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What's the difference between Mozart and Pavarotti? Well, one was a child prodigy and composer who systematically learned the rules of music at an early age - the other, a pitch-perfect expert at mimicry.

Singers have a knack for foreign languages, most notably when it comes to pronunciation and accent because, like parrots, they mimic what they hear. It's something that Pavarotti, who couldn't read sheet music, did with his operatic singing.

"The singer is the best with the accent," says Susanne Reiterer, a neurolinguistics researcher at the University of Vienna in Austria. "A foreign accent is a piece of cake for them."

Studies reveal that Heschl's gyrus , a type of ridge on the brain's surface that contains the primary auditory cortex, plays a significant role in musical aptitude and language aptitude , especially when there are a higher number of gyri. So some researchers believe that, based on the structure of the brain, some are simply born to be musicians. "Talking uses the same biological makeup as singing, so it must be related biologically and neurobiologically," Reiterer says. "It's almost like two sides of one coin."

C López Ramón Y Cajal, a descendant of Santiago Ramón y Cajal - the founder of modern neurobiology - found that the gyri are formed mid-pregnancy and continue to grow as the fetus develops, as reported in Medical Hypotheses article.

Rehearsing and training over time have an impact on the brain, but Reiterer says biology also plays a leading role. "You can change a lot by rehearsing, but something is pre-given as well," Reiterer adds. "It's 50/50 genes and environment, and if you have a strong pre-disposition [musically] then you have more power basically in your auditory areas. You can discriminate sounds better."

In Reiterer's 2015 Frontiers in Human Neuroscience study, 96 participants categorized as instrumentalists, vocalists and non-musicians were tested for their abilities to imitate a language unknown to them - in this case, Hindi. Her team vocalists had an advantage over instrumentalists, as they outperformed them in foreign language imitation, but both vocalists and instrumentalists outperformed non-musicians. This research also suggested that vocal motor training may allow singers to learn a language faster.

And when children experience music early on in life, they're able to achieve lifelong neuroplasticity, Nina Kraus, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University, and co-author Travis White-Schwoch in American Scientist. At Northwestern's Brainvolts lab, this team also found that the more musicians play, the more they benefit: Speech-sound processing ability builds up across one's lifespan . Musicians exhibited better attention, sharper working memory, and better neural speech-sound processing as the number of practicing years increased.

Even in the early 2000s , research suggested that long-term training in music and pitch recognition allows a person to better process the pitch patterns of a foreign language, a concept that Reiterer also explored in an Annual Review of Applied Linguistics article published this March.

Reiterer has also investigated how a person's initial aptitude develops due to factors such as biological maturing, socio-cultural factors and musical ability, to name a few, as reported in a May 2021 Neurobiology of Language article .

"It's the body that feels where I have to move my tongue," Reiterer says. "And this feeling has a correlation in the brain, proprioception. That is the key to good pronunciation and the key to a good singer."

So, for those tapping into both language and music - things just click.

The 'Pavarottis' Putting It Into Practice

Eli Zaelo, the first Black woman in history to write and release music in Mandarin, can speak to this phenomenon. The South African singer grew up listening to the diaphragm-savvy artists Beyoncé and Whitney Houston, and she speaks English, Afrikaans, Tswana, Zulu and Mandarin.

"[With] singing, I don't really have a limit," Zaelo says. "Once I connect to the meaning of the song, then I can challenge myself to sing it."

A musician's ability to recognize pitch could be especially useful when learning tonal languages like Mandarin, Cantonese, Thai, Zulu or Punjabi, as tonal language speakers were found to have a better ear for learning musical notes.

"I would say music is the foundation for me to learn languages. Once the melody comes in, then it just becomes easier for me," she explains.

Singer-songwriter Nina Joory was motivated to learn Spanish to connect with others in the industry. "Music pushed me to learn Spanish," she says. "I was hungry for it, you know? I was eager to be part of this huge movement that is Latin music right now."

This hunger or desire to continue to learn a language may relate to something researchers refer to as the "pleasure loop," or "compulsion loop," meaning that a person will continue to perform an action to evoke feelings of pleasure and receive the dose of dopamine it releases in the brain. In this case, language learners may have more motivation to continue, especially if they have successful experiences. "It seems language and music at the same time make people somehow happy," Reiterer says. "You get a neurobiological reward by knowing things."

While studying at Berklee College of Music, Joory grew interested in and reggaeton. With English, Portuguese and French already under her belt, the Brazilian-Swiss singer turned to her classmates for help with Spanish. A year or so later, she was conversing and writing songs in Spanish, and eventually releasing music videos in the language.

Like Joory, multilingual singer Daniel Emmet is already working on his next tongue.

Based in Las Vegas, the classical crossover artist grew up listening to Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban and Lara Fabian, who tend to sing with tall "ahs," rounded "ohs," and crisp diction. And in 2018, he competed for national recognition on America's Got Talent. Now that he's releasing new music, Emmet is exploring new ways to give the classics a twist.

"Something that I've always loved doing is taking popular music in the U.S. and performing them in a different language," he says. "It can add new depths that maybe weren't there before."

Emmet feels musicians and singers have a leg up in understanding the nuances of a language. And science says he's right. Even passive musicians who have the ability to discriminate sounds but may not have the time or resources to extensively train can use this to their advantage, according to Reiterer.

"From the perspective of a singer, because languages are so sound-driven, it's all vocal work," Emmet says. "With all the ear training that we do, I think that really gives us an unfair head start into learning a new language and connecting the dots between all those sounds and how they work together."

Though he sings in seven languages, Emmet says he'll always be in a state of learning.

"I don't know that I'll ever be what other people would call 'fluent' in a language because there's always something new to learn,'' he says. "In music, you're only as good as your last show. And in languages, I guess you're only as good as your last conversation."

For these multilingual musicians, language helps them see the world as they tour, produce new work, and meet other songbirds. It seems that in a world full of rule-followers, it pays to be a Pavarotti.

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The Scientific Reason Singers Have a Knack for Language

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What's the difference between Mozart and Pavarotti? Well, one was a child prodigy and composer who systematically learned the rules of music at an early age - the other, a pitch-perfect expert at mimicry. Singers have a knack for foreign languages, most notably when it comes to pronunciation and accent because, like parrots, they mimic what they hear.

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Serving Multilingual Learners of All Ages

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Valentina: Libby, I was inspired by a photograph you shared on Twitter shared in April which currently has over 1.1K likes.

But before we get into that project specifically, can you tell us a bit about your teaching circumstances and the work you do with students in South Korea? How long have you been teaching there? What language(s) do you teach art in? Do you speak English and Korean?

Thank you so much for reaching out to me from across the globe. :) I live in Seoul, South Korea with my husband and three children. I am currently teaching Art to Middle School students (6th, 7th and 8th grade) at Seoul Foreign School. We are in our third month of teaching virtually as I write this, but with hopes of returning to the classroom soon! My husband and I have been living and working internationally for 19 years. This is our third year in Korea. Prior to living in South Korea, we called Kentucky, Kenya, Qatar, India and Norway home.

Students in international schools come from all over the world and while these students often speak multiple languages, the instruction at the schools where we have worked has always been in English. I wish I could speak Korean, but not yet unfortunately.

Valentina: Wow, that's fascinating. I can only imagine the rich cultural experiences! You asked your students to create #virtuallearningportraits. Can you tell us how this idea came about?

Libby: Sure! I love photography and had remembered seeing the work of photographer Gregg Segal. He did a series called Daily Bread, photographing children around the world with the food they eat over the course of one week. I thought these photos were not only visually stunning but very powerful in what they portrayed.

This series gave me the idea for the Virtual Learning Portraits and how we could create similar portraits, but showing what items are essential for us during virtual learning. I loved the idea of students giving a glimpse into their daily lives and I also knew it would be a reflective activity to think through what's really important to them on a daily basis. I knew I was asking them to be somewhat vulnerable by photographing themselves and that is why I knew it would be really important for me to do this project first and provide my example to my students. So, I created a video of the process and a final photo to share with them. I think this is always the best thing to do... actually DO the project or assignment that we ask our students to do, but especially with this one.

Libby: I asked my students to collect at least 15 items that have been most important to them during virtual learning and take a "bird's eye view" photo of themselves surrounded by these items, keeping in mind the photos of Gregg Segal.

I'm very happy to share the directions I gave my students. I often use Google Slides to create the directions for my projects. Here is the slide presentation for the Virtual Learning Portraits.

If anyone is interested in doing this project with their students, it should be easy enough to "make a copy" and then edit the slides to work best for them.

Valentina: Thank you for sharing with everyone. I am a big advocate of sharing resources for the greater good!
So how did students respond? And was the response typical or similar to other projects that you've done?

Libby: My students did a fantastic job with this project. I told them they would most likely need someone to help them take the photo, due to the angle and because they need to be in the photo. I am very fortunate in that I work with students that are eager to learn and complete their projects. The thing that was different about this project was that I was asking them to photograph themselves and give us a glimpse into their homes and personal life. I knew this would make some of them feel uncomfortable, but I also knew that this vulnerability is what often allows us to connect with one another.

One interesting thing to point out is that I haven't had these students in the physical classroom yet. We went to virtual learning and then two weeks later I got all new students, so I feel like they were especially courageous with this project since we hadn't even met in the physical classroom together. I know most of my 7th and 8th graders from last year, but all of my 6th graders are new to me.

Valentina: I am blown away by this, Libby! I love how vulnerability plays a part in this project. You hit the nail on the head. It did take courage for them to share who they are, especially those new students who had not yet been in the physical classroom with each other yet. Once students completed their virtual learning portraits, how did they share them with each other?

Libby: My students submit all of their work in Google Classroom and this works really well for us. However, this only allows me to see their work. If we were meeting at school, I would print their work and put it on display around the building (which hopefully I will still be able to do before the end of the year). So, other than sharing some of these photos out on Instagram for my students to see, they've not been able to see each other's work like I would hope. I did recently do a virtual gallery tour of the work posted on our Instagram account so all of my students could get a glimpse of what their classmates are creating (especially for those that are not on Instagram).

Valentina: I'm sure they enjoyed seeing each other's work! Libby, there was a big response on social media to your project. Why do you think people are drawn to this one specifically?

Libby: Yes, this has been so exciting to see and I love that teachers are willing to share their virtual learning portraits from all around the world. It's really been incredible. I believe there has been such a big response to this project because it is something that everyone can relate to at this specific moment in time. I also think that vulnerability that I mentioned earlier draws us to the photos. We get a small glimpse into someone else's life and find commonalities, simply in the fact that we are all stuck at home and dependent each day on certain items.

Libby: I really think it's incredible how this project is resonating with so many people. The online educator community has been wonderful and so supportive during this challenging time. I have relied on so many others throughout my teaching career and to be able to "give back" a little is a great feeling. While Gregg Segal has a book featuring photos from his Daily Bread series, I think it would be amazing to publish a book featuring all of these virtual learning portraits from around the world. I think that could be really powerful and a great way to document this significant time in history.

Valentina: You should DEFINITELY publish a book like this! It will be a great documentary of what life was like for students during COVID19. Get the ball rolling!
Libby, what role do you think art plays in language development? How do you embed listening, speaking, reading, and writing into art?

Libby: I see art as a universal language and know that it can be a very powerful way to communicate when there is no other common language. This is why you can go into an art gallery anywhere in the world and be equally impacted by what you see as anyone else that views the same artwork, whether you speak the same language or not. I'm sure every Music and Drama teacher would say the same thing about what they teach. :)

Learning to express ourselves artistically helps externalize our feelings in ways we might not be able to even if we do speak the same language. I see this in my classroom all the time. I learn so much about my students through the artwork they create! It opens doors for further conversations about who they are, what inspired their work and the decisions they made while creating.

