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"I do, we do, you do" is an excellent tool to help students gain confidence in a skill. The teacher demonstrates the assignment/ activity first, then the students and teacher work on one together before finally the students solve one without the teacher's help. this strategy can be applied in just about any subject which makes it a very helpful tool to have and offers a way to help students become more independent without feeling as stressed as if they were just given an assignment.

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As future educators, i feel it is crucial to find unchallenging and manageable ways to incorporate scaffolding into our classrooms. The article above dives into finding ways support students in the best way, and promote the most success and structure for them as they continue to learn and develop. The article starts by highlighting breaking up learning, and differentiating scaffolding a lesson compared to simply instructing a lesson. The article then breaks down how lessons can be modified and individualized to help students learn efficiently and achieve the highest success. It then lists out six scaffolding strategies and ideas that helps students develop and give a bases for their own framework and development. The first scaffolding idea listed is SHOW AND TELL. Modeling for students is a easy and careful way to demonstrate scaffolding. Every chance educators have, they should do their best to show and demonstrate everything they expect students to do. The second method is TAPPING INTO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE. Having your students connect and relate concepts to their own knowledge and experiences helps them make sense of foreign topics and information. The third strategy is GIVE TIME TO TALK. By letting students have time to think and develop their own thoughts and feelings helps them make sense and process new ideas and information. The fourth was PRE-TEACH VOCABULARY. By introducing words to students in context with things they know and are interested in, helps student tackle those challenging tasks involving words, and do not feel as overwhelming to the students. Fifth the listed the use of visual aides. Using visual aides helps students of all backrounds visually represent their own ideas, organize information, and grasp concepts better. Lastly the listed PAUSE, ASK QUESTIONS, PAUSE, REVIEW. Again, with students coming from all different types of with diverse backrounds, we as educators need to continue to check understanding of our students with our intended learning while also letting them continue to digest and learn by using these scaffolding strategies.

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6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use With Your Students

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Support every student by breaking learning up into chunks and providing a concrete structure for each.

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The Collaborative Classroom website shares scaffolding strategies and ideas when interacting with English Language Learners. These strategies aim to provide a supportive learning environment, allow the students to take an active role in the classroom, and provide opportunities to take ownership of their learning. While working with English Language Learners it is important to remember to establish patience that will make their learning process comfortable. A verbal scaffold idea is to model the "think-a-loud", which encourages the students to say what they are thinking, another idea is slowing down the speech with enunciations and to simplify questions. An additional strategy is to engage in read-aloud where the teacher and students can all participate.

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Scaffolding Techniques for English Language Learners: Part 1

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When supporting English Language Learners during instruction we must consider that the instruction is two-fold. Teachers are supporting content and language acquisition simultaneously. This is not an easy task! Scaffolding has been praised for its ability to engage most learners. When the learning is scaffolded students are constantly building on prior knowledge and forming associations [...]

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It allows students to show progress over a certain amount of time.

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This website talks about 5 scaffolding strategies that can be used to help ELL students. The first is "show and tell" in which you show or model to your students what you want them to do before they do it. For instance, this can include "think aloud" where the teacher would read a passage out loud before asking a student to and stop at different points to model their thoughts as they think aloud. The second strategy is "activate prior knowledge" as for students to properly learn new concepts it is important to build upon prior knowledge. Some example strategies in this section would be K-W-L charts, anticipation guides, brainstorming webs, think-pair-share, and quick writes. The third strategy is "promote classroom interaction" as it is important to encourage peer discussion in the classroom as this helps with learning. Some ways of doing this could be "turn and talk", numbered/colored heads, and concentric circles. The fourth strategy is "pre-teach vocabulary" as it is especially helpful to go over any relevant and important vocabulary before reading a text. Finally, the fifth strategy is to use visual aids because students often learn better if they can see what they're learning and especially for English Language Learners as this helps give context to what they are learning. Some examples of visual aids would include pictures and drawings, charts and diagrams, graphic organizers, manipulatives, and video clips.

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Imagine that you and your family recently moved to a new country. You're trying to learn a difficult language that everyone around you already knows and adjust to a school culture that's much different than what you're used to.

You're already feeling overwhelmed, but to top it off, your teacher asks you to read a three-page article that's written in gibberish and complete five short-answer response questions all by yourself. Nervously, you get to work, but you aren't feeling very confident in yourself.

Unfortunately, the lack of support in this scenario is a harsh reality for many English learners.

English language learners (ELLs), like all students, certainly don't benefit from this type of "sink or swim" teaching. Rather, to be able to acquire new content knowledge and cultural understanding, English learners (ELs) require intentional and strategic instructional scaffolding. In this blog, we'll explore what scaffolding instruction means and provide five scaffolding strategies for ELL students that you should use in your classroom.

What is Instructional Scaffolding?

Before we answer this question, let's first consider what scaffolding is used for in construction. Scaffolds are temporary structures that construction workers use to support themselves and heavy materials as they complete a project, such as constructing a building or repairing a bridge. It helps crews access heights that they wouldn't be able to reach on their own and serves as somewhat of a safety net.

Educational scaffolds provide a much different type of support, but similarly to construction, they help students reach new heights that they can't do alone (metaphorically speaking).

In education, scaffolding is a teaching method where the educator helps support students to complete tasks just beyond the level that they could achieve by themselves. This technique stems from Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who developed a theory that children learn best when an adult helps them expand upon what they already know and can do.

His theory birthed the concept of a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)-the area between what is known and unknown where students can achieve a task with guidance from a knowledgeable teacher. Over time, the teacher can gradually reduce their support until the students master the task themselves (like how the scaffolding around a building is torn down once a project is completed). Then, they're ready to move on to the next concept.

Rather than teaching concepts that are well beyond your students' understanding and simply pulling them along, your instruction should take place within their ZPD with appropriate scaffolds.

How Does Scaffolding Help English Language Learners (ELLs)?

Scaffolding instruction is beneficial for all students, but it's particularly essential for English language learners.

By breaking up new concepts into smaller chunks and using scaffolding strategies for ELLs, you'll make learning the English language less intimidating and help increase their understanding by gradually building upon what they already know. It also reduces frustration and helps ELs become more confident, motivated, and independent learners.

Let's look at some simple scaffolding strategies for ELL students that you can use to support your students' language proficiency.

5 Scaffolding Strategies for ELL Students

There are many techniques that you can use to support the English language learners in your classroom. Here are five of our favorite scaffolding strategies for ELLs.

1. Modeling

Most people learn best when they see or experience something rather than just hear about it.

Think about when you learned how to change a tire. Someone likely walked you through how to do it step by step while getting their hands dirty. Well, imagine instead that they just wrote out the steps on a piece of paper, or worse, just rattled off what to do and set you off on your own.

Learning words and concepts in a new language is a lot like changing a tire for your ELs. Therefore, whenever possible, you should explicitly show your students what they're expected to do rather than just telling them.

Think Aloud

A think-aloud session is a great technique to demonstrate how good readers make sense of a text and monitor their understanding as they read. Before having students read a passage themselves, the teacher should first read the passage aloud, stopping along the way to model their thoughts at points that may be difficult or confusing.

Some questions that you can encourage students to ask themselves during a think-aloud include:

What do I already know about the topic?

What do I think I'm going to learn?

Do I understand what I just read?

What more can I do to better understand?

What new information did I learn?

What were the most important points?

While you read, be sure to model how you're working with and thinking about the text to answer the above questions, such as rereading a tricky sentence or using context clues to make predictions. From there, you can have your students read the passage with a partner and practice the think-aloud strategy. Then, once they understand the process, ask the students to read the passage once more individually so they can process it internally.

Modeling for your students how to approach their thinking before, during, and after reading a text will not only help them become better readers but also become self-regulated learners.

2. Activate Prior Knowledge

For new concepts to sink in, they must be built upon prior understanding.

Think back to the tire scenario. To teach someone how to change a tire, you expand upon their previous knowledge of how a tire works. So, before you dive into a new topic or text, ask students to share their ideas and experiences related to it. This helps them connect content to their own lives and increases engagement.

Some commonly used scaffolding strategies for ELLs that activate prior knowledge include:

You may need to drop hints and lead students to make connections at first, but once they see the relevance in what they're learning, it'll start to become easier.

Like all students, English language learners need time to verbally process new information. Therefore, as an ESL teacher, it's important to incorporate frequent opportunities for your students to engage in structured peer discussions during your lessons.

Turn & Talk

Turn and Talk is a simple and effective scaffolding strategy for ELL students that promotes classroom interaction. Simply ask your students a question or provide them a prompt, then have them discuss with a partner. Give them enough time for both partners to contribute to the conversation and be sure to roam around the room, assisting as needed. Here's a short video that further explains how the Turn in Talk technique works.

The Turn and Talk is a total participation technique, where instead of calling on a few students to share their thoughts with the whole class, you're encouraging all students to think and share their thoughts. This technique also helps ELs feel more comfortable and confident sharing, as it's less intimidating than speaking in front of a large class.

There are several other total participation techniques that you can use, such as

By providing ample opportunities for students to interact and use the language they're learning, you're helping your students boost their language proficiency and their confidence.

