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Graphic organizers are a great tool to use when teaching English language learners (ELLs). Visual illustrations allow ELLs to better understand the material while learning important vocabulary.

Graphic organizers are most useful to ELLs when presented in small group activities. During the activities ELLs benefit from opportunities to work cooperatively - students are able to discuss and share their thoughts as they begin to contribute to the group effort. When ELLs use graphic organizers, they show achievement benefits across a variety of content areas, in all grade levels.

Ideas for Graphic Organizers

When teachers begin to use graphic organizers they need to follow some simple steps to make sure ELLs gain knowledge from such a simple yet reliable tool (Merkley & Jefferies, 2001). For example as a teacher begins to present a new topic, such as the solar system, an organizer can assist introducing the new idea.

Teachers should also begin to verbalize the relationship between the ideas, and the information that will be taught. Students or adults can write/draw the information provided by other students using a K-W-L chart. Graphic organizers should be tailored to reinforce the relationships between concepts, reminding students that this is just a quick preview of the material that will be taught next.

Secondly, teachers need to provide the opportunity for students to participate in discussions. ELLs need to have numerous pauses to process language in order to participate. For instance, classroom activities can be tailored to let students create graphs such as a concept definition map. Students can create a list of familiar terms to these maps.

Once students had the opportunity to share their thoughts and understand the topic that it is to follow, teachers can start to connect new material to their prior knowledge. Lessons need to guide ELLs to activate prior knowledge as they recollect earlier taught content to be able to retain new material (Merkley & Jefferies, 2001). In other words, graphic organizers provide a visual summary as they describe information - introducing ELLs to new technical vocabulary as they reinforce decoding skills of key words for an upcoming lesson.

Graphic organizers facilitate ELLs' comprehension through visual illustrations of key terms, vocabulary, ideas, and the relationship among them. Improving student's reading comprehension can be challenging, but such progress is necessary when focusing on students who are learning English (Kim, Vaughn, Wanzek, & Wei, 2004).

Note: When using graphic organizers with ELLs, be sure to explain how to use them and check back to ensure their understanding.

Strategy: K-W-L Chart

K-W-L charts are graphic organizers where students can share:

Here are some examples:

Video: Using a K-W-L Chart for background knowledge

ELL high school teacher Christine Rowland explains how to use a KWL chart to identify students' existing background knowledge.

Recommended Resources

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Graphic organizers are a great tool to use when teaching English language learners (ELLs). Visual illustrations allow ELLs to better understand the material while learning important vocabulary. Graphic organizers are most useful to ELLs when presented in small group activities.

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Your students will enjoy learning vocabulary with these fully illustrated lessons based on popular themes such as food, transportation, animals, sports, and many more. Each lesson includes a picture dictionary and several fun practice activities.

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A tool to help you meet students where they are in their language development

The Can Do Descriptors highlight what language learners can do at various stages of language development as they engage in the following contexts:

Bilingual and English-immersion early care and education programs

Bilingual, Spanish-immersion and English-immersion K-12 language programs

Bilingual, Spanish-immersion and English-immersion K-12 content-area classrooms

Similar to the WIDA English Language Development Standards Statements, the Can Do Descriptors describe what learners can do with language across different content areas. Although the Can Do Descriptors relate to the ELD Standards Statements, they don't replace them but are used to supplement the standards statements during instruction.

Educators and early childhood practitioners can use the Can Do Descriptors to

Better understand what students at different levels of language proficiency can do with language

Expand their understanding of what the process of language development can look like

Collaborate around scaffolding that students need to engage in content-area learning and develop language at the same time

Differentiate instruction and classroom assessment for language

Interpret ACCESS for ELLs test scores

The Can Do Descriptors have not yet been updated to reflect the 2020 Edition; however, they remain available as a valuable tool for communicating with stakeholders about what students can do at each language proficiency level. WIDA is monitoring educator use to help inform the timing for updating the materials.

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A tool to help you meet students where they are in their language developmentThe Can Do Descriptors highlight what language learners can do at various stages of language development as they engage in the following contexts:

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10 Best Speaking Activities for ESL Students | For all ages and levels

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The new "question-of-the-week" is:
What is the role, if any, of an ELL student's home language in the classroom?
Over ten percent of the student population in the United States is comprised of English Language Learners. Given that reality, the role of a student's home language merits discussion.

Today, Melissa Eddington, Wendi Pillars, Tracey Flores, Sandy Ruvalcaba Carrillo and Mary Ann Zehr offer their thoughts. You can listen to a 10-minute conversation I had with Melissa, Wendi and Tracey on my BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

There will be times, however, when limiting primary language use could be important. For example, during certain classroom activities, I might say that the next ten minutes is an English-only time. The chances of this request being generally respected is high in my classroom because students know that I do not typically restrict their own use of L1 at any point (and in fact often use it in the strategic ways I've previously mentioned).

You might also be interested in previous columns here about .
Response From Melissa Eddington
Melissa Eddington is an ELL educator from Central Ohio. She has been teaching ELLs for 14 years - and16 overall. She's an advocate for her students everyday in the classroom:

Imagine you have a student who entered your classroom where the only language spoken is one unfamiliar to them...what do you do? As an educator, a student's home language plays an important role in the classroom. According to Frank Genesee, a professor in the Psychology Department at McGill University, Montreal, in his book The Home Language: An English Language Learners Most Valuable Resource, "With respect to ELLs, there is undeniable and growing evidence that the home language of ELLs is of considerable benefit to their overall academic success." We need to nurture our students by using their home language as we assist them in acquiring their new language.
Some Instances where using the student's home language in the classroom may be necessary are as follows:

1. Understanding Directions: Students may need the directions spoken to them in their home language for full understanding and for success. It is crucial for the teacher to model as well for the new student. With translation and modeling, the student has a higher chance of being successful, which is our goal.

Of course there are additional reasons why a student's home language would need to be utilized in an English speaking classroom, these are just a few. I would encourage you to explore more. A student's home language is something we should never try to take away from a student. Response From Wendi Pillars

1. Connecting Vocabulary: Students who have a solid understanding of their home language can connect new English words to the known words for success in the classroom. It is found that "knowledge, skills, concepts, and ideas that a student learns in their first language can transfer into their learning of the second language..." (Russell, J. and Wariua-Nyalwal, P. (2015) "Research-Proven Strategies for Improving Content Vocabulary for Middle School English Language Learners." International Journal of Business and Social Science). Consider having the student write the vocabulary words in both their home and new language for deeper understanding.

ESL teachers know that optimizing students' linguistic resources can be a game-changer, but it's tricky business. We don't realize the advantage we have as English speakers until we are outside of our language bubble, become part of a minority language scenario, and are unable to use it as the tool it has always been for us. You juggle constant active listening, observing facial cues and body language, translating and interpreting everything you can because you're not sure when and what to filter, plus the anxiety of responding to teacher questions -- whew! Our language learners have a LOT on their mental plates. We must acknowledge L1 as a valuable resource and judicious tool for learning to help ease their mental loads. But ultimately, language is power, and in American schools that power is based in English. It is the language of testing, and of most instruction and student-teacher interaction. The goal is for students to use their L1 intentionally to access English. Our role is to teach students to value their language as a tool for comparing, accessing, and contextualizing information. Encourage students to think deeply by showing that language learning is both a perspective and a process. Value your students' knowledge and skills as incredible resources upon which to build new learning, and do so explicitly. From my experience in multilingual classrooms, I see the transformative power of "students as experts" when teaching others about their native cultures and languages. Watching various language learners craft English into their common tool for communication is fascinating. The knowledge of their own language(s) serves as a foundation for patterns, concepts, and usage in other languages. Much evidence has shown that the stronger a student is in his/ her L1, the more readily they can learn another language. Encouraging students to talk about, and family members to continue communicating in, the L1 are critical for this reason. This semester my English learners are uniquely monolingual. All of my students are Spanish speakers, and we've optimized that in a number of ways. We combine ESL I, II, and III classes frequently, which makes for fabulous grouping scenarios, partnering, and opportunities for student leadership. We've had the pleasure of several bilingual guests, who have been gracious enough to speak in both languages during their presentations. Doing so allows students to hear complex language used naturally, helping concepts stick for all students and facilitating subsequent conversations about the content and speakers. We also use bilingual textbooks, so that even our newest learners can pull concepts directly from the text. They learn to analyze cognates, make educated inferences based on phrases and words they already know, access nuanced ideas, and navigate complex grammar and vocabulary from the start. These textual experiences further increase motivation since they are typically culturally relevant. When written texts are unavailable, we use podcasts, TED talks, video clips, live broadcasts, and even former students to supplement student learning through a broad array of multimodal inputs. Considering language as a tool rather than a barrier is a mighty fine place to begin, no matter how you say it. Response From Tracey Flores

1. Classroom Routines and School Tour: Students who do not understand the language spoken in the classroom need to have the classroom routines (including rules and expectations) translated into their home language and be given a tour of the school because they are held to the same standard as the English speaking students. According to the Ohio Department of Education, in Teaching English Language Learners: What Classroom and Content Teachers Need to Know About English Language Learners, "allow students with the same first language to discuss the learning materials. Often higher proficiency students can help new arrivals." Set the new student up with a buddy, preferably one who speaks their home language, so they are comfortable and feel safe.

