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The Importance of Pre-Teaching Vocabulary to ELLs

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The Importance of Pre-Teaching Vocabulary to ELLs

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Photo courtesy of BBC

If you've ever taken an English Language Development class or participated in an ELD focused Professional Development Workshop, you have probably heard the importance of pre-teaching or front-loading vocabulary for students acquiring a language. As a teacher, I found that I would sometimes skip this vital step before reading new text with students. Mostly, it was due to time constraints (sound familiar??). However, since I've spent the last 10 years working in language acquisition, I have found this to be a crucial support step for ELLs (and most students for that matter). Let me do a quick demonstration of why.

Language Activity Challenge

Let's pretend we are students in a math class, and the teacher asks us to solve the following word problem (note that the word problem is in the Tagalog language):
Mayroong 3 gramo ng asukal sa isang pakete. Ang isang 20 onsa bote ng soda ay may 66 gramo ng asukal. Gaano karaming mga pakete ng asukal ang nasa isang 20 onsa bote ng soda?
Without any scaffolding or resources, would you be able to solve this on your own? Numbers are generally universal, however I would not be able to go much further than identifying those.

What if, before the teacher expected you to solve this on your own, they pre-taught or front loaded some important vocabulary for you. Teachers can choose key words or vocabulary to teach students, give them the definitions, visuals, and potential cognates in their home language to help them tackle the text. See below.
Mayroong 3 gramo ng asukal sa isang pakete. Ang isang 20 onsa bote ng soda ay may 66 gramo ng asukal. Gaano karaming mga pakete ng asukal ang nasa isang 20 onsa bote ng ?

Vocabulary Definition: asukal sa isang pakete means sugar packet.

Vocabulary Definition: 20 onsa bote ng soda means 20 ounce bottle of soda

Now that you know two key phrases, can you identify any words that are similar in English (or cognates)?
There are 3 grams of sugar in one packet. A 20 ounce bottle of soda contains 66 grams of sugar. How many packets of sugar are in a 20 ounce bottle of soda?
Are you able to further translate any other words with the help of the key phrases taught to you?

asukal=sugar

From here, some of you might be able to answer this word problem with these given supports. If additional supports are needed, teachers can strategically pair ELLs with other students to collaborate as yet another scaffold. A final support would be to teach some of the verbs in the word problem as well, to help students connect the nouns and verbs to encourage further understanding.

Just by learning a few key definitions, identifying cognates, seeing visuals and collaborating, students are much more prepared to begin to answer this word problem (translated in English below) than without any vocabulary instruction prior to reading.

English Translation of Word Problem

Final Thoughts

As a reminder, it's very helpful for ELLs to learn some key vocabulary before tackling any text. Just pre-teaching some of those words might be enough for some students. You could also use graphic organizers (like the one here) to further support students, especially ones just learning the language. For more information or resources on how to best support the ELLs in your school or classroom, contact us at info@smarteld.org.

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The Importance of Pre-Teaching Vocabulary to ELLs - Smart ELD

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If you've ever taken an English Language Development class or participated in an ELD focused Professional Development Workshop, you have probably heard the importance of pre-teaching or front-loading vocabulary for students acquiring a language. As a teacher, I found that I would sometimes skip this vital step before reading new text with students.

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How can teachers equip ELL students with the skills to be confident and capable writers?

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Model Writing
Seeing how to write before jumping into a writing assignment is beneficial for all students and even more so for multilingual learners. Consider modeling to expose students to specific writing styles, like narrative or persuasive, as well as demonstrate the writing thought process. Write a piece using age-appropriate language, share your thinking aloud, and read the model writing to students. Then display the model writing so students can refer to it later.

Incorporate Dialogue Journals
Make writing practice meaningful and interactive with dialogue journals. Through dialogue journals, students get to have regular written conversations with their teacher or peers. This student-centered approach creates an authentic way for students to build writing fluency and letter writing skills. Plus, it allows ELL students to build relationships with their teachers and classmates. As for teachers, dialogue journals serve as a great way to assess students' progress and provide direct feedback and praise.

Drafting Stage

ELLs come into the classroom at varying language levels, so writing will look different for every student. It's important to differentiate writing assignments for English language learners during the drafting stage.

Have Students Label Pictures
In the early stages of literacy and language development, ELLs will need additional support in building their vocabulary. Picture labeling provides students with visual representations and allows them to gain familiarity with vocabulary words.

Use Journals as Drafting Tools
With journals, students don't need to worry about adhering to strict writing guidelines. They can jot down thoughts in their primary language, use new vocabulary, and explore different types of writing. Therefore, journals are great for drafting. Encourage students to free write in their journals, and later, have them look through entries to select a draft they want to polish.

Provide Writing Prompts
Figuring out what to write about all while learning a new language can be overwhelming. Writing prompts alleviate that struggle by offering ELL students a framework for their writing. With prompts, students can focus their writing efforts on a given topic. Some writing prompts even provide a story starter, an opening sentence to guide students in developing their writing. Find a collection of helpful writing prompts on Shaped.

Use Sentence and Paragraph Frames
ELL students may have a limited vocabulary and knowledge of the English language, preventing them from stringing words together to form a sentence or paragraph. Plus, sentence structure varies from language to language, so ELL students can benefit from strong guidance and scaffolding to construct clear and grammatical English sentences. Sentence and paragraph frames are great tools to scaffold writing during the drafting stage. Sentence frames provide students with a framework to build a sentence using English grammar. Sentence frames can also be used to teach comprehension skills like cause and effect, for example, "If _______, then _______." Paragraph frames provide students with transitional words to piece together a strong paragraph. Display paragraph and sentence frames around the classroom for students to use.

Revising and Editing Stages

Multilingual learners may feel self-conscious when having their writing reviewed. Incorporate technological tools and a collaborative review process to help students feel more at ease.

Implement Peer Review
Peer review is a great way for ELL students to reflect on key writing skills and improve their writing proficiency. During the peer review process, students receive and provide clear, constructive feedback. Both the reviewer and the reviewee benefit from the process, as the reviewee learns how to improve their writing and the reviewer builds awareness of the writing process. For multilingual students, peer review is especially helpful as they practice listening to, reading, and writing English. Model the peer review process with students and give students a guideline on how to provide specific feedback.

Leverage Technology
After a peer review, ELL students may get caught up in misspellings and grammatical mistakes. Consider using assistive technology to ease any possible editing anxiety. Assistive technology, like word prediction and spell-check, helps students come up with words to complete a sentence and flag misspellings or errors. Tools like digital dictionaries allow students to easily look up a word's meaning and pronunciation to build spelling, speaking, and vocabulary skills.

When teaching writing, remember to meet students where they are and create a classroom culture where students feel encouraged to explore writing.

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Set multilingual learners on an accelerated path to writing proficiency with Guide all students in Grades 3-12 through the writing process with Writable. English 3D, our dedicated ELD curriculum.

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Support your ELL students with writing strategies to build confident and capable writers.

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Activating Prior Knowledge With English Language Learners

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Activating Prior Knowledge With English Language Learners

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Students learn better when they first access what they already know—and this plays a big role in improving English language learners’ academic literacy. By Larry Ferlazzo, Katie Hull Sypnieski

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English Language Learners

Students learn better when they first access what they already know-and this plays a big role in improving English language learners' academic literacy.

Educators and researchers, along with the Common Core authors, recognize that activating prior knowledge is a necessary step in accessing complex texts, whether in the form of written words, images, charts, or other text types. However, you can have too much of a good thing. As the , "Student background knowledge and experiences can illuminate the reading but should not replace attention to the text itself."

of K-W-L extend the chart to include columns for how students can find answers to their questions (online searches, personal interviews), what actions they might take after learning this new information (apply it, teach someone else, create something new), and/or what new questions they have based on what they've learned.

Providing simpler, preparatory texts in anticipation of a more complex reading task can be very helpful in building background knowledge and reading confidence. We often use the same text written in different Lexile levels. There are that make it easy to find or create these types of accessible texts. We're not suggesting that teachers simplify the complex text they're planning to use for close reading. Instead, teachers can provide simplified texts addressing topics or themes similar to the ones in the complex text as a way to build background knowledge.

Providing ELLs in advance with texts or videos in their home language can be another way to promote background knowledge. There are also many that can help with this kind of support.

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Activating Prior Knowledge With English Language Learners

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Students learn better when they first access what they already know-and this plays a big role in improving English language learners' academic literacy.

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Interactive Word Walls Enliven Vocab Learning

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Interactive Word Walls Enliven Vocab Learning

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A MiddleWeb Blog

One might say that vocabulary is the currency of the classroom. And wouldn't you agree that we want our kids to be RICH with vocabulary?

If kids don't know lots of words, if they don't understand the words, and if they can't use the words, then those words are of no value to them.

Instead, they are deprived. Undernourished. The words we use with students must be accessible, valuable, and usable. Think of them as nutrients, vital to their learning muscles.

So how do we create classrooms that build and strengthen students' vocabulary? Classrooms where student vocabulary is thriving?

One of best techniques I've come across in my years in education is the interactive word wall. You might recall the traditional type of word wall. You know, the teacher-created, alphabetic, random word wall. That is not what I'm referring to here.

The interactive word wall is very different. Here's why.