4. Pre-Teach Vocabulary

Pre-teaching vocabulary, or frontloading vocabulary, is an incredibly effective scaffolding strategy for ELLs to help them tackle difficult texts.

Before your students read something new, you should always dedicate time for explicit vocabulary instruction of important terms within the text. By that, though, we don't mean simply asking students to pull out a dictionary, copy the definitions of ten words, and begin reading. This happens way too often in classrooms and, unfortunately, doesn't have a lasting impact on language acquisition.

Vocabulary Gallery Walk

Instead of relying on memorization, introduce vocabulary terms in a way that captures your students' interest and allows them to make connections. Print out photographs for each word and place them around the room, then have students do a gallery walk and use context clues to determine what they think each one means. After they're done, give them time to share their thoughts before providing the actual definitions.

To help them better understand each definition, you can also have students create drawings, make a short skit in groups, or simply get with a partner and take turns using each word in a sentence. Not only does pre-teaching vocabulary support your ELs' reading comprehension, but it also helps them learn how to use new words naturally.

5. Use Visual Aids

As we mentioned above, people often learn better by seeing rather than just hearing. This is especially true for English language learners, as visual aids help them contextualize information and build upon their prior knowledge. For that reason, you should use visual representations of new concepts as much as possible in your classroom, including:

It's important to note that visual aids should serve as a tool for learning rather than a product of learning. For example, a graphic organizer is often used as a scaffold to help students gather their thoughts (tool) to then write an essay (product). Over time, they won't need the visual aid to understand a concept or complete a task-sort of like training wheels for riding a bike.

Learning a new language is hard enough without having to do it alone. To ensure that your students achieve language proficiency and become well-adjusted to their new school culture, you must use scaffolding strategies for ELLs within your classroom.

Looking for more teaching tips and resources for your English language learners (ELLs)? Check out our ESL Resource Center!
Thank you to Melissa Miller, an ESOL teacher in Howard County, Maryland for consulting on this blog post. This blog was originally published on March 8, 2022. It was updated on March 10, 2023.

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5 Scaffolding Strategies for ELL Students

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Looking for better ways to support the English learners in your class? Check out these proven scaffolding strategies for ELL students!

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As a future educator I know that being able to read plays a vital role in the educational development of a person. I also know that each as reading is essential, there are different ways in which my students will learn. In the video above, they talk about the importance and role of scaffolding and the many different ways I can incorporate this into my classroom. I can scaffold reading development in ways such as graphic organizers, a break down of the reading, small groups, and even providing my students with background information for guidance.

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This website provides information on how to scaffold for reading through chunking. This can happen by the teacher and students reading something together by chunking it by paragraph and then checking for comprehension. This could be extremely useful in the classroom to slowly taking it section by section.

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This PDF contains 6 different scaffolding strategies in order to foster language learning in a cultural context. The one I liked the most is called schema building in which they foster language in a cultural context.

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Adobe Acrobat: PDF edit, convert, sign tools

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Do more in Google Chrome with Adobe Acrobat PDF tools. View, fill, comment, sign, and try convert and compress tools.

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For me, listening is the easiest aspect of learning language, so it is a good way to increase confidence! By providing a transcript especially helps students learn reading and speaking at the same time. This can also reinforce pronunciation practice. When students aren't confident enough to speak because they worry about accent or pronunciation, this would be a great way to help them! This is actually how I learned Spanish in the beginning, and I feel like it still helps me to this day.

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Choosing a Task

The next way to support your struggling listeners is through the task. I mentioned above that the task is more important than the recording, which is why it's so important to be realistic with your expectations and to give your students the support they'll need to be successful.

Be Realistic: If I have a beginner-level class and I play them a segment from Good Morning America there should be no issue. However, if I ask them to listen to that segment and then give me their opinion on the issue that is discussed, I'm going to lose them.

Creating realistic tasks is one of, if not THE most important part of a listening exercise. Asking my students to give their opinion on the segment will require them to understand the words being spoken, comprehend the topic, connect it to their previous experience and knowledge on the topic, and formulate their own thoughts. That's a lot of work.

However, if I ask my students to simply tell me what is being discussed, it becomes a lot more attainable. They'll be able to use body language, vocabulary, tone, and visual cues to identify the issue that is being discussed on a show created for native speakers.

Listen for a Purpose: So, you have realistic expectations for your students, now you have to explicitly identify them and communicate them. If you show your students the Good Morning America clip with no context and no purpose, you'll receive blank stares when you ask your follow-up question.

Listening to something created for native speakers in your second language is an overwhelming task, especially when you don't know what you're listening for. Tell your students why they're listening, so that they're prepared to extract the data they need!

If you want your students to listen for the main idea (the topic being discussed or the hosts' feelings), tell them that! If you want your students to listen for a specific detail (the name of the celebrity or the date of the crime), tell them that!

Stay on Topic: If you've set a realistic goal and a purpose for listening, then stick to it. No curve balls, especially if your students are struggling with listening comprehension! The goal here is to strengthen your students' listening skills and provide them with the support they need to be successful.

If there are multiple things that you want your students to identify, split it up into multiple listening sessions. Listen once for the main idea, a second time for a specific detail, and a third time for the way the host pronounces a certain word.

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Supporting Struggling Listeners: 3 Ways to Scaffold Listening Exercises in the ESL Classroom - Everyday ESL

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There are three ways that you can support your struggling listeners and scaffold your listening exercises. The first is to support them through the recording that you choose or the materials that you make available.

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Listening can be really difficult for language learners, especially when they have no structure to follow along with audio recordings. Scaffolding listening with reading may be very beneficial for students who are struggling with interpreting the language just by listening. This website I attached provides several ideas for written accompaniments to listening. For example, students may listen to an audio recording, look a selection of written phrases from the audio recording, and then put the phrases in order or fill in the blanks to make it match the audio. This may help students gain a better understanding of what the person in the audio is saying.
The website also provides pre-listening scaffolding practice for students. They can match words in their native language and English, which will be useful for making sure they know these words/phrases before they listen to the audio.

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Some ideas for making listening practice more accessible, providing activities at a variety of levels, where students have control over the audio player (can pause, repeat, re-play etc)...

...AND all of this with minimal prep time for teachers, as all of the activities 1 to 10 below are generated automatically based on a single text.

(NB. see this blog post for information on how to add an audio file to textivate)
1. Multiple choice reconstruction. 2. Tile reconstruction. 3. Chunk-based reconstruction.

Similar to 1 and 2 above, but this time we've split our text into chunks as explained on this blog post.
(a) Multiple choice Try this activity
Students listen and rebuild the text using chunks specified by the teacher.
(b) Tiles Try this activity
Students listen and rebuild the text using chunks specified by the teacher.

4. Gap-fill. 5. Separate the words. 6. Jumble. 7. Next word(s). 8. Vowels / consonants. 9. Initials. 10. Fill in all the letters. 11. Listening comprehension?
Try this activity Try this activity
See this blog post about how to create a reading comprehension with textivate. The same principles apply. The images are based on a different resource than the one used for the rest of the activities in this post (which doesn't really lend itself to listening comprehension).

12. Pre-listening vocab activities?

All sorts of pre-listening vocab games and activities based on the same text, simply by adding matching items to the text.
Try this activity Try this activity Try this activity Try this activity

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Some ideas for making listening practice more accessible, providing activities at a variety of levels, where students have control over the audio player (can pause, repeat, re-play etc)... ...AND all of this with minimal prep time for teachers, as all of the activities 1 to 10 below are generated automatically based on a single text.

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As future teachers, it is essential that we implement scaffolding strategies into our daily curriculum and lesson plans in order to ensure success and growth. This type of structured support is key for students, as through this support, they can develop into stronger, more confident learners. I selected an article that highlights the think aloud scaffolding strategy. Think alouds strengthen and deepen student reading comprehension and their knowledge of how to read for understanding. When using this strategy, the teacher may read a text aloud, or students may read individually, drawing on important details and thoughts students should consider while reading the text. Some questions a teacher may ask students to think about while reading include: "What do I already know about this topic?"; "What might I learn?"; "Can I visualize the words I am reading?"; "Do I understand what I am reading?"; and "What are the main ideas/most important ideas of this text?" By asking themselves these questions as they read, students' reading comprehension and understanding will strengthen, showing them the importance of reading a text deeply for understanding. This strategy also makes teachers aware of where students are at in their level of reading comprehension. Additionally this strategy is flexible, as it can be performed as a whole group, in small groups, or individually. Overall, I think this would be a beneficial strategy to implement in my own classroom one day and I hope we discuss this idea further in class!

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Conner, J. (2004). Using Think-Alouds to Improve Reading Comprehension.

Davey, B. (1983). Think-aloud: Modeling the cognitive processes of reading comprehension. Journal of Reading, 27(1), 44-47.

Gold, J., & Gibson, A. (2001). Reading Aloud to Build Comprehension.

Olshavsky, J. E. (1977). Reading as problem-solving: An Investigation of Strategies. Reading Research Quarterly, 12(4), 654-674.

Wilhelm, J. D. (2001). Improving Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategies. New York: Scholastic Inc.

