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English Language Proficiency Standards - these are important to include in the language objectives when lesson planning and for determining which language domains are begin addressed with the lesson.

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Proficiency Level Descriptors - these are important to refer to when monitoring the progress of the English learners. They also serve as reminders of what students can do at each level of proficiency within each domain of language.

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Transforming classroom management for ELLs: The issues

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Transforming classroom management for ELLs: The issues

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This article was included in the week 2 module. I found it really beneficial since it talked about and pointed out all the flaws in methods of classroom management for ELs, basically talks about practices that do not benefit ELs.

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Classroom management is a phrase and concept all teachers are familiar with and know intimately.

The concept can be defined in several ways, but essentially refers to the actions a teacher uses to create an environment and climate where effective teaching and learning can take place. If students are not engaged in instruction and are off-task, even the most exciting concepts or topics and the most dynamic instructional techniques will fall short, as students are concentrating on something else or behaving inappropriately.

Teachers get into the business of teaching because they want to help people learn to develop new skills and knowledge, and ultimately to make the world a better place. When asked what the purpose of education is, teachers often report they want to help students become life-long learners and productive members of society.

Employers are seeking students who ...

are self-regulated learners and are motivated to learn about the world

want to improve on their own work in the workplace and learn how to more efficiently implement a process

are creative and critical thinkers

know how to communicate well and collaborate with others

But when inappropriate or disruptive behavior interrupts the process of helping students to develop these skills, frustration may ensue for the teacher and other students.

There are numerous issues that impact classroom management skills, in general terms, but also when working with students who are English learners or who come from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Issues of bullying and lack of empathy impact many students in schools today. Prejudice and perceptions of race or social class can impact student dynamics among students and teachers.

Students from differing cultures may have different experiences and notions of how school works, what the expectations of school are, and how to behave appropriately in school. When to address a teacher, when to talk to other students, gender roles in communication in the classroom, eye contact, and the concept of discipline vary from culture to culture.

As we learn about students' cultural backgrounds and norms, our perspective and strategies to manage the classroom should change to respond to student behavior in a more culturally appropriate way.

When students feel threatened, humiliated, ridiculed or even disliked by the teacher or other students, learning is negatively impacted. When working with students who have experienced some form of trauma in their lives, the "fight or flight" instinct may take over when a student feels as though they are threatened in some way.

For students who have experienced being in war-torn countries or have been refugees, or students who have had harrowing experiences coming to this country, the instinct to initially resist against authority or to rebel when being confronted may stem from past experiences outside of school. It is important that as teachers we recognize that these negative experiences may impact students' negative behavior.

In second-language acquisition theory, the concept of the affective filter states that language learning can be facilitated or hindered based on the emotional variables experienced by the student.

When the student feels stress, anxiety, a fear of failure or embarrassment, the affective filter is "high" and does not allow language (and potentially content) to come through. When individuals feel comfortable and risk-taking is encouraged and celebrated in learning a new language (or content), learning is facilitated.

The affective filter can be raised or lowered depending on the actions of the teacher and other students in the class. Classroom management, in part, plays a part in the facilitation or hindrance of language and content learning.

In Part 2 of this article, we will explore some effective classroom management strategies for working with culturally and linguistically diverse students.

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MultiBrief: Transforming classroom management for ELLs: The issues

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Classroom management is a phrase and concept all teachers are familiar with and know intimately. There are numerous issues that impact classroom management skills, in general terms, but also when working with students who are English learners or who come from diverse cultural backgrounds.

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Transforming classroom management for ELLs: Strategies for success

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Transforming classroom management for ELLs: Strategies for success

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This article was also included in module 2, but was the flip side of the other article. This article is something I would like to be able to reference when I am teaching because it gives tips and ideas on how to have a successful classroom for all students, including and paying attention to what ELs need.

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In Part 1 of this article, we discussed the numerous issues that impact classroom management skills, in general terms, but also when working with students who are English learners or who come from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Classroom management is a phrase and concept all teachers are familiar with and know intimately.

There are numerous classroom management strategies that benefit all students, but that may be especially beneficial for culturally and linguistically diverse students. This population in particular requires additional considerations as we work to develop a classroom culture of learning and mutual respect.

Consider the following concepts and strategies as you reflect on your own classroom management style and classroom culture.

Interest in students

Carl Rogers, a humanistic psychologist is thought to be the first to discuss the unconditional positive regard for patients. In teaching, we can apply the concept as having an unconditional positive regard for children. This includes taking interest in our students, including their interests, hobbies and cultural norms and backgrounds.

Just as parents love their children unconditionally, when we view students with a positive regard, we do everything we can for them to improve their social and emotional health, including using discipline and classroom management strategies that help them to see what appropriate behavior looks, sounds and feels like.

Celebrating students' languages and cultures

Celebrating that students speak other languages and have culturally diverse backgrounds is as easy as encouraging students to speak their native language at home with their families, or in class as appropriate.

Students may be encouraged to speak in their native language when discussion a topic with a partner or clarifying instructions or concepts, for example. Ask students if they are familiar with vocabulary words or concepts in their native languages, and if they are comfortable, ask them to share those words.

Examining our cultural lens

As we celebrate students' cultures and linguistic backgrounds, it is important that we also begin to think about our own cultural norms and biases. How we understand the world and students can lead to misunderstandings of behavior displayed by students.

One way to consider this is to question if what we expect a classroom to look like is the same or different from what our students believe and expect. Do our practices align with what students are used to and believe school should be? While we do not necessarily need to completely change our system, it is important that we begin to recognize how our own cultural lens can cause misunderstandings.

Creating a culture of learning

Keep the affective filter low by encouraging risk-taking in the classroom. Celebrate when students make attempts at applying concepts or language skills, even if these attempts come at inopportune times.

Keep it positive

Perhaps the most important strategy teachers can use to effectively manage classrooms is the notion of public praise and private conversations. This refers to publicly recognizing students who are behaving appropriately, rather than students who are behaving in undesirable or disruptive ways.

The adage "what you permit, you promote" holds true in that teachers can and should make explicit the kids of behaviors they expect to see in class, and publicly acknowledge those behaviors. Phrases such as "thank you for staying quiet while others are speaking" and the like show students what you expect from them.

This does not mean that unacceptable behavior is ignored. But rather when the redirection of students by pointing out positive behavior does not work, a private conversation with the student is necessary.

Some students only know how to gain attention from the teacher by acting in disruptive ways. When we shift the paradigm and publicly acknowledge students when they are doing something correctly - especially recognizing positive behavior in students who have behavior challenges - we can begin to shift the paradigm of negative attention seeking behaviors.

Developing norms or agreements

In a positive classroom community, students and teachers can work together to collaboratively develop norms for behavior. Students at all levels know the types of behaviors that are helpful or harmful in learning and working with others. Students from diverse cultural backgrounds may have differing perspectives that will enrich the discussions.

If students are a part of developing the norms of behavior and agreements in the classroom, they are more likely to follow the norms as they had a hand in creating them.

Explicit teaching of social skills

Students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds may have differing expectations on how to behave in the classroom, as we have previously mentioned. Behavioral expectations should be explicitly taught to students so that they understand what the behaviors are, what the behaviors look like and sound like.

One way to explicitly teach this is by using a three-column chart. The behavioral norm or social skill is listed at the top of the chart. In each column, list - with the input of the students - what the skill looks like, sounds like and feels like.

While this may seem tedious, students may not be able to immediately articulate what empathy, listening, respect, collaboration, perseverance or other skills actually look like. Specific examples of what a particular skill looks like, sounds like, or feels like can be added over time.

The second column, "sounds like," is especially important for English learners. These students may need explicit instruction in the words and phrases that help demonstrate the social skill or behavior being taught.

Social objectives

Many teachers are familiar with writing instructional objectives and sharing those objectives with students. When working with English learners, the addition of language objectives is a widely accepted practice to help students develop academic language skills.

Social objectives that focus on the behavior students will engage in during the lesson are another way to make explicit the types of behavior students should engage in. For example, a social objective may focus on nonverbal cues speakers give when listening to a partner, such as nodding, asking clarifying questions or appropriate eye contact.

Active student participation

Effective instructional techniques will assist in keeping students engaged, thereby minimizing behavior issues. When scaffolding is used appropriately, students are met at their instructional level and supported to meet the objectives for the lesson.

Using techniques such as choral calling, frequent student conversations on academic topics, hands-on activities, and getting students up and moving around, students will be more highly engaged and less likely to behave in disruptive ways.

Implementing these strategies and concepts will likely not eliminate all behavioral issues in the classroom. However, as we strive to meet the needs of all students in the classroom, careful consideration of how we manage student behavior and carefully considering our students' experiences and cultural backgrounds will help us to ever move in the direction of helping each child to excel.

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MultiBrief: Transforming classroom management for ELLs: Strategies for success

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Classroom management is a phrase and concept all teachers are familiar with and know intimately. ​There are numerous classroom management strategies that benefit all students, but that may be especially beneficial for culturally and linguistically diverse students.

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Reading 101 for English Language Learners

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Reading 101 for English Language Learners

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I really liked and found this article beneficial because it talked about particular challenges that ELs can experience in the different areas of learning to read and write. It also gave strategies so help ELs come over the different challenges they might face.

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Learning to read is a complicated process. If you teach English language learners (ELLs), however, there are a number of ways you can support their literacy and language development through targeted instruction.

This article highlights ELL instructional strategies based on the five components of reading as outlined in Teaching Children to Read by the National Reading Panel (2000). This report is a study of research-based best practices in reading instruction and it focuses on the following five instructional areas: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, Comprehension. In addition, the article includes information related to two additional important areas of instruction for ELLs, oral language and the role of the home language.

Each of these topics is explored below, and each section includes:

a definition

an explanation of why the component is important when learning to read

challenges that ELLs may face

strategies for ELL instruction

You will find references to more in-depth information about ELLs and effective reading instruction from recommended resources below.

Note: Since this article includes in-depth information on a number of topics, we encourage you to use it in professional learning communities, jigsaw activities, and other collaborative settings!

What does the research say?

Before jumping in, it's important to note that, in general, what we know about effective literacy instruction for English speakers holds true for ELLs, but modifications and adjustments may be needed (Goldenberg, 2008). Since the original National Reading Panel did not include ELLs' literacy development as part of its research review, a subsequent panel reviewed the research related to language learners and released a report authored by principal investigator Dr. Diane August and panel chair Dr. Timothy Shanahan titled Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth.

Within the executive summary of that report, the authors note that, "Instruction that provides substantial coverage in the key components of reading - identified by the National Reading Panel (NICHD, 2000) as phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension - has clear benefits for language-minority students." They continue, "However, while approaches that are similar to those used with native-language populations are effective, the research suggests that adjustments to these approaches are needed to have maximum benefit with language-minority students." (p. 3)

For example, many practices may need modifications or scaffolds which may not be reflected in different reading programs or materials (August, 2018; Goldenberg, 2008), and in some cases, certain strategies may not be appropriate even with adjustments. In addition, the authors note the important role of two areas that were not addressed in the original National Reading Panel: students' home language and oral language.

Many examples of specific modifications are outlined in the strategies below, along with discussion of home language and oral language. You can find additional research resources at the end of the article, including a recent working paper published by Pivot Learning, Narrowing Down to Find Common Ground: Shared Agreements for Effective Literacy Instruction in California.

An in-depth video book study highlighting Literacy Foundations for English Learners by Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan is also publicly available on YouTube.

When working with ELLs, students' home languages are a powerful tool that educators can use - even if they don't speak those languages or are working in a classroom with students who speak many languages. Drs. August and Shanahan write, "Oral proficiency and literacy in the first language can be used to facilitate literacy development in English" (2006, p. 5). And in hisColorín Colorado article about the value of students' home language, Dr. Fred Genesee writes:

Extensive research, again from around the world, has found that children who are learning to read in a second language are able to transfer many skills and knowledge from their first language to facilitate their acquisition of reading skills in the second language. The best evidence of this comes from studies showing that students with strong reading skills in the home language also have strong reading skills in their second language. Much of this work has been done on ELLs in the U.S. (August & Shanahan, 2006; Riches & Genesee, 2006).

Tapping into students' home languages (also referred to as a first or native language) as a resource can take different forms:

Helping students make connections between their language and English in order to identify similarities and differences, such as English/Spanish cognates

Providing opportunities to use the home language in the classroom for reading, writing, and discussion

Encouraging students to draw on all of their language skills across languages, which is called translanguaging

Promoting biliteracy through bilingual or dual-language instruction, which can support students' future opportunities and family ties (not to mention brain health!), with initiatives such as the Seal of Biliteracy, which has been adopted in many states

It is important to keep in mind that the extent to which a student's literacy skills from their first language transfer depends on many factors, such as how similar the alphabetic systems between the two languages are and whether they share any connection in their origins, such as two languages that both derive from Latin (Nieser & Cárdenas-Hagan, 2020, p. 65). The students' levels of literacy in their home language will also have an impact on their literacy development in their new language. Learning more about the languages students speak can help educators target instruction, notice patterns among speakers of the same language, and help students understand the relationship between their language and English

You can also provide students and families with access to bilingual books and texts and encourage families to continue using and developing the home language through activities such as rhymes, storytelling, and conversation at home. You will also find specific strategies related to home language throughout the key components below.

Recommended resources

In addition, as you will see below, oral language has a role to play across all reading skills, yet it often does not receive much attention as a critical part of ELLs' language and literacy development. Drs. August and Shanahan write, "Instruction in the key components of reading is necessary - but not sufficient - for teaching language-minority students to read and write proficiently in English. Oral proficiency in English is critical as well - but student performance suggests that it is often overlooked in instruction." (2006, p. 5)

Oral language supports students' literacy skills in different ways. For example, students need to be familiar not only with the sounds and letters they are learning but also the words in which they appear in order to support their word recognition and comprehension. Other more global oral language skills, such as facility with English syntax and grammar, and the ability to navigate specific language functions like describing, predicting, and comparing, also contribute to both reading and writing development for ELLs.

In addition, strengthening oral language supports students' ability to participate in peer groups and their proficiency in speaking and writing using academic language. Students need opportunities to practice applying their emerging oral language skills through partner talk and peer work (scaffolded with supports such as sentence frames), activities such as partner reading, and responding to comprehension questions using academic language.

Dr. Carrie Simkin, the director of our sister site AdLit.org, offers the following suggestions related to oral language:

Make it a learning target for lesson planning (e.g. be intentional about planning for it).

Consider how much of the learning time in your classroom is text based vs. discussion. Do students have opportunities to discuss ideas or do they mostly respond in written formats? We want to engage students in lively discussions!

Consider if students have opportunities to work in pairs as well as small groups and not just respond to teacher-generated questions.

Have you modeled how to orally respond to questions using the question as a sentence starter? Do you have sentence starters visible for share-outs?

Our strategies related to oral language are also woven throughout the components below.

Recommended resources

Note: You can read more about the role of oral language in the foreword of Comprehension and English Language Learners.

Phonemic Awareness and ELLs

Keeping the areas of home language and oral language in mind, let's dive into the five key skill areas, starting with phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness is an important indicator of how well children will learn to read. Sometimes it is difficult, however, for speakers of a second language to "hear" and say sounds in the language they are learning. If you have had a student who could not master a particular sound in English, the sound may not have been a part of the student's native language.

In her chapter of Literacy Foundations for English Learners, Dr. Virginia Lovelace-Gonzalez notes that, "Phonological awareness skills can transfer across languages when students have opportunities to build these skills in their native language and English" (2020, p. 53).

