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Creating a Welcoming Classroom Environment for English Language Learners

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Creating a Welcoming Classroom Environment for English Language Learners

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This resource points out the importance of providing an inclusive environment for English Language Learner (ELL) students, as it fosters acceptance and security, essential for their educational progress. This environment encourages active participation, exploration, and interaction with content. It also reduces fear and promotes self-assurance, allowing ELLs to focus on acquiring language and academic skills. Studies show that culturally sensitive and inclusive classrooms improve student motivation and academic performance.

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Colorado, C. (2024, February 12). How to Create a Welcoming Classroom Environment for ELLs. Colorín Colorado. https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/how-create-welcoming-classroom-environment

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New to teaching ELL students? This resource gives eight practical strategies to setup your classroom at the beginning of the year in a way that supports ELL learners. These strategies include creating a language-rich environment, providing visual aids, establishing routines, and incorporating hands-on activities. By implementing these tips, you can create an inclusive and supportive learning environment for your ELL students from day one.

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Scaffolded instruction offers clear and structured guidance for English Language Learners (ELLs). This resource explains what scaffolded instruction is and the difference between differentiated instruction. Providing educators with an understanding of how to break down complex tasks into smaller, more manageable steps and offering extra support and guidance when necessary. Additionally, providing additional resources, such as vocabulary lists and graphic organizers, can greatly assist your students in achieving success. It is crucial to offer various examples and ample opportunities for practice and repetition. Offering clear and specific instructions can greatly assist your English language learners in comprehending and meeting the given expectations.

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Leon, D. (2024). Effective Strategies: Scaffolding for ELL Students That Benefits the Whole Class. HMH. https://www.hmhco.com/blog/scaffolding-for-ell-students

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This resource is designed to assist educators in developing and planning lessons that effectively support English Language Learner (ELL) students. It also offers strategies and resources to assist educators in establishing inclusive and captivating learning environments for students who are learning English. Having a solid grasp of the fundamental elements of language development, establishing a strong foundation of background knowledge, and providing students with ample opportunities to engage with grade-level content are crucial aspects of this resource.

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This article highlights the significance of fostering strong relationships with students. Developing strong connections with students is crucial for fostering higher levels of engagement, motivation, and academic achievement. Through the cultivation of trust and connection, educators have the power to establish a caring learning atmosphere that instills a sense of worth and understanding in students. The author has compiled a variety of strategies to assist educators in cultivating strong connections with their students. Implementing effective strategies involves actively listening to students, taking the time to learn their names correctly, and offering personalized assistance. Through the application of these strategies, educators have the ability to foster a positive learning environment.

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This article offers valuable insights on how to enhance oral language skills in academic environments and utilize classroom discussions to cultivate language proficiency, subject knowledge, and critical thinking abilities. Through the encouragement of active participation and group work, educators can foster an environment where students can enhance their communication skills, develop their critical thinking abilities, and engage in meaningful conversations. Incorporating structured language activities, such as role-playing, presentations, and group projects, can be a valuable way to enhance students' oral language skills and deepen their understanding of concepts.

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This website offers resources and strategies designed to enhance language acquisition and academic achievement for ELLs. GLAD strategies provide educators with methods such as the use of visual aids, cooperative learning, and language-rich activities. These techniques align with research-based best practices by promoting active student engagement, scaffolding content instruction, and integrating language development into subject matter learning. The project emphasizes the importance of creating an inclusive and interactive classroom environment to support the diverse needs of ELL students.

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The following article, "Using Visuals," offers educators essential strategies for integrating visuals into their instruction for English language learners. The integration of visual aids such as images, diagrams, and videos can greatly support the understanding and engagement of ELL students. Visuals are an effective tool for supporting vocabulary development, background knowledge, and new concepts. Allowing students to make connections for productive thinking and discourse. These strategies align with research-based practices that focus on providing comprehensible input and scaffolding instruction. This approach supports English language learners in understanding grade-level content and strengthens their language skills through engaging and relevant learning experiences.

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This article highlights the significance of establishing a classroom environment that is socially and emotionally safe for English Language Learners (ELLs). This emphasizes the significance of reducing social threats and maximizing opportunities for connection, as they play a vital role in facilitating effective learning. This approach is in line with proven best practices that promote a nurturing community, lower barriers to learning, and increase student involvement and academic achievement. These strategies are based on scientific research and teaching methods that prioritize cultural sensitivity, fostering a welcoming and inclusive learning atmosphere for English Language Learners (ELLs). Addititonally, Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) extends well beyond acknowledging students' home culture or incorporating examples of traditions and customs.

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This article offers practical techniques supported by research to help educators enhance learning for English Language Learners (ELLs). Effective strategies involve incorporating movement to enhance engagement, utilizing gestures to assist in vocabulary retention, and activating prior knowledge to establish connections between new information and the current model. The strategies discussed in the article are in line with brain-based learning principles, which highlight the significance of active learning, contextual understanding, and multisensory approaches to enhance comprehension and retention for English language learners. This article does a great job encouraging educators to implement movement, gestures, and prior knowledge activation, which supports the diverse needs of ELLs.

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The Edutopia article provides educators with strategies to assist long-term English learners (ELLs) in their academic journey. These strategies, such as engaging in academic conversations, practicing mindful listening, conducting small group reading sessions, and deconstructing sentences, are all rooted in research-based best practices that have been proven to enhance language acquisition and promote academic achievement. By implementing these four low-preparation, high-impact techniques for teaching long-term English language learners, educators can create a supportive and inclusive learning environment that fosters language development and critical thinking skills among long-term ELLs that enhance their speaking, listening, writing, and reading abilities.

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Said, S. (2024, May 20). 4 Ways to Support Long-Term English Learners. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/supporting-long-term-english-learners

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English Language Learners

As students continue building up their academic English skills, teachers can offer a variety of structures to meet their specific needs.

I started my teaching career about 20 years ago, in a public school English language learner (ELL) program. I was the reading and writing teacher for four levels of ELLs. I was starry-eyed and assumed that I would be teaching all newcomer ELLs. When I walked into my classroom, I noticed that my students had pretty strong social English. Was I confused? My assumption was that they didn't need the support I had intended to give. I was wrong. I had an interesting start to teaching with students in that classroom because I didn't know any better at the time.

Long-term ELLs can be defined as English learners who have been in a language support program for over five years. They haven't exited services and are still gaining English proficiency. There are times where they struggle with proficiency in both their native language and English. It's sometimes hard to tell that a student is a long-term English learner because their social English is usually up to par with their peers, but their academic English is lacking.

For us as teachers, it's important to know that support is vital for these students regardless of how strong their social English may appear. This blog will provide teachers with four easy-to-use strategies that support long-term ELLs in the classroom with listening, speaking, reading, and writing across content areas. These techniques don't require extra supplies or much prep. They simply work in classrooms to benefit all learners.

1. UsE Oracy for Reading Comprehension and Writing

If social English is a student's strong point, build on that with oracy support through academic teaming models. When students work in teams to discuss content they're reading and content they're writing, it builds more confidence in language input and output. As teachers, we can start off with small structures like turn-and-talk and then move to larger structures such as full-on class discussion. We just need to give students the environment and resources to feel like they can take risks in a classroom community speaking to their peers.

Fishbowl: This strategy, as seen in this high school classroom, is a great way to have students engage in Socratic seminars about texts. It's also great to utilize when students provide feedback to each other about writing.

Inside Outside Circles: This is a great structure to use when providing a platform for students to ask each other questions about their comprehension of a text. For long-term ELLs, it's a great way to have a conversation with a peer about a text in a low-risk space. Read about the structure here.

It's important to find ways to manage discussions in our classroom in order for students to be able to engage in a meaningful conversation. The benefit of utilizing oracy support for long-term ELLs is that it's an effective way to support reading comprehension and writing. In Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk That Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understandings, Jeff Zwiers and Marie Crawford state, "The language that happens in a person's head is the main set of tools for constructing meaning from texts and for writing. Conversations are opportunities to practice using such tools."

If we give learners space to speak about content in class and motivate them to want to engage in conversation, we're providing a catalyst for stronger literacy comprehension and writing. Who doesn't have to talk things out after reading a text or talk to someone about what they write before and after writing? We all do. Try some of the following structures:

2. Create Activities Requiring Students to Mindfully Listen

When students have to mindfully listen to their peers, they gain comprehension of what the other person is saying in addition to building empathy. Listening is a soft skill we all need. For long-term ELLs, it's a gateway for content comprehension.

There are two ways that I teach students to mindfully listen to each other in my classroom. I've taught my students to use empathy interviews as a way to build relationships with each other. To support this, I've used the game " What's Wrong With Grown-Ups? " Students ask me deep questions and vice versa, and they also ask each other. And I work with students to ask each other questions in mindful-listening triads where they can't interrupt each other and can only ask clarifying questions. This goes a long way to deepen linguistic understanding.

3. Utilize Small Group Reading Structures

Even older students need to still practice their reading fluency. Creating a community where students feel safe reading to each other helps long-term ELLs build their reading fluency skills. Academic teams are a helpful way to have students be in a space where they're confident to practice their reading skills. Middle and high school students are never too old to read texts aloud to each other. I have students alternate paragraphs as they read aloud in pairs or groups of three or four. My own students have told me that this builds their confidence in understanding language.

4. Deconstruct and Reconstruct Sentences for Meaning

Make sure not to water down content or change the text you give to students who read one grade level below. Instead, try scaffolding up. According to Lily Wong Fillmore and Charles J. Fillmore, giving students the opportunity to focus on a "juicy sentence" to deconstruct it, reconstruct it, and then even use it as a tool for writing supports them in gaining access to complex texts.

I do this in my classroom in order to give all students access to grade-level texts. I make sure to select a sentence that supports the main idea of the text. When students are able to break it down, they understand the meaning of the text. When they reconstruct the sentence, they have to state what the text means in their own words. Later, they can use pieces of the sentence to help them construct their own writing. ELL and long-term ELL populations will continue to increase.

According to the United States Department of Education, the graduation rate for English learners in the 2019-20 school year was 71 percent, and the overall graduation rate nationally was 86 percent. With many of those learners being long-term ELLs, rethinking how we teach our students is critical to filling in the gaps.

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4 Ways to Support Long-Term English Learners

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As students continue building up their academic English skills, teachers can offer a variety of structures to meet their specific needs.

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Have you heard of cognates? The following article offers strategies to improve English Language Learners (ELLs)' comprehension of English through the use of cognates, which are words with similar meanings, spellings, and pronunciations across languages. It includes practical classroom activities such as read-alouds, word sorts, and creating cognate word walls. These strategies align with research-based best practices by promoting cross-linguistic transfer and scaffolding language learning through students' existing linguistic knowledge, thus improving their vocabulary and reading comprehension in English. Additionally, incorporating cognates into lesson plans can help ELLs make connections between their native language and English, leading to a deeper understanding of the new language. By utilizing cognates effectively, teachers can create a supportive learning environment that encourages ELLs to use their native language to engage with English in a meaningful way.

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Cognates are words in two languages that share a similar meaning, spelling, and pronunciation. While English may share very few cognates with a language like Chinese, 30-40% of all words in English have a related word in Spanish. For Spanish-speaking ELLs, cognates are an obvious bridge to the English language.

Not surprisingly, researchers who study first and second language acquisition have found that students benefit from cognate awareness. Cognate awareness is the ability to use cognates in a primary language as a tool for understanding a second language. Children can be taught to use cognates as early as preschool. As students move up the grade levels, they can be introduced to more sophisticated cognates, and to cognates that have multiple meanings in both languages, although some of those meanings may not overlap. One example of a cognate with multiple meanings is asistir, which means to assist (same meaning) but also to attend (different meaning).

Classroom strategies for teaching cognates

Read aloud

When you read aloud to your students, ask the Spanish speakers to raise their hand when they think they hear a cognate. Stop reading and discuss that cognate. Point out the subtle differences you hear between the Spanish and English words. If you have a French, Italian, or Portuguese speaker in your class, invite them to contribute cognates in that language.

Student reading

As ELLs read their texts, ask them to find three or four cognates and write them on sticky pads. Collect those notes and put them on an OUR COGNATES laminated chart. Before the class ends, read or have students read them to the class. Discuss spellings or sounds that are the same and different between the cognates.