You asked how I embed listening, speaking, reading and writing into art.

Valentina: I am inspired by your response. Honestly. It's so wonderful to hear how art and language are deeply tied. They are inseparable. For many students, English learners or not, art and expression through arts is critical to academic success.
How do you incorporate students' culture into the work they do?

Libby: This is something that is really important to me. I was a "third culture kid" growing up, having moved from Kentucky to the Democratic Republic of Congo at 12 years old and attending boarding school in Kenya. I understand the importance of culture and how this impacts who we are and in turn, impacts the art we create. I highly value the stories and experiences that each student brings to the learning environment in the classroom. This is what makes this space exciting, diverse and rich for learning empathy, creativity and kindness toward others. We have so much to learn from each other and combining our stories, experiences and artwork together is so powerful.

When I create projects I try to allow choice as much as possible to allow students the freedom to express themselves and things that are important to them. I emphasize to my students that creating in connection with what is important to them will make the whole creation process so much more enjoyable, and more meaningful. I also try to highlight a variety of art and artists, especially from the country/location where I am teaching. I hope to expose my students to a wide variety of inspiration and give them the opportunity to share what inspires them as well.

Who wouldn't want to be an art student in Libby's classroom? Thank you, Libby, for giving us a glimpse into your virtual learning portraits and into your work with students. You inspire me!

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Valentina: Libby, I was inspired by a photograph you shared on Twitter shared in April which currently has over 1.1K likes. But before we get into that project specifically, can you tell us a bit about your teaching circumstances and the work you do with students in South Korea?

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[Ed note: The author would like to acknowledge that the rose-colored recollections you are about to read are heavily influenced by a lack of daily interaction with adolescents. She recognizes that all teens seem delightful when you don't have to teach (or smell) them on a daily basis and that she might disavow this ode to puberty the second she was again subjected to it every day.]
You guys, I love middle school kids so much. The awkwardness and the angst, the constant physical and mental transformations that leave them so confused and so, so irritated by every single stimulus in their environment...what a magical time those middle grades are, developmentally speaking.

A couple of years ago I was waxing poetic about this age group to a middle school audience, and as I looked around I could feel that the energy in the room needed a little boost. We were covering content and language objectives, it was in the middle of the back-to-school crunch, it was after 2:00 p.m., and did I mention they were middle school teachers? For better or worse, middle school teachers are honest, and through small outbreaks of side-talk and the uptick in cellphone gazing, my group was telling me they were honestly over it. As I thought about all the ways their behavior resembled that of their students, it occurred to me that recreating the awkwardness of a middle school dance might be the jolt of energy we all needed to refocus. And while this strategy for sharing short snippets or responses was inspired by the unfortunate, tortured souls immersed in the social, emotional, and physical gauntlet that is early adolescence, it works with groups at any age level.

Middle School Dance is an opportunity for students to review concepts, quiz each other on vocabulary, or simply share their thoughts in a one-sentence format that encourages concise expression. The strategy works in any content area and at any point in the lesson cycle. After writing, students exchange their responses with various partners, during which time they engage in listening, speaking, and reading; thus using all four domains of language and accelerating language acquisition.

Prior to beginning the activity, create pathways around the room or relocate students to an obstacle-free environment. Review the norms, directions, and expected outcomes from this activity.

Give students a prompt or question, and have them write their responses on post-it notes or index cards, checking for legibility and content so that students will understand the importance of contributing a quality response that can be deciphered without assistance.

Have each student stand, holding his/her written response, and wait for the music to begin.

While the music plays, have students move freely and independently around the room, but remind them that they must stare at the ground while walking.

When the music stops, have students look up and make eye contact with someone. The person with whom they first make eye contact becomes their partner.*

Ask partners to meet halfway between their locations and take turns reading their responses aloud.

Then, have partners exchange post-it notes and wait for the music to resume. Each time a partnership forms, the students trade responses. (You'll need to remind students of this several times.)

The activity continues until you play the "Slow Jam," a.k.a. the last dance of the night. After the music stops and students find partners and exchange responses, have them return to their seats.

As an extension, you can have students conclude the activity by forming small groups, choosing the best sentence in each group, and reading those examples aloud. This allows for formative assessment and for anonymous praise, which can be very well received by some students.

*This is a mixer strategy built around short exchanges with numerous, random partners. Given the romantic overtones that accompany the mere suggestion of a middle school dance, it is essential that a climate of respect be established prior to undertaking this activity. Setting these expectations will help mitigate any negative social outcomes that might otherwise occur. Students should also be reminded that all pairings are random and (whether the pairings are same sex or opposite sex pairings) should remain free of physical contact.

1. It celebrates awkwardness.

Kids are awkward - all the time, at all the ages, and in all the ways. During this activity, we embrace their natural awkwardness, giving everyone implicit permission to be a little bit goofy. This has great stress-relieving benefits for those who are able to relax and move a little to the music. (And why not, since no one is watching?)

2. Brains like music.

Our ability to create and to respond to music predates almost all spoken language. Research shows that early humans used music and dance to express a greater range of ideas and emotions than could be conveyed via words, and while verbal communication has evolved markedly since those times, it still cannot hold a candle to the evocative and expressive capabilities of music. Tapping into that ancient connection gives ELs with limited verbal communication an alternative way to participate in a shared emotional experience and response that exists independent of language.

Musical appreciation matters.

I'm not here to talk about exactly how old I am (and I'm assuming you're not either, because that would be pretty weird), but suffice it to say I'm right around the age when one realizes the music that kids listen to now is pure noise. We can't tell them that, though, or we will immediately sound like we are ordering them off our lawns. What we do is expose them to the classics while allowing opportunities for them to try and change our minds by submitting (clean) suggestions for the next dance via link or post-it note. As a bonus, we can learn about their personalities from the suggestions - especially when it comes to their recommendations for "Slow Jams."

If you try Middle School Dance, comment below or tweet us (@Seidlitz_Ed), and let us know how it worked for you!
Tina Beene is a trainer with Seidlitz and the author of Teaching Social Studies to ELLs, a practical approach to supporting ELs in the social studies classroom . For more strategies like this one designed to help your students engage with content in your classroom, check out her book in the Seidlitz store, or register to attend her upcoming training in the DFW area

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Ed note: The author would like to acknowledge that the rose-colored recollections you are about to read are heavily influenced by a lack of daily interaction with adolescents. She recognizes that all teens seem delightful when you don't have to teach (or smell) them on a daily basis and that she might disavow this ode...

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by Valentina Gonzalez

Many children count the minutes until their art, music, or physical education (PE) class period begins. This could be their time to shine, where they find inspiration or feel the safest. On the other hand, some students dread going to these same classes. They might feel insecure about their skills, shrink in the environment because they don't understand, or feel as if they aren't seen or valued.

Dr. Brené Brown says, "Those who have a strong sense of love and belonging have the courage to be imperfect." Students need to know that it's okay to make mistakes. Those mistakes are part of the process, both in language and in learning art, music, and PE. In fact, creating environments that immerse students in engaging conversations can promote a sense of belonging in art, music, and PE classrooms while building language and skills to succeed.

Two ingredients are essential for acquiring language: comprehensible input (Krashen, 2017) and multiple opportunities for low-stress output (Loewen & Sato, 2018). This means that students must understand what they hear or read and have opportunities to express themselves verbally or in writing in safe, risk-free environments. Art, music, and PE can be great places to provide these opportunities for students. The four ideas below bring comprehensible input and low-stress output into art, music, or PE. They will enhance language acquisition for English learners, but they are effective for all students too.

1. Bring in Books

Consider the unit of study, and grab all the books available on that concept. Bring them into the classroom, and make them available to students. Try sharing one as a read-aloud at the beginning or the end of the class period. If it's a long book, read an excerpt. Do a book talk on a given day. For example, on "Book Talk Tuesday," select a book to tell students about. These techniques encourage reading and get students excited about the topic, too. The campus library media specialist is a great resource for books. Some teachers regularly collaborate with the campus library media specialist on finding books to complement the units of study.

2. Incorporate Group or Partner Talk

Make peer-to-peer interaction a priority. Intentionally plan opportunities for students to put their heads together and discuss a question, image, song, or topic. In this article, Nancy Motley shares how to "Target the Talk." A good tip Motley offers for effective group or partner talk is setting clear criteria and modeling them before students begin. For instance, be sure students know who their group or partners are and what the speaking expectations are. Some teachers number students off and ask students to share numerically in groups. Another effective technique for structuring peer talk is QSSSA, which is similar to turn and talk but incorporates wait time, sentence stems, accountability, and more to deepen the conversational routine.

3. Provide Sentence Stems

A sentence stem (also known as a sentence starter) is merely the beginning of an answer, provided to help students express a thought in a complete sentence. Sentence stems capitalize on what is known about the importance of verbalizing to internalize. When asking students to talk with partners in a group or answer a question verbally, sentence stems provide inertia to communicate the thought effectively.

The artist wanted to convey...
The image makes me think...
I think the mood is...
One message I see in this painting is...
A detail I notice in the artwork is...
This artwork makes me think...
The art I like most is...

The musician wants to convey...
The piece makes me think...
I think the mood is...
One message I hear in this piece is...
The instrument that is most significant to me is...because...
This music makes me think...
In my home, we listen to...

One important sport in my family is...
To be healthy, the body needs...
A healthy body needs...
In my home, we eat...
One way to stay active is...
An example of a team sport is...
Being a good team member means...

Encourage students to add "because," "however," "furthermore," or "in addition" to elaborate on their thoughts.

Put Up a Thematic, Interactive Word Wall

Interactive word walls that are unit-based, thematic, and visual help to link knowledge and make instruction more comprehensible. Word walls are not limited to reading, writing, math, and science classrooms. They are actually very powerful in any classroom.

Image a gym where second-grade students are learning about the elements of movement. PE teachers have designated a section of the wall for a word wall titled "Movement with a Purpose." Under the title are five columns: Balancing, Throwing, Skipping, Running, and Jumping. During the unit, students and teachers add pictures and words to the columns on the word wall. They also include sentence stems, such as, "Five types of movement are...", "___ is a movement that helps me..." and "When I ___, I move my...."

An overarching goal in education is to help students think and communicate effectively. Art, music, and PE classrooms that offer opportunities to develop language allow students to negotiate for meaning, talk to peers, and dig deep into ideas. Cultivating language in art, music, and PE classrooms helps all students build effective communication skills that they can apply in content classrooms and everyday life.

Art, music, or PE teachers who would like to learn more about engaging instructional methods that increase participation while cultivating a language-rich classroom, can inquire about the 7 Steps to a Language-Rich, Interactive Classroom book and professional learning opportunities.

References

​​Krashen, S. (2017). The case for comprehensible input. Language Magazine. Retrieved 2021, from https://www.languagemagazine.com/2017/07/17/case-for-comprehension/.&nbsp;

Loewen, S. & Sato, M. (2018). Interaction and instructed second language acquisition. Language Teaching. 51. 285-329. 10.1017/S0261444818000125.

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Four Ways Art, Music, and PE Teachers Can Make Language Flourish

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by Valentina Gonzalez Many children count the minutes until their art, music, or physical education (PE) class period begins. This could be their time to shine, where they find inspiration or feel the safest. On the other hand, some students dread going to these same classes.

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by Valentina Gonzalez

On an average Uber drive in the fall of 2021, I sat in the backseat listening to the music from the radio, trying to figure out the language. It somehow sounded familiar and also brought me back to my childhood memories. As the car pulled up to my destination, I thanked the driver and asked him about the music. He proudly told me it was Greek, and it was the sixth language he was learning through music. At that moment, I began to kick myself for not inquiring earlier. Now I wanted to know more. I had so many questions for the seemingly ordinary Uber driver who was actually extraordinary.