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Think-alouds have been described as "eavesdropping on someone's thinking." With this strategy, teachers verbalize aloud while reading a selection orally. Their verbalizations include describing things they're doing as they read to monitor their comprehension. The purpose of the think-aloud strategy is to model for students how skilled readers construct meaning from a text.

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Scaffolding- Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies. 

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One example of a scaffolding strategy that can be applied in the classroom is introducing new vocabulary words to the students. Some of the benefits of applying new vocabulary words in the class is that the students will understand what is being said by the teacher, and how they can use these new words for their in-class discussions. As a future educator, I would like to teach my students about big words and how to properly use them when speaking to others. In this website, I also learned about the "Fish Bowl" activity, and this activity is a great scaffolding strategy when used in the classroom. After reading the Formative Assessments document for ELLS students, I really like how page four provides many examples of what teachers can have their students participate in. Examples include ticket out the door, and red light, green light.

Scaffolding - Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies (weebly.com)

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Image source: www.mshouser.com
According to the Glossary of Education Reform (2014), "Scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process." When teachers use scaffolding, they provide successive levels of support that help students to reach higher levels of comprehension that they would not have been able to achieve without help. The supportive strategies are gradually removed when they are no longer needed and the teacher shifts more responsibility over to the student.

Scaffolding is breaking up the learning into chunks, then providing a tool. or structure to use with each chunk. When scaffolding is used for reading, you could preview the text and discuss key vocabulary, or chunk the text and read and discuss as you go. (Alber, 2014)

According to Alber (2014), here are some strategies that can be used to scaffold a lesson:

1. Show and Tell - Model and demonstrate to students exactly what they are expected to do. You can use a "fish bowl activity" where a group of students are in the center of the room circled by the class. The middle group "fishbowl" are engaging in an activity and modeling how the activity is done for the whole group. The students on the outside can see how the activity is done while watching the inner group. Another strategy in this category is "think alouds". This process allows you to model your thought process as you read, solve a problem, etc.
2. Tap into Prior Knowledge - Have students share their experiences, ideas and knowledge about the concept of study. Help them connect their prior knowledge to the concept.
3. Give Time to Talk - All students need time to process new information. Giving students time to talk to others who are also engaged in the same experience will help them to make sense of the material. Try to use "think-pair-share", turn and talk, and structured talking time throughout the lesson.
4. Pre-Teach Vocabulary- Introduce new words to students prior to reading or beginning a lesson. Use analogies, metaphors, graphics, and discussions so they are prepared to tackle challenging text.
5. Use Visual Aids - Some scaffolding tools include, graphic organizers, pictures, and charts. Help students organize information, grasp concepts, and guide their thinking so students can grasp the information and apply it to their learning.
6. Pause, Ask Questions, Pause, Review - This strategy is used to check for understanding while students read difficult text or learn a new concept. Start by sharing a new idea from the text or discussion, then pause (providing think time), then ask a question and pause again. Design the question ahead of time to make sure they are guided an open ended questions. Have students discuss with a neighbor and give plenty of time for responses.

According to the Glossary for Education Reform (2014), some additional strategies for scaffolding a lesson include:
1. The teacher gives students a simplified version of a reading and/or assignment then gradually increases the difficulty or complexity over time.
2. The teacher describes, illustrates, or models the concept or problem to ensure understanding in multiple ways.
3. Students are given an example or model of an assignment that they expected to complete. The example would be explained as to why it is exemplary and how it represents high quality work.
4. The teacher clearly describes the purpose of the activity, the directions, and the learning objectives they are expected to achieve.
5. The teacher describes how the lesson builds on the previous knowledge and skills have been taught in a previous lesson.

Math
Scaffolding can be used quite easily in the content area of mathematics. It is a method that would naturally require scaffolding when teaching a new concept. Since many higher level problems build upon earlier knowledge, the teacher would have the opportunity to start with what the students already know, then demonstrate how to solve a more difficult problem with new knowledge. The teacher should demonstrate how to solve the problem by incorporating "think aloud" as a way to walk the student's through the thought process of problem solving. As the teacher models the skills to the class, this is the "I do" portion of scaffolding. Next, the student's would begin a problem together, with the assistance of the teacher. This portion is the "we do" part of scaffolding. The teacher may have the students work through the problem as a large group with help, or in pairs, small groups, etc. Finally, after modeling, and practice, the students would then work on a problem by themselves, which is the "you do" part of the strategy. Responsibility gradually shifts from the teacher to the student.

In the content area of FACS, scaffolding is a natural part of teaching in the lab portion of Foods classes. If you use the example of teaching students knife skills for a vegetable soup lab, which requires cutting vegetables with various cuts, scaffolding is required in order to ensure success and safety. The way this process would work is that the teacher would first demonstrate how to hold a knife when cutting vegetables, and model how to dice, mince, julienne, shred, chop, etc. The next stage would be to go through each cut, allowing each student to practice while the teacher can monitor student progress, making corrections when necessary. Finally, would be the day of the lab, when the teacher would have the students preparing vegetable soup by cutting each vegetable according to the directions. Scaffolding in this situation allows students to move from dependence to independence, and success in the lab.

Scaffolding can be applied to all of the MN core writing standards. One standard that this strategy fits well in is 6.7.5.5. This standard says that with some guidance and support from peers and adults, students will use a writing process to develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, drafting, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. Depending on which standard the teacher is working on, they could scaffold any lesson or assignment to achieve the objectives in the writing standards. For the example of standard 6.7.5.5, the teacher could easily model for the students the writing process, then have them write a first draft. After the teacher then works with the student, offering suggestions on editing and revising, the student would go back and make changes. The process could involve peer editing as well. Finally, students would make revisions, and incorporate suggestions and comments to prepare the final draft on their own.

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Image source: www.mshouser.com According to the Glossary of Education Reform (2014), "Scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process." When teachers use scaffolding, they provide successive levels of support that help students to reach higher levels of comprehension that they would not have been able to achieve without help.

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Dr. Moro discusses what scaffolding is and then provides six scaffolding strategies with activities for ELL's. These strategies help with speaking, as well as writing. He discusses the strategies: modeling, bridging, contextualizing, scheme building, text representation, and developing metacognition.

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Create structured opportunities to read!
By scheduling these opportunities into the daily agenda, students will work on their reading proficiency. One way to scaffold this is by integrating short passages into the lesson rather than continuously reading a whole passage and then teaching. The teacher will be able to stop after reading and asks students questions to further their understanding. The teacher can design a chart that will help students allocate new vocabulary and their definitions from this short reading time period. Overall, the document I found is a way to scaffold instruction through New York’s Common Core standards. I chose this because New York is one of the three states with different ESOL standards. The document attached has various ways to scaffold reading instruction, and I hope we can look at it as a class. It is lengthy, so some of it was hard to conceptualize.

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The New York State Education Department is no longer supporting the EngageNY.org website and it will no longer be available for use after April 15, 2022. NYSED encourages educators to download any EngageNY content they wish to use in the future.

All ELA and mathematics curriculum files will be available at the links below, and will remain free and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) license.

Archived EngageNY Curriculum Files:

Grades 3-8 ELA and Mathematics Test Materials:
Questions regarding this change may be directed to the EngageNY Help Desk.

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The New York State Education Department is no longer supporting the EngageNY.org website and it will no longer be available for use after April 15, 2022. NYSED encourages educators to download any EngageNY content they wish to use in the future.

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As future educators, it is key that we use scaffolding techniques in our classroom to promote success. Although this assistance is temporary, students can benefit from this structured guidance. The article that I selected focuses on the writing domain which can be difficult for many ELLS and SIFE students. It is crucial for general education teachers to aid students especially outside of ESOL classroom. Each section in this article emphasized a tip and then an activity students can engage with to practice it. One of the first tips was to “Tap into Prior Knowledge”. This is something that has been emphasized throughout our class readings and discussions. Using K-W-L charts and other organizational tools can help students make connections between their prior knowledge and what they strive to learn. Another tip was to “Give Students a framework”, which is something that roving paragraphs and sentence stems provide. Something that I remember using that the article mentioned was the C-E-R framework. Students write a claim, support it with evidence, and then justify it by explaining their reasoning. This tip helps set up students writing, but is general enough where it can be individualized and personalized. Overall the 6 scaffolding tips discussed in this article were very insightful and reemphasized information we have been looking at this semester.

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6 Ways You Should Be Scaffolding Student Writing - It's Lit Teaching

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You've probably heard a million times that you should be using differentiated instruction in your classroom. If you're in a stricter building, it may even be required that you document your differentiation strategies. But how, exactly, are we supposed to differentiate writing instruction for our advanced, gifted, special education, trauma-sensitive, and ELL learners in a single class period!?

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This website provides 6 programs for students to practice speaking. It provides students with programs that are new and designed for their own learning. It also provides them the comfort of learning to speak without requiring classroom embarrassment.

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Sure, it's satisfying when your ESL student crafts a well-written essay in English.

And of course you're proud when they understand your instructions without asking you to repeat them.

But is there anything more rewarding than hearing a student speak in English and truly sound like a native?

Speaking is arguably the most difficult part of mastering any language. You've likely spent an insane amount of class time correcting pronunciation, reviewing colloquialisms and generally trying to build the students' confidence enough to speak English freely.