Follow-up activities:

Word Sort

Pair students and give each pair a set of cognate cards: one card has the English cognate and the other has the Spanish cognate. For example:

Have students sort the words. Then ask them what the word pairs have in common and write responses on the board.

Circle Differences

Ask students to indicate which letters are different between the cognates by circling the letters. Alternate between having them call out differences with the teacher circling and occasionally having students come up and circle the differences themselves.

False Cognates

Write examples of false cognates on the board. For example: embarrassed/ embarazada and pie/ pie. Warn students that they might run into some words that are false cognates. These are words that look alike but do not have the same meaning in English and Spanish. Ask the students:

Does anyone know what pie means in Spanish ( foot)? What does the word pie mean in English ( dessert)?

Another example of a false cognate is the word embarrassed in English and embarazada in Spanish. What does embarrassed mean in English (to feel ashamed about something)? Does anyone know what embarazada means in Spanish ( pregnant)?

Give students some cognates and false cognates and ask them to identify each. Examples of false cognates:

Ask students to work with a partner to find as many cognates and false cognates as they can from a given list of words. After they finish, ask partners to share one example of each with the class.

Exaggerate intonation and stress

Cognate words can cause problems for Spanish speakers learning English and vice versa because of different stress patterns in the two languages. Point out how the emphasis changes in the following words:

condition / condición

animal / animal

ability / habilidad

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Using Cognates to Develop Comprehension in English

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Cognates are words in two languages that share a similar meaning, spelling, and pronunciation. While English may share very few cognates with a language like Chinese, 30-40% of all words in English have a related word in Spanish. For Spanish-speaking ELLs, cognates are an obvious bridge to the English language.

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Connecting Grade Level Content with ELL Students

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Connecting Grade Level Content with ELL Students

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This article provides evidence-based strategies for educators to effectively support English Language Learners (ELLs). It highlights the importance of scaffolding instruction, utilizing visual and verbal aids, and ensuring access to grade-level content. Various techniques can be applied to enhance language learning and foster a supportive classroom environment. These techniques include the use of bilingual glossaries, encouraging peer learning collaboration, and integrating the use of students' home languages. These methods align with best practices by promoting comprehensible input, fostering language development, and validating students’ cultural backgrounds, which research shows are critical for ELL success.

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It's October in the Rio Grande Valley; the summer heat has receded and the school year is in full swing. Rolando Diaz teaches sixth-grade science at Del Valle Middle School. His class is a mix of English language learners (ELLs) with varying levels of English proficiency. He also has a few newcomer students, mostly from Mexico and Central America. Although all the students are Latino, they have varying degrees of Spanish proficiency.

Today, Mr. Diaz is teaching a lesson on ecology. To prepare for it, he has added several scaffolds to the district-mandated science curriculum. He presents slides to guide the lesson, providing students with visual support for what they hear him say.

Students also have a workbook that corresponds to the slides. For each slide, students engage in an activity that helps them process information. In this case, it is "partner talk" requiring them to describe a variety of habitats in terms of food, shelter, and temperature. They also use a bilingual glossary with pictures and English and Spanish definitions for the lesson's target vocabulary words. The glossary asks students to answer a question about each word and draw a picture or provide an example. For instance, for "ecosystem," they describe one near their house.

Mr. Diaz begins the lesson by introducing the content and language objectives for the day. Next, he explains several general and domain-specific words using the slides.

He quickly gives each definition in English, asks a student to read the definition in Spanish, presents an example for each definition, and asks students to discuss each word's meaning. A few weeks ago, he taught a mini-lesson on recognizing English-Spanish cognates, so they discuss whether "habitat" and "ecosystem" are also cognates.

Students then form groups to explore the schoolyard habitat. In each group, students are assigned various roles-mapmaker, bug collector, vegetation inspector, soil sampler, or data collector-and they complete a corresponding chart. For example, the vegetation inspector measures and records the height of the tallest vegetation and works with the mapmaker to record the location.

At the end of the lesson, students listen and follow along as Mr. Diaz reads the section of the grade-level text that discusses features of the ecosystem in Yellowstone National Park. After each section of text, students answer questions orally about the text, illustrations, and other visual displays. Mr. Diaz provides sentence starters and sentence frames to scaffold responses for his students with lower levels of English proficiency.* He intentionally pairs newcomers with bilingual peers so they can converse in Spanish before writing in English.

A longtime teacher, Mr. Diaz has effectively planned and carried out instruction on a specific science topic. He has ensured that students with varying degrees of English proficiency can access the academic content, strengthen their literacy skills, and engage with and learn from their peers.

I've worked with Mr. Diaz and many others like him to incorporate these best practices into their teaching. His teaching reflects the latest research on educating ELLs. In this article, I discuss this research, which includes seven principles from a recent consensus report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. ¹ 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.

These principles and practices build on findings from previous reviews on the same topic, ² as well as U.S. Department of Education best-evidence syntheses. ³ While dual language programming for ELLs is effective for developing English proficiency and content-area knowledge in English-with the extra benefit of maintaining and developing students' first language, validating their culture, and providing opportunities to enhance cross-cultural understanding4-this article focuses on instruction delivered in English, an important component of dual language programs. (For more on dual language programs and early childhood education, see " Encouraging the Development and Achievement of Dual Language Learners in Early Childhood.")

1. Provide Access to Grade-Level Course Content

For ELLs, exposure to grade-level course content provides crucial access to the language required for academic achievement and for becoming fully proficient in English. ⁵ This exposure helps students develop the concepts and skills needed to master grade-level coursework as they move up through the grades. Grade-level coursework, in turn, helps ensure students perceive the materials as worth working on, engaging, and meaningful. ⁶

In the reviewed studies that focus on the elementary grade levels, a variety of authentic materials were used to support learning. For example, in an English language arts intervention, newspaper articles, diaries, and historical and fictional accounts were used to teach students about immigration across different time periods. ⁷ In an intervention for young children, the read-aloud books and videos focused on habitats. ⁸ A middle-grades science intervention used the same texts and experiments used with gifted and talented students. ⁹

It is important to keep in mind that many skills and types of knowledge transfer from students' first language to their second, and that ELLs may have already acquired core content in their first language. ¹⁰ For example, students who have learned math concepts and skills in their first language do not need to relearn the concepts and skills, but do need to learn the English academic language associated with them. ELLs whose first language shares cognates with English do not need to learn meanings for cognates whose meanings they know in their first language-only English labels for these cognates.

Because grade-level materials in English are challenging for ELLs, instruction using these materials must be coupled with methods that support ELLs. The following principles elaborate on this theme.

2. Build on Effective Practices Used with English-Proficient Students

Many of the practices that have proved effective for ELLs are adapted from practices that have proved effective for English-proficient students. For example, in the area of literacy interventions, it is helpful to teach ELLs the same skills as their English-proficient peers-the skills of hearing the individual English sounds or phonemes within words (i.e., phonemic awareness); using the letters and spelling patterns within words to decode the pronunciation (i.e., phonics); reading text aloud with appropriate speed, accuracy, and expression (i.e., oral reading fluency); using strategies to learn new words; thinking about what they are reading (i.e., reading comprehension); and writing with the organization, development, substance, and style appropriate to the task and audience. ¹¹

Effective practices for middle-grades students similarly build on practices that have been effective with English-proficient students. For example, in science, the 5-E approach-Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate-has been used to guide successful interventions for ELLs. ¹² Approaches deemed effective for building vocabulary in English-proficient students have also been used in successful interventions for ELLs. ¹³ Examples include teaching vocabulary in the context of rich and varied language experiences, teaching individual words, teaching word-learning strategies, promoting word consciousness, and using words in writing. ¹⁴ In social studies, approaches include reading and writing about informational passages that provide multiple perspectives on historical events. ¹⁵

That said, not all practices deemed effective for English-proficient learners are effective for ELLs. For example, one study16 found that the use of literacy practices that included only higher-level questioning and discussion about the meaning of text had a strong relationship to improved reading comprehension for English-proficient students, but had little discernible benefit for ELLs. The study also found differences with respect to teacher-student interactions. "Telling"-defined as the teacher providing students with information, rather than engaging them in the creation of information through coaching, recitation, or other forms of interaction-had a statistically significant positive effect on ELLs' reading comprehension, but a negative effect on the comprehension of English-proficient students. The researcher posits that in the first case, the literacy practices (e.g., higher-level questioning and discussion) may have been at too high a level for ELLs to benefit without the appropriate supports. In the case of "telling," the researcher suggests that ELLs benefited because they were provided with more support for engaging with core content in English-a level of support that was not necessary for English-proficient students.

3. Provide Supports to Help ELLs Master Core Content and Skills

ELLs also benefit from visual and verbal supports. ¹⁷ For students in the elementary grades, visual supports include the strategic use of pictures, short videos, and graphic organizers to represent complex vocabulary and concepts. ¹⁸ Verbal supports include student glossaries; words glossed in context by the teacher; and whole-class, small-group, and partner discussions that focus in part on clarifying key ideas. ¹⁹ In the middle grades, visual supports include graphic organizers such as diagrams, tables, and concept maps for science, and illustrations and multimedia for language arts. Verbal supports include bilingual glossaries, as well as sentence and paragraph frames. In several studies, students were taught strategies to support learning; ²⁰ in one such study, students learned strategies to help them write. ²¹

For ELLs who are newcomers, especially those in the upper grades, core content provided in their home language will support them in developing their knowledge and skills while they are acquiring proficiency in English.

4. Develop ELLs' Academic Language

Academic language is defined as language used in school, in written communications, in public presentations, and in formal settings. ²² Academic proficiency is "knowing and being able to use general and academic vocabulary, specialized or complex grammatical structures, and multifarious language functions and discourse structures-all for the purpose of acquiring new knowledge and skills, interacting about a topic, and imparting information to others." ²³

It is important to note that academic language differs across content areas. In science, for example, the challenges of mastering academic language apply to vocabulary (e.g., learning everyday words with science meanings, general academic vocabulary, and discipline-specific vocabulary); syntax (e.g., passive voice, compound and complex sentences, and the nominalization of verbs, adverbs, and adjectives); and discourse (e.g., learning to attend to precise meanings in science text and talk). Students must also learn to master the nonlinguistic forms of language prevalent in content areas like science and math (e.g., diagrams, graphs, charts, maps, and equations). ²⁴

One series of experimental studies developed academic language in the context of teaching mainly science content. ²⁵ The studies used the types of visual and verbal supports previously described to help students make sense of content, develop general academic and domain-specific vocabulary, engage in opportunities to talk in pairs and small groups, and practice writing to extend their learning. These studies are well reviewed in two U.S. Department of Education practice guides for educators. ²⁶

With regard to vocabulary instruction, recent research indicates embedded instruction is a promising technique for developing ELLs' vocabulary when that vocabulary is not conceptually complex. ²⁷ In embedded instruction, students are given access to word meanings through on-the-spot child-friendly definitions of the target words (and, in some cases, examples and gestures). The research also indicates that instructional condition interacts with word type, with conceptually complex words much harder for students to acquire and thus needing more instructional support. ²⁸ (For more on helping students with their oral language development, see " Meaningful Classroom Talk.")

5. Encourage Peer-to-Peer Learning Opportunities

One of the key principles of instruction in a second language is enabling students to interact via speaking, listening, reading, and writing with peers in their second language. ²⁹ Speaking is important to generate feedback, encourage syntactic processing, and challenge students to engage at higher proficiency levels. As a result, it is no surprise that in many of the studies cited thus far, peer-to-peer learning was an important component of the intervention. In fact, in some studies, it was the focus.

For example, in one study implemented in the elementary grades, peer-to-peer learning was used to develop first-graders' literacy skills in a dual language program. ³⁰ Using the Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) program, the peer-to-peer learning classrooms provided a structured routine in which the teacher modeled the language activities of the day; students practiced the activities in pairs for 15 minutes while the teacher supervised; and students then turned to story sharing, a partner reading activity that lasted for another 15 minutes. Teachers paired high-performing readers with low-performing readers and then taught the students to use the PALS procedures. During each segment of the session, the high-performing students performed the role of coach first, and the low-performing students followed. On average, PALS students demonstrated significantly greater growth than control students in phoneme segmentation, nonsense word fluency, and oral reading fluency.

