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Comprehensible Input Demo for Language Rich Classrooms Training

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Strategy Overview

How This Strategy Supports Language Development

Emerging level students benefit from explicit use of visuals to support their comprehension and language acquisition around a specific topic. The PWIM explicitly and systematically teaches essential nouns, verbs, details, grammatical structures, and vocabulary words associated with a topic using a single visual. The strategy can be used in any content area to support emerging level students as they develop academic language and content.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Choose a highly detailed image that teaches a concept.

2. Share the picture with the class on a large screen.

3. Write the name of the noun on the image in one color and draw a line from annotation to that particular noun.

4. Then write the verb for this noun in another color.

5. Complete the sentence with the details of that noun in a different color.

6. Repeat this process for the rest of the nouns in the image.

7. Ask students to tell their partner about the picture using the annotated image.

8. Ask students to write about the picture using the annotated visual.

Lessons Learned

Limit the number of sentences per image to only the most essential as this process can take a long time.

Provide students with their own image so they can also write the sentences as the teacher models.

Ask students to contribute ideas for vocabulary and sentences during the annotation process.

Have students orally practice the sentences with a partner throughout the process.

Use pictures for review regularly.

As students gain more vocabulary and sentence structures, have them contribute more ideas for each sentence and eventually create their own PWIM.

Pair this process with a Sentence Pattern Chart.

Differentiation

This process is designed for entering and emerging level students. Additional differentiation ideas include the following:

Write words and sentences in the students' heritage language in addition to English.

Encourage students who are literate in their heritage language to write words and sentences in their heritage languages.

You can also add a Sentence Pattern Chart at the bottom of the picture to make the patterns written in the colored-coded sentences more explicit.

Co-Teaching Considerations

Content or Grade-Level Teacher

1. Choose the detailed image that captures key concepts for the grade-level lesson.

2. Share key vocabulary with the ELD teacher.

3. If the concept is a process, number the annotations so students see the sequence in the process.

English Language Development Teacher

1. Use PWIM with small groups of beginning level students before the content lesson to build background knowledge and vocabulary.

2. Encourage beginning level students to use their PWIM pictures during the grade-level class as a support.

3. Add heritage language words to the PWIM.

4. For students at the Developing phase of proficiency, provide the image and have students work together to add the sentences.

5. For the students on the Expanding phase of proficiency, have them write the annotations for the image. Then write a one-paragraph summary that includes transitions (provided in a word bank).

Examples

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Strategy OverviewHow This Strategy Supports Language DevelopmentEmerging level students benefit from explicit use of visuals to support their comprehension and language acquisition around a specific topic. The PWIM explicitly and systematically teaches essential nouns, verbs, details, grammatical structures, and vocabulary words associated with a topic using a single visual.

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The new question-of-the-week is:
What is the single most effective instructional strategy you have used to teach English-language learners?
This series is part of a longer series of questions and answers inviting educators from various disciplines to share their "single most effective instructional strategy."

There are many more to come!

Today, Valentina Gonzalez, Denita Harris, Cindy Garcia, and Deedy Camarena offer their responses.

Before we get to today's guest, I'd like to share my own answer.

Two that contributors to this series don't mention and are ones I like to use often are the Language Experience Approach (LEA) and Total Physical Response (TPR).

Two particularly useful posts that have not yet made it into that summary collection (I update them every summer) are Thirteen Instructional Strategies for Supporting ELL Newcomers and Ten Strategies for Teaching English-Language Learners Online.

Now, to responses from today's guests:

Picture Word Inductive Model
Valentina Gonzalez is a former classroom teacher with over 20 years in education serving also as a district facilitator for English-learners, a professional-development specialist for ELs, and as an educational consultant. Valentina delivers professional development and coaches teachers on sheltered instruction strategies. Her work can be found on Seidlitz Education and on MiddleWeb. You can reach her through her website or on Twitter @ValentinaESL:
Shifting the way we approach teaching English-learners can have a positive effect on their success in our schools. When we see our English-learners' assets first, we recognize everything they come with and value not only their culture but also the content and literacy they bring to the table.