It can feel like the speaking instruction never ends.

Thankfully, ESL speaking websites can help your students achieve the progress you've been searching for.

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

The Benefits of Using ESL Speaking Websites in the Classroom

They do the work for you.

ESL speaking websites aren't just valuable for students-they're lifesavers for teachers, too!

There are sites overflowing with speaking warm-up activities, games, complete lesson plans and even self-grading quizzes.

These features can save you significant time creating lesson plans. You won't have to write your own dialogues for students to act out or grade tests while you watch "The Bachelorette" after work. The less time you spend on menial tasks, the more effort you can give your students in the classroom.

Not to mention, you can actually mentally check out when you leave school, which will leave you refreshed and motivated when you waltz back into the building the next morning.

You have access to a wide range of speaking exercises.

It's all too easy to run out of ideas for how to engage ESL learners. I know I've found myself repeating the same activities every five class periods or so. Students may eventually get bored of the same old, same old and stop paying close attention.

ESL speaking websites provide you with both new ideas and example content you can use in the classroom. Suddenly, you'll have videos, audio clips, discussion prompts, dialogues, quizzes and tests to teach your students oral English.

Students can engage with the material.

Growing up, the class I dreaded most every week was Spanish. Most of the time, we went around the class and took turns reading scripted conversations from our textbook. It wasn't exactly inspiring.

ESL speaking websites can make speaking practice more entertaining, though.

If you take students to a language lab, you can have them explore these websites at length. Even if you stay in a traditional classroom, you can display the site on a projector or use the provided examples in other ways.

There are much more engaging ways to get students speaking than asking them to read from a textbook.

As the website name suggests, ESL Conversation Questions is your one-stop shop for finding questions to spark discussion in your classroom.

The site is especially useful if you're teaching question words: who, why, where, when, what and how. But you could theoretically use questions from ESL Conversation Questions in any lesson plan.

You can browse questions by topic, ranging from aliens ("Do you believe there is other life in the universe?") to books ("Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction books?") to travel ("Where are the best places for adventure vacations?").

You may also choose to sort questions by grammar or vocabulary. For example, search for questions using adverbs of frequency, comparatives, phrasal verbs and more.

The most unique feature of this website is probably that you can search for questions to accompany the most popular ESL textbooks out there. Let's say you teach using the "Touchstone" textbook series. Just go to the specific unit you're teaching from the textbook and find corresponding conversation questions.

The site's wide range of questions and options makes it a great resource for learners of any age or level.

The best way for students to become strong speakers is by immersing themselves in the language, and FluentU makes classroom immersion completely attainable.

FluentU features videos that English speakers actually watch, so students can immerse themselves in the culture and pick up native accents.

FluentU takes authentic videos-like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks-and turns them into personalized language lessons.

My Speech Class is a completely different kind of ESL speaking website. It isn't for conversations or acting out skits-it's for public speaking. Use this site to find topics for your students' English speeches.

You may choose to select speech topics before class to assign to students, or you can have students browse the site themselves and pick subjects. Each section includes helpful information, such as how to choose a topic and how to deliver a specific type of speech, making the site an excellent resource for students.

You can filter by speech type, such as persuasive, informative or humorous. My Speech Class even offers more specific topics, like speeches for kids, two-minute talks and five-minute talks. There are thousands of ideas to choose from, so you should have no trouble finding subjects that fit your students' abilities and the lesson you're teaching.

Here are a few examples of topics you can find:

Persuasive: Should we donate unused food from supermarkets?

For kids: My favorite season of the year is...

Argumentative: The negative effects of Ronald Reagan's "War on Drugs"

Entertaining: My worst date

Policy: Why cities should insist on having their own local economic development policy

And that's just the tip of the iceberg!

Public speaking is a pretty advanced skill for ESL students, so My Speech Class is probably best suited for near-fluent speakers. However, if you teach upper-intermediate students, you may be able to find some good topics on this site for them.

ESL Fast is a great resource for helping students practice dialogue.Browse conversations by topics, starting with "It's Time to Get up," all the way to "Comments on the New President."

Each topic comes with a printed dialogue and an audio recording of native speakers reciting the conversation.

There are multiple ways to use these dialogues in a lesson plan. You may have students pair up and take turns speaking as Person A and Person B, or they can act out the conversations in front of the class. You may choose for them to listen to the audio before reciting or have them practice on their own, then listen to the audio to compare what they sound like to the native speakers.

Each topic has only a few short example dialogues (and sometimes only one), so a fun, interactive activity could be to have students recite the conversation, then write their own dialogues about the topic.

ESL Fast splits subjects into beginner and intermediate dialogues and the audio recordings are spoken slowly, so lower-level learners can easily follow along.

The website also provides short essays and stories you could have students read aloud or memorize to recite in front of the class. They can read about topics like "Bill Gates: The Man Behind Microsoft," "The U.S. Federal Government" and "Julie Joins Facebook," among many others.

English Media Lab is a great resource for learning a variety of English skills, such as grammar and vocabulary. To focus specifically on speaking, click on the "pronunciation" tab in the menu.

The website provides videos, but these videos are a little different than the ones on other sites on this list. The videos are instructional and focus on specific English speaking concepts. For example, you'll find videos on topics like diphthongs, short vs. long vowel sounds and voiced vs. voiceless consonants. After your students watch a video, they'll engage in interactive exercises and quizzes to test their knowledge of the pronunciation concept.

The volume and variety of English Media Lab's pronunciation resources are pretty impressive. You'll find printable worksheets, charts, flashcards, ebooks, audiobooks, games and more.

English Media Lab's activities are geared toward kids and novice students.

Similar to English Media Lab, ESL Gold helps students build on several skills, so it's a convenient resource to use if you want to focus on reading or listening along with speaking.

ESL Gold actually offers complete ESL lessons for free! These lessons are speaking intensive and help students talk about a topic in a variety of ways.

For instance, you could teach the lesson on family and relationships. As a warm-up activity, your students will look at the provided picture of a family and answer questions about both the photo and their own families. Then they'll listen to the related vocabulary. They'll pair up with a partner to tell them about their family, using ESL Gold example sentences to guide them along. Finally, the website suggests ways students can practice talking about family outside of class.

Maybe you're just looking for individual activities for your lesson rather than a full lesson plan. ESL Gold offers articles your students can read aloud and discuss together, videos and example dialogues to introduce phrases for conversation and more.

ESL Gold's materials are split into beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, so the site is useful for students of all levels.

Imagine watching your students reenact an interview with President Obama, listening to them read an article about America's fastest growing cities aloud or hearing them recite a dialogue they wrote themselves.

Teaching pronunciation isn't exactly a piece of cake. When a student masters a difficult pronunciation concept, it can feel like you're both winners. These six ESL speaking websites can set you both up for success.

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

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Let's Talk: 6 ESL Speaking Websites for Learners of All Levels

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Want your students to sound like native English speakers? Implement these 6 ESL Speaking Websites in your classroom for some truly effective speaking instruction.

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Because listening can be one of the most challenging domains for English language learners, it is important for us, as educators, to think of scaffolding strategies that we can use in our classrooms to help students in this area. The article I linked discussed a few ways we can successfully do this such as, choosing an appropriate recording for students to watch and listen to. We should provide transcripts for them to closely read along while they are listening to help them distinguish between words and identify correct pronunciation. If the recording we choose is a little too challenging for some students, we can ask them to focus on specific things instead like names or locations that are mentioned. When choosing a task for ELL students to complete, we must be realistic and set developmentally appropriate expectations/standards. The article also explains that it is important for us to give students context about what they are listening to and why they are listening to it before we give them a task. The last main point the article makes is to not simply give away the answers (to the tasks) to students; and instead, give resources and tools to help support their work and thought processes. For example, playing a recording at least 3 times for ELL students is a good idea so they can focus on one thing at a time, rather than becoming overwhelmed by everything being asked of them.

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Choosing a Task

The next way to support your struggling listeners is through the task. I mentioned above that the task is more important than the recording, which is why it's so important to be realistic with your expectations and to give your students the support they'll need to be successful.

Be Realistic: If I have a beginner-level class and I play them a segment from Good Morning America there should be no issue. However, if I ask them to listen to that segment and then give me their opinion on the issue that is discussed, I'm going to lose them.

Creating realistic tasks is one of, if not THE most important part of a listening exercise. Asking my students to give their opinion on the segment will require them to understand the words being spoken, comprehend the topic, connect it to their previous experience and knowledge on the topic, and formulate their own thoughts. That's a lot of work.

However, if I ask my students to simply tell me what is being discussed, it becomes a lot more attainable. They'll be able to use body language, vocabulary, tone, and visual cues to identify the issue that is being discussed on a show created for native speakers.

Listen for a Purpose: So, you have realistic expectations for your students, now you have to explicitly identify them and communicate them. If you show your students the Good Morning America clip with no context and no purpose, you'll receive blank stares when you ask your follow-up question.

Listening to something created for native speakers in your second language is an overwhelming task, especially when you don't know what you're listening for. Tell your students why they're listening, so that they're prepared to extract the data they need!