Does music really facilitate language development? And if so, how? In a Review of Research on the Effects of Music upon Second Language Acquisition, Amin and Soh (2020) share the effects of the patterns and the rhythm and repetitive nature of songs:

Stimulate the whole brain

Create an avenue for low-stress output

Provide practice in producing words and sounds

Facilitate retention of words and content

Facilitate comprehension of words and content

Overall, music is an excellent way to expose emergent bilinguals to new vocabulary and content in the language of instruction. There are numerous ways to incorporate music into daily routines and practice. Let's look at three specific strategies teachers can use in any grade level and with heterogeneous classrooms or small groups of only emergent bilingual students.

Compose songs as a class. While singing has been a popular and common practice in primary grades, it's not regularly seen in classrooms as students grow older. Yet, people of all ages continue to enjoy music even as they age into adulthood and beyond. Tunes are memorable, and they can evoke emotion and creativity. One way to leverage these great music assets is by composing songs with our students. Dr. Lora Beth Escalante, the author of Motivating ELLs, explains on page 39 how students can use a popular tune or song to create lyrics that relate to the content objectives. This process engages learners quickly as they work together in groups or as a class to embed critical vocabulary and concepts into the lyrics. These songs can be repeated, read, or sung together or independently, promoting language development and literacy.

Share meaningful songs. Because we know that "music is so important to human beings" and that "every culture and generation has music that is appealing and that awakens the spirit," we can use music as a conduit for relationship building, too (Escalante 2018 p 37). Noa Daniel, an innovative classroom teacher, blogger, and author in Canada does just that with something she calls "The Personal Soundtrack" or "The Personal Playlist." Students sign up to present three songs (one that is nostalgic, one related to their identity, and one that inspires them). Some students even share songs in languages other than English. This authentic experience allows a safe place for students to discover and reveal who they are while building community and empathy. Noa said in her TEDTalk that "our shared humanity connects us through our narrative." When students share the songs and music that are most meaningful to them, we begin to hear their stories, and we begin to know one another at more intimate levels.

Use music during transitions. Music has a wonderful capability to evoke a variety of emotions. Knowing this, we can use music to relax learners during stressful or unsettling times. For example, playing calming music before an exam, after recess, or as we re-enter the room following a fire drill can change the atmosphere and reduce stress. Some teachers also use music routinely to indicate when it's time to line up or switch classes. Tina Beene, author of Teaching Social Studies to English Language Learners, describes the Middle School Dance, a simple yet fun and effective way to have students pair up and hold academic discussions. She incorporates music into the structure to provide a relaxed environment and increase student engagement. Teachers who use music in the classroom for transitions have shared that varying the genres and offering music from around the world has boosted classroom conversations and bonded students.

Music is fun! Children love music long before they walk through our classroom doors, and most of them hear it at home, in car rides, while singing with family, and more. " Our ability to create and to respond to music predates almost all spoken language," says Tina Beene. Teachers can easily apply the practicality of music in their daily instructional routines to increase language development and content attainment.

Let's circle back. Remember the multilingual Uber driver? Well, unfortunately, my questions for him went unanswered. Still I walked away reflecting on the power of music, the role music plays in my own life, how I've used music in my work with emergent bilingual students, and also the music lessons I've learned from colleagues in the field. Ultimately that ride in the Uber brought to my attention the power music has to build language and build bonds and connections amongst seemingly different individuals.

Valentina Gonzalez is a content creator and educational consultant for Seidlitz Education, and the co-author of Reading & Writing with English Learners: A Framework for K-5.

Published

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Music to My Ears: 3 Powerful Methods for Using Music in Classrooms with Emergent Bilinguals

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by Valentina Gonzalez On an average Uber drive in the fall of 2021, I sat in the backseat listening to the music from the radio, trying to figure out the language. It somehow sounded familiar and also brought me back to my childhood memories. As the car pulled up to my destination, I thanked the...

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How music can help kids learn literacy skills - MindShift

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One of the many benefits of music education is the way it can help with reading and language skills.

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REFERENCES

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aera (iPosterSessions - an aMuze! Interactive system)

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by Michelle Gill

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Dr. Stephen Fleenor

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Randomizing is More Important Now than Ever

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Randomizing is More Important Now than Ever

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Dr. Fleenor

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by Dr. Stephen Fleenor The COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020-2021 school year has brought disruptions and frustrations to the lives of teachers, students, and parents like nothing we have experienc…

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The spinner activity can display up to four spinners. These can be used as random number generators in lessons. With the built in activities you can practice BODMAS, algebraic substitution or challenge students to find the rule to produce a result using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Controlling the virtual manipulative

Click the spin button to spin the sliders. You can change the number of spinners shown by clicking the number selector in the top right hand corner. Initially six sided hexagon spinners are shown which are useful to simulate dice. To change the number of sides for the spinners make sure you have selected settings mode and then drag the sliders to new values. The slider max value is 12, but if you click on the number you can enter your own manually, although in practice 50 is about the maximum number that visually fit on the spinner.

Edit mode

In edit mode, you can use the probability spinner however you want. For example to generate random numbers, or probability experiments. In this mode the controls to change the number of sides on each spinner are visible.

The game modes use the spinner values, this means that they really require at least two spinners and the challenges are hardest with four spinners. In the game modes your can change the time limit to reflect the difficulty. There is also an option to not allow negative numbers occuring in the calculation, click the control to toggle negatives on or off.

Finding the rule game

The rule guess game is not too dissimilar to the countdown game shown on British TV. First select 'find rule' from the select control and press the spin button. When the spinners have stopped you will see a target number in the bottom right of the screen. The aim of the game is to use the operators Ã—,+,- to reach the number using each spinner value once and once only. Note the number is always attainable and obviously there might be more than one way to get the result. You can see the way the computer calculated the result by clicking the expression above the target number. To view the calculation in algebraic notation click algebraic expression. The first spinner is letter a, second letter b, third c and fourth d.

Calculate Mode

First select 'calculate' from the select control followed by spin. When the spinners have stopped a calculation is revealed using their values. The students can work out the answer. To show the answer click the answer

Substitution Mode

This mode works in a way similar to the calculate mode, but an algebraic expression is shown. The students need to substitute the letters using the spinner values. The completed substitution can be clicked to reveal it, followed by the answer. This is a great way to slowly introduce some algebra with just two spinners, but slowly build up over time to use the four spinner, which can produce more complex expressions.

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Probability spinner, adjustable classroom random number spinners

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Random spinners can be used to generate random numbers, display one to four spinners and adjust the numbers. Contains classroom game find a number using 4 rules or by substituting into an algebraic expression.

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by Valentina Gonzalez

Andrea was a new immigrant. Her family had just arrived from Venezuela in January, and she was enrolled in third grade right away. She was a fluent Spanish speaker, completely capable of doing third-grade level work in Spanish. Back home, she excelled in school. On the other hand, this was her first experience with English in a classroom setting, and she was not in a bilingual program. Although Andrea's teacher was ESL certified, he did not speak Spanish. During the first few weeks of school, Andrea's teacher found it difficult to figure out what Andrea understood during instruction. She seemed lost and unsure. Andrea's teacher often went through lessons and watched Andrea in hopes that he could see if she was following along. But it only became clear when she began to do independent work that Andrea did not understand the lesson. Through all of this, Andrea herself felt defeated, sad, and as if she lacked the ability to learn.
Sound familiar?

This Is a Problem

Andrea was not my student, but I have had my own experiences (both as an ESL student and as a teacher) similar to hers. What I discovered was that the lack of immediate and timely feedback during instruction was the problem.

Even the smallest feedback can provide information that can prompt the teacher to change the course of instruction in order to increase learning. The power of gauging where students stand during a lesson is very important when working with English learners who are trying to learn content and develop language simultaneously.

If we don't stop frequently to find out how students are doing, gaps in learning will emerge and may continue to widen the longer we go without stopping to gauge understanding.

A Solution that Closes Gaps

Total response signals can help teachers quickly and effectively engage students while also gathering formative information. This enables teachers to discover what students know (or don't know) on the spot. Total response signals are nothing new in instructional practices; they have been around for many years, and lots of teachers are using them but may not know what they are called. Sometimes they are confused with Total Physical Response (TPR), which I wrote about here.

The most effectively used total response signals are intentional and planned. But honestly, I've seen some pretty good ones that were on the fly, too! In the book 7 Steps to a Language Rich, Interactive Classroom, Seidlitz and Perryman write that "total response signals enable us to consistently check for student understanding" (p.30). If we know what our students know, we can certainly do a better job of guiding and facilitating their instruction.

Think back to the example of Andrea at the beginning of this blog. Stopping occasionally during instruction to gauge her understanding would have made an impact on her teacher's next steps, and in the end Andrea's content and language progress might have been accelerated. In addition, knowing that her teacher cared about her instruction and whether or not she was comprehending the content might have made her feel safer. This has the added bonus of increasing her chances of learning and retaining new information.

Total Response Signals in Face-to-Face or Virtual Classrooms

Probably one of the most common total response signals is something similar to "put your pencils down when you're finished." But let's focus on a few other powerful total response signals that can not only include all students but also inform instruction and help close gaps.

Below you'll find a chart with total response signals for face to face or virtual classrooms.

Written Response
Students write their response on a sticky note, index card, or paper and hold it up when they are finished

Same, OR students write their response in the chat, on padlet, menti.com, jamboard, or polleverywhere.com.

Ready Response
Students show they have finished a task by standing when they are ready, closing their books, or putting their pens on their papers.

Same, OR students show they have finished a task by typing YES in the chat.

Making Choices
Students have letter cards with A,B,C,D and hold up their response when ready.

The teacher provides choices A,B,C,D and students type their choices in the chat or show their response on a piece of paper.

Ranking
Students rank with their fingers 0-5 to show their understanding of or agreement with a statement.

Same, OR students rank on a menti.com or polleverywhere.com

For more examples of each type of total response signal see page 31 of 7 Steps to a Language, Rich-Interactive Classroom.

One way I've successfully used total response signals to catch gaps before they widen is through "Written Responses." At the end of a lesson, I ask students to write a ticket out. Then I gather those Written Responses and divide them into three groups: Group 1: Reteach, Group 2: Review, Group 3: Enrich. This process helps drive instruction for the next time we meet.

I also love using "Making Choices" because it's quick and I can do it on the spot to gauge my own instruction and determine if I need to be more specific or explicit, or reteach the material in a different way. I quickly give students a multiple choice, yes or no, or true or false question and wait to see each students' answers as they hold them up.

Which of these have you tried with your students in traditional classrooms?

A. Written Responses

B. Ready Responses

C. Making Choices

How about virtually? I'd love to hear about what you've tried. Tweet your response using the hashtag #SeidlitzEdChat so we can all see and chime in on the conversation. I can't wait to hear from you.

And finally which of these will you try in the coming week? Just reflect on that one. And then when you do it, give me a shout out on social media or in the comments below.
References
Seidlitz Education. (2019, May 05). Total Physical Response: Learning through Action! Retrieved from https://seidlitzblog.org/2019/05/08/total-physical-response-learning-through-action/

Seidlitz, J., & Perryman, B. (2011). 7 steps to a language-rich interactive classroom: Research-based strategies for engaging all students. Seidlitz Education.

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Gauging Student Understanding With Total Response Signals

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by Valentina Gonzalez Andrea was a new immigrant. Her family had just arrived from Venezuela in January, and she was enrolled in third grade right away. She was a fluent Spanish speaker, completely capable of doing third-grade level work in Spanish. Back home, she excelled in school.

