-assessment into learner evaluation.

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Improving Comprehensible Input for ELLs through Technology

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Improving Comprehensible Input for ELLs through Technology

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"...technological tools can be leveraged to improve comprehensible input for ELLs, a critical factor in their language acquisition and subsequent academic success...we highlight technological tools that Beth has used in her mainstream and pull-out ESL classroom settings to make content learning comprehensible."

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* * * On the Internet * * *

November 2018 - Volume 22, Number 3

Andrea Stairs-Davenport, PhD
University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine, USA
<andrea.stairs maine.edu>

Beth Skotarczak, MSEd
Westbrook School Department, Westbrook, Maine, USA
<skotarczakb westbrookschools.org>

Introduction

As educators working with English language learners (ELLs), the authors of this article have come to understand the importance of technology in supporting ELLs' classroom learning and attention. In particular, we believe that technological tools can be leveraged to improve comprehensible input for ELLs, a critical factor in their language acquisition and subsequent academic success.

Research in the field of English as a second language (ESL) on the topic of multimodal teaching and learning including technology is growing (e.g. Choi & Yi, 2015). Educators who work with ELLs daily know that "making the core curriculum comprehensible is central to preventing new English learners from becoming long-term English learners" (Echevarria, Frey & Fisher, 2015, p. 23) and we find that incorporating technology is key.

Andrea is a former secondary English teacher and literacy coach who has worked in diverse U.S. school settings with classrooms comprised of 50% or more ELLs. Now she is a professor at the university level with a professional interest in supporting mainstream teachers in increasingly diverse school settings to provide comprehensible, meaningful instruction to native English speakers and ELLs alike. Beth is a former elementary classroom teacher in the U.S. who has moved into full-time ESL teaching at her school. Her teaching is in a pull-out program, meaning that ELLs attend separate ESL classes with her. She also supports mainstream teachers in learning to differentiate instruction for ELLs when they are pushed into their classes, which is for most of their school day.

The two authors began collaborating when Beth was a student in Andrea's graduate program, and she shared how she used technology regularly to meet the needs of her diverse classroom population. We learned that we both have a passion for supporting mainstream teachers in their work with ELLs, and as a result, have become colleagues and friends who enjoy working together on this topic. Between us we have nearly 40 years of teaching experience.

Here we explain what comprehensible input is, why it is important for ELLs, and how technology can help teachers make their lessons more successful and inclusive. Then, we highlight technological tools that Beth has used in her mainstream and pull-out ESL classroom settings to make content learning comprehensible.

Comprehensible Input Defined

Comprehensible input is a term coined by applied linguistics scholar Stephen Krashen (2009). Krashen explained that for students to acquire a new language, they must be exposed to the language in simplified terms that they can understand. Research suggests that there are many ways to make speech more comprehensible to language learners: "1) slower rate and clearer articulation, which helps acquirers to identify word boundaries more easily, and allows more processing time; 2) more use of high-frequency vocabulary, less slang, fewer idioms; 3) syntactic simplification, shorter sentences" (p. 64). Comprehensible input "involves a conscious effort to make the lesson accessible through a variety of means" (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2017, p. 104), including technology.

Comprehensible input is important for ELLs in the most basic terms because these students will not have access to content learning without being exposed to language they understand. Comprehensibility is fundamental and necessary for language acquisition to occur. In his seminal work on comprehensible input, which first appeared in 1982, Krashen (2009) argued that the optimal output by the teacher is comprehensible because "when the acquirer does not understand the message, there will be no acquisition ... incomprehensible input, or 'noise' will not help" (p. 63). Essentially, Krashen's point is that that students will not learn English simply by sitting in classrooms with English being spoken around them. He goes on to add that "the defining characteristic of a good teacher is someone who can make input comprehensible to a non-native speaker, regardless of his or her level of competence in the target language" (p. 64). Students at the earliest stages of language acquisition have the potential to learn content in subjects taught in school with appropriate attention to comprehensible input. Comprehensible input is so important that it has been identified as one of the 8 essential features in planning and delivering effective lessons for ELLs in the well-researched and implemented Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, or SIOP Model, an approach for integrating the teaching of content and language in classrooms with ELLs (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2017).

Leveraging Technology for Comprehensible Input

Technology provides many avenues for improving comprehensible input in classroom discourse. As is evident in Tables 1 and 2 below, there are numerous tools and applications which can make the English language more understandable for ELLs. In addition to technology providing visuals (photos, illustrations, diagrams, videos), auditory components, and differentiation of content, these tools present an engaging way to interest students in content learning. This is particularly important for ELLs whose attention is constantly shifting from understanding the language of the classroom to understanding the content of the curriculum.

The daunting task of simultaneously processing language and content could lead some ELLs to simply tune out, particularly if the teacher is talking at students for long periods of time and not providing tools that increase comprehensible input. Limited use of technology may lead to language overload for ELLs and less attention to content learning. Technology that is engaging and student-centered has the potential to reduce the stress produced by the learning environment and, as a result, reduce ELLs' affective filter: "Learners who are comfortable and have a positive attitude toward language learning have their filters set low, allowing unfettered access to comprehensible input" (VanPatten & Williams, 2015, p. 27).

Beth has been teaching at the intermediate elementary level in the United States for over 15 years. She has witnessed her student population increasingly grow linguistically and culturally diverse to where ELLs comprise about 20% of the school population today. Her interest in meeting the needs of her ELLs lead her to a graduate program in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and now she is certified and teaches ESL full time at her elementary school. She has seen a shift in technology usage from being teacher-centered and focused on creating elaborate and alluring lessons, to student-centered and focused on making the content and language in the classroom accessible and comprehensible for all learners. Instead of spending hours creating presentations to use once and usually with the whole class, technology is now being used with groupings ranging from whole class to small groups, and even at the individual student level, based on what students need in the moment. This is appropriate in our local context because the expectation is that teachers spend more time differentiating instruction based on each student's learning needs and less time teaching whole class lessons, a change that has been driven by standards-based reform expectations.

In discussing applications that can help with comprehensible input, we distinguish between free tools that lend themselves to use at any time by classroom teachers and tools which require payment of a fee for using the tool at a given site location. There are numerous free tools available to teachers to use right away in their classrooms, as seen in Table 1. When reading an article or giving a workshop, we always like to think about what teachers can use in their classrooms tomorrow. These free resources are easily accessible by simply creating a username. There are also membership tools available if a teacher or district is able to pay the applicable fees, as seen in Table 2. Some of the tools are great for whole class lessons and introductions to units of study, allowing for content to be more comprehensible for ELLs. Other apps and sites are available for individual students and allow for progress monitoring and data collection. We especially like membership tools that help support science and social studies in the classroom because these often have engaging content in organized units of study.

In the next section, we will describe how some of the free tools can be used to support ELLs' learning by improving comprehensible input. In the section after that, we will describe how some of the membership tools can be used. Though we only discuss a handful of tools listed in the two tables, Beth has tried them in her teaching and gives her reasons for recommending each one.

Free Tools

There are two free Google products that may be used throughout the day and across content areas to improve comprehensible input: Google Translate and Google Slides. Freckle Education also supports teaching across the content areas, and Starfall focuses on early reading skills.

Google Translate

Beth uses Google Translate throughout the day with her ELLs. Using a mobile device such as a smartphone, the Google Translate app can be used quickly for asking questions and giving simple directions. With Google Translate, the student can speak into the phone's app using the built-in microphone, and that speech translates to English. One particular student who was literate in her native language chose to read the given translations instead of listening to them.

This app is also used to make the regular business of school comprehensible to ELLs. For example, in one of Beth's recent classes, a newly arrived immigrant with very little English arrived, got settled in, and took a seat at her desk. Beth called her up to her computer to view Google images of the lunch choices and supported this with Google Translate. Gone were the days of having to sort through a large stack of downloaded, printed, and laminated pictures to show students what lunch choices were offered.

This newcomer ELL was a strong math student and Beth often provided math as morning work while the kids ate their breakfast. The class had begun studying multiplication, but she was getting confused between multiplication and addition. Using Google Translate and illustrations on paper, Beth was able to explain the difference between the two operations. This student then was able to successfully complete the multiplication work that morning. Beth also used the app to explain the scientific vocabulary and concepts within a science unit on living things; e.g.: producer, consumer, decomposer, and scavenger. Using the app in addition to visual supports helped make the content comprehensible and connect to the student's L1. This same student was with Beth reading a book. The student was trying to explain a word that was red and pointed to the text repeatedly. Using the app's speaking portion, the student spoke the Arabic word into the microphone and it was then translated to English. The word the student was trying to explain and connect the book to was ketchup. The student then said, "ketchup" and acted out dipping a French fry into the ketchup and eating it. Though the app is not always perfect in its translations, Google translate is a simple yet powerful tool for communicating social and academic language in the classroom.

Google Slides

Google Slides is another free Google product that is similar to PowerPoint and used to create slideshows. Students in Beth's classroom meet in guided reading groups or book clubs during reading workshop. In one such grouping, the group consisted of two intermediate-level ELLs and two native English speakers who were to meet for the first time about a new book they would be reading called Stranded by Jeff Probst. Beth made a series of Google Slides that included photos to hook students early on, to build background knowledge, and to make the text more accessible.

Some of the pictures included were a map of the South Pacific Ocean and its relative location to Hawaii and Australia as landmarks. Also included were photos of a sailboat similar to what the characters would be on, an isolated beach so the students could have a picture of where the characters would become "stranded," and a satellite phone that the characters would use to communicate in the story. The students were able to see that a satellite phone was a large cell phone that needed to work in the middle of the ocean. Providing images and vocabulary on Slides while having a small group lesson prior to beginning the book prepared ELLs to better comprehend their reading.

Beth incorporated Google Slides into another group before reading books about extreme weather. Photos and videos were put on slides to show various extreme storms and Earth events including: tornado, hurricane, tsunami, earthquake, and blizzard. Beth met with students prior to the start of the reading unit with printouts of the Google Slides as well as the laptop ready to show videos. Students made observations about the pictures and video and wrote notes for each slide. The discussion was beneficial as it helped clarify understanding of each Earth event or storm, and helped students think more deeply about what it would be like to experience these events firsthand, preview key vocabulary, and access the students' background knowledge.

