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PBL is valuable for ELLs when it teaches academic vocabulary, encourages collaboration, scaffolds structure and function, allows assessment and differentiation, and leverages their native language.

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In this session, you will hear from educators who are working to improve their mathematics teaching practice in a school where 40% of students are Canadian-born ELLs. Participants, along with the presenters, will explore how their practice as learners and educators can change to positively influence student achievement in the comprehension and communication of math concepts. Participants will leave with ready-to-implement strategies for improving the teaching and learning of mathematics for ELLs, as well as links to resources to further their understanding.

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In this session, you will hear from educators who are working to improve their mathematics teaching practice in a school where 40% of students are Canadian-born ELLs. Participants, along with the presenters, will explore how their practice as learners and educators can change to positively influence student achievement in the comprehension and communication of math concepts.

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Earlier in December, Education Week published an article about the connections between arts education and the new Common Core State S tandards (CCSS) written by reporter Erik Robelen. The article featured school districts and art institutions such as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston that are making that connection explicit through programming and curriculum development.

One point in particular by Michelle A. Grohe, the director of school and teacher programs at the Gardner Museum, caught my attention. She notes that, "When one of our schools is focusing on 'close' readings, to read an excerpt of text and describe the main idea and provide supporting evidence or details, that is very similar to what we do with the visual arts."

Robelen returns to Ms. Grohe's point later in the article:

"When students first encounter a piece of art, they are asked to spend a few minutes looking silently at the image, Ms. Grohe said. Their guide begins by asking what's going on in the artwork. As students share impressions, they are asked, 'What makes you say that?'-a question that directly ties to multiple common-core standards for evidentiary reasoning in both English/language arts and math, she said.

"A third question, Ms. Grohe said, is "What more can we find?'

"By spending 15 to 20 minutes at a time with one work of art, 'the students learn to slow down and look carefully, attention skills that also are used when grappling with new or unfamiliar text, math equations, or problems,' she said."

Ms. Grohe's approach is particularly relevant to CCSS lesson planning since the standards do in fact explicitly touch upon the arts through activities such as the comparison of filmed or live versions of text and analysis of illustrations. In addition, Robelen reports that some schools and districts are exploring the use of the arts with the Common Core math standards, such as the musical or visual representation of geometric patterns. (For more on the arts and STEM fields, see Robelen's 2011 Education Week article, STEAM: Experts Make Case for Adding Arts to STEM.)

The Arts and ELLs

This discussion of the arts and the CCSS got me thinking about the arts and English language learners. Unfortunately, the first image that came to my mind was the unproductive practice of sending ELLs to the back of the room with a box of crayons and a coloring sheet while the class continues its content lesson for the day.

Yet just as ELLs need to access content in science and math and social studies, they can benefit from a rich arts education experience as well, with the opportunity to develop their language, literacy, and writing skills by interacting with different forms of art and media such as drama, film, visual and graphic arts, music, and dance. Imagine the benefits of having ELLs spend an extended period of time with a piece of art or music, as Ms. Grohe describes, while providing them with vocabulary words, background knowledge, and critical thinking activities.

The benefits aren't strictly academic, however - the arts can also provide ELLs with a chance to build confidence and express themselves in ways that showcase strengths that aren't necessarily apparent in the classroom setting, as noted by award-winning illustrator Rafael López in his interview clip " Art in schools. "

In addition, the arts offer ELLs a setting in which to share their own experiences and cultural background with their peers, an exercise which is valuable in and of itself but also dovetails with the Common Core's emphasis on the ability to "understand other perspectives and cultures" as part of a 21st-century skill set.
Recommended Resources
For further discussion of using the arts with ELLs, and how arts education can support language and literacy development, take a look at the following:

I'll close with a final thought from Robelen regarding arts education and our current budget climate: "Embracing the common core may be something of a survival strategy for the arts in schools, some experts suggest, given how much time, energy, and resources districts and schools are devoting to the standards."

What do you think? Are you seeing any connections being made between the arts and the Common Core, or the arts and your ELLs? Have you had related experiences with your students? We'd love to hear from you!

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Arts Education, the Common Core, and ELLs

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Earlier in December, Education Week published an article about the connections between arts education and the new Common Core State S tandards (CCSS) written by reporter Erik Robelen. The article featured school districts and art institutions such as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston that are making that connection explicit through programming and curriculum development.