Interactive word walls across the curriculum

I was first formally introduced to interactive word walls by Dr. Julie Jackson, an Associate Professor of Science Education at Texas State University, who has done research and implemented interactive word walls in many Texas schools.

Her discoveries about interactive word walls have been published in multiple journals. And she is amazing! Her work is primarily with science studies; however, her word-wall strategies can be applied in any content area.

An interactive word wall is basically a large graphic organizer displaying critical vocabulary on the wall. It is thematic or unit-based and includes pictures or graphics related to the words. The benefits of an interactive word wall are outstanding for all students, not just language learners!

Picturing words to boost retention

Since the interactive word wall is structured in the form of a graphic organizer, students are able to grasp and organize information easily. Words become related to one another and connections are built.

In a typical static word wall, the only organization is that the wall is in alphabetical order. Under each letter the teacher places random words that start with that particular letter. For example, under the letter A, words like airplane, ambulance, art, angel, always, anytime, etc. could be listed. These words have no relationship to one another. And only students who can already read the words truly have access to them.

An interactive word wall includes visuals, graphics, or realia (real objects) with each word. Students are able to connect words with their meanings very quickly. For language learners, the benefits are obvious! If the interactive word wall is about Energy and one the words on it is light bulb, a visual is the quickest way to demonstrate the meaning. Instantly a language learner identifies what that word means and sees the word daily inside the classroom environment.

Students do the work!

It has often been said that "those who do the work, do the learning." Absolutely! That's another reason why the interactive word wall benefits all students. Students are the ones doing the work.

The teacher creates the overall outline of the graphic organizer and the headings. Then while the teaching, learning, reading and exploring happen, students interact with the wall. They write the words that go in the categories and they add pictures for the words. If needed, the teacher is there to guide them.

Kids get so excited about seeing these walls come alive and grow as their own knowledge grows! I've seen kids bring words and pictures from home and put them on the wall. Essentially, they've given themselves homework, but it's self-motivated!

During the process, the teacher can model how to use the word wall for listening, speaking, reading and writing. Here's how:

T: reads the title Forms of Energy. "I can say this in a complete sentence. Listen and then repeat after me. There are many forms of energy."
S: "There are many forms of energy." T: "Look at the headings. Heat, sound, and light. I can say this in a sentence too. Listen and repeat. Heat, sound and light are three forms of energy." T: "Now look under the heat column. Pick an example. Use this sentence frame to talk with your partner about heat energy. I claim that ______is a form of heat energy because...." (Sentence frame was posted on the wall for students to refer to as they spoke.)

Setting the stage for writing
S: Use the sentence frame to talk with their partner.

The interactive word wall provides students with the academic vocabulary that we want them to use when they are speaking and writing about the topic. The sentence frames provide the language structure.

When we put this vocabulary in their mouths before they write, they are more capable of developing higher quality writing. Imagine what the writing will look like if they have a chance to talk first and have the wall to refer to during writing.

When the wall is pretty much complete, we can teach students to use it to form a piece of writing. Just like we taught them to talk using complete sentence with each piece of the wall, now we model how to write that way.

Some students will need more scaffolding than others. Language learners at various levels will have different needs. Some will benefit from example writing pieces or mentor texts. Others will need paragraph frames to help with language structures and propel their writing.

Another technique to support writers is to chunk the writing. Start with modeling how to write the introduction. Then let them try. Always refer back to the interactive word wall. This is their word bank.

A method to include all students

This type of word wall is accessible to all students. That's the beauty of it. It's not just good for some of the kids. It's not just valuable and readable to the kids who can already read in English or who are reading on grade level. Every student can access it because of the visuals, graphics, and realia.

Teachers ask what to do with the interactive word wall once the unit is over. I've come across many options, and you just have to figure out what works best for you. Some teachers layer their interactive word walls over one another. Some hang theirs on clothing hangers and on a rack, so students can access them if needed. Others take a picture of their wall and keep an album of all the interactive word walls in one spot for students to look at if needed.

As middle grade teachers we have to remember that word walls are not just for primary grades. In fact, as the vocabulary gets more difficult, word walls should become more sophisticated and used in every classroom all the way up to twelfth grade.

Adapting to messy, student-created walls

Interactive word walls are messy. But learning is messy too. They are student created. So don't expect them to be cookie cutter and perfect. They won't look like you spent all night preparing them. We have to get over that. Trust me, I used to be that teacher who prepared the entire word wall for the class. I did all the work. I did all the writing, cutting, and putting the words up. I learned a lot. I also learned that the kids needed to be doing the work.

Now, you may be that teacher who is saying to yourself, "But I love my traditional word wall. I've done it for years and I think it works for my kids." I know. Change is difficult. I used to think the same thing about my beautiful word wall UNTIL I witnessed the power of the interactive word wall.

Realizing that my traditional word wall was not emphasizing and connecting the vocabulary from the state standards that my students really needed was a big eye opener too. My students needed higher levels of academic vocabulary in order to make adequate progress in reading and writing. The old word wall just wasn't cutting it.

Our classroom walls are massively valuable to us. We know that what we put on them needs to be important. Being selective is key. Interactive word walls definitely give you the biggest bang for your buck!
Resources I recommend for learning more about interactive word walls: Step by Step video on How to Create an Interactive Word Wall The Science Toolkit The Science Toolkit Facebook Page Interactive Word Walls The Best Ideas on How to Use Classroom Walls by Larry Ferlazzo Image credit: The photos above are from 6th Grade classrooms. Used with permission from Dr. Julie Jackson.

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Engage Kids in Vocabulary: Use Interactive Word Walls

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Valentina Gonzalez recommends interactive word walls in all subjects, creating classrooms where vocabulary learning is robust for ELLs and everyone else.

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by Valentina Gonzalez

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

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

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

1. Sentence Frames

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

The ___has ___sides.

The ____revolted against the___.

A ___is larger/smaller than a ____.

2. Sentence Stems

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

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

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

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

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

3. Mentor Texts

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

4. Interactive Word Walls

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

5. Model Writing

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

6. Quick Writes

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

7. Language Experience Approach

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

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

8. Mentor Sentences

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

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

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

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

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

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8 Ways to Scaffold Writing for English Learners

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

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

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

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"The four ideas below bring comprehensible input and low-stress output into art, music, or PE."

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by Valentina Gonzalez

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

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

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

1. Bring in Books

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

2. Incorporate Group or Partner Talk

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

3. Provide Sentence Stems

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

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

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

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

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

Put Up a Thematic, Interactive Word Wall

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

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

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

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

References

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

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

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

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

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Supporting Multilingual Learners with Writing

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Supporting Multilingual Learners with Writing

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Inclusive pedagogies - Supporting Multilingual Writers

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Inclusive pedagogies - Supporting Multilingual Writers

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"This chapter explores the contextual, theoretical, and practical issues involved in working with multilingual writers."

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Supporting multilingual writers effectively is a complex challenge for many faculty. Questions about how to ensure students reach professional standards that support future employment prospects, while honouring student voice, agency, and linguistic identity require thoughtful balancing of competing priorities. This chapter explores the contextual, theoretical, and practical issues involved in working with multilingual writers.

Writers for whom English is not their mother tongue are referred to in a variety of different ways. Traditionally, and perhaps most commonly, the term ESL (English as a Second Language) is used to refer to these writers. More recently, EAL (English as an Additional Language) has come into more common use, acknowledging the fact that these writers may in fact be users of more than two languages, and English may be a third or fourth learned language. While commonly understood, these terms are often somewhat problematic, as they frame individuals primarily as those who are lacking a key skill (in this case, stronger English language skills), rather than as people who have the resource of multilingual proficiency. An additional term, translingualism, is used to highlight multilingual individual's fluidity and agency in their linguistic choices as they use the resources of all of the languages available to them (Dovchin, 2019). This chapter uses the term multilingual writers to highlight students' proficiency in multiple languages, and the richness of the linguistic resources that support them in their learning.

Multilingual writers strive to develop their writing in a context where linguistic discrimination is often present. Linguistic discrimination (Dovchin, 2019), linguicism (Skutknabb-Kangas, 2016), and linguistic racism (De Costa, 2020) are processes by which unequal power and resources are distributed to one group over another on the basis of language. In the global context, English is a language which has received tremendous global power as a result of colonial and globalized processes, and status and resources are often unequally distributed to native English speakers as a result of their linguistic status. Linguistic discrimination manifests in institutional contexts and at the level of individual interactions. Even as multilingual writers are striving to improve their English, they are the same time participating in systems where they receive discrimination on the basis of their non-native speaker status, which can harm their ability to meaningfully participate alongside native speakers in classroom situations, and diminishes the regard for their perspectives when presented in writing (Sah, 2019).

Linguistic discrimination also occurs between varieties of English. Kachru (1996b) describes the creation of three concentric circles of English use: inner circle countries (e.g., England, Canada, New Zealand), where native-speaker varieties of English are the dominant language; outer circle countries (e.g., Nigeria, India, Nepal), where English was historically established in the process of colonization; and expanding circle countries (e.g. China, Vietnam, Korea), where English gained status through the processes of globalization. Within these concentric circles, inner circle varieties typically hold greater status and prestige (Kachru, 1996a). As a result, multilingual writers who are proficient users of an outer circle variety may find their English use criticized as non-standard or inadequate for professional writing (Sah, 2019).