Freckle Education

Freckle Education, formerly Front Row, is a website that individualizes content in the four core content areas: language arts, math, science, and social studies. Every child has an individual login under their class profile. Students take an initial assessment for baseline data about their content knowledge in the discipline and then lessons are individualized from the assessment results. The lessons have questions embedded that allow for formative assessment of student learning. Each student's data is tracked on their own profile accessible to the teacher through the teacher dashboard. By looking at this data, a teacher can look to see what gaps a student may have and correlate to a standard for grade levels starting with Kindergarten through twelfth grades. A teacher may have a third grade student who showed gaps with a patterns standard within the first grade strand, as mathematical concepts and gaps may occur across grade levels. The student then has various lessons to choose from to try and bridge the gap, and the content differentiates based on their performance on questions related to the lesson. If a student is having difficulty with a concept, Freckle will show video tutorials to build the student's skills and content knowledge in that area. Students taking the lessons on a particular topic are tracked on how they answer questions and whether they move to another concept or whether they need further reinforcement.

At the end of a lesson, students see their performance as a percentage. For example, if Beth's ELL students were struggling with Base 10 in math, they would view a video tutorial and then practice on the interactive website. The teacher receives a report on how each student in the class is performing. Beth has found the language in the lessons to be appropriate for students with intermediate language proficiency.

Starfall

Starfall is geared for early readers to develop phonemic awareness and phonics skills, the building blocks of reading. There are also digital books with text read aloud and highlighted for students to follow along in their initial reading. Beth has used it in her reading instruction to help all students, including ELLs. Most students use the program individually with laptops and headphones.

For example, the practice on segmenting sounds is engaging and colorful with visual and sound effects. Students are encouraged to listen and then repeat the words as the sounds are blended. Beth has found her ELLs really enjoy listening to the nursery rhymes included, another simple way for them to be exposed to English in a lively and fun way. The Common Core State Standards in the U.S. emphasize foundational skills as the building blocks of literacy. Skill development can seem repetitive, but Starfall makes the process varied and engaging. Even for ELLs who are new to the country and English, this site is comprehensible.

Other Free Tools That Support ELLs' Comprehensible Input

Included in the table below are the free tools discussed above, as well as others Beth and Andrea are familiar with. As noted in the table, these tools support ELLs' learning of content and language by improving comprehensible input in one of at least four ways: 1) making materials easier to comprehend in general, 2) providing differentiated lesson materials to simplify complex content concepts, 3) presenting language with other graphics or comprehension helpers, and 4) providing leveled readings or individualized instruction.
Table 1: Free Tools
Tools With Membership Fees

In a quick search on the Internet, teachers will find many, many sites that appear to have useful content for lesson planning and improving comprehensible input. We have discovered that some are better than others, and we highlight the best tools that Beth has tried in her classroom in this section. Flocabulary is an academic vocabulary building tool, Mystery Science leads students through inquiry-based units of study, and Reading A-Z supports independent reading.

Flocabulary

In one unit Beth taught, students were studying animals within their habitats. To make the point about how an animal survives in its habitat using adaptations, an engaging video from the website Flocabulary was used to serve as a digital jumpstart to the day's lesson (Rance-Roney, 2010). The habitat video featured animation and a captioned rap song being sung that included the key word, adaptations, numerous times. Any other important words in the video were highlighted in color, bold, or a different font. In addition, examples of adaptations were illustrated so students could see how that feature helped a particular animal. In the debrief discussion at the end, ELLs were able to define and give examples of adaptations, as well as make predictions and connections to the animal they were studying for their research project. Flocabulary was used on many occasions throughout the school year, so students were familiar with the site and enjoyed its featured rap songs and lively videos. Flocabulary is $96 U.S./year for an individual membership and $2,000 for a school membership; a 45-day free trial is also available.

Mystery Science

Mystery Science can be used whole class or for small group instruction. The Mystery Science curriculum is aligned to the Next Gen Science Standards and the Common Core State Standards, which are used in classrooms across the United States. Focused on grades Kindergarten to five, this inquiry-based website presents an overarching unit that is followed by a series of lessons. Every lesson has videos and thought prompts to provide students the opportunity to build background or to reflect, think deeper, and respond. In addition, the lessons include hands-on activities, and the preparation is easy for teachers as it comes with a list of handouts and supplies needed. Using this website, Beth led a whole-class science lesson on animal and plant migration by examining videos and images of fossils which appeared to be in unusual and unnatural places around the world. The video and narration were engaging and clear. Even her newcomer ELL student could understand the concept of migration by looking at the images of fossils in different parts of the world and determining their origins. The class participated in the thought prompts provided and were able to understand that a plant or animal's migration varies on reason and method. Mystery Science is $99 for a classroom membership and $499 for a school membership.

Reading A-Z

Reading A-Z has printable texts that are leveled so that any of Beth's students may practice reading at home, even if the family has few books written in English in the home. This is a positive for families who have limited access to books, but more importantly, lack leveled texts that are just right for their child. The cost is $109.95 for a classroom. This site is unique as membership may also be purchased by a family; however, the price is the same as a classroom subscription, which would be cost-prohibitive for many families. When Beth uses the books in class, she previews the challenging vocabulary and reads them with the students. They discuss the text during and after reading to build comprehension. The students are then able to take the books home to read independently or with their families. In this case, technology becomes the tool that allows for a traditional print reading experience that is differentiated and comprehensible for each student. Reading books at the appropriate level improves students' fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, and having books accessible at home is correlated with improved literacy performance (Allington, Camilli, Williams, Graff, Zeig, Zmach, C. & Nowak, R., 2010).

Other Tools With Fees That Support ELLs' Comprehensible Input

Table 2 includes tools with fees we have discussed in this article, as well as others we are familiar with. As in Table 1, the right-hand column notes how the tool helps ELLs in general and improves comprehensible input.
Table 2: Tools With Membership Fees

A website that includes videos with recognizable characters addressing a wide variety of topics in the content areas; supplemental resources are available.

Engaging video and audio, allows for ELLs to have a preview of content, focus on important vocabulary for each lesson; CI is enhanced by differentiating lesson materials to simplify complex content concepts.

Conclusion

We argue that incorporating technology is useful and necessary for ELLs to better comprehend what is going on in their classrooms. We hope teachers take away from this article that they need not spend much time adapting content for ELLs to make it comprehensible. Simple-to-use technologies described here make the classroom a welcoming and educational environment even for ELLs who are new to the country and new to the English language. In fact, the tools recommended here are useful for native-English speaking students, as well. Johnson (2015) argues, "Using technology is one of the best means for adapting materials for diversity and gathering information about many cultures. In some cases, it may be the only way to do so" (p. 81). We concur, and we urge educators of ELLs to consider how technology might make their lessons more comprehensible in order to improve students' content and language learning.

References

Allington, R.L., Camilli, G., Williams, L., Graff, J., Zeig, J., Zmach, C. & Nowak, R. (2010). Addressing summer reading setback among economically disadvantaged elementary students. Reading Psychology, 31, 411-427. doi:10.1080/02702711, 2010.505165

Choi, J., & Yi, Y. (2015). Teachers' integration of multimodality into classroom practices for English language learners. TESOL Journal, 7(2), 304-327.

Echevarria, J., Frey, N., & Fisher, D. (2015). What it takes for English learners to succeed Educational Leadership, 72(6), 22-26.

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. J. (2017). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP model. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Johnson, D. (2015). The culturally proficient technologist. Educational Leadership, 72(6), 81-82.

Krashen, S. (2009). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Retrieved from http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/books/principles_and_practice.pdf. (Original work published 1982)

Rance-Roney, J. (2010). Jump-starting language and schema for English-language learners: Teacher-composed digital jumpstarts for academic reading. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 53(5), 386-395.

VanPatten, B., & Williams, J. (2015). Early theories in SLA, in B. VanPatten & J. Williams (Eds.), Theories in second language acquisition: An introduction, 2nd ed (pp. 17-33). New York: Routledge.

Appendix

List of websites referenced in this article with links spelled out, presented alphabetically

Bitsboard

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bitsboard-flashcards-games/id516842210?mt=8

BrainPop

https://www.brainpop.com/

BrainPop ELL

https://ell.brainpop.com/

BrainPop Jr.

https://jr.brainpop.com/

EF High Flyers

https://highflyers.ef.com/

Epic!

https://www.getepic.com/

ESL Games Plus

https://www.eslgamesplus.com/

Flocabulary

https://www.flocabulary.com/

FluentU

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fluentu-learn-languages/id917892175?mt=8

Freckle

https://www.freckle.com

Futaba

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/word-games-for-kids-futaba/id426517722?mt=8

Google Slides

https://www.google.com/slides/about/

Google Translate

https://translate.google.com/

Imagine Learning

https://www.imaginelearning.com/

Kidblog

https://kidblog.org/home/

MobyMax

https://www.mobymax.com/

Mystery Science

https://mysteryscience.com/r1

NewsELA

https://newsela.com/

Play Factile

https://www.playfactile.com/

Raz-Kids

https://www.raz-kids.com/

Reading A-Z

https://www.readinga-z.com/

ReadWorks

https://www.readworks.org/

Starfall

http://www.starfall.com/

TweenTribune

https://www.tweentribune.com/

Unite for Literacy

https://www.uniteforliteracy.com/

© Copyright rests with authors. Please cite TESL-EJ appropriately.

Editor's Note: The HTML version contains no page numbers. Please use the PDF version of this article for citations.

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Improving Comprehensible Input for ELLs through Technology

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* On the Internet * * * Andrea Stairs-Davenport, PhD University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine, USA Beth Skotarczak, MSEd Westbrook School Department, Westbrook, Maine, USA As educators working with English language learners (ELLs), the authors of this article have come to understand the importance of technology in supporting ELLs' classroom learning and attention.

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see also free scripts: http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/RTE.html

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Translanguaging in MATH class         6 min read

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Translanguaging in MATH class         6 min read

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Drs. Yvonne and David Freeman define and distinguish translanguaging from code-switching and provide a math class implementation for the study of volume of 3D figures. HMH

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What is Translanguaging in the Classroom? | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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What is Translanguaging? Learn the definition of translanguaging and strategies for translanguaging in the bilingual classroom.

