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Teachers will be able to target areas of need in the language development of ELLs by implementing activities that will help students learn social and academic English in the four domains (Phonological awareness, n.d.)

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A system of distinct relationships between speech sounds that make up the foundation of language.

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The rules of word structure; how morphemes are used to create meaning.

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ELLs benefit from phonological awareness because it helps students build a foundation for oral language. These skills then facilitate the learning of written language. The ability to understand speech sounds represented by letters and letter combinations readers to move from spoken to written words using processes like blends, segmentation, addition and deletion.

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Morphology helps ELLs with a variety of literacy skills including vocabulary comprehension, read aloud, spelling and reading comprehension. Students need to be able to identify morphemes or the smallest units of meaning, prefixes, suffixes, and their meaning, to get the full benefits from proficient morphemic analysis (What is morphemic analysis, 2023).

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While students are in line the teacher will say a sentence. Depending on how many words are in the sentence the teacher will tap the number of students on the shoulder, then the teacher will ask how many words there were (Heinricher, 2020). Repeat!

This can be differentiated for lower proficiency students by exposing students to those sentences prior to playing the game, or using common phrases used in class. Higher proficiency students can suggest a sentence

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Teacher will start with three rhyming words and have students join in the game, these words could be used to make a story or simply continue finding rhyming words for fun. To make it easier teacher could direct students to the word wall that has rhyming words for assistance. For a challenge students can come up with words within one topic.

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Classroom Activity #3: My Turn/Your Turn Syllable Count

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Classroom Activity #3: My Turn/Your Turn Syllable Count

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Model clapping, stomping or tapping the syllables for objects in class, students will imitate. Then teacher will ask how many syllables were in the word. For students with lower proficiency teacher can start with one and two syllable words to gain confidence before moving to more. Higher proficiency students can identify soft vs hard syllables (Heinricher, 2020).

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Classroom Activity #4: Repeat the beginning sound

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Classroom Activity #4: Repeat the beginning sound

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Teacher will start with /c/-/c/- cat and continue with a few more words before prompting students to keep going with other words while repeating the first sound (Heinricher, 2020).

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At-Home Activity: Super Why's Comic Book Adventures

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At-Home Activity: Super Why's Comic Book Adventures

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To practice identifying rhyming words parents will watch the clip and then use the Watch with a Purpose tool to decorate their own watches to remind themselves that they are looking for rhyming words. Practicing rhyming helps students develop better sense of vocabulary, better reading comprehension and listening skills. It can also help with social and emotional growth, since rhymes can foster humor and creativity in students.

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Phonological Awareness | Super Why’s Comic Book Adventures | PBS LearningMedia

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Power Paige and Wonder Red are about to play baseball when The Eraser takes their hats and bat. Now they need to get their equipment back by spelling words that end in “at.”

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Classroom Activity #1: Morpheme Match-up

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Classroom Activity #1: Morpheme Match-up

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Teacher will give a morpheme and give a limited amount of time to make as many words as possible with that morpheme. Finally, students will define the words gathered. Students can be given a context to make with synonyms that would make the desired words easier to come up with. For a challenge students will identify the prefixes and suffixes with meaning.

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Teach a new morpheme, student will use it in a sentence. Students can draw words using the morpheme in their journal, then work with a partner to come up with the most, this would be a competition with other pairs in class. Working in pairs will help the lower proficiency students, but to make it more challenging students can make a branch from a word of the web to find a morpheme with similar meaning.

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Classroom Activity #3: Build Words with Legos

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Classroom Activity #3: Build Words with Legos

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Provide students with labeled Lego pieces that have prefixes, suffixes and roots written on them, so they can create words. Beginners get only prefixes in the first round and only suffixes in the second round so they are not confused. Advanced students can find a word that has both a suffix and a prefix.

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Classroom Activity #4: Criss Cross Diagrams

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Classroom Activity #4: Criss Cross Diagrams

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Use a paper tray that is divided into four that divided the morpheme from the prefix or suffix with criss-cross arrows that define each part. This can be done on an erase board so students can practice with multiple words.

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This site has various printable activities to do at home like word chains or word construction. Participation in these activities can improve vocabulary and comprehension skills as students master word manipulation and easier exchanges of suffixes or prefixes to master past or present tense. Students are able to infer the meaning of new and challenging words by using these skills.

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| | Filed Under: Advanced Word Study, Reading
Terms to Know:
Morphology instruction can greatly improve students' vocabulary and comprehension skills. This post shares several engaging and effective morphology activities that teachers can use to help students understand and use morphemes (prefixes, suffixes, bases, and roots). These activities include lots of free activities (including a huge email exclusive freebie!) and also ready-to-go resources that you can purchase. By the end of this post, you will have a range of useful morphology activities to use in your classroom.
🖱️To read more about teaching morphology and morphology instruction in grades 4-5, click here.