For example, there are multiple sounds in English and Spanish that will directly transfer between languages, even if the sounds are associated with different letters (p. 50). Dr. Lovelace-Gonzalez writes, "For ELs, phonemic activities in English can be complicated by having to recognize sounds in English that do not exist in their native language...Instructionally, it is important for teachers to determine some of the similarities and differences between English and the student's native language to ensure the opportunity to learn" (p. 53).

Phonemic Awareness: Considerations and Strategies

What: The ability to hear and manipulate the different sounds in our language.

Why it matters: Phonemic awareness is the foundation for spelling and word recognition skills.

Considerations for ELLs

Learn more about the students' home languages.

Start by visiting a resource such as MyLanguages.org or Omniglot.com, which shares an overview of many different global languages.

Ask bilingual colleagues about how their languages are similar or different from English and common areas that need attention when learning English. For example, a group of Ukrainian teachers shared some of the questions that Ukrainian speakers have when learning English in this Colorín Colorado article.

Identify whether there are any sounds that your students' languages share with English. Use these as a starting point in your instruction. In addition, find out which sounds might be new to your students and be sure to include explicit practice of those sounds.

Help students think about the connection between their language and English.

Ask students how their language is the same or different than English in terms of how the language is written, the sounds that letters or symbols make, and words that might be related.

Help students become familiar with sounds, letters, and symbols that are shared between languages, as well as those that are not shared between the languages. (Some examples across different languages are included in Literacy Foundations for English Learners.)

Ask students if they have words that begin with a particular sound, or if there are any words related to a particular word in English. This can work with students who have limited literacy skills in their first language too.

Help beginning readers learn to identify sounds in short words.

Have students practice identifying the sounds in the beginning, middle, and end of these words. You may wish to use words that begin with a consonant, have a short vowel, and end in a consonant (CVC words) such as mat, top, and bus.

One very effective method is having students match pictures of words that have the same beginning, middle, or ending sound.

Use words that students already know in English.

Videos

Learn how to pronounce the 44 phonemes in English.

Phonics and ELLs

Phonics instruction aims to help new readers understand that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Students benefit from learning and practicing sounds and symbols, including blended combinations. ELLs often show many strengths in mastering early phonics skills but it's important to remember that decoding while reading and correctly spelling words does not ensure good comprehension.

That's why it's important to ensure that ELLs are familiar with the words they are learning to decode in order to support their comprehension. The authors of Words Their Way with English Learners write, "English learners need structured opportunities to learn many new words to add to their repertoires so that these words can become the material of their literacy learning" (2011, p. 79).

Phonics: Considerations and Strategies

Considerations for ELLs

Use a word study approach.

Word study is a powerful approach that connects letters, sound, meaning, word parts, and usage so that students are learning explicit foundational skills within a meaningful context. For example, ELLs need lots of opportunities to connect the sounds, letters, and words they are learning.

The authors of Words Their Way with English Learners write, "What is key to literacy development for English learners in the emergent stage is that they use language with teachers and peers and see oral language they understand captured in print" (Helman et al, 2011).

Look for opportunities to reinforce phonics in context.

Using literature and content material, you can introduce and reinforce:

letter recognition

beginning and ending sounds

blends

rhyming words

silent letters

homonyms

Vocabulary and ELLs

Vocabulary plays an important part in learning to read, as well as in understanding what is read.

As students learn to read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new words that are not part of their oral vocabulary. For ELLs, vocabulary development is especially important as students' develop academic language - in all subjects and activities! There are numerous ways to support explicit vocabulary instruction, which is essential for developing students' vocabulary knowledge. Dr. Coleen D. Carlson writes,

For EL students, drawing attention to unknown words during the initial presentation of the text, providing appropriate levels of definitions (e.g., providing English labels for words for which concepts and labels in one's native language are understood, quick definitions or demonstrations for simple words) and tying to background knowledge is critical. No amount of simply reading and rereading words will produce knowledge of unknown vocabulary. (2020, p. 97)

Vocabulary: Considerations and Strategies

Considerations for ELLs

Draw upon students' home languages.

You can draw upon students' home languages to build vocabulary by:

It is important to give students as much exposure and experience with new vocabulary words as possible before asking students to use them in a lesson or activity.

Select words that will support the reader's understanding of the story or text, as well as for other phrases and connectors that affect comprehension (even though, except, etc.). You can pre-teach vocabulary by using English as a second language (ESL) methods such as:

Role playing or pantomiming

Using gestures

Showing real objects

Pointing to pictures

Doing quick drawings on the board

Using the equivalent in students' languages and then asking students to say the word in English

Providing a student-friendly definition

Using graphic organizers

Cognates are words in different languages that are derived from the same original word or root. About 40% of all English words have cognates in Spanish (such as the English/Spanish cognate "family/familia"). This is an obvious bridge to the English language for Spanish speakers if the student is made aware of how to use this resource.

Teach students to recognize and use cognates, or words that are related across languages, and encourage students to be on the lookout for cognates from other languages as well.

Give students an opportunity to practice using new words.

As the teacher, you can explicitly teach word meanings to improve comprehension. However, to know a word means knowing it in all of the following dimensions:

The ability to define a word

The ability to recognize when to use that word

Knowledge of its multiple meanings

The ability to decode and spell that word

The ability to use different definitions word accurately in different contexts

Ensure students understand a new word by asking them to produce it themselves either orally or in writing.

I taught a summer school unit on habitats and healthy environments, and every student had to learn the phrase, "Reduce, reuse, recycle." Over the course of four weeks I gave students many opportunities to use those words to describe what we were doing: "We are reusing the grocery bag," or "We reused the scratch paper."

Build students' academic vocabulary.

You can increase students' academic vocabulary by teaching common structures and terms used in a specific content area. For example, sentence frames are a great way to get students familiar with these structures and can be used in writing and speaking:

You can learn more strategies in this related article.

The _____ is ______ than the _____.

I can conclude ______ because _______.

Videos

ESOL Specialist Sheila Majdi: Using sentence frames with ELLs

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

Interactive reading of a story

In this classroom clip, first-grade teacher Albuquerque teacher Ali Nava leads her students through an interactive reading of Burro's Tortillas, a Southwestern adaptation of "The Little Red Hen."

Focusing on language in literacy instruction

In this classroom clip, fifth-grade teacher Clara Gonzales-Espinoza helps her students expand their understanding of the way language is used in a picture book version of Cinderella.

Instruction of key academic vocabulary with high school ELLs

In this lesson, students read a letter that Captain John Smith of the English Army wrote to Queen Anne in 1616. You can see lesson materials and reflection interviews from ELL teacher Anne Formato in our related classroom module.

Fluency and ELLs

Fluency is a tricky area when it comes to ELL reading instruction. For native English speakers, fluency and reading comprehension often share a strong correlation because fluent readers recognize words and comprehend at the same time. This is not always the case for ELLs.

Many ELLs can be deceptively fast and accurate in their reading because they are good readers in their primary language and have strong decoding skills. Yet they may demonstrate little understanding of the text, and hearing the text out loud may not necessarily provide a step towards comprehension as it is likely to do for native speakers. One important factor in the connection between fluency and comprehension is ELLs' oral language skills, which Dr. Carlson describes as "an important foundation that supports the role of fluency as a bridge to comprehension" (p. 93).

Fluency: Considerations and Strategies

Inaccurate indicator of ELLs' comprehension

It is not unusual for an ELL student to read a passage beautifully and then not be able answer more than a couple of comprehension questions correctly. Decoding skills (sounding out words) and comprehending the text are two different skills.

Limited benefit from hearing texts read aloud

Native speakers who are not strong decoders can often comprehend text that is read to them better than text that they read themselves. That's because when someone else is doing the reading, they can focus on meaning without having to struggle to get the words off the page.

With ELLs, however, comprehension problems tend to be associated with limited vocabulary and limited background knowledge. Thus, listening to text read by someone else won't enhance comprehension.

Comprehension and ELLs

Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read. To be able to accurately understand written material, children need to be able to 1) decode what they read; 2) make connections between what they read and what they already know; and 3) think deeply about what they have read. Comprehension can be the most difficult skill to master, however, and can elude students who have mastered word-level skills. According to the executive summary of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth,

An important finding that emerges from the research is that word-level skills in literacy - such as decoding, word recognition and spelling - are often taught well enough to allow language-minority students to attain levels of performance equal to those of native English speakers. However, this is not the case for text-level skills - reading comprehension and writing. (p. 4)

ELLs at all levels of English proficiency, and literacy development, will benefit from explicit instruction in comprehension skills along with other skills because improved comprehension will not only help them in language arts and ESL classes - it will help them in content-area classes and in daily activities. It will also improve the chances of their interest in reading for pleasure.

Learn more from the following articles:

Comprehension: Considerations and Strategies

Considerations for ELLs

ELLs who struggle with comprehension may read more slowly, have a hard time following a text or story, have a hard time picking out important events, and feel frustrated. They may also have problems mastering new concepts in their content-area classes or completing assignments and assessments because they cannot comprehend the texts and tests for these subjects.

Check comprehension frequently.

As students read, ask them open-ended questions about what they are reading, and informally test students' ability to sequence material from sentences or a story by printing sentences from a section of the story on paper strips, mixing the strips or word order, and having students put them in order.

Use questions after reading.

After the ELLs and/or whole class have completed the reading, you can test their comprehension with carefully crafted questions, taking care to use simple sentences and key vocabulary from the text they just read.

These questions can be at the:

Videos

This video showcases a 5 th-grade team planning a science lesson about the difference between vascular and non-vascular plants. ESOL specialist Katy Padilla plays a key role in advocating for ELLs throughout the lesson planning process and sharing her strategies for engaging and supporting students.

Making Dual-Language Immersion Work

This video provides an introduction to Claremont Immersion School's dual language model and shows how teachers collaborating to develop a language arts language in English and Spanish.

Assessment for ELLs

Learn how third-grade teacher Samantha Kirch uses informal assessment in her classroom to better evaluate ELLs and their progress.

Story setup: Pre-reading strategies for comprehension

Learn about pre-reading strategies that will lay the groundwork before high school newcomer ELLs tackle a new text.

Teaching ELLs in upper elementary, middle school, and high school

Older ELLs bring a lot of valuable experience and interests to the classroom. At the same time, they face the double challenge of needing to learn content and a new language at the same time, which is further complicated if their literacy skills are limited. While they may still need foundational skills work, it can be hard to find materials that are age-appropriate. You can learn more about specific tips for supporting this diverse population from the following resources:

For great classroom videos at the secondary level, see our classroom video library!

Concluding Thoughts

This is a lot of information, but we hope that these resources and recommendations can inform your work with students as well as the conversations about literacy in your setting. The more familiar your team is with best practices for ELLs, the more effectively you can determine which practices and resources will best support your students in their ongoing literacy development - and future successes!

Recommend Resources

This new working paper released by Pivot Learning reflects collective consensus among literacy experts on key topics concerning (1) literacy and multilingual and English learner students; (2) early screening and assessment; and (3) foundational skills.

To learn more about the paper and how it was developed, see Can common ground be found on teaching reading in California? (EdSource)

Research articles and chapters

Books

Literacy Foundations for English Learners by Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan (You can see the related book study on YouTube.)

Words Their Way with English Learners: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling (2nd Ed.) by Dr. Lori Helman, Dr. Donald R. Bear, Dr. Shane Templeton, Dr. Marcia Invernizzi, and Dr. Francine Johnston

Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners by Dr. Nancy Cloud, Dr. Fred Genesee, and Dr. Else Hamayan

Dual Language Instruction from A to Z: Practical Guidance for Teachers and Administrators by Dr. Else Hamayan, Dr. Fred Genesee, and Dr. Nancy Cloud

Webcasts

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Reading 101 for English Language Learners

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Learning to read is a complicated process. If you teach English language learners (ELLs), however, there are a number of ways you can support their literacy and language development through targeted instruction. This article highlights ELL instructional strategies based on the five components of reading as outlined in Teaching Children to Read by the National Reading Panel (2000).

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This is an article I found on my own and it really stood out to me. This article gives good ways to help EL improve their writing skills. Even within their strategies they have linked different websites, activities and videos that are beneficial to know about and I would like to have future reference to when I am in the classroom.

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You're asked to write an English essay and you're in panic mode. You find yourself second-guessing every sentence you write and before you know it, it's time to submit the essay.

Have you ever experienced this? After reading this article, we hope you don't find yourself in such a situation.

Original: Source As someone who isn't a native English speaker, we understand how unnerving essays, dissertations, research papers, and other assignments might be.

In this article, we outline eight useful writing strategies to help ESL students like you to improve their writing.

8 Writing Strategies for ESL Students to Write Better

For ESL students, it can be difficult to find the right words or phrases to articulate or follow grammar and sentence formation rules while writing essays. Here are eight writing strategies to improve your writing skills.

Read multiple times

Reading books, novels, articles, biographies, or any other kind of reading material always helps in enhancing your vocabulary, familiarizing yourself with metaphors, idioms, or even sentence structure, and guides you into constructing complex phrases.

Read everything in English that you can find -- form the words, narrate it out slowly and coherently.

Pick out words from the text that you are not familiar with and write them down. You can continue finding the meaning of these words online or in dictionaries for better understanding.

You can also underline or highlight phrases or sentences that are confusing so that later you can ask your professors about what it meant.

In short: the more you read in English, the better you'll be able to understand and write in English.

Use sentence frames

Your professor gives you a writing assignment, but it can be intimidating to write without any help. Use sentence frames to make the writing task easier. A sentence frame is a pre-written sentence with spaces in it for you to fill in the remaining words to complete it.

Using sentence frames can help in figuring out the correct structure and the flow of the English language, and can help you in easing the pressure of not trying to come up with your own sentences.

If you are unsure about what word to use, you can write the word down in your native language, and continue with the rest of the sentences that you can fill in without any difficulties. After you finish, you can come back to the words that you don't know and try to find alternatives to make sense of the sentence given.

Work towards writing in the language you already know, while also gaining the experience of using proper grammar and practicing writing in sentence frames until you are confident and comfortable in writing similar sentences independently.

You can find sentence frame structures for multiple writing tasks such as compare and contrast, persuasive, narrative, sequence, and many other forms of writing.

Organize your thoughts graphically

Graphic organizers are a very beneficial writing strategy for ESL students to help them learn how to read and write better in English. Using this method can help you learn how to organize your thoughts, points, or even sentences systematically with the use of different kinds of graphics.

These organizers can be used for every stage of the writing process -- from brainstorming, pre-writing, drafting to revision.

Graphic organizing writing tools such as Word Clusters or Topic Wheels can be very useful for brainstorming your thoughts and finding purposeful meanings every time you get stuck on a word or phrase.

Here's what the word clustering method looks like.

You can also use Story Maps if you need guidance to learn how to write a story on your own.

Use templates instead of blank sheets of paper to note down points, answers, and fill-in sentences. You can use these templates to model your writing method and use it as a reference.

Use the Four Square Writing Method

The Four Square Writing Method is a tried and tested writing and organizing strategy that teaches students better structure and helps them write cohesively. Through this strategy, you can also learn how to properly organize a paragraph.

In this method, a blank square is divided into 4 quadrants. In the center, you make a smaller square and write your topic sentence in it. Fill in your opening statements and support in the first quadrant and write down any important points and supporting facts that relate to the topic sentence in the other two quadrants. Leave the 4th quadrant for writing your closing statements.

This visual method will help you focus on writing, provide details and enhance your vocabulary. This will also help you conceptualize, understand and structure a piece of writing without any difficulties.