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Observe & Write

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7 Steps to a Language-Rich Interactive Classroom: Classroom Observation

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A MiddleWeb Blog

What do you do when you realize an English learner or any student in your class is having trouble reading on grade level? How do you do support readers and build their confidence so they grow and understand how to unlock the code of reading in English?

Sometimes middle grades students who grapple with reading hide their struggles behind a mask of misbehavior to save face. In order to avoid embarrassment from their peers, it's easier to misbehave than to look "not smart."

The middle grades are sensitive years for kids. They are hyper focused on what their friends think of them. Add to that being an English learner and on top of that a struggling reader, and you might have some challenges.

Whether the students you work with are English learners or native English speakers, the strategies below will provide support for students who are striving to read text on grade level.

Three Methods to Support Readers

1. Provide students with multiple opportunities to hear text

English learners in the middle grades who struggle with reading will benefit from hearing examples of fluent reading frequently. Keep in mind that as you read aloud to students, you are their model for what an expert reader sounds like. Read with expression, be mindful of your phrasing, and take note of the rate at which you read. A read-aloud can take the form of a picture book, a chapter from a book, a poem, a brochure, a passage about history or science, or even a math problem.

When conducting a read aloud, select a text that is relevant and engaging for your group of students. Project the piece so all students can see what you are reading, or provide them each with a copy. As you read it aloud, make your reading strategies visible to the students. Model by thinking aloud your thoughts. Providing opportunities for students to turn and talk with a partner, draw on paper, or act out a scene increases comprehension for English learners.

Another way to involve students in the reading is through echo reading. Echo reading helps students to improve fluency in a safe, risk free setting. Rather than calling on one student at a time to read aloud, the teacher reads a sentence and acts as a model for phrasing and rate. Then students repeat the same sentence, trying to mimic the same phrasing and rate. This technique is highly effective for English learners who are newcomers or at the beginning, entering/emerging levels of language development.

In addition to echo reading, choral reading can provide students with an opportunity to practice reading in a low risk setting while improving fluency. This method is similar to echo reading, but instead of the teacher reading first and then students repeating, everyone reads the same section of text together at the same time.

You might consider selecting a key section of the text to read chorally to highlight a specific feature of the text. Another suggestion is to divide the class in half and assign certain parts of the text to each half. This is especially exciting if the text has dialogue and characters. Essentially, you can create a mini version of a reader's theater experience.

2. Teach students about sight words and high frequency words

Students benefit from being extremely familiar with sight words and high frequency words. These words make up about 50% of the words they see in print. If they can read them with automaticity, they will be more comfortable with reading and be better at comprehending. Students need to be able to read the sight words and high frequency words quickly.

Take a moment to confer with students who are struggling with reading and conduct an inventory of the sight words and high frequency words that they can read quickly. While conferring with students individually, select a set of about 10 words to assess. Decide on a system for practicing the words they can't yet read automatically. Different methods I've seen are notebooks where students recorded the words they needed to practice or a ring/box of index cards.

English learners in the middle grades who lack a grasp of sight words or high frequency words may either be newcomers who are at the beginning or entering stages of language development in English - or they may be students who have been in the United States for several years but haven't had enough practice with reading at their independent level.
[Browse Larry Ferlazzo's "sight words" category for resources.]
They may need direct instruction about sight words. They may need to be told that these words are not words that need to be sounded out. Either way, English learners who need practice with sight words will benefit from time to practice reading books in the classroom with your support and guidance. They may need you to help them select books that are just right for them: books that engage and challenge them as readers, yet are compelling and relevant enough to keep them motivated.

3. Teach students about letters and sounds

English learners who are immigrants, especially during the middle grades, may come to the US with little or no experience with the English language. Take time to assess what students know about the English alphabet. Confer with students individually and ask them to name the letters and their sounds.

Students from other countries may know some or most of the letters and sounds but are unfamiliar with a few. You can take the opportunity to quickly share with students the names and sounds of letters that are new to them. This does not need to be a long lesson, just a few targeted minutes to directly teach. Leave students with an artifact such as a sticky note with the topics discussed. (see example)

If students are familiar with letters and sounds, move to consonant digraphs, blends, and vowel teams. Show students the letter combinations and brainstorm words that have the combinations. Newcomer students may need to translate words into their native language or use a visual as a support.

Keep in mind when asking English learners to read, stay away from questions like, "Does that sound right?" For many English learners, this question may not be fair. To know if something sounds right, I have to have developed an ear for it. Some English learners have not yet been exposed to English language structures enough to have developed that ear to know if it sounds right.

Put yourself in their position. Imagine that you are learning Serbian. You read a sentence. " Trava raste i drva puno lisce." Now the teacher asks you if it sounds right. Would you really know, or would you be trying to guess based on how he/she asked you?

Explicitly teaching about letters and sounds is especially important for students whose primary language is not Latin based or whose language is based on symbols. When students come to us knowing how to read in their native language, we are not necessarily teaching them what reading is and how to do it again. We are unlocking the new language.

Starting points

The instructional methods here are not everything that can help struggling readers. This is a starting point. All students including English learners need to feel encouraged, supported, and confident in themselves. Throughout all that we do with them, we have to strive to make them believe that they can and will improve and grow as readers.

Try out some of these suggestions and let us know what works for your students. Are there other techniques you have found that support English learners who struggle with reading? Please share!

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What If My Middle Level EL Student Can't Read?

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EL specialist Valentina Gonzalez offers strategies to support students who struggle to read text on grade level. It may mean helping "unlock" the new language.

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ELs Writing in Content Classes

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by Carol Salva Is it really a good idea to spend time having students write in content-area classes? The answer is YES! Here are some reasons and a few ideas on how to make writing time practical.
I have been a content-area teacher, both with and without in-class support, and everyone will agree that content teachers have a very heavy load. The stakes are higher than ever, and we could run through a very long list of issues facing teachers today, from grading to insignificant planning time. The issues are real, and time is limited! However, the more I work with teachers, the more I see examples of the value in integrating writing in all content areas.

A Concrete Example from the Field

In our trainings and in our book, Boosting Achievement, Anna Matis and I frequently mention a master teacher, Joseph Maurer. Joseph's math class was an excellent example of how writing and producing language in content areas can boost achievement of all learners. I was fascinated by Joseph's class, not only because he had documented years of impressive standardized assessment scores, but also because this was an anomaly for the area. Joseph taught in an area that was predominantly Hispanic and over 95 percent Free and Reduced Lunch (low socioeconomic status). And yet, he was able to close achievement gaps for so many students.

Mr. Maurer was utilizing several high-impact teaching strategies, but the one that struck me the most was writing. The students in Joseph Maurer's classroom had math journals that were filled with reflective writing about their math learning. There was a great deal of language being used, in class both orally and in writing. I was so thrilled about the learning environment that I requested to have my own son (who is not an English Learner and is gifted in the area of math) placed into Mr. Maurer's Algebra class. Anthony would tell me that Mr. Maurer was a great math teacher and that he let the students talk about math a lot. I noticed that his homework included fewer calculations and more writing reflection with sentence stems such as "I solved this problem by..." "I noticed..."

Mr. Maurer began offering staff development with me, and he strongly recommended that other math teachers incorporate writing into their instructional minutes. In our trainings, he shared that writing is basic to thinking, and according to Fulwiler (1983), writing promotes introspection and speculation. Additionally, in content areas, Fulwiler offers that students can use writing to individualize their instruction. Writing is personalized by nature because the author enters the writing wherever they are in their thinking.

A Practical Approach

Writing to learn in a content classroom need not be time consuming or misaligned with the lesson. For example, students can do a two-minute quick write to reflect or a short journal entry to warm up. Or, a favorite among content teachers is a short writing piece that serves as an Exit Ticket at the end of class. Content teachers have told me that Exit Tickets are valuable for many reasons:

"I get a check for understanding."
"It's a great formative assessment."
"The kids have to think about what we did today."
"I don't care how they write it; I want them to reflect on the science we learned."

YES! These are all great thoughts on how Exit Tickets can be powerful for content-area teachers.

As these comments suggest, writing is already happening as part of many content teachers' pedagogy.

I suggest a simple tweak to the idea of an Exit Ticket to get even more bang for your buck. For any classroom, I suggest that teachers consider framing the lesson so that we begin class by telling students what the Exit Ticket will be and including a sentence stem as part of the Exit Ticket. The sentence starter directs thinking and can help a teacher explain the learning intentions.

If we review the Exit Ticket with the learning targets, now our Exit Ticket is doing "double duty" for content area teachers. Not only will students use writing to reflect, but they also have an opportunity to understand the learning targets from the beginning of the lesson. Reviewing the objectives ahead of time, including the expected Exit Ticket, is a way to communicate the success criteria. It ties to what John Hattie (2009) calls "Teacher Clarity." Hattie describes Teacher Clarity as communicating the learning intentions and success criteria for the learning intentions (Almarode, 2017). His work supports that this effort has a significant effect on learning outcomes.

What About the Student Who Can't Yet Write?

Everyone can reflect. Everyone can put something down on paper. According to Carroll and Wilson in Acts of Teaching (2007), even pre-literate children have intention when they scribble or draw. We want the learners in a safe space to reflect on what they understand, what they wonder, and/or what they are confused about. So allowing any reflections and minimizing corrections of spelling or mechanics can support both content-area learning and writing ability as students internalize the new writing structures they encounter.

The sentence stem we mentioned in the Exit Ticket example above also gives your English learners an opportunity to write a complete academic sentence. If they are just gaining the ability to write (in English or in any language), you're offering them a chance to practice forming English words at the same time. So we allow native language to negotiate meaning, we ask everyone to use the sentence stem, and then we set students off to reflect in a way that most supports their learning.

Am I Supposed to Teach Students How to Write?

Yes, but in a way that makes sense for your subject. Teachers who are unfamiliar with teaching spelling, grammar, and the mechanics of writing need not despair. Spelling, grammar, and mechanics are not the main goal in a content-area classroom. The content is the main goal. Begin with a two-minute quick write, a writing warm up, or the Exit Ticket example above, and be sure to include a sentence stem that includes academic language of your subject. Consider how much language and writing students will produce over the school year if they write just one academic sentence each day. Over 180 days, these structured writing activities will go a long way to teaching the language of any content area...and they should also go a long way in boosting the learning of the entire class.
Read more about writing to learn with emergent English learners.

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by Carol Salva Is it really a good idea to spend time having students write in content-area classes? The answer is YES! Here are some reasons and a few ideas on how to make writing time practical. I have been a content-area teacher, both with and without in-class support, and everyone will agree that content...

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by Valentina Gonzalez

Scaffolds are temporary supports meant to be released when no longer needed. Think of buildings that are under construction. When the building is in the early phases, more scaffolding is necessary to sustain the structure. As the building progresses, less scaffolding is needed. Finally, before the construction is complete, the scaffolding is removed.

Scaffolding our instruction for students, English learners or not, is similar in theory. Assessing when and where the scaffolds are needed, and removing them at the right time is critical. Keeping a scaffold for too long can create a crutch for some, and students may become dependent on scaffolds that remain too long. The goal of a scaffold is to support students toward future independence.

These 8 writing scaffolds can be implemented in any grade level or content area:

1. Sentence Frames

Sentence frames are highly structured. They are basically sentences with fill in the blanks that support students at earlier stages of language proficiency. Here are a few examples of frames:

The ___has ___sides.

The ____revolted against the___.

A ___is larger/smaller than a ____.