Morphemes - the smallest units of meaning in language. Morphemes can be prefixes, suffixes, bases, or roots.

Morphology - the study of morphemes

Word Building/Construction

Have students use their understanding of specific morphemes (prefixes, suffixes, or roots) to generate words containing the morpheme.

You can have students (working independently or in pairs) generate a list of words that contain a particular morpheme. This can even be turned into a game where points are rewarded for each correct word or unique word generated.

This word building activity can easily be made more engaging and hands-on by using a spinner with affixes or a cube for students to roll.

🖱️The printables for the spinner and cube morphology activities can be downloaded for free by clicking here and signing up for the "Email Exclusive FREE Morphology Activities."

Morphology Word Chains
🖱️Click here to read more about this activity and grab free resources to get started with morphology word chains in your classroom.
Morphology word chains are an engaging morphology activity designed to help students develop a deeper understanding of word formation and structure by guiding them through steps to create a series of words. Beginning with a base word, students follow a series of steps to add, remove, or modify affixes (prefixes and suffixes) or the base word itself. As a result, a chain of interconnected words is formed, with each word linked or connected to the ones before and after.

Morphology Word of the Day
🖱️Click here to read more about this activity and grab FREE Morphology Word of the Day templates.
Having a morphology word routine is another great morphology activity. Present a multimorphemic word (a word with multiple morphemes - such as a prefix, a suffix, or both) to students to analyze. Have the students deconstruct the word into its morphemes and identify the meaning of each. Then they can use those meanings to uncover the meaning of the word. Giving a sentence context will also help students derive an accurate meaning.

Unscramble Morphemes Activity

Present morphemes that are out of order but can be combined to form words. Read and discuss the meaning of each morpheme. Then have students work independently or with others to unscramble the morphemes and determine the word.
🖱️Click here to see these Unscramble the Morphemes Task Cards on TpT.
Pro Tip: Present a sentence with a blank for the unscrambled word so students can use context to check their work.

Morphology Word Sorts
Here are some example sort ideas that focus on the morphology of words:
Word sorts are another effective and engaging activity. Give students a list of words and have them sort the words into categories based on a morphological aspect of the word. The sorts can be closed (given the categories by the teacher) or open (students generate the category).

Sort words with a common affix. Identify the affix.

Sort bases by which prefix could be added to it.

Sort words by what morphemes they include: prefixes, suffixes, or both.

Sort words by part of speech (focusing on how the suffix changed the part of speech)

Sort words by spelling change to the base when a suffix was added.

Sort words by which assimilation or chameleon prefix would complete them. (in-, im-, ir, and il-)

Sort words with a common root. Identify the root.

🖱️Click here to see Morphology Sorts for Grades 4-5 that are ready-to-go and include 60 sorts.
You can write the words on index cards for students to sort or purchase ready-made sorts.

Morphology Search - Environmental Print

Multimorphemic words (words with affixes or even compound words) are all over the place. Take advantage of this with a morphology search activity!

Collect packaging (cereal boxes, snacks, etc) or magazines to bring in. Have students read the text and search for multimorphemic words. They can list the words and code the morphemes (underline the affixes and box the root) or write word sums that break up the words into their separate morphemes.
🖱️T he printables for this activity can be downloaded for free by clicking here and signing up for the "Email Exclusive FREE Morphology Activities."
As an extension activity, you could even have the students create their own packaging descriptions using multimorphemic words.

Collaborative Activities to Review Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots

Anytime we can add in collaborative activities is a win. Here are a couple of ideas for collaborative morphology activities:
🖱️The "Find Someone Who" morphology review activities can be downloaded for free by clicking here and signing up for my email list. There are five handouts included. Three that focus on affixes and two that focus on roots. Answer keys are included.
Around the Room Activity - Place morphology tasks or questions around the room. Have students go around the room to complete the task. They can work with partners or small groups.

Find Someone Who Activities: Students will work with other students in their class to find the answers to morphology review tasks.

Morphology Writing Activities
🖱️The free morphology writing sentence handouts can be downloaded for free by clicking here and signing up for the "Email Exclusive FREE Morphology Activities." 🖱️For more morphology writing activities, click here or on the image shown to see Morphology Writing Prompts from my TpT store.
Not only do we want our students identifying and reading words with specific morphemes, but we also want them to write words that use those morphemes in the context of sentences and stories. Morphology writing can be added to any morphology activity or lesson. Here are some examples of how you can add this into any morphology activities:

After students build words using specific morphemes, they can then choose some to write in sentences.

After sorting a set of words based on morphological word parts, they can choose one or two to write in sentences.