Keep sentences simple and short

A sign of good writing is crisp, short, and easy-to-understand sentences. Some people use complex words because they think they sound more academic, but that is far from the truth.

Using complicated, formal words and unnecessarily long sentences will only make your readers get confused and bored with your writing. They will most probably lose track of what you're even trying to convey. So instead, cut short your sentences, use terms related to your topic, include transition words correctly, and keep the language simple.

When editing your work, look out for long sentences and try to divide them into two separate sentences. This will allow you to break down what you want to say in manageable chunks of words.

As an ESL student, you might not be confident about using English words and this might make you stick to one particular sentence structure, but try to vary your sentence length based on the purpose of what you want to say.

Check out this insightful video by Karen Dudek-Brannan on simple sentences

Practice writing

Practice makes you perfect, and what better way to enhance your English writing skills than just writing whatever you want on a blank piece of paper.

Every time you take notes, try to understand a novel, write an email or even a text message, practice it in writing first, to improve your English writing skills. Allot a period of time in your daily schedule to sit and write.

You can also practice by writing a paragraph about the day that you have had, some interesting experience, your fears, goals, likes, and dislikes, or literally, anything else to increase your speed and dexterity of writing in English.

Use online tools

If you want to be clear and make it easy for your readers to understand what you want to convey in English, it is very important to know the grammatical rules, because using the wrong verb tense or writing a sentence in the wrong order will just make your readers confused.

That's why you can find multiple websites and online tools that can help you write better in a different language, such as:

Keep a journal

If you still feel insecure about your language skills in English, it's good practice to keep a journal with yourself as a daily habit to write down anything that comes to your mind, thoughts, new phrases, unfamiliar words, etc. without having the pressure to show anyone what you wrote.

This creates an opportunity to write as much as you want in English and if needed, words in your native language to understand the meaning behind the English words that you've used.

When you are and feel skilled enough to read, write and speak fluent English, you can go back to your journals and re-read your notes. This will show you the progress you've made and can help you feel more confident.

It is okay to make mistakes in your journals, because as you keep practicing how to write, you will only get better, faster, and gain momentum and fluency in your English language skills. So, go ahead, challenge yourself.

Conclusion

Using the right strategies and tools makes learning how to write in a different language much easier, more interesting, and a lot more fun.

These eight writing strategies for ESL students will help you become more confident about writing in English and be open to feedback.

If you're still in two minds about writing that essay, reach out to Writers Per Hour. Our native English speakers are not just well-versed in the language but also subject matter experts.

So, write to us with your requirements and we'll get back to you with a 100% original, high-quality essay.

last edit at Sep 24 2021

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Improve Your Writing Skills: 8 Writing Strategies for ESL Students

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You're asked to write an English essay and you're in panic mode. You find yourself second-guessing every sentence you write and before you know it, it's time to submit the essay. Have you ever experienced this? After reading this article, we hope you don't find yourself in such a situation.

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I chose this article from our module because it has ideas in it I would like to use in my future classroom. I love the idea of having students recording themselves reading as a way to asses their skills, they will enjoy it because they can use technology and they would also benefit from being able to listen back to themselves reading.

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Technology Integration to Support Language Development

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A few strategies coupled with technology integration can enhance English language learning in the primary classroom.

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Educator Toolkit- Using Educational Technology 

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Educator Toolkit- Using Educational Technology 

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Although this is a long resource, it is full of any questions I might have while in the classroom. This article talks about so many different ways to use technology to improve classroom instruction for all students. There are also many different resources linked within this toolkit that will be helpful once I am in the classroom.

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This chart is an observational chart to jot down students behaviors if they seem to have extraordinary potential. This will benefit me when I am looking for signs or indicators of extraordinary students and help me know what to look for.

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I found this article myself and it stood out to me. This article talks about the underrepresentation of ELs in GT and how we as teachers can combat that. This article states some of the signs to look for in ELs to see if they might qualify for GT too.

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

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

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

Reframing Conceptions of Giftedness to Support Inclusivity

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

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

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

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

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

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

Acquire the new language at a faster than typical rate,

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

Show aptitude for negotiating between cultures,

Display inventive leadership and/or imaginative qualities,

Read significantly beyond grade level in the heritage language,

Effectively assume adult responsibilities at a young age,

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

Problem-solve in creative, nonconforming ways.

A Culturally Responsive Process of GT Identification

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

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

Nominations or referrals from parents and school staff,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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This article stood out to me because it was written by a teacher. The teacher talks about how things have changes so much for ELs since she began teaching. The article contains a lot of tips on how to best support and be an advocate for your EL students and how to best support them. I love that the tips are also coming straight from a teacher herself, who has been through this.

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I began my teaching career in 1997 as a mainstream, 3rd grade teacher at a suburban public school near Houston, Texas. Our school had one teacher designated to serve English language learners (ELLs) through a pull-out setting. I understood my job as teaching students the general education curriculum while she taught my ELLs the English language. I never knew exactly what my students did when they were with the ESL teacher; nor was I sure whether she knew what they were doing when they were with me.

Fast forward to the present and my current activities-working with teachers across the U.S. to strengthen their knowledge and skillset for serving students who are learning English as an additional language. From this vantage point, I can see that my early years as a teacher did not provide a great structure for teaching content or language and that all educators need to know how to serve all students.

The problem is that English learning specialists may be preaching to the choir. We gather on Facebook groups, Instagram, or on Twitter to share information with one another. But we need to spread this mission to our educator friends-those who may not see themselves as ELL specialists yet need to know more about teaching students who are learning English as an additional language. We have to become advocates for English language learners. Here's how:

Learn all that you can about the laws and policies concerning ELLs in your state.

How we serve English language learners is mandated by federal law. From that, states build their own laws and policies. Knowing these laws will help you to serve students and teachers. Educators need to understand these important considerations:

Attend meetings that involve English language learners.

While attending PLCs, RTI meetings, etc. use your knowledge about laws and policies regarding ELLs to advocate for students' rights. Be a voice for students during such meetings and share these rights with families of ELLs. One way to connect with ELLs families when there is a language barrier in the messages you send home is through Talking Points , a free app that translates messages into senders home languages.

Volunteer to present strategies that support ELLs.

English language learners spend most of their day in classrooms with mainstream teachers who may or may not be certified to teach ELLs. Either way, ongoing professional development on strategies that support language and content acquisition will help teachers understand how to leverage language to maximize academic growth. Ask your administrator if you can present at a professional learning meeting. Select research-based strategies that are powerful for all students but necessary for ELLs. Even if you share an article or facilitate a book study, your teachers will benefit.

Plan with grade-level teachers.

Regular grade-level planning is the best way to make an impact on instruction. You can support mainstream teachers on the spot with accommodations and scaffolds that meet the needs of their students. If weekly planning is not possible, try long-term planning on a monthly basis. Virtual planning also becomes a feasible option when meeting in real time is impossible. Some teachers use shared lesson-planning templates on Google Drive or other sharable platforms. Planning together is a great opportunity to sneak in small bits of professional learning, too. It can provide a casual space for educators to share teaching techniques that improve student achievement.

Seek professional learning opportunities within and outside your district.

Several years ago, I worked as a professional development specialist in a suburban district with a large ELLs population. We offered to send ESL and content teachers to a Title III symposium for two days to learn about research-based information that would help them serve English language learners. Many coteachers attended together and were able to build relationships while learning as a team. When we only train EL specialists on strategies, we limit the potential for their use and for student gains. , , , your local TESOL affiliate, and ASCD offer opportunities for in-person PD.

For no-cost, virtual PD, access these resources:

<LINK URL="https://sites.google.com/view/virtuel/home?authuser=0" LINKTARGET="_blank">VirtuEL</LINK> (a free, online conference for teachers of English language learners)

Podcasts (<LINK URL="https://anchor.fm/highest-aspirations" LINKTARGET="_blank">Highest Aspirations</LINK> by Ellevation or <LINK URL="http://voiced.ca/the-boosting-achievement-esl-podcast-with-carol-salva/" LINKTARGET="_blank">Boosting Achievement</LINK> with Carol Salva)

Twitter (EL leaders to follow: <LINK URL="http://www.twitter.com/LarryFerlazzo" LINKTARGET="_blank">@LarryFerlazzo</LINK>, <LINK URL="http://www.twitter.com/TanELLclassroom" LINKTARGET="_blank">@TanELLclassroom</LINK>, <LINK URL="http://www.twitter.com/emilyfranESL" LINKTARGET="_blank">@emilyfranESL</LINK>, <LINK URL="http://www.twitter.com/MsSalvac" LINKTARGET="_blank">@MsSalvac</LINK>, <LINK URL="http://www.twitter.com/Toppel_ELD" LINKTARGET="_blank">@Toppel_ELD</LINK>)

Online Book Studies like #ELLChat_BkClub (to learn more about this, visit <LINK URL="http://ellchatbkclub.blogspot.com" LINKTARGET="_blank">ellchatbkclub.blogspot.com</LINK>)

Facebook Groups such as Advocating for ELLs, Leading ELLs, Colorin Colorado's ELL Educator Group

Consider sending out an email regularly to spotlight an instructional method that supports ELLs. One colleague created a Padlet with resources (all tied to ELLs instruction) that he's curated. He shares this with content teachers in his district. Another ELL specialist creates a Smore page where she regularly highlights three instructional strategies that teachers can access in either 1, 5, or 15 minutes.

Build a team and momentum.

No matter your role, you can gather a team to support ELL students. Every educator (along with the parents) that works with the students on your campus is a part of their success. The team has a higher success rate when each member recognizes that we can't do it alone. A team can also provide the structure to make this work ongoing. What is regularly discussed and revisited is remembered. We have to bring ELLs and the instructional methods that are most powerful to the forefront, not just at the beginning of the school year and then again at testing season, but all throughout the year.

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Be an Advocate for English Language Learners

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I began my teaching career in 1997 as a mainstream, 3rd grade teacher at a suburban public school near Houston, Texas. Our school had one teacher designated to serve English language learners (ELLs) through a pull-out setting. I understood my job as teaching students the general education curriculum while she taught my ELLs the English language.

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This is another article that stood out to me that was written by a teacher themself. This article not only gives 7 ways to advocate for your ELs but suggestions within each of those 7 ways to do it to the best of your ability. This is 100% a resource I can see myself referring back to many times.

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7 Effective Ways Teachers Can Advocate for English Learners

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Many English language learners who enter our schools aren't welcomed into inclusive environments. Teachers of ELLs are in a key position to draw attention to inequalities they observe and to advocate for their students.

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I typically learn better when I have a visual, therefore this example of a math lesson with scaffolds for ELs is perfect for me and helps me visualize what needs to be done. This will be something I refer back to when I am teaching.

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Gr. 5 Math Lesson Plan missing Eval Question responses #3-6-1-1

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This article was also given to us in module 6 and is a good resource to look at when I am looking for ways to develop my EL's language through math class.

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Just like with the math lesson plan, I like to have a reference so I feel like having this at my disposal will help me when lesson planning in the future.

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This article reminds teachers to mindful that not all EL students have the background knowledge, vocabulary, or perspective to jump into social studies lessons and understand what is happening. I want to save this article because I want to remember to be mindful of these things.

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Consider the following scenario:

A fifth-grade teacher was preparing her class to learn about the American Revolution. She enlisted the students' help in acting out the events that led to the Revolution with elaborate props and exercises. When the class ended, the students were told they would read more about the Revolution the following day. As they left the room, an ESL student stopped and asked urgently, "But who won?"

This situation highlights some of the challenges that teachers face when helping English language learners, or ELLs, master social studies content:

Background knowledge
ELLs may not have the same background knowledge that their peers have or that textbook authors take for granted, as explained in this video clip with ELL teacher Amber Prentice.

Different perspectives
ELLs bring their own valuable and important experiences to the classroom. Often those experiences can be connected to the content in meaningful ways; however, if different points of view or ideas aren't expressed or identified, students may miss key concepts and ideas in the lesson.

Academic language and vocabulary
ELLs must learn the academic language and vocabulary needed to comprehend and produce new content - all while learning the new content and concepts at the same time!

For content-area teachers with limited experience working with ELLs, planning a lesson that engages them and helps them learn new material may seem daunting. The good news is that there are a number of ways to engage ELLs with social studies content and draw on their own unique background knowledge and perspectives. This article will describe some strategies for planning social studies lessons with ELLs in mind.

In addition, I recommend taking a look at the following resources:

Note: Lesson Planning to Ensure Optimal Engagement of ELLs (Chapter 2 of Teaching English Language Learners Across the Content Areas), is available online and provides a number of helpful resources, including a checklist for modifying lesson plans for ELLs. In addition, Appendix Two of the book (not available online) provides a lesson modification worksheet.

Lesson Planning Strategies

Identify key concepts necessary for understanding the lesson

When choosing your key concepts, keep in mind the following:

Background knowledge
ELLs with limited or interrupted schooling may not have that same level of knowledge as their peers, especially when it comes to historical or cultural topics. When starting a new lesson, look for references or concepts that may need to be explicitly explained.

Language proficiency
Students may already possess content knowledge that they cannot yet demonstrate in English. Look for opportunities to make associations between students' experiences and new content.

Perspective
Students may have a different perspective on the content than their peers. These differences provide an important opportunity for class discussion and learning as long as they are handled in a sensitive and respectful ways.

In addition, plan to find out what students know about the topic you are teaching before getting started. This will help you fill in gaps and build on prior knowledge. A great tool for this activity is a Circle Map, in which you place the main topic in a small circle and add student ideas in a bigger circle around the topic. You may wish to allow ELLs to use their native language with peers for a quick brainstorm before presenting their ideas to the whole class.

Identify content and language objectives

These objectives are a great way to focus on the most important information and language structures you want your students to master. Content objectives focus on the material while language objectives focus on vocabulary or language structures that students should be able to use throughout the lesson (Haynes and Zacarian, 28).

Think about how you are going to:

introduce these concepts using simple language,

break the concepts down into the most basic elements,

keep the objectives visible to students during the unit (i.e., post them on the board or provide a simple outline to keep in binders).

Identify key vocabulary and academic vocabulary

Identify key terms, words, idioms and phrases - TWIPS, according to Dr. Zacarian (19). Choose the vocabulary that your students need to know in order to support their reading development and content-area learning, in addition to key content vocabulary. Remember to prepare student-friendly definitions for TWIPS ahead of time. It may be helpful to look at other social studies vocabulary lists as well.

In addition:

Look for problem areas
Clarify potential areas of confusion, such as homonyms or words with more than one meaning.

Include signal and directional words
Remember that students may also need explicit instruction in signal or directional words ("because" and "explain"), especially those words that are likely to appear frequently in the content materials or activities.

Don't overlook the basic words
There may be many words used through a lesson that native English-speaking students will understand but that ELLs don't know. Keep an eye out for these words, no matter how basic, and make a list of words that your students have questions about so that you can refer back to it when teaching the lesson in the future.

Use visuals and manipulatives when possible
Having a visual reference for new words is particularly helpful for ELLs.

Keep words visible and accessible to students
Post words on a word wall, or try using a "portable word wall" chart that students can put in their binder. The chart might include categories such as new words, old words, people, everyday words, words to review, etc. (Haynes and Zacarian, 59-60).

Remember to include lots of student practice
For students to really know a word, they must use it - or they will lose it. Use new words in class discussions or outside of class in other contexts if appropriate, such as on field trips. Give the students as many opportunities to use and master the new vocabulary as possible, both in writing and speaking activities. You may find this six-step process for teaching academic vocabulary from Dr. Robert Marzano helpful.