In the middle grades, many of the interventions that had positive outcomes for ELLs also provided opportunities for collaborative peer learning. ³¹ An important feature of these studies is that peer talk, in pairs or small groups, focused on course content.

In planning for peer-to-peer interactions for adolescents, teachers need to consider students' growing awareness of their social status in peer groups in school and their community. ³² For ELLs, this includes how they are perceived by peers proficient in English. ³³

6. Capitalize on Students' Home Language, Knowledge, and Cultural Assets

Studies on cross-language transfer ³⁴ indicate significant relationships between performance in ELLs' first and second languages in word reading, spelling, vocabulary, comprehension, and reading strategies. Findings from evaluation studies comparing bilingual programs with mostly English-only programs indicate that, over time, ELLs instructed bilingually either perform on par with or outperform ELLs instructed only in English, ³⁵ providing indirect evidence of positive transfer.

Experimental studies ³⁶ conducted with elementary school children suggest that instructional routines that draw on students' home language, knowledge, and cultural assets support literacy development in English. Examples of the instructional routines include previewing and reviewing material in children's first language, storybook reading in students' first language, ³⁷ providing opportunities for students to engage in conversational exchanges during instruction that permits some interpretation to take place in their first language, ³⁸ providing first-language definitions for the targeted vocabulary, ³⁹ providing instruction in word-learning strategies that help ELLs uncover the meanings of cognates when encountered in English texts, ⁴⁰ and introducing key concepts by connecting them with children's prior knowledge or experiences at home and in their community. ⁴¹

As was the case for studies conducted with children in grades K-5, middle-grades studies that showed positive effects capitalized on ELLs' assets. While none of the studies were implemented in bilingual settings, the interventions included bilingual glossaries, background materials in students' home languages, teacher explanations in students' home languages, partner work in students' home languages, and instruction to help ELLs take advantage of their home-language knowledge and skills. ⁴²

7. Screen for Language and Literacy Challenges, Monitor Progress, and Support ELLs Who Are Struggling

Historically, ELLs have been both overidentified and underidentified as having a disability. ⁴³ Both cases-identifying students as having a disability when they do not in fact have one (i.e., overidentification) and failing to identify students for special education services that they need (i.e., underidentification)-are problematic. Measures used to assess ELLs for reading and language challenges must distinguish language development from disability.

Most intervention research has focused on ELLs with reading difficulties. Findings from numerous studies cited in previous reviews of promising and effective instructional practices for ELLs ⁴⁴ suggest that districts should establish procedures and provide training for schools to screen ELLs for reading challenges, consider collecting progress monitoring data more than three times a year for ELLs at risk, and use data from screening and progress monitoring assessments to make decisions about necessary instructional supports.

The studies also suggest the types of reading skills that should be assessed at different grade spans to determine whether ELLs are in need of additional instructional support. For kindergarten and first grade, skills include phonological awareness, familiarity with the alphabet and alphabetic principle, the ability to read single words, and knowledge of basic phonics rules. For children at the end of first grade and in the next few grades, skills include the ability to read connected texts accurately and fluently. For students in grades 2-5, oral reading fluency should also be assessed. However, these grade spans are predicated on ELLs beginning their schooling in kindergarten and must be adjusted for students entering U.S. schools in later grades and who may have already acquired these skills in their first language.

The studies provide two other recommendations: first, districts with performance benchmarks should use the same standards for ELLs and English-proficient students in the early grades, but should make adjustments in instruction when ELL progress is not sufficient; and second, teachers should be trained to use formative data to guide instruction. ⁴⁵ With regard to formative data, one study suggests that students' writing samples should be used on an ongoing basis to determine areas for improvement. ⁴⁶ Students' writing samples are excellent sources for formative assessment because they shed light on language challenges common to all children, as well as challenges and opportunities related to primary language influence on English. ⁴⁷

Almost all studies related to screening, monitoring, and intervening are studies of ELLs in elementary grades. ⁴⁸ Recommendations based on these studies include implementing intensive small-group interventions for at least 30 minutes in small homogeneous groups, and providing training and ongoing support for teachers, interventionists, and other school personnel on how to deliver small-group instruction effectively, as well as how to implement effective teaching techniques that can be used outside small-group instruction (e.g., instructional pacing, error corrections, and modeling). ⁴⁹ Another important recommendation is that additional supports should be provided to ELLs struggling in English literacy that address the other skills crucial for success in school, such as vocabulary, listening, reading comprehension, and writing. ⁵⁰

Where Additional Research Would Help

While there are some studies on effective practices for ELLs in science, studies focused on math and social studies are still very limited, compared with studies of English-proficient students. More research is also needed on promising and effective teaching methods for developing ELLs' home language, knowledge, and skills, and equalizing the social status of students from different ethnic/language backgrounds with the social status of white and native English-speaking students in schools.

For bilingual programs in particular, research is needed on the features that influence the successful acquisition of language and content. These features should include student ratios of English speakers to partner-language speakers in two-way programs, the number of instructional hours allotted to each language, the proportion of school staff and leadership who are bilingual, and the use of target languages within and across content areas. ⁵¹ And since most of the intervention research focuses on ELLs in grades K-2, and on pre-reading and reading skills, additional research is needed to understand how to intervene with older ELLs struggling in reading and with ELLs at all grade levels struggling in math, science, and social studies.

Finally, the social and emotional factors that influence student dispositions toward learning and academic performance (e.g., student motivation and engagement) must also be studied. More effective instruction, positive teacher attitudes toward teaching ELLs and high expectations that they can succeed, and engaging school climates can foster ELLs' motivation to learn and commitment to their educational success in the elementary school years and beyond. ⁵²

Experienced teachers knowledgeable about supporting ELLs, such as Mr. Diaz, already incorporate many of these principles in their instruction. But more needs to be done to make sure this research gets into the hands of all classroom teachers, and to ensure additional research is conducted that can strengthen teaching and learning.

Diane August is a managing researcher and the director of the Center for English Language Learners at the American Institutes for Research. Previously, she was a senior research scientist at the Center for Applied Linguistics and a senior program officer at the National Academy of Sciences. This article is drawn from chapters 7 and 8 of the report Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures, published in February 2017 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which is available online.

*For more on scaffolding, see " One Sentence at a Time" in the Summer 2017 issue of American Educator. ( back to the article)

†A useful resource for finding reading and math programs deemed effective for all students is this website created by the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University. ( back to the article)

‡Nominalization refers to using a word that is not a noun (e.g., a verb, adjective, or adverb) as a noun or as the head of a noun phrase (e.g., using the adjective "rich" as a noun, as in "the rich"). ( back to the article)

§For more on ways English language learners bring cultural assets to schools, see " The Potential and Promise of Latino Students" in the Spring 2017 issue of American Educator. ( back to the article)

Endnotes

1. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2017).

2. Diane August and Timothy Shanahan, eds., Developing Reading and Writing in Second-Language Learners: Lessons from the Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth (New York: Routledge, 2008); Fred Genesee et al., eds., Educating English Language Learners: A Synthesis of Research Evidence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 245; and Claude Goldenberg, "Unlocking the Research on English Learners: What We Know-and Don't Yet Know-about Effective Instruction," American Educator 37, no. 2 (Summer 2013): 4-11, 38.

3. What Works Clearinghouse, which has particularly high standards for evidence of effectiveness, has two publications related to English language learners: Scott Baker et al., Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School, NCEE 2014-4012 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 2014); and Russell Gersten et al., Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction for English Learners in the Elementary Grades: A Practice Guide, NCEE 2007-4011 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 2007).

4. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth.

5. Lily Wong-Fillmore and Charles J. Fillmore, "What Does Text Complexity Mean for English Learners and Language Minority Students?" (Stanford, CA: Understanding Language, Stanford University, 2014), http://ell.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/academic-papers/06-LWF%....

6. Ellen A. Skinner and Jennifer R. Pitzer, "Developmental Dynamics of Student Engagement, Coping, and Everyday Resilience," in Handbook of Research on Student Engagement, ed. Sandra L. Christenson, Amy L. Reschly, and Cathy Wylie (New York: Springer, 2012), 21-44.

7. Maria S. Carlo, Diane August, and Catherine E. Snow, "Sustained Vocabulary-Learning Strategy Instruction for English-Language Learners," in Teaching and Learning Vocabulary: Bringing Research to Practice, ed. Elfrieda H. Hiebert and Michael L. Kamil (Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates, 2005).

8. Rebecca Silverman and Sara Hines, "The Effects of Multimedia-Enhanced Instruction on the Vocabulary of English-Language Learners and Non-English-Language Learners in Pre-Kindergarten through Second Grade," Journal of Educational Psychology 101 (2009): 305-314.

9. Diane August et al., "The Impact of an Instructional Intervention on the Science and Language Learning of Middle Grade English Language Learners," Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness 2 (2009): 345-376; and Diane August et al., "Helping ELLs Meet the Common Core State Standards for Literacy in Science: The Impact of an Instructional Intervention Focused on Academic Language," Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness 7 (2014): 54-82.

10. Cheryl Dressler and Michael L. Kamil, "First- and Second-Language Literacy," in Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth, ed. Diane August and Timothy Shanahan (Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates, 2006), 197-238.

11. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth.

12. August et al., "Impact of an Instructional Intervention"; and August et al., "Helping ELLs."

13. Michael F. Graves, The Vocabulary Book: Learning and Instruction, 2nd ed. (New York: Teachers College Press, 2016).

14. Nonie K. Lesaux et al., "Effects of Academic Vocabulary Instruction for Linguistically Diverse Adolescents: Evidence from a Randomized Field Trial," American Educational Research Journal 51 (2014): 1159-1194.

15. Sharon Vaughn et al., "Enhancing Social Studies Vocabulary and Comprehension for Seventh-Grade English Language Learners: Findings from Two Experimental Studies," Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness 2 (2009): 297-324.

16. Jennifer O'Day, "Good Instruction Is Good for Everyone-or Is It? English Language Learners in a Balanced Literacy Approach," Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk 14 (2009): 97-119.

17. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth.

18. Bryan A. Brown, Kihyun Ryoo, and Jamie Rodriguez, "Pathway towards Fluency: Using 'Disaggregate Instruction' to Promote Science Literacy," International Journal of Science Education 32 (2010): 1465-1493; Silverman and Hines, "Effects of Multimedia-Enhanced Instruction"; and Lorena Llosa et al., "Impact of a Large-Scale Science Intervention Focused on English Language Learners," American Educational Research Journal 53 (2016): 395-424.

19. See, for example, Maria S. Carlo et al., "Closing the Gap: Addressing the Vocabulary Needs of English Language Learners in Bilingual and Mainstream Classrooms," Reading Research Quarterly 39 (2004): 188-215; and Fuhui Tong et al., "Integrating Literacy and Science for English Language Learners: From Learning-to-Read to Reading-to-Learn," Journal of Educational Research 107 (2014): 410-426.

20. August et al., "Impact of an Instructional Intervention"; August et al., "Helping ELLs"; Vaughn et al., "Enhancing Social Studies Vocabulary and Comprehension"; and Lesaux et al., "Effects of Academic Vocabulary Instruction."

21. Jung-In Kim and Kara M. Viesca, "Three Reading-Intervention Teachers' Identity Positioning and Practices to Motivate and Engage Emergent Bilinguals in an Urban Middle School," Teaching and Teacher Education 55 (2016): 122-132.

22. Catherine E. Snow and Paola Uccelli, "The Challenge of Academic Language," in The Cambridge Handbook of Literacy, ed. David R. Olson and Nancy Torrance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 112-133.

23. Alison L. Bailey, The Language Demands of School: Putting Academic English to the Test (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 10-11.

24. Helen Quinn, Okhee Lee, and Guadalupe Valdés, "Language Demands and Opportunities in Relation to Next Generation Science Standards for English Language Learners: What Teachers Need to Know" (Stanford, CA: Understanding Language, Stanford University, 2014), http://ell.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/academic-papers/03-Quin....