After completing word matrixes (more about these in the next section), have students use each word in a sentence verbally or in writing.

Morphology Word Matrixes
🖱️Click here to read more about morphology word matrixes and grab FREE posters to introduce and teach them to your students.
Morphology word matrixes are a great way to have students build words with a common base or root. A morphology word matrix displays morphemes in an organized visual. Students use the word matrix to create known words and new words that use a common base or root and the affixes shown on the matrix.

This activity can be used to reinforce knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, and roots as well as to practice spelling conventions when adding suffixes to words.

Morphology Work Mat Activity

This free morphology word work mat is an activity that incorporates reviewing morphemes, writing words with morphemes, and using those words in sentences.
🖱️This free word work mat can be downloaded for free by clicking here and signing up for the "Email Exclusive FREE Morphology Activities."
For this morphology activity, students will choose a morpheme card and place it or write it in the middle of the mat. Students will then create four tasks with that morpheme:

1. Determine what type of morpheme it is (prefix, suffix, or root).

2. Write the meaning of the morpheme.

3. Use the morpheme in a word.

4. Use the word with the specific morpheme in a sentence.

🖱️To read more about morphology word walls and the activities you can do them with + grab free prefix, suffix, roots, and bases posters, click here!
Morphology Word Wall + Activities

A morphology wall is a collection of prefixes, suffixes, bases, and roots displayed and referenced to help students learn about the power of morphology and the structure of words (and how they relate). A morphology wall can be used as references by students but it also a powerful instructional tool. You can use the morphology wall on a regular basis to review the meaning of morphemes and have students create and generate words.

Want MORE Morphology Activities?

Morphology instruction is so powerful for building vocabulary and comprehension. Having activities and resources on-hand to implement into your instruction is key. Click here on the image shown to see a bundle of my favorite morphology activities.

The bundle includes the following ready-to-go morphology activities:

Morphology Word Chains

Morphology Word of the Day Practice

Morphology Word Matrix Activities

Morphology Word Sorts

Unscramble the Morpheme Task Cards

Morphology Quick Reads: Prefix, Suffix, and Roots

Morphology Writing Prompts: Prefixes and Suffixes

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Morphology Activities for Grades 4-5 (Including Free Activities)

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Morphology instruction is a powerful strategy for improving vocabulary and comprehension. This post shares several morphology activities.

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The arrangement of words and morphemes combined to create well-formed sentences in a language.

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Syntax is important for both oral and written communication because English has a verb-object rule, and if not used correctly it can be hard to understand what is being said. Syntax skills are also important for reading comprehension, in more challenging texts students will need to be familiar with sentence structure to understand complex texts.

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Classroom Activity #1: Sentence Scrambles

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Classroom Activity #1: Sentence Scrambles

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Start with simple sentences with few words and then increase as students achieve the correct sentence structure. If students are proficient, include challenging grammar rules for practice or exposure. This game supports beginners because it starts simple and can challenge the more proficient as complexity increases. This can also be an informal evaluation for students progress.

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Classroom Activity #2: Build a Sentence Card Game

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Classroom Activity #2: Build a Sentence Card Game

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Use a specific set of cards for sentence building. This is a group activity where players will pull cards to make grammatically correct sentences. teachers can support by supervising the activity for accuracy. This can be differentiated by giving students with lower proficiency less cards that will yield simple sentences, to avoid confusion. While advanced students can work to create complex sentences.

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Classroom Activity #3: Sentence Elaboration Activity

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Classroom Activity #3: Sentence Elaboration Activity

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Teacher will use the 6 "W" questions to guide students through the elaboration of a simple sentence to a sentence with more structure and detail. This helps beginners see the process of creating a complex sentence and encourages advanced students to reference the "W" questions to add more detail to their sentences.

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Classroom Activity #4: Eight Parts of Speech

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Classroom Activity #4: Eight Parts of Speech

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For a simple independent activity students can use a worksheet to practice the eight parts of speech. Using a more challenging text as a reference for the worksheet. This activity supports beginners for exposure to detailed structure, or recognizing what words are needed to ensure a sentence is well-formed. More proficient students can work to include these parts of speech in their writing to make it polished.

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At-Home Activity: Placing Apostrophes Game

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At-Home Activity: Placing Apostrophes Game

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In this game students will have an underwater adventure choosing which word best fits the simple sentence by considering the apostrophe placement of each word. This will teach students the rules of possessive nouns. This can support varied proficiency levels because the game becomes more challenging as students get the right answers, so no student will be challenged beyond what they already know. The game is explicit and easy to maneuver.

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Placing Apostrophes in Possessives | Game | Education.com

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Kids practice placing apostrophes in possessive nouns in this underwater game!

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The branch of linguistics and logic that study meaning in language.