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For the next few weeks we will reading a book titled, "The Pigman," by Paul Zindel.

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MATH lesson analysis tool: Culturally responsive

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MATH lesson analysis tool: Culturally responsive

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CRMT-TM Lesson Analysis Tool is designed to promote intentional teaching discussions and critical reflection on mathematics
lessons with a combined focus on children’s mathematical thinking and equity. It is not designed to be an evaluation tool of teachers
but a self-reflective professional tool that can support lesson/unit design and implementation.

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RTI-Based SLD Identification Toolkit: Considerations for ELLs

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RTI-Based SLD Identification Toolkit: Considerations for ELLs

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Information in the following five areas provides guidance for the instruction of students who are CLD and for making valid decisions for determining special education eligibility.

1. Expertise/knowledge of team and informed parent participation

2. Effectiveness of Tier 1 core instruction

3. Effectiveness of Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions

4. Effectiveness of academic assessments and interpretation

5. Comparisons to populations and normative samples

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LD Identification Toolkit Considerations for ELL

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Implementing RTI requires an effective change management process. Explore frameworks for successful plan implementation.

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English language learners (ELLs) have historically been underrepresented and underserved in U.S. gifted and talented (GT) programs.What does equity look like in identifying language learners for gifted services? And how can we actively improve culturally responsive supports for exceptional ELLs in our classrooms?

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English language learners (ELLs) have historically been underrepresented and underserved in U.S. gifted and talented (GT) programs. To move the needle in a more promising direction, we can begin by asking ourselves how we can increase the visibility of diverse learners in GT screening. What does equity look like in identifying language learners for gifted services? And how can we actively improve culturally responsive supports for exceptional ELLs in our classrooms?

Traditional concepts of giftedness cast a narrow net-narrow enough, in fact, to silo giftedness into nearly homogeneous compartments. Outside of far-East Asian subsets, most of those boxes are reserved for white, English-speaking students.

Gifted screening protocols can reinforce these perceptions. Conventional markers for giftedness are rooted in assessment data and previous high academic achievement. This can be especially inequitable for ELLs, whose language output and cultural orientation may mask exceptional promise.

Reframing Conceptions of Giftedness to Support Inclusivity

To change this, we've got to be uncomfortably honest about what our collective picture of giftedness looks like. What are our perceptions and expectations of exceptional students? Do we-as teachers and as schools-lean in to certain student types, ethnicities, or socioeconomic groups, or to one gender? How are we influenced by a child's parents or other educators?

At a minimum, a more inclusive framework should include three vital components:

A comprehensive definition of exceptional ability that encompasses a spectrum of cognitive, social and emotional, artistic, linguistic, and logical-reasoning capabilities,

Multiple avenues and entry points-such as student interviews, performance-based evaluations, or nonverbal instruments-that reach beyond standardized assessment data for GT identification, and

A system for mindfully growing the exceptional talents and gifts of all learners, including ELLs.

Now we can critically evaluate the degree to which our definition is also culturally responsive. Map a full learning day for a new-to-English student. Where can we find expressions of gifted characteristics? Language learners can-and do!-demonstrate exceptional content-specific talents. Additionally or alternatively, the promising gifted ELL may:

Acquire the new language at a faster than typical rate,

Demonstrate an ability to code switch or translate at an advanced level,

Show aptitude for negotiating between cultures,

Display inventive leadership and/or imaginative qualities,

Read significantly beyond grade level in the heritage language,

Effectively assume adult responsibilities at a young age,

Exhibit notable street smarts and/or rapid integration into American culture, or

Problem-solve in creative, nonconforming ways.

A Culturally Responsive Process of GT Identification

Even high-flying ELLs are not likely to be detected through traditional GT screening, as I mention above, because our screening protocols are not designed to detect them. Widening our net and moving toward a realistic representation of marginalized populations in gifted programming requires that we break with our dependence on convention.

One reasonable solution is to move beyond isolated quantitative data points and toward qualitative portfolios of potential. Inclusive GT portfolios of potential may include:

Nominations or referrals from parents and school staff,

Summative data, including English language evaluations and nonverbal GT assessments,

Formative data, such as student work samples and problem- or project-based portfolios, and

Anecdotal data, including behavior and acculturation scales, classroom observations, home visits, and interviews with parents, teachers, and peers.

Ensure that curriculum is culturally responsive: Culturally responsive practice seeks to recognize, value, and authentically represent students' heritage virtues in the school setting. Wondering how to connect this pedagogy to GT programming? Begin learning units with background knowledge surveys or embed multicultural connections and community engagement as a means of enrichment.

Provide opportunities for self-directed learning: Self-directed learning is an effective tool for student engagement that supports higher-level thinking. By introducing the element of choice, we draw out a learner's natural curiosity through creative problem solving and experiential learning.

Start slowly as you navigate this territory. Begin with a maximum of three choices. Hold students accountable for rotating through stations, centers, or learning tasks, but place the onus of control on the student to choose the order in which the learning goals are completed.

Capitalize on student interest surveys, flexible seating, and kinesthetic learning. These are all low-prep, low-cost, high-yield means of promoting self-directed, student-invested learning.

And consider exploring multiple pathways of discovery. Try embedding social and emotional learning skills practice into a social studies lesson, or incorporate STEAM learning into a literature experience. These types of activities foster low-risk opportunities for expression and encourage students to demonstrate abilities in innovative ways.

Use assessments that allow for diverse expressions of understanding: Offer choice in how students demonstrate knowledge, skills and understanding. Project-based learning (PBL) works exceptionally well in this context. PBL "is a dynamic classroom approach in which students actively explore real-world problems and challenges and acquire a deeper knowledge." This type of open-ended learning allows ELLs to show what they know in ways that are less language dependent, such as tactile design, sketching, computer programming, or art.

Consistently work toward the elimination of educator bias: Teachers and parents play a critical role in the gifted identification process-they are most likely to nominate students for consideration and are directly involved in a child's day-to-day endeavors. We can better prepare both groups to advocate for ELLs who demonstrate exceptional gifts and talents.

Parents are often the first to note a child's gifted potential, even if it has not presented at school. This may be especially true of students who have not yet gained linguistic confidence or students from collectivist cultures, who typically avoid standing out in the classroom. Caretakers-especially those whose cultural experience with school involvement differs from Western norms-can be explicitly encouraged to recommend their child for GT screening and review. Educators, meanwhile, can benefit from training to reduce bias and spot latent talents in underrepresented populations.

Like all successful school programming, achieving effective and equitable GT services is a collaborative effort.

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An inclusive framework for finding gifted and talented students can ensure that English language learners don't slip through the cracks.

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NYSESLAT Webinette 4: TOMs -Targets of Measurement

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NYSESLAT Webinette 4: TOMs -Targets of Measurement

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nyseslat webinette 4: toms -targets of measurement ~

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NYSESLAT Webinette 4: TOMs -Targets of Measurement ~ - ppt video online download

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Shift 1 Cont'd: NYLS via Progressions: ToMs and PLDs (4) For the purpose of assessment development, Linguistic Demands are articulated as Targets of Measurement (ToMs).

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Tools that help English language learners online and in person

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Tools that help English language learners online and in person

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This blog post highlights several strategies from classroom teachers who taught students in a remote/virtual learning environment. They share suggestions on how to help ELLs use technology to support their needs (e.g., closed caption, translation, reduced speed).

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Tools That Help English Language Learners Online and In Person - MindShift

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Teachers are making language more accessible by slowing down speaking rates in order to accurately caption and translate speech using Google Meet, along with several other strategies.

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Family and Community Engagement Improves Outcomes for ELLs

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Family and Community Engagement Improves Outcomes for ELLs

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When schools, families, and communities work together, student outcomes are better. This brief focuses on the ways family and community engagement can enhance schools’ efforts to improve outcomes for ELLs and highlights specific strategies schools can use to more effectively engage families
and communities.

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choose 1 word in any language that they are learning and add a picture of that meaning and then add their own picture to the clip art for the students to get a deeper understanding of the meaning of the word that they are learning

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doing a lot of visuals , vocabulary review, repitition, hands on 

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doing a lot of visuals , vocabulary review, repitition, hands on 

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Google slide deck templates

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Screencastify seems like a good option for providing feedback for Expanding and Commanding ELLs.

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The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Learning English

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The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Learning English

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From Larry Ferlazzo's Websites Of The Day: My intent behind creating this latest “The Best…” list was to identify sites that provide teacher-created content; do not require any registration; are free; and, except in one instance (where I identify what my students and I are think is the best bilingual English/Spanish site), provide resources in many languages, including ones that are not widely-used.

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There's a lot of debate about how much to use an English Language Learner's native language in studying English. Certainly, a straight translation methodology all of the time is not the way to go.

However, I've found that, particularly with newcomers, providing them with access to an Internet resource that provides some native-language support can be a real confidence-booster. Pretty quickly, though, they often move away from those sites of their own accord.

There are quite a few newer "learn-a-language" sites that provide multilingual support from a social network. There are others that offer translation help for a smaller number of languages.

My intent behind creating this latest "The Best..." list was to identify sites that provide teacher-created content; do not require any registration; are free; and, except in one instance (where I identify what my students and I are think is the best bilingual English/Spanish site), provide resources in many languages, including ones that are not widely-used.

Here are my choices for The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Learning English:

Bilingual Quizzes From Activities For ESL Students is a project of the Internet TESL Journal. You can find a ton of quizzes using multiple multiple languages here.

Goethe Tests covers vocabulary and language tests in twenty-five different languages.

For an English/Spanish site, there's no question that Pumarosa, created by teacher Paul Rogers, is a great resource for Spanish speakers.

The Cultural Orientation Resource Center has put their extraordinary collection of refugee phrasebooks online and free for download.