"So, if you really want to hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity-I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself." ~Gloria Anzaldúa It is 1962, a young Latina girl, in 4th grade, with long black hair and curious dark brown eyes is in her classroom after the school day has come to an end. She is alone. In her right hand is a small piece of white chalk, which she raises to the chalkboard and writes, "I will not speak Spanish on the playground." This sentence, she has been told by her teacher, must be written 100 hundred times on the blackboard, punishment for speaking Spanish on the playground. This is my mother's story. I cannot write this blog post without sharing this very personal story that my mother shared with me. Each time she shares it with me, she becomes that young girl again. As she relives the torment of this moment, I can hear the deep pain in her voice. This moment of filled with shame, ridicule and guilt was not one isolated experience. It was a series of experiences that she endured as a child and young adult growing up bilingual and biliterate. As a former English Language Development (ELD) teacher working within a state with English Only policies, this narrative of shame, ridicule and guilt continues to be part of the lived experiences of many children learning English as an additional language. In Arizona, students are tracked into classrooms based on language proficiency and receive 4-hours of skills-based language and literacy instruction. This mandate is based on the assumption that the acquisition of language will happen within one school year and does not take into account the rich linguistic and literacy practices that children and youth bring to our classrooms from their homes and communities. Under restrictive policies and mandates like the one in my home state, many of our students learning English as an additional language enter the classroom already viewed as "lacking" or as "blank slates" in need of remediation. Rather than stigmatize the language and literacy practices that our students bring from their homes and communities, we should work toward recognizing the value of these resources and their place within our learning communities and schools. From my own experiences, I open my classroom door to you, and provide a glimpse into the ways that I created space for my students' home language in my own learning community, even under very restrictive English-only policies.

1. Support Parents' in Sustaining Home Language: There are some misconceptions made by teachers and families about language policies in schools. Our job is not to discourage families from sustaining home language, but rather to support families in their commitment to teaching their child their home language. This is a gift!

2. Home Language/Literacy Dig: Invite students to enter their homes as ethnographers and record all the different ways language and literacy is used in their homes and communities. This can uncover practices and "funds of knowledge" that can be included in the curriculum throughout the school year.

3. Dialogue Journals: Provide each student with a personal journal that is a shared writing space between the two of you. Give daily prompts or free writing time. Allow students the freedom to practice writing in any language without fear of judgement.

4. Classroom Newsletter: Create a classroom newsletter with students and their families as reporters. Invite families to contribute stories, recipes, how-to-guides, etc. in the language of their choice. Print and distribute to all families.

5. Family Writing Workshops: Create an after-school multilingual space for students and their families to draw, write and share stories in a variety of genres.

Even under restrictive policies and mandates, our classrooms must provide space for our students' home languages. A student's home language is a powerful tool for mediating learning. Through their home languages, the language of the heart, students first learned as children -- how to love, to hope, to dream and to wonder. This in itself is a powerful resource to use in our classrooms to build learning communities where students and teachers can learn, thrive and live--together. Response From Sandy Ruvalcaba Carrillo
Wendi Pillars, NBCT, has been teaching students with English as a second/foreign language needs in grades K-12, both stateside and overseas, for 21 years. She has also taught Algebra, History, vocational classes, and Health and PE. She is the author Visual Notetaking for Educators: A Teacher's Guide to Student Creativity, as well as several articles on best practices for ELLs, educational neuroscience, and teacher leadership. A lifelong learner, she loves using creativity to empower her learners. She can be reached on Twitter @wendi322:
Across the nation, districts vary in the language service delivery models that are implemented and often use a combination of programs. Decisions on which model to use are left in the hands of the local education agency and determining factors are state laws, population, resources, and the preference of the community. Language programs fall under one of two overarching goals, English development or bilingualism and biliteracy (Faulkner-Bond, et al., 2012; Garcia & Baker, 2007). These goals will drive how the home language is viewed and used: whether it is the means to acquiring English or developed so that students can understand, speak, read, and write in more than one language. With the cognitive, psychological, and social benefits of being bilingual, programs in which the home language is not developed may be at odds with what is best for students (Baker, 2000). When children enter the door of a school, they bring with them all of who they are - lived experiences and rich backgrounds. A significantly important part of their identity is the language spoken at home, a valuable resource that connects them to family and can lead to a positive self-concept and educational success if promoted in school (Cummins, 2001; Genesee, 2012). The good news is that, regardless of the language program model in place, educators can create positive learning environments and make conscientious choices that build upon the cultural and linguistic resources students bring with them. The following are some suggestions:

Form traditions and rituals that incorporate the home language. It can be the start or end to the school day or a celebratory song/chant when the class accomplishes a goal. Come up with it together and make it your own! Many times, these are the things that students remember and enjoy.

Empower students and families by allowing them access to the "ways of school." Depending on their exposure to our school system, students from nonmainstream cultures benefit from explicit guidance on how the classroom and the school functions. This can be especially challenging when there is a language barrier so, as much as possible, educators should make every effort to communicate information in the home language.

Tap into family and community resources. Invite family and other community members into the classroom to read a book, model how to do something, or teach a song or a poem in the home language. This can also be kept in mind when scheduling classroom trips.

Include the home language in ways to assess children's understanding of concepts. As much as possible, utilize the home language to create ways for students to demonstrate what they know. At the very least, always have it as a point of consideration when analyzing other data points. This will be helpful for guiding instruction and making decisions about programming.

Advocate for the use of the home language beyond the classroom walls. Collaborate with and enlist the help of school staff, especially those who speak the students' language(s), in infusing the home language throughout the day, during lunch, on the playground, in special classes, and at school-wide events.

Choose materials that authentically represent students' language and culture. Offer a variety of books, both fiction and nonfiction, in the language(s) spoken by students. Choose books with which students can connect and encourage them and their families to be the creators of their own stories

The goal is that one day all students will have the opportunity to develop bilingual proficiency. Until that day comes, students will benefit from the choices educators make to honor and promote the home languages they bring to the classroom. References/Suggested Readings Baker, C. (2000). The care and education of young bilinguals. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Cummins, J. (2001). Bilingual Children's Mother Tongue: Why is it Important for Education? Faulkner-Bond, M., Waring, S., Forte, E., Crenshaw, R.L., Tindle, K., & Belknap, B. (2012). Language Instructional Education Programs (LIEPs): A Review of the Foundational Literature (pp. 107-121). US Department of Education. Genesee, F. (2012). The Home Language: An English Learner's Most Valuable Resource. Garcia, O. & Baker, C. (2007). Bilingual education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Nemeth, K. (2009). Many languages, one classroom: Teaching dual and English language learners. Silver Spring, MD: Gryphon House, Inc. Response From Mary Ann Zehr
Tracey Flores is a PhD candidate in English Education at Arizona State University (ASU). She is a former English Language Development (ELD) and Language Arts teacher who worked in elementary classrooms for eight years. Her research focuses on adolescent Latina girls and mothers' language and literacy practices and on using family literacy as a springboard for advocacy, empowerment, and transformation for students, families, and teachers:
I work at an academy in the District of Columbia that is part of the Internationals Network for Public Schools. The network promotes a school design for teaching English-language learners that incorporates the use of students' home languages in the classroom. I agree with this approach. Spanish is the home language for most students in our academy. My students have primarily immigrated from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, but some students have come from other countries and thus do not understand Spanish. All of my students are English-language learners. I teach to the whole class always in English but I occasionally speak Spanish with some students one-on-one or in small groups to offer a brief explanation. When students work in pairs or groups, they may speak in their home language, but when they hand in an assignment to me or make an oral report to the class, they must use English. In every class, they must produce English. I pair students with more English proficiency with those who have less English proficiency and have the more advanced students help the newcomers to write what they want to say in English or practice saying words in English before they make a presentation to the class. One of the most valuable uses of the native language is to have students read content first in their home language and then in English. Reading a text first in their native language helps them to better understand the English text. They do this while completing online research assignments. Also, when students are reading articles I've printed from Web sites such as newsela.com, I encourage them to read the content first in Spanish and then in English. In addition, last school year, we read excerpts from "Enrique's Journey," by Sonia Nazario, a story about a Honduran teenager who travels thousands of miles to try to reunite with his mother in the United States. I assigned students whose native language was Spanish to read the excerpts first in Spanish and then in English. This approach greatly increased their engagement. When their peers were reading aloud in Spanish, students were more attentive than if they heard the text read only in English. The Spanish text provided a bridge for those students who were newest to the class to understand the story. When students are new to writing English, I encourage them to write their ideas first in their native language and then have another student help them translate the ideas into English or do so themselves. Using their native language is a way to get them started in thinking about what they want to say. Sometimes they are so new to English that they really don't know enough words to express their ideas. Other times, they are simply stuck and can't think of what to say. Once they write some ideas down in their native language, their ideas start flowing and it doesn't seem so daunting to write in English. While I constantly model English and encourage students to always speak with me and to the whole class in English, permitting them to use their native language while working in pairs or small groups can help students to get their heads around the content and then move to thinking, speaking, or writing in English. I believe teachers are missing out on some valuable strategies if they don't incorporate students' native languages into the teaching and learning process. At the least, if teachers have a number of students who share the same home language, such as Spanish or French, teachers can use words in English that have cognates in that home language to ease the acquisition process.
Sandy Ruvalcaba Carrillo is a resource teacher for dual language learners and co-author of More Mirrors in the Classroom: Using Urban Children's Literature to Increase Literacy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) [Editor's Note: You can read an interview I did with Sandy and her co-authors here):

Bio: Mary Ann Zehr teaches English at the International Academy, a high school for English-language learners that is part of the Francis L Cardozo Education Campus in the District of Columbia Public Schools:

Thanks to Melissa, Wendi, Tracey, Sandy and Mary Ann for their contributions!
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Response: ELL Students' Home Language Is an Asset, Not a 'Barrier' (Opinion)

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Melissa Eddington, Wendi Pillars, Tracey Flores, Sandy Ruvalcaba Carrillo and Mary Ann Zehr offer their thoughts on the role of an ELL student's home language in the classroom.

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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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BridgeUniverse - TEFL Blog, News, Tips & Resources

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Listen Up! 9 ELL Listening Activities for Students of Any Age and Level

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Discover ELL listening activities that incorporate songs, games, videos, and more. Explore ESL activities for young learners, intermediate students, and even adults!

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I was surprised to find that one of the students in my "Listening" class was deaf.

She was proficient in lip-reading in her first language and she was learning to do the same in English.