25. See, for example, Brown, Ryoo, and Rodriguez, "Pathway towards Fluency"; Carlo et al., "Closing the Gap"; Llosa et al., "Impact of a Large-Scale Science Intervention"; Kihyun Ryoo, "Learning Science, Talking Science: The Impact of a Technology-Enhanced Curriculum on Students' Science Learning in Linguistically Diverse Mainstream Classrooms" (PhD dissertation, Stanford University, 2009); Silverman and Hines, "Effects of Multimedia-Enhanced Instruction"; Tong et al., "Integrating Literacy and Science"; and Vaughn et al., "Enhancing Social Studies Vocabulary and Comprehension."

26. Baker et al., Teaching Academic Content and Literacy; and Gersten et al., Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction.

27. Michael D. Coyne, D. Betsy McCoach, and Sharon Kapp, "Vocabulary Intervention for Kindergarten Students: Comparing Extended Instruction to Embedded Instruction and Incidental Exposure," Learning Disabilities Quarterly 30 (2007): 74-88.

28. Diane August et al., "The Moderating Influence of Instructional Intensity and Word Type on the Acquisition of Academic Vocabulary in Young English Language Learners," Reading and Writing 31 (2018): 965-989.

29. See Rod Ellis, Instructed Second Language Acquisition: A Literature Review (Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education, 2005). The purpose of this literature review is to examine theory and research that has addressed what constitutes effective pedagogy for the acquisition of a second language in a classroom context. In other words, the review seeks to answer the question: How can instruction best ensure successful language learning?

30. Mary Beth Calhoun et al., "Effects of a Peer-Mediated Program on Reading Skill Acquisition for Two-Way Bilingual First-Grade Classrooms," Learning Disability Quarterly 30 (2007): 169-184.

31. August et al., "Impact of an Instructional Intervention"; August et al., "Helping ELLs"; Nonie K. Lesaux et al., "The Effectiveness and Ease of Implementation of an Academic Vocabulary Intervention for Linguistically Diverse Students in Urban Middle Schools," Reading Research Quarterly 45 (2010): 196-228; Lesaux et al., "Effects of Academic Vocabulary Instruction"; and Vaughn et al., "Enhancing Social Studies Vocabulary and Comprehension."

32. Brooke K. Cisco and Yolanda Padrón, "Investigating Vocabulary and Reading Strategies with Middle Grades English Language Learners: A Research Synthesis," RMLE Online 36, no. 4 (2012): 1-23; and Kim and Viesca, "Three Reading-Intervention Teachers' Identity Positioning."

33. Guadalupe Valdés, Learning and Not Learning English: Latino Students in American Schools (New York: Teachers College Press, 2001).

34. Dressler and Kamil, "First- and Second-Language Literacy."

35. Ilana M. Umansky and Sean F. Reardon, "Reclassification Patterns among Latino English Learner Students in Bilingual, Dual Immersion, and English Immersion Classrooms," American Educational Research Journal 51 (2014): 879-912; and Rachel A. Valentino and Sean F. Reardon, "Effectiveness of Four Instructional Programs Designed to Serve English Learners: Variation by Ethnicity and Initial English Proficiency," Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 37 (2015): 612-637.

36. Carlo et al., "Closing the Gap"; Lauren Aimonette Liang, Cheryl A. Peterson, and Michael F. Graves, "Investigating Two Approaches to Fostering Children's Comprehension of Literature," Reading Psychology 26 (2005): 387-400; Llosa et al., "Impact of a Large-Scale Science Intervention"; and William M. Saunders and Claude Goldenberg, "Effects of Instructional Conversations and Literature Logs on Limited- and Fluent-English-Proficient Students' Story Comprehension and Thematic Understanding," Elementary School Journal 99 (1999): 277-301.

37. Liang, Peterson, and Graves, "Investigating Two Approaches."

38. Saunders and Goldenberg, "Effects of Instructional Conversations."

39. Llosa et al., "Impact of a Large-Scale Science Intervention"; Diane August, Lauren Artzi, and Christopher Barr, "Helping ELLs Meet Standards in English Language Arts and Science: An Intervention Focused on Academic Vocabulary," Reading and Writing Quarterly 32 (2016): 373-396; and Silverman and Hines, "Effects of Multimedia-Enhanced Instruction."

40. Carlo et al., "Closing the Gap"; and Darci A. Burns, "Examining the Effect of an Overt Transition Intervention on the Reading Development of At-Risk English-Language Learners in First Grade" (PhD dissertation, University of Oregon, 2011).

41. Llosa et al., "Impact of a Large-Scale Intervention."

42. August et al., "Impact of an Instructional Intervention"; and August et al., "Helping ELLs."

43. Ester Geva and Katherine Herbert, "Assessment and Interventions for English Language Learners with Learning Disabilities," in Learning about Learning Disabilities, ed. Bernice Wong and Deborah Butler, 4th ed. (Amsterdam: Academic Press, 2012), 271-298.

44. Baker et al., Teaching Academic Content and Literacy; and Gersten et al., Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction.

45. Gersten et al., Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction, 6-7.

46. Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam, "Assessment and Classroom Learning," Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice 5 (1998): 7-74.

47. Kim and Viesca, "Three Reading-Intervention Teachers' Identity Positioning."

48. Burns, "Examining the Effect of an Overt Transition Intervention"; Carolyn A. Denton et al., "Intervention Provided to Linguistically Diverse Middle School Students with Severe Reading Difficulties," Learning Disabilities Research and Practice 23 (2008): 79-89; Barbara Gunn et al., "Supplemental Instruction in Decoding Skills for Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Students in Early Elementary School: A Follow-Up," Journal of Special Education 39 (2002): 69-79; J. Ron Nelson, Patricia F. Vadasy, and Elizabeth A. Sanders, "Efficacy of a Tier 2 Supplemental Root Word Vocabulary and Decoding Intervention with Kindergarten Spanish-Speaking English Learners," Journal of Literacy Research 43 (2011): 184-211; Carolyn R. Ransford-Kaldon et al., Implementation of Effective Intervention: An Empirical Study to Evaluate the Efficacy of Fountas & Pinnell's Leveled Literacy Intervention System (LLI); 2009-2010 (Memphis, TN: Center for Research in Educational Policy, 2010); Emily J. Solari and Michael M. Gerber, "Early Comprehension Instruction for Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners: Teaching Text-Level Reading Skills while Maintaining Effects on Word-Level Skills," Learning Disabilities Research and Practice 23 (2008): 155-168; Sharon Vaughn et al., "Effectiveness of an English Intervention for First-Grade English Language Learners at Risk for Reading Problems," Elementary School Journal 107 (2006): 153-180; and Sharon Vaughn et al., "Effectiveness of a Spanish Intervention and an English Intervention for English-Language Learners at Risk for Reading Problems," American Educational Research Journal 43 (2006): 449-487.

49. Gersten et al., Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction, 10-11.

50. Baker et al., Teaching Academic Content and Literacy.

51. Andrea Boyle et al., Dual Language Education Programs: Current State Policies and Practices (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 2015).

52. For a general review, see Allan Wigfield, Jessica R. Gladstone, and Lara Turci, "Beyond Cognition: Reading Motivation and Reading Comprehension," Child Development Perspectives 10 (2016): 190-195; and Tahir Jahan Khan, Azlina Murad Sani, and Sarimah Shaik-Abdullah, "Motivation to Read in a Second Language: A Review of Literature," International Journal of Research in English Education 2, no. 4 (2017): 41-50.

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It's October in the Rio Grande Valley; the summer heat has receded and the school year is in full swing. Rolando Diaz teaches sixth-grade science at Del Valle Middle School. His class is a mix of English language learners (ELLs) with varying levels of English proficiency.

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The following resource, "Strategies and Resources for Mainstream Teachers of English Language Learners" by Education Northwest, provides evidence-based strategies for educators to effectively support English Language Learners (ELLs) in mainstream classrooms. Methods such as utilizing visuals and graphic organizers, implementing scaffolding instruction, and promoting cooperative learning are included. These approaches are in line with research-based best practices as they promote the use of clear and understandable language, utilize visual aids to enhance language acquisition, and encourage peer interaction to develop language skills. The document also offers valuable resources for continuous professional development, ensuring educators have access to the latest and most effective practices for ELL instruction.

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Strategies and Resources for Mainstream Teachers of ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS M A Y 2 0 0 3. (n.d.). https://educationnorthwest.org/sites/default/files/ell.pdf

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This insightful article offers educators useful implementation ideas for the SIOP model, which is intended to support ELLs' academic language growth while making information understandable for them. It places a strong emphasis on eight elements that are consistent with best practices based on research, such as lesson planning, background building, and interaction. These strategies, which include using visual aids and scaffolded instruction, help ELL students understand difficult material and develop language proficiency.

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Communities are often filled with students and teachers from diverse backgrounds and cultures. You'll find a mix of native English speakers, bilingual learners, and students exploring English as a new language. As an educator in this dynamic environment, you're tasked with not only teaching your subject but also ensuring that every student thrives on their learning journey. The SIOP model is a comprehensive educational framework designed to facilitate inclusive and effective teaching practices in diverse classrooms.

What is SIOP?

The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model was developed in the 1990s by Dr. Jana Echevarría, Dr. MaryEllen Vogt, and Dr. Deborah J. Short. They created the model as a response to the growing need for effective instructional strategies in classrooms, particularly those including English language learners (ELLs).

The primary purpose behind the creation of the SIOP model was to provide a framework for teachers to deliver content effectively while supporting the language development of ELLs and other students who needed additional language support. The model aims to bridge the gap between content learning and language development. It focuses on these aspects of teaching:

Lesson preparation

Building background

Comprehensible input

Strategies

Interaction

Practice and application

Lesson delivery

Review and assessment

SIOP emphasizes the integration of language and content instruction, focusing on specific language objectives parallel to the academic content. It offers a structured approach to lesson planning, implementation, and assessment to make academic content easier to grasp by all students, especially those learning English as an additional language.

With this model, teachers have a toolbox of instructional techniques to create an inclusive and supportive learning environment for students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

Eight aspects of the SIOP model

The SIOP model comprises eight components that guide lesson planning and delivery to support language learners and promote overall academic success for your students. This framework helps you integrate academic language into your instruction so the vocabulary used across all subjects is understandable to everyone.

It comprises a systematic approach to consistently deliver content and instruction that's just beyond a student's level of language competence. Each of the eight strategies breaks down the SIOP meaning and provides ways to modify your instruction to support your English language learners.

1. Lesson preparation

At this stage, teachers prepare the content, language objectives, and background knowledge necessary for the lesson. They consider the varied language proficiency levels in the classroom. Teachers begin by determining what students will learn in the lesson and the language skills they'll need to succeed. They also assess students' prior knowledge and plan how to make the content accessible to all learners.

2. Building background

This stage involves connecting new concepts to students' existing knowledge and experiences. Teachers may use various techniques, including:

Pre-teaching key vocabulary

Using visuals

Activating prior knowledge

Providing context

These techniques help ensure students can relate to the upcoming content.

3. Comprehensible input

Here, teachers focus on presenting content in ways that students can understand, regardless of their language proficiency. Teachers can use:

Visuals

Graphic organizers

Gestures

Demonstrations

Simplified language

The goal is to support students' understanding despite language barriers.

4. Strategies

Teachers employ various instructional strategies that encourage interaction and engagement among students. This might involve:

These methods encourage active participation and enhance learning for everyone in your class.

5. Interaction

This component emphasizes the importance of students engaging with one another and with the content. Teachers create opportunities for pair work and other forms of collaborative activities to encourage language practice through interaction.

6. Practice and application

Next, students get opportunities to apply what they've learned through activities and assignments. This stage might involve:

Writing exercises

Creative projects

Problem-solving tasks

These tasks enable them to use both language and content skills, reinforcing their understanding of the lesson's objectives.

7. Lesson delivery

This stage involves the actual teaching process. Teachers implement the strategies planned in the earlier stages, delivering the content while supporting students' language development and understanding. They maintain a focus on both content and language objectives using diverse techniques, such as visuals or tactile activities, to cater to varied learning styles.

8. Review and assessment

Teachers review the key concepts covered in the lesson and provide feedback. You can use various assessment methods to gauge student understanding of the content and language objectives, such as:

Quizzes and tests in various formats (multiple choice, matching, short answer)

Creative projects such as artwork or presentation slides

Class discussions

Observations of classroom behavior

This last component ensures teachers can adjust their instruction based on the students' needs.