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The Best Music Websites For Learning English

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Check out my New York Times post for English Language Learners focuses on using music for language development and includes a student interactive, video, and teaching ideas.
I use music a lot in my teaching of English Language Learners. I thought people might find it helpful to see which sites I believe to be the best out there to help teach English - Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced - through music. My students have certainly found them helpful.

Music is a familiar, fun, and engaging tool to use in learning a second language. This list includes sites that have music to listen to, activities for students to do, and ways for them to create their own.

This is latest of my "The Best..." series, also known as Websites Of The Year. The sites on this list can be found, along with 8,000 other categorized links, on my website. I am also in the process of designing a special page on my website so that it's easy for students to access my lists of The Best Websites on their own.

You might also be interested in an interview I did about using music in the ESL/EFL classroom.

Lastly, you might find these other "The Best..." lists useful:

The Best Music Websites For Learning English
The Best Online Sites For Creating Music
The Best Online Karaoke Sites For English Language Learners
Not "The Best," But "A List" Of Music Sites
The Best Places To Get Royalty-Free Music & Sound Effects
The Best Places To Find Lyrics On The Web
The Best Sites For Ideas On Making Simple Musical Instruments
The Best - And Easiest - Ways To Use YouTube If, Like Us, Only Teachers Have Access To It

Here are what I believe to be the best music websites for learning English:

The Music Page from the Language Guide, the best audio/picture dictionary on the Web for English Language Learners. It's obviously important for students to understand some basic music vocabulary.

The English Language Listening Lab Online, also known as ELLO, has a good Music page . Students can listen to pop tunes and many, but not all, have follow-up exercises that can be accessed by clicking on "Word Challenge."

Here's a new site called Lyrics Mode. This is clearly the best source for accurate song lyrics to print-out without having to put-up with countless annoying pop-up adds that are prevalent in other lyrics sites.

EFL Club Songs has been a favorite of my students. It, too, has clozes to be completed while listening to popular songs.

I'm putting My Pop Studio at number four. Students can create their own recording artist, the music and the lyrics. It's a real fun activity.

Here are two musical games created by Luke Whittaker - The Sound Factory and Break In The Road. They also both made it near the top of my Best Online Learning Games list.

Using Songs In The English Classroom by Hans Mol, a teacher in Australia, is a short article that was just published in Humanising Language Teaching Magazine (which is on The Best Resource Sites For ESL/EFL Teachers list). It gives a very good overview of different language-development activities that can be done with music.

Mondos: Song Lessons offers a lot of excellent song-related activities for English Language Learners.

Teaching English through songs in the digital age is a four part series by Vicky Saumell summarizing a recent #ELTchat session on Twitter. I can't imagine you'd find a better compilation of resources and teaching ideas anyway - it's a must-read and must-bookmark resource.

And, if that isn't enough for you, Eva Büyüksimkeşyan has also posted another exhaustive list of music-related resources: Songs in EFL Classroom.

About two months ago, our District changed its policy and allowed teachers to access many previously-blocked site, including YouTube. It really expands learning opportunities for our students in so many ways. I wanted to share two great music sites we can now use with our students:

One is Lyrics Training. It shows YouTube videos of the latest popular songs, and provides subtitled "clozes." In other words, it will show the words as they are sung, but it will periodically show a "blank" where a word has been removed. The video will stop at the end of that line, and listeners have to type in the correct word that they heard. The "blank" also shows how many letters there are in the missing word. You're given the option of watching the video with a few blanks, more blanks, or none (which is great after you complete the whole song). It's great to project it up on the screen and then have students - either individually or in small groups - use small whiteboards to write down their answers. It's simple to use - no registration is necessary - and you can learn more about it at Teacher Training Videos.

Batlyrics has been on The Best Places To Find Lyrics On The Web list for awhile. It shows the lyrics on the side while playing a YouTube video of the song at the same time. Now that we can access YouTube, it's great to have a full sing-along.

Classroom Songs: 16 Creative Ways lists some good ways to use music in the ESL/EFL classroom.

I'm making some new additions to this list focused on research that supports using music in the classroom:
Effectiveness of Music on Vocabulary Acquisition, Language Usage, and Meaning for Mainland Chinese ESL Learner
Using Music in the Adult ESL Classroom. ERIC Digest.
ESL Through Music
David Deubelbeiss has developed another great resource for ESL/EFL teachers - tons of music videos with lyric sheets, including clozes.