Prepare to preview the text

One strategy is a "chapter walk", where students predict what the chapter will be about based on pictures and highlighted features of the textbook.

An activity like this may take some time at first because it's time-consuming to teach. If you use it with regularity, however, it will become easier and quicker, and students will be able to do this on their own at the beginning of a new chapter.

You can also use the "BIG FOX" strategy, published by McGraw-Hill. This graphic organizer helps students pick out important terms and pieces of information before reading. I recommend practicing this strategy with some simple readings about familiar topics before jumping in with the textbook. The students will understand the strategy better if they start out with concepts that they understand.

Prepare multimedia, visuals, and related readings

These resources can be used to build background knowledge and provide context for ELLs, especially when students are learning new concepts and words. Ideas include:

Using photos from books, magazines, or the Internet to supplement textbooks.

Showing brief, focused video clips of history or social studies programs.

Listening to a short podcast or radio clip of an interview or speech.

Discussing additional readings such as related articles, poems, letters, and graphic novels.

Enlist native language support when possible

These strategies can help students identify content they already know, or master new concepts before transferring those ideas and learning how to express them in English:

Collaborate with a bilingual paraprofessional and identify areas where bilingual language support will be most helpful.

Look for related content materials in the students' native language from publishers like Scholastic or National Geographic/Cengage.

Plan group work in which students can use their native language with peers to discuss main ideas or vocabulary words.

Plan to include group work throughout the unit

Peer learning activities such as Reciprocal Teaching and Think-Pair-Share can be powerful tools for engaging ELLs with content learning.

Use modeling and clear instructions to ensure students understand:

how the activity works

their role in group work

the objective of the activity

any key vocabulary or phrases they should be using.

Here are some other tips on group work for ELLs from Haynes and Zacarian:

Assign students group roles that match their language ability (37).

Promote students to new roles as their language skills improve (42).

Make sure that mainstream students understand that they will be working in diverse groups, and that everyone's contributions are important (41).

Keep an eye on the balance of student participation; if some students are speaking more than others, ask them to think of some ways to even participation out (42).

Ask students to reflect on their group work after they have finished an activity. Haynes and Zacarian include a chart in their book with some guiding statements for student reflection (48).

Plan plenty of opportunities for students to interact with the content

Give students lots of opportunities to engage with and review the material in different ways:

Graphic organizers
Use graphic organizers to review key concepts and vocabulary words.

Flash cards
Have students make their own flash cards with pictures, definitions, key facts, etc.

Working with the text
Teach students to underline, highlight, and make notes. You may also find that sticky notes, Wikki Stix, and highlighting tape are a big hit with students (68). According to Haynes, some school districts order extra textbooks for their ELL classes so that teachers can keep a highlighted copy on hand as a student reference.

Use acting
Have the students write skits about the material they are learning, or create an activity in which students provide a physical representation of a particular event or vocabulary word.

Be creative and flexible with writing assignments

Writing can be an important way for students to show what they've learned:

Be creative and flexible
When choosing writing activities for students, be creative and open to different ways for students to express their new knowledge. I have seen students successfully convey what they learned by writing letters, poems, news articles and mosaics with vocabulary key points. Writing an essay may be more difficult for ELLs, and although they need to learn how to write a good essay eventually, they should be allowed to demonstrate their learning through a variety of writing activities.

Look for writing exercises that relate to the topic at hand
This may include a biography or autobiography, a letter from the point of view of a historical figure, or a short news article about a famous event.

Provide models
Give ELLs explicit structures and sentence frames to follow. Frames may vary in complexity and specificity, but they will help students to model correct structures and usage from the beginning.

Plan to adapt homework and assessment as needed

While it's important to have high expectations of ELLs, it is also important to have realistic expectations of the amount of work they can do. Haynes and Zacarian note, "The teacher's goal should be to making learning accessible and meaningful for every student without lowering expectations or sacrificing rigor" (104-105).

They continue in Chapter 7 of their book to provide a number of helpful rubrics and step-by-step procedures for evaluating your homework and assessment activities with ELLs in mind. In Twenty-Five Quick Tips for Classroom Teachers, Haynes suggests that teachers "adjust homework assignment to your ELLs' English language proficiency (and) modify assessment so that your ELLs have an opportunity to show what they have learned."

As you look for ways to help your students learn this new content, remember that you aren't just teaching them required social studies standards - you are helping your students adjust to a new life and country. That preparation has a potentially significant ripple effect because your students may be helping their own parents navigate this new country as well, and they may need to prepare for a U.S. Citizenship exam one day in the future.

Through social studies lessons, you also can prepare your students to be engaged and well-informed participants in our society and democracy, an opportunity they might not have had in their own country due to their religion, gender, or ethnicity. When you think about it that way, teaching ELLs to master new social studies content is so much more than adapting a lesson plan - it's a chance to prepare a new generation of young people to lead us into the future.

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Preparing an Engaging Social Studies Lesson for English Language Learners

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Consider the following scenario: A fifth-grade teacher was preparing her class to learn about the American Revolution. She enlisted the students' help in acting out the events that led to the Revolution with elaborate props and exercises. When the class ended, the students were told they would read more about the Revolution the following day.

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This article is one I would like to have because it involves the specific steps of addressing ELs with disabilities and how to go about that. I think this article will be beneficial to have as a beginning teacher.

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This chart differentiates between common language difficulties for ELs and indicators of a learning possibility. This is an important chart to have in my future classroom to help me evaluate ELs and help understand their difficulties and where they might be coming from.

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This article gives 5 common challenges that come with developing ELs oral language, but it also give the solution to each challenge. It also gives classroom scenarios that I find very beneficial and would like to have handy.

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In this article written for Colorín Colorado, Dr. Lindsey Moses Guccione shares five key challenges related to the oral language development of ELLs, as well as tips for addressing each of the challenges.

Dr. Moses Guccione is the co-author of Comprehension and English Language Learners: 25 Oral Reading Strategies That Cross Proficiency Levels ( Heinemann, 2009).

Getting Started

As a former elementary teacher in a bilingual school, I developed a love and passion for finding effective ways to support oral language and oral reading development of emerging English language learners (ELLs). I discovered this passion when I began my first year of teaching in a second-grade classroom, where I encountered a handful of challenges related to my students' oral language development.

Many students were transitioning from a classroom with Spanish instruction into my classroom with instruction provided in English. I had students ranging from monolingual English speakers to students who had just recently moved to the U.S. from a Spanish-speaking country. The range of language proficiency levels crossed the entire spectrum. Having minimal experience with this range of diverse students and needs, I began reading, researching, and implementing new instructional ideas into my classroom. With each challenge I encountered, I gained new information about my students and their parents. I also began learning more about my own methods of instruction, and I learned a great deal each year about new challenges and successes.

Currently, I am fortunate to work with many teachers who have the opportunity to impact the lives of children and families who speak more than one language. As I work with these teachers and families, I have found five common and reoccurring challenges that they seem to face in the area of oral language development that parallel my own experiences. I detail these challenges and questions below, as well as suggestions for addressing each challenges based on strategies I used in my classroom.

Questions and Classroom Scenarios

1. What do I do if they don't know ANY English?

Understanding the characteristics of language learners at different proficiency levels helps to think about how we can best support students in their oral language and reading development. Below is a chart that gives a description of the first two levels of language proficiency as well as implications for using oral reading. This is a nice place to start when thinking about how to interact with and support our Starting and Emerging English speakers.

Levels of Language Proficiency

Description

Implications For Using Oral Reading

Level 1: Starting
Students are in a silent period in which they listen, but do not speak in English. They may respond using nonverbal cues in attempt to communicate basic needs.

The teacher and other more advanced students should model oral reading. Students in the silent period should not be forced to speak, but should be given the opportunity to participate in a group activity where they won't be singled out.

Level 2: Emerging
Students are beginning to understand more oral language. They respond using one- or two-word phrases and start to produce simple sentences for basic social interactions and to meet basic needs.

Teacher and students should continue to model oral reading. Students should be encouraged to begin taking risks with simple, rehearsed oral reading in non-threatening situations.

Opitz & Guccione (2009). Comprehension and English Language Learners: 25 Oral Reading Strategies that Cross Proficiency Levels.

2. How do I provide instruction and support for the ELLs without holding back the students who are fluent in English?

Differentiation is the key to effective instruction for all students. Students of varying proficiency levels can learn the same content when the teacher provides a wide range of learning opportunities for students with different academic and linguistic needs. Three key strategies for this approach include differentiating or modifying the texts, creating grouping structures, and targeting the amount and nature of support based on students' needs (Opitz & Ford, 2008).

Modifying the text: Teachers can differentiate the text by selecting various levels of text difficulty on similar content, or they can also divide the text up into smaller portions appropriate for certain groups/individuals for a jigsaw activity. Another idea is to summarize text that might be too difficult and provide ways to make the text more accessible (such as vocabulary support, visual support, connecting to background knowledge, etc.).

Creating grouping structures that set students up for success: While some grouping structures can be established according to language or literacy skill levels and needs, it is also important to think about providing students exposure to interact with peers who demonstrate a wide range of different language and literacy skills. Additionally, teachers can improve engagement and motivation by creating choice/interest groups where students gather, read, discuss and work together on topics of common interest.

Targeting the amount and nature of student support: It is important to think about scaffolding the experience and using comprehensible input to make it accessible for all students. Comprehensible input means that students should be able to understand the gist of what is being said or presented. There are many ways to do this, such as selecting key vocabulary, using context or visual cues, building background knowledge, building on experiences the students have had, using consistent language, and providing images or visual representations to support vocabulary and content. Teachers can support their students by embedding comprehensible input into their whole-group instruction, but this also becomes particularly effective when used in the different grouping structures. Teachers can also modify the amount of support and interaction between teachers and students depending on their individual and group needs.

3. This student knows English - I hear him talking to his friends and on the playground. He just doesn't want to try in class.

I have heard many teachers discussing variations of this same idea. However, I would caution teachers and parents about jumping to this conclusion. Academic language (or the language specifically related to school and/or academic content) can be complicated to acquire. Students often first develop social language and demonstrate near proficiency or proficiency in English in social settings. A student may be demonstrating sophisticated use of social language, but they may have difficulty using language in more formal settings such as school.

Much of the academic language required to be successful in school - everything from instructions to expectations to content-specific vocabulary - requires assistance in acquiring. Students hear and use their social language in various settings from home, community, and school, but academic language is often only used in the school setting. These students need specific instruction and support surrounding their language development in this area.

The same children who appear to be functioning at a high level of English proficiency in social settings may actually be functioning at a beginning stage in other settings, depending on how they are called on to use language. The students need to feel safe and in a low-anxiety environment in order to begin to feel comfortable taking risks with their oral language. When they have less exposure and instruction related to academic language, this can often cause students to feel intimidated and less likely to be willing to share in class.

One idea for reducing anxiety and encouraging students to experiment with language might include allowing students to read, practice, and discuss their responses in partners and small groups before sharing out to the entire group. This allows students an opportunity to hear language modeled by peers, practice what they want to say, and possibly revise their original thought and/or language before sharing it in a public way. As students find more success with their language production and classroom participation, they will be more likely to share and take risks, and in turn continue building their confidence.

4. How is the child ever going to learn English if they don't speak it at home?

It is important to celebrate being bilingual and biliterate. Research has shown that development of a students' first language can facilitate development in the second language (Genessee, Geva, Dressler, and Kamil, 2007). Understanding this helps parents, teachers, and children to encourage the use and development of the students' home language while they are at home. All of the home literacy activities that we recommend for English speakers, such as reading aloud, making lists, discussing books, reading environmental print, etc., should also be encouraged for the English language learners in their home language. Students can begin to use more English as they feel comfortable in different settings, but it is important to note that speaking two languages will not hinder their English development.

Another important idea to remember is that we want to invite parents to feel confident in their interactions with their children regardless of their English proficiency level. As they begin to read or retell stories and discuss them at home, they are developing vital oral language and comprehension skills, and these skills will transfer over into their school language.

5. What kinds of activities should I be doing to help the student develop their oral language and oral reading?

McCauley and McCauley (1992) report four factors as necessary for acquiring a second language: a low-anxiety environment, repeated practice, comprehensible input, and drama. These are all important components of setting children up for success and language development.

A low-anxiety environment includes a setting where students feel nurtured and supported by their teacher and peers, and in turn, they feel safe to take risks without the fear of being laughed at or made fun of.

Repeated practice is just like what it sounds! Students need repeated practice hearing and using a new language. They need multiple opportunities to comprehend and express their ideas in a new language. Like with anything new that we learn, practice helps us get better.

Comprehensible input, as explained above, means finding different ways to make what is being said comprehensible and easier to understand. Things to consider with comprehensible input might include using speech that is appropriate for students' language proficiency, providing a clear, step-by-step explanation of tasks, and using a variety of techniques to support their understanding.

Drama, or a sense of excitement and engagement, can be found in activities like Reader's Theatre, dramatic play, puppetry, narrating wordless picture books, etc. All of these activities also have the other three factors embedded within them. These activities assist in the development of oral language in addition to introducing students to oral reading and rich literacy experiences and responses in a classroom setting.

Closing Thoughts

As you can see from these questions and examples, there are a lot of different approaches to helping ELLs build their oral language development skills, and you may have to try different activities until you find what works for your students. The most important thing, however, is to build your students' confidence while giving them new words and phrases to practice. Don't be afraid to try something new - and most of all, don't be afraid to have fun doing it!

About the Author

Dr. Lindsey Moses Guccione is a coauthor of Comprehension and English Language Learners: 25 Oral Reading Strategies that Cross Proficiency Levels. She is an assistant professor at the University of Northern Colorado and teaches courses in Early Childhood Education, Literacy, and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education. She is a former elementary teacher of English language learners and is currently researching how ELLs make sense of texts.

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Oral Language Development and ELLs: 5 Challenges and Solutions

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In this article written for Colorín Colorado, Dr. Lindsey Moses Guccione shares five key challenges related to the oral language development of ELLs, as well as tips for addressing each of the challenges. Dr. Moses Guccione is the co-author of Comprehension and English Language Learners: 25 Oral Reading Strategies That Cross Proficiency Levels ( Heinemann, 2009).

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I would like to add this article to my toolkit because it talks about how to use purposeful conversations in the classroom as a way to develop students oral language.

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Meaningful Classroom Talk: Supporting English Learners' Oral Language Development
This post was written by WestEd's Aída Walqui, Director of Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) and Margaret Heritage, WestEd Senior Scientist.
Consider this interaction between a teacher and his students, most of them English language learners, in a ninth-grade English language arts class:

Teacher: Who wrote The Pearl, Carmen?

Carmen: Steinbeck wrote The Pearl.

Teacher: Very good. And Rosa, who is the main character in this novella?

Rosa: I guess the main character is Kino, although his wife, Juana, is also important.

Teacher: That's right. And why do we say The Pearl is a novella? Jim?

Now contrast it with the interaction other ninth-graders had in their English language arts/English language development class:

Teacher: As we begin to explore this short story, "The Necklace," written by a French author from the 19th century, Guy de Maupassant, I am inviting you to read the first four paragraphs with your partner using types of "Question-Answer Relationships."* We have practiced this process several times, so unless we require some explanation-[students signal they do not]-then, please get started. As you engage in reading and discussing, I would like you to focus on the character Mathilde and think about what kind of person she is. We will then focus on the problem she faces.

Rodrigo (after reading the first paragraph of "The Necklace" aloud to his partner, Martha): OK, I am going to ask you a "think and search" question. Did Mathilde grow up in a rich family?