Because of these contextual factors, multilingual writers often find themselves positioned primarily as lacking in their ability to fully meet native-speaker norms, rather than as resourceful users of multiple languages or multiple varieties of global English. This deficit positioning typically works to maintain the dominant power of native-speaker Englishes in the global language hierarchy (Davis and Museus, 2019), and tends to create structures that discriminate, rather than empower, students to communicate effectively in academic and professional environments.

Supporting multilingual writers through a strengths-based lens that acknowledges the legitimacy of global varieties of English raises several complex issues. For example, because the majority of speakers of many outer circle varieties use English as an additional language, determining which features of writing emerge from legitimate use of a particular variety, and which reflect potential errors can be complex (Sharma, 2005). For readers unfamiliar with the writer's context and the linguistic norms they have learned, determining when error correction is appropriate can be challenging.

Another significant challenge is finding an appropriate balance between respect for the writer's usage and voice, while at the same time equipping multilingual writers with the tools for successful communication in their academic and professional communities. Failing to provide appropriate instruction can disadvantage multilingual writers. For example, Roessingh and Douglas (2012) found that while multilingual immigrant youth enter postsecondary education at a higher rate than their Canadian-born peers, their undergraduate grade point averages were lower, which placed barriers to pursuing graduate education. Mahboob and Szenes (2010), in a qualitative study comparing the grades of native and non-native English speakers on an assignment, found that non-native speakers received significantly lower grades that their native-speaking peers. They noted, however, that while this may provide some evidence for linguistic racism, a complicating factor was that the non-native speakers also used significantly less complex academic language in their work. Mahboob and Szenes conclude that empowering multilingual writers involves both attention to avoiding linguistic racism and the implementation of a structured, genre-based pedagogy that provides explicit instruction on writing within a particular academic discipline.

The path ahead in effectively supporting multilingual writers involves a web of interrelated knowledges and practices, which include:

1. A commitment to avoid linguistic discrimination in evaluating multilingual student writing.

2. Openness to understanding the varieties of English as a global language by critically examining the ways in which inner circle native-speaker norms are privileged.

3. Implementing pedagogies that empower multilingual writers by providing clear and contextualized instruction on academic communication in their disciplines. These strategies are explored more fully in the Identifying and Supporting Academic Literacies chapter of this book.

In order to equip multilingual writers in their language growth, it can be important to accurately identify and label the sources of their writing difficulty. Multilingual writers commonly report that they receive feedback that improvement in their grammar or professionalism is needed; however, this feedback is often non-specific, and difficult for the writer to translate into actionable steps. Often, this occurs when we experience a piece of writing that does not fit our expectations as the reader, but feel challenged to identify the reason for our difficulty in grasping the students' meaning. Expanding our vocabulary and ability to label writing challenges can help us in providing actionable guidance to writers.

Three common sources of writing challenges for multilingual writers in postsecondary courses are:

1. Challenges related to ongoing language acquisition;

2. Challenges arising from differences in varieties of English; and

3. Challenges related to genre and discourse-level issues.

Challenges related to ongoing language acquisition
Multilingual writers have often completed a language proficiency exam as a condition of their admission to their programs, demonstrating a high level of proficiency in English. Their language development, particularly in academic domains, still continues to develop throughout their educational journey. Academic language proficiency develops more slowly than general communicative language proficiency, typically requiring 5-7 years of ongoing exposure to complex academic vocabulary and discourse (Cummins, 2000). With practice and exposure to academic language, continued growth towards stronger professional proficiency occurs. It is important to understand that this journey typically unfolds over a period of years, rather than weeks.
Challenges arising from differences in varieties of English
Multilingual writers from countries where outer circle varieties of English are used may have years of exposure to English language educational environments. When entering an environment where they are first exposed to an unfamiliar variety, differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and usage can create challenges for writers as they navigate the differences between academic and professional norms.
Challenges arising from genre and discourse-level issues
Often, when the flow of thought in a multilingual writer's text seems challenging to the reader, the major issue impeding understanding is occurring at the discourse level, rather than the grammatical level. Higher level issues, such as the expected organization of a text, may be more important to address than smaller errors in grammar or vocabulary. When reading a text, it can be helpful to consider whether the writer would benefit more from addressing higher-level organizational issues in order to more effectively communicate with the reader.

Identifying multilingual writing challenges accurately is the first step to developing a supportive instructional and feedback strategy. Consider the following strategies for creating an environment that facilitate the growth of multilingual writers, while demonstrating respect for linguistic and cultural identities.

Responding to challenges arising from ongoing language acquisition

Strategies for working with students who are still developing academic and professional language proficiency include focusing primarily on errors that impede your understanding of the writer's meaning (Matsuda & Cox, 2011), rather than providing direct feedback on all minor errors. Another strategy is helping students to identify patterns of high-frequency errors in their work (Cogie et al., 1999), which allows students to focus on 2-3 specific areas for growth. Rather than correcting all observed errors, selectively identifying areas for improvement can be more effective (Ferris, 2008). Allowing students to focus on a defined and meaningful goal, rather than a vague direction to "improve grammar" is more likely to result in concrete improvement.

Responding to challenges arising from varieties of English

When you experience challenges responding to student writing that might be rooted in differences in English varieties, responding through a framework of difference rather than correctness may be helpful. Consider contextualizing feedback through a cultural lens, with statements such as "This word choice might be considered by Canadian readers as unusual in a professional context. An alternative may be..."

Responding to discourse and genre-based writing challenges

Developing students' understanding of genre expectations is often best done through scaffolded and structured instruction, as these activities benefit all students, not only multilingual writers. consider partnering with a Teaching & Learning Commons or Learning Centre colleague for assistance in using these strategies.

A 3-C Framework for Responding to Multilingual Writers' Work
When providing feedback on student writing, consider the following framework to guide your process: clear, constructive, and contextual.

Clear: As much as possible, with consideration of categories explored in this chapter, clearly identify the specific writing challenge you are observing. If you are providing feedback related to grammar, aim to identify 2-3 specific focus areas for the student (for example, selection of verb tenses, eliminating sentence fragments or run-on sentences, reviewing article use). While you may not be a language expert, labelling areas for improvement specifically as much as possible aids students in creating measurable goals for growth.

Constructive: Aim to identify a specific step that students might take in response to your feedback. For example, a feedback statement such as "work on grammar" is unlikely to provide a student with an actionable next step. A statement such as "make an appointment with a Learning Centre tutor to practice organizing your ideas within paragraphs" identifies a focus area, as well as a supportive campus resource.

Contextual: Aim to contextualize feedback within Canadian academic culture and your specific disciplinary culture. This acknowledges that "correctness" in language choice is often situated within the norms of a particular context, and that these norms are not always universally shared. Using phrases such as "in scientific writing", or "in Canadian business communication" signal that you acknowledge students as learners in their new academic and disciplinary communities, and allows students to situate themselves within the multiple cultural and academic communities that are a part of their broader experience.

Academic integrity, particularly in the context of written assignments, is one component of broader academic literacies development. In Western academic cultures, discussions about plagiarism are placed within the framework of academic integrity and cheating. In the journey to developing academic literacies, many well-intentioned students use writing practices that are considered plagiarism, perhaps unknowingly, on their journey to understanding and applying academic conventions related to using knowledge from other sources.

Unintentional plagiarism occurs when students borrow words and ideas from other sources, without correctly using the citation and referencing conventions of their discipline. It is helpful to distinguish these instances of plagiarism, which may be committed by otherwise strong students who are making an effort to write well, from academic dishonesty with intent (Pecorari, 2010).

Why does unintentional plagiarism happen?

1. Cultural differences in the use of language and text. Alastair Pennycook notes that current Western conventions about plagiarism and information use are a recent innovation. The idea that ideas can be owned by an author, and therefore stolen by another, is both recent and culturally specific (Pennycook, 1996).

2. Placing high value on the words of the original text. Pennycook (1996) highlights several examples where students strongly preferred to retain the words from the original source, in one case noting that a student felt it dishonest to retain an idea while changing the words. In other cases, students may lack confidence in their own academic writing skills, believing that their text will be less powerful if they use their own voice.

3. Limited grasp of academic vocabulary. Because of the complexity of academic vocabulary, students require a longer time to gain proficiency in high level academic language, generally 5-7 years or more (Roessingh & Douglas, 2012). Therefore, even students who seem fluent in English may struggle with limited linguistic resources to paraphrase complex ideas, and may resort to retaining the words of the original text. When this is a factor for students, it may be helpful to emphasize that clarity of expression, rather than complexity, supports effective academic writing.

4. Limited familiarity with academic writing conventions and/or limited ability to apply their knowledge. Many students enter the Canadian university system without having previous experience with research-based academic writing. Even though these students may attend introductory tutorials, and in fact demonstrate some mastery of this content, they may still struggle as they learn to apply these writing conventions (Pecorari, 2010). Consider systematically increasing expectations for students' use of citation conventions throughout the course, allowing time for formative feedback and development.