I've found the Picture Word Inductive Model (Calhoun, 1998) to be one of the most effective instructional techniques in my experience teaching ELs. The benefits of using PWIM with English-learners are many. This literacy technique is quite flexible and can be used cross-curricularly no matter the grade level, language level, or content. PWIM leverages students' funds of knowledge and builds upon them. Through the PWIM, ELs are engaged in thinking and in all language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing with scaffolds and supports such as visuals and sentence stems or frames. This method can be used in all grade levels and cross-curricularly.

These are the steps I use to implement an adapted version of PWIM with English-learners and how each step benefits ELs:

This engaging instructional strategy helps to lower students' anxiety levels, which increases participation. After using the PWIM with numerous student groups, these are some tips I can offer to educators who haven't tried it before:

Carefully select images that are compelling to your age group of students.

Try color coding or chunking labeled words (ex.: all verbs in orange, adjectives in blue, etc.).

Keep in mind students' language-proficiency levels when creating sentence stems and frames. Students with advanced English proficiency will benefit from more sophisticated sentence structures.

Don't stress about doing it all in one day. Gage your students and make adjustments as needed.

On a subsequent day, use the generated words as a sorting activity. Ask students to work with a partner to put the words in groups and label the groups.

Co-create a sentence-patterning chart with the class. Some groups of students may need this level of support during Step 7.

Below is an example of a PWIM and sentence-patterning chart mash up. Combining these two techniques enhances ELs' listening, speaking, reading, and writing in English.

Sentence Frames
Denita Harris is a curriculum coordinator for the MSD of Wayne Township, Indianapolis. She has over 20 years of experience as a teacher, assistant principal, and district-level administrator. Harris is the recipient of the 2019 INTESOL (Indiana Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Best of the Best in K-12 Education, and the 2017 and 2020 African American Excellence in Education Award. Find her on Twitter @HarrisLeads:
The single most effective strategy I have used and would highly recommend when teaching English-language learners is the use of sentence frames for writing and speaking, the productive skills, accompanied with a word bank, word phrases, and/or pictures.

English-languagelearners possess a wealth of knowledge, and it is our obligation, as educators, to tap into their knowledge and continue to build upon what our students already know and can do. We must remember our students are in the process of learning a new language and are not in the process of learning a language; therefore, we can provide the words and the grammatical structures of the new language to help guide them in speaking and writing.

Here is an analogy to consider. English-language learners have the tools (vocabulary in their native language). They come to us with these tools; however, while learning English, they may not yet know the names of all the tools or how to use them properly to accomplish a task completely (speaking or writing in English). Our responsibility is to provide our students with the names of each tool (vocabulary in English) and demonstrate to them, through sentence frames, how they might utilize these tools to accomplish a complete task (express a complete thought or sentence in English). A sentence frame can be made up of only one sentence or several sentences to assist students in structuring paragraphs.

The use of sentence frames for writing and speaking not only give English-language learners a framework to communicate through both oral and written language, sentence frames also help build students' self-efficacy. When students have the language to contribute to classroom discussions and are able to express their thoughts on paper, they begin to feel a part of the classroom community, and that makes all the difference.

Comprehensible Input
Cindy Garcia has been a bilingual educator for 14 years and is currently a district instructional specialist for PK-6 bilingual/ESL mathematics. She is active onTwitter @CindyGarciaTX and on her blog:
The single most effective strategy that I used to teach English-language learners is comprehensible input. Comprehensible input means that the teacher speaks in such a way that students are able to understand what is being said even when they do not know or understand all of the words being stated. Below are some strategies to make input comprehensible:

Slow down rate of speech and enunciate clearly. As students are listening, they are also working to process what is being said and how that fits with what they already know. At the same time, ELLs are translanguaging and making sense of teachers' academic language. ELLs are developing their English language, and it is very important that they hear those initial and ending sounds of words in order to add them to their vocabulary. Sometimes when we speak too quickly, we drop important sounds such as "ing".

Avoid figurative language and idioms. While these phrases might make sense to you and emphasize a point, to ELLs they might break down their comprehension. Students will probably end up with a literal translation that makes no sense. For example, saying it was a piece of cake will be translated to it was a portion of a dessert, not it was easy! Not only that, but ELLs might stop listening as they try to figure what that idiom means.