Martha: I am not sure. I think no, because the paragraph says she could not marry a "rich and distinguished man" and had to marry a little clerk. Is that an employee? [Rodrigo nods his assent.] I guess it is because she is not rich. But she was very pretty and charming, right?

So now I am going to read the second paragraph. [She proceeds to read aloud to Rodrigo, then pauses and thinks.] I am confused, so I guess I will ask you a think and search question. The text says "with women there is neither caste nor rank, for beauty, grace and charm take the place of family and birth." Is the author saying that for women, money does not matter? Why did she marry a clerk then?

Rodrigo: Yeah, I agree. I don't fully understand. You said she was pretty but not rich. Now the second paragraph says that's in place of family and birth, so does that mean richness? Does it not matter if women are pretty? Does it matter or doesn't it matter? [Both students decide to raise these questions later during the whole-class discussion. Then Rodrigo proceeds to read the third paragraph to Martha.]

We have all observed classes resembling the first example, where the teacher already knows the answers to the questions being asked, as do most students. The exchange is just an exercise in reiterating the known using complete sentences. In contrast, students in the second example must actively consider the possibilities related to the text, by asking and responding to questions that reveal their understanding.

How do we ensure that all English learners have opportunities to productively use oral language in academic settings? And how do we ensure that teachers leverage the power of classroom interactions to simultaneously foster language development, content knowledge, and analytical practices? In this article, we offer answers to these questions-and clarify common misconceptions-by presenting guidelines supported by both research and classroom practice.

A Framework for Oral Language

If English language learners (ELLs) are going to productively engage in classroom discourse and express their thinking related to content learning goals, teachers must create a trusting classroom culture in which students feel that whatever level of language they can produce, their contributions will be valued by their teacher and peers and will never be subject to ridicule, sanctions, or negative comparisons. ² Establishing classroom norms such as close listening to understand the ideas ELLs are conveying and showing respect to each other during their interactions (learning, of course, from the models their teachers provide) is essential for successful oral language use. Students need to know that interrupting their peers as they are formulating ideas and finishing their sentences for them are not desirable classroom norms.

As teachers plan to engage students in oral interactions, the framework shown in Figure 1 below can help guide their support for their students' work and language development. The framework comprises six interconnected levels.

(click image for larger view)

First, teachers need to ensure that students clearly understand the purpose of the interaction they are being asked to undertake. For example, are they supposed to read a text and elaborate their thinking, highlighting what they understand and what they don't? Are they engaged in describing a scene to somebody who has not seen it? Are they being asked to make a prediction after observing phenomena they will later investigate?

Second, teachers need to make sure students have ideas upon which they will elaborate. For example, have they noticed the most important aspects of the scene (the background, main character(s) presented, what they are doing, other relevant details) on which they will center their description?

Third, teachers need to help students organize their thoughts and ensure their language follows specific patterns. For example, descriptions of a scene from a text cannot begin with sentences such as, "He kicks it, it breaks." Students need to first indicate the setting of the scene, then introduce the characters, describe them, and explain what they are doing. This sequence is essential to help participants engaged in a conversation paint pictures in their minds. Organization is marked by phrases that can be provided to students as formulaic expressions (which we discuss later in this article) to use: ³ "The picture we have shows a..." "We can see a..." "Our scene takes place in a..." "Based on my observation..." "The two historical contexts are..."

Fourth, teachers need to consider the types of sentences students produce and judiciously highlight how they may be combined and expanded to produce more complex language. Increasing complexity can be accomplished with the use of connectors and conjunctions, such as "besides," "furthermore," "additionally," "however," etc.

Fifth, teachers must pay attention to the words students use. Is one word repeated several times in an interaction? If so, teachers can take the opportunity to introduce a synonym. Do students incorrectly or imprecisely use a term? Teachers can take a moment to clarify usage and meaning.

Finally, when students are ready to present their work to others, teachers can focus on the pronunciation of carefully selected elements-only those that interrupt understanding. Traditionally, many educators have been taught to focus on correcting student utterances by zeroing in on form and not on meaning. As a result, our framework may initially feel counterintuitive, but the more educators rely on it, the more it will assist them in supporting students' language growth.

Productive Talk

As a general pattern, we educators often talk too much, no doubt influenced by our "apprenticeship of observation" that began when we were students ourselves. ⁴ However, given the centrality of talk in learning, this pattern needs to change. By some estimates, ELLs spend less than 2 percent of their school day in oral interaction. ⁵ Teachers must find ways to provide students learning opportunities that engage them in productive talk and then listen carefully to the language they use in order to support their continued growth.

By productive talk, we mean speech that has the following characteristics:

Has depth: the specific idea being discussed is central to the theme of the lesson, is presented in interconnected ways, and engages students' analytical thinking.

Is sustained: one student's statement is followed by another student's response, which extends, refutes, or questions what was first said.

Is student controlled: students control what they say, not the teacher. But teachers set up parameters for the interactions, sometimes framing questions that start the conversation. These questions are intended to communicate new related ideas, propose counter ideas or examples, and in general enhance the theme at work.⁶

Now consider these characteristics in an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) class, which comprises students with varied levels of English competence. ⁷ "Language" is the theme of the students' exploration, and this was the third class on the topic. Table 1 below shows the deliberate moves of the teacher, Mr. DeFazio, during the lesson and the students' interactions. The text in the table indicates the multiple instances of productive talk that he promotes with his directions and actions.

(click image for larger view)

Let us look more closely at a specific interaction that occurred in the lesson after a student, Lavinia, reads the beginning of a letter she wrote about animal communication, and another student, Julio, reacts to one of her statements that animals do not have language.

Julio: Animal communication is not a language? It is a language-that's what I think-because they are communicating with each other.

Lavinia: But they don't speak.

Class: [Many students agree with Julio, saying "Yes, they do," or nodding.]

Julio: You said a language can have words, sounds, gestures, and everything.

Class: [Many students are in agreement with Julio's ideas once again.]

Lavinia: But they don't have words. They don't say "mama."

Julio: They don't need to. They have other characteristics. In animal language, some of the characteristics that you said are present-sound, pitch, gestures-so it is a language.

Mr. DeFazio: Julio is arguing very strongly that animal communication is language. Lavinia is saying that it's not. What do you think would be a way to help them resolve that argument in their writing?

Class: [The discussion continues and a resolution emerges. Then Julio reads a section of his letter.]

Mr. DeFazio: A lot is going to depend on how you define language, OK? You can define it in such a way as to exclude what animals do; you can define it in a very broad way, as a system of communication that includes everything. You are going to find linguists and zoologists who disagree, and if you are interested, I can give you some readings that were in the journal Science last year, people arguing back and forth.

Julio (reading his letter): First of all, I think that language is a way to inform others around you, your feelings, or just a simple thing that you want to let people know what is the deal. And it can be expressed by saying it, looking at a picture, or hearing it, you know what I'm saying? I don't know if you have heard about the kangaroo rat that stamps its feet to communicate with other rats. It's really funny 'cause we humans have more characteristics to communicate to each other, but we still have problems to understand other people. Characteristics like sound, grammar, pictures, and body language are some of them, while the rat only uses the foot. [Julio stamps the ground.]

Mr. DeFazio: Excellent! [The class applauds.] I never even heard about the kangaroo rat. Nice job, nice job. [Mr. DeFazio shakes Julio's hand.]

Applying the framework illustrated in Figure 1 to this interaction, we notice that students are clearly aware that the purpose of this exercise is to compare diverse positions on communication and to debate whether animals have language or not, providing evidence for their positions. They have ideas, and they choose which ones to debate based on a diversity of opinions. Mr. DeFazio's opportunity to correct student work, suggest changes, ask for elaboration, and so forth comes in the letters he is asking his students to construct. This written product is intimately tied to oral production. Oral activity feeds into writing, and writing produces oral activity.

In terms of productive talk, in Mr. DeFazio's class, students' analytic thinking is engaged, their interaction is sustained, and they control what they say. Mr. DeFazio has chosen a theme for the lesson that appeals to the students, and he has deliberately planned their active engagement throughout. As a result, the interaction engages students in deep thinking as they compare views on language.

Now that we have seen the characteristics of quality interactions for ELLs in practice, in the next section, we provide guidelines for promoting quality interactions during content lessons.

Six Guidelines for Promoting Quality Interactions

1. Design lessons that involve ELLs' participation in subject-specific and substantive oral practice to accomplish clearly defined lesson goals: Planning a lesson always begins with establishing the destination: Where do teachers need to lead students? Teachers should ask: Are my goals closely related to content standards? What is the knowledge that will be constructed? Which analytic practice will be promoted? What is the language (beyond isolated words or sentences) that will need to be developed? Unless teachers themselves are clear about the goals of a lesson, they will not be able to plan the tasks and activities that support students' language and conceptual development.

2. Construct tasks that appropriately scaffold student participation and growth: Tasks need to be deliberately constructed to engage students in working beyond their current competence. Such tasks should promote worthwhile interactions for students to acquire new conceptual understandings and analytical skills and language. They should also have appropriate scaffolds, which entail teachers closely observing students to ascertain whether the support is working, whether it is still needed, or whether it needs to be modified or replaced.

3. Make sure the task is designed to meet its purposes and the materials used are appropriate to support students working at the edge of their competence successfully: Learning is most effective when tasks are designed to match students' current competencies and also challenge them to move forward, with support.

4. Make sure that activities or tasks follow and precede others logically to build coherent lessons: Leading students to increasingly more complex demands is essential if teachers want their lessons to flow smoothly and to incrementally build ELLs' understanding.

5. Integrate reading and writing into oral development activities: Oral interaction while reading texts not only allows ELLs to understand the text more deeply but also helps them develop awareness of what they understand as they read and what they can do to solve problems in reading.

6. Be selective in addressing errors and intentional in providing feedback: When ELLs use English to develop their understanding of content and their use of analytical practices, often their language will be neither accurate nor fully formed, although the intent of their communication will be apparent. Imagine, for a moment, the impact on ELLs' motivation and self-esteem if teacher responses to inaccuracies constituted a constant flow of error correction. Instead, consider formative feedback to students as invitations to understand how they are progressing in language development and to provide a resource for how they can advance. When feedback is given to students about language while they are learning discipline-specific content, the feedback should focus on language so that students can make sense of the academic content, rather than on correcting errors of language production. As such, feedback can increase the students' awareness and help them troubleshoot their own performance and eventually correct their own language.⁸

There is no hard and fast rule about how much feedback students should receive or how often it should be provided; this is a decision teachers will need to make for themselves, given their knowledge of their students, their language and content goals, and the students' current language use. However, because of the powerful impact that feedback can have on learning, ⁹ we advise teachers to make providing feedback a regular and routine part of their classroom practice.

Common Misconceptions

Designing and facilitating meaningful classroom talk is essential for ELLs-indeed for all students-to develop more extended and sophisticated language use while simultaneously learning subject matter. Yet in too many U.S. classrooms, we find ELLs sitting silently, watching their teachers do all the work, and waiting for opportunities to fully engage cognitively and linguistically.

By way of concluding thoughts, we outline five pitfalls to avoid in thinking about language learning, and we provide suggestions for how teachers can engage students in sustained, high-quality classroom talk.
Misconception 1: Sentence frames that provide students with a way of expressing their ideas about specific situations are helpful to them.
A sentence frame is basically a fill-in-the-blank type of activity that invites only one correct answer. Sometimes it can be open and provide starters for students (also called sentence starters for this reason) to be filled in any way. However, these starters may not provide students with phrases they can use time and time again in academic situations. ¹⁰ For example: "The main character in The Pearl is a modest and loving man, furthermore..." "His wife, Juana, loves Kino and Coyotito, their baby, and because of that..."

In addition to using sentence frames, we suggest teachers use formulaic expressions, which are phrases that help start or link ideas and can be used in many situations. Initially, students learn them as unanalyzed chunks, almost as if they were one word. Later on, as students learn more English, they begin to realize the formulaic expressions are formed by several words. Formulaic expressions are extremely useful in students' development of English and in making their interaction with peers possible and more effective. Examples of formulaic expressions are: "I agree with you, and I can add that..." "May I suggest a couple of other ideas? One example I can offer..."
Misconception 2: Correct mistakes students make as they talk or they will "fossilize."
Historically, correctness has been regarded as paramount in second language learners' use of English. More recently, however, researchers' attention has shifted to the larger components of communication, as discussed before: purpose, ideas, organization, types of sentences, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Fossilization, a concept popular in the 1980s, refers to the inability of second language learners to learn the correct forms of language if they continually misuse them. Our perspective, consistent with that of multiple applied linguists, is that language keeps evolving as a result of continuous practice. It may fossilize if it is no longer used productively or receptively. However, in their schooling, students will be invited to engage in uses of language continuously, and thus, they will have ample opportunities to correct themselves or be corrected by others.
Misconception 3: Rather than correcting students' ungrammatical oral language, it is better to provide them with recasts, which model correct English in response to students' mistakes.
It is common for teachers to believe that rather than correcting a student's mistakes-and putting him or her on the spot-it is better to repeat what a student has said, this time changing the student's utterance into grammatical English. They think that recasting saves a student's face and that it is a less authoritarian approach.

Research, however, shows that these implicit corrections may not be productive. ¹¹ Students do not take teachers' recasts as corrections, but rather as reiterations of the idea and as acceptance of students' comments as being right. When the time is appropriate to focus on selected language forms to study and correct, the correction and expansion activity needs to be made explicit.
Misconception 4: Sustained, focused interactions are possible starting in fourth or fifth grade, but lower elementary students are not mature enough to carry them out because they get too impatient with the task and with each other.
Recently, during an open house at an elementary school in Portland, Oregon, one of us (Aída) had the opportunity to visit three classes. The first one was a kindergarten class. The teacher, Mr. Andanen, was preparing students to read and discuss Julius, the Baby of the World, a book by Kevin Henkes, an author the students were already familiar with because they had enjoyed reading three of his other books in class.

To introduce the book, Mr. Andanen set up nine stations around the room and invited students to walk through them. At each station, a picture illustrating a scene from the book was prominently displayed. Students were asked to rotate around the stations every three minutes. At each station, students needed to stop, look at the picture, and explain what they noticed. The teacher had asked students to use a "talking stick" so that the turns to speak were democratically divided within the group at each station. Peers had to listen attentively to the speaker and agree with, disagree with, or expand on what the student said. Formulaic expressions such as "In this picture, I notice..." and "I noticed that, too, and I want to add..." were familiar to the group. At one station, Aída heard the following exchange:

Student 1: I notice a woman holding a big baby. Her mouth is open. I think she is crying.

Student 2: I also noticed she had her mouth open, but I don't think she is crying. I think she is singing.

Student 3: I also noticed the woman with the big baby, and I want to add that he is very heavy. Perhaps that is why she is screaming.

The exchange shows that Mr. Andanen has created an environment that enables young children to notice and use language in purposeful ways. Although the students were only in kindergarten, they clearly articulated their ideas and listened to others. They showed they will soon be ready to start exploring the book more deeply so that they can eventually write an opinion piece based on evidence from the text about which Henkes book was their favorite.
Misconception 5: All students in a class need to master the same levels of oral development as a result of participating in lessons.
Because not all students in a class will be at the same starting point, a robust activity provides multiple entry points for all students to engage as they learn. The important idea is that they should all be gaining-not that all of them will arrive at the same point, in exactly the same way, developing at exactly the same level. This would only be possible if what is learned is limited, and if the learning demands recall. This is not necessarily what we want in education. Rather, we want to produce individuals who are thoughtful, engaged, and conscious of their own development.