Here's how they describe this incredibly useful resource:
These phrasebooks are designed to supply refugees with the appropriate English phrases and supplementary vocabulary for use in the daily activities of American life (rather than simply word-to-word translations, as in a dictionary). Phrases contained in the books have been selected for their directness, brevity and relevance to the needs of newly arrived residents of the United States. Among the nineteen units included are sections on "Giving Information About Yourself," "Recognizing Signs," "Dealing With Money," "Health," "Food," "Clothing," "Housing," and "Jobs."
Each phrasebook is approximately 140 pages and can be downloaded for free.

They are available in these languages: Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Cantonese, Czech, Farsi, Haitian Creole, Hmong, Hungarian, Khmer, Lao, Polish, Russian, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

Duolingo looks like it's a pretty decent language-learning site.

Lingo Hut seems like a pretty impressive site for beginning learners of many different languages, including English. Using a drop-down menu, you can easily select your native language and the language you want to learn, and then progress through a well-designed series of exercises including reading, listening and speaking.
Internet Polyglot
Duo Reading has a limited collection of materials that show content in English and in another language at the same time.

Storybooks Canada and World Stories are two sites with many bilingual and multilingual stories. I particularly liked World Stories because it has bilingual books in English/Pashto, and those are hard to find.
"SPEECHLING" LOOKS LIKE A NICE SITE TO PRACTICE SPEAKING ENGLISH & OTHER LANGUAGES
Optilingo is a new site for learning multiple languages.
"Speaky Reads" Looks Like A Nice New Site For ELLS & Other Language Learners
Clozemaster lets you learn multiple languages through an intriguing system.

Here's a great resource /free website for teachers of multilinguals. Many languages including Ukrainian and Pashto https://t.co/CI48yHutir pic.twitter.com/0uLBV9Fthd

- 🌍 ναℓєηтιηα gσηzαℓєz (@ValentinaESL) March 7, 2022

ReadLang is a flashcard and online translation tool for many languages. Here's a good explanation of how to use it from FLT Mag.

Roxxem is a new site where learners of Spanish, French or Chinese can acquire the language through music.

Quazel is an intriguing new site that helps you learn a language through an Artificial Intelligence powered audio text chat. I tried it out in Spanish, and it seemed to work well. Unfortunately, it all seems designed to assist English-speakers learn different languages so there is no option to learn English.

Weeve looks like an interesting way to learn languages, though it doesn't include English right now. It lets you read a book in your home language, with a gradually increasing number of words in the target language replacing them.

Memrise has expanded its language-learning tools.

Voice of America Learning English has begun bilingual video courses for people learning English, and whose first languages are ones spoken in Ethiopia, Mali, Congo, along with ones in Korean, French and Vietnamese. It's an interesting list - I wonder how they determined it?

As always, please feel free to provide feedback in the comments section.

You might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free if you've found the post useful.

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The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Learning English & Other Languages

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There's a lot of debate about how much to use an English Language Learner's native language in studying English. Certainly, a straight translation methodology all of the time is not the way to go. However, I've found that, particularly with newcomers, providing them with access to an Internet resource that provides some native-language support can be a real confidence-booster.

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Scroll down to the middle of the web page forFamily Engagement, including positive strengths-based conversations, collaboration, and technology resources.

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During the New Year, we reflect on past joys and concerns from the previous year and take the opportunity to look ahead. During these difficult times and uncertain times, it is especially important to take time for reflection, identify our strengths and challenges, and consider where our efforts will be most effective.

In this article, I will recommend some specific and measurable actions you can implement to support the success of your English language learners (ELLs). You may wish to focus on just one of these strategies so you can work on it consistently, or try different strategies at different times through the year. Many of the strategies can be used in any learning setting, whether you are in-person, hybrid, or remote for the coming months.

I also suggest teachers employ the "support group" method and use the chosen strategy as a topic for a professional learning community. Sharing strategies, achievements, and challenges with colleagues will help you all grow professionally, and more students will benefit academically. It will also provide the team with much-needed support and you can use some of these ideas to jumpstart collaboration.

Note: We have added some ideas around advocacy and collaboration to this article due to the additional responsibilities and uncertainties educators are currently facing.

Strategies for Instruction

1. Look for ways to build relationships with your ELLs.
Specific and measurable goal: I will try one new strategy that can boost my connections with students.
When asked for their top piece of advice for working with ELLs, veteran ELL educators often talk about the importance of building relationships with their ELLs and how the time invested in those relationships pays dividends in the future. There are lots of ways to support those connections with strategies such as those in the article below, which also includes many tech tools that can be used online or in-person with students.

Recommended resources

Videos: Building relationships with ELLs

2. Increase ELL students' English language production and peer interaction.
Specific and measurable goal: I will use one or two key strategies that can support oral language in my instruction and share ideas that work with my colleagues.
There are two key items students need in order to further develop skills in a new language - time and practice. There is nothing teachers can do to rush language acquisition, but there are many ways to provide opportunities to practice their skills in the classroom. If activities are structured to support student-to-student or group interaction, ELLs will need to use their oral language skills to explain concepts and contribute to the work. This gives teachers an opportunity to gauge what the student has learned, and it demonstrates student progress in language development.

Teachers can also informally assess for correct use of language structures and academic vocabulary. If ELLs are having difficulty with phrases or vocabulary, the teacher will be able to offer guidance or further instruction to support language development.

Recommended resources

Albuquerque teacher Ali Nava walks her students through a cooperative paragraph summarizing the beginning, middle, and end the children's book Burro's Tortillas and uses the exercise as an opportunity to practice their writing skills.

3. Explicitly teach academic language vocabulary and structures.
Specific and measurable resolution: I will identify one key area where my students need more practice in academic language and look for ways to support their language development.
In, "What Teachers Need to Know about Language" by Lily Wong Fillmore and Catherine Snow, the authors state that:

Teachers play a critical role in supporting language development. Beyond teaching children to read and write in school, they need to help children learn and use aspects of language associated with the academic discourse of the various school subjects. They need to help them become more aware of how language functions in various modes of communication across the curriculum. They need to understand how language works well enough to select materials that will help expand their students' linguistic horizons and to plan instructional activities that give students opportunities to use the new forms and modes of expression to which they are being exposed. Teachers need to understand how to design the classroom language environment so as to optimize language and literacy learning and to avoid linguistic obstacles to content area learning (Wong Fillmore & Snow, p. 7).

The need to understand academic language structures and language acquisition theory is increasingly important as the number of ELLs increases in classrooms. However, very few teachers have had the formal training required to be prepared to identify and teach the English vocabulary and structures found in specific content areas. When I first started teaching ESL, my students knew way more about grammar than I did. I joked with them, "I don't know English; I just speak it."

Content teachers can begin by collaborating with ESL teachers to learn how to identify the academic language demands of content-area lessons and how to scaffold academic language and vocabulary instruction. With practice, it will become easier to review a content-area lesson and identify not just the vocabulary that every student needs to know, but other vocabulary words and grammar structures that ELL students may not be familiar with.

Recommended resources

Video: What are sentence frames?

ESOL specialist Sheila Majdi explains what a sentence frame is and how she might use this strategy with ELLs.

4. Build on ELLs' background knowledge to support comprehension.
Specific and measurable goal: I will elicit background knowledge from ELLs in one content area through a variety of activities, including questioning and graphic organizers.
Learning something new is like stacking building blocks. The more you have, the higher you can go. ELLs come with many building blocks, but it takes practice learning how to identify what they are. That is where the teacher's skill at drawing on background knowledge becomes so important.

Teachers can work creatively to elicit background knowledge from students on content topics in order to increase comprehension of the material. This may be as simple as taking the time to do a "K/W/L" (Know, Want to Know, Learned) chart, or as individualized as asking questions about the topic: "Has anyone ever visited the jungle? A jungle is like a rainforest. What do you see in a jungle?" Students can share their knowledge and see how it is connected to new academic information.

Recommended resources

Videos: ELL educators speak about background knowledge

5. Increase opportunities for writing.
Specific and measurable goal: I will choose one targeted activity that focuses on developing a certain skill such as creative vocabulary use, the correct format of an essay or the peer editing process.
The ability to write effectively and accurately to convey a message is a critical skill for a college student and in most careers. Students need to have many positive opportunities to develop writing skills in a variety of formats in order to strengthen their communication skills, and for ELLs, this is particularly important. Depending on their writing skill level in their first language and their English language abilities, writing may be frustrating. Students need to engage in a variety of writing to develop an understanding of different types of writing and to identify their strengths and weaknesses as a writer.

I want to underscore the importance of interacting with writing in a positive way by examining creativity and word usage, in addition to the mechanics of writing. Many ELLs will focus negatively on problems with mechanics and miss the strengths they display in their writing. We write the way we think and speak, and by analyzing our writing we begin to analyze our thoughts and speech as well. When students discuss their writing, they are able to see their thoughts and statements from someone else's perspective and they gain awareness of their own language development. In this age of technology where a lot of communication is done electronically, it is more important than ever that students develop the ability to state their thoughts clearly and accurately in writing - as well as to know the difference between texting a message to buddies and sending an email to the boss.

Recommended resources

Strategies: ELL Family Engagement

Multilingual families are legally entitled to information in their home language. Here are some ideas to improve and expand outreach and partnerships with ELL families.

6. Start positive, strengths-based conversations with families.
Specific and measurable goal: I will contact one family each week to share a success story about their child.
No matter what language they speak, ELL families want their children to succeed as much as any other family. Regular, open and friendly communication from the teacher can make a big difference in ELL parent engagement, especially if families are intimidated by the U.S. school system.

It can also feel daunting to call an ELL family, but often there is someone in the family who speaks enough English to interpret the message for the parent, or the parent speaks enough English to understand a simple message. It may also be possible to get help from a bilingual school staff member to assist in making a quick phone call.

ELL families will be very pleased and excited to hear positive news about their child and will feel more comfortable asking questions and visiting the school in the future. The more informed the families are, the more likely it is that the student will get support at home and families will have the information they need to help their child be successful.

Recommended resources

Video: Our parents value education and their children's teachers

ELD Specialist Diana Alqadhi explains how the fact that teachers are held in high esteem in Yemeni culture helps strengthen family partnerships at her middle school.

7. Try a new tool to support family engagement.
Specific and measurable goal: I will try a new way to reach out to a multilingual family.
There are more tools than ever before to support multilingual family outreach. These include the app TalkingPoints, as well as innovative ways to use social media and video conferences with families. The more you know about resources and staffing your district has in this area, the more effective your outreach will be!