Use gestures and total physical response (TPR). Language can sometimes be abstract and not precise. There can also be words that exist in English that do not exist in other languages. For example, toes do not have a Spanish equivalent. In Spanish, we have hand fingers and feet fingers. Using exaggerated gestures can help make the meaning of new vocabulary more clear to students. Using TPR, students also learn to associate a movement with a word, and that will make it more likely that they internalize that new vocabulary.

Collaborative Summarizing
Deedy Camarena is the coordinator for English-language development (ELD), dual and world languages, at the Santa Clara County Office of Education in California:
Second, students find one partner to dialogue with and " create a negotiated list that reflects their combined agreement on the three to six most important ideas." Once students have discussed the most important ideas, they turn them into one, collaborative 15-word summary. Teachers can strategically pair up students, or students can choose. Students must first determine the negotiating rules they will follow. For example, act respectively, cite evidence to prove your opinion, or use academic-language sentence frames, such as Kate Kinsella's, for discussing and collaboration. Students use these sentence frames to support the function of negotiating and intentionally use academically language correctly. The purpose of negotiating with their partner is to "identify who or what is the most important in the section, [and] identify what the subject is doing,"( English Learner Toolkit of Strategies).

Third, have each pair meet with another pair. One student from each pair reads their summary. Then, they dive in and renegotiate a common summary for their new group of four and add it to their graphic organizer.

Fourth, each group of four chooses another group of four to repeat the renegotiating process. Once again, the group will add this new summary to their graphic organizer.

Fifth, ask groups to edit their summaries for meaning, language, and word choice. As the focus of Collaborative Summarizing is utilizing purposeful dialogue to practice oracy, this could be an optional step.

Sixth, chose one student from the group to present the summary to the class. As ELLs have varying comfort levels of reading in front of a class, give the students time to practice in their group. Once a sufficient amount of time has passed, bring the class together to listen to the summaries.

Thanks to Valentina, Denita, Cindy, and Deedy for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email (The RSS feed for this blog, and for all Ed Week articles, has been changed by the new redesign-new ones are not yet available). And if you missed any of the highlights from the first nine years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column.

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The Six Most Effective Instructional Strategies for ELLs-According to Teachers (Opinion)

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Teachers share their "go-to" strategies for teaching English-language learners, including sentence starters and Total Physical Response.

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Colorín Colorado is a national multimedia project that offers a wealth of bilingual, research-based information, activities, and advice for educators and families of English language learners (ELLs). Colorín Colorado is an educational service of WETA, the flagship public broadcasting station in the nation's capital, and receives major funding from the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association.

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The following resources can support schools' partnerships with the multilingual families of English language learners (ELLs), with a special focus on newcomer families and resources for educators who are new to working with ELLs.

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The following resources can support schools' partnerships with the multilingual families of English language learners (ELLs), with a special focus on newcomer families and resources for educators who are new to working with ELLs.

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The new question-of-the-week is:
What are effective teaching strategies for newcomers?
Newcomers to the United States often have low-proficiency in English but, depending upon their age, might have had considerable education in their home language.

What are the most effective teaching strategies educators can use with this population, which is certain to grow under President Biden's immigration policies?

Several experienced educators are contributing responses to this question: Michelle Shory, Irina McGrath, Luisa Palacio, Sean McWherter Ed.D., and Ciera Walker. Michelle, Irina, and Luisa were also guests on my 10-minute BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

Before we get to today's guest contributors, I'd like to share a few of my favorite strategies:
1. Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM)
In the PWIM, students and teachers first label an image with words, then categorize them, followed by using the words to write sentences about the picture. They next categorize the sentences, turn them into paragraphs, and finally, write a title.