2. Sentence Stems

Sometimes sentence stems and sentence frames are used interchangeably. However there a difference between the two. As shown above, a frame provides a tight grammatical structure. A stem, on the other hand, is as the name indicates, just the "stem" or base of a sentence and not a whole sentence. Students must continue the thought. Sentence stems give students just enough structure to begin more elaborate writing. Here are some examples of sentence stems:

Based on the experiment, I can conclude that...

In the beginning I thought..., but now I think...

One way that ___and ___are alike is that....

On the other hand, they are different because...

3. Mentor Texts

Mentor texts are also known as exemplars. They are models of high-quality writing for students. While adult-authored books or articles are often a main source of mentor texts, it is also effective to use high-quality student-authored examples. One teacher I know would save the original student samples of writing to use as exemplars. Another made digital copies. (Either way, always be careful to remove any identifiable information such as names.) Mentor texts set students up for success because they show students what the target is, which makes it much easier to achieve. Sometimes using student-created exemplars makes the target seem more attainable for students.

4. Interactive Word Walls

Interactive Word Walls (IWWs) are large, thematic or unit-based graphic organizers filled with rich vocabulary and visually supported with graphics and real objects. IWWs are often co-created with students rather than premade by the teacher. They can be used as scaffolds for writing in all content areas because students can easily take the language from the unit-based word wall and use it in their writing.

5. Model Writing

Model writing is similar to the Read-Aloud; in fact, some call it Write-Aloud. When we write in front of students in real time, we have the opportunity to "think aloud" and model what effective writers do mentally. This helps to make the writing process visible for students. Students see how an idea moves from the abstract to a concrete piece of writing. Modeling writing in all content areas helps students develop the language of the domain. For example, when we model how to write a lab report, we can share with students the language structures and academic vocabulary that scientists use. This modeling process supports students as they go off to write on their own.

6. Quick Writes

Not every piece of writing students do has to be lengthy. In fact, quick, daily writing is an effective way for English learners to practice writing in a low-stress setting. Long essays and pages of writing can be intimidating for students who are learning the structures of the English language. What's the saying? "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Breaking a task into small chunks (or "chunking" the task) makes it seem doable. A Quick Write is a short writing task-usually about 3-10 minutes. Author and teacher, Larry Ferlazzo writes about the power Quick Writes, or Micro-writing, holds for ELs here in an article for ASCD. He shows how this type of writing can improve English learners' confidence and language proficiency.

7. Language Experience Approach

The Language Experience Approach has been around for a long time. It is a method of shared writing in which students and the teacher write together after a shared experience. This is actually one of my favorite techniques because it builds community, models writing, and increases student participation and engagement. Students listen, speak, read, and write.

Begin by sharing an experience (like a field trip, science experiment, movie, book, etc). Next, have students talk about the experience with partners or a group, and come up with sentences to share with the teacher. Then lead the class in creating a text about the experience on chart paper (or under a document camera) as students share their sentences with you. After you write each sentence, have the class read it aloud chorally. (This provides tons of reading practice for fluency.) When the shared writing is complete, the class rereads the whole piece. Finally, lead the class in discussing organization, revision, and editing. Students can suggest adding and deleting sentences and decide to change words or punctuation. To see an example of what this can look like, check out Carol Salva's use of LEA here!

8. Mentor Sentences

Think of a mentor in your life. Who did you imagine? Someone you look up to? Someone you try to emulate? Mentor sentences are sentences students try to emulate. Jeff Anderson, author of Mechanically Inclined and Patterns of Power writes about the effectiveness of mentor sentences. The sentences that we choose can come from Read Alouds or we can make up our own sentences using information relevant to our students and our class.

For instance, suppose we had a visit from the fire department and the kids couldn't talk about anything else. So my mentor sentence may have been, " While waiting anxiously to hear all about the apparatus, a crowd of kids huddled around the fire truck ." First I read it aloud, and then we read it chorally. I then invited students to discuss the sentence with their partner or in groups. What did they notice? What did they observe about the sentence? I called on a few students randomly. Some noticed that there was a comma. One student said that the sentence was in the past tense, and we asked how he knew. He said, "Because the word 'huddled' ended with an -ed." Another student said that it looked like two sentences stuck together. We talked more about that and discovered that the first part of the sentence wasn't a complete sentence but a phrase. Finally, the students wrote their own sentences modeled after the mentor sentence. Some students used this frame:

While waiting ______to hear all about the_____, a crowd of ___huddled around the ____.

One student wrote: While waiting eagerly to grab all the kibble, a crowd of dogs huddled around the food bowl. To add to it, he drew a group of dogs around an empty food bowl.

If you have students who struggle with writing, try some of these scaffolds to support them along the way to independence and success!

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8 Ways to Scaffold Writing for English Learners

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by Valentina Gonzalez Scaffolds are temporary supports meant to be released when no longer needed. Think of buildings that are under construction. When the building is in the early phases, more scaffolding is necessary to sustain the structure. As the building progresses, less scaffolding is needed.

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We all know reading is critical for our students' success - there's no arguing that. But when it comes to helping our students, particularly our ELs, improve their academic literacy and develop a passion for reading, it's tough to find just the right formula. So when I found out from Anita Robinson, the principal at Frisco ISD's Staley Middle School, that they'd seen a huge gain in English learner STAAR reading scores at the eighth grade level - from 16 percent to 61 percent 'Approaching Grade Level' - within , I knew they were doing something right.

I had to know what happened, so Anna Matis and I scheduled some time to sit down in Frisco with some of Staley's teachers, hoping to find out how they were driving such incredible results. We met with several teachers to find out what they were doing with the kids to inspire this kind of growth, but it wasn't until we sat down with one of the social studies teachers, Paul Somodevilla, that we were finally able to suss out exactly what Staley Middle School was doing differently.

What it came down to was that the principal, Ms. Robinson, was doing two major things to increase the actual amount of reading students were doing inside and outside of class - thus making a massive difference in their test scores. Principal Robinson took the initiative to do two things within the school:

When I asked Paul what he thought had helped dramatically improve the eighth-grade EL reading scores, he said, "I think it was the fact that all students were reading in class every day." He stressed that while reading in class every day to improve reading is, theoretically, a no-brainer, it's so easy to let that time slide to make way for other, more immediate tasks. But Principal Robinson found ways to help teachers get past this.

Paul explained to me that she had told him daily reading was expected in every content-area classroom. She made sure he included it as one of his goals for his teacher evaluation process. She made sure he integrated daily reading into his curricula, and when she'd do walkthroughs, she'd ask him what the students were reading that day.

Paul and his fellow eighth-grade teachers found resources, such as articles from NewsELA, that aligned to the standards, and they created activities to help ensure students were learning from what they read. For example, students would read passages, process what they'd read by drawing what the passages contained, and then explain their drawings to their neighbors while teachers walked around listening to the conversations.

By setting a clear, non-negotiable expectation, Principal Robinson made sure that daily reading time became a priority in every classroom. But she didn't stop there.

Here at Seidlitz, we've always been big proponents of Free Voluntary Reading - where students independently read self-selected texts - and followers of two of its chief advocates, Stephen Krashen and Donalyn Miller. And we're not alone. Countless administrators and teachers are fans of Free Voluntary Reading (FVR), but they don't all see the kinds of gains we saw at Staley MS. The difference here was that Principal Robinson didn't just advocate for FVR; she put systems in place to make sure it happened.

All the teachers at Staley Middle School had been trained on the importance of free voluntary reading, but there was more to it than that. Every single eighth-grade student was required to have three books checked out from the library at all times, and Principal Robinson collaborated with the librarian to set up activities and procedures to ensure the students always had access to books that would captivate them. They conducted student surveys to identify interesting books, and they tracked down high/low titles (high interest, low reading level) to be sure there were plenty available for struggling readers. They also held activities and events in the library, such as speed dating with a book, to promote the students' interest in books. (We found this great blog that explains the speed dating with a book process in detail.)

Then, they took the books outside the library: advisory (home room) teachers were required to set aside thirty minutes, three to five days a week, for their students to engage in free voluntary reading - supervised, of course, by their teachers, who'd been trained to maximize success with the FVR approach outlined in Robert Marzano's Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement.

Just like daily content-area reading, Principal Robinson's dedication to turning Free Voluntary Reading from a "nice to have" to a "must have" ensured the students spent significant time at school browsing the library and reading the books they found there. The result: dramatically improved STAAR scores and, along with them, more students who'd developed a passion for reading.

Every school has a handful of teachers who are dedicated to getting their students reading widely and frequently, and when even just one teacher makes this commitment, you'll see a big impact on his or her students' reading scores. But when school leaders get involved, making content-area and free voluntary reading a priority for an entire grade level, the results will be incredible.

These two strategies - making content-area reading nonnegotiable and systematizing FVR - helped Staley Middle School's eighth grade STAAR reading scores skyrocket from 16 percent to 61 percent 'Approaching Grade Level.' If you're looking to achieve similar results on your campus, we recommend you rally your administration to follow Principal Robinson's lead.

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Improving English Learner Reading Scores: Here's to You, Ms. Robinson!

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by John Seidlitz We all know reading is critical for our students' success - there's no arguing that. But when it comes to helping our students, particularly our ELs, improve their academic literacy and develop a passion for reading, it's tough to find just the right formula.

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by Valentina Gonzalez

"Learners who know the language can concentrate on the academic content. But learners who do not know the language, or do not know it well enough, must devote part of their attention to learning and understanding the very language in which the content is taught" ( Goldenberg & Coleman, 2010).

Imagine that for a moment. Let it soak in. If you didn't yet know a language well enough, you would need to spend energy understanding the very words and not just the reading. Maybe you've experienced this before. It's a literal struggle, trying to decode and put together sounds, then figure out and translate the words. This can take a toll on a person!

Now imagine a child doing this daily. Or for that matter, doing this all day long . Picture a newcomer in a high school biology class at the end of the day. If they are new to the language, they will most likely have to translate complicated text word by word after having spent every previous class that day translating each word. To help students, we can adapt and scaffold reading instruction to fit their unique needs.

The National Literacy Panel (2000) identified phonemic awareness, phonics, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, and writing as the five key components of literacy. With these components in mind, let's look at a few scaffolds (temporary supports meant to be gradually released) for reading that may work to enhance English learners' success with comprehension.

These reading scaffolds can be implemented in any grade level and content area through whole group, small group, or individual settings for differentiation:

Chunking

Chunking is a technique that breaks larger reading texts into smaller portions for students. When texts are dense or lengthy, they can seem overwhelming. By breaking them down into smaller pieces, we help to lower students' anxiety. Think of a large pizza. Would you eat the entire pizza in one bite? Probably not. It's sliced for us to hold a piece at a time. Then we take small bites from that one piece. It's manageable that way. Chunking texts is especially useful in areas like social studies and science, where text has the tendency to be vocabulary heavy.

Adding in opportunities to talk makes content even more comprehensive. For instance, a routine such as Nancy Motley's Talk, Read, Talk, Write offers students chances to access prior knowledge and build background before reading. Students discuss with a group or partner. Then students read a text with a purpose for reading that is given to them by the teacher. Once everyone has signaled that they are finished reading, they participate in structured discussion again. And finally students write about their reading while using the discussions they've had to support their thoughts. Teachers can chunk reading even more for students who are at beginner levels of English proficiency: talk, read, talk, read, talk, read, talk, write.

Shared Reading

Shared reading (Holdaway,1979) is the act of reading together in unison as a group. All students have access to the text. Shared reading is not just for elementary levels. In primary grades, teachers may read from big books, but in secondary classes, shared reading can be poetry, brochures, an excerpt from a chapter, a paragraph, song lyrics, etc. Teachers can provide each student with a copy of the text or can project the text on a screen for everyone to see. First the teacher models expectations by reading the text. Then the teacher invites the class to read together. This oral reading practice provides students with an opportunity to gain fluency in a risk-free setting. Everyone is reading aloud. Shy students can listen and read aloud as they feel brave enough, and more vocal students gain practice, too. Students benefit from practicing intonation and appropriate rate of speed.