Using information from sources effectively requires knowledge beyond citation mechanics. This knowledge can be supported within a broader program of instruction in academic literacies, which can include the following components:

Conduct structured in-class exercises with these models with models of well written texts at your students' current academic level. For example, you may ask the students to do the following tasks:

Identify direct quotes, paraphrases, and summaries, and describe the type of citation that is used after each.

Match in-text citations with their corresponding full references.

Analyze well-written paragraphs to observe how an author integrates information from multiple sources with their own ideas.

Facilitate structured learning opportunities on academic paraphrasing (see the Integrating Material from Research handout for an example). This type of exercise could be done in-class, or as an online learning activity where students provide peer-review according to set criteria for a strong paraphrase.

Encourage students to attend academic writing workshops as well as individual tutoring sessions at the Learning Centre. Often, students need multiple exposures to learn new academic conventions, and additional presentations from multiple facilitators may help. Individual peer tutoring allows students the opportunity to ask specific questions about their own work, and to practice applying their knowledge to their writing with the support of an experienced peer.

1. Allow students to complete a significant amount of writing, including ungraded and low-pressure writing. The maxim that "we learn to write by writing" is particularly true for multilingual writers, who benefit from multiple opportunities to practice academic writing skills. Consider including ungraded freewriting and other informal writing activities in the course.

2. Create an environment that values the contribution of meaningful ideas over linguistic perfection. Over-focusing on accurate expression can create an environment where individuals begin to limit their contributions (Sah, 2019), resulting in less practice, and ultimately weaker long term development. Paradoxically, greater tolerance of difference can create spaces where students feel less inhibited, are more able to contribute, and develop in their ability to communicate through practice.

3. Allow multiple opportunities for feedback and revision. A key contributor to strong writing development is the opportunity to receive feedback on a piece of work, to make revisions, and then to resubmit the work for further feedback (Fischer et al., 2017). Again, this strategy benefits all students, not only multilingual writers.

4. Embed a strategic partnership with the Learning Centre in your course, offering structured opportunities for students to work with tutors as they complete major assignments. This allows students to work on identified developmental goals in a personalized learning environment.

References
Cogie, J., Lorinskas, S., & Strain, K. (1999). Avoiding the proofreading trap: The value of the error correction process. The Writing Center Journal, 19(2), 7.

Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire. Multilingual Matters.

Davis, L. P., & Museus, S. D. (2019). What Is deficit thinking? An analysis of conceptualizations of deficit thinking and implications for scholarly research. NCID Currents, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.3998/currents.17387731.0001.110

De Costa, P. I. (2020). Linguistic racism: its negative effects and why we need to contest it. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(7), 833-837. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1783638

Dovchin, S. (2019). The politics of injustice in translingualism: Linguistic discrimination. In T. A. Barrett & S. Dovchin (Eds.), Critical inquiries in the sociolinguistics of globalization (pp. 84-101). Multilingual Matters.

Ferris, D. (2008). Response to student writing: Implications for second language students. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. doi:10.4324/9781410607201

Fischer, L., Meyers, C., & Dobelbower, S. (2017). Exploring how pedagogical strategies change student perceptions of writing apprehension. Journal of Agricultural Education, 58(4), 254-268. https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.2017.04254

Kachru, B. B. (1996a). The paradigms of marginality. World Englishes, 15(3), 241-255. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-971X.1996.tb00112.x

Kachru, B. B. (1996b). World Englishes: Agony and ecstasy. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 30(2), 135. https://doi.org/10.2307/3333196

Lea, M. R., & Street, B. V. (1998). Student writing in higher education: An academic literacies approach. Studies in Higher Education, 23(2), 157-172. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079812331380364

Mahboob, A., & Szenes, E. (2010). Linguicism and racism in assessment practices in higher education. Linguistics and the Human Sciences, 3(3), 325-354. https://doi.org/10.1558/lhs.v3i3.325

Matsuda, P. K., & Cox, M. (2011). Reading an ESL writer's text. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 2(1), 4-14.

Pecorari, D. (2010). Academic writing and plagiarism: a linguistic analysis. London: Continuum

Pennycook, A. (1996). Borrowing others' words: text, ownership, memory, and plagiarism. TESOL Quarterly, 30(2), 201. https://doi.org/10.2307/3588141

Roessingh, H., & Douglas, S. R. (2012). Educational outcomes of English language learners at university. The Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 42(1), 80-97. http://journals.sfu.ca/cjhe/index.php/cjhe/article/view/182449/182509

Sah, P. K. (2019). Academic discourse socialization, scaler politics of English, and racialization in study abroad: A critical autoethnography. The Qualitative Report, 24(1), 174+. Gale Academic OneFile. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A581311618/AONE?u=ko_acd_can&sid=AONE&xid=ecb020f0

Sharma, D. (2005). Dialect stabilization and speaker awareness in non-native varieties of English. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 9(2), 194-224. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-6441.2005.00290.x

Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2016). Linguicism. In G. Gertz & P. Boudreault (Eds.), The SAGE Deaf studies encyclopedia (pp. 583-586). SAGE Publications. https://www-doi-org.roxy.nipissingu.ca/10.4135/9781483346489.n188

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Supporting multilingual writers effectively is a complex challenge for many faculty. Questions about how to ensure students reach professional standards that support future employment prospects, while honouring student voice, agency, and linguistic identity require thoughtful balancing of competing priorities. This chapter explores the contextual, theoretical, and practical issues involved in working with multilingual writers.

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0:00 / 4:46•Watch full video

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Super Fun ESL Writing Activities & Games

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Practical activities to help secondary students with vocabulary learning

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Language Level

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Sentence Frames - Varying Thinking Stems

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Sentence Frames - Varying Thinking Stems

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Sentence Frames - Varying Thinking Stems scaffolded by language levels from Lead4Ward and Seidlitz Institute

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The process of using a vocabulary described in the article can be used in any discipline.

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How to Take Notes for Kids - Tips for effective and efficient note taking | 1 Minute Lessons

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#29. Talk-Read-Talk-Write: Creating a Language-Rich Classroom - ELL Strategies | TanKHuynh

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Applying Nancy Motley's Talk Read Talk Write (TRTW) strategy in the ELL classroom. Differentiating TRTW for Beginning to Bridging ELs.

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Multilingual Glossaries and Cognates for All Content

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Multilingual Glossaries and Cognates for All Content

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These glossaries are to provide permitted testing accommodations of ELL/MLL students. They should also be used for instruction during the school year. These glossaries may be downloaded, printed and disseminated to educators, parents and ELLs/MLLs.

Bilingual glossaries are an essential and expected test accommodation for ELLs/MLLs in the State of New York. The languages of these glossaries cover the top 10 languages at the state level, with new languages added based on changing language populations in the NY State student demographic data.

Schools should provide testing accommodations to ELLs/MLLs, as needed, on all NYS ELA and content-area assessments (i.e., Mathematics, Science and Social Studies). Districts/schools must make all necessary arrangements to make these accommodations available for ELLs/MLLs who need them. Please click here for the New York State Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages Webpage on "Assessment and Testing Accommodations".

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These glossaries are to provide permitted testing accommodations of ELL/MLL students. They should also be used for instruction during the school year.

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

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How To

Select 3-5 related vocabulary words or key terms.

Differentiate word lists for groups of students based on language and reading proficiency.

Decide options for students to share their learning and completed sentences.

Write a few sample sentences to use as models, highlight the "bricks" or focus words.

Share the learning target with the students via an online classroom, as a pre-recorded message, or as an email or text message.

Synchronous setting:

Define the word "bricks" which are the focus words, and "mortar" which are the connecting words.

Model an example in the online classroom or in a prepared presentation with words that the students already know, highlighting the "brick" words.

Show students the word list of "brick" words and tell them to choose a few words and fill in the rest of the sentence with their own "mortar" words.

Students can write their sentences in a common document online and/or verbally share their sentences in an online setting. If time and technology permits, allow them to discuss different ways they can make sentences.

Asynchronous Setting:

Share a list of familiar academic words as "bricks" with students via online classroom, email, or in printed form. Include an example sentence with one or more "brick" words.

Set expectations for the number of "brick" words to use and the number of sentences to create.

Ask students to choose one or two "brick" words, and add additional words as the "mortar" to make meaningful sentences.

Students can share their sentences with someone at home, and/or submit to the teacher and peers via an online learning environment.

Quick Tips

If word lists are differentiated, synchronous online discussion times may be different for each group.

Be purposeful in choosing your terms. Select vocabulary that students understand the meaning of and have seen previously in lessons.

When working independently, many students may opt to select "brick" words that are familiar to them, as opposed to selecting new and unfamiliar words. Remember that the focus of this activity is to use words and connectors to create a sentence that is meaningful and adheres to grammar rules. Celebrate small successes!

Students can refer to the online resource provided for a review of sentence structure.

Evidence of Success

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Select 3-5 related vocabulary words or key terms. Differentiate word lists for groups of students based on language and reading proficiency. Decide options for students to share their learning and completed sentences. Write a few sample sentences to use as models, highlight the "bricks" or focus words.

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ELD Director Rose Aldubaily: Building background knowledge for ELLs

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Help English Language Learners Build Background Knowledge in the Classroom. Increase content comprehension.