Recommended resources

Video: Partnering with families in the service industry

This video features Juliana Urtubey, 2021 National Teacher of the Year and the 2021 Nevada Teacher of the Year, sharing her experiences in partnering with families who work in Las Vegas.

Strategies for Collaboration & Advocacy

8. Look for ways to collaborate informally with colleagues.
Specific and measurable goal: I will reach out to one colleague to see if we can increase our collaboration.
There are a lot of ways you can initiate collaboration on behalf of ELLs with very small steps.

If you are a classroom or content-area teacher, you can:

send your ELL or bilingual colleagues a question about a student or an area of instruction where you'd like some support

ask your ELL colleagues to share some favorite strategies with you.

If you are an ELL/bilingual teacher or specialist, you can:

write a letter to colleagues introducing yourself and some of the ways you collaborate with others

invite colleagues to share questions about their ELLs with you

approach a content-area colleague and ask them how their ELLs are faring.

There are a few different benefits to this kind of collaboration:

Students can benefit as more teachers' capacity for ELL instruction increases.

Staff get to know each other's areas of expertise better.

Colleagues can team up to ask for more support for formal collaboration opportunities for ELLs.

Staff can increase the number of voices speaking up for ELLs, which is more critical than ever during COVID-19.

Recommended resources

Video: Tips for collaboration from an ESOL specialist

ESOL specialist Katy Padilla shares some of the tips she's learned in her experience collaborating with classroom and content-area colleagues.

9. Identify an area where you'd like to advocate for your ELLs.
Specific and measurable goal: I will choose one topic where I would like to see change for our ELLs and identify some small steps I can take to make a difference.
When you consider how your ELLs are currently doing, you may feel overwhelmed by a constellation of factors that are impacting them. Try identifying one issue that you think could make a difference if it were to improve or change. This might be an area of instruction, family engagement, language access, services and support, or creating a more welcoming environment at the school. For some ideas on first steps you might take to work on that issue, take a look at the following resources.

Recommended resources

10. Help administrators develop their capacity to serve ELLs.
Specific and measurable goal: I will reach out to one administrator to set up a conversation about our ELLs.
Communicating with administrators about ELL instruction, support, and family engagement can make a big difference. Not only can it bring important issues to administrators' attention, it can help them understand the role and value of ELL educators and why collaboration on behalf of ELLs is so valuable.

Try reaching out to an administrator with a question, issue, topic, or resource you'd like to share related to ELLs, such as the issue you identified above. Keep in mind, however, it doesn't have to be a big question to get the conversation started. Even though everyone is working within challenging circumstances right now, shining a light on ELLs' experiences, challenges, and needs can help put some important changes in motion.

Recommended resources

Learn more about the laws and regulations relating to the education of ELLs in the following article:

Video: What administrators need to know about what ESOL specialists do

Dr. Karen Woodson shares an overview of the expertise that ESOL educators bring to their schools and districts.

11. Strengthen your network of support.
Specific and measurable goal: I will take one step to expand my network of support, such as reaching out to another colleague or joining an online community of educators.
There is a lot of wonderful work being done and shared in schools, districts, professional learning communities, and online networks. If you need some ideas, encouragement, or validation, these can be powerful connections to make. There are recommended resources and ideas in the article below to help you get started.

Recommended resources

12. Keep returning to self-care & reflection.
Specific and measurable goal: I will share one self-care goal with a friend or colleague so we can check in about it in the near future.
Even if self-care is the last thing you've been able to think about during COVID-19, it's never to late to bring it back into focus.

Keep conversations going with your colleagues about what self-care means to you and what might help support it at the school level.

Don't give up on trying to make the self-care you need for your physical and mental health a regular part of your routine.

Share your success stories with colleagues to help boost motivation.

Take some time for reflection. While the reflection article below focuses on end-of-school-year questions, they could be used at any time during the year.

Together, colleagues can support each other and each other's self-care as part of their important work on behalf of students.

Closing Thoughts

I hope that this list will be helpful as you set goals for the upcoming year. You may find, of course, that if you create your own, they will be more meaningful, and you're more likely to stick with your plan. I hope you will be able to pick at least one thing and give it a try. Baby steps are better than no steps at all. So give it a try and go easy on yourself if it doesn't go as well as planned or if you get busy and don't keep up as well as you'd like.

The most important thing is that you explore an area that you think will support your ELLs' success, and commit yourself to continued improvement in the coming year. All the best in the New Year!

Video: Bonus Tips from Kristina

Here are some bonus tips from Kristina for educators ELLs!

Video: Try one new thing at a time

Video: When a new strategy doesn't work

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Twelve Things Teachers Can Do to Support ELL Success in the New Year

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During the New Year, we reflect on past joys and concerns from the previous year and take the opportunity to look ahead. During these difficult times and uncertain times, it is especially important to take time for reflection, identify our strengths and challenges, and consider where our efforts will be most effective.

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identifying key words, grammar, highlighting,  hand signals, 

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identifying key words, grammar, highlighting,  hand signals, 

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Learn how educators can build authentic relationships with ELLs, as well as how they can connect students' experiences to meaningful instruction. This article is part of Colorin Colorado's Strategies for ELL Success guide.

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One of the biggest topics that educators are thinking about this year is the importance of social-emotional learning (SEL). Building relationships with students is a key aspect of SEL for students of all ages.

The good news is that there are a lot of ideas educators can try now and throughout the year. You might think of it as "going slow to go fast" - a process that not only builds confidence and community but increases engagement and supports students' later academic success.

What's in this article

We have compiled some of these ideas and resources for building relationships with English language learners (ELLs) and their classmates below in the following strategies:

Before getting started

As you read, keep in mind that many of the following activities can be differentiated for varying language proficiency levels. These strategies offer opportunities for:

And we encourage you to keep in mind Kristina Robertson's popular piece of advice: try just one new thing at a time!

Note: This article was originally written for online and hybrid settings. For tips on using these strategies in distance learning, see our recommendations at the end of the article.

Essential Question

As you read this article, consider the following essential question:
In what ways can I build strong relationships with multilingual students this year?
Strategies: Getting to Know Students

Share your stories!

If you try any ideas from this article, we'd love to hear how it went! Post your story on social media here:

Show respect for your students by taking time to learn how to pronounce and spell their names correctly. Ensure that students' names are written correctly in student databases, especially as schools move to more online systems. A misspelled name can impact the services and instruction a student receives.

When you ask students to say their name, listen carefully and repeat it until you get it right.

Ask students to record their names for you so that you can hear their pronunciation. (You can ask them to send you a voice recording or use an online platform like NameCoach.) Share recordings with colleagues who work with the students so that they also pronounce the students' names correctly.

Model the correct pronunciation of students' names to the class so that all students can say it correctly.

Use students' names when greeting them each day.

Consider asking students to share examples of how people mispronounce their name and how that makes them feel.

Learn more about different naming conventions in your students' cultures and languages.

Refrain from coming up with a nickname or a version of the name that's easier for you to say.

Project ideas:

Assign a multimedia or written project in which students share:

If your students are using technology, this is a good way to introduce online platforms they will be using this year.

You might also read aloud books from our booklists on names for children and young adults. After listening, students can record, write, or draw stories about their own names.

Using tech: SeeSaw can be used with primary grades. SeeSaw has related activities already prepared in their "Activity Bank," such as " Your Name is Everything You Are."

For older students, consider using:

What are your students' experiences, interests, hobbies, talents, goals, and strengths? Tapping into these " funds of knowledge" can:

foster relationships, friendships, and student confidence

make students' strengths more visible to peers and educators

engage students across the curriculum.

For example, the children of migrant farmworkers might have a wealth of knowledge about agriculture, seasonal harvest, and different regions of the country. (You can learn more about " funds of knowledge" from this helpful guide.)

Bring these topics into the class by:

giving students a chance to share their interests or strengths in surveys, peer interviews, writing prompts, and art projects

encouraging students to express themselves by decorating a virtual locker or bringing in something they can hang on the wall of the classroom

talking with family members about their child's interests and talents

talking with members of the students' communities about their insights

providing time for students to discuss current events of interest

learning more about culturally responsive practice (and what it looks like during a pandemic).

Note: See some great strategies from Judie Haynes and Carol Salva that incorporate these ideas into activities to start this coming new school year.

Project ideas:

Ask students to share a photo or drawing of themselves that is important to them and to explain why. (You can learn more about this strategy that ELD Team Lead Cindy Close in Douglas County, CO shared with us from Education Week.)

For a more in-depth assignment, ask students to create a project focused on one of their hobbies, interests, or talents that they can share with the class. Some examples might include a collage, a short presentation, poem, or a short video.

Using tech: The platforms mentioned under strategy one will work well for these ideas. You might also consider:

a digital photo album site, such as Google photos

a digital collage site, like PicCollage

a photo finding mission app, like Plum's Photo Hunt

Flipgrid, where students can post their digital picture while they talk about why that picture or object is important to them.

You can welcome students' languages by learning a few words or phrases, such as a greeting or how to say "thank you," or asking them to teach you and their peers some words. They will appreciate the gesture and enjoy being the teacher (and the expert) for a change!

This not only highlights the language skills that your student has, it celebrates the gift of multilingualism and gives other student a chance to think about what it is like to go through the day learning in a different language. (Learn more in our section on what it feels like to be a language learner.)

You might also look for places where you can display flags from students' countries or other photos that are meaningful for students.

Project ideas:

Create a classroom bulletin board, either online or on the wall, where students and families can add homemade signs to a world map with important words such as "hello," "friend," and "thank you." (Thank you to Amanda Goman for sharing this idea on Twitter!)

Tech ideas: Look for ways to create and decorate a shared virtual space or virtual bulletin boards with tools such as Padlet, Corkulous, or Bitmoji. (Note that some of Bitmoji's avatars are not appropriate for students, especially of younger ages.) Various Google Classroom tools include places to save images as well.