If you want your students to listen for the main idea (the topic being discussed or the hosts' feelings), tell them that! If you want your students to listen for a specific detail (the name of the celebrity or the date of the crime), tell them that!

Stay on Topic: If you've set a realistic goal and a purpose for listening, then stick to it. No curve balls, especially if your students are struggling with listening comprehension! The goal here is to strengthen your students' listening skills and provide them with the support they need to be successful.

If there are multiple things that you want your students to identify, split it up into multiple listening sessions. Listen once for the main idea, a second time for a specific detail, and a third time for the way the host pronounces a certain word.

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Supporting Struggling Listeners: 3 Ways to Scaffold Listening Exercises in the ESL Classroom - Everyday ESL

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There are three ways that you can support your struggling listeners and scaffold your listening exercises. The first is to support them through the recording that you choose or the materials that you make available.

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This website provides eight different strategies for scaffolding writing. Each of these strategies would be beneficial for ELL learners when learning how to write in English. The first strategy is using sentence frames which is giving a student a sentence with missing blanks in the middle that they have to fill in. The second strategy is sentence stems in which students are given the base of a sentence while having to fill in the rest. The third strategy is mentor texts which gives students an example of high quality writing. The fourth strategy is interactive word walls which are graphic organizers filled with vocabulary words. The fifth strategy is model writing which allows students to think out loud. The sixth strategy is quick writes which is just assigning a short, precise writing task. The seventh strategy is language experience approach in which the students and the teacher write together. Finally, the eighth strategy is mentor sentences in which students have to try and match the sentence given to them. Overall, this website provides many useful scaffolding strategies for writing that we can all use in our future classrooms.

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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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As educators, it is important for us to have a variety of scaffold methods that will be able to help our ELL students. One formative assessment strategy that I really liked from this article were the self-checklists or the peer-checklists. This idea is a lot like the rubric strategy that we saw in our module readings. I think these strategies would be very beneficial because students can see what is being expected of them and looked for.

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By Sarah Ottow
The Latin root word for "assessment" is assidere which means to sit beside. In my work as an English Language Learner (ELL) specialist, I advocate for educators to intentionally sit beside their students to more deeply understand and support their learning trajectory at the classroom level. That is to say, I strongly advocate for an intentional formative assessment approach for ELLs.
Schools can go beyond traditional summative and interim measures to ensure a more balanced assessment approach that brings to light the nuanced and complex process of academic language development. By implementing formative assessments for ELLs, educators can develop a "language lens" that uncovers and showcases the growth of this culturally and linguistically diverse population.

Where do we start?

First, we can examine what comprises our current assessment systems in place. We have large-scale, "big data" summative assessments that give us "big data" once a year on student proficiency. We also have interim assessments that measure growth against benchmarks periodically throughout the year, often with the audience largely being district and school-level stakeholders.
These summative and interim assessments provide "snapshots" of ELL performance and are not always reliable or valid on the ELL population. Therefore, we need to ask ourselves if we have systemic, systematic formative measures in place that provide feedback on teaching and learning specifically for our ELLs? Do we have a "photo album" approach of ELL development? If not, we can add specific formative practices into our assessment system that celebrate student growth and provide next steps for instruction at the classroom level.

What are some effective formative assessment practices for ELLs?

What's important to remember is that formative assessment is flexible and intended to focus on feedback for both the teacher and the student. As an initial step, I highly recommend that teachers keep portfolios of student writing samples to show individual student growth over time. Through portfolios like journals and learning logs, student work can be the centerpiece in conferences and school data meetings.
Next, I suggest that teachers work with students to co-create appropriate goals for using more sophisticated academic language. It's critical to promote student ownership of the assessment process through goal setting, self-assessment as well as peer assessment opportunities.

How can collaboration strengthen formative assessment?

A critical step in strengthening ELL formative assessments is to create and sustain collaborative time to analyze student work. Evidence-based conversations between educators about what students are producing can directly lead to ideas for effective student feedback and instruction. Professional learning communities are also opportunities for collaboration with ELL specialists to deepen content teachers' understanding of language and literacy. One final tip is to consider building data walls of multiple measures of ELL data quarterly to facilitate data-driven coaching cycles and team planning. In these ways, we can offer a "photo album" approach to show progress over time, celebrating students' journey of academic language development.

We know that ELLs are a diverse group of students with unique assets and varying factors affecting academic performance. Many educators need support in reaching ELLs and teaching academic language yet they often don't know where to start. By implementing more formative assessments for ELLs with the appropriate language supports, teachers can better understand their students and become stronger teachers of academic language. After all, all teachers are indeed language teachers!

Formative Assessment Ideas

Journals or learning logs to show growth over time in a portfolio

Academic conversations to explain new learning

Cornell notes or graphic organizers to structure note-taking

Student-teacher conference or small group discussions to recount learning

Exit slips to show "I think..", "I wonder...", "I still want to know..."

Fill-in-the-blank or "cloze" activity using sentence frames

Reciprocal teaching

Recording student language through technology

Drawing or role playing

Gallery walk of student work where students give each other feedback on stickies

Word or concept sorts based on unit themes or student-created categories

One word or one phrase response using whiteboards

Self-checklist or peer-checklist

Label or sequence visuals like pictures, photos or realia (real life objects)

Student-generated questions for peers

This blog is part of the Supporting English Language Learners Series with support from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. For more, stay tuned for the culminating podcast, infographic and publication.
For more, see:
Sarah Ottow is the founder, director and lead coach at Confianza: Educating for ELL Equity. Follow Confianza on Twitter: @ELL_Confianza Stay in-the-know with all things EdTech and innovations in learning by signing up to receive the weekly Smart Update. This post includes mentions of a Getting Smart partner. For a full list of partners, affiliate organizations and all other disclosures please see our Partner page.

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Supporting English Language Learners with Formative Assessments

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By Sarah Ottow - By implementing formative assessments for ELLs, educators can develop a "language lens" that uncovers and showcases their growth.

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One of the most nerve-racking skills for ELLs to develop is speaking (especially publicly). ELLs are often nervous to speak in fear they will be judged or laughed at if they say something that is incorrect. To help scaffold students into speaking while also allowing them to build their reading skills, book talks are super helpful. Book talks allow students to have a framework for what they will share with the class. Book talks just have the student share a book that they read independetly with the class and why they did or did not like it.
There is a worksheet on this article that prompts students with questions for the book talk. This strategy is typically used to encourage independent reading as well as being a source of scaffolding for speaking.
Additonally, this can be extremely helpful to increase literacy, too. Students are able to receive book recommendations that their peers have discussed; thus, inspiring them to read more.
If students are not ready to share with the whole class, they can participate in book interviews which are also listed on this website. Book interviews are similar to book talks because a student is sharing what book they have already read. One student will ahve a list of questions to ask the reader and the reader will share the information abou the book.
I think this is a great strategy to help increase literacy and give students a voice in the class.

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We provide our English Language Learners with the opportunity to read high-interest books independently. Literary conversations, both written and oral, help them interact with these texts while creating a classroom culture of shared literacy.

We apply these strategies primarily to independent reading books, but they can also be used with texts we are reading together as a class. (If you'd like to know more specifics about our independent reading approach, see Strategy 1 resources here.)

Why We Like These Conversation Tools

As we note in our new book The ELL Teacher's Toolbox, the Literacy Conversations activities we share here all serve to encourage student investment in reading while they gain authentic writing and speaking practice.

In addition, the tools reinforce literary terms and concepts. We want our students to discuss their reading in meaningful and engaging formats, and not in dull recitations that feel obligatory, monotonous, or always tied to a grade.

The following activities provide students with the opportunity to share their reading in creative, fun ways. They also reflect how readers talk about books outside the classroom - we don't know many people who write a book report every time they finish a book!

These ideas describe a few of the alternatives to traditional reading logs or book reports that we use in class. Many more can be found on the sites listed in Technology Connections ( download now or at the end of this article). These activities can be modified for different English proficiency levels and can either incorporate technology or be done as "low tech" versions.

Book Trailers

Book Trailers are an engaging way to help students write and talk about their reading. This strategy also invites students to practice elements of argumentation as they present a claim and back it up with specific reasons and evidence.

The teacher can begin by showing students some examples of book trailers (see Technology Connections) and asking students to write down what these examples have in common. The teacher might ask, "Do they summarize the whole book or just describe some elements of the story?" "Do they offer reasons why someone should read the book?" "How do the images appeal to readers?"

After studying the examples, students then choose a favorite book and begin creating their own trailer. The teacher can give students a handout listing the elements that the Book Trailer must include (See Figure 2.1 "Book Trailer" for an example) or the teacher and students can come up with a list together.

Students can do a low-tech version by displaying their book while they read their "trailer" in front of the class, in small groups, or when visiting another classroom to share. They could also create a book trailer poster (similar to a movie poster) with the title, main characters' names, images representing the story, and/or a rating (e.g. five stars). Students could then display their posters and take turns sharing their book trailers in small groups or as a class.

Creating digital book trailers can be even more engaging for students and create a "living" archive where students can go for inspiration. There are several great tools students can use to create digital book trailers (see Technology Connections).