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Ellevation: ML Program Management Tools for K-12

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It's not uncommon for there to be a mismatch between classroom content and students' background knowledge and experiences. I was recently reminiscing on my days spent in the classroom, I am reminded of an "ah-ha moment" when I fully grasped the importance of building background and creating context for my English Language Learners. It was during a fourth grade social studies lesson on early economics. One of my students, Jenny, was an intermediate English learner and she was completely stuck on this constructed response question: Is Joey's money better spent on a $12 movie theater ticket or a $4 DVD rental?

As we talked through the question, it was clear that Jenny wasn't very familiar with either option. I asked her if she had ever been to a movie theater. "No," she said quietly as she looked around. I asked if she had a DVD player or had ever seen one before. Again, she said "no," even more quietly. Of course. I should have known. (Her family didn't have a car and I had recently helped them get a public library card. It's doubtful they would have navigated through a Blockbuster membership.) There it was, a mismatch in the background experiences of a student and the content in her classroom. Does that mean she couldn't answer a question about cost/benefits and tradeoffs? She was certainly capable at her language level. But without the background knowledge, it's difficult to understand exactly what the question is asking.

I worked with plenty of excellent classroom teachers during my years as an ESL specialist. Despite collaboration challenges, they all wanted what was best for their ELLs and always asked about how they could shift their instruction to maximize learning. In my opinion, the more impactful teaching moments happened when these teachers realized they were not considering background knowledge differences among students. As a result, their lessons would occasionally fall flat from the very start.

Here are some quick tips that classroom teachers can use to help ELLs build background knowledge:

1. Dismiss your assumptions. The first step to building context and background knowledge is to examine your own preconceptions about your learners. It's important to understand that different background knowledges are not deficits. There is no doubt that all students bring their own knowledge, experiences and language into the classroom. In fact, these unique qualities and characteristics can help you foster cultural awareness in the classroom. I find EdChange.org to be an incredibly valuable resource, especially handouts like this one about Multicultural Shifts for educators.

2. Identify knowledge needed before delivering the lesson. See if you can identify potential background knowledge differences while planning the lesson by using our Guiding Questions. Make sure to assess both the language and the content. Vocabulary words will probably need some extra attention during instruction. However, there will also likely be words and phrases that are known to native English speakers but not English learners.

3. Engage students with experiences and demonstrations. During classroom instruction, you have the opportunity to activate and build background knowledge that supports the content. Consider hands-on activities and demonstrations such as a field trip to kick off a unit of study, or a video clip and reading exercise on the topic.

4. Adjust your language to explore rather than imply. Pay attention to the words you use to reference experiences and make sure you are not unintentionally making assumptions. For example, start asking "Have you ever... " instead of "You know when..." Encourage your students to explore as well and have them organize their thoughts using a content notebook or online note taking format.

So, how did I help Jenny in social studies that day? I took a few minutes to build her background knowledge about movie theaters and DVD rentals. We talked about a movie she once saw at her cousin's house and I showed her a photo I found online of the inside of a movie rental store. We sketched out the two scenarios with 12 one dollar bills and a clock to depict the time at the theater, and repeated this process for the DVD rental scenario. Those five minutes helped her build enough understanding of the situation to answer the question with reasons for making the appropriate spending choice.

In case you are wondering, there was no correct answer to Jenny's economics question. Another potentially confusing concept to an ELL which maybe I'll save for another blog.
What success stories or tips do you have to share on background building activities with your students?

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Help English Language Learners Build Background Knowledge in the Classroom

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It's not uncommon for there to be a mismatch between classroom content and students' background knowledge and experiences. I was recently reminiscing on my days spent in the classroom, I am reminded of an "ah-ha moment" when I fully grasped the importance of building background and creating context for my English Language Learners.

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Identifying areas that need background knowledge

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Identifying areas that need background knowledge

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Resource to self-reflect in planning instruction

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Sentence Frames - Varying Thinking Stems

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Sentence Frames - Varying Thinking Stems

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Sentence Frames - Varying Thinking Stems scaffolded by language levels from Lead4Ward and Seidlitz Institute

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Question, Signal, Stem, Share, Assess  https://seidlitzblog.org/2019/03/27/qsssa-more-than-turn-talk/

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Watch a media class use Walk, Talk, Decide to discuss a project. This partner strategy allows students to work together to solve a problem or respond to a question. Students walk around the room while having a structured talk with a partner, providing an opportunity to move and process their learning.
Find more tips and videos at: www.theteachertoolkit.com

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Scaffolding literacy instruction for English Learners in RLA and Soc St classrooms

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Scaffolding literacy instruction for English Learners in RLA and Soc St classrooms

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Supporting students reading complex text

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Scaffolding Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners

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50 fun call-and-response ideas to get students' attention

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Call-and-response is a time-tested technique for getting attention. Instead of repeating yourself, train students to respond to a fun statement!

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@DrCarolSalva @UCPS_ESL @EastUnionMSNC @derjoba @AGHoulihan @elenia_daniels The @UCPS_ESL team used 5 of our monthly cluster meetings for each part is your book. We used a number of activities from the book including QSSSA (My example below). These tweets are our final activity. Hopefully you will see a few more. Thank you for everything @DrCarolSalva.

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@DrCarolSalva @UCPS_ESL @EastUnionMSNC @derjoba @AGHoulihan @elenia_daniels The @UCPS_ESL team used 5 of our monthly cluster meetings for each part is your book. We used a number of activities from the book including QSSSA (My example below). These tweets are our final activity. Hopefully you will see a few more. Thank you for everything @DrCarolSalva. https://t.co/kqyAtWChYW

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@UCPS_ESL @EastUnionMSNC @derjoba @AGHoulihan @elenia_daniels Awesomeness !! 
I also left a sentence starters for what we used in the classroom.
Is this part of the book study? 
Tell me more about the PD opportunity . 🤩
#BoostingAchievement

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The @UCPS_ESL team used 5 of our monthly cluster meetings for each part is your book. We used a number of activities from the book including QSSSA (My example below). These tweets are our final activity. Hopefully you will see a few more. Thank you for everything @DrCarolSalva. pic.twitter.com/kqyAtWChYW
— Jason Newburger (@NewburgerJason) May 5, 2023

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@DrCarolSalva @UCPS_ESL @EastUnionMSNC @derjoba @AGHoulihan @elenia_daniels The @UCPS_ESL team used 5 of our monthly cluster meetings for each part is your book. We used a number of activities from the book including QSSSA (My example below). These tweets are our final activity. Hopefully you will see a few more. Thank you for everything @DrCarolSalva. https://t.co/kqyAtWChYW

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@UCPS_ESL @EastUnionMSNC @derjoba @AGHoulihan @elenia_daniels Awesomeness !! 
I also left a sentence starters for what we used in the classroom.
Is this part of the book study? 
Tell me more about the PD opportunity . 🤩
#BoostingAchievement

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@DrCarolSalva @UCPS_ESL @EastUnionMSNC @derjoba @AGHoulihan @elenia_daniels The @UCPS_ESL team used 5 of our monthly cluster meetings for each part is your book. We used a number of activities from the book including QSSSA (My example below). These tweets are our final activity. Hopefully you will see a few more. Thank you for everything @DrCarolSalva. https://t.co/kqyAtWChYW

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@DrCarolSalva @UCPS_ESL @EastUnionMSNC @derjoba @AGHoulihan @elenia_daniels The @UCPS_ESL team used 5 of our monthly cluster meetings for each part is your book. We used a number of activities from the book including QSSSA (My example below). These tweets are our final activity. Hopefully you will see a few more. Thank you for everything @DrCarolSalva.

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@UCPS_ESL @EastUnionMSNC @derjoba @AGHoulihan @elenia_daniels Awesomeness !! 
I also left a sentence starters for what we used in the classroom.
Is this part of the book study? 
Tell me more about the PD opportunity . 🤩
#BoostingAchievement

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Linguistic Accommodations per Proficiency Level

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Linguistic Accommodations per Proficiency Level

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Guidelines for linguistic accommodations per proficiency level.pdf

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Collection of language objectives from WMJH teachers in lesson plans

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Lowering the Stakes for Language Learning

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Lowering the Stakes for Language Learning

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By intentionally creating lessons that are social, collaborative, and joyful, educators can make it easier for students to build their skills—and confidence—in a new language.

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Lowering the Stakes for Language Learning

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Bricks and Mortar Vocabulary Words in History 

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Bricks and Mortar Vocabulary Words in History 

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In pedagogy for teaching English Learners, the Mortar words in “Bricks and Mortar” are relational words: utility words that connect the “Brick” words in sentences.

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"As of last year, I started working with ELL students and have become far more cognizant of vocabulary. I've always taken for granted that students know certain vocabulary words, but now I find myself going over many words and to my surprise, it's not just ELL kids who benefit from it!"

-Kevin, Spring 2019 Online Accessing Inquiry course participant

Anticipating the needs of people who may encounter barriers benefits everyone. This is the truth behind Universal Design. Curb cuts at city street corners help not only people in wheelchairs, but people rolling suitcases, walking bicycles, and pushing strollers. Anticipating the vocabulary students need to fully participate in a lesson, and offering supports, can be just as broadly helpful.

History and Social Studies teachers know that in addition to the events of history, they teach the words that are necessary to understand history. Archaic words like pauper, seldom-used words like sovereign, abstract words like republicanism, and academic words like neolithic can pose barriers in both secondary and primary sources. The presence of unfamiliar or challenging words can be off-putting to students with a lower reading level, and the density of them in many social studies materials can be daunting regardless of reading level.