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The study of how context contributes to meaning, to evaluate social interactions and the relationship between the interpreter and the interpreted.

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Semantics allows people to understand language and communication, both which are central to understanding culture and society. This is important for ELLs because it supports reading comprehension of more challenging texts, promotes critical thinking, and aids in the expansion of vocabulary.

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Pragmatics supports Ells because it teaches what when and how to say something. This will avoid miscommunication, facilitate communication across cultures, create positive relationships and academic success.

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Have students act out a key words or phrases from their favorite class movie, and the audience will guess what words are being represented. This is great for beginners because they a can participate even if their oral communication is not proficient. Advanced students (and beginners) get the real-life opportunity to interpret meaning based on body language (Semantics activities, n.d.).

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Storytelling is a great activity for children to practice with their peers, teachers can give some pieces their stories must include like setting, characters, mood, climax and more. This way students can give their peers a detailed story with creativity, this is something both beginners and advanced students can do, teachers can scaffold to help vocabulary support (Larrazabal, n.d.).

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Using this mnemonic device, students can easily retain meaning and new vocabulary using words that are key to the new word even if they are drastically different. This activity can use vocabulary of varied levels to support all proficiency levels and should be related to a topic of interest or be content-related.

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Classroom Activity #2: Drawing and Painting

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Classroom Activity #2: Drawing and Painting

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Including art activities can help students understand what other perceive from their completed artwork (theme). This social aspect can have peers ask each other questions about the art to think about what more details they can add. Beginners can have help describing their art and proficient students can focus on extensive detail.

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Meaningful activities do not need to be complex; with a rich expository text teacher can lead students in a meaningful conversation, to expand their vocabulary, and the concepts of the text that allow them to understand the new words. Beginners can follow along with the text and advanced students can lead the conversation.

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Board games are great for prompting communication naturally, where students are to interact with each other who have different approaches to games and teamwork. Beginners should be encouraged to use their competitive skills, and use the language they know to communicate, proficient students can be partners with beginners for support.

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Classroom Activity #4: Semantic Mapping 

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Classroom Activity #4: Semantic Mapping 

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Using student's creative skills, a semantic map can be a onetime artistic project or a class routine. Semantic maps help organize meaning of words and relationships of meaning. Students can use content to describe the word or use their prior knowledge. Beginners can develop three simple branches and advanced students four or five detailed branches.

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Sports can be a fantastic activity to motivate students and encourage social communication outside of the classroom, teachers can take a day to go outside and play. Offer two sports for students who are unfamiliar or uncomfortable one simple and another traditional like soccer. Students can practice cultural skills like teamwork, and rules to follow.

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Have parents scroll all the way down to Our Semantic Resources, there are many links for cards and visual to practice vocabulary and concepts related to semantics like shades of meaning, homophones, synonyms and more. With these activities students can add more organized meaning to new words and connect them to new content (Teaching semantics, 2023).

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This blog post explains why explicitly teaching semantics is important, and how you can teach semantics to increase vocabulary. We also highlight some handy tools to do just that!

What is semantics?

Semantics is the study of meaning in language. It is concerned with how words and phrases are used to convey meaning, and how the structure of sentences contributes to that meaning.
So first off, what am I practically talking about when I talk about teaching semantics?
Semantics can include:

Synonyms

Antonyms

Shades of Meaning and Connotations

Homophones

Homographs

Homonyms

How using context can help determine the meaning of a word

Why should you teach semantics?

Teaching semantics is a crucial part of language comprehension. As Gough & Tunmer (1986) explain in their simple view of reading, an individual's reading comprehension is the product of their decoding skill and language comprehension. The knowledge of semantics, therefore, contributes to reading comprehension.

Teaching semantics helps students develop their vocabulary by introducing them to new words and phrases and helping them understand their meanings. This is important for reading comprehension and writing skills, as it enables students to use a wider range of words and express themselves more accurately and effectively.

Understanding semantics helps individuals think critically about the language they encounter. They can analyse the words and phrases being used and consider how they are being used to convey meaning.

Let's get super practical for a moment.

A knowledge of semantics helps students in many practical ways:

1. Learning to read: When children learn to read, they need to understand the meanings of words in order to comprehend the texts they are reading.

2. Expressing themselves: As children develop their language skills, they will use semantics to express their thoughts and ideas accurately and clearly.

3. Understanding instructions: Children need to understand the meanings of words and phrases in order to follow instructions and complete tasks.

4. Participating in conversations: By understanding the meanings of words and phrases, children can more effectively participate in conversations and communicate with others.

5. Making sense of the world: Children use language to make sense of the world around them and to understand the relationships between objects and events. By understanding the meanings of words and phrases, children can better understand and interpret the world around them.