Lesson plan activities leveraging the SIOP model

When you leverage sheltered instruction, you can more effectively meet the needs of each student in your classroom. Here are some SIOP lesson plan examples and methods to get you started:

Building background with pictures: Utilizing real-life objects or picture cards related to the lesson topic engages students and activates their prior knowledge. For example, in a science lesson about animals, you could bring in animal figurines or use pictures to discuss the different species.

Visual organizers and graphic aids: Concept maps, diagrams, or charts break down complex information. For a history lesson, create a timeline or a visual map highlighting key events or figures.

Pair/group discussions: This not only promotes interaction but also allows students to share their ideas and practice language skills. This could be applied to literature analysis or problem-solving scenarios in math.

Jigsaw learning: Implement a jigsaw activity in social studies or science where students research and present different aspects of a larger topic. Let them become experts on specific subtopics and then teach their peers.

Think-Pair-Share: Start with individual thinking time, then pair students to discuss their thoughts, and finally, allow them to share their ideas with the class. You can use this strategy in any subject to stimulate thinking and encourage participation.

Text modifications: Provide readings at varying levels of complexity, ensuring all students can access the content. This can be applied across subjects, allowing students to engage with the material at their proficiency level.

Professional development opportunities for SIOP training

An article such as this only touches on the surface of an instructional strategy model. If you're interested in learning more and adding this skill to your repertoire of certifications, here are some places where you can receive SIOP training:

When considering a program, you'll want to ensure it:

Is taught by certified SIOP trainers

Covers all eight model components

Offers ways to adapt the model to your classroom

Provides hands-on application and practice

Encourages collaboration among colleagues

Be sure to ask for recommendations from other educators and read reviews of the program before enrolling. The ultimate goal of the SIOP model is to equip educators with the knowledge and skills to create an inclusive and effective learning environment for all students.

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How to Adopt Sheltered Instruction Strategies (SIOP Model) | Resilient Educator

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Communities are often filled with students and teachers from diverse backgrounds and cultures. You'll find a mix of native English speakers, bilingual

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This website offers resources and strategies designed to enhance language acquisition and academic achievement for ELLs. GLAD strategies provide educators with methods such as the use of visual aids, cooperative learning, and language-rich activities. These techniques align with research-based best practices by promoting active student engagement, scaffolding content instruction, and integrating language development into subject matter learning. The project emphasizes the importance of creating an inclusive and interactive classroom environment to support the diverse needs of ELL students.

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Project GLAD - which stands for Guided Language Acquisition Instruction - is a model of sheltered English instruction that school districts around the country have used to prepare their teachers to work with English language learner (ELL) students. ((Project GLAD is owned by the Orange County Department of Education (OCDE), which also houses the program's National Training Center for professional development services. BE GLAD is endorsed by Marcia Brechtel, the co-creator of Project GLAD, and is now independently run despite its shared origins with the OCDE model. For an explanation of the difference between the OCDE-owned Project GLAD and BE GLAD, click here.)) In fact, almost 300,000 teachers in 18 states have received training in GLAD strategies.

GLAD began as a series of instructional strategies developed in the 1980s by teachers Marcia Brechtel and Linnea Haley to teach academic content to ELLs. In the 90s the project received federal grants to develop into a formal instructional training model. But despite its long-running history, expansive reach, and popularity, little is known about the effects of the model on the educational outcomes of DLLs.

Luckily, researchers from Education Northwest are engaged in a rigorous randomized evaluation of the program - the first experimental study of Project GLAD to date - with funding from the Institute of Education Sciences. The four-year longitudinal study conducted randomized trials in 30 elementary schools in Idaho. In other words, half of the schools were randomly assigned to the treatment group, in which classrooms were instructed with GLAD strategies and the other half were assigned to the control group, in which classrooms were instructed as usual. ((Teachers in control group classrooms carried out " business as usual." Investigators defined this as the typical instruction ELLs receive in Idaho, which is for the most part a form of sheltered English or ESL instruction.)) Of the 113 teachers in the study, 51 were randomly assigned to receive Project GLAD training and 62 were assigned to a control group that did not receive training.

Treatment group teachers were first trained in GLAD strategies and then observed as they carried out the model in classrooms with fifth grade ELL and non-ELL students. ((As a type of sheltered English instruction model, GLAD is carried out in classrooms with students with varying levels of English language proficiency. Therefore, one of the main goals of the study was to determine whether or not Project GLAD has a different impact on ELL and non-ELL students.)) The model was examined for its impact on the reading comprehension, vocabulary, writing, and science achievement of all students in the experimental classrooms (as compared to students in the control classrooms), and for teachers' implementation of the model.

So what does the model look like in a classroom setting? As a type of sheltered instruction, Project GLAD is used in mainstream academic classrooms with students at various levels of English language development. Its goal is to seamlessly build in linguistic supports for DLLs during regular content instruction, so that they are better able to understand the subject material at hand. The model goes a step beyond other models, such as SIOP, by giving teachers specific strategies and prescriptive directions on how to implement them in content instruction. Educators are instructed in 35 strategies that are grouped into four goal-oriented categories (focus and motivation; input of new knowledge; guided oral practice; and reading and writing development).

Some of the strategies, such as "group frame" are specifically designed as English language development tools. With "group frame," the instructor asks a group of students to orally respond to a prompt or to retell a story while he/she records the response on a chart made visible to all students. Oral language development is especially important for DLLs; research shows (see here and here) that strong oral proficiency in English is associated with ELLs' enhanced reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, and writing skills. This means that instruction for DLLs should dedicate a significant amount of time to developing their oral proficiency skills in order to ensure later achievement in reading, writing, and vocabulary.

Initial results from the first two years of the study have been mixed in terms of GLAD's impact on students' educational outcomes. The program had a positive impact on the vocabulary, reading comprehension, and on select writing skills of ELLs, although the effects on non-ELLs were inconclusive. ((In the first year of the study, researchers found no significant impact on non-ELLs. However, in the second year, they found a slight negative impact on non-ELLs' vocabulary knowledge.)) The study also found that the positive impact on ELLs was strongest for those with intermediate levels of English proficiency, ((The study refers to students' level of English proficiency as measured by the Idaho English Language Assessment (IELA). IELA assigns students the following proficiency levels: beginning, advanced beginning, intermediate, early fluent, and fluent. It defines intermediate as the level where "students begin to expand the complexity and variety of their communication skills but exhibit fairly frequent errors that may impede meaning.")) but substantially less so for students at other levels of proficiency. According to Theresa Deussen, principal investigator in the study, the use of GLAD "may make more sense in a school made up mostly of intermediate ELLs, compared to a school with just 15 percent ELLs and 85 percent non-ELLs." In other words, GLAD works best in schools where the majority of students are ELLs and where the majority of ELLs are at an intermediate level of proficiency.

The study also found that GLAD is popular amongst teachers. A resounding 95 percent of the GLAD instructors in the study strongly agreed with the statement, "I enjoy teaching my students using Project GLAD strategies." However, the study also identified several challenges teachers face, including the lack of time for planning GLAD lessons and preparing materials to use with the strategies, and the difficulty of implementing the lessons as the model intends. For example, many teachers found it difficult to recall all of the strategies and how to properly use them.

But the most significant conclusion of the Education Northwest study is that as a stand-alone measure, Project GLAD is not enough to close the achievement gap between ELLs and non-ELLs. Additionally, the report's authors cautioned against understanding the model as a replacement for English language development programs for DLLs. Deussen warns that an improper understanding of both GLAD's purpose and its implementation can be detrimental to DLLs. Citing a case study conducted in Washington state on the use of Project GLAD to instruct ELLs, Deussen explains that districts felt they were serving DLLs by purchasing GLAD training as a sheltered English instruction model, but because teachers "saw their Project GLAD training as providing one more tool in their toolbox, a tool they could use or not use as they saw fit," DLLs were not receiving either the full implementation of the structured English instruction program or English language development lessons.

Based on the available evidence of how GLAD affects DLLs' educational performance, schools should probably consider using the model only if the majority of students are intermediate-level DLLs, and if the model is implemented as a supplemental program of language support in mainstream classes for DLLs, not as their only intervention of English language development. Moreover, the results showing the difficulty teachers had in implementing the model should make schools keen on clarifying its purposes and intended form of delivery, to teachers.

The fact that Project GLAD has been in use to instruct DLLs for over 20 years despite the dearth of data on its impacts and implementation makes me wonder, how can a model that has not undergone rigorous evaluation for its effectiveness and implementation, possibly be endorsed by the California Department of Education for use with ELLs and for Title III professional development funding? While its presumed effectiveness may produce praise and satisfied teachers, that doesn't mean that we know how the model actually affects DLLs. In sum: ignorance may be bliss, but it does not prevent the very real and damaging consequences that may be lurking in the background.
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This post is part of New America's Dual Language Learner National Work Group. Click here for more information on this team's work. To subscribe to the biweekly newsletter, click here, enter your contact information, and select "Education Policy.""

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GLAD began as a series of instructional strategies developed in the 1980s to teach academic content to ELLs.

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The Colorín Colorado article provides a comprehensive guide on the use of language objectives in English language instruction. It covers various aspects, such as creating objectives, implementing them in general education classrooms, aligning them with content and language standards, and providing support to teachers. Additionally, the article offers practical examples for incorporating language objectives into lesson plans and models how to rewrite them in a way students can understand. It emphasizes the importance of making language objectives clear, measurable, and achievable for students of all language proficiency levels.

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

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

what a language objective is

steps that teachers can take to create language objectives

how to implement language objectives in a general education classroom

how to align objectives to content and language standards

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

how to use language objectives in distance learning environments.

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

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

Teaching content to ELs: The challenge

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

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

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

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

Teaching content to ELs: The solution

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

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

To this end, language objectives:

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

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

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

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Writing Language Objectives

Interview with Dr. Jennifer Himmel

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

What is a language objective?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aligning Language Objectives and Standards

English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards

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

English Language Arts (ELA) standards

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

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

Getting Started

How can I get started?

Careful lesson planning

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

Collaboration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

List

Retell

Summarize in writing

Record

Read

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

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

When should I share language objectives with students?

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

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

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

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

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

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Using language objectives in a distance learning environment

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

Accordingly, teachers will need to think through how to:

Presenting language objectives

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

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

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

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

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

Monitoring student understanding and engagement

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

Using comprehension checks and assessing progress

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

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

tickets out that are submitted digitally

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

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

Next Steps

How can I learn more?

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

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

Practices that focus on explicit academic language teaching include:

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

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Final Thoughts

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

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

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Recommended Resources

Further reading

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Video Clips: Language Objectives

How to Write Language Objectives: Tips for ELL Educators

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

Dr. Cynthia Lundgren explains language objectives

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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This article from Color in Colorado provides a clear explanation of how graphic organizers can be utilized as effective tools for students to visually organize information and establish connections between different concepts. Using graphic organizers can be a helpful tool for ELL students. These organizers can break down complex information into smaller, more manageable parts, which can make it easier for students to grasp and remember new concepts. For instance, utilizing a KWL chart or a Venn diagram helps students organize their thoughts and analyze information through comparison and contrast, allowing students to understand the content by making connections between ideas more effectively.

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Graphic organizers are a great tool to use when teaching English language learners (ELLs). Visual illustrations allow ELLs to better understand the material while learning important vocabulary.

Graphic organizers are most useful to ELLs when presented in small group activities. During the activities ELLs benefit from opportunities to work cooperatively - students are able to discuss and share their thoughts as they begin to contribute to the group effort. When ELLs use graphic organizers, they show achievement benefits across a variety of content areas, in all grade levels.

Ideas for Graphic Organizers

When teachers begin to use graphic organizers they need to follow some simple steps to make sure ELLs gain knowledge from such a simple yet reliable tool (Merkley & Jefferies, 2001). For example as a teacher begins to present a new topic, such as the solar system, an organizer can assist introducing the new idea.

Teachers should also begin to verbalize the relationship between the ideas, and the information that will be taught. Students or adults can write/draw the information provided by other students using a K-W-L chart. Graphic organizers should be tailored to reinforce the relationships between concepts, reminding students that this is just a quick preview of the material that will be taught next.