When teachers focus on making their lessons more accessible, vocabulary is an essential component. In Accessing Inquiry courses, teachers take many approaches to surmounting the barriers that vocabulary can pose. One is to identify Brick, Mortar, and Other words for a specific lesson.

Teachers winnow out the 3-5 words that all students need to know to master the essential facts and ideas in the lesson: these are the "Bricks". These words may be basic or complex: they are not just the "hard" words, but the most vital words that are specific to the content of a lesson. These are words the teacher will review to make sure everyone understands before the lesson begins, and if needed, will reinforce throughout the lesson.

Teachers also identify "Other" disciplinary words that students will encounter in the lesson, words that the student needs to be able to access, but does not need to memorize or master. Teachers may copy text into a word-cloud-maker like http://WordSift.com to get a visual indicator of the most frequently used words in the central text for an upcoming lesson. One way or another, they consider in advance the words that students will encounter in the written and spoken elements of the lesson. In an accessible lesson, teachers often prepare a glossary, new section of a word wall, or other resource so that students can easily look up meanings and find a lesson-specific word when they need it for writing.

In pedagogy for teaching English Learners, the Mortar words in "Bricks and Mortar" are relational words: utility words that connect the "Brick" words in sentences. They include action words like "connect" and phrases like "even though." As we use the term "Mortar" in the Accessing Inquiry course, we focus on words needed to connect the "bricks" in the student tasks for the lesson. Many of these words will be academic terms used across disciplines-including terms essential to take standardized tests. See for example this Academic Word List compiled by Averil Coxhead. If "Claim," "Evidence," and "Reasoning," are words students must understand to complete a particular assessment, ensuring that those words are explained and understood is just as essential as the words related to the lesson topic.

Sample Bricks and Mortar vocabulary chart for a specific lesson

In the illustrative example above, from the lesson by Alex Kuschel, In or Out: Race and Disability as Legal Barriers to Immigration, "mortar" words were matched to the assignment. The lesson asks each student to consider a fictional immigrant case study, and make an argument about whether or not he or she would have been admitted at Ellis Island. If students instead had been asked to draw an annotated picture imagining a scene at Ellis Island, the "mortar" words might have been "scene" and "annotated."

Identifying the Bricks and Mortar vocabulary can focus a lesson. And, in addition to offering points of entry and making lessons less intimidating, review of the critical vocabulary in a lesson can enrich learning on many levels. As Kevin, the seasoned teacher quoted at the outset of this post, observed, until history teachers add vocabulary review into their lessons, they may not know every student who needs it. Like a curb cut, the added benefits reveal themselves only after it is in place.

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Bricks and Mortar Vocabulary for History lessons

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"As of last year, I started working with ELL students and have become far more cognizant of vocabulary. I've always taken for granted that students know certain vocabulary words, but now I find myself going over many words and to my surprise, it's not just ELL kids who benefit from it!"

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Three Types of Scaffolding: There’s a Scaffold for That

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Three Types of Scaffolding: There’s a Scaffold for That

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This article on scaffolding learning for ELLs is Part 15 of WIDA's Essential Actions Series. Click here to read the first article in the series .

In education, scaffolding doesn't mean literally constructing planks and poles against the side of a building. It's a metaphor for providing students with temporary, supportive structures that, just like in constructing a structure, are "gradually removed as the building nears completion." (Riddett, 2015). When a student demonstrates proficient independence, the scaffold is no longer needed (Gibbons, 2002).
Our ELs' achievement is directly related to my ability to scaffold learning experiences.
Scaffolding is the focus of Action 12 in E ssential Actions: A Handbook for Implementing WIDA's Framework for English Language Development Standards (Gottlieb, 2013). Categorized under three groups - sensory, graphic, or interactive - scaffolding can be incorporated during the lesson cycle or within an assessment task. Without scaffolding, ELs often struggle needlessly to access grade-level content and are less able to perform well academically.

In this article, we'll examine three core kinds of scaffolding and explain how they're best applied.

Research Says

There's a significant body of research around the practice of using scaffolds to support instruction. Here are some key findings found in WIDA's Essential Actions :

Instructional supports empower ELs to achieve academically and access grade-level material (Gottlieb, 2013).

Using a range and variety of instructional support tools enables ELs to engage with grade-level objectives and content (Gottlieb, Katz, & Ernst-Slavit, 2009; Himmele & Himmele, 2009).

Instructional supports can also be built into assessments to empower ELs to express their understanding and demonstrate their skills (Gottlieb, 2006).

The research highlights the need to provide various forms of scaffolding to support instruction and performance on assessments. Learning new content that is often abstract is difficult enough; learning it in an unfamiliar language adds a level of difficulty that native speakers do not experience. Scaffolding provides ELs with greater access to content and facilitates the demonstration of their learning.

Sensory Scaffolding

Sensory scaffolds allow ELs to use their senses to understand abstract concepts or learn new ideas. For most students, using visuals and manipulatives are effective forms of sensory scaffolding because images and gestures contain meaning without a dependence on language. Additionally, for Entering ELs, it's the most effective kind of scaffolding in general because there are fewer language barriers to understanding.

For example, the tactile nature of conducting a science lab invites ELs to manipulate objects in order to construct the meaning of abstract concepts. Besides tactile scaffolds, educators can use visuals as another useful form of instructional aids. Humans are visual learners because, with our eyes, we can take a large amount of information in at once and use it to construct meaning. Like tactile scaffolds, visual aids help students understand abstract concepts easier than printed texts can.

When physical objects and visuals are combined together, they offer even more opportunities to access content. For example, Mr. A (a science teacher) wanted to teach his students the concept of food chains and food webs. He designed an activity where the students received strips of paper that each contained an animal. Students then moved the strips of paper around to reconstruct the food web.

The ELs benefited from physically moving the cards around to internalize how food chains and food webs work. These concepts would have remained abstract for many ELs had they simply read the descriptions.

Interactive Scaffolding

As much as human beings are visual learners, they're also social learners too. This is why in addition to sensory and tactile support, educators should integrate social interaction into the lesson design. For ELs, social scaffolding is an excellent opportunity to use language for meaningful purposes. ELs have to use language and content to discuss ideas, offer observations, and form opinions. In the process, they synthesize content knowledge and internalize language.

Interactive scaffolds are essentially a kind of learning through collaboration, and are best used with ELs who like socializing. My ELs collaborate in these three specific categories: synthesizing knowledge, planning actions, and creating products. There are many easy ways to design student interaction in the lesson cycle. This Edutopia article from Sarah Wike Loyola entitled " In language classrooms, students should be talking " explains why interactive scaffolds are effective and provides a list of five structures we can implement.

Another fantastic interactive scaffold is the jigsaw because it makes students internalize one aspect of the new content, learn to listen carefully when peers present their aspect, and work collaboratively to piece all the things they've learned to create new understanding.

Mr. J's 7th grade history class provides an perfect example of a jigsaw. Wanting students to learn the different parts of a river, he assigned each table group to study a specific part of the river (top, middle, end). Students researched their assigned parts (Researching phase). After a period of researching, he had them form a new groups. This new group had students who were experts from the top, middle, and end groups.

They then shared their research with each other (Presenting phase). Finally, students returned back to their original grouping, and they worked in their groups to formulate a thorough understanding of all the parts of the river (Co-constructing phase). Here is an image to help you visualize Mr. J's jigsaw.

Mr. J could have taken the traditional route to deliver the content, but instead he empowered his students to collaboratively learn content while developing communication and interpersonal skills. I recommend using jigsaw when a unit has a lot of content. This way, the content can be segmented and reinforces learning through inquiry. If you'd like to learn more about the practice, I encourage going directly to Jigsaw Classroom , t h e o r g a n i z a t i o n r e s p o n s i b l e f o r creating the jigsaw itself.

Of all the interactive scaffolds that I use, I prefer Think-Pair-Share (TPS) the most because of how easy it is to implement. To foster comprehensible input , ELs often need to pause during instruction and synthesize the content that was just presented before learning new content. This is when TPS is an effective tool. During Visible Reading , I might ask, "What did you learn from reading the last few paragraphs? Let's do a TPS to synthesize what we learned". I let them think for about a minute. Then they turn to a partner, whom I assign, and share their thinking.

TPS is like a verbal Quick Write . Students are given a prompt, given time to think about it, and then orally share their understanding of it. Their responses are not graded, but they do provide a wealth of formative data on their understanding.

Jennifer Gonzalez, a highly-regarded education blogger, wrote an extensive article about TPS on her blog, Cult of Pedagogy . She consistently produces valuable content that can be easily implemented by the busy teacher.

The most important principle that I want to share about interactive scaffolds is that if something is important for students to internalize, use an interactive scaffold (mainly TPS) to have them verbalize it. If they can correctly articulate it, they've owned it.

Graphic Scaffolding

Scaffolding using graphic supports means teaching through charts, tables, and graphic organizers that morph numbers and data into visual representations. Graphic scaffolds are particularly effective when teachers want to communicate highly abstract concepts or show the relationships between things in a phenomenon.