Three ways to differentiate shared reading are Echo reading, Choral reading, and Reader's Theater.

Echo Reading is perfect when students need to hear the teacher model each sentence first while they are tracking print. Then students repeat the sentence. This technique is best for students at beginner proficiency levels or when a new language structure is being shared.

Choral Reading is a typical shared reading experience in which students and teacher read in unison, often with the teacher tracking print. English learners gain fluency and benefit from the low-risk environment. They have the ability to listen and join the reading at their comfort level.

Reader's Theater is an excellent method to use with students after they have had a chance to hear a text in its entirety. Reader's Theater can be done by dividing a text into parts and assigning students or groups to read certain lines or paragraphs. English learners benefit from rehearsal time with the lines or paragraphs they will read aloud to the whole group. Some teachers ask students to create props for their characters or parts. Acting out a story is both enjoyable and engaging for students as they participate in listening, speaking, and reading with expression.

Adapted Texts

Adapted texts are texts that have the same content but are at different reading levels. Using adapted texts helps English learners continue to learn content while they are learning English. Many teachers create their own adapted texts, which allows them to control the vocabulary that is embedded. However, creating adapted texts does take time. There are also many online platforms that offer adapted texts such as Newsela, Newsinlevels, and Wordify.

Partner Reading

Providing time and space for students to read together, or partner read, supports English learners with reading comprehension, listening, and speaking. Peer-to-peer interaction is important for English learners' language development. Partners usually read the same text and hold their own copies. In primary grades, and many times in secondary too, students are more successful when the teacher offers explicit modeling of expectations ahead of time. For example:

"During partner reading, I'm looking for partners who are sitting with their knees close to touching. You will take turns reading a page. After your partner reads, you will share what the main idea of their reading was. I'm listening for sentences like: 'The main idea was...' or 'I didn't understand...'"

Primary Language Support

When I was an ESL teacher, the students I taught spoke Korean, Urdu, Japanese, Russian, etc. I was not able to speak all of their languages, but I could still provide primary language supports. I provided my ELs with bilingual dictionaries and taught them how to use them. We also worked hard at valuing all languages. It was important for me to show my ELs that the literacy they had in their primary language was valuable and useful as they acquired English. We labeled the classroom in the students' home languages. I also made it known to them that continuing to read, write, and speak in their primary language was important, and so I encouraged them to read books in their primary language. Anytime we had extra funds, I asked to purchase books in our students' primary languages for the library.

Another way to include primary language support is through preview-review. This technique is sometimes referred to as preview-view-review and takes only a few extra minutes before and after a lesson ( Wright, 2015). It has been found to be effective in increasing comprehension, especially for students at beginning levels of English proficiency. Preview-review includes providing students with primary language support before and after a lesson or a read aloud. Let's look at a classroom example:

The second grade class is preparing to learn about living and nonliving things. The ESL teacher gathers English learners prior to the lesson to preview in their primary language. She asks them what they know about living and nonliving things. They discuss and make a chart in their primary language. The teacher reads a short passage and checks for comprehension, and then they return to the whole group.

The mainstream teacher conducts the whole-class lesson on living and nonliving things in English. The teacher shelters instruction to ensure that ELs comprehend the lesson. She uses repetition, visuals, and gestures. Then she sends them off to read and write with a partner in English.

Following the English lesson, the ESL teacher pulls the ELs back together once again to review what they learned in their primary language. This is an excellent opportunity to clear up misconceptions.
Note that, In this example, the ESL teacher is able to speak the students' primary language. But that is not always the case. It is suggested that if the teacher cannot speak the students' home languages, a same-language-speaking paraprofessional can provide the preview-review.
The bottom line of all this is that, when students enjoy what they are reading and they understand what they are reading, they will feel successful. The more often this feeling occurs, the more they will want to read, and the more their comprehension will increase.

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Teaching Techniques to Scaffold Reading for English Learners

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by Valentina Gonzalez "Learners who know the language can concentrate on the academic content. But learners who do not know the language, or do not know it well enough, must devote part of their attention to learning and understanding the very language in which the content is taught" (Goldenberg & Coleman, 2010).

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

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Using Pictures to Promote Language Development

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Using Pictures to Promote Language Development

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What is PWIM and how do I use it to help my students with listening, speaking, reading, and writing?

There is a misconception that pictures are only for primary students or for ELs at Beginner levels of English proficiency. But that's not the case. Though PWIM does benefit primary students and ELs at Beginner levels of English proficiency, even intermediate and Advanced ELs as well as Native English speakers gain valuable insights from this method across all content areas.

Here's how I've used it in a modified version.

Step 1: Select a picture relevant to the unit of current study and be mindful of the grade level objectives. If you teach science you might select a picture about the water cycle, life cycle of a butterfly, the Grand Canyon, etc depending on the grade level objective. A social studies teacher might choose a picture from history such as The Boston Tea Party, Amelia Earhart next to her plane, the Constitution, or a map, graph, chart or timeline, etc. A language arts teacher may present a picture that exemplifies character traits or feelings, a picture that relates to a theme that is being showcased, etc. Even math teachers can use PWIM by selecting pictures such as pictures with shapes, graphs, clocks, money, etc. Again, it's important here to consider the grade level objective when selecting the image.

Step 2: Share the image with students either in a whole group or in a small group setting. If you are teaching remotely, you can share the image on a shared google slide, a google doc, or another digital platform that your students are accustomed to using. (Day 1)

Step 3: Label the picture together. Tell students that you will "shake out" all the words from this picture. Sometimes I let students brainstorm words on their own first and then share with a partner before we label the picture. During remote learning, you can put students in breakout rooms to brainstorm words. Then pull them back together to label as a class. As I label words, I spell them out or focus on phonics depending on the grade level and students' needs. We stop to read the words frequently, reading chorally or echo reading even in remote settings. (Day 1)

Step 4: Put the words into categories. Ask students to categories the words either by spelling or by parts of speech. Once the class is finished labeling, students can work independently or in groups to categorize words. If your class is remote, you can duplicate the digital version of the picture you labeled and give each student or group a copy of it. They can work asynchronously to categorize the words using the digital copy. (Day 1 or 2 depending on time)

Step 5: Ask students to brainstorm possible titles for the picture. Once many have been generated, discuss them. What makes a strong title? If needed, share examples from picture books or chapter books.

Step 6: Give students time to discuss the picture in cooperative groups or breakout rooms and then verbally compose sentences. Provide students with sentence stems, starters or language frames to support complete sentences as needed even in virtual classroom environments. This step allows students to access their own background knowledge as well as tap into one another's knowledge. It builds on prior knowledge by supporting what they already know about a particular topic. For example, if you give students a picture of a colonial tent, and students share in their groups, some might say they see a house, while others would say it's a home or dwelling. (Day 2)

Step 7 : Next, record the sentences either on a chart, below the picture, or on a shared Google Document. Guide students in choral or echo reading the sentences after you write them even in remote learning. This reading practice supports language development and reading fluency. (Day 3)

Step 8: Give students the opportunity to use the labels to write their own sentences about the image. The sentences created together as a class will serve as exemplars for their own writing. However not everyone will need the support of the example sentences. The students who can independently write their own sentences using the labels can work on their own while the teacher pulls a small group to model using the label to compose sentences. In virtual learning, the teacher can create a breakout room for students who need additional support. Consider asking the group the 5 Ws-Who, When, Where Why, What to help vary the sentences and create a strong understanding of the visual. (Day 3)

There are many ways to vary PWIM to meet your own classroom and students' needs. There is no right or wrong way to do them as long as you are using pictures to develop language: thinking, listening, speaking, reading and writing. PWIM doesn't have to take long. They are not 45 minute lessons. And they are not solely for language arts classrooms. Pictures of historical events, cycles (water, life, etc.), geography, scientific experiments, math problems lend themselves beautifully to PWIM activities.

Pictures are engaging, thought provoking, and help to make content comprehensible for students. The steps above are just suggestions. Make this model fit your students' specific needs. Try out a PWIM lesson and see where it takes you. This language rich learning strategy requires students to think, listen, speak, read and write in the content area of instruction. That's why I love it!

Below are examples of PWIM as well as a video on how to implement PWIM in virtual classrooms.

Ferlazzo, L., & Sypnieski, K. H. (2012). The ESL/ELL teacher's survival guide. ready-to-use strategies, tools, and activities for teaching English language learners of all levels . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Calhoun, E. (1999). Teaching beginning reading and writing with the picture word inductive model. Alexandria: ASCD.
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Using Pictures to Promote Language Development

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This article was originally posted on 2-25-2017 and has been updated on 9-17-2020 to include information relevant to distance learning. "A picture is worth a thousand words" or so we've heard....

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Is the wheel truly random?

Yes, but don't just take our word for it. We are so confident in our code that we built a tool to let you prove it yourself. You can run 10,000 spins in seconds and see the results.
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If you want to make sure that a winner doesn't get picked again, remove the winner after each spin by clicking the Remove button.

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Free and easy to use spinner. Used by teachers and for raffles. Enter names, spin wheel to pick a random winner. Customize look and feel, save and share wheels.

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

Here are some examples of sentence frames:

The square has ___sides/angles.

The ____has ___sides/angles.

The ___are the same/different.

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

My name is_____ and I am ___years old.

The _____ revolted against the ____.

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

___have ____, however, ____ have ____.

​Both ____ and ____ have ____.

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

Here are examples of sentence stems:

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

I think that...for example

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

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

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

I don't understand why....

Based on the pattern, the numbers will...

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

Beginning-Simple sentence structure: ____and ___ are quadrilaterals.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Holding ALL Students Accountable to the Learning

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Holding ALL Students Accountable to the Learning

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by Valentina Gonzalez

Remote or distance learning can be described as learning environments where teachers and students are physically separated. Many educators in the United States and in the world no longer have to imagine what remote or distance learning is like, because they are living it. This situation is challenging, to say the least.

Remote teaching and learning won't look the same everywhere. It varies among states, districts, and classrooms. If this is your first experience with remote teaching and your students' first experiences with remote learning, you probably have some hurdles to face and bumps in the road to overcome.

Among many challenges, one of the biggest one that educators report with teaching remotely is holding students accountable for the learning. It can be described like herding cats. You might constantly be asking yourself questions like this:

One thing that is clear is that if we let students get by with not submitting assignments even during remote learning, they will begin to form the notion that we don't expect them to achieve. But holding kids accountable sends them the message that we believe they can do this work. Remote teaching will not look or feel the same as face-to-face teaching. In some ways it has to be even more engaging than what we do in the classroom. It has to be so compelling that students won't need us to be there to make sure they complete it. They will want to do it because it is so interesting.

In the classroom we teach students what to say instead of "I don't know" ( Seidlitz & Perryman, 2011). We teach them responses such like these:

May I please have some more information?

May I please have some time to think?

Would you please repeat the question?

Where could I find more information about that?

May I ask a friend for help?

When these responses become practices in the classroom, they will pay off during times when students and teachers are physically separated. Students who are equipped with the tools to find out how to solve problems and figure what to do when they are faced with an unanswered question become more independent outside of the classroom, too.

However, don't fret if your students have not learned these response stems. You can teach students this strategy remotely, and they will still benefit. Here's how.

Steps to Holding All Students Accountable to the Learning REMOTELY.

Set up a class meeting using a district-approved platform that allows students to see and hear you. Live video works best, allowing students to ask questions and interact, but you can also record yourself and share it with students to watch at their leisure.