Using Songs in the EFL Classroom is an online presentation by David Deubelbeiss

David Deubelbeiss recently revamped the music lyrics search on EFL Classroom 2.0.

clubEFL has the Picture Dictionary, that has mostly YouTube music videos and interactive exercises.

David Deubelbeiss from EFL Classroom 2.0 has put together an extraordinary music resource - a collection of all EFL Clasroom 2.0 song + lyric sheet materials.

The British Council reorganized their website awhile back, and now that have all their songs for English Language Learners (including closed-captioning) all in one place. It's an excellent resource.

David Deubelbeiss has put together a great virtual online book of songs and video s for ELLs.

Results of a new study will come as no surprise to anyone who teaches a second language: "Singing can help when learning a foreign language."

Of course, having a little more research to back you up if people question the melodic tones coming from your classroom can't hurt. Even more info on the study is here.

Using Music and Songs in EFL Classes is the theme of the 33rd ELT Blog Carnival, and it's a good one! Eva Buyuksimkesyan has gathered contributions from English teachers throughout the world on the topic, and it's so good that I'm adding it to this list.
"Lyrics Videos" On YouTube & English Language Learners
The Top 10 Reasons To Use Songs In The Classroom is by David Deubelbeiss.

How To Teach English Using Music is from English Lane.

L Teachers & Students Will Love MusiXmatch - It Provides Karaoke-Style Lyrics To Most YouTube Music Videos

10 Ways To Use Songs In The EFL Classroom is from Lyrical English.

Songs and Activities for English Language Learners is a new and useful website full of resources.
Singing, Recording & Authentic Audiences For English Language Learners
Four Tips for Teaching English Through Music is by Judie Haynes.

How to use songs in the English language classroom is a great post by Adam Simpson.
Here's A Successful Music Lesson We Did With Beginning ELLs (Hand-Outs & Student Examples Included)
6 Activities you can do online with songs and music is from The British Council.

TEFL Tunes is a for-pay site providing some excellent song lessons for ELLs, and they also offer quite a few free resources.

Making the right choices: 'Lean On Me' is an intriguing lesson using music with ELLs.

There are places I remember is from On The Same Page and offers a new idea on using music in the ELL classroom.

Using music and songs is from The British Council.
Contribute A Song For ELLs To The "TeachingEnglish Jukebox" Beyond Gap Fills. Using songs to learn a language. Why, how and which?
10 ways to teach English through music is from ETpedia.

Listen and Read Along is a great YouTube channel filled with text and songs that look like this one I used yesterday in my classroom:

Pop Song Workbook is a treasure trove from David Deubelbeiss.

14 Song-Based Lesson Plans and Activities is from On The Same Page.

Songs and Activities for English Language Learners is by Sandra Heyer.

Beyond the Gap Fill: Dynamic Activities for Song in the EFL Classroom is from American English.

Tune Into English has a lot of resources about teaching English through music.

Linguician is a new site that teaches languages through music. If you have Spanish-speakers in your class, they have a program for them to learn English.

Musixmatch, when connected to Spotify, can show the words to any song that is playing.

New Ideas for Teaching English using Songs and Music is by Kristin Lems.

So goes another "The Best..." list. If you liked this post, consider subscribing to this blog for free.

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The Best Music Websites For Learning English

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Check out my New York Times post for English Language Learners focuses on using music for language development and includes a student interactive, video, and teaching ideas. I use music a lot in my teaching of English Language Learners.

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Teaching Canadian history for English language learners

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Teaching Canadian history for English language learners

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http://contact.teslontario.org/teaching-canadian-history-for-english-language-learners/

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Historica Canada is the largest independent charitable organization in Canada dedicated to promoting history, citizenship and identity. We examine the Canadian experience, past and present. We are dedicated to helping educators, by providing free, bilingual educational resources that are pedagogically relevant and curriculum based.

Historica Canada's education resources are inspired by the historical thinking concepts developed by Peter Seixas and the Historical Thinking Project . These concepts aim to improve critical thinking in history education. The six concepts include Historical Significance, Primary Source Evidence, Taking Historical Perspectives, Change and Continuity, and Cause and Consequence.

Educational Resources: Methodology and Accessibility

All Historica Canada educational resources are available through a free and searchable Education Portal . Not only a resource bank of more than 300 learning tools, the Portal also invites teachers and educators to submit and share their own lesson plans and create collections of their favourite resources to revisit from year to year.