Book Talks

Book Talks are another great way for students to interact with their reading and gain valuable speaking practice. The teacher can give students questions to answer about the books they are reading (e.g. Why did you choose this book? What do you like about this book? Why should another student read this book?). Students answer the questions in writing and then use them to do a "Book Talk" with a partner, in a small group, or for the whole class. We would recommend doing one or two a day, rather than having students listen to thirty book talks in a row! (See Figure 2.2 "Book Talk" for an example of the directions we give to students).

This activity allows classmates to hear about other interesting books their classmates are reading and helps to build a classroom culture of shared literacy.

Partner Reading

Reading self-selected books in pairs is another activity which builds engagement in literacy. It provides student choice; reading, speaking, listening, and writing practice; an authentic audience; and immediate feedback.

Once a week in our combined Beginner/Intermediate class, students "pair up"- primarily, but not exclusively, with one Beginner and one Intermediate (we have found that pairing students up in this way is less frustrating for the Beginner and more confidence-boosting for the Intermediate). We post the "Partner-Reading Instructions" (see Figure 2.3 "Partner-Reading Instructions") and students are given a couple of minutes to choose a book.

Then we explain to students they will read one paragraph at a time aloud to each other. After reading (we usually give students about 10 minutes of reading time), they choose three new words they encountered, write them down on a piece of paper, and learn what they mean. In addition, they draw a picture that represents what they read, and write a sentence which explains why they liked or didn't like the book. Students then can either present to groups of other students and/or we record their presentation using one of many apps (see Technology Connections).

Book Interviews

Book Interviews are another way for students to interact with the books that they and their classmates are reading. In this activity, students work in pairs to interview each other about the books they are currently reading. We give students the Book Interview form (Figure 2.4 "Book Interview") where they can take notes as they ask their partner questions about his/her book.

The teacher can create the questions for the form or students can come up with their own. After partners are finished interviewing each other, they can use their notes to prepare a short presentation about their partner's book which they can present to the class or in small groups, or record them to post on a class blog.

"Golden Lines"

This activity, which we were first introduced to by the WRITE Institute, can be used to instantly generate student thinking, writing, and discussion about their reading.

It involves students reading a text and identifying a "golden line"-a sentence that is surprising, descriptive, thought-provoking, meaningful, etc. Students can copy this golden line onto a piece of paper and write why they selected it. Sometimes we have students illustrate it as well.

Then students share their golden lines with each other in pairs, small groups, or as a class. They can also be posted on the classroom wall or shared online.

Creative Response Prompts

Traditional reading strategies like making a prediction, asking a question, summarizing, etc. are obviously important for students to practice. However, when we want to "spice things up," we'll provide students with more creative response prompts. We've found these types of prompts result in more intrinsically motivating reading responses and sharing among our students while building higher-order thinking. The following prompts include some of the possibilities:

Plot Twist: Choose a part of the book you have read and explain how you would change the story. Why would you make these changes?

Be a Therapist: Give advice to one of the book's characters. What would you tell him or her to do, and why?

Dear Diary: Pick a character from your book and write an entry in his or her diary.

Texting/Tweeting: Choose two characters from your book and write a conversation they might have through text messages or on Twitter. Think about what emojis they might use, what their Twitter names might be, and what hashtags they might use.

Trading card: Choose a character and make a trading card. On one side draw a picture of the character and on the other side write important facts and traits about this character.

Rename it: Write a new title for your book and explain why you chose this title.

What if?: Write a question about your book that begins with "What if?" (for example, in The Hunger Games "What if Katniss didn't volunteer as a tribute?") and then write a response to your question.

Some of the prompts above were modified from a list by Ross Cooper (2015).

What Could Go Wrong?

As we stated earlier, these activities represent alternatives to required reading logs which often squash student interest in reading. However, even engaging, meaningful activities can become rote or less motivating when tied to external motivators (i.e. grades, rewards, mandates). Keeping the end goal of creating life-long readers in mind means balancing accountability with choice and recognizing individual students' circumstances.

Some teachers may be hesitant to ask their Beginning level students to have literary conversations. However, our Beginners have been able to do so with modifications such as drawing and sharing pictures about their books and using teacher-provided sentence stems (like the ones on Figure 2.4 "Book Interview") to scaffold book discussions.
Download Technology Connections, Supporting Research,
and Common Core Connections for this article.
Larry Ferlazzo teaches English, social studies, and International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge classes to English Language Learners and mainstream students at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California. He has written eight previous books and has won numerous awards, including the grand prize from the International Literacy Association for Technology and Reading. Visit Larry's globally recognized education resources website and follow him on Twitter @larryferlazzo.

Katie Hull Sypnieski has worked with English language learners for 21 years in the Sacramento City Unified School District. She currently teaches middle school English language arts and English language development at Rosa Parks K-8 School. Follow Katie on Twitter @KHullSyp.

Ferlazzo and Hull Sypnieski are coauthors of The ELL Teacher's Toolbox: Hundreds of Practical Ideas to Support Your Students (2018) from which this article is adapted. They have also co-authored The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide and Navigating the Common Core with English Language Learners, all from Jossey-Bass/Wiley.

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How to Engage ELLs in Literary Conversations

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We provide our English Language Learners with the opportunity to read high-interest books independently. Literary conversations, both written and oral, help them interact with these texts while creating a classroom culture of shared literacy. We apply these strategies primarily to independent reading books, but they can also be used with texts we are reading together as a class.

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To scaffold students into reading, it is important to teach the students vocabulary before hand. This type of strategy is the most recommended for reading. When selecting vocabulary to scaffold, it is key to have “thoughtful selection of words that are useful, have relevance to and relationships with other words, and bring more meaning to texts, gives students of all instructional needs more opportunities to access texts and understand their meaning.” (James, 2021) I loved reading this article because it helped give me insight on the most recommended scaffolding strategies! As teachers, we need to make sure that we are using the most beneficial scaffolding strategies for our ELL students. I believe that teaching the vocabulary before reading a text is a good way to scaffold based on my previous experiences. When I was a student, my teachers would give us vocabulary boxes a few days prior to learn before reading. I felt that I learned and understood the reading more clearly knowing the vocabulary.

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Diapers, training wheels, arm floaties. All three were a part of my childhood. The same is likely true for you and most kids growing up. They helped us navigate the world with some freedom while our bodies grew enough to manage without them. The same is true for instructional scaffolding as kids learn to read.

Scaffolding is one of those teaching buzzwords we hear a lot but seldom talk about. To put it simply: scaffolds are temporary supports we all need as our skills grow. Once our bodies and brains mature, we remove those supports and shift the focus of responsibility. It allows us to use skills we're not quite ready for as we move toward independence. The goal of scaffolding is twofold: to increase learning and to foster students' ownership.

Here are five proven instructional scaffolding techniques you can use in your classroom today.

1.Prior Knowledge

Accessing prior knowledge helps our students make connections between what they already know and what they're learning. A recent study of scaffolding strategies shows successful teachers using cognates to help their bilingual students as they came across new words. Other examples might be as simple as walking through the text together, highlighting text features, and asking students questions about what they see. The beauty of accessing prior knowledge is that it's an exercise everyone can participate in, regardless of their abilities.

2.Preteaching Vocabulary

Preteaching vocabulary is a scaffolding strategy mentioned a lot throughout educational research. Experts talk about the importance of being thoughtful when we select words. Choose words that are useful, connect with other topics you've been talking about, and bring more meaning to what you're teaching. This gives your students a better chance to understand what they're reading as they learn the content.

3.Visual Aids

As reading becomes more sophisticated, we can support thinking with diagrams, pictures, and graphs. As a scaffolding tool, visual aids are less about the destination and more about the journey. They serve as the bridge between what students think and what they may want to say or write. Visual aids are the vehicle that drives intangible thoughts to reality.

4.Modeling

Think of modeling as a supercharged show-and-tell, in that you show your students how to do something the right way. Processes, behaviors, language-you can use modeling for anything! But the key to effective modeling needs to include the telling part. It's important to show as well as explain exactly what is being done when you model for your students. Another tip is to give your students time to demonstrate in various scenarios. I guarantee you'll earn back the time you spend on this step.

5.Student Oral Expression

A final scaffolding strategy is to give students time to talk about and write about what they're learning. In separate studies, both Dr. Beth Maloch and Dr. Wendy Cumming-Potvin said we need to intentionally allow students to take more ownership of discussions during literature circles.

Normalize wait time so everyone has an opportunity to process new ideas and formulate their responses.

Give students a chance to talk about what they do and don't understand in the text.

Final Thoughts about Instructional Scaffolding

We want students to be independent readers who have ownership over their own learning. Instructional scaffolding supports student agency and, over time, helps our students learn to apply their skills with little to no teacher support. Ultimately, this is the goal: to create readers who use problem-solving strategies to better comprehend complex texts.

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5 Instructional Scaffolding Ideas | Curriculum Associates

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Try out these 5 proven instructional scaffolding techniques in your classroom! They allow students to use skills they're not quite ready for as they learn.