Walk students through the WHY. Why is knowing what to say instead of "I don't know" important for them? Depending on the grade level, share with your students how they can use this information in real life. For example, I tell them that we are going to learn responses that will sound smarter than saying "I don't know" or shrugging our shoulders. And that they can use these responses when their grandmother, their doctor, a neighbor, a teacher, or really anyone, anywhere asks them a question! These are not just for school. With older students, I make them aware that this information is useful even during job interviews and college visits.

After discussing WHY, begin making an anchor chart in front of students. Yes, even online, remotely. There is power in letting students watch you create the chart. They need to see you write and explain each of the response choices. Discuss how to use each one. Model for students what it looks like to use the response.

Once you complete the anchor chart, take a picture of it and house it on your remote learning platform (Canvas, Google Classroom, SeeSaw, etc.). Let students know that it will be there for them.

Two Perspectives During Remote Learning

Let's imagine that you gave students an assignment on your remote learning platform, but Rafael didn't do it. We could assume that he just didn't want to do it. We could assume that he was off task. Or that he's being lazy. There's a lot of room for assumptions.

On the other hand, if we ask Rafael, he might tell us that he didn't understand the assignment or the expectations. He just didn't know what to do, so he avoided the assignment, and he's been worried about it ever since.

Remote is challenging, and remote can be just as challenging for many of our students. Often when students don't know what to do, are confused, or feel frustrated, this can manifest into avoidance. To us, it looks like they are just not completing work. The good news is that we can empower students with tools to handle situations like the one above. As Rafael's teacher, if I notice that he hasn't completed the assignment, during a discussion or an online conference, I can refer him to the anchor chart we created.

Teacher: Rafael, which of these responses would you like to use?

Rafael: May I please have some more information?

Teacher: Sure, Rafael. What I'm asking is that you take the book you are reading and you analyze the main character. Tell us about the character. Who are they? What are they like?

No matter what, all of our students need to know that we expect them to achieve, to participate, and to engage even when instruction is remote. Student success hinges on our expectations for them. Holding all students accountable to expectations demonstrates our belief in them.

Additional Tips and Considerations for Remotely Teaching English Learners:

Find out which families have access to technology and which do not. This information will help you to determine what remote learning will look like (paper or technology based).

Find out if you will be expected to create seperate ELD lessons or if you will be collaborating with content teachers to enhance and accommodate general education lessons.

"Meet" or make contact with families of English learners as quickly as you can to let them know what remote learning will look and feel like. This initial meeting can be a phone call or video conference.

Plan regular interactions with ELs and families to touch base regarding instruction and needs.

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Holding ALL Students Accountable to the Learning When You're Teaching and Learning Remotely

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by Valentina Gonzalez Remote or distance learning can be described as learning environments where teachers and students are physically separated. Many educators in the United States and in the world no longer have to imagine what remote or distance learning is like, because they are living it.

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Systemic Change

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Serving Multilingual Learners of All Ages

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​Systemic, campus-wide change...if that's what you are looking for, this may be the answer for you.
I've often heard that campus leaders are looking for "a common thread that binds the campus"... "a thread that weaves naturally through pre-K to 5th grade in all classrooms".

Here's how we successfully accomplished just that in our district in Texas.

Recently, I read a book that I found practical and relevant to all grade levels and content areas. The book is called 7 Steps to a Language-Rich Interactive Classroom by John Seidlitz and Bill Perryman. I loved that it was research based and reader friendly. I decided to make this book into a hybrid online and face-to-face book study that campuses in my district could use. (But you can use any book that you feel is relevant to the needs of your campus.)

In our district, we use Canvas to create online courses and classes not only for teachers but also for students. Canvas is a platform for online learning much like Blackboard for those of you who might be familiar with that from college courses. So I created a Canvas Course/Book Study for 7 Steps to a Language-Rich Interactive Classroom.
Basically, teachers read a chapter of the book, implement their learning in their classrooms, and then discuss the learning in the online Canvas course. 3 easy steps.

Since this is not a typical book study, I found that giving 3 easy steps helps teachers understand the structure.
Once the course was created, we targeted specific campuses in a number of ways. We either looked at need based on data or on administrative support. We knew that if we had a campus that would willingly participate in this unique professional development then the chances of success would be greater.

After meeting with administrators from the campus, we came up with a time line together for completion of the course. We also added in either teacher coaching or classroom demonstrations depending on campus need.

Teacher coaching is best for campuses where the teachers have more experience in the 7 Steps and wanted us to come in, observe teachers and give feedback. Whereas classroom demonstrations best meets the needs of campuses that have less experience with the 7 Steps. Classroom demonstrations are actually my favorite part. During teachers' planning period, they have an opportunity to observe a classroom demonstration lesson that incorporates the 7 steps. Debriefing follows the demonstration. We worked with campus leaders to develop a rotating schedule for the entire day in order for all teachers to have an opportunity to observe a lesson in a grade level close to their own. For example, first grade teachers came to observe a lesson in a second grade classroom and second grade teachers observed in third grade and so on.

Another facet of our professional development was face to face training. We coordinated with the campus tailor our face to face training so they meet the direct needs of the campus. On some campuses, it was decided that we brought in Seidlitz Education (see link here), the authors of the book we read, while on others, we came in and worked with teachers to help them create sentence stems that support students at varied language levels, we targeted structured conversations, or structured writing.

Many factors contributed to the success of this unique type of professional development:

the entire campus was participating together at the same time

administrative support was key

it was on going...not a one stop shop

The beauty is that it continues to evolve. It has not ended. We are still visiting with the school we first started doing this with over a year ago. We continue the learning journey with these teachers. In fact, we recently held a Twitter Chat specifically about this book and invited the campuses that have participated in the Canvas Course/Book Study. The turnout was amazing! And the learning continues. In addition, we have even partook in a district wide Learning Walk at one of the campuses that participated in the Canvas Course Book Study. Leaders from around the district came to observe several classrooms to see the language rich environment that has been fostered at the campus. The pride and excitement that I saw in these teachers and the principal of the campus was beautiful. Something magical happened here. It was systematic change.
For the campus, the benefits are so great! Not only do their current students benefit from the learning their teachers have implemented, but because EVERY teacher on campus is speaking a common language, the following year students are hearing THE SAME language from their new teachers. This common language that the teachers have embraced because of the online book study, demonstrations, coaching, twitter chats, learning walks, etc. continues to increase the success of the students at the campus.

Have you found a unique way to provide professional development or create systematic change on a campus? Please share with us.

Below is an info-graphic about the book that we used for the Canvas Course Book Study discussed above. I highly recommend this book. It's relevant for grades k-12.

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A Common Thread That Binds: Creating Systemic Change

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​Systemic, campus-wide change...if that's what you are looking for, this may be the answer for you. I've often heard that campus leaders are looking for "a common thread that binds the campus"... "a thread that weaves naturally through pre-K to 5th grade in all classrooms".

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​ Summarizing to the Next Level...Somebody Wanted But So

I'm going to venture to say that as educators most of us have either used SWBS or seen it used with students. In this post, I hope to show you how it can be leveled up a few notches. And rather than spread thin, we can help our kids dig deep into summarizing using this strategy which can be pretty powerful if used with fidelity.

Here's what I USED TO do with my students:

I might read a book to the class (like a read aloud). Let's use a book most of us know for the example, Cinderella. So I would show the students the graphic organizer/chart (see typical examples of organizers/charts below).
And I would model how to find the Somebody: Cinderella
What she wanted: to go the the ball
But: she had a lot of chores and no gown
So: a Fairy Godmother magically gives her a gown and she goes to the ball
I have even seen teachers share with students how to add a Then and Finally in an effort to extend the summary.
Here's where I started to shift my thinking about SWBS. I know that summarizing is a critical skill for my students. It involves deep thinking and I need them to know how to summarize. But I wanted them to go deeper into the summary. This felt so surface level.

One day I saw Meredith Alvaro, National Literacy Consultant and expert in ELLs and Special Education students, share how she teaches SWBS and it changed everything for me. Instead of one word or even phrases for each piece of the puzzle, the SWBS became a paragraph! Here's how:
Somebody: Cinderella was a young, beautiful girl who lived with her Stepmother and Stepsisters.
Wanted: When and invitation to the Ball arrived, she wanted very badly to go with her Stepfamily.
But: However, she had so much housework to do and she didn't own an evening gown.
So: Magically, a Fairy Godmother appeared and granted her wishes to go to the ball in a beautiful gown.

Then put them all together in paragraph form starting with an indent like so:
Cinderella was a young, beautiful girl who lived with her Stepmother and Stepsisters. When and invitation to the Ball arrived, she wanted very badly to go with her Stepfamily. However, she had so much housework to do and she didn't own an evening gown. Magically, a Fairy Godmother appeared and granted her wishes to go to the ball in a beautiful gown.

I have tried out this type of SWBS in several classrooms and found a few tips.

One. Use different colors for each sentences when modeling. The color chunking helps students differentiate between parts.

Two. Don't wait until the end of the story or book to begin summarizing. Teach students to summarize while they read. This is what readers should do. We don't want to wait until the end of the book to realize that we didn't understand what we were reading!

Three. Use pictures to model SWBS especially with Newcomer/Beginner English Learners. All kids can benefit from using pictures to learn how to effectively summarize but beginner English Learners need the comprehensible input that visuals offer. I will demonstrate this below.

Four. Use nonfiction! Social studies offers an excellent venue for SWBS. SWBS is not just for fiction. Basically anything that has a story line can be summarized. Teach students to use SWBS.

The colonists revolted in anger and threw all the tea off the boat in an act called the Boston Tea Party. Using Pictures with SWBS
I would begin by discussing the picture and labeling it in a Picture Talk. What do we see? Label all nouns in one color. What actions are taking place? Label all verbs in a different color.
Somebody: The colonists were brave men willing to fight for their new country.
Wanted: They didn't want to pay taxes on tea and other goods from England.
But: However the British were taxing them on goods.
So:
Obviously, the picture of the Boston Tea Party is nonfiction. So it combines both pictures and nonfiction. But for Advanced and Advanced High students, pictures are not always needed. You might have a text only nonfiction piece that you would like for them to summarize. A good example might be a text on a famous figure in history, such as Cesar Chavez.

Using Nonfiction with SWBS Cesar Chavez was a farm worker and civil rights activist. He wanted better wages and work conditions for farm workers. However not everyone agreed with Cesar's point of view.
So he organized strikes, boycotts and marches to bring attention to his cause. Finally, his dedication paid off and the first Bill of Rights for agricultural workers was enacted.

Your nonfiction text does not have to be regarding a person, it could be a country and what they wanted. It could be a group of people. It could be an animal. I have even done SWBS with pictures of living and nonliving things.
After putting the students in cooperative groups and giving them sets of pictures (living and nonliving things), they pick one each and must orally tell one another in SWBS form why the thing is living or nonliving.
Example:
The bird is a living thing. It needs food, water, and air to survive. Without the basic needs of food water, and air, the bird would die. So the bird must eat worms and find water and breathe air. It is a living thing.
​As with any strategy, tons of modeling and gradual release of responsibility is key to success. When I model and guide students using

their success rate is much greater. I do, we do, you do

What I love about SWBS is that it's not just for one grade level and it's not just for one content area. It's for life.

Resources:
Meredith Alvaro
7 Steps to a Language Rich Interactive Classroom, J. Seidlitz
​When Kids Can't Read What Teachers Can Do, K. Beers

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Summarizing to the Next Level...Somebody Wanted But So

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​ Summarizing to the Next Level... Somebody Wanted But So I'm going to venture to say that as educators most of us have either used SWBS or seen it used with students. In this post, I hope to show...