Because graphic supports are texts with visuals, they should be treated as texts. It's vital that teachers demonstrate close reading skills when explaining charts, graphs, tables, and timelines because it usually takes multiple readings for a student to fully comprehend the graphic's ideas.

Since graphic supports usually lack the storytelling element inherent in visuals, we need to provide more guided support in reading them. The title is often the most important place to start when reading graphs, tables, and charts because it provides the main purpose of the graphic. For example, the table below from a scaffolded science lab report contains a title that orients ELs to the table.

When reading graphs, remind your students to pay careful attention to the "X" and "Y" axis on a graph or read the individual slices of a pie chart. Moreover, because they are highly abstract, I prefer to reserve using them only with ELs who have highly developed cognitive abilities.

Interactive tables - where the teacher designs a table with items the students are to fill in - are the most frequently used form of graphic support employed by content teachers. While charts, graphs, and timelines scaffold ELs' understanding of content knowledge, interactive tables empower ELs to communicate it.

Because tables are a form of writing, they should be treated like an act of reading. Educators have to directly teach ELs how to interact with a table and how to fill the empty spaces. Make sure that students must not be overwhelmed by a number of things the table is asking them to produce. Keep it simple.

The following table was co-created with Mr. Arno to help ELs produce a lab report. Notice how it helps ELs provide the necessary information for the "Materials" section and only asks for two things at a time.

Takeaways

Scaffolding is used to erect stunning buildings. Though we're not in the construction business, we are trying to impart knowledge, skills, and mindsets will serve students long after they've left our classrooms.

Scaffolding helps students develop the skills that they can later call on and build upon in their future endeavors.

Gottlieb, M. (2006). Assessing English language learners: Bridges from language proficiency to academic achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Gottlieb, M., Katz, A., & Ernst-Slavit, G. (2009). Paper to practice: Using the English language proficiency standards in PreK-12 classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.

Gottlieb, M. (2013). Essential Actions: A Handbook for Implementing WIDA's Framework for English Language Development Standards . Madison: Board of Regents of the U of Wisconsin System.

Himmele, P., & Himmele, W. (2009). The language-rich classroom: A research-based framework for teaching English language learners. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Riddett, C. (2015, April 2). The teaching learning cycle. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/teaching-learning-cycle-christopher-riddett

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#34. Three Types of Scaffolding: There's a Scaffold for That - ELL Strategies | TanKHuynh

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How three types of scaffolding instruction (sensory, graphic, interactive) can empower ELLs to access content and develop academic language skills.

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IA that generates an endless supply of questions. You need learning objectives

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AI question generator. Input a reading and align standards or learning outcomes so the AI writes multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer, and essential questions that can be exported to Kahoot, Quizziz, Google Forms, Microsoft Forms, Gimkit, Moodle, Canvas, Blooket, and Quizlet.

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Reaching ELLs through Small Group Instruction

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Reaching ELLs through Small Group Instruction

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Serving Multilingual Learners of All Ages

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The longer I have been in education, the stronger I believe in small group instruction. It truly is the of instruction. In a small group, the ratio between student and teacher is drastically reduced allowing the teacher to identify individual student needs and easily differentiate instruction.
No matter the content area in elementary school, small group instruction has a greater effect on student learning than whole group.

Some may say that it's too difficult to pull small groups so they continue to instruct in a whole class setting. I agree that in the beginning it may be difficult to get the structure and routine down for both the teacher and the students; however, once good classroom management is put into place and the routines are set, the ball will get rolling and small group becomes the best way to teach.

After all, as educators I think there aren't many who don't agree that we want to do what is best for students. While whole group instruction may be easiest for teachers to plan and implement, it can't be best for students who are diverse and unique--all at various levels with different background knowledge.
Overall, most teachers are pretty good at pulling small groups for reading instruction in the primary grades. But even that seems to taper off around third grade. What we know is that when we gather a small group of roughly 4-6 students and give them what they specifically need at the moment greater progress occurs in language and in content knowledge. So why don't we continue to pull small groups as kids get older? And how about pulling them in other content areas such as math, science, and social studies?
Some may wonder...What are the other kids doing while I pull a group? Won't they get off task? Well, that's up to you as the teacher.

The Benefits of Small Groups:
For ELLs one of the other benefits of small group instruction is that it lowers the affective filter. You know that feeling of fear or anxiety when you are in a situation that is high stress? Well, English Language Learners can feel that anxiety in a whole group setting more than in a smaller setting. When everyone is waiting and all eyes are on you anticipating your response it can be intimidating. This feeling is amplified when you are new to the country, have an accent or need a great deal of support.

When teachers meet with students in small groups, they are more apt to individualizing instruction and truly meeting students where they are. In a smaller setting, teachers are able to ask more questions to individual students which allows the students to interact more with the teacher. This also has an added benefit which is building the student teacher relationship.

Another benefit of small groups is that students are given more opportunities to talk. When students are in a smaller setting, they feel freer to talk, ask questions and grapple with ideas. This allows them to think critically and negotiate for meaning while having academic discussions more openly. On the other hand, in a whole group setting, the teacher asks a question and one student responds while everyone else zones out.

How Small Groups Work:

Well, typically when a teacher wants to implement small group instruction the best way to do it is just to jump right in. First, start by delivering a mini-lesson to the whole group. This would include a message to the class that is vital for everyone to hear. Then divide the class up as necessary for a "workshop" style setting. By that I mean that a small group (about 4-6) of your students will come along with you while the remainder of the class will either work independently or they will work in centers. It's best to keep the routine going for what the students do when they aren't meeting with you in the small group. Either keep it at independent work or stick to centers. Consistency within your workshop will help to ensure that the students stay on task and are well managed.

The most critical part will be setting up clear expectations for what the students are doing when they aren't meeting with you. If you want your small group to run efficiently, you need to know that the rest of the class is doing something meaningful and effective (and not wasting time off task). In my experience, the best way to implement small group instruction, is to explicitly teach students what they do while I pull small groups. This does take time but it's well worth the investment. In most classrooms while the teacher pulls small groups, the other students are either in centers or working independently. Either way, the students know exactly what is expected of them. Don't skip this part or your small groups and workshop will fail and you'll be wondering what happened.

Small groups can be determined by reading level, math skill level, language level, or a specific strategy need. And the way you decide can fluctuate. For example, in a math setting you may want to pull a group of students who have a similar math goal. They are all working towards learning to divide fractions. In reading, you may want to pull a group of students who are on different reading levels but all need to review finding the main idea of a nonfiction text. In a social studies or science setting, small groups may be about building background for students who are new to the country. Many newcomer students have a great deal of social studies or science knowledge about their home country but may need some information about their new country.

Key Components of Small Group Instruction:

Keep it short. 10-15 minutes per group.

Make your group work engaging and heavy with kid work. Less teacher talk!

When demonstrating, use texts and examples the students are familiar with.

Coach students in their own work.

Remember that the goal of small group is not 100% mastery. It may take a few times!

My advice to teachers who want what's best for their students is to just do it! Go for small groups. You will see immediate results. Happier students, smarter students, and a more satisfied teacher. Don't be afraid that you aren't doing it right. Just start and learn from your experiences. Reflect and refine.

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Reaching ELLs through Small Group Instruction

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The longer I have been in education, the stronger I believe in small group instruction. It truly is the of instruction. In a small group, the ratio between student and teacher is drastically reduced allowing the teacher to identify individual student needs and easily differentiate instruction.

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Who: All students should participate in small group instruction.

When: The more a group of students is struggling, the more often they should meet with you.

Where: This can happen in the regular classroom, in a specialist's classroom, or in tutorials. In the regular classroom, I prefer to use the Workshop Model and to pull my small groups during the work period.

How: Students can be grouped in a variety of ways, but I prefer to group my students by need. Generally, this means that I am targeting a specific skill or TEK that the group of students are struggling with. This requires an assessment of skills that can be done through a common assessment, conferences, or observations.

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Who: All students should participate in small group instruction. When: The more a group of students is struggling, the more often they should meet with you. Where: This can happen in the regular classroom, in a specialist's classroom, or in tutorials.

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Rewordify.com is powerful, free, online software that improves reading, learning, and teaching. 

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Rewordify.com is powerful, free, online software that improves reading, learning, and teaching. 

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Intelligently simplify difficult English, for faster comprehension

Effectively teach words, for building a better vocabulary

Help teachers save time and produce engaging lessons

Help improve learning outcomes

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Rewordify.com | Understand what you read

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Rewordify.com helps you read more, understand better, learn new words, and teach more effectively.

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Supporting English Learners in Independent Reading

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supporting English learners in independent reading

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"Model for students how proficient readers make meaning of a text by verbalizing your thinking as you read. "

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Model for students how proficient readers make meaning of a text by verbalizing your thinking as you read.

English & Language Arts

History

Using the strategies from Facing History is almost like an awakening.

- Claudia Bautista, Santa Monica, Calif

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Model for students how proficient readers make meaning of a text by verbalizing your thinking as you read. English & Language Arts History Using the strategies from Facing History is almost like an awakening. - Claudia Bautista, Santa Monica, Calif

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Wonderopolis - a site that shares the answer to students' wonders, paired with visuals, videos, and text to speech available

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Wonderopolis - a site that shares the answer to students' wonders, paired with visuals, videos, and text to speech available

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Have you ever tasted an Arab taco?