So I tried to make sure I was always facing the class when I spoke.

She was actually managing well.

Obviously, though, a situation like this raises all kinds of questions for language educators.

For one thing, is it possible to teach listening skills to someone who has physical trouble hearing?

And if so...

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

What Exactly Is "Listening," Anyway?

Even more to the point, what is the difference between "hearing" and "listening"?

In ESL teaching and learning, "listening" is a skill that involves more than just hearing.

We want our students to be able to listen to English with confidence and understanding.

From time to time, teachers try to test and evaluate their students' level of skill in listening, but this can be quite stressful for students for a number of reasons.

Teachers should be aware that...

Sometimes students just don't hear well. Maybe they have a physical limitation, or maybe there is a lot of other noise around, or maybe the equipment used to play audio material is not good enough.

What we think of as "listening" can involve more than just sound cues. It may be better to watch live action, or a video, rather than just using audio material.

Sometimes teachers give students a reading/writing task to demonstrate that they have understood a listening "text," but maybe they have a problem with literacy rather than actual listening.

Sometimes students panic and stop listening when they come across a word they cannot immediately translate. It's important to encourage students to pick up what they can without trying to translate.
So, how can we teach the skill of listening?
It is easier to teach facts and knowledge than to teach a skill. But teachers can improve students' listening skills and confidence by...

Teaching them strategies that they can use to listen more effectively.

Providing them with ESL activities that exercise the strategies we have taught.

3 Ways to Increase Listening Skills and Confidence

First of all, here are three basic principles.

1. Limit the use of translation.

Your students need to be able to understand and respond without having to translate in their heads all the time, especially when they are listening rather than reading. At first it might seem like the easy, comfortable way to learn a language, but if it develops into a habit then they will never be able to speak English fluently.

Translation is a habit that needs to be limited because...

Students tend to start to panic when they find they don't know every word.

Using those electronic translators especially can give warped ideas of meaning.

This doesn't mean that you never let them translate. Sometimes having an equivalent from their first language is the only way to move them forward, but quickly move on and don't allow them to keep returning to it.

In general, there are better ways to handle running into new vocabulary while listening.

When students hear a new word or expression, they need something to tie it to.

As their teacher, you can help them with this by providing...

Context: Help them to find clues to the meaning in the context of the listening "text."

Pictures: Show them a picture so that when they hear the word or expression again later, the picture will come to mind.

Action: Get them to perform an action so that when they hear the word or expression again later, they will remember that particular action.

English synonyms or antonyms: Their understanding of English will grow by leaps and bounds if they can explain an English word with other English words. Encourage (and guide) them to look up unknown words in an English dictionary.

Help students to relax, and not to panic, as they listen to material (especially the first time) and to find out how much they can understand. They will probably be pleasantly surprised. For some students, this in itself can be a real confidence booster.

2. Avoid confusing listening skills with literacy skills.

When you first introduce a new listening "text" (e.g., video, story, song, podcast...) concentrate on listening and don't provide subtitles or written script (yet). In real life, there are no subtitles, so let your students have a go just listening. (Later you can add subtitles or a written script as well as literacy-related activities.)

The reasons for this are as follows:

Firstly, we don't want students with poor literacy skills to be disadvantaged in learning the listening skill. They may have poor literacy skills because they are young, or because of limited vision, or because of a learning disability, or even because they come from a non-literate background. Nevertheless, they can learn to listen and understand.

Secondly, students who are confidently literate often want to be able to see and read the words while they are listening, but this would rob them of the opportunity to really listen. Students need to be able to listen and understand without seeing the written words at the same time.

Thirdly, as mentioned above, it can be a real confidence booster when they discover just how much they do understand without any other help. And, of course, this is more like real life outside of the classroom.

Once they have listened without seeing subtitles or script the first time, and you have discussed some issues, then you can listen and watch again with the assistance of subtitles or text.

3. Use videos because students can also watch.

We want to prepare our students to take part in conversations. We want them to be able to listen, understand and respond. A large part of that listening involves reading a speaker's facial expressions and body language, which can vary from culture to culture. So, most of the time, your students need to practice their "listening" skills by watching videos, or watching you talk or tell stories.

A great source for visual material is FluentU. FluentU makes it easy to create productive ongoing listening activities by allowing your students to access the same high-quality material at home and in the classroom.

There are two situations in which students are likely to be listening to English without seeing the speaker(s):

On the radio

On the telephone

But even in these situations they still need to be able to imagine the body language being used.

So do you just play the video, and see what the students make of it?

No!

Just as you would for a reading text, you need to prepare your students to deal with something new to concentrate on and listen to, whether they are watching a video, listening to someone read or tell a story, listening to a song or just listening to a live talk.

There are several activities you can use before, during, and after listening, and then later in the lesson or another day. All of these are designed to improve the students' skills and confidence in listening.

1. Predicting and guessing

In normal conversation, what we hear tends to fit in with what we expect to hear, and without necessarily thinking about it we tend to listen for specific details. It's telling that when someone says something totally unexpected or out of context, many people respond in surprise with "What?!" as if they didn't actually hear the words. While listening to people we are familiar with in a particular context, we can easily guess what they will say.

So before playing the "text," prepare your students for the experience, and get them thinking about the topic:

Tell them the title of the piece, and ask them to guess what it is about, or what they think might happen in the story. Writers and filmmakers think very carefully about the title of their story and they want readers, listeners or viewers to think about the title, so all of the words are important. Sometimes the title is designed to be tricky and possibly misunderstood at first to pique interest, so you can guide your students to enjoy that, too.

Tell them the names of characters involved and let them predict and guess who they are and what they are like. As the students get into the movie or story, they will probably identify with one or more character, so let them enjoy guessing about them and discovering more later on.

Ask a question to get them thinking about the theme of the "text" or something in it. For example: If it is something to do with food, you could ask them, "What is your favorite food?" If it is something that happens on a train, you could ask them about their favorite or most frequent mode of travel and talk about transport, just to get them thinking along those lines.

Show them a picture: a snapshot from the video, or a picture from the cover. Discuss it. Predict and guess. If the students are going to listen to you read or tell a story from a book, show them the cover and talk about the picture-there is usually a lot of information hidden there, and it helps bring out relevant vocabulary.

Hopefully, they might even remember relevant English words they have previously learnt. All of this will help to review known vocabulary, and introduce some new vocabulary.

2. Vocabulary preparation

When you choose something for your students to study in the context of a listening lesson, you need to consider its suitability for the age and maturity of your students and whether it is at an appropriate difficulty level. This could be based on the amount of "new" vocabulary in the "text."

Make sure you have watched or listened right through (never use something you haven't thoroughly examined!) and note down words or expressions that they might find challenging. Obviously, if there are a great many new words, maybe it's too difficult-unless maybe the meaning is really obvious from the visuals.

Make a list of words from your movie or story that some or all of your students may have difficulty with, especially words that are key to the story. You don't have to teach the students all of the new words the first time through. Just choose a few that are essential and teach them before playing the "text." Of course, including one or two that they already know will probably boost their confidence, too.

Remember: When you are introducing new words, translate only if absolutely necessary. Where possible, connect the words with pictures, actions and other English words.

During listening activities

While students are watching and/or listening, it's sometimes hard to tell whether they are really still paying attention or just relaxing and daydreaming. (At least if it's a video, they are more likely to stay focused.) So it's a good idea to give them tasks to do while playing the "text."

Here are some ideas.

3. Listen for specific words and expressions, or even watch for specific items.

Obviously, your students need to be listening specifically for the words and expressions you have just taught them. They should also have some words they already know to listen for, to help them focus and improve the skill of listening.

Give them specific questions to focus on, such as...

What is the word that comes after the target word?

Who says this word?

How many times do you hear this word?

You can even give them a small "Bingo!" card with the target words for them to mark off as they hear them.

They could also be looking for specific visual items. On the board or a worksheet, put the things they are looking for into chronological order as they appear: This could be in the form of English words or pictures.

4. Listen for sequence and order.

Students could be asked to work out the order that things happen. They could, for example, have several pictures on a worksheet that they have to put into the right order as they notice them happen. (Before listening, they could guess the order, and then check as they go along.)

5. Listen and watch for specific events.

Ask the students to watch out for specific happenings.

For example:

Notice who wears a hat.

Notice who gives something to someone else.

How many people say, "Hello!"?

Who drives a green car?

After listening activities

Right after watching the video or listening to the story for the very first time is a very important moment. At this moment, you want to...

Reassure students if they are feeling lost or overwhelmed.

Help them to make sense of what they have just seen and heard.

Help them to hang on to learning they have just acquired.

Prepare them for the very valuable second time through.

Here are some ways to cover that ground.

6. Refer back to pre-listening vocab and sequences.

Discuss how (and why) they were correct (or not) in their pre-listening predictions and guesses.

Talk about the characters, e.g., who they like and why.

Review the vocabulary that was discussed before listening.

Ask if they noticed the things they were asked to watch for.

Ask about the sequencing.

This could take the form of a class discussion, a prepared worksheet, discussion in pairs or even a quiz-type game.

7. Notice collocations.

Draw attention to the context of the newly-acquired vocabulary and ask if they noticed any familiar or unfamiliar words that might tend to collocate with them. The ability to notice this can become a valuable skill for students.

This is also a preparation for the second time they listen or watch. Now that they have noticed specific words, expression and characters, get them to widen their observation to see what is around.

For example: Let's say you are watching "Finding Nemo," and your students have been listening for the word "ocean."

Students could notice that...

Everyone says "the" ocean, not just "a" ocean.

Three times, someone mentions "the entire ocean."

Right at the beginning, Marlin had promised Coral an "ocean view." (What does this normally refer to?)

What always leads to the ocean? All drains.

Of course, if you are going to try to talk about specifics like this you could also...

Use FluentU videos, where there is lots of help from interactive subtitles.