Historica Canada's education resources are created through a collaborative consultation process involving teachers, academic experts, community stakeholders, and editorial and design teams. By consulting with multiple experts in history and education, these resources aim to represent diverse perspectives and speak to a variety of learning levels.

Modification activities for English language learners are integrated into Historica Canada education resources. A consultation process was conducted to determine whether educators preferred separate ELL learning tools, or integrated activities for the whole class that address multiple learning levels. This consultation revealed that the majority of teachers preferred a resource with integrated modifications. With this integrated approach, second language learner modifications are dispersed throughout the Historica Canada Education Guides. These activities focus on a variety of skills, but many emphasize storytelling, perspective taking, and vocabulary acquisition.

History as Storytelling: Understanding Diverse Perspectives

Many students still think of history as memorizing a series of facts and dates, but it is far more than that. It is a discipline that has storytelling at its heart. History is a narrative that tells the story of our country, our communities and the people who live in them. It is an evolving interpretation of people, events and ideas from the past.

Perspective-taking is an integral part of examining the historical narrative. By using historical context and evidence, students are able to make inferences about the beliefs and actions of people in the past. Perspective-taking encourages students to use context and evidence to try to understand the beliefs and actions of a person from the near or distant past. Exploring historical events and ideas from another person's perspective promotes empathy and understanding. These interpersonal skills are not only important in the study of history but also to interactions in our every day lives.

Understanding diverse perspectives promotes equity and inclusion. As the Ontario Ministry of Education outlined in its 2009 Guidelines for Policy Development and Implementation:

Schools are expected to give students and staff authentic and relevant opportunities to learn about diverse histories, cultures, and perspectives. Lessons, projects, and related resources should allow students to see themselves reflected in the curriculum. (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2009, p.24)

Thinking critically about history is one way in which to achieve this aim. This article explores strategies, activities and learning opportunities for English language learners to become active storytellers in the narrative of Canadian history.

Ideas for Engaging English Language Learners

Learning about Canadian History through Heritage Minutes

The Heritage Minutes are a collection of 86 iconic Canadian stories, told through film, in one minute or less. First released in 1991, the Minutes were re-launched in 2012 and are available in both official languages online or on DVD.

One of the most recent Heritage Minutes examines the tragic death of Chanie Wenjack in 1966 after he fled the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Ontario. Chanie Wenjack's death sparked the first investigation into the treatment of Indigenous children in Canadian residential schools.

The Residential Schools in Canada Education Guide was designed to complement this Heritage Minute, and includes activities to analyze and explore Chanie's story further. When watching the Heritage Minute as a class, turn on closed captioning to improve accessibility for English language learners. ¹ The modifications to explore the Chanie Wenjack Heritage Minute further include vocabulary-building, writing and perspective-taking.

Pitching a Heritage Minute

After viewing other Heritage Minutes, students may want to develop their own 60-second story about Canadian history. One of our newest resources, the Women's Suffrage in Canada Education Guide, asks students to pitch their own Heritage Minute. A modification to this activity prompts English language learners to draw a visual storyboard, or create one using online software, as a variation on presenting a written summary. Second language learners could also work in pairs to create a point-form overview of their pitch idea. This activity encourages creative storytelling, using art or writing. In the classroom, this exercise could be adapted for any subject in Canadian history.

Exploring Primary Sources: Historic Photographs

Using primary sources as evidence in the study of history is a key concept in historical thinking. The examination of photographs and images is an accessible way that English language learners can engage with primary sources. Exploring a primary source by describing the visual details, including words and symbols, is one of the first steps in the analysis of historical evidence. The Women's Suffrage in Canada Education Guide includes a modification activity that asks students to write a list of adjectives to describe the photo with question prompts. Working with primary sources, like photographs, encourages critical thinking, an important skill for all learners to develop.

The Think Like a Historian series, our newest educational program, includes a series of videos and classroom worksheets to guide students through primary source analysis. The series examines photographs, newspapers, and soldiers` letters from the Battle of Vimy Ridge. To make this series more accessible for your ELL class, turn on closed captioning for the videos and use the `Modification` activities in the classroom worksheets. Watch the free, bilingual videos and download the worksheets .