Not convinced? Let's check out what the experts have to say:

As the primary goals of reading and writing are determining and communicating meaning, it is important for students to understand the meanings of words and how words function in sentences (NICHD, 2000).

As the majority of words in English have multiple meanings or shades of meaning, it is necessary for the reader to be flexible in determining the author's intended meaning of a word within a sentence (Castles, Rastle, & Nation, 2018).

The most effective way to teach vocabulary is to show how new words relate to other words, especially ones that students already know. It is important to explicitly teach the relationships between words. (Literacy Teaching Toolkit, 2021)

Vocabulary knowledge is fundamental to reading comprehension; one cannot understand text without knowing what most of the words mean. A wealth of research has demonstrated the strength of the relationship between vocabulary and comprehension. (Nagy, 1988).

Not convinced? Read this blog post by The Education Hub "Effective Vocabulary Instruction".

Where semantics fits within Scarborough's Reading Rope

The Reading Rope (Scarborough (2001) shows the skills students need to become skilled readers. One of the key skills students need is an understanding of language structures. Semantics is an important part of Scarborough's Reading Rope because it helps us understand the meaning of words and sentences and make sense of the overall meaning of a text (reading comprehension).

For example, when we make inferences while reading, we use our knowledge of semantics to understand the meaning of words and sentences and to draw conclusions about the text. Similarly, when we try to understand the main idea of a text, we rely on our knowledge of semantics to interpret the meaning of the words and sentences and to identify the key points being made.

In addition, the Reading Rope acknowledges background knowledge as an essential contributor to skilled reading. Understanding the meaning of words and how they relate to each other builds students' background knowledge, which they can bring to new and more complex texts.

Where semantics fits within structured literacy

Semantics is one of the six evidence-based components of structured literacy.

Click here to read more.
Our Semantics Resources (and the WHY behind them)

Synonyms and Antonyms
Why teach synonyms and antonyms?
Teaching synonyms and antonyms helps improve both writing and reading. Understanding synonyms and antonyms can help students expand their vocabulary and become more proficient in using various words to express themselves. When reading, understanding synonyms and antonyms can help students better understand the meanings of words and phrases, improving their reading comprehension.
Click here to see our Synonyms and Antonyms resources.

Homophones, homographs and homonyms
Why teach homophones, homographs and homonyms?
Words can have the same spelling or pronunciation, but different meanings. This can make things tricky for readers.

Learning about homophones, homographs and homonyms can help students to:

Choose the appropriate word in the right context.

Spell words correctly.

Understand what they read, especially when they come to a word that has multiple meanings.

Increase their vocabulary.

Click here to see our Homophones, Homographs and Homonyms resources.

Shades of Meaning
Why teach shades of meaning?
Teaching shades of meaning can improve students' writing and reading. By learning about the different meanings and connotations of words, learners can express themselves more precisely and choose the most appropriate words to convey their intended message.

Understanding shades of meaning can help students improve their reading comprehension. By learning about the different shades of meaning that words can have, students can more easily understand or infer the meaning of words in a text and get a better understanding of the overall meaning of the text.
Click here to see our Shades of Meaning resources.

Using Context Clues
Why teach students how to use context clues?
Teaching students how to use context clues is an important skill because it helps them to better understand the meaning of new or unfamiliar words that they encounter while reading.

When students encounter an unfamiliar word, they can use the surrounding context to make inferences about its meaning. This can be especially helpful when the word is not defined in the text or when the student is not familiar with the word. This ultimately improves students' reading comprehension.
Click here to see our Context Clues resources.
Looking for a bigger bundle?

We have a range of discounted semantics and vocabulary bundles available.

Did You Say Freebie?

We have put together a free set of seven semantics posters. Click here to sign up for our freebie library and you can download them!

Top Teaching Tasks Membership

To ensure you have access to ALL of our resources, sign up for a Top Teaching Tasks Membership.

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Teaching Semantics to Increase Vocabulary - Top Teaching Tasks

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This blog post explains why explicitly teaching semantics is important, and how you can teach semantics to increase vocabulary. We also highlight some

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Brainstorm with your children how to solve problems in everyday life. Instead of telling children what to do, ask them what they think you should do as a parent, or what someone else should do, and offer differing perspectives. This supports all students.

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Children really do say the darndest things! But sometimes these things can be disruptive or embarrassing for parents. Children who have difficulty with pragmatic language skills can cause disruption without even realizing what they are doing.

What are pragmatic language skills? This refers to the use and understanding of language in social interactions, such as:
👄 Conversational turn-taking
👉 Staying on topic
🤫 Not interrupting others
👀 Using appropriate eye contact
🤷🏼‍♀️ Clarifying answers when the listener isn't following
🤣 Using humor appropriately
👋🏽 Using and understanding body language

What can parents do at home to teach pragmatic language skills? Here are 7 ideas for busy parents.