Watch and be very familiar with your videos.

Find a script database and download the script. (Making it easy to do a search on particular words.)

Activities for later practice and reinforcement

Depending on your class setup, how long your lesson is, how old your students are and how long the video or story is, you could listen again immediately to reinforce all of your recent learning.

If that is not possible, then make sure you do take time later to listen again-more than once!

Here are some things to try:

8. Listen again for the same things (maybe some students missed them) and new things.

Listen (and watch) again, with the same instructions as the first time, to make sure that every student enjoys success.

Here are some additional ideas:

Students could be in pairs to point out to each other the things to pay attention to.

Add some extra things to listen for and notice, especially those collocations mentioned above.

Add some other new during-listening activities this time.

9. Listen for particular words and expressions in new environments.

Learning increases when students can start using new vocabulary in new situations. If possible, let them listen to something else that uses some of the new expressions. Maybe you could use a different medium. For instance, tell them a story (made up, if you like) that uses some of the new vocabulary. You could tell a story about a place that has great "ocean views," referring to the Nemo example above.

10. Listen to new expressions and compare them with similar ones.

Now take the newly acquired words and expressions and change them a bit, making substitutions for parts of them. Let students listen and notice the differences. Again, you could tell a story and change some parts. For a simple example: Instead of Goldilocks and the three bears, there could be three frogs, or Goldilocks could be a boy, etc.

There could be other changes in the language, such as gender of pronouns, or tense.

11. Play "listen and do" games.

The addition of movement to a learning activity can improve and cement the learning. So practicing newly-acquired words and expressions using action is both fun and beneficial. If students have learnt some verbs, these can be mixed with already familiar verbs in an activity that involves responding to the words with actions. For example, a "Simon Says" type game.

12. Use technology for listening practice at home.

If students only think about English during class time, then it will take them a very long time to learn it well because they need to learn to think in English. Nowadays, it is not difficult to provide them with a video, or story podcast, to listen to again at home. They could be so enthusiastic about it that it doesn't even feel like "homework"! They can be given set exercises or questions to help them focus, or they can simply relax and enjoy it, soaking up the language.

E xtra activities for after listening

There are other ways that students can be reminded of words and expressions taught during a listening session.

13. Dictation

The teacher can dictate quotes from the video or story that they have already watched and enjoyed, and the students can try to write them down. This helps to tie in their literacy skills with their listening, as well as reinforcing what they have learned through watching.

This could also be a "running dictation" where students are in pairs-one to run and dictate, the other to listen and write-and the written text to dictate is posted somewhere at a distance such as outside the classroom. The running student goes and reads and remembers as much of the text as he can, then runs back and dictates it to his partner to write down.

14. Bingo!

Words or expressions focused on in the video or story can be incorporated into a "Bingo!" game. Go to a website such as ESLactivities.com to create enough cards for the whole class, each containing the same words but in random order. Give students objects such as small stones or sunflower seeds to use as markers. Students place markers on their cards as you call out the words, and when someone gets five in a row in any direction they call "Bingo!" The winner becomes the next caller, the markers are removed and the game starts again.

15. Flashcard games

Words and expressions to be focused on can be written on flashcards and used for many different games. For example, students could have their own small set of cards and hold up the appropriate one when it is heard while listening to the "text." Or pairs of words could be placed on the boards with students in pairs racing to claim the right one when it is heard.

Listen again and again

It is very important for students to listen to the story or watch the video again, as soon as possible after the first time.

But it's also important to keep doing this later at greater intervals.

With every repeat, old information will be reinforced and new things will be learnt, too!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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The Truth About Teaching ESL Listening Skills: What Works and Why

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I was surprised to find that one of the students in my "Listening" class was deaf. She was proficient in lip-reading in her first language and she was learning to do the same in English. So I tried to make sure I was always facing the class when I spoke.

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Movement to Increase Vocabulary using TPR-Total Physical Response 

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Movement to Increase Vocabulary using TPR-Total Physical Response 

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Total Physical Response (TPR) is a method of teaching language or vocabulary concepts by using physical movement to react to verbal input. The process mimics the way that infants learn their first language, and it reduces student inhibitions and lowers stress.

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The new question-of-the-week is:
How do you promote speaking with English-language learners?
Obviously, when learning a new language, it's important to be able to speak it.

This extensive series will consider effective strategies to teach and encourage English-language learners to communicate through speaking their new language.

Today's contributors are Valentina Gonzalez, Sarah Said, Mary Ann Zehr, Dr. Jeff Zwiers, and Dr. Maneka Deanna Brooks. You can listen to a 10-minute conversation I had with Valentina, Sarah, and Mary Ann on my BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

You can find many categorized and updated resources related to this topic at Speaking & Listening on my resource-sharing blog.
Response From Valentina Gonzalez
Valentina Gonzalez is currently a professional-development specialist for ELLs in Texas. She works with teachers of English-learners to support language and literacy instruction. In addition to presenting, she writes a monthly blog for MiddleWeb focused on supporting ELLs. She can be reached through her website elementaryenglishlanguagelearners.weebly.com or on Twitter @ValentinaESL:
English-learners (ELs) benefit from time to discuss in the classroom using the target language and domain-specific vocabulary. Unfortunately, even today, our students are still not talking enough about academic content in the classrooms. Studies show that most of the talk happening in classrooms comes from the teacher, and when students talk, their answers are at a low level, usually one word or simple phrases. On top of that information, ELs are called on to speak less frequently in classrooms across our country. So the question becomes, how do we promote speaking especially for our ELs in order to advance their language development and see academic growth? When I was a young language learner, I, myself, spent most of my day listening quietly in the classroom. It was ingrained in me from my parents that my job as the student was to go to school and listen to the teacher. He/she held the knowledge, and it was not my role to speak. This was a learned cultural difference that I brought from home to my academic setting. Unless my teacher spoke directly to me, I could go all day without saying a single word except for at lunch and recess with my closest friend. Then when I got home, I told my mom everything I learned that day in school ... only I shared with her in Serbian (our native language). I had very little practice speaking English and using academic vocabulary with my peers. Though speaking at my home using my native language was truly a wonderful bridge for me and helped me to internalize what I learned at school, I wasn't practicing enough academic English vocabulary. That very well could have been a different story. We may not be able to control the language or vocabulary our students use at home, but we have a great deal of control over how they use it in our classrooms. We have to get them speaking regularly using domain-specific vocabulary on a daily basis. As they listen to their peers, they are building more vocabulary. And as they speak, they are growing their own writing vocabulary. And this listening, speaking, and writing vocabulary will also help them build their reading vocabulary. Here are four steps that promote speaking with English-learners: Creating a safe classroom for all students to talk is most important. If an EL is nervous about speaking or making a mistake, chances are they won't try. A classroom that embraces mistakes as opportunities for growth helps to lower the affective filter of ELs. This means we allow for mistakes in speaking. We encourage open questioning and curiosity. We embrace thoughtful communication. We leave space for student to student talk. As teachers, we step aside from the center of the classroom "stage" and allow our students to speak with partners and in groups frequently. Clearly and explicitly model the expectations of talk. Show students what the conversation will look like. What will each participant do? What will they say? What will they look like? Model so there is no ambiguity. Making the communication structure visible is critical for language learners. If everyone knows the expectations, then the target is clear and more easily achieved. We set students up for success this way. I remember before I learned to model conversations how my students would drift away from the conversation. I felt like they were being ornery or off task. I thought it was their fault. But really it was mine. I didn't outline for them what the talk should look and sound like so they just tried and mostly didn't live up to my expectations until I showed them explicitly what the academic conversation should look and sound like. And then guess what? They could do it! And they felt so proud of themselves! Our goal is that our students become independent at everything in life, be it walking, riding a bike, reading, paying bills, and even holding a conversation. But no matter what, they need a scaffold to begin the JOURNEY to independence. For ELs and many other students, structuring conversations alleviates the stress of how to hold the conversation, so they can focus on what's important ... the content. Though turn and talk is oOK every now and then, it is loose and less supportive for students who need a bit more support. I have a few favorite scaffolds for talk in the classroom: think-pair-share, talking heads, and QSSSA. Most of these offer students sentence starters to propel their thought. One problem often seen with partner talk in the classroom is that one partner dominates the conversation. These three methods offer all students an equitable chance to participate in discourse. For ELs who are more shy or resistant to speak, this encourages active participation. As teachers, we've probably all been guilty of playing the question game with our class. We ask a question and immediately call on a student to answer. The students are well aware of this game, and many don't even try to answer unless called upon. Most know who the teacher usually calls on, too. In order to get ELs and all students really thinking and talking, we can employ some wait time, otherwise known as think time. It's quite simple yet completely effective.

We pose a question.

WAIT about 5-10 seconds.

Here I like to provide my ELs with a sentence starter to help propel their thought.

And then let them all share with a partner or group. This step ensures that EVERYONE talks and not just one individual.

Now I can call on a student at random to share what he/she said or what their partner said.