When was the Arab taco invented?

What is shawarma?

Find it out

How are currency exchange rates determined?

What was the gold standard?

Which type of currency exchange rate system does the U.S. use?

Find it out
Which of the following is usually NOT a factor in determining currency exchange rates?

Test your knowledge

How can I use Wonderopolis?

What are the parts of a Wonder?

How do writers make a Wonder?

Find it out
Based on information from the Wonder, what was Lou Castro known for when he was alive?

Test your knowledge

What is an okapi?

Where do okapis live?

What do okapis eat?

Find it out

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Where the Wonders of Learning Never Cease | Wonderopolis

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Where the Wonders of Learning Never Cease

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Taking this practice to the next level

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Video from Edutopia

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60-Second Strategy: Cooperative Learning Roles

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Giving students randomly assigned roles in their group work helps ensure that they all participate.

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Encouraging Academic Conversations With Talk Moves

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Encouraging Academic Conversations With Talk Moves

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Sentence starters that students use to join a class discussion encourage both academic thinking and social connectedness.

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Encouraging Academic Conversations With Talk Moves

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Setting expectations for EB students to speak in complete sentences

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Setting expectations for EB students to speak in complete sentences

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Teachflix - Prompt conversations or quick writes. All content videos to use in class -- crowdsourced from educators like you. 

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Teachflix - Prompt conversations or quick writes. All content videos to use in class -- crowdsourced from educators like you. 

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TEACHFLIX - A curated collection of videos for the classroom.

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Free Video Activities for Class TODAY Save yourself some time and frustration. Get 14 activities you can copy and assign to your students right away in our Teaching with TEACHFLIX ebook ! BONUS: You'll get FREE teaching ideas in your inbox every week.

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"Sometimes educators use the terms sentence stems, sentence starters and sentence frames interchangeably. You may wonder...are they the same thing? The answer is no, they are are not the same. They have their own form and function."

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Rooted Linguistics: Serving Teachers of Multilingual Learners

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

Here are some examples of sentence frames:

The square has ___sides/angles.

The ____has ___sides/angles.

The ___are the same/different.

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

My name is_____ and I am ___years old.

The _____ revolted against the ____.

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

___have ____, however, ____ have ____.

​Both ____ and ____ have ____.

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

Here are examples of sentence stems:

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

I think that...for example

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

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

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

I don't understand why....

Based on the pattern, the numbers will...

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

Beginning-Simple sentence structure: ____and ___ are quadrilaterals.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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National Geographic Picture of the Day / Prompt conversations or quick writes with impactful photographs

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National Geographic Picture of the Day / Prompt conversations or quick writes with impactful photographs

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Lion and Hyenas Image, Namibia | National Geographic Your Shot Photo of the Day

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A conflict between lions and hyenas escalates in Namibia in this National Geographic Your Shot Photo of the Day.

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Prompt students conversation with a video clip: The Kid Should See This • Smart videos for curious minds of all ages

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Prompt students conversation with a video clip: The Kid Should See This • Smart videos for curious minds of all ages

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The Kid Should See This: Educational videos for curious kids of all ages, a free resource for parents & teachers. Science, art, nature, animals, & more.

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Teacher Toolkit: Turn and Talk (Secondary)

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Teacher Toolkit: Turn and Talk (Secondary)

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See Michael Sandhu, middle school science teacher, use Turn and Talk to help his students discuss their ideas. This strategy permits all students to participate in discussion, rather than only a few students participating in a class-wide discussion. All students are able to process new learning while engaging in meaningful conversation with a classmate.
Find more tips and videos at: www.theteachertoolkit.com

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Teacher Toolkit: Turn and Talk (Secondary)

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Cartoons and comic strips can be used from beginner level to advanced level for a variety of language and discussion activities.

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Cartoons and comic strips can be used from beginner level to advanced level for a variety of language and discussion activities.

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Cartoons are powerful teaching tools and can:

Tell a complex story in a few images

Provide comment and provoke thought on events and issues in the news

Give an example of vocabulary related to current trends and fads

Provide easily identifiable characters to form the basis for sketches

Show culture in action with the ways that men or women are behaving and are expected to behave

Comment on and illustrate a whole range of issues like racism, teenage relationships, sexism, ageism, family relationships.

Word of warning: The language used can sometimes be too colloquial and referential for lower levels to cope with. Choose your cartoons and comic strips with care.
1. Activities for exploiting cartoons Exploring the theme of humour
Take one cartoon which depicts absurd situations. For example, this could be a Gary Larsen cartoon or one of those greeting cards using a black and white photo and a funny sentence which gives a strange twist.

Ask students to work in groups and get them to discuss:

What does the cartoon mean?

Why is it funny?

What techniques are used to make it funny?

Their own sense of humour and national tastes in humour
Use a cartoon to introduce the idea of humour and culture. Take a selection of cartoons and ask groups to decide what each one means and if they think it's funny. Vote on the funniest cartoon. Ask the students to discuss:

What types of method are used to make us laugh?

Do people laugh at ordinary situations in their country?

Are political figures made fun of?

Do they use satire or slap-stick humour?

What are the most popular types of humour on TV?

This can be developed into a lesson on jokes and the types of joke that they find funny.
Dealing with issues

Take one or more cartoons which comment on an issue in the news. A national newspaper or magazine like Private Eye are good sources. Use one to introduce the topic and brainstorm vocabulary.

Use a selection of cartoons to discuss the different aspects of the issue. Take an issue like disciplining children or dealing with teenagers. Ask if they agree with the cartoonists' opinions.

Use one to end a lesson or series of lessons on a social or political issue. Ask students to write a caption for the cartoon. You can prepare them for this by a match the caption to the cartoon exercise.

2. Activities for using comic strips Tell the story

Cut up the pictures and get students to re-order the story. Make this more difficult and challenging linguistically by giving separate frames to each student in a group and ask them to not show the pictures until they have arrived at an order through describing the pictures.

Remove the last picture of a cartoon and ask students to think of an ending. Artistic students may like to draw the last frame. Vote for the best ending.

Remove the sentences under each frame and either ask lower levels to match them to each frame or ask them to write the sentences that tell the story. Lower levels might need vocabulary prompts on the board.

Make the comic strip

Give students a comic strip with a short paragraph for each frame. Ask students to reduce each paragraph to one sentence for each frame. Compare their efforts to the original. With higher levels you can discuss techniques of summarising your message.

Give students a story. Groups confer to guess what might be missing. Give them the comic strip version. They must fill in the blanks in their written story by using the comic strip pictures. Then ask them to think of speech bubbles for the comic strip. This might also include thought bubbles for characters.

Remove speech bubbles from a comic strip. Cut them up and give out. Ask them to order them and to imagine what the story or situation is. Groups can act out their version for the class. Then give them the comic strip and ask them to see if their speech bubbles fit the story there.

When you use a short story with younger learners ask them to make the story into a series of four pictures. This can be a group effort or a whole class task with each group drawing one part. If you use a black and white comic strip allow time for younger learners to colour their versions.

Make an information gap using a photocopied comic strip. Blank out details or change what characters are saying. Make sets which are coloured differently. Set up spot the difference activities using the comic strip and then lead in to story telling and acting out the comic strip.

3. Exploit characters Make a comic strip character

Look at different comic strip heroes. Get suggestions from the class of names: Superman, Bart Simpson, Asterix, Tin Tin or others. Encourage the students to tell you about their favourite comic book characters. Ask them to describe one character in pairs.

What makes this character special?

What can they do? Have they got special powers?

What are their weaknesses?

What do they look like?

What are their special interests or ambitions?

Then ask each group or pair to choose a favourite character and make a simple situational dialogue which is typical for them.

Ask students to work in pairs or groups to invent their own character. If appropriate students can draw the character. Give the character special powers, a name and a special mission.

The final stage is to tell an everyday story involving the character.

Discuss comic strip characters (higher levels)

Many popular comic strips in the national press are used to challenge stereotypes and criticise discrimination. You can exploit these aspects of the stories to introduce lessons on these issues in a less formal way.

Many comic strip characters are seen in situations based on misunderstandings. Exploit these features of communication breakdown to discuss how characters speak to each other and what they might say. Devise role plays based on these comic strips to challenge more advanced learners. Get them to act out the next sequence in the story.

Exploit short sequences for sketches and improvisations

Choose a key situation which would involve language students might need to practice, such as agreeing with opinions, asking permission or saying you are sorry.

Play a sequence from a cartoon with the sound off so students describe what is happening, imagine what is being said and can then use the sequence to improvise a sketch. Listen to the real sketch at the end.

Internet links
https://www.gocomics.com/ This site has a huge collection of comic links, from Dick Tracy to Calvin Hobbs
https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/games/comic-strip-maker LearnEnglish Kids comic strip maker

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Cartoons are powerful teaching tools and can: Tell a complex story in a few images Provide comment and provoke thought on events and issues in the news Give an example of vocabulary related to current trends and fads Provide easily identifiable characters to form the basis for sketches Show culture in action with the ways that men or women are behaving and are expected to behave Comment on and illustrate a whole range of issues like racism, teenage relationships, sexism, ageism, family relationships.