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Pre-teaching vocabulary which is also known as front-loading vocabulary is a scaffolding strategy when you introduce and make students familiar with the vocabulary of a challenging text before they read it. I think this is something that teachers should do so they do not leave their student confused about the meaning of a difficult text. Preparing students with vocabulary for the reading makes students more interested. Part of this strategy includes providing vocabulary to students in an engaging way. Teachers can do this by introducing vocabulary through pictures or contexts that relate to students' lives. Analogies or metaphors can also be used to help students make a symbol or drawing for a word. You should not make students looks up words in a dictionary and write out definitions because it does not help them make meaning of the words.

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6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use With Your Students

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Support every student by breaking learning up into chunks and providing a concrete structure for each.

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As teachers, we want to do everything in our power to help ELL students learn more efficiently. A big part of this is to support them in becoming more effective listeners. this article provides twenty three different scaffolding strategies to help ESLs listen better. I enjoyed this article because it breaks down listening into pre-listening, during-listening, and post-listening and provides thought-provoking strategies for all three. one of my favorites from this article is number 8 which is in during the stage. This is the idea of co-constructing a framework for note-taking with your student, I feel this is a great strategy and also allows your student to express what works for them.

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23 strategies to scaffold EAL students’ listening and viewing - Lexis Education

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The ability to listen effectively is dependent on a complex interplay between the listener, features of the text, and the context in which the text is being listened to. While listening comprehension requires a range of abilities on the part of the listener, it is also dependent on features of the t…

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This activity can be used when introducing a new "sound" into the classroom. For example, if you are practicing the /ae/ sound (like in “cat,” “hat,” etc…, you could read the following script. “Yesterday, my cat ate a plastic toy and swallowed it fast.” Whenever students hear this sound for the first time (cat), they should stand. When they hear it again (plastic), sit down. This is beneficial for ELL because something as simple as developing recognition of a sound may be harder for them as they are not native speakers, so spending time on really listening for these sounds will help in all domains. This also encourages movement in the classroom which I believe to always be better than requiring children to sit in a desk all day.

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by abepiusc 654,456 views

Listening is the gateway to understanding and communicating and, therefore, is absolutely critical for language learners of all skills.

If students struggle to listen carefully, they will miss out on important interactions both inside and outside of the classroom.

The problem with listening instruction is that it is commonly thought to be boring and passive; students simply sit and listen. However, teaching listening doesn't have to be dull! There are many ways to create engaging and interactive lessons that focus on listening skills. Here are eight different ways to build students' listening skills:

Try These 8 Activities to Improve Listening Skills

1. Voice blogging

Using a free website (such as Voice Thread) have students record voice journals about their week. Encourage students with semi-personal topics or hypothetical questions (e.g. What would you do if you had one million dollars? Describe your best vacation. etc..) to prompt speaking. This works just like a blog but with student voices rather than writing. Even if your school doesn't have computers with microphones or recording capabilities, with VoiceThread students can use any phone to record their voice blog.

Students can then be assigned to listen to several of their classmates and give each other comments. By listening to each other and giving encouraging comments, you are building a positive classroom environment and cooperation within the classroom all while students build their listening skills.

2. Listen for the hidden phrase

An engaging whole class activity is to pair students up and give each pair a "secret" word or phrase. For easier dialogues, give a simple phrase such as "I love soccer," or "My father works a lot;" etc... To challenge students, give a slightly more obscure phrase, such as "John does yoga every Saturday," or "I saw a UFO in my yard last night."

Students are then tasked with developing a dialogue with their partner that somehow uses this phrase. Students may script the dialogue if they wish, but only give them limited planning time (5-10 minutes). After they have prepared their dialogue, students perform the dialogue in front of the class, and the other students listen carefully to hear which words or phrases seem extra carefully planned to find the secret phase. If you have individual white boards, have the students write down the phrase as they hear it and then show their board after the pair has finished the dialogue. If they found the correct secret phrase, they get a point. If no one finds the pair's secret phrase, the pair that developed the dialogue gets a point.

3. Listen for the word

Using popular culture media is always a good way to practice listening skills. Using songs, watching TV shows, or even listening to podcasts will help build skills. To go an extra step, have an additional task while listening to the song or TV show such as assign students different words to listen for and have them keep track of how often they hear these words. This is particularly helpful with reductions like gonna, wanna, hafta.

Listening to various media is also a good time to practice unfamiliar words. Encourage students to write down words they have never heard before. Without subtitles or lyrics, students will have to rely on the sounds they think they heard to make a guess at how to spell this unfamiliar word. Encourage students to write down other surrounding words to help you decipher what the word might be or to write down the time when they heard the word so you can go back to the spot and listen again. These are important skills for students to master so that they can continue learning even outside of the classroom by hearing new words.

5. Student-designed quizzes

If students are in a computer lab or if they have iPads/iPhones, give each student a dialogue, lecture, or song to listen to. These can be easily found on various free listening websites. Have students listen to the lecture multiple times and then create a quiz for another student to take. Students will be excited to "play teacher" by creating quiz questions, and they will have to rely on their listening skills to write accurate questions.

6. Describe the...

Place students into pairs and have them sit back to back. Give one student in the pair a unique picture with a lot of simple shapes drawn on it. I prefer to draw my own pictures with some randomly placed like:

Hearts

Flowers

Stars

Houses

Stick Figures

1. Put these shapes in different places, angles, and with extra features as desired. Give the second student in the pair a blank piece of paper. The student with the picture must dictate to his/her partner how to draw the picture. Make sure to emphasize no cheating or peeking! When finished, change the pictures around the groups and have the partners switch roles. When everyone has drawn once, the team with the most similar pictures win!

2. Put the celebrity in the right place

Similar to the picture describing game, this game has a similar setup but without the drawing. Give students a chart with many different celebrities in the boxes/grid. This can be easily done by creating a table in a word processing program and pasting internet images of celebrities in the table. Be sure to make several different versions with celebrities in the different spaces. It's okay if the students don't know all of the celebrities; in fact, it may be better if there are some they don't know, so they have to rely on describing physical features rather than giving names. Print a second blank grid with the pictures of the celebrities cut out into individual pieces but not attached to the grid.

Students should sit back to back and be instructed to not peek or cheat. The student with the table with pre-assigned celebrities should give the other student instructions on how to fill in his table with the celebrity picture pieces. For example, the first student might say "The picture of Brad Pitt goes in the first square, and Angelina goes in the square below Brad Pitt." It may be helpful to pre-teach the vocabulary "columns" and "rows."

3. Stand up/sit down

When working on individual sounds, give students a target sound and then read a script out loud that contains multiple examples of this sound. For example, if you are practicing the /ae/ sound (like in "cat," "hat," etc..., you could read the following script. "Yesterday, my cat ate a plastic toy and swallowed it fast." Whenever students hear this sound for the first time (cat), they should stand. When they hear it again (plastic), sit down. Read slowly enough for them to have time to stand up or sit down. This activity is great because it gets them out of their seats and lets them get some excess energy out!

5. Vowel discrimination

Another good activity to do when you are studying specific vowel sounds is to give students two different color note cards (e.g. one red card and one blue card). For a review activity, assign one vowel to the red card (e.g. the /ae/ sound as in "bat") and another card to the blue card (e.g. the /ei/ sound as in "bay"). When you read a word, have students raise the card in the air for the correct vowel/sound they heard. For a more advanced game, give students several colors of cards to correspond with several different vowels. Also, you could give the students several cards and read a sentence where each word represents a different vowel. Students must recreate the pattern of sounds they heard by lining up their note cards in the correct order.

Students engage in listening every day, so it's important for ESL students to continue developing their listening skills.

Engaging them in fun listening activities will hopefully motivate them to practice more listening and take advantage of all opportunities around them.
How do you get your students excited for listening practice? If you're an English teacher teaching students aged kindergarten to senior high (or even adults), check out our partner sites HelpTeaching, KidsKonnect, and Elementary Librarian for hundreds of additional ESL resources including worksheets, quiz questions, tests, books, and more!

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Do You Hear What I Hear?: 8 Activities to Improve Listening Skills

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by abepiusc 654,456 views If students struggle to listen carefully, they will miss out on important interactions both inside and outside of the classroom. The problem with listening instruction is that it is commonly thought to be boring and passive; students simply sit and listen. However, teaching listening doesn't have to be dull!

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Learning logs are a great tool to use as a formative assessment for ELLs. Students can document their learning process throughout a lesson and then write a reflection once the lesson is completed. This gives them not only practice with writing in English, but also mastering the concepts they are learning by representing them creatively visually through sketches and developing metacognition as they write and think about the learning they are doing as they are doing it. Its a great assessment at the end of a lesson to see what the students took from it as well as at the end of the year for teachers, parents, and students to look back on what the student learned as well as how their writing and thought processes have developed throughout the year!

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Model writing  is a technique that starts with the teaching writing in front of students. This allows for the students to "think aloud" and understand what effective writers do mentally. This can help students visualize the writing process. We can include different structures and specific vocabulary before they go and write on their own.

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Students each have three cards of the colors red, yellow, & green. At the end of a lesson, the teacher will ask them to hold up a card depicting how they feel about their level of understanding. (Red=very confused, Yellow=somewhat confused but somewhat understands, Green=fully understands) The teacher will then use this to note how well the students are picking up on the material.