Wait time is important for ELs because it allows for processing, translating, and building bravery to answer. If we want to promote more talk with English-learners in our classrooms, we, as teachers, have to talk less. Give our students the room to talk more. Amplify their voices and empower them with the confidence to speak up. Their voices are important and hold value. We have to trust that by allowing them to talk, we are unlocking the potential for them to uncover the curriculum rather than us working so hard to try to "cover" it daily by telling them everything. Giving them the power to negotiate for meaning, grapple with ideas, question their thinking and their classmates' thinking will create a space that fosters curiosity and breeds thought. After all, our job is not to teach them facts. They can simply Google anything these days. But rather ,we are here to teach them how to learn and think, communicate, and question and grow as learners each day. Response From Sarah Said
Sarah Said is currently a district-level administrator who oversees English learning and bilingual programs in two elementary school districts in suburbs south of Chicago. Sarah spent over a decade teaching and advocating for English-learners spanning from the early grades to high school age. She has a graduate degree in instructional leadership: literacy, language, and culture from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is married and a mother of three who enjoys traveling with her family:
They'll "Drop the Mic One" Day Soon ... Us cool kids "drop the mic" when we give a triumphant speech. The English-learners in our classroom will one day "drop mic" as well in a way that will inspire us and shock us all at the same time. We need to have hope in our students as we support them in developing their speaking skills. There are some people that want to explicitly teach conversation skills to English-learners to a point where the students may find it so amusing that they don't take seriously ... aka bad TPR (Total Physical Response) implementation. And, there are other teachers who think the students will learn speaking skills through sitting there, listening to the teacher drone on and on because their brain will magically acquire a language. Buehler ... Buehler ... Neither way helps. Let's be real, students need to learn oral language in a nonthreatening, nonbelittling, and organic way. If we roll up our sleeves and really try to support our students' oral development as much as we do reading and writing, they will soon enough be able to "drop the mic" and amaze all one day soon! How do we do that? How do we really try to develop the speaking skills of English-learners. We need to do this step by step to really home in on developing skills. Give Them Time and Let Them Listen First, we want to give them time and let them listen. As we go through structure speaking-yes your kids can speak in class-let your newcomer take their time to listen. Sometimes, newcomers go through a silent period; we need to honor it. By honoring it, we can then take baby steps to rich academic conversations. We can then work with that student one on one to develop speaking skills. Later, we can partner them up with a student who will support them. Then we can move them to groups of four students until we get them into full-class discussions. Yes, they can get there. But it all starts with allowing them to listen and be comfortable in that environment first. Building a relationship with you and their classmates will give them the confidence they need to participate in class and begin developing their speaking skills. Use Tech Tools Like Seesaw to Scaffold Speaking in Front of Others For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you would know that I am a huge fan of Seesaw. This application does a world of good for English-learners. Many people know about it's benefits to connect students to families. But it has strong benefits with supporting student voice. I am a proud Seesaw ambassador and very pleased with what the app offers for helping English-learners develop speaking skills. You can learn more by going on Twitter and following the #ELLchat_bkclub discussion on hashtag called #Seesaw4ELs. Seesaw also has great communities on Facebook where people can learn more ideas of others using the application. Based on the assignments you offer, students can record their opinions, they can read and listen to themselves, or they can practice simple greetings on there. They can really go through the application and have tons of practice learning. It is accessible for primary- but can be used in secondary-level classrooms as well. The only people who see what the students have done are the teacher and parents who are added by a family app. Once they are confident speaking on technology, they can then move on to speaking in front of more people. Plan Structured Speaking Activities That Have Appropriate Supports In order to explain this, I will tell you about my own failure. Many years ago, I had moved into a high school English-learner classroom. I wanted to conduct a Socratic seminar in English with newcomers. I gave them a text and an overarching question. I did not model the structure nor give them appropriate roles for the activity. It then became a discussion free for all that became difficult to control. I had to go back to the drawing board later and realize my mistake. I didn't give them enough explanation of the Socratic seminar beforehand. I also didn't model the activity appropriately. I went back at it a week later, I showed them a video of how Socratic seminar should be done. I also gave them a text that was more meaningful to them. And there was an appropriate pre- and post- activity related to the seminar. More wait time was given. I also gave them sentence and question starters to support them. Bingo! We as a class were successful! Building speaking skills in English-learners takes the ability to build relationships with them, a classroom environment that allows freedom to fail, creativity, and well-structured lesson planning. You also have to understand that your students need modeling and the ability to practice their skills. You have to find ways to really give them an equitable chance to develop those skills. Give it time, and one day they will "drop the mic" and have you in awe with their speaking skills. Response From Mary Ann Zehr
Mary Ann Zehr taught core English and history classes to English-language learners for seven years in the District of Columbia public schools. Currently, she is teaching 9 th grade English at Harrisonburg High School in Virginia. She still has some ELLs in her classroom:
To be successful in promoting speaking with English-language learners, I must carefully plan and structure speaking activities. I'm not one of those teachers who can wing it in leading a discussion and get everyone in the classroom participating. Challenging, higher-order questions don't pop into my head spontaneously. I think of these kinds of questions and write them down as part of my lesson planning. I've developed several protocols that support students to speak. One protocol is for student debates. For this protocol, I provide one or two texts about a debate topic. For example, I used the April 30, 2018, New York Times article, As part of my debate protocol, I divide a class into two teams. With The New York Times article, I assigned one team to make the argument that making school more rigorous helps to reduce risky behavior in teens. I assigned the other team to argue that making school harder does not affect teens' risky behavior. In their teams, students read the article and highlight any evidence to support the position, or "claim," that they have been assigned. Then, still in their teams, each person in the group practices speaking the claim and giving evidence and reasoning to support the claim. After the teams have prepared their arguments, I match up students in twos, with a student from each of the teams in each pair, to argue their opposing claims. The class comes alive as each student expresses the arguments he or she has prepared in a one-on-one debate. Lastly, we have a group discussion during which students are free to express their true opinions. Again, students use the format of making a claim and providing evidence and reasoning to support it. I also coach students to use posted sentence stems, such as "I agree because ..." or "I disagree because ..." or "I'd like to add ..." I've used this same protocol successfully for students to debate whether military recruiters should be permitted in schools, whether the United States should celebrate Columbus Day, and whether schools should permit students to have cellphones in class. Another protocol I've used to promote speaking is reciprocal teaching. With this protocol, I divide a class into teams of four or five students. I assign each team the task of preparing to teach and then teaching a chapter of a book or scene of a play. For example, in 12 We read the first scene of the play together. Then I assigned other scenes of the play to different teams of students. As part of the protocol, I give them an activity packet with specific instructions for the structure of their planning and execution of a lesson. For example, each student chooses a role, such as to be the wordsmith-whose job is to lead the selection of vocabulary words that need to be taught-or connector-who ensures that each student has created a discussion question, or summarizer, or discussion leader. With "Blood Wedding," teams of students read aloud their assigned scene and then picked an excerpt of two pages to teach. After teams had prepared their lessons, they carried out reciprocal teaching by exchanging lessons with another team. When the planning and reciprocal teaching are going on, the students are talking. And because the students have roles, everyone speaks. I provide some guiding questions. In the activity guide for "Blood Wedding," I prompted analysis with questions: What does the character do and say about gender roles? (I asked them to write quotes). Does the quote reinforce or challenge traditional gender roles? But students also are required to create open-ended questions of their own, which they use to lead discussions. After reciprocal teaching, we also typically hold a Socratic seminar to discuss the text that we have read. I give grades for speaking, just as I do for reading and writing. During debates and reciprocal teaching, I circulate to make sure I hear each student speaking and give a grade for it. I often host guest speakers to my classroom. Before the speaker arrives, students have a chance to prepare a question. Then, to receive a grade, they must ask at least one question or make one comment during the class period. Nevertheless, I still have a couple of English-language learners who are reluctant to speak and will do just about everything in their power to avoid it. Sometimes a student will take a zero, rather than speak aloud. Recently, I've experimented with having students make voice recordings and send them to me electronically. I've created assignments for students to reflect on a particular teaching unit. Usually, I give them five questions and ask them to choose to answer three in a voice recording that lasts for at least one minute. I grade the reflection with a checklist based on the speaking rubric from the WIDA Consortium. Students earn points, for instance, for using several content words from the unit and elaborating on their ideas with examples. They use the online program, vocaroo.com, to record their reflections and send them to me. The first time I required students to make a voice recording, they were reluctant to do it in class. Some came and made their recordings in my classroom at lunch to avoid having other students hear them. But the second time I required them to make recordings, most students seemed to have overcome their reluctance. (I want to see them do the recordings so I can ensure they are not reading from notes. I want them to speak without using notes). Recordings help me get a good sense of how each student needs to improve his or her speaking. Because I can replay recordings, I get information about how students speak that I often miss by hearing them speak only in class. Some need to use more transition words. Some need to speak in complete sentences. Others need to provide more examples. I evaluate and reflect on my students' speaking skills in the same way that I do for other domains of English and I use that knowledge to inform my teaching. Response From Dr. Jeff Zwiers grade English, we read and analyzed the play, "Blood Wedding," by Federico Garcia Lorca. We analyzed the play particularly for what it said about traditional gender roles. Give students authentic and engaging ideas to talk about. This seems obvious, but we have seen way too many lesson activities in which students speak to show some knowledge of grammar or word meanings-mdash;not to communicate engaging ideas in authentic ways. And some folks think that students at beginning and intermediate levels of proficiency need the boring basics and shouldn't be asked to communicate yet. Hogwash! All students deserve tasks in which they use language to communicate with others to get interesting things done and made. One of the advantages of paired conversations is that students are more likely to be engaged with one other person who is either listening or talking to them at any given time. There is less opportunity to "check out." Think about when you are sitting in a conference session, not paying excellent attention, and the speaker asks you to turn to a partner and answer a question. Suddenly, you are more engaged. Most of you. And if the topic or question is interesting or useful to you, then the engagement goes up even more. But remember that English-learners can be shy and reticent to talk, especially in large groups. Many English-learners need to develop stamina in creating complex ideas and concepts with peers by engaging in sustained conversations. They need the motivation to communicate (talk and listen) and to push themselves to talk and listen beyond their usual "bare minimum just get by" levels of participation. As teachers, we want them to get so engaged that they forget they are learning. We want to immerse them in meaningful language use. Recently, our work has focused on student conversations in elementary settings. There are many activities that attempt to promote meaningful uses of language. For example, a common one is the think-pair-share, or turn-and-talk. However, by teaching and modeling core communication skills, teachers can take these strategies to the next level. English-learners, even primary-grade students, will be more engaged and learn both content and language from each other. During academic conversations, students practice active listening as they create and negotiate ideas. How powerful can your student dialogues become? Response From Dr. Maneka Deanna Brooks "Worried About Risky Teenage Behavior? Make School Tougher," by Austin Frakt, as a text for one debate .The article caught my eye because the Learning Network of The New York Times developed activities for its use in the classroom. "I don't speak English fluently, but I understand it and I know how to speak and write it ... not the best. But they [teachers] think that just because we look like Mexicans that they need to keep repeating, repeating, repeating ... like the ones who learn Spanish first they don't think we are going to understand it and they keep us like away from the other ones that know English." -Francisco, a high school student After Francisco (a pseudonym) shared these thoughts, I was surprised. His comment surprised me because over the three months that I had observed him in his high school English/language arts class, he rarely said a word. He spoke so little that because of his English-language learner (ELL) classification, I was unclear as to how much he could communicate in English. Toward the end of our interview, I shared my initial assumptions about his English abilities with Francisco. He responded by recounting experiences of teachers assuming that he could not speak English because he sat near students who (unlike him) were recent immigrants from Latin America. He shared his frustration with being spoken to by white English-speaking teachers in broken Spanish because they assumed that he did not know English. Moreover, he understood white teachers' disrespect toward those they perceived as Latino immigrant students as emblematic of racial dynamics that he witnessed outside of school. His decision to remain silent during class was a way to ensure that his intellectual and linguistic dignity would be protected. My conversation with Francisco situates my response to this week's question within the importance of perceptions about race in English-language teaching. I highlight two areas of learning that are fundamental to educators setting the groundwork for students, like Francisco, to believe that their contributions are important in the classroom.