Secondly, teachers need to provide the opportunity for students to participate in discussions. ELLs need to have numerous pauses to process language in order to participate. For instance, classroom activities can be tailored to let students create graphs such as a concept definition map. Students can create a list of familiar terms to these maps.

Once students had the opportunity to share their thoughts and understand the topic that it is to follow, teachers can start to connect new material to their prior knowledge. Lessons need to guide ELLs to activate prior knowledge as they recollect earlier taught content to be able to retain new material (Merkley & Jefferies, 2001). In other words, graphic organizers provide a visual summary as they describe information - introducing ELLs to new technical vocabulary as they reinforce decoding skills of key words for an upcoming lesson.

Graphic organizers facilitate ELLs' comprehension through visual illustrations of key terms, vocabulary, ideas, and the relationship among them. Improving student's reading comprehension can be challenging, but such progress is necessary when focusing on students who are learning English (Kim, Vaughn, Wanzek, & Wei, 2004).

Note: When using graphic organizers with ELLs, be sure to explain how to use them and check back to ensure their understanding.

Strategy: K-W-L Chart

K-W-L charts are graphic organizers where students can share:

Here are some examples:

Video: Using a K-W-L Chart for background knowledge

ELL high school teacher Christine Rowland explains how to use a KWL chart to identify students' existing background knowledge.

Recommended Resources

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Graphic organizers are a great tool to use when teaching English language learners (ELLs). Visual illustrations allow ELLs to better understand the material while learning important vocabulary. Graphic organizers are most useful to ELLs when presented in small group activities.

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This valuable resource provides valuable guidance for educators looking to incorporate technology into their teaching methods. This article emphasizes the advantages of incorporating educational apps, interactive tools, and digital platforms into the classroom. These resources can help facilitate personalized learning, enhance student engagement, and cater to various learning preferences. These strategies are in line with research-based best practices as they promote differentiated instruction, support multimodal learning, and enhance communication skills through technology. This will greatly assist and engage English language learners in achieving language mastery and development.

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How to Use Technology to Help ELLs Achieve Language Mastery | Continental Educational Publisher

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Struggling with how to use technology to help ELLs in your classroom? Check out these nine effective edtech tools for English learners!

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This article points out that ELL students benefit greatly from cooperative learning because it provides opportunities for language practice and interaction with peers. Students usually collaborate in groups of four, dividing into pairs for various activities. Classroom routines and expectationss provide students with clear guidelines for their behavior, ensuring that they actively participate, remain focused, support one another, foster a positive environment, collaborate to find solutions, and give and receive constructive feedback. Additionally, cooperative learning can help ELL students build confidence and feel more included in the classroom community.

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Cooperative Learning has been proven to be effective for all types of students, including academically gifted, mainstream students and English language learners (ELLs) because it promotes learning and fosters respect and friendships among diverse groups of students. In fact, the more diversity in a team, the higher the benefits for each student. Peers learn to depend on each other in a positive way for a variety of learning tasks.

Students typically work in teams of four. This way, they can break into pairs for some activities, and then get back together in teams very quickly for others. It is important, however, to establish classroom norms and protocols that guide students to:

Contribute

Stay on task

Help each other

Encourage each other

Share

Solve problems

Give and accept feedback from peers

Cooperative Learning for ELLs

Cooperative Learning is particularly beneficial for any student learning a second language. Cooperative Learning activities promote peer interaction, which helps the development of language and the learning of concepts and content. It is important to assign ELLs to different teams so that they can benefit from English language role models. ELLs learn to express themselves with greater confidence when working in small teams. In addition to 'picking up' vocabulary, ELLs benefit from observing how their peers learn and solve problems. If you decide to assign each student in a team a role (such as reporter, recorder, time keeper, and materials manager), you might want to rotate roles each week or by activity. This prevents what typically happens if students select their own roles - the same students wind up performing the same tasks. By rotating, students develop the skills they most need to practice.

Some Cooperative Learning strategies

There are some popular strategies that can be used with all students to learn content (such as science, math, social studies, language arts, and foreign languages). However, they are particularly beneficial to ELLs for learning English and content at the same time. Most of these strategies are especially effective in teams of four:

1. Round Robin
Present a category (such as "Names of Mammals") for discussion. Have students take turns going around the group and naming items that fit the category. (Kagan, 2009)

2. Roundtable
Present a category (such as words that begin with "b"). Have students take turns writing one word at a time. (Kagan, 2009)

3. Writearound
For creative writing or summarization, give a sentence starter (for example: If you give an elephant a cookie, he's going to ask for...). Ask all students in each team to finish that sentence. Then, they pass their paper to the right, read the one they received, and add a sentence to that one. After a few rounds, four great stories or summaries emerge. Give children time to add a conclusion and/or edit their favorite one to share with the class.

4. Numbered Heads Together
Ask students to number off in their teams from one to four. Announce a question and a time limit. Students put their heads together to come up with an answer. Call a number and ask all students with that number to stand and answer the question. Recognize correct responses and elaborate through rich discussions. (Kagan, 2009)

5. Team Jigsaw
Assign each student in a team one fourth of a page to read from any text (for example, a social studies text), or one fourth of a topic to investigate or memorize. Each student completes his or her assignment and then teaches the others or helps to put together a team product by contributing a piece of the puzzle.

6. Tea Party
Students form two concentric circles or two lines facing each other. You ask a question (on any content) and students discuss the answer with the student facing them. After one minute, the outside circle or one line moves to the right so that students have new partners. Then pose a second question for them to discuss. Continue with five or more questions. For a little variation, students can write questions on cards to review for a test through this "Tea Party" method.

After each Cooperative Learning activity, you will want to debrief with the children by asking questions such as: What did you learn from this activity? How did you feel working with your teammates? If we do this again, how will you improve working together?

Other ideas

A simple way to start Cooperative Learning is to begin with pairs instead of whole teams. Two students can learn to work effectively on activities such as the following:

1. Assign a math worksheet and ask students to work in pairs.

2. One of the students does the first problem while the second acts as a coach.

3. Then, students switch roles for the second problem.

4. When they finish the second problem, they get together with another pair and check answers.

5. When both pairs have agreed on the answers, ask them to shake hands and continue working in pairs on the next two problems.

Literature circles in groups of four or six are also a great way to get students working in teams. You can follow these steps:

1. Have sets of four books available.

2. Let students choose their own book.

3. Form teams based on students' choices of books.

4. Encourage readers to use notes, post-its, and discussion questions to analyze their books.

5. Have teams conduct discussions about the book.

6. Facilitate further discussion with the whole class on each of the books.

7. Have teams share what they read with the whole class.

8. For the next literature circles, students select new books.

Citations

This page has been copied with permission PENDING from Kagan Publishing & Professional Development from the following book: Kagan, Spencer & Kagan, Miguel. Kagan Cooperative Learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing, 2009. 1.800.933.2667. www.KaganOnline.com.

References

Calderón, M. (1984, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1996, 1998). Cooperative Learning for Bilingual Instruction: Manual for Teachers and Teacher Trainers. El Paso, TX: MTTI.

Calderón, M. (1984, 1986, 1990, 1994). Second Language Acquisition: Manual for Teachers and Teacher Trainers. El Paso, TX: MTTI

Calderón, M. (1984, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1996). Sheltered Instruction: Manual for Teachers and Teacher Trainers. Baltimore, MD: Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education, Johns Hopkins University).

Ferreiro, R. & M. Calderon, (1998) El A B C del apendizaje cooperativo. Mexico, D.F.: Trillas. (can be ordered from Baltimore, MD: Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education, Johns Hopkins University).

Kagan, Spencer & Kagan, Miguel. (2009). Kagan Cooperative Learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing. www.KaganOnline.com.

Slavin, R.E. (1995). Cooprative learning: Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Reprints

For any reprint requests, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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Cooperative Learning has been proven to be effective for all types of students, including academically gifted, mainstream students and English language learners (ELLs) because it promotes learning and fosters respect and friendships among diverse groups of students. In fact, the more diversity in a team, the higher the benefits for each student.

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This resource offers effective strategies for teaching vocabulary to English learners. It presents different approaches, such as incorporating visuals, real-life examples, and context clues, to help students better understand and remember new words. This resource provides valuable guidance on seamlessly incorporating vocabulary instruction into daily lessons to enhance language acquisition and retention. This approach demonstrates the process of connecting words with cognates and provides clear and thorough vocabulary instruction to enhance understanding of the subject matter.

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Together with my colleagues at Keys to Literacy, I have recently updated the content in our Key Vocabulary Routine professional development course, including information related to vocabulary instruction for English language learners (ELLs). Vocabulary development plays a fundamental role in language learning and overall academic success. ELLs face unique challenges in acquiring English vocabulary due to limited exposure and differing linguistic backgrounds. This quote from Michael Graves sums up an important message for teachers of all grades and subjects:

"While most of the assistance we provide for ELLs will not be different in kind from that we provide for English only students, many ELLs will need to be taught more words, will need more powerful instruction, and will need to be given particular help in mastering word-learning strategies. This is also true of other students who enter school with small vocabularies." (2016, p. 41)

Claude Goldenberg, an expert in the field of bilingual education, makes this point:

" In an English immersion classroom, where most ELLs are, the main challenge is that English learners are supposed to learn academic content that everyone is supposed to learn, while they are also learning the language the content is taught in. It's a double-barreled challenge that English learners and their teachers face."

Effective vocabulary instruction for ELLs involves a combination of explicit teaching, context-rich learning experiences, and strategies that promote active engagement and meaningful practice. Graves makes these suggestions for effective ELLs vocabulary instruction:

The development of strong language skills in students' first language is a cornerstone for building English.

ELLs often need substantial repetition and reinforcement, and more frequent exposures during school.

ELLs benefit from differentiated instruction and scaffolding to allow them to carry out tasks beyond their independent abilities.

ELLs benefit from learning and guided practice for use of context and word parts to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

In Chapter 7 of Elsa Cardenas-Hagan's book Literacy Foundations for English Learners, Sharolyn Pollard-Durodola explains that overall, teachers should intentionally structure the classroom learning environment for frequent explicit and varied vocabulary building throughout the school day so that learning new words in a second language is not left to chance. These frequent opportunities encourage ELLs to be immersed in listening, speaking, reading, and writing new words during content-enriched instruction. Informal opportunities to use new words do not provide sufficient robust exposures to new vocabulary that can only take place through intentional planning that emphasizes deciding which words to teach and which word-building strategy is most appropriate. Click here to watch a video of Elsa Cardenas-Hagan reviewing Chapter 7 from her book for a book study sponsored by PaTTAN in 2021.
Teaching Vocabulary to ELLs in Context
Pollard-Durodola notes that decontextualized vocabulary instruction where students memorize word lists, terms, and their meanings in isolation are not as effective for ELLs as instruction that connects to students' background knowledge and exposure to words in context. ELLs require rich and deep word processing opportunities because they may lack English word depth even for words that are frequently encountered in the second language. Content-enriched vocabulary practices focus on explicit exposure to content-related words that are important for students to be able to independently read and comprehend academic texts. Content-based instruction, where vocabulary is integrated into the teaching of academic subjects, has been found effective (Graves, 2012). This approach ensures that ELLs not only acquire English vocabulary but also develop the necessary content knowledge to succeed academically.

The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at the University of Texas at Austin (2018) recommends the following about vocabulary instruction in its guide 10 Key Policies and Practices for Teaching English Language Learners based on findings from high-quality research:

Teachers provide intentional, explicit, and extended vocabulary instruction that supports content learning: "The volume and complexity of vocabulary associated with academic instruction increases exponentially through the grades, making learning especially difficult for ELLs, who often find the vocabulary load to be overwhelming... But exposure to words alone is insufficient; students need to use words within and across subjects. Explicit instruction of key words anchored to text can accelerate students' acquisition of vocabulary, especially when students have extended opportunities to use words in meaningful contexts. For ELLs to understand words at more than a surface level, instruction must be extended over time with opportunities to hear, speak, and write words across varied contexts." (p. 7)

The guide goes on to suggest these explicit vocabulary instruction steps:

1. State the word and give a comprehensible definition that uses language your ELLs will understand.

2. Give two or more examples, briefly explaining why they are examples of the target word.

3. Give two or more non-examples, briefly explaining why they are not examples of the target word.

4. Discuss, pulling in students' background knowledge of the word.

5. Check for understanding with questions and prompts.

6. Have students use target words in speaking and writing.

7. Use systematic review to provide opportunities over time for students to read, write, hear, and say the target words.

8. Use "intentional noticing" to discuss target words and how they are used as you encounter the words across contexts.

Principles of Instructional Design to Teach Vocabulary to English Leaners
Circling back to the Cardenas-Hagan book, Chapter 7 offers these three recommendations:

1. Build vocabulary knowledge by combining new information with what the learner already knows to produce higher cognitive learning.