Provide opportunities for students to share important traditions throughout the year. You may wish to ask students early in the year what their favorite holidays are and then plan a lesson on that holiday with their family. Look for these opportunities throughout the year and across the curriculum, as well as including them as a part of family outreach events.

Project ideas:

Invite students and families to prepare a presentation or respond to a writing prompt about:

a family story, folktale, or local legend

a favorite saying, poem, or song from their native language

a recipe

a family or holiday tradition.

Tech ideas: Any of the creation tools mentioned above could be used for these projects.

The demands on teachers of ELLs this year will be many; however, making time for regular personal interaction with students will strengthen your ability to deliver effective, meaningful instruction and keep in touch with them during a fluid situation. To help carve out this time:

talk with colleagues and administrators about ways to fit that interaction into instruction, office hours, or family engagement

look for opportunities to co-teach or collaborate with colleagues or paraprofessionals to use time efficiently

consider using phone calls, blogs, messaging, or other forms of written communication with students as a way to check in

collect examples of success and share them with administrators to advocate for more time if needed.

Project ideas:

Ask students to prepare 3-5 (appropriate!) questions they would like to ask you in an interview, such as your favorite food, a favorite toy from childhood, or a book you enjoyed reading. After reviewing and approving their questions, schedule time for them to interview you, in person or online, which they can share with the class through a written summary, video, or presentation. If time allows, you may wish to interview them as well!

Tech ideas: Brainstorming questions would work well in small groups on Jamboard, a digital whiteboard that is a Google extension. Interviews could be done orally asynchronously via Flipgrid or Voxer, a voice messaging app for phone or desktop. Final video could be posted on any of the creation apps listed above (Seesaw, Nearpod, Peardeck, Buncee, etc.)

Strategies: Connecting Experiences to Learning

Once you get a better sense of your students' life experiences, you can connect them to learning by:

looking for ways to connect these interests to the curriculum

asking students to brainstorm ideas on what they would like to study

using an inquiry-based or project-based learning approach that allows students to take the lead in identifying a question or problem to solve/research

assigning students research projects that focus on issues or concepts that apply to their own community

identifying community assets, guest speakers, or local organizations that can support this learning

offering students opportunities to present their work in public, whether to classmates, parents, or community members.

Project ideas:

Consider taking on a classwide project (or group projects) that students help plan and design to address a topic or concern of interest.

Tech ideas: Use Jamboard to brainstorm questions students want to answer in their project or inquiry. Once the questions are posted on Jamboard, they can sort and categorize the questions. Jamboard allows students to post a sticky note and see what others are posting in real time. This can be used in break out groups and/or asynchronously.

Sharing personal stories can be powerful experiences for students and their classmates as well. Provide opportunities for students to share their stories both privately and publicly, whether through artwork, in writing, or in conversation. If a student shares some difficult experiences, consider whether more support is needed through follow-up conversations with families or counseling.
Notes of caution
If you do invite students to share personal stories:

Attend to student cues on whether they wish to share their personal experiences with classmates: Many students have endured traumatic experiences that they may not wish to share. Explain at the beginning of any storytelling activity that it is voluntary and provide alternative assignments as needed. Some students may be willing to share their experiences with their peers or in a more public format such as school assemblies, the school newspaper, or self-published books.

Be aware of the "dangers of a single story": Be mindful of what Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls "the danger of a single story" in her 2009 TED talk; in other words, when learning about a student's life story, remember that your own experiences and assumptions, as well as the stories of other individuals, may not reflect your student's life. In addition, students who have the same racial background, speak the same language, or who hail from the same country may not have much in common, and in fact may experience some tension if they come from different groups with histories of conflict.

Don't single students out because of their identity: Never put students on the spot as a "representative" of their race, gender, ethnic group, gender identity, country of origin, experience, or other aspect of their identity. Honor students' experiences and perspectives for what they are, especially if those experiences and perspectives challenge your assumptions.

Project ideas:

Work with students to present a brief personal story they want to share in writing, artwork, video, or audio. This small project may grow into a larger, longer project, such as an autobiography project or yearbook project (which could work well online!).
Tech ideas:

Storybird is an easy to use digital storytelling platform that allows students to create stories with characters and elements provided by dragging, dropping, and writing in your story.

Make Beliefs Comics is a comic strip storytelling platform.

Book Creator is an iPad app that can be used with young students.

There is a lot of attention on social-emotional learning right now for good reason. All students have experienced disruption to some level in their social and academic lives, and many students have also experienced hardship, loss, illness, trauma, and deep levels of stress and anxiety. As district leader Nathaniel Provencio notes in the video below, creating a supportive, nurturing environment for your students, regardless of setting, is a critical step in helping them navigate the uncertainty of the coming year.

Some ideas include:

keeping a calm and predictable environment

creating calm corners

preparing students for transitions

giving students sensory and stretch breaks

teaching tools for mindfulness and stress relief, such as breathing exercises or visualizations

sharing resources such as this "virtual calming room"

encouraging students to show kindness, develop empathy, and share appreciation for each other

encouraging your students to identify and focus on their strengths and resilience, as discussed above

In addition, keep an eye out for situations in which students may need additional support from counselors. Learn more about the impacts of COVID-19 on immigrant families and these trauma-informed school strategies during COVID-19 from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

Project ideas:

Ask students to share an experience through writing or discussion about a time that they overcame a difficulty or reached a goal. Ask them to reflect on what made that achievement possible.

Tech ideas: Use one of the storytelling platforms above so that students can share this experience as a story or their own superhero comic.

Many educators use circle time as a chance to check in and learn more about how students are doing. We have also heard from middle and high school educators that advisory periods offer powerful opportunities to connect with students. One ELL educator shared that her colleagues at the high school level were reluctant take on advisory periods. However, in a survey at the end of the year, the overwhelming majority favored keeping the advisory periods as a way of getting to know students better throughout the year.

In addition, other educators use private mailboxes, student mood charts, journal entries, and other personal ways for students to let teachers know how they are doing.

As you work with ELLs, make sure that all students have opportunities to participate in these activities and scaffold their participating with strategies such as offering sentence frames for discussion to help scaffold students' participation.

Project ideas:

Think about different topics and questions to use during circle time or advisory, perhaps alternating between general updates and focused activities. You also wish to invite students to come up with topics and themes.

Another teacher, Jorge Bermudez, shares his alternative high school's experience with rethinking their advisory periods in the video below.

Offering students opportunities to reflect about own identity can help create an " identity-safe classroom " and also lay important groundwork for later discussions. It can also challenge the notion of "color blindness," a perspective which ignores important aspects of students' identity and experiences. When discussing identity:

Honor students' experiences and perspectives for what they are.

Avoid assumptions. Dr. Ayanna Cooper speaks more about this in her interview clips below about Black immigrant students.

Never put students on the spot as a "representative" of any aspect of their identity or experience.

Become familiar with some of the myths related to ELLs and immigrant students. If needed, share these with colleagues.

Keep in mind that students may be masking some part of their identity. For example, some Indigenous students from Latin America may not share their Indigenous culture or language with the school, or the fact that Spanish is not their first language.

Project ideas:

Look for ideas that fit your classroom in the following collection of resources:
Elementary School Middle and High School Professional development and collaboration
Closing Thoughts

There will be a lot of trial and error in the coming year. As Kristina Roberston says below, if something doesn't work, go back to the drawing board and try again! Don't let those bumps discourage you from continuing to build the critical connections that you, your students, and your families need this year. They may just be what helps everyone get through a school year like no other!

Discussion/Reflection Questions

What is one takeaway that resonates with you from this article?

What is one activity you might try?

What strategies have you used in the past to build strong relationships with students? How might you adapt them this year?

What will be hardest about building relationships this year with students and families?

What are you feeling nervous about year?

What are you looking forward to this year?

More Recommended Resources

Social-emotional resources

Interactive strategies for building relationships & distance learning

Recommended blogs

Getting to know your ELLs and their families

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Kristina Robertson, Becky Corr, Susan Lafond, Areli Schermerhorn, and Beth Skelton for their contributions to this article.

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10 Strategies for Building Relationships with ELLs

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One of the biggest topics that educators are thinking about this year is the importance of social-emotional learning (SEL). Building relationships with students is a key aspect of SEL for students of all ages. The good news is that there are a lot of ideas educators can try now and throughout the year.

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Hybrid Teaching Strategies for Elementary Classrooms (2021)

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Hybrid Teaching Strategies for Elementary Classrooms (2021)

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Some adaptations for hybrid classrooms, like digital manipulatives and instructional videos—will be worth keeping when all students are back in the room. Article presents formats for small groups, virtual manipulatives and interactive tools.

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Some adaptations for hybrid classrooms, like digital manipulatives and instructional videos-will be worth keeping when all students are back in the room.

Bob Daemmrich / Alamy Stock Photo

During this past year, the pandemic has molded how I teach. When my school went fully online, I had to learn strategies for keeping my students motivated and engaged behind a computer. Now we have students online and in person, so I've had to learn how to teach both ways at the same time. It's important that students know that we are all learning about this new normal together. Teachers are helping each other by collaborating on finding resources that work for all students.

Here are some lessons I've learned about teaching during the new normal.

New Formats for Small Groups

Due to social distancing regulations and because we need to document close contacts in case we have a child in class who has Covid, students have to stay in the same assigned place in the classroom. With Webex, I've been able to move my small groups to breakout sessions and mix the online students with the in-person students so they can work together.

When we started using Webex, students just wanted to play, so we had to set some rules. This has been a great tool because it allows me to have flexible groups. Sometimes I even let Webex form the groups, and the students are always excited to see who they're going to be working with. I plan on using Webex as long as we need to socially distance.

Video for Lessons

I like creating videos to teach lessons. Seesaw gives me five minutes to explain a lesson, which is usually the perfect amount of time; if I want to create longer videos, I use Canvas Studio. When I'm in class, I play the video and pause it for questions. I've seen my students replaying the videos when they're working independently and need to review something.

Videos are also a helpful resource when students are absent or if parents want to understand how we work in class. I'll keep using this strategy even when things go back to normal because the videos allow my students to have access to my lessons at any time.

Interactive Tools

I place special emphasis on groups that include everyone, and Google Jamboard is an excellent interactive system for this. With Jamboard, I can create slides for each group and explain what the task is about.