1. Learn about the linguistic and educational experiences of ELLs in your classroom.

Francisco shared how educators' assumptions about his English proficiency contributed to his silence within the classroom. Create opportunities for students to share their educational and linguistic experiences to allow educators to avoid these types of mistakes. Importantly, this does not mean asking students to respond to direct questions about these topics in front of the entire class. This type of information can be integrated into "getting-to-know-you" projects like linguistic autobiographies, linguistic surveys, identity collages, and other such classroom activities.

1. Learn about the racial histories of the United States and the countries with which your students have connections.

As Francisco's comments illustrate, students come into the classroom with histories of being treated certain ways because of their racial identities. Educating ELLs, most of whom also belong to minoritized racial groups, requires recognizing the impact of racism inside and outside of the classroom. Educators who understand how race and racism operate can make informed decisions about how to best incorporate students' identities into instruction, avoid racist practices within their classroom, and can advocate on behalf of their students. While learning about these topics through reputable external resources (e.g., documentaries, articles, etc.) is necessary, students can also teach educators through sharing their own experiences. For example, teachers can design activities in which students talk about resilience within their communities. Students who are identified as ELLs (like all other students) are multifaceted individuals. As a result, the racial dynamics that impact the rest of society also impact their learning. If educators want to create spaces for ELLs to use their voice, it is necessary to create classroom environments where students understand that all of their identities are valued.
Dr. Jeff Zwiers is the co-author of The K-3 Guide to Academic Conversations (Corwin, 2017) and Academic Language Mastery: Conversational Discourse in Context (Corwin, 2016). He is a senior researcher at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. He supports the Understanding Language Initiative, a research and professional-development project focused on literacy, cognition, discourse, and academic language. His current research focuses on communication-based teaching and classroom practices that foster high-quality academic interactions and literacy:

Dr. Maneka Deanna Brooks is an assistant professor of reading education at Texas State University. Dr. Brooks' research agenda centers on everyday educational practices that impact the educational trajectories of bilingual adolescents. Dr. Brooks' work has been published in "Research in the Teaching of English," "Journal of Literacy Research," "TESOL Quarterly," and other venues:

Thanks to Valentina, Sarah, Mary Ann, Jeff, and Maneka for their contributions.
Just a reminder;you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And if you missed any of the highlights from the first seven years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. The list doesn't include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the "answers" category found in the sidebar. Look for Part Two in a few days.
Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It's titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching.

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Response: Ways to Build Speaking Skills With ELLs (Opinion)

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The new question-of-the-week is: How do you promote speaking with English-language learners? Obviously, when learning a new language, it's important to be able to speak it. This extensive series will consider effective strategies to teach and encourage English-language learners to communicate through speaking their new language.

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10 Strategies to Boost Confidence in Speaking

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10 Strategies to Boost Confidence in Speaking

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Getting students to talk is the name of the game for many ESL teachers.
A strategy that actually gets students to chat more is pretty much the holy grail.

It can be a serious challenge.

Grammar drills, book exercises, flashcards and other quiet, traditional methods are useful but can only get your students so far.

Now they need to open their mouths and let the magic happen-to actually start speaking, communicating and making the language their own.
But why won't they?
In this article I'll give you my own fail-proof strategies to work into all your lessons to get those shy, mute observers transforming into confident chatterboxes before your very eyes!

Every one makes a difference.

This involves simple tricks and techniques to weave into each lesson and every activity for maximum student confidence and speaking.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

1. Pair Work Plus Feedback

Whatever is terrifying alone becomes much less daunting in a pair.

First, there is less of the spotlight, because you and the rest of the class are not watching every person's interactions. Everyone also has someone dedicated to giving them support, encouragement and direct feedback.

So, when you've got a conversation topic you'd like your students to tackle, start with pair work.

Get students to debate all questions or topics in pairs first. Not for long, just a few minutes. Then have them share the results of their conversation with the whole group and build discussion on that. The magic is that, when you ask them in front of the whole class, they are already prepared. They do not have to think something up on the spot and they are not totally responsible for what they say, since it is the result of a joint effort. This takes away the sting of failure and the fear of speaking up.

Let's see how this plays out in the classroom, given a specific topic.

For example, if the topic is family, then hand out a worksheet or project onto the board a list of introductory questions about family first. This can range from "What is your first memory?" to "What are the best parenting methods?" or even "Is it ethical to spank your children?" depending on what your students are ready for.

Wander around between the pairs to interact, listen, question or correct, wherever you are needed. This is a lovely learning environment for the students because it feels informal and they can ask questions they might otherwise fear to when all eyes and ears are on them. They get to know and trust their peers better. And they get to talk to you on a more personal level. Just this alone puts them more at ease.

Once they have had ample time to talk with their partners-and with you if needed-write up the various answers on the board for further group discussion. You can either have students call out answers while you write or you can have them all scramble up to the board and write things down. Note interesting themes.

Everyone is now warmed up, has plenty to say and feels part of a group process.

Do you see the difference between starting the lesson with "So, Jose, tell me about your family."? (Cue terrified silence and rest of class trying to hide behind their seats to avoid being asked next.)

2. Role Plays

This gets students out of themselves and their inhibitions. It is also massively fun.

To generate maximum confidence and facilitate speaking, it needs preparation first. A spontaneous role play can be beyond terrifying to many.

Give each person an easy role to follow. Here are some great examples. As you can see, each card has a few prompts to help students start thinking. The other partner plays the opposite role.

For less confident groups or just to ensure success, put people with the same role in pairs first, before the role play begins. This will give them a chance to run through some ideas with someone in the same situation and give them confidence they might lack if just thrown straight in.

Props are good. If you are a creative type then make some things yourself, bring in different hats or rearrange the room slightly to resemble a doctor's surgery/home living room/whatever situation you are role playing. But don't go too crazy. Just entering a role and using an imagined name is normally enough to suggest to the students that they are somehow outside themselves.

During the role play you can circle the room and listen in, have a joke and join in the fun. Try not to cramp their style by butting in or correcting too much. This is pure speaking and fluency. Accuracy can wait.

3. Detailed Task Briefs

Group work within class works best if carefully structured. I like to set my students up with small team projects. For instance, "design a marketing strategy for an unpopular place in your country." This task centers on the students' creativity in thinking up their own ideas.

But it is also important to give them a structure to work around.

Write them a brief. Preferably type it up in advance. You can project it if you have a screen and monitor at your disposal. If not, write up a brief on the board and talk them through it.

For example, I got my students to watch this video on heritage tourism and then think of ways to market their own town based on heritage tourism. The brief was very clear: five pieces of information about the town, five ideas to remarket it. The result was a fabulous 90-minute lesson of student presentation, interaction and discussion.

These three strategies: pair work, role play and task briefs are, in my opinion, the foundation stones of useful speaking strategies. Here are some more general tips to make your speaking classes a sure-fire success.

4. Vary, Vary, Vary.

You are trying to create an artificial English-speaking environment, a kind of bubble separate from the ordinary world of the dull classroom. For this you need to make each week different, to lure the students in, away from classic classroom passivity and boredom.

This does not mean massive amounts of extra work for you. Just vary the format each week.

Last week was very pair focused? Fine, today we will do a group task. Sometimes pair, sometimes group work, mingling, sometimes an article, song or short video. Sometimes book work and organized discussion, sometimes role play. It does not matter so much what you do as long as you vary it. Swap and switch partners and groups regularly.

Keep things fresh and unexpected.

5. Warm up

Making it fun gets students involved!

Have an attractive "starter" for each lesson, a fun video or song to listen to and then gap-fill missing words. This makes the conversation topic interesting for the students and starts them making associations and discussion points. You would be amazed at the power and motivation a simple 5-minute introduction can bring to the whole 90 minutes.

Traditional discussion work from a textbook can be good too. It may be comforting for students who like a classical approach to study, but try and spice it up with extras and ideas of your own.

6. Preparation Tasks for Homework

Similar to pair work, getting students to do the groundwork before the main discussion begins is a great way to ensure they have plenty to say and the guts to say it!

I often give my students a topic and some short introductory reading. They then have to prepare specific answers to questions.

More generally, you can get them to find issues in the news that interest them for homework. Just make sure you tell them exactly what you want (e.g. five facts, a brief history). It is vital they bring something concrete to throw into the class discussion. Again, this will be presented after preparation is complete, so students are well prepared and not put on the spot.