You can learn more about the PWIM here and here.
2. Games
You can't go wrong with games. In the classroom, zillions of different ones can be played with mini-whiteboards, and they can be modified for online use by using a tool like Whiteboard.fi. Quizizz is also great for online use, and it has countless games already premade for just about any topic you want to teach!
3. Dialogues 4.Freire's Learning Sequence 5. Language Experience Approach (LEA)
Promoting Interaction
Michelle Shory and Irina McGrath are Google Certified trainers and co-creators of ELL 2.0, a website that offers tools and resources for teachers of English-learners. Irina V. McGrath, Ph.D., works for the Kentucky education department as an education recovery specialist. She is also a co-director of the Louisville Writing Project (LWP) and the University of Louisville and Indiana University Southeast adjunct who teaches ESL/ENL instruction as well as assessment, literature, and cultural- and linguistic-diversity courses. Michelle Shory, Ed.S., is a district ESL instructional coach in the Jefferson County public schools, Louisville, Ky. She is passionate about literacy and helped establish Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in Louisville.
Teaching students who are newcomers (students in their first year of enrollment in a U.S school) is a privilege-it changes an educator's outlook, practice, and heart forever; however, working with newcomers requires a lot of cognitive, physical, and emotional energy. But we challenge you to find a more rewarding experience in all of education. Where else do you get to see such incredible growth and change? And you will probably keep relationships with these students long after they leave your classroom.
Research
In order to support newcomers in the most effective way, teachers should do their homework on students-research their cultures, history, language, and education systems. You can find resources here and here.

Learning about newcomers will help you connect with your students and their families, give you ideas on how to make your curriculum culturally relevant, and help you address your own assumptions and misconceptions.
Relationships, Self-Advocacy, and Routines
Before starting with the first "real" lesson, begin with relationships, self-advocacy, and routines.

When focusing on relationships, start with names. Teachers should know how to pronounce student names-and students should know how to pronounce each other's names. Also, students need to be fully seen. Educators must take time to learn about their students' interests, families, and topics they love to study. Teachers should also share about themselves-share hobbies, family pictures, etc. Classrooms (especially newcomer classrooms) need to feel safe because we are encouraging students to be vulnerable each day when they are using a new language.

Dr. Stephen Krashen instructs educators to "lower the affective filter" as a way to increase comprehension. Lowering the affective filter includes helping kids feel comfortable by speaking more slowly, using gestures, and including high-interest materials. All of this is most effective when classrooms are warm and comfortable.

Educators will want to begin by teaching independence on day one. Show students how to use technology like Microsoft's Immersive Reader, Google Translate, or Socratic from Google. Demonstrate planning and organization skills (like using a digital calendar or Google Keep). It is also a good idea to make sure that students know how to ask for help from a teacher when they don't know the answer to a question.
Instructional Supports and Considerations
One last addition is to set up strategies to support interaction. WIDA researchers found that ELs spend on average less than 10 minutes per day speaking in class. This is unacceptable from a social-emotional and academic lens-ELs need to engage frequently in classroom conversations. When thinking about structures, consider Kagan structures or QSSSA from Seidlitz.

When facilitating lessons, always remember to include visuals, gestures, and repetition. ESL consultant and teacher Carol Salva's students report these strategies as the most helpful.

It is also important to consider teaching themes. Krashen's research demonstrates the power of "deep reading" on a topic and how it supports ELs in acquiring language. Themes boost engagement and confidence because students are continually building their expertise about a topic. Additional research (highlighted in Natalie Wexler's work) has proven that reading comprehension is largely based on background knowledge. So, whenever teachers build students' knowledge of the world, they are also supporting comprehension.

Finally, when teaching newcomers, educators should not discount the expertise in the room. Be sure to tap into students' "funds of knowledge," a term coined by Dr. Luis Moll that represents cultural resources and knowledge that students bring to the classroom. Always include at least one entry point for newcomers to bring in their cultural and linguistic expertise. One example might be a unit on religions, holidays, or education systems around the globe.

In conclusion, teachers play an important role in ensuring social, emotional, and academic success of newcomer students. The more effort teachers put into getting to know their students, teaching them self-advocacy skills, and building on their funds of knowledge, the greater chance their students will have of reaching their highest potential and succeeding personally and professionally.

ELLs 'Need to Feel Safe'
Luisa Palacio is an ESL and Spanish teacher from Colombia with 19 years of teaching experience. Luisa holds a bachelor's degree in modern languages: English and French, and an M.A. in TESOL from Greensboro College. Currently, she teaches K-12 at Northampton County schools in North Carolina and Spanish with South Carolina Virtual Education:
We always consider content relevancy, the use of visuals, vocalization, facial expression, among others. However, what ELs need at first is to feel safe, comfortable, and confident in their new environment.