I love that I can have my online students working with my in-person students about the topic I'm teaching. The first time using Jamboard can be a struggle because students will want to play with the different tools, like the sticky notes and images, but again, it's about taking the time to set some rules.

Another way to have groups work together is to create Google Slide presentations or Google Docs. Students can work together, and I can check their work while they're producing it. I'm planning to keep using these tools mixed with real paper and markers in the future. Students need to get used to working with collaborative tools so they are more qualified for jobs in the future.

Virtual Manipulatives

Because students can't share manipulatives, I've created activities that allow me to give them different digital shapes or counters that they can move. With this, I'm trying to replicate the real thing, so they can still have those kinesthetic movements that the brain needs to have a better understanding of what they're learning.

With these lessons, I'm providing my online kids with manipulatives, too, and the same opportunities that my in-person kids have. This is a strategy I will keep using even when we go back to sharing, so that absent students don't miss any instructions and learning experiences.

We're making teaching history, and we have the opportunity to adapt teaching to the new normal. We're educating students who are far away from the classroom, and we are finding ways to connect them with the students who are there with us in the school. We're bonding more with parents, and they can be more central to their children's education because they have access to the work we're doing. As long as teachers, students, and parents keep working together, we can discover how to better adapt to these unaccustomed and unusual times-the new normal.

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Hybrid Teaching Strategies for Elementary Classrooms

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Some adaptations for hybrid classrooms, like digital manipulatives and instructional videos-will be worth keeping when all students are back in the room. Bob Daemmrich / Alamy Stock Photo During this past year, the pandemic has molded how I teach. When my school went fully online, I had to learn strategies for keeping my students motivated and engaged behind a computer.

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understanding vocabulary before reading maybe in different languages and with pictures

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An Asset-Based Approach to Support ELL Success: Engagement

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An Asset-Based Approach to Support ELL Success: Engagement

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An asset-based approach to teaching English language learners is about creating a culture where we acknowledge strengths and expect success. It's the shared vision everyone in a district must adopt before we can hope to set relevant learning goals or implement worthwhile instructional strategies for ELLs. The article presents engagement strategies to benefit ELLs.

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An asset-based approach to teaching English language learners is about creating a culture where we acknowledge strengths and expect success. It's the shared vision everyone in a district must adopt before we can hope to set relevant learning goals or implement worthwhile instructional strategies for ELLs.

This is the approach we've taken in Albuquerque Public Schools, the largest district in New Mexico with nearly 82,000 students in 143 schools. Two-thirds of our students are Hispanic, we have learners from 23 different Native American communities, we're a refugee resettlement area, and nearly 17 percent of kids in our schools are classified as English language learners. I was myself an ELL, and linguistic and academic supports were noticeably absent from my education. Once I became a teacher, I noticed not much had changed since my days as a student. The district's resources and planning hadn't yet caught up with ELLs' unique needs. They didn't have quality English language development instruction or appropriate linguistic scaffolds. Some ELL students were not scheduled in English language development (ELD) classes, and those who were did not have equal or equitable access to standard resources found in most English Language Arts classes, such as textbooks and computers. Many long-term ELLs spent six years or more receiving English language instruction without exiting ELL status, which is evidence of a broken system.

It was close to impossible to address these issues as a classroom teacher, but I did what I could within my sphere of influence. I strived to push my students and refused to coddle them. I encouraged them to stretch their academic skills by reading literature, debating complex and polarizing ideas, and developing voice through writing. I also believed in their right to a rigorous education in their home language-a right denied to me-and taught students to see the academic value in their home languages and cultures.

Back to Basics

What we needed was a districtwide plan to improve instruction for ELLs. When I became the senior director of language and cultural equity, I knew the first step was to change mindsets. ELLs must be a priority of all district leaders and stakeholders. When leadership lacks an advocacy and equity lens, history is doomed to repeat itself.

Our approach now includes supporting linguistic and academic development together, including oral language development and explicit literacy development, along with instruction in academic uses of English, writing skills, and relevant texts that reflect students' identities and experiences (Sharma &amp; Christ, 2017). These foundational elements lead to improved academic language development, which enables ELLs to participate in classroom discussions, to better articulate their thinking as they learn new material and, overall, to engage.

The engagement piece is essential as students move through the grade levels. If students continue to struggle with language skills as they grow older, they will feel less confident in their ability to express their knowledge and may become reluctant to participate.

When You See Engaged ELLs, You're Doing It Right

To refine our approach, we partnered with Curriculum Associates, a company that specializes in data-driven, differentiated instruction. Our asset-based philosophy, reflected in the lessons and vocabulary, makes learning personal, as students understand that their unique experiences and perspectives are beneficial to their learning.

Some key strategies have been highly effective for our students:

1. We use culturally responsive materials. From books in our library, such as The Children of Blood and Bones by Tomi Adeyemi and Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan, to authentic classroom resources en Español such as Yabisí, we find resources that will resonate with students and connect to their backgrounds. Instructional materials should be built by a diverse team of experts with ELLs in mind, as opposed to "retrofitting" textbooks as an afterthought. Tools like Curriculum Associates' i-Ready, an adaptive diagnostic that connects assessment to instruction, can be valuable support. Giving students voice, such as the option to choose what they read, allows them more control over the process of language development.

2. We use strategic scaffolding. Because we believe in our learners' assets and abilities, we start with appropriately challenging materials and then provide supports as necessary. Scaffolds may look at math through multiple representations or frame sentences to help students communicate their mathematical thinking.

3. We make PD a priority. As content's difficulty and pacing increases, there is risk for long-term ELLs to become permanently disengaged. To prevent this, our district prioritizes teacher training and professional development, so all educators understand how to lay the foundation for success. Newly hired secretaries, paraprofessionals, and certified staff all receive tailored training around the needs of ELLs, using methods that champion student voice, language development, and content knowledge. Classroom educators use English proficiency data to guide differentiation and specialized supports for newcomers, translanguaging for biliteracy, and other strategies to contextualize content for ELLs.

4. We celebrate our students. Even if districts prioritize services for ELLs on a larger scale, every teacher can improve instruction for ELLs by getting to know students' strengths and struggles. One activity that our teachers use involves a simple prompt. They write, "I wish my teacher knew ... " on the board, and after some small-group and whole-group discussion, students respond anonymously on sticky notes or in their journals. This short activity can set the stage for trusting relationships.

Our English language learners are filled with potential. Educators have the awesome opportunity to help them reach it. With a dedicated plan and a commitment to action, we can change outcomes for every student in our schools.

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An Asset-Based Approach to Support ELL Success - ASCD

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An asset-based approach to teaching English language learners is about creating a culture where we acknowledge strengths and expect success. It's the shared vision everyone in a district must adopt before we can hope to set relevant learning goals or implement worthwhile instructional strategies for

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Hybrid Teaching: 12 Teaching Strategies to Optimize Learning Spaces - ViewSonic Library 2020

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Hybrid Teaching: 12 Teaching Strategies to Optimize Learning Spaces - ViewSonic Library 2020

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What is Hybrid Learning?
Hybrid Teaching Strategies for Your Hybrid Learning Space
Direct Instruction
Play-Based Learning
Game-Based Learning
Prompting
Modeled Teaching
Cooperative Learning
Service Learning
Think Pair Share
Two-Minute Presentation
Fishbowl
Peer-Assisted Learning
Brainstorming

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Hybrid Teaching: 12 Teaching Strategies to Optimize Learning Spaces - ViewSonic Library

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Hybrid teaching can be tough for teachers. But with these 12 teaching strategies you can engage both in-class and remote students with ease!

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Hybrid Teaching: Strategies and Tips for K-12 Education | Screencastify 2022

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Hybrid Teaching: Strategies and Tips for K-12 Education | Screencastify 2022

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Tips and strategies of online an din person engagement with screencastify - two brief videos and article for integration with Modern Classroom Project and Google Classroom.

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For more than a decade, hybrid teaching and hybrid learning have been a growing trend, with more and more schools dabbling with or embracing the format. Of course, the coronavirus pandemic greatly increased both the pace of implementation and the overall adoption rate of many virtual and hybrid formats.

Whether you're a hybrid teaching fan or you're just looking for strategies to go from surviving to thriving in this new learning environment, this guide will help propel your hybrid teaching style to the next level. We'll also look at how it differs from flipped and blended learning environments.

But first, we need to get our definitions straight. Let's start with hybrid teaching itself.
Related article: Six Best Practices for Effectively Using Video in the Classroom
What is hybrid teaching?

A hybrid teaching model is when some students receive in-class, face-to-face instruction while other students receive out-of-class, online instruction. It may be a 50/50 mix, or it may be that three or four students receive virtual instruction while the rest are in the classroom as usual.

Hybrid teaching became much more common during the COVID-19 pandemic when school districts limited classroom sizes and gave parents the choice of whether to have their children "attend" in class or from home. However, this model is sticking around because it offers a variety of benefits to districts, teachers, students, and parents.

We'll go over the major perks of hybrid teaching shortly. (Watch the video below to see how you can engage students in a hybrid environment!)

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Hybrid vs. flipped vs. blended classroom experiences

You've probably also encountered terms like "blended classroom" and "flipped classroom." You may have seen these terms used interchangeably with "hybrid." And if you've done much reading on the subject, you've probably also seen overlapping or even contradictory definitions.

We'll attempt to clarify the different models below. We already defined hybrid above, so that leaves flipped and blended.

Flipped classroom: A flipped classroom is a learning structure in which students receive their instruction time, reading, lectures, and so on while they're at home. Usually, prerecorded videos are involved here. When students go back to class with their teacher, they do the hands-on stuff: work through problems, ask and answer questions, collaborate with students, get 1:1 time with their teacher, and so forth.

A flipped classroom can be a powerful educational model. And it can be done as part of a hybrid teaching model, but it can just as easily work in traditional all-in-person classrooms.

Blended classroom: You'll find more variation with this term than the others. Most consider blended to mean mostly traditional (face-to-face) instruction but with some strategic uses of technology, where technology supplements but doesn't replace face-to-face instruction.

And then, confusingly, some educators and researchers used the term "blended" for several years to refer to what most would call "hybrid" today.