Get students to provide the content! It will then be much easier to encourage them to tear into it and get talking!

7. Learn Their Names

Do not underestimate the importance of addressing your students by name.

Asking questions to nobody in particular gets no particular response, except with chatty classes. When you ask someone personally to speak up (bearing in mind the importance of pair work and preparation first) they will feel more motivated to answer.

Learning names always demonstrates a level of respect and interest in your students. Plus, once you have the name in place other facts tend to stick. Students will feel more acknowledged when you start saying things like "Stefan, you said that you used to be in the army, what do you think of what Marina has just said?" in place of "How about... you there... what do you think?"

Remember though, always make it okay to not answer. This stops students from stressing out after being called upon. If they are stumbling or short of words just thank them and pass to someone else. Give them a chance to speak a bit later.

Tip: I have a very simple technique which consists of asking each student to give me something memorable about them from a list of cues-memories, songs, places, people important to them.

If you simply ask them to introduce themselves, they will just say their hometown and what they study or do for a living. Not very memorable. Make sure you get something more specific, unique and personal. Then I note this next to their name and it prompts my memory long enough to link face to name for at least the two first classes.

By the end of semester, the initial fact is long forgotten but the person is a live, vivid presence in my memory.

So, learn names early and reinforce often by addressing your students personally. It is vital that students see you care about them from day one. It makes them much freer to open up and trust you enough to go beyond their shyness.

8. Be Approachable and Friendly

Many students have commented that they felt comfortable to speak in my lessons because they knew they would not be laughed at or punished.

Remember, speaking can be a very difficult thing for many students. This is not just their English on the line but deeper fears of unworthiness or ridicule.

Be approachable and friendly. Make it okay not to answer and praise effort. Thank them for contributions throughout and at the end of each lesson.

9. Build Confidence

Whilst students want to improve, many have survived schooling systems where they were punished for every small error.

Create an adult environment where speaking is encouraged and mistakes are valued stepping stones towards improvement. Reframe mistakes rather than correcting them. Repeat and affirm what they say in correct English, within the flow of conversation.

10. Kindle the Fire

Finally, do not expect the fire of conversation to erupt where you want or expect it to.

You cannot "make" students talk.

Learn to plan speaking sessions as a series of activities and opportunities carefully prepared to provide the sparks of discussion. Your job is to prepare the ground and then if discussion does kindle, fan the flames, take a step back and let it develop. Your students will thank you for providing the space to make this possible.

Good luck!

Remember what a gift you are giving students by setting them free to talk without fear of failure.

This will help them in their language improvement more than anything else.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

And One More Thing...

Looking for authentic ESL materials to amp up your students' speaking skills? Then you're going to love FluentU!
FluentU takes real-world videos-like music videos, cartoons, documentaries and more-and turns them into personalized language learning lessons for you and your students.
It's got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch on the regular. There are tons of great choices there when you're looking for songs for in-class activities. You'll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids' singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.

On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.

For example, if a student taps on the word "brought," they'll see this:

Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like "fill in the blank."

It's perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it's guaranteed to get your students excited about English!

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.
Bring English immersion to your classroom!

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The Holy Grail: 10 Strategies for ESL Teachers to Get Students Speaking

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Getting students to talk is the name of the game for many ESL teachers. A strategy that actually gets students to chat more is pretty much the holy grail. It can be a serious challenge. Grammar drills, book exercises, flashcards and other quiet, traditional methods are useful but can only get your students so far.

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A word bank is a list of words that is created by the teacher or student that relates to the core content and academic material the student is learning. The word bank provides the student with access to the key vocabulary and helps with instructional level vocabulary development, spelling and writing. The word bank can be embedded within the academic material or core content. Word banks help students recall words that they have previously learned.

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A collection of customizable templates for creating word banks in all content areas. The templates in this set include space for students to include images and definitions for words., Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Subjects Reading, Writing, Math.

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Knowing vocabulary words is key to reading comprehension. The more words a child knows, the better he or she will understand the text. Using a variety of effective teaching methods will increase the student’s ability to learn new words.

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Comprehension is essential to reading and understanding texts; however, it is one of the more challenging reading skills to teach. Research shows that students who struggle with reading comprehension often struggle with foundational reading skills, such as decoding or fluency; therefore it's important to strengthen foundation skills so students can focus their mental energy on reading for meaning.

Unfortunately, you can't control your students thinking or flip a switch to turn on their ability to comprehend (wouldn't that be nice?), but there are still plenty of things you CAN do.

You CAN provide interventions for phonemic awareness, phonics, and decoding so students can shift their focus to comprehension.

You CAN provide instructional support and coaching to guide students in developing their comprehension skills.

You CAN teach strategies and tools to help students comprehend what they're reading independently.

You CAN provide scaffolding to help students navigate difficult texts and improve their confidence with reading.

Scaffolding Texts Using "Chunking"

Scaffolding texts is an easy-to-implement, highly effective instructional support to help students read longer texts with more proficiency and confidence. There are many scaffolding strategies you can try, but text "chunking" is the perfect strategy to support your beginner or struggling readers.

If you aren't familiar with the term "chunking," it means separating something into smaller, more manageable pieces. Think about eating a pizza; we don't just shove the whole pie into our mouths. We cut it into slices and then break it up further into smaller pieces by taking bites. Now apply that to a text! There are often chapters or sections, and then paragraphs within each of those chapters and sections to break it up further.

Research shows that struggling readers can improve their comprehension when the material is broken down into smaller parts. Most students do not naturally know how to break up texts. They need scaffolding support to know where these stopping points are, and they also need strategies for what to do when they reach these stopping points.

3 Ways to Chunk a Text

At first, you will need to scaffold the scaffolding strategy! When introducing the text chunking strategy, you will need to explicitly model how to chunk the text and where to create stopping points. The goal is to teach them how to identify the natural stopping points on their own, but most students probably won't know how to do this effectively on their own right away.

Students respond well to visual cues. There are a few ways you can chunk the text and mark where the stopping points are. By visually marking the text, it signals them to pause their reading to focus on comprehension.
1. Sticky Note Stop Signs
Sticky note stop signs are my go-to tool for this strategy! All you have to do is write the word "STOP!" or draw a stop sign on a sticky note. Students can easily do this on their own, or you can download my free stop sign template for ready-to-use sticky note stop signs!

To use the sticky note stop signs for text chunking, students will place the sticky note at the bottom of a page, section, or paragraph. Wherever the stopping point is, the sticky note will be a visual reminder for the student to stop and think after they read that section. Sticky notes are great for texts that you can't mark up, such as books.
2. File Folders
Another idea for chunking is to use a file folder to help the student focus on one section of the text at a time. This works excellent for printed text or articles. To create a text chunking file folder, all you have to do is cut the front of the folder to create flaps. Depending on grade-level and ability, some students may need three chunks and others may need four or five.

To use the file folders for text chunking, the student will open one flap at a time to read the part of the text that is underneath. They will then check for understanding and apply comprehension strategies related to the chunk of text they just read. Students will continue reading the broken-up sections of text using the flaps until the entire text is complete. This file folder strategy is especially helpful for students who are visually overwhelmed by large amounts of text or struggle with low reading confidence.
3. Marking Up Texts
Marking up a text is another way to use the chunking strategy. This text scaffolding tool is especially helpful for printed passages and articles, or even digital texts that you can annotate.

To mark up texts for text chunking, students will use a writing tool to indicate where they need to stop. They can draw a line, make a symbol (e.g., star, asterisk, etc.), or can just write the word "STOP!" after each chunk or section. They will then read the text and use the marked up text to signal when they have to stop and think.

Once students get the hang of using stopping points, you will need to teach them how to identify possible spots for breaking up a text. Model how to look for chapters, headings, and other natural breaks in the text that would make a great place to stop and think (this is a great opportunity to review fiction and nonfiction text features!). As students make progress with this chunking strategy, gradually release the responsibility of identifying stopping points and allow students to do this independently.

Coming Soon... Stop and Think!

Chunking texts using stopping points encourages students to pause their reading to think about the text. It encourages active reading and allows them to monitor their reading to check for understanding.

Stay tuned for my next blog post about the different comprehension strategies that can be used with chunking and applied at the stopping points. I will be sharing more about the active reading strategies I use (i.e., Read, Stop, Think and Thinking Tracks), as well as the Click & Clunk strategy my students use for monitoring comprehension.

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3 Ways to Chunk Text to Support Reading Comprehension - MsJordanReads

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Comprehension is essential to reading and understanding texts; however, it is one of the more challenging reading skills to teach. Research shows that students who struggle with reading comprehension often struggle with foundational reading skills, such as decoding or fluency; therefore it's important to strengthen foundation skills so students can focus their mental energy on reading for meaning.

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Does anyone else get overly excited when they get a new set of Mr. Sketch markers? Colorful markers and highlighters help engage students, but there is so much more to it. There are real, tested benefits of color-coding in the classroom.

Think about all the things we associate with certain colors, like green for go or pink for breast cancer awareness. For years, marketing departments have been associating brands with certain colors so that their messages will stick in consumers' minds (e.g., Twitter , McDonald's , Target , ).

In the classroom, when strategically and systematically implemented, color-coding can have the same effect. It may take a bit more planning and preparation, but it's worth it!

In fact, Pruisner (1993) found that when comparing outcomes of black-and-white versus color-cued presentations and assessments, systematic color-coding improved recall and retention. Dzulkifli and Mustafar (2012) also studied whether adding color could improve memory. They concluded that "color has the potential to increase chances of environmental stimuli to be encoded, stored, and retrieved successfully" because it vividly displays relationships between ideas.