2. Integrate multiple opportunities for using new vocabulary to make connections to concepts and lived experiences.

3. Integrate intentional opportunities for adult-student language interaction around new vocabulary during content learning.

Additional Learning Suggestions
Technology-enhanced instruction also offers promising avenues for teaching vocabulary to ELLs. Digital tools and applications can provide interactive and engaging experiences that cater to individual learner needs. Computer-assisted programs, online resources, and mobile applications offer opportunities for independent practice, self-assessment, and personalized learning experiences.

Finally, educators should keep in mind cultural sensitivity and respect for ELLs' linguistic backgrounds. Incorporating students' native languages, encouraging cross-linguistic connections (such as pointing out English words that share cognates with ELLs' first language), and recognizing the value of bilingualism can enhance vocabulary instruction and promote a positive learning environment.
Additional Resources References

Goldenberg, C. ) Q&A: Claude Goldenberg on learning English in today's multiethnic classrooms. Stanford University Graduate School of Education. Retrieved from: https://ed.stanford.edu/spotlight/qa-stanford-researcher-learning-english-todays-multiethnic-classrooms

Graves, M.F. (2016). The vocabulary book: Learning and instruction, 2nd Edition. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Graves, M.F., August, D., & Mancilla-Martinez, J. (2012). Teaching vocabulary to English language learners. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk (2018). 10 key policies and practices for teaching English language learners. The University of Texas at Austin.

Pollard-Durodola, S.D. (2020). Vocabulary instruction among English learners. In E. Cardenas-Hagan (Ed.). Literacy foundations for English learners. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.

Joan Sedita

Joan Sedita is the founder of Keys to Literacy and author of the Keys to Literacy professional development programs. She is an experienced educator, nationally recognized speaker and teacher trainer. She has worked for over 35 years in the literacy education field and has presented to thousands of teachers and related professionals at schools, colleges, clinics, and professional conferences.

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Vocabulary Instruction for English Language Learners - Keys to Literacy

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Together with my colleagues at Keys to Literacy, I have recently updated the content in our Key Vocabulary Routine professional development course, including information related to vocabulary instruction for English language learners (ELLs).

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Dr. Giselle Carpio-Williams' article highlights the importance of technology in enhancing learning for English Language Learners (ELLs). It emphasizes the use of AI tools, such as Amira Learning, for language development. The article also provides evidence-based strategies for educators to support ELLs, including scaffolding instruction, visual and verbal aids, and access to grade-level content. It also suggests connecting idioms and bilingual vocabulary lists, peer learning, and utilizing native languages to enhance comprehension and cultural understanding. These strategies align with effective teaching strategies and are crucial for ELL learning success.

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Carpio-Williams, G. (2024). The Role of Technology for ELL Students in the Classroom. HMH. https://www.hmhco.com/blog/technology-for-ell-students-in-the-classroom

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Benefits of Integrating Technology to Help ELL Students

It seems like every current article about multilingual student education includes at least a mention of some new innovative use of technology. So rapid and prominent is this influx of assistive technology that it has even caught the attention of the US Department of Education. The office recently published a report highlighting myriad benefits that assistive technology brings to a classroom and, in particular, one with multilingual learners. Technology enhances opportunities that may have otherwise been unattainable due to language barriers for students.

An aha moment for me happened when a researcher likened technology support to being more like an electric bike and less like a robot vacuum; basically, human interaction is still key to any technology's successful outcome with students! Although most educators' sentiments have been positive around the benefits of technology to help multilingual students, this article reminds us that teachers should remain mindful of certain criteria when evaluating technology for their classrooms. Can you start small until you determine what fits best? Are you able to monitor biases within the tools as students engage? Does this tool support increased engagement for students, or does it replicate longstanding inequalities in education?

Tips for Integrating Technology Resources into the Classroom

Finding the right technology to assist multilingual students in our classrooms can feel daunting. With new technology seemingly popping up daily, and considering the various languages, cultures, and stages of student English language acquisition, selecting the right technology for enriching student engagement can feel almost impossible.

So, how can you identify assistive technology that is supportive of multilingual students? There are varying opinions on what criteria should be used to determine effective tools. This toolkit provides some common tips shared by experts in the field:

1. Start with learning objectives, and find tools that fit the needs.

2. Technology should enhance, not replace, instruction.

3. Provide clear, multimodal supports for using technology.

4. Plan for multiple opportunities throughout the day to incorporate technology-they should be authentic and mirror how students would use technology in their daily lives.

5. Create a positive and inclusive learning environment that respects diversity, culture, and language.

6. Reflect on your technology's effectiveness-ask your multilingual students for feedback; they're the best judge of how it's going!

Additionally, this toolkit provides some questions you may ask when seeking to determine the right fit for your students' needs:

Does the technology support diverse language needs?

How does the technology promote language acquisition?

Does the technology facilitate personalized learning?

How does the technology encourage collaboration and communication?

Does the technology provide assessment and progress monitoring?

Activity Ideas for How Assistive Technology Can Be Incorporated with Students

As educators, we know that the introduction of technology into classrooms can be a game changer when it comes to the engagement and motivation for students. The incorporation of technology into classrooms creates not only a motivating environment but also the potential for a diverse set of information to guide instructional support for every student. In the 2011 article "Supporting English Language Learners Through Technology," authors Elizabeth Brooke and Debra Duckworth point to the fact that technology can help English language learners find a voice during the learning of new content and aid with bridging their learning into a new language.

The US Department of Education, as well as other academic experts, share guidance on effective activities to use with multilingual learners in classrooms. The activities often fall into distinct categories of support:

Academic content tools (e.g., simulation tools, glossaries)

Productivity tools (e.g., presentation and publication tools)

Communication tools (e.g., video conferencing, discussion boards)

Try the following three activities that incorporate technology to support students in their learning.

Digital Camera Dictionaries

This activity is a fun way to help students develop and enhance their Tier I vocabulary! Ask students to use digital cameras (phone cameras work) to document their day at school. Ask students to take pictures of what they encounter at school. Pictures of everyday items throughout the day, like forks and spoons at lunch, balls and jump ropes during recess, desks and pencils in class, and stairs and signs in the hallways, are common items they see every day. Ask the students to create slideshows of their pictures with the correct vocabulary word to match and share with their partner or class to reinforce their vocabulary.

You're the Narrator!

This activity gives students the opportunity to use short, animated films with no dialogue to practice their speaking by using their own voices to narrate and tell the story of the film. Multilingual students in your class may vary in language proficiency levels-from beginner to advanced learners. Short films typically follow universal stories that aren't too difficult to understand. This flexibility creates a great opportunity for every student in the class to have a go at being the narrator and participate in the activity! There are many short videos that can work across different video websites and streaming platforms, and this article provides some examples of ones that can be used.

Voyage into Idioms Using AI

This is a great activity to provide older students with opportunities to clarify common idioms that frequently cause confusion when learning English. Idioms are a lot of fun but can often create misconceptions about the message they are trying to deliver. A clear example could be, "Why is a piece of cake easy? Good cake is actually hard to make!"

Instead of worrying too much about where the terms came from, ask students to use an AI platform to create an image of a common idiom. The first image will commonly need to be improved several times until the image generated finally produces a reflection of the meaning the idiom is trying to convey. The goal of this activity is for the student to process the idiom's English meaning for clarity.

In addition to the above ideas, here are more examples of effective tools and activities:

Virtual worlds and experiences using VR technology to explore new content (exploring a new country being studied or visiting a museum abroad)

Virtual manipulatives to help model mathematical thinking

Speech-to-text and text-to-speech tools during literacy instruction to support the communication of ideas

Video presentations to share learning and incorporate students' knowledge base on a subject

Publish a digital story about a memorable day; these may include music, images, and/or video

Closed-captioning tools to enhance understanding during lessons in content areas like math, science, and social studies

Articulation tools to assist with accurate production of language, such as by showing images of how a sound should be produced; recording and listening to students' own voices to compare with the model

List of Helpful Technology Tools for English Language Learners

You've read all about technology's importance in multilingual students' learning. So, what assistive technology can you start using in your classroom? Below are some technology tools for ELL students for you to consider.

Language Learning Apps and Websites: Duolingo, Quizlet, Rosetta Stone, Storybird, and VoiceThread

Multimedia and Creative Tools: Canva, Flipgrid, Powtoon, and Screencastify

Collaboration and Communication Tools: Google Classroom, Padlet, Skype, Zoom, and Kahoot!

Research and Inquiry Tools: Google Scholar, Britannica, Google Earth, WolframAlpha, and Statista

Additionally, HMH tools can also support multilingual students' learning:

Amira: Offers 1:1 reading tutoring and equitable oral reading fluency assessment

Writable: Provides automatic writing feedback that benefits all students, especially multilingual students

English 3D: Contains built-in support for multilingual students, such as authentic texts and daily formative assessments

As educators, our greatest gift to our students is providing a safe space to learn and grow, especially the ELL students we support. Continuing to incorporate technology into our classrooms is one of the most efficient ways we can help our students soar.

What ELL Technology Tools Do You Use to Support Students?

We'd love to hear from you! Share the tools you've used to support your multilingual students, as well as practical tips, with us at shaped@hmhco.com or reach out on Instagram or Facebook.

***
Want more tips on supporting multilingual learners in the classroom? Read our blog on ELL accommodations in the classroom or differentiation for ELL students.
***

Address the range of multilingual learners' needs with our English language development programs.

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The Role of Technology for ELL Students in the Classroom

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Find out the answer to the question, "What is the role of assistive technology for ELL students in the classroom?" Plus, discover helpful tips and activity ideas for using technology in your classroom.

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Students will love Flipgrid! The Flip Educator Toolkit offers comprehensive resources and guidance for educators, specifically designed to assist those who teach English language learners. It provides training, inspiration, and ongoing support to help teachers effectively meet the needs of their students. This comprehensive program offers step-by-step guides to recording and sharing information and responses through recordings. Allowing students to practice speaking skills. The toolkit promotes research-based best practices by encouraging interactive and collaborative learning, utilizing multimedia tools to enhance language acquisition and development, and providing continuous professional development to keep educators up-to-date with the latest instructional strategies.

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Flip Educator Toolkit: Training, Inspiration, and Support

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Everything educators need to bring the magic of Flip to students—including on-demand training & classroom ideas! Curious minds click to learn more.

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Google Classroom is a great resource! It is a flexible online learning platform designed to assist students by offering structured, user-friendly, and engaging learning. It promotes effective teaching strategies, individualized assignments, student interaction, and multimedia resources. Teachers can use Google Translate to help ELL students overcome language barriers, and its accessibility features ensure effective participation for all students. Google Classroom also allows for easy organization of assignments, feedback, and grades, streamlining the teaching process. Additionally, it provides a convenient platform for students and families to stay informed about their educational progress and upcoming assignments.

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Google Classroom is the main address of Education, Training, and Study!

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Fun and learning! Freckle by Renaissance is a fun and engaging platform that offers tailored learning experiences for English learners in math and English language arts. This program incorporates research-based best practices in differentiated instruction and formative assessment to effectively address individual skill gaps and promote content mastery. Students are able to work at their own pace and receive real-time feedback on their progress, allowing for a personalized learning experience that helps them reach their full potential. Freckle by Renaissance also provides teachers with valuable data and insights to inform instruction and support student growth.

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Freckle by Renaissance | Reach Every Student at Their Level. (2023). Freckle by Renaissance - Differentiation Platform for K-12. https://freckle.com/en-us/

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Safety first! Colorin Colorado offers a range of valuable resources to support learners in navigating online safety. The article highlights the importance of effectively managing screen time, creating awareness about cyberbullying, and encouraging safe internet practices. It emphasizes the importance of comprehensive digital literacy education, actively involving parents in multiple languages, and providing culturally relevant safety tips. By implementing these strategies, a secure learning environment can be created for English learners.