The moral of the story is this: When you see or hear these terms, make sure you know what the speaker or writer means.

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Benefits of hybrid teaching

A hybrid teaching model can take some getting used to, but it can also create many benefits for students and teachers alike. Consider these four benefits and whether they can create a positive impact on your classroom.

More time for students to focus on learning

In a hybrid teaching model, students will save time on commuting and have more time to learn. Special needs students can also benefit from the hybrid format in many cases. Depending on the specifics of your hybrid model, students may also gain more control in how and when they interact with each other and with teachers.

Provides teachers increased flexibility on how they instruct

Both traditional and online teaching have strengths and weaknesses that better support certain students than others. But hybrid teaching allows teachers to capitalize on the strengths of both approaches.

In the classroom setting, students still receive the real-time interaction, body language, and in-person engagement that can be so crucial for learning. But students can also utilize video tools, reading, and audio-rich resources that are common in online instruction.

Teachers gain additional flexibility in how they instruct, and they can bring these two worlds together to enhance the strengths of each.

Gives parents, teachers, and students direct access to information

Because hybrid models include both online and in-person students, many will be receiving instruction via recorded video lectures or electronic announcements. As a result, any important information and learning materials go directly from the school to the home, allowing parents to access them too.

With this shift, parents aren't left wondering if their student's notes or interpretations are accurate - now they have direct access.

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Handy tips and effective strategies for hybrid teaching models

There are plenty of benefits to using a hybrid teaching model, and a majority of teachers agree with this - with some caveats. One survey found that 94% of teachers are in favor of a hybrid class, but only with the right support, tools, and strategies.

We want to help with this, so let's start with some tips and strategies that can help you improve the learning experience for all learners (and stay sane in the process).

Follow best instructional practices but use video lessons to support them

In a hybrid model, video in all forms is crucial for success. We know that not every teacher feels confident on live video or creating videos yet, and that's completely normal. Before the pandemic, most of us were extremely familiar with in-person classes, while few teachers had significant experience managing remote students, let alone checking in with both groups in a hybrid model.

As you start creating video lesson content to augment live video conferencing, follow best screencasting practices. Each video should start with a clear learning objective and feature a beginning, a middle, and end.

Think about any form of video content that you like consuming, like a tutorial or "quick history" style video, and follow the big-picture structure when creating your own content. Notes, highlighted text, drawings, and images are attention-grabbers and can increase learning comprehension.

Also, videos need to be engaging and an appropriate length for your grade level to keep students' attention. Research shows that after 2 to 3 minutes, people's minds start wandering. Try to break longer video lessons into short, punchy segments.

Personalize student learning with good pre- and post-assessment processes

Teachers should have evaluative measures in place so they'll know exactly where each student is starting. They need a way to find out how far they've come at the end of a lesson. This might include tracking grades or time to complete assignments, as well as skill and concept assessments.

These ongoing temperature checks will aid you as you plan future instruction and more personalized content for each student, where possible, regardless of their physical location. (Learn how Screencastify helps assess student learning in the video below!)

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Encourage online students and in-person students to work together

At first, the fact that some students are at home on certain days while others are in the classroom with you might seem like a detriment or obstacle. But you can use this unique format to your advantage.

Online interactive content should be a key component of hybrid courses, and you should make sure online discussions include both groups. Doing so will keep online students accountable and allow each student to leverage their strengths in small group work.

Through group work, students in the instructional at-home mode and those in the work-and-practice mode can combine forces and get more out of every learning activity.

Take advantage of interactive tools to enhance this style

Effective hybrid teachers use a combo of interactive tools, apps, and learning technology to enhance their hybrid classroom. These tools can be accessed and mastered from home or in the classroom.

With the right toolset, students can participate and interact no matter where they are, adding to class discussions, asking helpful questions, and more. In addition, mastering these tools also teaches your students important professional development skills, helping them build confidence with productivity and collaboration software.

The corporate world is full of digital tools like Google Docs and Sheets, PowerPoint, Screencastify (that's us!), and so on. By becoming adept in these tools now, students prepare themselves for a lifetime of digital literacy.

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Great hybrid teaching resources worth checking out

To succeed as a hybrid classroom teacher, you need more than a list of quick tips. You need ongoing guidance and the right tools to get the job done. Get up to speed and improve your hybrid teaching with these resources:

Modern Classroom Project: The Modern Classroom Project is a research-backed instructional model described as a student-centered approach to blended learning. They offer courses and mentorship programs for teachers along with school district level partnerships.

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Google Classroom and Your LMS: Your school's learning management system (LMS) will likely be a central component of your hybrid teaching strategy, serving as a repository for your digital resources and a hub for any digital instruction or assessment.

Google Classroom is a free blended learning platform from Google that can serve as a complement or extension to your LMS, making it even easier to share files with your students and their parents. (Check out our list of the 10 best Chrome extensions for teachers here.)

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Screencastify is the perfect video instruction tool for your hybrid learning environment

If you're recording and creating asynchronous videos for your hybrid classroom, choose the tool that's built for educators everywhere. Screencastify is used by teachers in more than 70% of U.S. school districts. You can create screencasts with audio or video narration, add helpful text, and share it with anyone - all with a few clicks.

If you're looking for a better, easier way to create online videos for your classroom, check out what Screencastify has to offer teachers.

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Hybrid Teaching: Strategies and Tips for K-12 Education | Screencastify

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For more than a decade, hybrid teaching and hybrid learning have been a growing trend, with more and more schools dabbling with or embracing the format. Of course, the coronavirus pandemic greatly increased both the pace of implementation and the overall adoption rate of many virtual and hybrid formats.

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The 3 E's of Teaching across learning environments

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The 3 E's of Teaching across learning environments

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For years I would come to work with the same plan in mind – Lecture, seatwork, lab, test.  But this simply does not work with the 21st Century learners we face today. I had to change the way I taught.  So here is how I remedied the situation.  Every day that I worked with my students, I would break up the time so that they never had the chance to get bored.  I created lessons that would engage them at every point, and change things up every 10-15 minutes.  Each time I approached a new unit, I kept the 3 E’s in mind – Explore, Explain, & Engage.

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Are students bored?

How often have you really asked yourself this question? It is all too easy to stand at the front of the room on a daily basis, with the goal of teaching a lesson - often as you have always done it for years - and never think about or wonder whether students are bored with your class. Yes, we see kids who are disconnected, but we often attribute this to apathy or laziness.

This discussion of whether students are bored came up in a workshop we had this week on Classroom Management. In a recent survey, it was found that 69% of our students reported being bored with their classes. When we began to discuss this surprising statistic, we discussed ways that we could avoid this situation.

One thing I mentioned from my own experience, is that it always comes down to student engagement. If you aren't keeping students engaged in the curriculum, it is all too easy to send them into fits of boredom. So as a result of this discussion, I was prompted to write this article, with the suggestion I gave at the workshop.

To avoid Student Boredom....

For years I would come to work with the same plan in mind - Lecture, seatwork, lab, test. But this simply does not work with the 21st Century learners we face today. I had to change the way I taught. So here is how I remedied the situation. Every day that I worked with my students, I would break up the time so that they never had the chance to get bored. I created lessons that would engage them at every point, and change things up every 10-15 minutes. Each time I approached a new unit, I kept the 3 E's in mind - Explore, Explain, & Engage.

Explore

For this part of the lesson, I would find some kind of activity, such as a video, that covered the topic of the day.

Look for a video that introduces your topic, or at least explains it in a way that is subtly different from your style. You can then expand on the topic later.

Make sure your video is short and to the point. Try to find videos are are 5 minutes or less if possible. But don't go beyond 15 minutes, as you'll lose them.

Use YouTube to get started. There are many subject specific channels out there that can help. A quick search of YouTube in your specific subject will yield some good results.

If you are looking for a broad category such as Science or English, filter your search to find a Channel in your Subject Area.

Here are a few good ones....

When finished watching the video, take your students into a discussion that isn't necessarily focused on the content. focus on questions like, "What did you like most about the video?" "List a few things that you learned from the video" or "What do you already know about this topic that the video covered?"

Explain

The next step in the process is to take a moment to explain the topic as you normally would in a lecture. The key component to this part is to refrain from making this a "Sage on the stage" lecture. Take about 15 minutes to expand on what was covered by the video. Allow students to ask questions along the way. You can do this by allowing students to use their phones with one of the following services or options:

Google Slides Presenter View - create your lecture using Google Slides, and then use Presenter View to allow them to ask questions along the way.

Use Today's Meet - You can create a Backchannel page that students can navigate to on their phone. Students can ask questions using Today's meet. They can then reference the site later if they want to see the backchannel of questions.

Once you have completed this section of the lesson, its time to move on to something Hands On! Find an activity - a science lab, an interactive activity using Google Apps, or a Discussion Forum online - that ties to your subject, but allows students to reflect, respond, and learn by doing. If you find it difficult to gather materials for an activity, go digital and use interactives such as:

In using this method of covering material with my students, I've found that it also serves students with different learning styles. If I have students who are Auditory or Read/Write, they are served best by the Explore or Explain phase. Visual Learners also benefit from these stages. The Kinesthetic learners really start to pull it altogether in the Engage phase.

Hopefully this helps you in addressing student engagement and general high school boredom. If you have tips of your own, please feel free to add to the Comments section.

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Are students bored? How often have you really asked yourself this question? It is all too easy to stand at the front of the room on a daily basis, with the goal of teaching a lesson - often as you have always done it for years - and never think about or wonder whether students...

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I like to know the resources so I can translate the material. I use it for Pear Deck and the Passport for S.S. slides. Last year, it helped a lot with Actively Learn. I want to work on some other resources that can help with the translation and communication with the ELL students. The more we used it as a class the better the students did.

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Technology is a good and bad thing so times. 

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Technology is a good and bad thing so times. 

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Technology like google translate is a good thing for students to use as a way to participate in class and complete work as well.

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I agree

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Vocabulary with examples (MATH)Many visuals and manipulatives

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Amplify Science Translate everything into Spanish but no other languages. -Miceli

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Amplify Science Translate everything into Spanish but no other languages. -Miceli