English language learners bring valuable assets and immense potential to school. The role of educators is to realize that potential in deep and accelerated ways. Each classroom teacher must ensure the path to that development is paved with meaningful interactions to help students develop language skills, gain conceptual understanding, and learn academic content. Our students deserve no less.

--
Aída Walqui is the director of the teacher professional development program at WestEd. Previously, she taught in the Division of Education at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Margaret Heritage is a senior advisor at WestEd and was previously an assistant director at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing at the University of California, Los Angeles.
*Taffy Raphael's Question-Answer Relationships framework ¹ is intended to call students' attention to the kinds of questions that may be asked about a text. In this class, students work in pairs, announcing first the type of question he or she will ask to increase the other student's awareness of the types of meaningful connections the question seeks. ( back to the article)
Endnotes

1. Taffy E. Raphael, "Teaching Question Answer Relationships, Revisited," The Reading Teacher 39 (1986): 516-522.

2. Alison L. Bailey and Margaret Heritage, Progressing Students' Language Day by Day (Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2018).

3. See Rod Ellis, Instructed Second Language Acquisition: A Literature Review (Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education, 2005).

4. Dan C. Lortie, Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975).

5. Diane August, referenced in Ivannia Soto-Hinman, "Increasing Academic Oral Language Development: Using English Language Learner Shadowing in Classrooms," Multicultural Education 18, no. 2 (Winter 2011): 21-23.

6. Aída Walqui and Leo van Lier, Scaffolding the Academic Success of Adolescent English Language Learners: A Pedagogy of Promise (San Francisco: WestEd, 2010).

7. Anthony DeFazio and Aída Walqui, Where Do You Want to Go Next? (San Francisco: WestEd, 2001), DVD.

8. David J. Nicol and Debra Macfarlane‐Dick, "Formative Assessment and Self‐Regulated Learning: A Model and Seven Principles of Good Feedback Practice," Studies in Higher Education 31 (2006): 199-218.

9. See, for example, John Hattie and Helen Timperley, "The Power of Feedback," Review of Educational Research 77 (2007): 81-112.

10. For more on sentence frames, see Ellis, Instructed Second Language Acquisition.

11. Ahlem Ammar and Nina Spada, "One Size Fits All? Recasts, Prompts, and L2 Learning," Studies in Second Language Acquisition 28 (2006): 543-574; Ellis, Instructed Second Language Acquisition; and Roy Lyster, "Differential Effects of Prompts and Recasts in Form-Focused Instruction," Studies in Second Language Acquisition 26 (2004): 399-432.

Originally published in American Educator, Fall 2018.

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Meaningful Classroom Talk: Supporting English Learners' Oral Language Development

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This post was written by WestEd's Aída Walqui, Director of Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) and Margaret Heritage, WestEd Senior Scientist. Consider this interaction between a teacher and his students, most of them English language learners, in a ninth-grade English language arts class: Teacher: Who wrote The Pearl, Carmen?

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I would like to include this article because I found its tips very helpful and it had many good ideas for activities to include in lesson plans.

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This guest blog post was written by my friend Becca over at Science Rocks! She is a terrific teacher with a lot of experience working with ELL students in her science classroom and I collaborated with her in writing this post. I think her ideas are full of fantastic tips for teachers who teach English Language Learners.
If you've been teaching for a while, chances are you have had some ELL (English language learner) students in your classroom. I've known many teachers that have panicked and asked me "how can I teach them science if they don't speak English?" I think many teachers tend to think they need to dumb down the content for these students. They aren't dumb! Your job is to make the content accessible. It's been my experience that ELL students are amazingly hard workers and are a blast to work with. My friend Bethany Lau over at Science with Mrs. Lau and I have created a list of best-practice tips for working with ELL students. We also have some helpful resources to share with you!

Tip #1: Get them talking! A quiet classroom is not conducive to learning a new language. Many students are scared to speak out loud in English, especially in front of the entire class. To help build their confidence, try small group discussions first. To ensure that every student has spoken to his or her group, give each student something color-coded (I use colored popsicle sticks from the dollar store). When a student speaks, they place their popsicle stick in the center of the table. It is easy as a teacher to walk around and monitor who is speaking and who isn't. Make it a requirement that each student has to speak at least twice during group discussions.

Tip #2: SLOW down when you are talking, and use nonverbal cues. This is much easier to do when you have all your ELL students together in one class, but when they are mixed with native English speakers we often don't realize how fast we are talking. It is really difficult for ELL students to process when you are speaking a mile a minute. So take a deep breath, slow down, and use your hands and other nonverbal gestures. Don't be afraid to act things out! Yes they will giggle, and yes they will love it.

Tip #3: Build vocabulary. When you teach new words, always make your students repeat the word out loud after you say it. And if they aren't loud, make them do it again. If you have a word wall in your classroom, go down the list frequently and make your students say them with you. To help students remember the definitions, discuss prefixes and suffixes to help them decode meanings.

Find fun ways for students to practice those new words. Instead of doing vocabulary worksheets, do vocabulary games instead! Bingo is an awesome way to review vocabulary words before a test. Create a bingo card from a free online bingo-card maker such as http://osric.com/bingo-card-generator/. Type in the words you want your students to learn and print a class set. Instead of calling out the words, say the definition and the students need to cover up the correct word. If they get a bingo, they need to say the words out loud in order to win a prize.

Tip #4: Utilize pictures. I used to try and translate parts of my power points into Spanish before the lesson thinking I was doing my students a favor.

I quickly realized that:

1. Google translate is frequently wrong

2. Many of my students could speak fluent Spanish but couldn't read it.

3. Even if they could read most of it, they didn't know the content specific terms in Spanish. Why would I want my students to learn the word "homeostasis" in Spanish AND English? Let's just stick with English.

Instead of translating, stick with visual pictures. Pictures are understood in all languages. Include them as much as possible in your lessons and power points. Make students draw pictures in their notes. Include pictures in all your articles you want students to read. A great pre-reading activity is to have students look at the pictures and captions in an article before they read the body paragraphs. Have them guess what the article is about based on the pictures and discuss with their neighbors (get those popsicle sticks back out). If you have a word wall in your classroom, make sure it includes pictures too! The more they see a picture associated with a new word, the more likely they will remember what it means.

Tip #5: Learn about their language and culture, and include it in your lessons when applicable. Students will have more buy-in to your lessons when they feel like their language and culture is valued. If you can connect their language to the content, chances are they will remember it better. For example, students use the term "liga" in Spanish to mean rubber band or hair elastic. When teaching "ligaments," discuss how they are stretchy unlike tendons. Students won't forget!

Tip #6: Use Manipulatives! Sometimes students need help learning how to structure their writing into logical paragraphs (even native English speakers need this too!) If you have sample paragraphs for them to learn from, you can print separate sentences out on separate lines, and cut them into strips. Then you can mix the sentences up and have students order them in how they should logically appear in a sentence! You can also do this for other parts of a lab report, like the procedure section or even the proper labels for a graph!

You could create your own writing structure manipulatives, or you can check out Bethany Lau's Lab Report Writing Activity Bundle found here. She has a set of activities with manipulative for each and every part of the lab report with a lot of examples for students to learn from.

Tip #7: Get them writing as much as possible. Data shows that when students take the state language proficiency tests, they struggle the most with writing. Find ways to get students writing on a daily basis. This could work in many different formats- just find one that works for you. Daily bellwork is a great place to start, as well as having students keep writing journals.

What should you have them write about? Check out these writing prompts from Science Rocks' store!

These were designed to be used before new concepts are taught, and allows the teacher to assess prior knowledge and check for misconceptions. When students are first learning English, allow them to write in their native language if they are able to and plug in English words that they know. Throughout the year as their language improves, you will see their writing transform from fragmented to fluid sentences.

Another great writing strategy for ELL students are sentence frames. For students still learning how to write a complete sentence, give them half the sentence first and have them fill in the blanks. For example, a hypothesis on a lab report for an ELL student could look like this: "If I change ___________, then I think ___________ will happen, because __________.

Tip #8: Model. And then model some more. As science teachers we tend to think of "modeling" as meaning "I'll show them how to do a lab before it's their turn." Modeling applies to so much more than labs.

1. Model reading strategies. As you read through articles out loud, stop and discuss. What was the main idea? What did you highlight and why?

2. Model writing strategies. When you assign those writing prompts, work through one with them first. Show them what a quality answer would look like.

3. Model behaviors. Many students will enter your classroom from different backgrounds. Behaviors that may have been acceptable where they grew up may not be acceptable in your classroom. If you want them to give a verbal presentation with eye contact, show them what a good presentation looks like first.

4. Model word pronunciation. Sometimes if students are nervous to say things in English, I have them teach me how to say the phrase in their native language first. Once they have giggled at my horrible pronunciation, they aren't so embarrassed to pronounce things in English.

Tip #9: Modify. Yes, one more thing to add to your to-do list. But it can honestly be as simple as cutting down the number of questions for them to complete, or adding pictures to an assessment. One of my favorite websites to find nonfiction science articles on is newsela.com. Not only is it free to use, but once you find an article you can change the lexile! That means all your students can be reading the same article but at a reading level that is assessable to them.

Tip #10: Use formative assessment frequently, and celebrate gains. It's important to check in with ELL students often. Many of them will take notes, smile, and nod during class, but only understood 20% of what was discussed. Exit tickets and note summaries are great ways to check in and see where they need help and what they have mastered. Make your exit tickets specific. Don't just say, "One thing I still need help with is..." but instead ask them to answer a specific question related to the lesson. This will help you group them by mastery and focus on the students that really need your help. Once they have mastered a new concept or learned new vocabulary, don't forget to celebrate! Let them know you are proud of them, and they will work harder in the future. If students feel like their hard work is recognized and celebrated, they will continue to work hard!

We'd love to hear stories from you about what helps your ELL students! Let us know in the comments!

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Ten Tips for Teaching ELL Science - Science and Math with Mrs. Lau

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This guest blog post was written by my friend Becca over at Science Rocks! She is a terrific teacher with a lot of experience working with ELL students in her science classroom and I collaborated with her in writing this post. I think her ideas are full of fantastic tips for teachers who teach English Language [...]

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I would like to include this article because it has a very good example of a lesson that would be beneficial for ELs in both science and in their language development. This is a lesson I find very interesting and would like to try and use in my future classroom.

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Using Science to Develop ELLs' Language Skills

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"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka! I found it!' but 'That's funny...'" - Isaac Asimov "Oh, you mean the life cycle." This was my pre-school daughter's response to my long explanation of the metamorphosis of the butterfly.

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This is a good resource to have because it explains all the laws and lays them all out.

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This article is a point of view for students and families to understand their rights so I feel like this is going to be a good resource to have when working with EL families and explaining law and procedures to them.

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Friday, January 12, 2018
Recently, there has been an increase in discrimination complaints involving English Learner (EL) students. EL students are those who have a native language other than English and are not proficient in listening, speaking, writing and/or reading English. As of January 2015, EL students accounted for nine percent of all public school students nationwide and were enrolled in nearly three out of every four public schools, with those numbers steadily rising. Given the increase in complaints against school districts in Ohio involving EL students, mirroring similar complaints being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) nationwide, this is an issue that should be on the radar for building administrators.

Federal law protects EL students from discrimination and mandates that they be provided with language services to enable them to meaningfully participate in school programs and activities, both curricular and extracurricular. If EL students or their parents believe that they have been discriminated against or denied a meaningful opportunity to participate, they may file complaints with the OCR. This article highlights some of the issues that can arise with EL students and provides tips for legal compliance.
1. Understand your obligation to identify EL students and educate teachers about their role in the process.
Public schools are legally obligated to identify students who may be in need of language assistance - students age 3 to 21 who were not born in the United States or whose native language is a language other than English. EL students may be born in the United States and be U.S. citizens.
2. Keep in mind that limited English proficiency is not a disability.
Your district probably uses a home language survey in the enrollment process as the primary mechanism for identification, but if you or one of your staff encounters a student or parent who appears to be limited English proficient, you should determine whether they have previously been identified through the home language survey as needing language services. If not, you should follow up with your district administrator in charge of language services to notify them that the student's English proficiency may need to be assessed and/or that the parent may need language assistance when interacting with the school.
3. Be alert to the potential for unlawful discrimination against EL students.
EL students do have special needs and some of the legal rules that apply to them look similar to those that apply to special education students. As mentioned above, schools have an obligation to identify and assess EL students and to provide the language services they need. However, schools should not identify or determine that EL students are students with disabilities solely because of their limited English language proficiency.

Even if your district's special education department also oversees the EL program, the two processes should be kept separate. EL students should not be placed on an Individualized Education Program unless separately determined to need special education services. Similarly, EL students with disabilities who are determined to need special education services should be separately assessed to determine their need for language assistance and should be offered both the disability-related services and the language services they need.
4. If you are involved in hiring recommendations, know what qualifications to look for in teachers providing language support programs for EL students. 5. Promote conversation and collaboration between ESL teachers and other classroom teachers regarding teaching of EL students and provide professional development to teachers on this topic.
Discrimination or harassment may occur in the form of negative behavior by students or staff against EL students based on race, color, national origin or religion, which may violate your district's board policies or student code of conduct.
6. Consider the need for qualified interpreters and/or translators when communicating with limited English proficient parents.
Discrimination may also occur if EL students are denied meaningful access to school programs and activities. This means that you must not only provide alternative language services to EL students but also make sure they are not unduly segregated from other students. Depending on the student's level of proficiency, an EL student may need to be in a segregated English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom for part of his/her day, but that does not mean that the student should be segregated for non-academic subjects such as recess, physical education, art and music.

Legal issues can also arise if EL students are kept in a language assistance program longer than necessary. The ultimate goal for every EL student is to attain English proficiency and exit from the ESL program. In addition, EL students must not be retained in a grade based solely on a lack of English proficiency. Ohio law specifies that you can promote to fourth grade a student who does not test proficient in English language arts if the student is a limited English proficient student, has been enrolled in U.S. schools for less than three full school years and has had less than three years of instruction in an ESL program.

To implement an ESL program effectively, the instructors should be teachers specially qualified to provide language assistance services. To the extent possible, you should look to hire ESL teachers with TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), bilingual certification or endorsement or at least someone who is working towards such licensure.

ESL (or bilingual language program) teachers have the primary responsibility for providing language assistance to EL students, but it is important to remember that the classroom teacher can help EL students be successful by knowing their assessed level of English proficiency, how to speak to EL students (such as avoiding the use of slang or idioms), being familiar with the student's culture and modifying teaching strategies when necessary. Providing opportunities for conversation and collaboration between ESL teachers and other classroom teachers can make classroom teachers more aware of how they can help.

In addition, when you are preparing teacher in-service training, don't forget to include professional development on this topic. For many, this is required if your district receives Title III funding. (You may find more information to assist you on the Ohio Department of Education's website under Teaching English Language Learners and the Lau Resource Center.)

Guidance from the OCR indicates that to enable limited English proficient (LEP) parents to meaningfully participate in their children's education, schools must try to communicate with them in a language they can understand. This typically means providing qualified interpreters and, sometimes, translated documents for such significant matters as student disciplinary proceedings, parent-teacher conferences, and special education eligibility and placement determinations. Therefore, it is important to familiarize yourself and your staff with your district's practices and procedures for obtaining interpreters for parent meetings and for translating documents provided to parents such as parent-teacher conference notices, codes of conduct, disciplinary notices and building newsletters.