Have children brainstorm possible problems for their age group related to their day, such as problems that may arise during play dates, school, or with siblings.

Since children are experiencing this firsthand, they will have a lot of insight. This is a great opportunity to learn more about what children are facing each day and what worries them (or doesn't worry them at all).

2. Brainstorm Solutions

Using the problems that were previously brainstormed, have children brainstorm as many ways as possible to solve a problem before choosing the best alternative. Talk about the consequences of each solution from each person's perspective and whose responsibility it is to solve the problem.

Let the children throw out all their ideas and talk through each one. Some may be completely silly (ex. like offering $1 million to someone) or inappropriate. Let the creativity flow and take advantage of these teachable moments.

When children attempt to collaborate to resolve a conflict in a mutually satisfactory way, reinforce this behavior. Discuss what the problem was, the appropriate solution they came up with, and how that solution makes you proud or happy.

What are social stories? Social stories are short stories that explain what to expect, emotions, personal space, and problem-solving. Depending on the age of the children, they can be picture-based, word-based, or a combination.

Social stories address an array of problems that may arise such as an upcoming fire drill, how to solve conflicts in the classroom, what to do if there is a substitute, or other scenarios. Get the whole class involved by having them write social stories together. Have them take pictures (or draw pictures), write sentences to describe a scenario, and develop a solution.

For more information on social stories, check out: CarolGraySocialStories.Com

Every day, there are situations that arise that can lead to emotional breakdowns, classroom management issues, or are just overwhelming. Before these situations occur, give the children a heads up and talk through the steps.

Be sure to discuss steps from start to finish, even the ones that are routine. It's helpful to let children know what to expect first, second, and so on. Also, discuss things that may come up and what to do if things don't go as planned. For example, forgetting lunch or looking for a seat at the lunch table.

When possible, have children work in small groups for schoolwork or projects. This helps encourage interaction and language in a variety of activities. Before beginning group work, review rules and social etiquette for class

Most children use some form of social media, allowing them to communicate with others but also exposing them to risks. As much as possible, discuss etiquette for using social media with students, specifically talking to and about each other online. Incorporate social media posts into assignments and discuss what is appropriate and what is not.

[us_btn label="Problem-Solving Scenarios" link="url:https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Problem-Solving-Scenarios-BUNDLE-7680975|target:_blank" align="center"]

Problem-solving Flashcards

For a time-saving activity, check out this Powerpoint deck that contains problem-solving scenarios for everyday, COVID, and holiday scenarios. Each card prompts students to state the problem, impact on self or others, and generate solutions.

For ideas to teach pragmatic language skills in the classroom, check out my blog Pragmatic Language Skills in the Classroom

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Teaching Pragmatic Language Skills at Home - Global Speech Therapy

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Children who have difficulty with pragmatic language skills can be disruptive without realizing what they are doing.

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Collaboration & Co-Teaching on Behalf of ELLs

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These books offer a number of practical research-based strategies for ELL reading instruction at different ages and proficiency levels, including ideas for lesson plans and assessments.

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These books offer a number of practical research-based strategies for ELL reading instruction at different ages and proficiency levels, including ideas for lesson plans and assessments.

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Transcript

The Reading Rockets Professional Development Webcast Series is a production of WETA. Funding for this Colorín Colorado Webcast is provided by The American Federation of Teachers. The Reading Rockets Project is funded by The United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.

Studio

Delia Pompa: Hello, I'm Delia Pompa. Welcome to our Colorín Colorado Webcast. Today, we'll be talking about comprehension. What can educators do to help English language learners to grasp the full meaning of what they read? To help us get a grasp on this issue, we're pleased to have with us Cynthia Lundgren, a professor in second-language teaching and learning at Hamlin University. She works extensively with K-12 teachers on strategies they can use to make content more accessible to English language learners, or ELLs. Kristina Robertson is an ELL program specialist for Minneapolis public schools and a licensed K-12 ESL teacher who advises teachers and administrators on best practices. Thanks for joining us.

Cynthia Lundgren and Kristina Robertson: Thank you.

Delia: Cynthia, let's start with most basic question, what is reading comprehension, and why is it important?

Cynthia Lundgren: Reading comprehension is the ability to make meaning out of text. And it's the whole reason why we read. But it's important for kids, in order to do that successfully, they need to be able to make personal connections with the text. They need to understand a little bit about text structure. And they need to be able to understand why they're reading, the purpose for reading.

Delia: What are the skills that provide the foundation for reading comprehension?

Ms. Lundgren: The basic emergent literacy skills like decoding and fluency, vocabulary, things like that. But beyond that, it really gets back to what kind of strategies do they have to make personal connections? Because they don't have background on everything that we read. What strategies do they have to figure out new words? How do they make those personal connections? All those kinds of things.