The school system works in a completely different way in every country. I believe one of the first things we need to do with newcomers is to show them how school works, classroom routines, how to sign in and out of school, how to move around campus, how to get their meals, how to login on their technological devices, explain schedules, share possible extracurricular activities in which newcomers could participate, etc. Newcomers need modeling, not only for the language but also for the culture. Newcomers need to be shown what to do and how to do it, what to say and how to say it. As teachers, we need to be aware of the cultural shock newcomers go through so that we can help the process to run a bit smoother.

Every newcomer should have a mentor to shadow him/her during the first days of school, someone who can introduce them to their teachers, who makes teachers aware that this EL is in their class and will need some extra attention. In my opinion, cultural awareness should be the first teaching strategy. Newcomers are facing a new culture, and they also need to feel their own culture is valued. Thus, it is important to generate activities that allow students to share their culture, so they make comparisons and connections by sharing about a subject they master and a subject that is relevant.

'Language-Learning Goals'

Sean McWherter, Ed.D., is the director of restart programs for the Guilford County schools in North Carolina. He is the author of A Road Map to PLC Success published by Routledge Eye on Education, 2017, and Unpacking your Learning Targets: Aligning Student Learning to Standards, published by Routledge Eye on Education, 2020:

With the rapidly increasing population of English-language-learners in many schools across the U.S., it is becoming ever more important for regular education teachers and administrators to know how to support these students and their families.

I feel that oftentimes educators mistakenly believe that ELLs have trouble learning or that they learn differently from native English speakers and that their education is best left to the English as a second language or ELL teacher. This could not be further from the truth; the educational barriers ELL students face are accentuated by language and cultural barriers, not an inability to learn.
Utilize Language-Learning Goals
Many educators are aware that the use of learning targets in the classroom is an instructional best practice and that students learn better when teachers utilize clear daily learning goals (Marzano, 2009; Reeves, 2010; Kareva & Echevarria, 2013). For ELL students, it is especially important to include both lesson and language-learning goals.

The lesson objectives should be focused on the grade-level content while the language objective should align to one of the four domains of English-language development (ELD), which are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. A teacher's experience with creating and using language objectives in their instruction is important to ensure that ELLs have equal access to the curriculum (Hudson, Miller, & Butler, 2006; Short, Echevarría, & Richards-Tutor, 2011; Marcos and Himmel 2016). When planning a lesson, everything should intentionally lead students to mastery of the learning targets while providing students with a variety of meaningful activities and high-quality instruction.
Increase Student Engagement and Interactions
To support student engagement, as well as the lesson and language objectives, liberally employ the use of visuals to reinforce both spoken and written words. Capitalize on the use of gestures, often exaggerated, for added emphasis, speak slower and be sure to enunciate your words, repeat important words or phrases, and be sure to use fewer idioms. Many ELL students have not attended schools in their new county and may be unfamiliar with cultural references. Take the time to thoroughly review texts to identify potentially confusing language and concepts so that you can build the background knowledge of your ELL students prior to exposing them to potentially confusing material (Kareva & Echevarria, 2013).

Incorporate high-frequency vocabulary words throughout all content areas and be sure to provide instructions and other important information in multiple formats. Don't just tell the students what you want them to do, write it, provide an example/exemplar, and act it out or model the activity if possible.

Provide multiple opportunities for ELL students to interact with their peers in small groups where they can practice speaking and listening in low-risk settings that will produce language-learning outcomes (Saunders & Goldenberg, 2010).
Build Positive Relationships and Cultural Connections
Building relationships with your students is the foundational component of successful teaching and learning, and there is a multitude of research that supports this idea. According to a review of 46 research studies, students that feel valued and appreciated are more likely to demonstrate both short- and long-term improvements in academic engagement, attendance, grades, and behavior, while also having a reduced dropout rate (Sparks, 2019).