Visual Storytelling: Designing a Museum Exhibit

Museums and exhibits bring visual and written storytelling together to present an experiential and interactive perspective on the past. Designing a museum exhibit is another interpretation of history; it creates a visual narrative with the intention of communicating a message. Developing a visual exhibit invites students to become storytellers of history. The Residential Schools Education Guide encourages visual storytelling and primary source engagement by asking students to create their own museum exhibit. ELL students can focus on telling their exhibit story through images and artifacts found in the education guide and online.

Reading Comprehension: The Canadian Encyclopedia

Educational resources on The Canadian Encyclopedia can be used to complement these activities. The Encyclopedia includes more than 19,000 bilingual articles. Each article is written by an academic expert, after which it is professionally copy-edited and fact-checked for accuracy. It is therefore a reliable online resource for research and learning about Canadian history.

The Encyclopedia entries are generally written at a Grade 10 level, and therefore may not be easily accessible for all ELL students. However, there are supplementary learning tools that can support students in navigating more challenging reading levels. The 5Ws Reading Chart for secondary sources can help ELL students unpack articles from The Canadian Encyclopedia by working through the who, what, when, where, and why of the article contents, which is an opportunity to improve reading comprehension. It may be beneficial for students to work in pairs while completing this chart, and to compare their findings with other students.

Taking the Citizenship Challenge

The Citizenship Challenge asks students to test their knowledge of Canada by studying for and writing a mock citizenship exam in French or English. The quiz asks Canadians to answer the same types of questions newcomers must answer when becoming citizens. To help prepare for the Challenge classes can work through learning tools and worksheets that explore themes surrounding citizenship, history and civics based on the official Discover Canada study guides created by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Specialized learning tools have been created for ELL exploring these themes. Register your class online to take the Challenge or print hardcopies off of our website .

Exploring Diverse Histories

Listening to Storytellers: Passages Canada

Passages Canada is one of Historica Canada's core programs and offers a speakers bureau and an online story archive. Passages speakers are dedicated to sharing the stories that make up Canada's cultural mosaic. Engaging speakers visit classrooms and communities to share personal stories of immigrating to Canada and adapting to a new way of life, or their perspectives on Canada as a multicultural nation.

Having a speaker visit your classroom is a good community building experience for a diverse class, and promotes perspective-taking. A learning tool specifically designed for ESL and LINC students includes activities for before, during and after a speaker visit. This includes listening comprehension, vocabulary identification, and speaking exercises. If you are unable to invite a speaker into your classroom, there are video stories available and through a free DVD.

A free DVD with 23 speaker interviews is another way to engage students in thinking about their personal experiences. A transcript, for students to read along while watching, accompanies each video. It is important for students to see themselves and their experience reflected more broadly in classroom, and this is one way in which to achieve this aim.

The interactive Passages Story Archive includes over 200 profiles complete with recorded testimonials, photographs, and an interactive map. These profiles explore themes of citizenship, immigration, human rights, and refugee experiences. Newcomers to Canada can use the interactive map to find stories from speakers who are from their country of origin.

English language learner students can become part of the conversation, by becoming a Passages speaker themselves or submitting their stories to the Story Archive. Please contact Passages Canada for more information.

ELL Students as Storytellers

These educational resources are designed to encourage students to think critically about history, and also to empower them to become storytellers of their own history.

Historica Canada is the country's largest organization dedicated to enhancing awareness of Canadian history and citizenship.. You can get more information at
Education@HistoricaCanada.ca .

References

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2009). Equity and Inclusive Education in Ontario Schools. Guidelines for Policy Development and Implementation. Retrieved from
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/inclusiveguide.pdf

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Teaching Canadian history for English language learners

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Historica Canada is the largest independent charitable organization in Canada dedicated to promoting history, citizenship and identity. We examine the Canadian experience, past and present. We are dedicated to helping educators, by providing free, bilingual educational resources that are pedagogically relevant and curriculum based.

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Duolingo is the world's most popular way to learn a language. It's 100% free, fun and science-based. Practice online on duolingo.com or on the apps!

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ReadWorks | Award-Winning, EdTech Nonprofit Organization

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ReadWorks is an edtech nonprofit organization that is committed to helping to solve America’s reading comprehension crisis.

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As we come to know the individual needs of our students, where can we find high quality resources that fit their interests, needs and age?

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As we come to know the individual needs of our students, where can we find high quality resources that fit their interests, needs and age?

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Resources for Junior / Intermediate ELL Students