Delia: All those things are important. Kristina, when it comes to English language learners, are some of these skills more important than others?

Kristina Robertson: I can't stress vocabulary enough. They may have the ability to read a piece, but if they don't understand the vocabulary, they're not going to comprehend the piece. So it's very important that teachers are very intentional in teaching vocabulary. And also to understand that students have background knowledge that is an asset that can be used. For example, if a teacher is talking about Civil War, maybe those students experienced something similar in their country and they might be able to understand those concepts better if they understand how it connects to the English text.

Delia: So what would you say is a particular consequence when teaching reading to ELLs?

Ms. Robertson: Again, I think that being intentional on the vocabulary instruction and comprehension strategies. A lot of what we do as good readers isn't really apparent to students, especially ELL students. They're so focused on getting the language and vocabulary. So if we can model for them what it looks like for good readers - good readers reread. If they didn't understand something, "Oh, that didn't make sense, I'm going back." Students who are struggling to read don't understand that. They think, "I have to read this whole thing, and I need to understand it." Or, "I didn't." So if teachers can model that and do a reading out loud and say, "This part here didn't make sense. I think I'll reread to see if I get it the second time." And showing students what we do, it helps them to be able to do it themselves.

Delia: An important point both of you made is about vocabulary teaching and the intentionality of it. Cynthia, could you talk a little bit more about that? How exactly would you do that? What should the teacher be preparing for in teaching vocabulary, specifically?

Ms. Lundgren: I think the first piece is to be very intentional about which vocabulary you want students to produce, either through writing or through being able to talk about the story. So the very first step is the teacher needs to go through and make some decisions about what are the most important words? Then, you go through a process of providing very explicit definitions for those kids. And I think we need to tell kids what words mean. If they've got first language and it's easy to transfer from one language to another, because the meaning is the same, use L-1. But stay away from the dictionary pieces. Multiple meaning words in English are very confusing, and we want kids to develop the understanding of the context in which that word appears. So being very explicit, talking to kids about what the word means. Getting them to interact with those words. And the environment in which it takes place.

Delia: Kristina, what are some strategies that you've used to teach vocabulary?

Ms. Robertson: I like to use index cards quite a bit. I like to let students interact with vocabulary in as many variety of ways as possible. So rather than having the vocabulary list, or even just on the board, I have students make index cards. And they do index cards that are meaningful to them. So we might say, "What is a word that's similar in your language?" Or, "What is something that is totally different? What is a picture of it?" Whatever they need to do to make sense. Those index cards become theirs. And then we play Go Fish. We do lots of different activities with the index cards. But they really have a sense of ownership of it, and making sense of it in their own way.

Delia: Let me ask you both, when English language learners are learning to read in English, do you find that being explicit with them about building the vocabulary helps them understand what they're doing? Or do you do this on the sly as a teacher?

Ms. Lundgren: I think it's probably where I spend most of my time is preparing kids for reading. And part of that is vocabulary and part of it is making connections to what the text will be about. But, yeah, we spend a great deal of time interacting with vocabulary concepts long before we get to the book. So we're manipulating some of those key words. We're making predictions or sentences, gist statements, they're kind of called, about what the story might be about based on this vocabulary that we're focusing on. So it's a way of integrating all kinds of comprehension skills, but again, focusing on vocabulary.

Delia: So you dig deeper into vocabulary?

Ms. Lundgren: Oh, absolutely! Absolutely!

Delia: Before continuing our discussion, we're going to look at an example of how one teacher is ensuring that her English language learners understand what they're reading. Let's visit Webster Elementary School.

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Comprehension: Helping ELLs Grasp the Full Picture

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The Reading Rockets Professional Development Webcast Series is a production of WETA. Funding for this Colorín Colorado Webcast is provided by The American Federation of Teachers. The Reading Rockets Project is funded by The United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. Delia Pompa: Hello, I'm Delia Pompa.

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Professional development built around learning stations can give teachers an idea of what school is like for these students.

Dumitru Ochievschi / iStock

Schoolwide professional development requires careful planning to ensure that participants are both engaged and inspired. Activities need to motivate educators to apply what they've learned to support their students.

In the following model, educators explore themed stations to gain background information about English language learners (ELLs), experience what it might feel like to be an ELL, and explore methodologies to support this population.

Setting up the stations

Set up each station in a separate space or room so that participants can circulate through the stations of their choice at their own pace. Each station has discussion questions and supplemental materials, including electronic devices with access to Google Translate, paper, and writing implements. Participants can use a note catcher to document what they've learned and brainstorm action plans for adapting their experience in each station to their own work.