For detailed information about the federal legal requirements applicable to EL students, see OCR's Dear Colleague letter issued January 7, 2015.

This is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be legal advice and does not create or imply an attorney-client relationship.
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English Learner students: Do you know your legal obligations?

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Friday, January 12, 2018 Recently, there has been an increase in discrimination complaints involving English Learner (EL) students. EL students are those who have a native language other than English and are not proficient in listening, speaking, writing and/or reading English.

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Strategies for Teaching Academic Language 

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Strategies for Teaching Academic Language 

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This article talks about the challenge of ELs not hearing academic language at home and the transition these students face. This article gives 3 good ways to incorporate academic language into ELs vocabulary. The article also gives a nice definition of what academic language is and everything it entails.

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3 Strategies for Teaching English Learners Academic Language | Lexia

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Don't have time to read?LISTEN NOW " A common misconception among teachers is that if a student can speak English fluently, he or she...

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I found this article and I added it to my toolkit because it gives good ideas and explanations for academic language. This resource gives good ideas for positive reinforcement and rewarding activities to teach ELs academic language in a fun way.

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In this article...
How Can Academic Language Usage Be Modeled Routinely in the Classroom ?

may not be particularly interested in learning since it will likely do nothing for their social lives. That means teaching our students academic language can be an uphill battle.

Model Academic Language Routinely

Make Using Academic Language Rewarding

Often, when teachers teach , they simplify the way they speak in order to help their students understand them better.

We need to continue using academic types of . We just need to be aware of how we're using it.

We need to work in intentional academic words and structures into our lesson plans and use a select few structures repeatedly throughout the class, giving the students the opportunity to practice the structure repeatedly in different ways.

2 Strategies to Make Using Academic Language Rewarding:
Strategy 1: So...
How Can Lesson Planning and Assessment Support Academic Language Development?

What specific vocabulary and structures do I want my students to have mastered by the end of a particular lesson?

Our goal is not to throw in everything except the kitchen sink.

is far more difficult, so do not jump the gun and ask students to write it before they've shown you they can speak it.

is far more difficult, so do not jump the gun and ask students to write it before they've shown you they can speak it.

Once they've said it to you, you can trust that they understand. Then if they struggle with the , it will likely be because they are struggling with the spelling.

We also need academic sentence structures for students to use when responding to questions with the words from above.

The best way to practice academic sentence structures is with the use of sentence frames and stems. This is also one of the top recommendations in an Edutopia article on strategies for teaching academic language.

Read more about teaching with sentence frames -> Be sure to grab the free resources while you're there!

Here is an example Discussion Page from the

that there are questions at the top and then corresponding sentence frames at the bottom students can use to express themselves in an academic way. (Question 1 corresponds to the first Sentence Starters box, etc.)

Get some ideas from the students for what you could say as a response using the corresponding sentence frame at the bottom.

Practice saying the full response together as a class.

vocabulary word banks include tons of visuals to help students understand new words quickly. The word banks also make it easy to have regular routines of listening, discussion, and
One effective activity for teaching vocabulary is LDI - Listen, Discuss, Identify:

LDI - Listen, Discuss, Identify Activity ->
The grammar speaking pages help you get your students focusing on particular structures, creating lots of in a scaffolded way, differentiated, step-by-step way.

vocabulary across a wide-range of background building topics with both literary and informational texts.

The discussion pages focus in on particular academic words and sentence stems which help students organize what they want to say in ways that will help them succeed in proficiency tests as well as standardized tests.

All of the lessons in each unit of the curriculum lend themselves easily to , helping them write in a variety of formats including narrative, informational as well as opinion

Sign up for the ESL Curriculum Membership

Let me know your favorite strategy for teaching academic language in the comments below.

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Practical Strategies for Teaching Academic Language to ELLs

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Academic language is important to your ELLs' success in school. Learn some practical and engaging tips for getting your students using more academic language in their speaking and writing.

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I saved this resource because it gives good examples of language objectives and good tips on how to write effective objectives for ELs.

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Ellevation: ML Program Management Tools for K-12

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The introduction of new standards for English Language Learners has resulted in an increase in rigor and a focus on academic language. With this shift, language service models that isolate language objectives from content, such as pull-out or ESL classes, are becoming less common as school districts refocus on language instruction that is embedded within high-quality, well-scaffolded content instruction.

When creating content-based language instruction, educators must develop unit and lesson content that allows ELs to access the same rigorous, standards-based, grade-level content. In particular, educators need to develop content-based language objectives, which clarify how students will develop language within content instruction.

Alison Balter, an EL leader from Lawrence Public Schools in Massachusetts, worked with Jordan Meranus to share effective strategies that she uses to develop language objectives and integrate them into lessons and units. Below we have outlined some of these key strategies.

What are language objectives?

Language objectives clarify how language instruction is integrated with content, and specifically identify:

1. The way ELL students will use language objectives to engage with the content of the lesson and accomplish the content objectives

2. The specific components of academic language (vocabulary, language structures, etc.) that students will need to learn to accomplish the language objectives

With advanced planning, language objectives help to identify the scaffolds that teachers must have ready to support differentiated instruction for their ELs.

How do I create language objectives?

When creating language objectives you should begin by clarifying and identifying the following:

Content objective - identify the content objective that you plan to supplement with language objectives. While you may not create a language objective for every content objective, Alison recommends that you identify the "power objectives", or essential objectives, within a broader unit and use those to create language objectives.

Knowledge of ELL Student Levels - build an understanding of students' language proficiency levels so that you know how to adjust the language objectives, differentiate instruction, and apply accommodations for multilingual learners.

Domain - identify the domain (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing) that you plan to focus on. It often helps to think about what you are asking students to do (e.g., a debate-focused content objective would lend itself to a Speaking language objective).

Next, you will use this key information to craft a language objective composed of the following three components:

1. Language function - the purpose of the language or linguistic processes required in conveying a message, which includes a verb or action that describes what a student should do (e.g., identify, interpret, evaluate, describe)

2. Support - identifies the supports and scaffolds (sensory, graphic, interactive) that the students will need (e.g., vocabulary sheets, visuals, etc.)

3. Link to Content - the link to the content topic

Within this structure you will be able to adjust the language function and supports to match students' different language proficiency levels.

Content Objectives

SWBAT solve word problems involving unit rates

SWBAT justify their decisions based on unit rates in real-life scenarios (e.g., choosing which car to buy based on gas mileage in miles/gallon)

Language Objective -Levels 4-5
Create multiple paragraphs analyzing the effect of figurative language in a poem.

* Support was not provided, as most of the advanced students in this group were working at grade level.

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Crafting Language Objectives for English Language Learners (ELLs)

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The introduction of new standards for English Language Learners has resulted in an increase in rigor and a focus on academic language. With this shift, language service models that isolate language objectives from content, such as pull-out or ESL classes, are becoming less common as school districts refocus on language instruction that is embedded within high-quality, well-scaffolded content instruction.

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eThis resource gives good examples of  language objectives that will benefit me to look over when I am writing my own in the future.

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This article provides an overview of how to use language objectives in content-area instruction for English learners and offers classroom-based examples from different grade and subject levels.

This article written for Colorín Colorado provides an overview of how to use language objectives in content-area instruction for English learners and includes:

what a language objective is

steps that teachers can take to create language objectives

how to implement language objectives in a general education classroom

how to align objectives to content and language standards

ideas and resources on how to support teachers as they become familiar with this practice

how to use language objectives in distance learning environments.

Language Objectives: An Overview
Mrs. Shell has been teaching eighth grade math for twelve years. She has deep content area knowledge and wants to provide all of her students with authentic activities and tasks to relate the significance of the mathematical concepts that she teaches to their lives. Mrs. Shell has always felt successful at teaching her classes but this year has been different. Her sections include students with more diverse backgrounds than previous years, particularly more English learners. As Mrs. Shell was beginning to feel frustrated with her inability to reach all her students because of their needs, she learned about one way to make her content more comprehensible to all her students - creating and posting objectives that tell the students not just what content concepts they will learn in each lesson, but also the academic language they will need to learn and use to meet the state's math standards. With this knowledge, Mrs. Shell is now confident that she not only knows what to teach, but also how to teach it so that all her students can be successful.

Generally speaking, academic English is the language of schooling and the language that helps students acquire and use the content area knowledge taught in schools (Anstrom, DiCerbo, Butler, Katz, Millet, & Rivera, 2010).

Teaching content to ELs: The challenge

In my work supporting general education and ESL/bilingual teachers who provide sheltered instruction for English learners (ELs), I have met many teachers like Mrs. Shell. While these teachers want to provide effective instruction for their ELs, often they don't see themselves as language teachers and so they aren't sure where to begin with their students.

These teachers aren't alone, however, and they are facing a challenge shared by teachers across the country. We know that for school-age students, academic language is crucial for school success (Francis, Rivera, Lesaux, Kieffer, & Rivera, 2006). In addition, research allows us to state with a fair degree of confidence that English learners best acquire English when language forms are explicitly taught and when they have many opportunities to use the language in meaningful contexts (Goldenberg, 2008).

Yet while the explicit instructional support that ESL and bilingual teachers provide is essential to English learners' academic language development, English learners receive a majority of their instruction from general education and content area teachers who may not have experience teaching academic language development.

The question becomes then: What do general education classroom teachers need to do in order to support the academic English development of language learners in both face-to-face and virtual environments, especially when English learners are one of many types of students they serve?

Teaching content to ELs: The solution

One principle that teachers of English learners can begin to apply immediately is creating and posting language objectives for their lessons (whether in the classroom or online in a virtual space. Many teachers are familiar with using content objectives to identify what students will learn and be able to do in the lesson. However, they are less likely to include language objectives that support the linguistic development of their students.

Implementing language objectives can be a powerful first step in ensuring that English learners have equal access to the curriculum even though they may not be fully proficient in the language. This is because the second language acquisition process requires opportunities for the language learner to be exposed to, practice with, and then be assessed on their language skills (Echevarria, Short, & Vogt, 2008).

To this end, language objectives:

articulate for learners the academic language functions and skills that they need to master to fully participate in the lesson and meet the grade-level content standards (Echevarria, Short, & Vogt, 2008).

are beneficial not only for language learners but for all students in a class, as everyone can benefit from the clarity that comes with a teacher outlining the requisite academic language to be learned and mastered in each lesson.

Now let's take a closer look at some examples and how to write language objectives.

Back to top

Writing Language Objectives

Interview with Dr. Jennifer Himmel

Learn more about language objectives in this podcast interview with Dr. Himmel from Teaching Multilingual Learners, produced by Tan Huynh.

What is a language objective?

Language objectives are lesson objectives that specifically outline the type of language that students will need to learn and use in order to accomplish the goals of the lesson. Quality language objectives complement the content knowledge and skills identified in content area standards and address the aspects of academic language that will be developed or reinforced during the teaching of grade-level content concepts (Echevarria & Short, 2010).

These objectives involve the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing), but they can also include:

Below are examples of language objectives for different content areas and grade levels. They come from the Common Core State Standards for Math and English Language Arts (2012) and state standards in New York and California.
Sources:
How do I create effective language objectives?

Dr. Cindy Lundgren discusses the process of writing language objectives in this excerpt from her Meet the Expert interview.

Language objectives are directly correlated to content objectives. Once a teacher determines the lesson topic from the appropriate content standards, the teacher will want to begin thinking about the academic language necessary for English learners to complete the tasks that support the content objectives. This identification of the academic language embedded in the lesson's content will become the basis for the lesson's language objectives.

You can use the following guidelines to start thinking about appropriate language objectives for the lesson:

1. Decide what key vocabulary, concept words, and other academic words students will need to know in order to talk, read, and write about the topic of the lesson. Those words might be taught as a language objective. They should include technical terms, such as ecosystem, and terms like distribution that have different meanings across content areas. Other terms to highlight are those that language learners may know in one context, such as family (as in parents, siblings, etc.), but that have a different use in science (e.g., family of elements in the periodic table).

2. Consider the language functions related to the topic of the lesson (e.g, will the students describe, explain, compare, or chart information). See your state English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards for examples of these functions for English language arts, math, science, and social studies for all English proficiency levels and grade-level clusters.

3. Think about the language skills necessary for students to accomplish the lesson's activities. Will the students be reading a textbook passage to identify the stages of mitosis? Are they able to read a text passage to find specific information? Will they be reporting what they observe during a scientific demonstration to a peer? Do they know how to report observations orally? Acquiring the skills needed to carry out these tasks might be the focus of a language objective.

4. Identify grammar or language structures common to the content area. For example, many science textbooks use the passive voice to describe processes. Additionally, students may have to use comparative language to analyze two related concepts. Writing with the passive voice or using comparative phrases might be a language objective.

5. Consider the tasks that the students will complete and the language that will be embedded in those assignments. If students are working on a scientific investigation together, will they need to explain the steps of the procedure to one another? The language objective might focus on how to explain procedures aloud.

6. Explore language learning strategies that lend themselves to the topic of the lesson. For example, if students are starting a new chapter in the textbook, the strategy of previewing the text might be an appropriate language objective.

(Adapted from Short, Himmel, Gutierrez, & Hudec, 2012. Used with permission.)

Aligning Language Objectives and Standards

English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards

Developing appropriate language objectives for lessons involves becoming familiar with a state's content area and ELP standards. Whereas the content standards will provide the topic of the lesson and what exactly the students should be doing with that topic (e.g., solving problems, creating models, ranking ideas), the English language proficiency or development standards help to identify language skills and functions that students should be working on to achieve academic language fluency. These ELP standards can help to identify:

English Language Arts (ELA) standards

Other resources in addition to the ELP standards are a state's English Language Arts standards or the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History, Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (CCSS). The English Language Arts and Literacy CCSS might be especially useful to teachers of English learners due to its attention to literacy across the content areas.

Additional resources to consult, especially if a state is a member of the WIDA consortium, are the Model Proficiency Indicators (MPIs) outlined in their ELP standards. The MPIs outline what an English learner at a specific level of English language proficiency can do in a language domain (e.g., listening) by addressing the language functions embedded in an example topic for that content area with appropriate scaffolds or support (Gottlieb, Cranley, & Cammileri, 2007). Classroom texts and other materials (e.g., science investigations, primary source documents) are other good sources to consult when preparing a lesson.

Getting Started

How can I get started?

Careful lesson planning

In creating measureable and student-friendly language objectives that support the content objectives, it is important that learner tasks in the lesson are aligned with the objectives. It is not enough to have well-written objectives that promote language acquisition if the lesson is lacking in tasks that support the objectives. If the language objective for a middle school social studies lesson is for the students to orally retell the key characteristics in a historical event using sequential language, it is important that the teacher previews sequential language with the students, such as providing sentence stems or frames, and builds into the lesson some structured pair work so the students have an opportunity to retell the event to a peer. Therefore, careful lesson planning is another essential step in preparing effective language objectives.

Collaboration

It is also useful for content area and ESL/bilingual teachers to plan lessons together, as we saw with the 7th grade science lesson scenario involving Mr. Zhang and Mr. Lewis. In this co-planning scenario, each teacher used his expertise to better integrate content and language instruction for the language learners. This type of collaboration can help a teacher like Mr. Zhang learn more about the second language acquisition process of his students and can help a teacher like Mr. Lewis become more familiar with the grade-level content expectations that his English learners encounter in content area classes.

How do I know which language objectives are best for my students?

The language objective that the teacher selects will depend on what the English learners in the class need most at that point in the year and what language is most important to understanding the content concepts. If the students have already spent a good deal of time working with new vocabulary, then the teacher might consider having students use that vocabulary to develop their writing skill by writing a summary of the process they followed.