Begin forming relationships with your ELL students by learning about their individual culture, traditions, religion, hobbies, family dynamic, and background. Stay respectful of their personal boundaries and understand that they may need time to settle into their new environment before opening up. (National Clearing House for English Language Acquisition, n.d.). Having a positive relationship with a student's family can also help support their education.

Remember some of the families may only have very little or even no formal schooling experience in this country, so taking the time to show them what school is like and how they can get involved are critical first steps to forming a parent partnership. (Short & Boyson, 2012)

Stations
Ciera Walker is a sixth-year systemwide ELL teacher in east Tennessee:
Newcomers that might have the same level of English do not necessarily grow and learn at the same rate. This is due to many factors, such as previous schooling experience and the background of the student and their family. I use stations as a strategy to meet the needs of all of my newcomers.

What? Stations provide students with an opportunity to work with a partner on specific skills to boost their language learning and language acquisition.

When? We do stations most Thursdays and every Friday.

How? Students eventually work their way up to a goal of 12-15 minutes per station. The teacher starts a timer, and students rotate through the stations with their partner.

Who? I generally group my students by ability in English (homogeneous groups), but occasionally, if they have a great ,I will let them choose their partners (in more heterogeneous groups).

Why? The purpose of stations is to provide students with practice in skills they are learning in the ESL classroom and the general education classroom. Students have opportunities to practice skills during stations while the teacher provides individualized mini-lessons to help with the language-learning process. Stations are practical and provide teachers with opportunities to use best practices in teaching students a new language. It is extremely important to be purposeful, organized, and use a system to make stations go smoothly! It takes a lot of planning to teach students the stations so they can work independently. I take a lot of time to "front-load" the expectations and provide students time to practice. Students generally start stations independently after fall break.

Each year, I change up my stations depending on my students' needs or new ideas I find. Below are some of my favorites that are easy to maintain and enjoyed by the students. I recommend teachers keep stations simple and choose one activity per station, especially in the beginning. As students become more familiar, you can add on to the complexity of each station.

Teacher: Students meet with the teacher and work on individualized needs (letter work, word work, reading stories, fluency, comprehension, etc.). I like to use Reading A-Z or ReadWorks to help structure this station.

Listening: Students work on EPIC books, Unite for Literacy, or listen to books on tape/cd. You can get a headphone splitter from Amazon for pretty cheap if you have limited devices so students can listen together.

Library: Students read a book and complete a simple graphic organizer about what they read.

Computer Station: Choose a safe website for students to play on. I like starfall.com for my primary students and I am hoping to implement typing websites for my older students next year.

Speaking: I use Vocaroo or Flipgrid. For Vocaroo, I usually have picture cards with vocabulary words students might need; students retell the story. For Flipgrid, I usually have a video for students to watch or I ask them a question and they must respond.

Writing: This station is the one that evolves the most throughout the year. Using picture prompts, sentence stems/frames, and word banks is crucial for the writing station.

Word Work Games: This station has many games that work on foundational reading skills. Eventually, students have different boxes/baggies they pull from (depending on their level).

1. Bang: Have different sets of 10-12 words (letters, sight words, vocabulary words, etc.). Label 1-2 cards "Bang." Students pour cards out of baggies into a box. They reach in the box and grab a word, say the meaning or read the word. If they pull "bang," then all their cards must go back in the box.

2. Roll, read, write: Create a 7x6 table. Type in the target words that correspond with a number on a die. Put the sheet in a pocket protector and have students write the word with an Expo marker when they roll the die.

3. Oodlu.org: Create vocabulary sets. Students answer questions and get to play premade video games. Easy to use and create-a class favorite!

Stations are a versatile and practical way to provide students with practice on new skills they are learning and to differentiate instruction for newcomers with varying levels of language acquisition.

Thanks to Michelle, Irina, Luisa, Sean, and Ciera for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email (The RSS feed for this blog, and for all Ed Week articles, has been changed by the new redesign-new ones won't be available until February). And if you missed any of the highlights from the first nine years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column.

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Thirteen Instructional Strategies for Supporting ELL Newcomers (Opinion)

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Five educators share effective instructional strategies to use with English-language-learner newcomers, including using images and games.