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As educators we need to be sure that we are using practices that emphasize both confidence and competence. This article highlights this idea and gives us different ways we can do this. We should be sure to give all of our learners, especially ELLs, a chance to write about their own experiences so that they feel connected to their work. This is something mentioned in the article that I really appreciate. A simple way the article suggests that we scaffold is by providing mentor texts. This means providing students with an example that students can refer to. When introducing this model we should read through the text and highlight to our student the important writing features. The article also suggests providing our students with prefilled graphic organizers. This is a great way to lead students into their writing and it also provides students with sentence examples and frequency words they can use in their own writing. I also loved how this article allowed you to download different templates for the different scaffolding techniques they shared! These are just a few of the strategies the article discusses.

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Writing in school poses a unique challenge for ELL students. Beyond the obvious hurdle of using a new language, many ELL students come from oral cultures, so their writing experiences in general may be limited. Now inside English-speaking classrooms, they are expected to write up to grade-level standards while using unfamiliar words and grammar.

It should come as no surprise, then, when ELL students are reluctant to write. But you can change that. Through support and scaffolding, you can grow ELL students into capable, confident writers.

What practices grow confidence?

Although ELLs may lack writing experience, they don't lack experiences. Whenever possible, invite them to write about their own background, culture, interests, and memories. ELLs shouldn't be expected to write well about new subject areas without first having a chance to write about knowledge and vocabulary they already possess.

Next, adjust your expectations. Because of limited vocabulary and unfamiliarity with English grammar, ELLs' writing can be difficult to understand. Your first instinct might be to correct as much as you can, but that will make the situation worse. Overcorrecting overwhelms students and saps their confidence. Instead, read for, mark, and celebrate the "small" victories-incremental improvements that can be repeated in future writing.

You can help ELL students achieve more and more "small" victories through scaffolding.

What scaffolding builds competence?

ELL students benefit from scaffolding throughout the writing process. Start with these prewriting scaffolds, which help students build vocabulary, generate writing ideas, and understand common writing moves:

Mentor Texts

To introduce ELL students to a new writing activity, present simple models that students can emulate. Read through at least one model out loud, highlighting features or techniques you would like your students to practice.

Write-Aloud Models

After sharing mentor texts and reading models, talk through your own process for completing the same writing activity as students. Follow these steps:

1. Introduce the lesson by explaining what you are modeling and why.

2. Model brainstorming. Use a quick list or other graphic organizer.

3. Model your writing process. Explain what you are thinking as you write each part of a paragraph: a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence.

4. Allow students to follow the pattern of your model when they write.

Prefilled Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers help students gather and organize writing ideas prior to writing. ELL students may need extra time to fill out organizers effectively. By prefilling parts of the organizer, you save students time and introduce useful sentence models and high-frequency words they can apply to their writing.
See an example of a prefilled cause-effect organizer.
When students are ready to begin writing, introduce these scaffolds.

Sentence Frames

Sentence frames (or sentence starters) are partially completed sentences with blank spaces for students to fill in. Frames work well for students who struggle to write complete sentences or need practice with new sentence structures.

One of my favorite family traditions is ______________.

We always ______________, ______________, and ______________.

While other people may think ______________, the truth is ______________.
See a sentence-frame activity.
Paragraph Frames

You can integrate sentence frames into a larger paragraph framework for students to complete.

Traditions bring families together. One of my favorite family traditions is ______________. The tradition started when ______________. As a part of this tradition, we always ______________, ______________, and ______________. What I enjoy most about ______________ is ______________. For example, ______________. While other people may think ____________, the truth is ______________. I wish everyone could experience ______________ because ______________. I hope this tradition ______________.
See a paragraph-frame activity.
As the year goes on, make your frames less prescriptive, giving students more freedom to test out different sentence patterns on their own. The goal, of course, is for students to eventually write with no frames at all.

Signal Words

Experienced ELL writers may be ready for a less rigid form of framing. Instead of giving them a set of sentence structures to fill in, present a bank of related signal words as building blocks for a full paragraph.

A writing prompt might look like this:

Describe what your ideal classroom would look like. Include at least four location signal words somewhere in your description: above, below, near, between, on top of, under, beside.

How else can I use scaffolding?

Scaffolding, as shown above, is an essential component of any writing instruction-and not just with ELL students. You can and should use the same scaffolds with other reluctant writers. Through extra modeling and guidance, you help all students see that writing is something they are capable of doing and even enjoying.

Teacher Support

Consider this support as you help ELL students with writing.

Level

3-12

Learning Objectives

Use graphic organizers to gather details for writing.

Create different types of sentences.

Build paragraphs using different types of sentences.

Acquire and use grade-appropriate academic and domain-specific words and phrases.

Teaching Tips

When giving ELLs writing feedback, first highlight "small" victories. Show students what they are doing well.

When offering suggestions for improvement, focus on one skill at a time, particularly when it comes to grammar.

Give ELLs regular chances to reflect on their writing, asking what they're doing well in writing, what challenges they face, and what strategies help them work through problems.

Create opportunities for collaborative writing. When ELLs work with peers, they see how other students write, which often feels more authentic and achievable than writing produced by a teacher.

Check out additional writing support for ELL students:

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Blog post: 6 Ways to Scaffold Writing for ELLs

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Writing in school poses a unique challenge for ELL students. Beyond the obvious hurdle of using a new language, many ELL students come from oral cultures, so their writing experiences in general may be limited. Now inside English-speaking classrooms, they are expected to write up to grade-level standards while using unfamiliar words and grammar.

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The teacher would give each student a piece of paper with a question about the lesson on it. Then, each student would write their answer on the paper and crumple it up. Then the students will engage in a "snowball fight" and toss these papers across the classroom. At the end, the student will choose a "snowball" and uncrumple it and read the question and answer aloud. The class can discuss the answer and the teacher can see how effective the lesson was.

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"Turn and Talk" is a speaking scaffold in which students will discuss a topic (usually a question posed by the teacher at the start or end of a class) with a partner. This is a great scaffold for speaking because it allows casual, peer learning to occur; in a less formal setting, ELLs can build their confidence speaking in the classroom.

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Teacher Toolkit: Turn and Talk (Secondary)

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This formative assessment requires students to display their work or projects around the room so that their peers can view what they did, and then the teachers ask the students to write one thing they liked about their peers work and one constructive criticism. This allows the students to be vulnerable which can create a better class community and hearing their peers feedback and ideas can be very beneficial to students.

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Offer students a "3,2,1" Meaning: 3 things I learned, 2 questions I still have, and one thing I really enjoyed.
It allows them to remember part of what they learned, it allows us to see what questions they have, and for them to get the chance to ask questions, and it also allows us to hear what they enjoyed so that we can continue to help them learn in the ways they enjoy learning.

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A Quick Write is a short writing task which takes around 3-10 minutes to complete. It is important for students to practice their writing daily, and Quick Writes can be a lot less intimidating for EL learners. Through this activity, they are able to hone in on a small chunk of their writing opposed to feeling overwhelmed by long essays. "Chunking" a task makes it seem more doable. It is important to find activities that allow for EL students to feel comfortable doing, rather than coming up with unmanageable tasks. Eventually, they will build their way up to the larger writing activities, but it is important not to push them too hard at the early stages of their writing.

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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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Jigsaw reading allows students to practice speaking in smaller groups which is easier and more comfortable for EL students. In this exercise, students work in a group and each group member is assigned a different part of the reading. Each member becomes an "expert" at their specific topic working with others in the class that were assigned to their topic if needed. Then the group comes back together and each expert shares about their topic and clarifies any questions.

http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/using-jigsaw-cooperative-learning-30599.html

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Total Physical Response is a scaffold for ELLs that encourages students to engage multiple modes of learning. This video explains the process in depth and shows real life classroom examples at the end!

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ESL Teaching Strategies: #1 TPR or Total Physical Response (VIPKID)

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The students will be asked to write down a question that they have about the day's lesson. They will crumble up the piece of paper and through it around the room. Each child will get a different question, and they will have to answer it out loud to the class.

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Mind Maps are like brainstorms with pictures. there is a central topic and then branches come off that topic into subsections and then branches come off the subsections to make smaller subsections. This could be given to students when starting a new unit. Some parts of the mind map could be provided to the students like central topic and subsections that are going to have a lot of branches coming off. Then the student fills in the knowledge as we progress through the unit.

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Using graphic organizers as a reading scaffold helps ELLs organize the information they pull from the text. Directive labels may help them to know key information to look for as well.

From "The GO TO Strategies: Scaffolding Options for Teachers of English Language Learners, K-12"

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Read-alouds allow students to make connections by seeing how words are pronounced, used, and how context clues are used. It also gives the teacher the opportunity to help students that struggle with story-telling and how pictures help tell the story.
https://www.collaborativeclassroom.org/blog/scaffolding-techniques-english-language-learners-part-1/

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This activity, as shown in the video below, is a great way for students to get up and moving. Hula Hoops are placed on the ground with numbers in them in sequential order from 1-20 (or any group of numbers that you want your students to review). Then the students are asked to jump in the hoops, like hop scotch, in the correct number order. This scaffolding activity, like the others in the video below can be altered and created based on the students learning level. By creating differentiated groups, you can cater a more individualized learning experience for your students to be successful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iki2hAYK74