Conversely, the teacher might want to help students become more proficient with a particular type of graphic organizer in order to develop more strategic language learning. As all teachers know, teaching is a dynamic and complex process that requires a multitude of decisions to be made. However, the advance planning required in creating language objectives allows teachers to better anticipate the academic English needs of all students thus increasing the comprehensibility of the lessons.

It is important for teachers to realize that even though their lesson may include all four language skills (it is good if they do, since the language skills reinforce one another), they do not need to post a language objective for every language-related item addressed in the lesson. Teachers address many instructional needs in a 50- or 60-minute class period. Rather than highlighting all language uses in a particular lesson, it is important for the teacher to think about what is non-negotiable in that lesson.

In other words, the teacher should keep the perspective of the English learner in mind and ask, "Of all of the skills and functions addressed in my lesson, which is most important for helping students meet the grade-level standard and develop their language proficiency?" These objectives then must be measureable (i.e., can you see or assess the student's mastery of that objective?) and written in language that accounts for the linguistic and cognitive development of the students.

How can I make language objectives "student-friendly"?

Both of the above objectives are measurable, but both also take into account appropriate developmental stages of the students. Teachers of young students (e.g., PK or K) may even want to consider further adapting the objectives. For example, we have seen kindergarten teachers use symbols such as a pencil to symbolize "write" and a mouth to symbolize "talk" when they post their objectives for the children to see. We have also seen teachers of young learners rely on pictures to show the key terms they want the students to use or to convey the topic of the lesson (e.g., a picture of a ruler and of hands to discuss standard and non-standard measurement).

One way that teachers can ensure that their language objectives are measureable and student-friendly is by using appropriate verbs. Because language objectives should provide students with practice in the four language skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking, verbs related to those skills might include, but are not limited to, the following:

List

Retell

Summarize in writing

Record

Read

It is also important to not equate low language proficiency with limited cognitive ability. Therefore, teachers will want to make sure that the language objectives they create also reflect tasks that fall on the higher end of Bloom's Taxonomy and use verbs (e.g., orally justify) accordingly.

As noted above in the guidelines to creating language objectives, language functions are also a potential source for language objectives. Verbs related to language functions might include:

When should I share language objectives with students?

To help students take ownership of their learning and provide explicit direction to students, especially the English learners who are processing content in a new language, it is important that objectives be stated at the beginning of the lesson and reviewed with the students at the end of the lesson to allow them to assess if they have met the objectives (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2008).

How this happens may differ according to the grade level and content area of the class. Some teachers like to have the students choral read the objectives, while teachers of older students sometimes have them record the language objectives in their journal in addition to asking an individual student to read them aloud. Some teachers, such as those who teach science, like to reveal the objectives later in the lesson, perhaps after the warm up or exploratory activity, so that they can maintain an inquiry-based approach (Echevarria & Colburn, 2006).

Should I differentiate language objectives based on my students' language proficiency?

Although all teachers have students of varying language proficiency and skill levels in their classes, it is not necessary to differentiate language objectives by creating and posting multiple language objectives that reflect these proficiency levels. Rather, teachers should have one language objective that is appropriate for all students to meet. To provide the appropriate differentiation, the teacher would provide different scaffolds (e.g., adapted text, visuals, sentence frames) for students to use in order to reach the objectives.

For example, an appropriate language objective for an upper elementary language arts class might be for the students to be able to orally list text features found in a non-fiction book. For lower proficiency language learners, the teacher may give them a word bank from which to choose the text features; therefore, the students are meeting the same objective but with the appropriate amount of linguistic support from the teacher.

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Using language objectives in a distance learning environment

While teachers like Ms. Shell understand that the characteristics of good teaching for English learners does not change in a virtual environment, they do understand that instruction will necessarily need to look different in order to account for the challenges that distance learning presents for many learners.

Accordingly, teachers will need to think through how to:

Presenting language objectives

Many different ways exist for teachers to present language objectives in remote learning. For example, teachers might:

begin every virtual class by orally reading and presenting the content and language objectives in their Google slides and then asking students to briefly summarize in the chat box the activities they will be doing in that lesson to meet those objectives.

post the objectives at the top of a shared digital document that serves as a capture sheet for the lesson. A teacher might then ask learners to self-assess their progress towards meeting those objectives at the end of the document.

use live or recorded videos, especially when working with English learners with lower English proficiency. These videos can include props, for example ears to signify a listening objective.

use realia, such as rocks, if one of the lesson's language aims is for students to orally describe different types of sedimentary rocks.

Monitoring student understanding and engagement

Teachers in distance learning environments must also carefully consider how they will assess learner understanding and engagement throughout the lesson. Given the challenges virtual learning platforms present towards capturing data on learner comprehension (e.g., paralinguistic cues such as facial expressions, gestures, posture) teachers working in virtual environments know that it is more important than ever to ensure that students clearly understand the content and linguistic aims for each lesson.

Using comprehension checks and assessing progress

It is also essential that students understand how teachers will measure their progress towards meeting each objective. Towards this aim, teachers must build in multiple comprehension checks throughout the lesson that align to the lesson's objectives. Teachers can:

At the conclusion of a lesson, teachers can assess student progress towards meeting objectives via:

tickets out that are submitted digitally

the recording of a Flipgrid or use of another video platform where learners respond to a prompt that requires learners to use the academic language highlighted in the lesson's objectives.

Teachers can respond to the submitted tickets out or video with feedback that explicitly targets the students use of the language. When appropriate, teacher can provide learners with additional resources and/or support towards mastering that particular language skill or function. Teachers might also use that linguistic data to inform mini-lessons conducted to small groups of English learners during office hours or intervention time.

Next Steps

How can I learn more?

For more information on the SIOP Model, see Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model (Echevarria, Short, & Vogt, 2008).

Although language objectives can be implemented in any lesson design approach, they are especially congruent with sheltered instruction and the SIOP Model. Since language objectives ensure that teachers meet the unique linguistic needs of English learners, they are sometimes easier to implement in the context of instructional practices espoused by the SIOP Model.

Practices that focus on explicit academic language teaching include:

Below are other resources that can help you learn more about creating language objectives and about integrating academic language into content area classes.

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Final Thoughts

We realize that it takes teachers some time to become very comfortable with creating language objectives, but our experience has shown that the implementation of language objectives can bring immediate benefits to instruction. Some immediate benefits include teachers understanding more concretely that they are both a content area and language teacher - as one teacher said in a CAL SIOP Model workshop, "I now see myself as a math teacher AND a language teacher".

We have also observed that when teachers consciously plan to meet the academic English needs of their learners, they end up with better planned learner tasks, and students begin to have more ownership of their content area and language learning. When it comes to building proficiency in academic English, as many teachers in our workshops remind us, "If you want to see it, you have to teach it." Therefore, if teachers want to see language development, language objectives are a great first step in helping teachers explicitly teach it.

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Recommended Resources

Further reading

Short, D., Himmel, J., Gutierrez, S., & Hudec, J. (2012). Using the SIOP Model: Professional development for sheltered instruction. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M.E., & Short, D. (2010). The SIOP Model for teaching mathematics to English learners. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Echevarria, J., & Short, D. (2011). The SIOP Model: A professional development framework for a comprehensive school-wide intervention. Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) Brief. http://www.cal.org/create/resources/pubs/professional-development-framework.html

Himmel, J., Short, D., Richards, C., & Echevarria, J. (2009). Using the SIOP Model to improve middle school science instruction. Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) Brief. http://www.cal.org/create/resources/pubs/siopscience.html

Short, D., Vogt, M., & Echevarria, J. (2010a). The SIOP Model for teaching history-social studies to English learners. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Short, D., Vogt, M., & Echevarria, J. (2010b). The SIOP Model for teaching science to English learners. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Vogt, M.E., Echevarria, J., & Short, D. (2010). The SIOP Model for teaching English language arts to English learners. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Jennifer Himmel is the Project Director for the National Center for English Language Acquisition at the Manhattan Strategy Group. She previously served as the SIOP Manager at the Center for Applied Linguistics, a non-profit organization for language education research, policy, and practice in Washington, DC. She has served as a curriculum developer and research associate for the U.S. Department of Education funded project, Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) that is investigating academic achievement of ELLs in grades 4th-8th, and as a language testing specialist for the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs® language proficiency test. She currently manages the SIOP Model professional development service line and provides technical assistance and professional development in sheltered instruction to districts and schools.

Video Clips: Language Objectives

How to Write Language Objectives: Tips for ELL Educators

In this video from Syracuse, NY, Jesus Ortiz, a bilingual teacher, learns how to write a language objective from Areli Schermerhorn, a peer evaluator with expertise in ELL and bilingual education.

Dr. Cynthia Lundgren explains language objectives

In this excerpt from her Meet the Expert interview, Dr. Cynthia Lundgren explains the value of writing language objectives when teaching English learners.

Anstrom, K., DiCerbo, P., Butler, F., Katz, A., Millet, J., & Rivera, C. (2010). A review of the literature on academic English: Implications for K-12 English language learners. Arlington, VA: The George Washington University Center for Equity and Excellence. Education.www.ceee.gwu.edu.

Echevarria, J., & Colburn, A. (2006). Designing lessons: Inquiry approach to science using the SIOP Model. In A. Lathman & D. Crowther (Eds.), Science for English language learners (pp.95-108). Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association Press.

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. (2008). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP Model. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Echevarria, J., & Short, D. ( 2010). Programs and practices for effective sheltered content instruction. In California Department of Education (Ed), Improving education for English learners: Research-based approaches. Sacramento, CA: CDE Press.

Francis, D., Rivera, M., Lesaux, N., Kieffer, M., & Rivera, H. (2006). Practical guidelines for the education of English language learners: Research-based recommendations for instruction and academic interventions. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction. www.centeroninstruction.org/files/ELL1-Interventions.pdf

Goldenberg, C. (2008). Teaching English language learners: What the research does-and does not-say. American Educator, Summer 2008, pp. 13-44.

Gottlieb, M., Cranley, E., & Cammilleri, A. (2007). Understanding the WIDA English Language Proficiency Standards: A resource guide. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, on behalf of the WIDA Consortium.

Short, D., Himmel, J., Gutierrez, S., & Hudec, J. (2012). Using the SIOP Model: Professional development for sheltered instruction. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (2007). WIDA English Language Proficiency Standards. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, on behalf of the WIDA Consortium http://www.wida.us/standards/elp.asp

You are welcome to print copies or republish materials for non-commercial use as long as credit is given to Colorín Colorado and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact [email protected] .

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Language Objectives: The Key to Effective Content Area Instruction for English Learners

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This article provides an overview of how to use language objectives in content-area instruction for English learners and offers classroom-based examples from different grade and subject levels.

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This article compares bilingual and ESL and the benefits of both as well as different pull out options.

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The ESL vs. bilingual education debate has existed since the 1800s when the U.S. began to experience a great influx of immigrants from around the world. Questions arose as to which was more beneficial, more economical, better for the immigrants' assimilation and better for the native English-speaking students.

ESL vs. Bilingual Education

Which one works faster?

For which do we have already capable teachers?

For which do we have more trainable teachers?

The debate has continued in fits and starts to this day, but what it boils down to is that neither is necessarily better. They're just different.

ESL Goals and Process

The goal of ESL education is to teach English to students whose native language is not English. An ESL classroom could comprise students of any number of language backgrounds, but they are all there to learn English. As such, the teacher is only required to speak English and does not need to know the native languages of all the students. In a public school setting, ESL instruction is provided in a few different ways.

Pull-Out ESL

In an ESL pull-out program, ESL students leave their regular classroom for a short period each day or week to receive ESL teaching or tutoring. Sometimes, they are pulled out individually and sometimes in small groups.

The ESL teacher may have his own curriculum, or he may tutor the students in their regular classroom subject matter, helping them to understand the English involved and/or to devise strategies to better learn and keep up with their work.

Pull-out programs are mostly used in school districts where ESL teachers are spread thin across several schools each, where the ESL population is not very large, or where classroom space is limited.

ESL Class Period

In middle and high school settings where students move from classroom to classroom for each course, ESL students may have their ESL class in place of an elective, or it may serve as their language arts course. Either way, they don't miss out on anything that happens in another course, as in pull-out programs, and they receive course credit upon successful completion each year (or semester).

Sheltered English

Sheltered English, also known as content-based English instruction, is a special type of program not entirely unlike bilingual education, where the teacher(s) of each subject or grade level teach the required curriculum of that grade level but with modifications made to accommodate ESL students.

All the students are classified as ESL

The teacher gives the lessons in English, teaching Math, Science, Social Studies, Civics, English, History, etc.

Main goal is to teach the content with a secondary goal of teaching English.

Teachers in such programs will modify the regular curriculum only by simplifying the language with which they present it. They may also make use of visual aids, gestures, hands-on activities, group work, games, and other teaching tools not used in regular classrooms to get their students to a place of understanding.

If a qualified teacher is available and the number of ESL students per grade level or course is sufficient to fill one class, then sheltered English is the best of both worlds. The students are keeping up with grade-level curriculum while learning English as opposed to being removed from one in order to work on the other.

Unfortunately, teachers qualified, patient and willing to teach both ESL and a subject are hard to come by, so this is not really a viable option for most schools.

Bilingual Education

The biggest differences between ESL vs. bilingual education are:

In a bilingual program, the non-native English speakers all have the same language background, and the teacher speaks both languages as a means of content instruction.

In the ESL classroom, the students come from various language backgrounds, and the teacher only speaks English.

There are two types of bilingual education, and both have a main goal of teaching English to non-native speakers while also teaching the necessary grade-level or course curriculum.

One-Way Developmental Bilingual Education

In a one-way bilingual program:

The students are placed into classes based on their native languages.

The teacher teaches both in that language and in English, slowly phasing out the students' native language and eventually teaching only in English.

The idea is that the students will be comfortable in the learning environment throughout the process, but they will soon enough be ready to join the language majority in regular classes.

Strongly resemble content-based classes

The teacher speaks two languages, whereas content-based ESL teachers only speak English.

One-way bilingual classes:

Two-Way Bilingual Education

In a two-way bilingual class:

The student population is 50% native English-speaking and 50% minority language-speaking. A Spanish/English bilingual program, then, would be half English-speaking and half Spanish-speaking.

The teacher would be bilingual and would teach the entire course half in English and half in Spanish.

Transition - The Spanish speakers are learning English so that they may thrive in an English-speaking educational environment.

Development - The English speakers are developing understanding and fluency in a second language.

Maintenance - The Spanish speakers are maintaining their native language and culture, precious things that are sometimes lost when young children speak English more on a daily basis than their native language, causing a disconnect between them, their families and their heritage.

In addition to content instruction, the purpose of such a class is threefold:

ESL vs. Bilingual Education

Discerning which type of program is best suited to a given student population is not difficult. A simple inventory of students' languages, available teaching staff and space will easily determine if an ESL or a bilingual program is necessary, and when done well, both are excellent ways to learn.

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The ESL vs. bilingual education debate has existed since the 1800s when the U.S. began to experience a great influx of immigrants from around the world. Questions arose as to which was more beneficial, more economical, better for the immigrants' assimilation and better for the native English-speaking students. ESL vs.

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This article does a good job of pointing out the differences between students who need ESL intervention and students who are needing bilingual education intervention. This also points out the different services that each gives students.

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ESL and Bilingual Education: Understanding the Differences - Texas Teachers

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It seems that many people use English as a Second Language (ESL) and Bilingual Education are one in the same, but they most assuredly are not. To help