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​Have you ever walked into a classroom and heard a teacher say, “I love how quiet you all are. Keep it up.”? Quiet classrooms are dangerous for English language learners and most other students as…

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Q Triple S A--An Amazing Structured Conversation Technique

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If you are not using a structured conversation or talk technique regularly in your classroom yet, this is

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Why is that when we teach our students about numbers, we show them the number one visually. We hold up one finger and maybe place one object in front of them. But when we teach them new vocabulary, we rarely start with the visual--instead we begin with the written word and then move to the visual...maybe. In math we move from concrete to abstract but we rarely do that with other content areas.
Research indicates that our brains process visuals 60,000X faster than text. Why are we reluctant to tap into that and use it to our advantage in the classroom?

Visuals are important pieces of the learning puzzle. Science tells us that when ideas are presents in visual representation they are more likely to be recalled than if we just used words. Think about the personal memories you have. The ones that are attached to a visual (perhaps a physical picture) may be more distinct in your mind. You might be able to recall more about the occasion than other events in your life.
How can we tap into this power in our classrooms? We can't fight the fact that our brains encode pictures both visually and verbally. Words are only encoded verbally. This means that pictures are more richly stamped into our brains. We need this power in our classrooms!

One of my favorite ways to use pictures/visuals in the classroom is the Picture Talk or Picture Induction Model. The two methods are not the same but are very similar. Click on the link to learn more.

Another way to bring pictures/visuals into the classroom is to let students draw or sketch their learning. My mom's best friend told me a story a couple of weeks ago that stuck with me. She immigrated from Yugoslavia to Canada when she was 16 and didn't speak English yet. She was an intelligent, educated young lady in her own native language and was studying nursing back home. In Canada, she took a biology class and the teacher asked the students to explain regeneration. She understood the question and knew the meaning but was unable to write or speak the answer in English. So she drew a lizard with its tail chopped off and then another picture with the tail regrown. What a great way to show understanding. Unfortunately, the teacher did not accept her answer because it wasn't in written form. Remember this was a long time ago and we've learned a lot since then. The next step for my mom's best friend could have been to label this picture. After that the teacher could have used this picture to help her with oral language development. Perhaps adding some sentence stems and modeling would be great scaffolds here. Definitely taking an assets based point of view would prove more successful.

Using visuals with vocabulary is a powerful way to help students understand concepts and ideas. When introducing vocabulary words and teaching them explicitly, start with a visual representation of the word. I find that google images and National Geographic Magazine offer nice pictures that are engaging and realistic. From experience, I've noticed that students like real life pictures best. If the vocabulary lends itself, I ask students to bring in their own pictures. The students enjoy sharing their life experiences and family photos with the class. This culturally relevant practice brings student life into curriculum instruction. Students' voices are heard and valued while discussing content area vocabulary.

Reading picture books are a hit with students of all ages believe it or not! We all know that the littles (kids in younger grades) love picture books, but try this out with your older secondary students and see the reaction! When I share picture books, I like to do it as a read aloud. I model thinking aloud as a proficient reader and I stop to give students time to discuss with a partner. With picture books, we use the pictures to support meaning.

Interactive Word Walls changed my life as a teacher. Not only did they give me back some of my at home time (because I use to work on creating that traditional word wall) but also because they put the work and learning on the students (where it needs to be). IWW are thematic or unit based word walls that are like giant graphic organizers. They are created with students and have visuals and sentence stems to support meaning. Learn more by clicking on the link.

I bet you have great ideas to for using visuals in the classroom. Please comment below and share with all of us!

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Why is that when we teach our students about numbers, we show them the number one visually. We hold up one finger and maybe place one object in front of them. But when we teach them new vocabulary,...

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What kind of word wall is on your walls? Does it support your learners or is it just there as part of the wall paper creating wall pollution?
Let me tell you first hand...I used to have a traditional word wall and I wholeheartedly thought I was doing what was best for my students. It was alphabetical and I put words on it that were Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III (thinking that I was supporting everyone). I tried playing games with my students using the word wall and I even let them add their own words to it so they could take ownership of the wall.
But as a lifelong learner I embrace new information and when I find something that is better for students, I recognize it. Recently I learned about Interactive Word Walls from Dr. Julie Jackson. She is a professor at Texas State University and travels to deliver professional development regarding these amazing word walls. Her expertise is in the field of science but I think the word walls can work in any content area. ​

The idea is that the word wall is not alphabetically organized, rather is it structured by theme or unit of study. In addition, these word walls can take many shapes. They are in the form of various graphic organizers (only really large on our walls). Students interact with them and add visuals, realia (real objects), sketches, or pictures to the categories. The word walls usually have a sentence stem or frame as well to support comprehension and synthesize meaning.
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Why is this type of word wall better than a traditional word wall?
Research shows that our brains work better when information is organized and categorized, connected and attached to a visual or real object. All of this is embedded in Interactive Word Walls. If you still aren't buying it, take a look at the two pictures below. Imagine that you are a student learning both content AND language in this classroom. How much would you learn from this traditional word wall?

Probably not much. Now take a look at this Interactive Word Wall. Are you able to gather any language from it and synthesize information from the word wall?

Even though this is a language that you (probably) don't speak, chances are that you are able to connect meaning from this type of word wall. Because of it's organization and use of visuals, the Interactive Word Wall allows our knowledge from L1 (first language) to transfer to our target language. So useful! Plus if there are any words that you did not know in your L1, you will be able to learn them easily since there are visuals to help you.
Let's take a look at the fist column. Did you initially think this column was electric energy and then when you looked more closely at the last few pictures (sun and fire) you thought...no, it can't be electric, it must be heat energy? Think of the high level of processing that your brain had to go through to come to that conclusion.
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Make it Even More ELL Friendly
One way to make it EVEN more ELL friendly is to add some Total Physical Response (click to learn more). When introducing the key words on the word wall, teach students a physical movement to go along with the meaning of the words. For example, if we were learning about heat energy, I might have my kids fan their faces because heat is hot. Or for sound energy we might put our hands around our mouths like a megaphone or cup our ears like we are listening.

Steps for making your own Interactive Word Wall:
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1. Select critical vocabulary based on grade level essential skills.
2. Sketch a map or graphic organizer that will best display the topic (Venn Diagram, Bubble, T Chart, Content Frame, etc.)
3. Create the graphic organizer frame on your classroom wall.
4. Allow students to add to the wall during class as learning grows.
5. Students can have their own copy of the graphic organizer to complete as well.
​
Like I mentioned, I learned how to make word walls more interactive and accessible from Dr. Julie Jackson. She taught me. Who will you teach? Pass this knowledge along. It will only make teaching and learning better for the greater good of our students.
​
Like George Bernard Shaw said, "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."

​For more about interactive word walls, watch the short YouTube video below or visit the resources down here. Link to the Google Slides.

Resources:
http://www.thesciencetoolkit.com/about-me/
www.thesciencetoolkit.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Interactive-Word-Walls-Science-Scope.pdf
http://www.thesciencetoolkit.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Interactive-Word-Walls-Science-and-Children.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuaOjtk9QoM

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Is Your Word Wall Really Supporting the Learners in Your Classroom?

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What kind of word wall is on your walls? Does it support your learners or is it just there as part of the wall paper creating wall pollution? Let me tell you first hand...I used to have a...

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"A picture is worth a thousand words"...Yes, so how we get those words out? Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM) first developed by Emily Calhoun (1999) to the rescue!

What is PWIM and how do I use it to help my students with listening, speaking, reading, and writing?

You may be thinking that pictures are for primary students or for Beginner level ELs. But that's not the case. Though PWIM does benefit primary students and Beginner ELs, even intermediate and Advanced ELs gain valuable insights from this method across all content areas.

Here's how I've used it in a modified version.

Step 1: The teacher begins by

selecting a picture relevant to the unit of current study. If you teach science you might select a picture about the water cycle, life cycle of a butterfly, the Grand Canyon, etc. A social studies teacher might choose a picture from history such as The Boston Tea Party, Amelia Earhart next to her plane, the Constitution, or a map, graph, chart or timeline, etc. A language arts teacher may present a picture that exemplifies character traits or feelings, a picture that relates to a theme that is being showcased, etc. Even math teachers can use PWIM by selecting pictures such as pictures with shapes, graphs, clocks, money, etc.

Step 2: Share the image with students either in whole group or in a small group setting. (Day 1)

Label the picture together. Tell students that you will "shake out" all the words from this picture. Sometimes I let students brainstorm words on their own first and then share with a partner before we label the picture. As I label words, I spell them out or focus on phonics depending on the grade level and students' needs. We stop to read the words frequently, reading chorally or echo reading. (Day 1) Step 3:

Put the words into categories. Ask students to categories the words either by spelling or by parts of speech. (Day 1 or 2 depending on time)

Ask students to brainstorm possible titles for the picture. Once many have been generated, discuss them. What makes a strong title? If needed, share examples from picture books or chapter books.

Step 6: Give students time to discuss the picture in cooperative groups and then orally compose sentences. Provide students with sentence stems, starters or language frames to support complete sentences as needed. This step allows students to access their own background knowledge as well as tap into one another's knowledge. It builds on prior knowledge by supporting what they already know about a particular topic. For example, if you give students a picture of a tee-pee, and students share in their groups, some might say they see a house, while others would say it's a home or dwelling. (Day 2)

: Next, record the sentences either on a chart or below the picture. Guide students in choral or echo reading the sentences after you write them. This reading practice supports language development. Not everyone will need the support of the teacher's example sentences. The students who can independently write their own sentences using the labels can work on their own while the teacher pulls a small group to model using the label to compose sentences. Consider asking the group the 5 Ws-Who, When, Where Why, What to help vary the sentences and create a strong understanding of the visual. (Day 3)

Step 8: Give students the opportunity to use the labels to write their own sentences. Provide students scaffolds as needed. Some will need sentence frames or starters. Beginner ELs may need to copy your sentences. To push students who are at the Advanced level up a notch, give them the stems: Additionally, Furthermore, For Example. Teach them to use those stems in their writing. (Day 3)

There are many ways to vary PWIM to meet your own classroom and students' needs. There is no right or wrong way to do them as long as you are using pictures to develop language: thinking, listening, speaking, reading and writing. PWIM doesn't have to take long. They are not 45 minute lessons. And they are not solely for language arts classrooms. Pictures of historical events, cycles (water, life, etc.), geography, scientific experiments, math problems lend themselves beautifully to PWIM activities. Pictures are engaging, thought provoking, and help to make content comprehensible for students. The steps above are just suggestions. Make this model fit your students' specific needs. Try out a PWIM lesson and see where it takes you. This language rich learning strategy requires students to think, listen, speak, read and write in the content area of instruction. That's why I love it!

Below are examples of a primary PWIM. The unit was on predators and prey. The teacher used the owl picture first to discuss one type of predator. After the Picture Talk cycle, the teacher modeled how to use the picture to support writing. Some students were able to write about a different predator or prey while Beginners and struggling learners wrote about the owl.
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Resources used: . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ferlazzo, L., & Sypnieski, K. H. (2012). The ESL/ELL teacher's survival guide. ready-to-use strategies, tools, and activities for teaching English language learners of all levels
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Calhoun, E. (1999). Teaching beginning reading and writing with the picture word inductive model. Alexandria: ASCD.
Meredith Alvaro
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A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...but how do we get those words out?

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"A picture is worth a thousand words"...Yes, so how we get those words out? Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM) first developed by Emily Calhoun (1999) to the rescue! What is PWIM and how do I use it...

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This technique gives students the opportunity to respond in the form of a complete sentence to effectively communicate. Sentence stems provide scaffolding to help students get started in speaking or writing without the added pressure of thinking about how to correctly formulate a response.