The psychology of color is fascinating. Shift eLearning says that "using the right color, and the correct selection and placement can seriously affect feelings, attention, and behavior when learning." Color can help students differentiate, retain, and transfer knowledge and, according to Ozelike (2009) , pay attention to critical information for meaningful learning. It's time that we leveraged that to our advantage. Plus, color just makes everything more exciting and appealing, right? The question is how can we, as teachers, take this and apply it to our instruction? Here are just a few ideas:

1. Distinguishing between new ideas and concepts

Color-coding can assist students in distinguishing between concepts and ideas. Below is an example of how color-coding can be used for main idea and details, but it can also be used for compare and contrast, author's purpose, fact versus opinion, you name it! In this example, main idea is always while key details are . green

Here is another example of using color to distinguish between concepts in math. Color-coding can support mathematical thinking in that it can help students organize their thinking, make their thinking visible to others, and make connections. It can also strengthen visual representation to aid students in internalizing their learning.

2. Selective highlighting

Another color-coding strategy is selective highlighting. This strategy requires explicit teaching, extensive modeling and support, as well as clear student directions. However, when implemented correctly, it can help students organize their learning and deepen their comprehension.

In the example above, the instructions for students were:

3. Color-coded graphic organizers

Ewoldt and Morgan (2017) noted that "color-coding visual organizers provides another layer of support for writing development," and "using color-coding in combination with strategy instruction has the potential to improve overall understanding." Sentence and paragraph frames are great writing supports, but not if students don't know how and when to use them. Color-coding these frames as well as graphic organizers (or having the students do it themselves) is a simple step that can make all the difference.

4. Supporting student discourse

We all know how important it is to get our students talking, and providing a dialogue frame can be a great way to scaffold speaking activities. Color-coding these frames can make them more user-friendly because it makes it easier for students to identify their part(s). Don't forget to have students switch roles at some point so they get to practice all roles!

Warning: Don't overdo it!

Although color-coding can be extremely effective, too much can overcomplicate things. Try to stick to three colors (or fewer) per lesson and keep it consistent! Any color can be used for any topic but, once introduced, the color should remain consistent in order to avoid confusion. For example, i f students used blue when comparing at the beginning of the year, make sure you use that same color for every comparing lesson.

There are a multitude of ways to use color in the classroom. How do you use color-coding as a teaching strategy? Share your ideas in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.
Plus, check out 25 ways to use sticky notes in the classroom.

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Color-Coding: The Differentiation Strategy You Never Knew You Needed

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Does anyone else get overly excited when they get a new set of Mr. Sketch markers? Colorful markers and highlighters help engage students, but there is so much more to it. There are real, tested benefits of color-coding in the classroom.

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This section addresses the critical questions of how to properly assess and place English language learners (ELLs) at the school-wide and classroom level.

To see our other topics related to assessment, visit the following sections:

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Assessment for English Language Learners

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This section addresses the critical questions of how to properly assess and place English language learners (ELLs) at the school-wide and classroom level. To see our other topics related to assessment, visit the following sections:

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by Claudia Pesce 15,943 views

And this couldn't be more true of ESL students today. Learning English is more than a series of acquisitions that a student obtains alone. It's more than a list of words or grammar structures that an individual must grasp in order to communicate effectively in English. Learning English is not an individual, solitary effort. It is a social process, one in which interaction and collaboration are as fundamental as the vocabulary lists or grammar topics.

There are different types of collaborative tasks for ESL students, but let's take a closer look at collaboration in interactive writing.

What is Interactive Writing?

Simply put, interactive writing is shared writing. In some cases, the teacher and students may literally share the same pen to produce together a piece of content like a story or letter; in other cases the sharing is less literal. Students may write separately for a joint project, for example, different stories that go together in a book. Whether you have your students collaborate to produce one piece of content, or one that is a collection of their individual efforts, the possibilities for collaboration - and learning - are all there.

Collaboration in Interactive Writing - 7 Examples

1. Lots of Sources - One Production

One of the most widely used forms of interactive writing involves having students research different aspects of one topic and then collate their findings to produce one piece of content. For example, have your class choose an animal to research, like the panda. Each student chooses what he/she will investigate, whether it is the panda's habitat, eating habits or characteristics. Students then work together to write one paper on the panda.

2. One Collection of Productions

Another very popular form of interactive writing is having ESL students collate individual productions into a larger project or portfolio, such as a newspaper or storybook. Each student produces his/her piece of writing. Students collaborate to deliver the final product/collection. It's not as simple as gluing it all together. Decisions must be made as to the order of the articles/stories and if any of them should be cut/edited to fit the allotted space.

3. One Story - Different Endings

Read out loud or hand out copies of a story, but leave out the ending. Students must individually write their own ending to the story. Then, they get together and share their endings. Students comment on which were similar, which were more surprising, which they liked best. Students choose one of the endings as the official ending for the story. They may choose one and keep it as it was written, or rewrite it taking elements from different endings.

4. Expand the Story

This is another classic interactive writing task. A student is given a piece of paper with the first line of the story written on it. He/she must continue the story and write the second line, then pass the paper to a classmate. When everyone has contributed to the story, the teacher reads the result out loud. Does it make sense? Is it a good story? They may do this task quietly, simply reading what the other has written before, or as a full collaboration, discussion ideas before writing down the next line.

5. Expand the Description

Ask students to describe something like the classroom, a person (you!) or an object, like an electronic device. Each student contributes a piece of the description and passes the sheet of paper to the next who will add something else to it.

6. Step by Step

Another great form of interactive writing is having students work together to write a step-by-step process. What is something they can describe step by step? How to make a sandwich? How to send an email? The process can be as simple or as complex as your students' ages and level will allow.

7. Guided Writing

A much simpler form of interactive writing, and one that is perfect for young learners or beginners, is guided writing. In this case, the teacher starts the sentence and students must complete it. The teacher may also give students different options. For example, write on the board: On weekends, it's fun to.... Students submit different ideas. Based on the idea, you continue writing as a group. The students' contributions shape the final written result.

Collaborative writing projects are tremendously enriching for ESL students. The focus is placed less on the teacher and more on the students' learning experience. We are not there to hand down or deliver knowledge. We are there to facilitate learning and guide students in their efforts.

Students may collaborate over 15 minutes or over several days. The important thing is not the how long or the how, but rather the what they produce. It will be a unique piece, the fruit of their labor, but also a meaningful learning experience they have cultivated together.

If you have experience with collaborative writing tasks, share your experience below!

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7 Ways to Get Students to Collaborate in Interactive Writing

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by Claudia Pesce 15,943 views And this couldn't be more true of ESL students today. Learning English is more than a series of acquisitions that a student obtains alone. It's more than a list of words or grammar structures that an individual must grasp in order to communicate effectively in English.

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Pre-reading activities may be designed to motivate student interest, activate prior knowledge, or pre-teach potentially difficult concepts and vocabulary. This is also a great opportunity to introduce comprehension components such as cause and effect, compare and contrast, personification, main idea, sequencing, and others.

How pre-reading relates to ELLs

English language learners (ELLs) have great difficulty jumping into new texts without any background support. Students should know at least something about the topic before reading. Some topics may be unfamiliar to students, such as recreational activities at the beach if students have never been to the beach before. Pictures, drawings, or short skits can help develop relevant background information.

Students need to know at least 90 to 95% of the words they read if they are going to comprehend the text. Therefore, it is important to use several strategies to build background knowledge that leads to better reading comprehension and overall achievement for ELLs. It doesn't hurt to review many words we often take for granted - not only for the benefit of ELLs, but also for students who may not come to school with a rich vocabulary background or exposure to certain experiences.

Pre-reading strategies to increase comprehension

Before reading a selection aloud or before students read a text, try taking seven to ten minutes to build word and background knowledge. This should increase all students' comprehension of the text.

Begin by reviewing the selection and identifying the main concepts you want to teach. Take into account your students' potential knowledge of these concepts, including your ELLs. Decide how you might best make these concepts relevant and accessible to all of your students. This might be through a film, discussion, student reading assignment, or a text read by you. Try using a combination of three or four of the following strategies:

Do motivating activities

You can use any activity that interests students in the text and motivates them to read it. For example, you can bring a real frog to class before reading a frog story.

Build text-specific knowledge

Activate students' prior knowledge of a topic so that they can consciously use it as they read their text. For example, before reading a text with a jungle as the setting, ask students what they already know about jungles and discuss.

Relate to students' lives

This is a powerful way to motivate students to read and to help them understand what they will be reading. Before reading a story about winning and losing a race, for example, you might want to have your students reflect on the times they have won or lost a race or a contest.

Pre-teach vocabulary

In addition to pre-teaching traditional vocabulary words, include words that convey concepts that ELLs already know. For example, students may know the concept of finding something, but do not know the word find or finding. Write these words on the board and review with the class.

Pre-teach concepts

There are times when not only ELLs but all students need to learn new and possibly difficult ideas or concepts. For example, the concepts of democracy or envy may be difficult for all young children to understand at first. Give examples that your students can relate to.

Predicting and direction setting

You can focus students' attention on what is important to look for as they read their text. Making predictions about what might happen in the book gives students a purpose for reading. Setting a direction means using questions that peak students' interest. It also means focusing students on the purpose for the reading. For example, "Today we are going to read about differences in climates and regions. Let's read first about the climate in our community."

Suggest comprehension strategies

Before reading the text, make students aware of what they should be looking for. If you want them to identify cause and effect, point out several examples of this beforehand. For example, you can talk about the story of Jumanji, which has several examples of cause and effect. When one of the children rolls the dice, it causes something to happen in the house.

Other ideas

You can also engage students by:

1. Showing a film on a related topic.

2. Conducting an experiment.

3. Going on a field trip.

4. Asking students to bring something related to "show and tell."

Be sure to connect everything back to the main concepts, key vocabulary, and/or comprehension skills that will be encountered.

Classroom Video: Story setup & pre-reading strategies

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Pre-reading activities may be designed to motivate student interest, activate prior knowledge, or pre-teach potentially difficult concepts and vocabulary. This is also a great opportunity to introduce comprehension components such as cause and effect, compare and contrast, personification, main idea, sequencing, and others.