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Ten Strategies for Teaching English-Language Learners Online (Opinion)

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Four teachers offer specific suggestions for teaching English-language learners online, including by maintaining consistency and not overdoing it.

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Language Growth! Using Visuals & the Picture Word Inductive Model to Advance Literacy

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The Coaching Corner - 3. Comprehensible Input

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What is the purpose of comprehensible input?

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English Language Learners (ELLs) can have a wide variety of needs in their reading and writing instruction. Some students may read and write fluently in their native language while others will enter the classroom with little or no prior literacy instruction. This resource section covers many topics, including grade-level strategies and ideas for teaching more advanced reading and writing skills such as those required by the Common Core State Standards. With the right supports and opportunities for engagement, ELLs can become successful, life-long readers as seen in this section.

What You'll Find in This Section

For English language learners (ELLs) in upper grades, reading needs may vary greatly. Some students will read fluently in their native language, while others may come in with very limited literacy skills and will require creative approaches for teachers and literacy coaches. These resources include ideas for creating a safe, comfortable setting where adolescent ELLs can begin to catch up and increase confidence over time. For additional ideas, visit our sister site about adolescent literacy, AdLit.org.

What does it take to help English language learners (ELLs) become successful writers? This section offers a number of ideas and resources from veteran educators and researchers for students of all ages and proficiency levels. For examples of student writing projects, see our Student Voices section.

For English language learners (ELLs) in upper grades, reading needs may vary greatly. Some students will read fluently in their native language, while others may come in with very limited literacy skills and will require creative approaches for teachers and literacy coaches. These resources include ideas for creating a safe, comfortable setting where adolescent ELLs can begin to catch up and increase confidence over time. For additional ideas, visit our sister site about adolescent literacy, AdLit.org.

What does it take to help English language learners (ELLs) become successful writers? This section offers a number of ideas and resources from veteran educators and researchers for students of all ages and proficiency levels. For examples of student writing projects, see our Student Voices section.

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English Language Learners (ELLs) can have a wide variety of needs in their reading and writing instruction. Some students may read and write fluently in their native language while others will enter the classroom with little or no prior literacy instruction.

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Social and Emotional Support for English Language Learners

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The following resources highlight many different aspects of social and emotional learning (SEL) and supports for English language learners (ELLs) and immigrant students. This section also includes articles and video projects that highlight how schools around the country are supporting SEL in diverse communities.

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Sample Slides to Scaffold Text (available for every module)

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Tabletop Mini-Lessons (English Language Support) Part 1

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Tabletop Mini-Lessons (English Language Support) Part 1

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Tabletop Minilessons (ENglish Learner Support) Part 2

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Tabletop Minilessons (ENglish Learner Support) Part 2

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Every lesson has specific English Learner Support. There are also ideas for 'Supporting All Learners' and 'SMall-Group Instruction' that may be beneficial for English Language Learners

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Connecting the Science of Reading to English Language Learners

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Reading 101 for English Language Learners

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Get the basics on how to support the literacy achievement of your English language learners. You'll find instructional strategies based on the five components of reading as well as oral language and the role of students' home language.Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages

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In this article for American Educator, Dr. Diane August discuss the latest research focused on teaching ELLs, which includes seven principles from a recent consensus report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report, Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures, examines what the research tells us about learning English from early childhood through high school, identifies effective practices for educators, and recommends steps policymakers can take to support high-quality educational outcomes for children and youth who are learning English.

Illustration: Raúl Colón

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Educating English Language Learners: A Review of the Latest Research

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In this article for American Educator, Dr. Diane August discuss the latest research focused on teaching ELLs, which includes seven principles from a recent consensus report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

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In this article for American Educator, Dr. Diane August discuss the latest research focused on teaching ELLs, which includes seven principles from a recent consensus report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report, Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures, examines what the research tells us about learning English from early childhood through high school, identifies effective practices for educators, and recommends steps policymakers can take to support high-quality educational outcomes for children and youth who are learning English.

Illustration: Raúl Colón

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Educating English Language Learners: A Review of the Latest Research

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In this article for American Educator, Dr. Diane August discuss the latest research focused on teaching ELLs, which includes seven principles from a recent consensus report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.