For reference, it's helpful for participants to have a list of home languages that are represented in the school community. The atmosphere of each station can have calming background sounds, visuals of nature projected on a screen, and props that support the activity. This is similar to classroom activities that support ELLs who are likely to experience stress and anxiety due to cultural, linguistic, and social barriers.

The following are three categories of stations, with multiple stations in each category and instructions for each station. You can adapt the hyperlinked resources to match the ELL population of your school district.

Stations that provide background about ELLs

Providing historical context and way of life in the home country: Watch a portion of a documentary about a country or region of the world that's represented among your ELL population. Here are samples about the history of Mexico, Venezuela, and Thailand, as well as ways of life in Guatemala, Mexico, and Latin America.

Recognizing cultural nuances: Here are an article that highlights simple ways of being mindful of cultural differences and a guide to cultural differences. Becoming familiar with the cultural nuances of every student in your classroom isn't realistic, but being sensitive and open to understanding the impact of culture can tremendously help the connection with these learners and their families.

Reading personal narratives: Read essays written by immigrant students that reflect their experiences, including their life in their home country, emigrating, and their new life in the United States. A personal narrative can evoke a deep sense of empathy among readers, such as student essays from their English language arts classes.

Stations that help educators feel what it is like to be an ELL

Looking inside an English language learner's mind: Draw two stick figures with a large thought bubble over each of their heads. In the first bubble, write five to eight thoughts in English that an ELL in your classroom might have on a typical school day. Translate these thoughts into their home language, and write them in the second bubble.

Writing: Write a one-paragraph journal entry in English, similar to what you might assign in your class. Translate this text into a home language of your ELLs, and write the translation on a piece of paper.Choose a language that you have little to no familiarity with.

Reading: Read a text provided in a language other than English without stopping or taking focus off the paper for five to eight minutes. Look at every piece of text on the page even if you don't understand it.

Listening: Listen to a lecture in a language other than English. Do not stop the lecture, and don't get distracted for at least five to eight minutes.

Speaking: Use an online translator to have a simple conversation with a partner in a language other than English. Type what you want to communicate into the translator, listen to an audio of the translation to hear the pronunciation, and then read the translated text aloud to your partner. Show your partner the English text so that they understand what you said, and continue this method of communication for 10 minutes, alternating between participants in your group.

Stations that provide methods for supporting ELLs

Understanding basic methods for teaching language learners: Watch a short video of foundational teaching methods introducing ways that educators can support multilingual learners.

Translating authentic text into simple English: Choose a text from your Google Classroom or online that you would use with your students, and translate five to eight sentences into simple English. Do this by simplifying the grammar and vocabulary as if you are talking to a 6-year-old native speaker of English. Having the facility to quickly and easily restate language in simple terms can help educators when communicating with ELLs.

Learning common vocabulary in a language other than English: Make a list of words related to your subject area. Translate these into another language, and click the speaker button to listen to the pronunciation of each word. On index cards, write these words and their translations to show your students later. Ask them to check for accuracy and model pronunciation. Incorporate these words in future exchanges with your ELLs.

Connecting with home: Write personalized comments about a few of your ELLs. Translate these comments, and write them on individual note cards or in an email to send to their parents or guardians at a later time. Receiving such messages in the home language, even with some grammatical errors, will surely be appreciated. (You may want to mention that you used an electronic translator.)

Making time for fresh air: Walk outside through the school garden, greenhouse, or playground, or around the school building. Identify the spaces that you can utilize for educational purposes, and discuss how and why outdoor time can be beneficial for ELLs, socially and emotionally as well as academically.

Creating an inclusive and welcoming environment: Draw a picture of your classroom, your office, or any space in or around the school building. Then add three things that might make the space more welcoming to ELLs-for example, flags from the students' home countries or multilingual signs. The physical environment in which we learn can have a strong impact on how we feel and behave, and it can even be a source of inspiration.

Incorporating mindfulness: Participate in this five-minute mindfulness video. Dim the lights, relax on a yoga ball, get comfortable with pillows. ELLs often have a heightened sense of stress and anxiety, and as a result, their minds may be racing with multiple distractions. Sharing this exercise with ELLs can help calm their thoughts and regulate their emotions.

Acknowledging multilingualism as an asset: Watch this video about the gift that all ELLs share. The video acknowledges that multilingualism should be recognized, encouraged, and celebrated in the classroom. After completing some or all of the stations, participants review their note catcher and make a cumulative action plan individually or with their group.

Supporting ELLs requires a district-wide level of understanding among all educators. This is achievable, in part, through meaningful professional development.

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Using Station Rotation in PD for Supporting English Language Learners

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Professional development built around learning stations can give teachers an idea of what school is like for these students.

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Teaching English Language Learners: What the Research Does - and Does Not - Say

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Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.