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Online Safety

KidsHealth: Online Safety Tips for Families

KidsHealth offers a number of articles for kids, teens, and parents about online safety, which are also available in Spanish:

KidsHealth: Toolkits for Educators

It's important that teens understand that technology can pose risks and requires responsibilities. The following discussion questions and activities from KidsHealth for middle school and high school will encourage students to think critically about online safety and what it means to be safe online.

NetSmartz Workshop is an interactive, educational program of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) that provides age-appropriate resources to help teach children how to be safer on- and offline. The program and website is designed for children ages 5-17, parents and guardians, educators, and law enforcement and features resources such as videos, games, activity cards, and presentations. The NetSmartz website is also available in Spanish.

This full-color, two-page brochure for parents and teens from the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction is available in 9 languages. (See Internet Safety Brochure for links to all languages.)

This resource page from LAUSD includes bilingual activities, guidelines, and PSAs about cybersafety and bullying prevention.

The Internet Keep Safe Coalition (iKeepSafe), established in 2005, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit international alliance of more than 100 policy leaders, educators, law enforcement members, technology experts, public health experts and advocates. iKeepSafe offers videos in Spanish and Arabic on internet safety for parents and children.

Cyberbullying

This section offers guidelines for cyberbullying prevention, as well as strategies for addressing problems that arise and for monitoring online activity for potential problems.

Teaching Tolerance: Cyberbullying and Bias

These articles and blog posts from Teaching Tolerance provide educators with a number of activity idea for addressing cyberbullying with students, particularly around areas of bias and cultural sensitivity.

KidsHealth: Articles for Families

KidsHealth offers a number of articles for kids, teens, and parents about cyberbullying, which are also available in Spanish:

This federal website is managed by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and is fully bilingual. It includes a section on Cyberbullying.

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Technology Safety for English Language Learners

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KidsHealth offers a number of articles for kids, teens, and parents about online safety, which are also available in Spanish: It's important that teens understand that technology can pose risks and requires responsibilities. The following discussion questions and activities from KidsHealth for middle school and high school will encourage students to think critically about online safety and what it means to be safe online.

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Epic! Books for Kids is an essential online resource for educators who are working with ELL students. Most students enjoy their flexible reading time on EPIC! since it offers an extensive selection of books, audiobooks, and educational videos. This comprehensive digital library helps students develop their reading skills and language abilities by providing them with engaging and age-appropriate content. With a wide variety of materials available, such as leveled readers and bilingual books, Epic aligns with effective teaching methods that promote differentiated instruction and multimodal learning. These resources are designed to support ELL students in developing their literacy skills through engaging and interactive activities, encouraging a passion for reading and learning.

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Fuel Curiosity & Reading Confidence With Epic. (n.d.). [Video]. Epic - Books for Kids. https://www.getepic.com/

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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This resource from Prodigy provides a dynamic and interactive learning platform for students, including English Language Learners (ELLs). Through the use of interactive elements, Prodigy effectively engages students in math and English practice, ensuring their interest and motivation remain high. This approach is in line with proven educational methods, as it provides personalized instruction, prompt feedback, and customized learning paths based on each student's skill level. Students have the opportunity to work together and form teams to actively participate in the learning process. In addition, the interactive nature of the game helps students develop their language skills by learning in context and reinforcing their vocabulary. This is especially important for English Language Learners as it supports their academic progress.

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Prodigy. (2024). Make Math and English fun for kids. Www.prodigygame.com. https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/

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All of Prodigy Math's educational content (questions, in-game videos and math manipulatives) is free. Anyone can make a Prodigy Math account and start learning!

Parents and teachers can register for a free account and link their child or students to track progress from their dashboard.

All of Prodigy's teacher tools are free, including:

Parents can purchase an optional Membership upgrade to:

Motivate learning with Goals and Rewards

Unlock extra aesthetic features for their child in-game

Access premium features like worksheets, video lessons and extra reports

Sign up for your free account today!

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Make learning fun with Prodigy Math, the game-based math learning platform for grades 1 to 8.

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The Encyclopedia Britannica resource provides a wide range of accurate and reliable information on various subjects, which educators can use to help English learners by giving them informative content in English. This resource helps develop a strong foundation of background knowledge and vocabulary in a range of subjects, which is crucial for achieving academic success. By providing text at various levels of complexity and incorporating visual aids, it facilitates differentiated instruction and scaffolding, which are both important research-based practices for teaching English language learners.

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Britannica Money

Discover all you need to know about retirement, investing, and household finance, without the jargon or agenda. Get reliable guidance, insight, and easy-to-understand explanations, written, edited, and verified to Britannica's exacting standards.

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Explore the fact-checked online encyclopedia from Encyclopaedia Britannica with hundreds of thousands of objective articles, biographies, videos, and images from experts.

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All time student favorite! Kahoot! is a platform that enables educators to create engaging game-based learning activities for English Language Learners (ELLs), enhancing student engagement and promoting interactive learning. The platform's customizable quizzes and games reinforce vocabulary and concepts, facilitating language acquisition and retention.

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Kahoot! | Learning games | Make learning awesome! (2024). Kahoot! https://kahoot.com/

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Kahoot! | Learning games | Make learning awesome!

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Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that brings engagement and fun to 1+ billion players every year at school, at work, and at home.

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Colorín Colorado's resource stresses the importance of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in English Language Learners (ELLs) education. It provides strategies for creating a supportive and inclusive classroom environment, focusing on emotional and social needs, improving academic performance and overall well-being.

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What is social and emotional learning (SEL)? And how can schools ensure that English language learners (ELLs) are fully included and supported through SEL activities in the school setting?

This article offers an introduction to SEL along with helpful resources from organizations such as the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). In addition, this article also shares ideas on how to ensure that ELLs are able to fully participate in SEL lessons and activities.

To highlight those examples, we have mapped a few ELL considerations and strategies to CASEL's SEL framework. These strategies represent just some of the ideas that educators can try and they also detail important considerations when introducing new initiatives or ideas in a classroom or school community.

You will also find relevant examples and strategies in Teaching and Supporting English Learners: A Guide to Welcoming and Engaging NewcomersbyEugenia Mora-Flores and Stephanie Dewing.

What is SEL?

SEL is a process by which students can develop skills that help them thrive skills such as such as the ability to regulate emotions, form healthy relationships, manage stress, and contribute to a community. While many educators have incorporated SEL into their instruction for a long time, it has gotten more attention in recent years as schools and families continue to navigate the impacts of the long-term disruptions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and also look for ways to help students navigate other changes or challenges in their lives.

CASEL describes the big picture goal of SEL in the following way:
"SEL can help all young people and adults thrive personally and academically, develop and maintain positive relationships, become lifelong learners, and contribute to a more caring, just world."
How does it do that? The CASEL framework focuses on developing the following core competencies, which you can explore via CASEL's interactive SEL wheel:

1. self-awareness

2. self-management

3. social awareness

4. relationship skills

5. responsible decision-making

These are valuable skills that not only can help students today but set the stage for healthy and productive lives in the future.

Is SEL an "extra"?

While many schools may hesitate to "add on" SEL, the renewed focus on SEL offers an opportunity to reframe its role. In fact, schools who regularly incorporate SEL describe it as the foundation from which everything else grows. The more comfortable and secure students feel in the classroom, the more likely they are take risks, try new things, and contribute to the classroom.

For example, Principal Sue Stanley, whose elementary school has long prioritized SEL, writes, "We understand students cannot learn until they feel safe and connected." This is particularly true in schools where large numbers of students have experienced trauma, as in the case of her school where many students have experienced hardship and family separation due to the civil war in Yemen.

In addition, we have heard from multiple educators of ELLs in particular that the investment of time early on building relationships, getting to know students, and creating a welcoming culture and environment in the classroom pays off all year long.

Related resources

Related videos

SEL 101: What are the core competencies and key settings? (CASEL)

Looking at the whole child: Conversations with an award-winning social worker

Principal Sue Stanley: Why creating a calm, safe environment in schools matters

Teacher Christine Price: Showing students you care

SEL and ELLs: The CASEL Framework

What does all of this look like for ELLs? One way to share some concrete examples is by using the CASEL SEL framework. We have shared excerpts of the framework here and encourage you to look at the complete framework on CASEL's website. Please note that under "Examples," we have only highlighted a few skill sets that are particularly relevant for ELLs, but CASEL lists others as well.

You may also find it helpful to pull in free bilingual resources from Feel Your Best Self, a puppet-focused SEL program for children from the University of Connecticut that provides videos and related materials for educators and caregivers in English and Spanish.

Tips for lesson/activity planning

Before jumping in, we'd like to highlight some of the ELL recommendations that you will see throughout the rest of the article:

Look for opportunities to build relationships with students and get to know them.

Learn more about the unique experiences of special populations of students, such as refugees, unaccompanied minors, children in migrant farmworker families, and Indigenous students from Latin America.

Identify the key concepts and vocabulary words that will be the focus of your lesson or activity.

Pre-teach those concepts and vocabulary so that ELLs can engage meaningfully with the content.

Use visuals, hands-on objects, and other tools to make new concepts and words clear.

Look for connections to students' languages. For examples, English and Spanish share words that are similar called cognates. You can use these connections to support student understanding.

You can learn more tips from our article on lesson planning for ELLs.

1. Self-awareness

CASEL definition: "The abilities to understand one's own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior across contexts."

Identifying personal, cultural, and linguistic assets

Reflect on the following for your setting:

Welcome students' languages and cultures by:

Do ELLs' regularly hear the message that their languages, cultures, and experiences are assets and strengths?

Do teachers and peers respect ELLs' diverse perspectives and multilingual skills?

Identifying one's emotions

ELLs may still be learning:

Teach ELLs vocabulary words for different emotions. Ask them how to say those words in their language.

Give them lots of practice using emotion words, especially through check-ins like mood meters and feelings charts.

Ask colleagues who share students' cultures if there are cultural nuances you should be aware of.

Give young students or newcomers opportunities to draw pictures about how they are feeling.

Having a growth mindset

ELLs may be so focused on what they haven't learned yet that it can be easy to lose sight of what they have learned. It can be easy to become frustrated and feel behind and left out.

Focus on what students " can do" and also teach students targeted strategies for adopting a growth mindset.

Examining prejudices and biases

This complex topic can go both ways. Students may have experienced discrimination and bias against them based on a number of factors.

Look for ways to create safe spaces for talking about identity in your classroom.

If you note that additional support or communication is needed around these topics for your or your class, look for resources or colleagues that can support you in this work.

At the same time, students will likely have their own biases as well.

Principal Nathaniel Provencio: The gifts ELLs bring to school

CASEL definition: "The abilities to manage one's emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations and to achieve goals and aspirations."

Managing one's emotions

As noted above, a first step in helping ELLs manage their emotions effectively is identifying and naming emotions.

If you are introducing emotion management strategies, be sure to:

clearly name and identify the target emotions you are addressing

provide students with lots of different hands-on way to show and practice the strategies through puppets, role play, stories, and more

In addition, students will benefit from:

learning how to manage different emotions

practicing new strategies they learn

Identifying and using stress management strategies

Students may have a wide range of stressors during their days, whether at school or at home.

If you are introducing stress management strategies, be sure to:

You may wish to introduce the concept of stress and ask students:

Note: For students who have experienced trauma, these conversations may be triggering. Plan activities with care and stay attuned to the needs of your students. Stay flexible and seek additional support for students if needed.

Setting personal and collective goals

As noted above, ELLs may be overwhelmed by what can feel like mountains to climb in terms of learning a new language, acclimating to a new culture, and keeping up in their classes. Reaching some smaller goals, however, can build confidence over time, as can doing activities related to their strengths.

Help ELLs set small, specific goals that they can reach to build confidence.

Incorporate activities that connect to students' interests.

When talking with the class about goals, offer the options of "collective" goals along with individual goals and encourage creative thinking about how to reach those goals.

Share examples of success stories, such as immigrants, ELLs, or others your students may relate to.

In addition, keep in mind that many ELLs may come from "collectivist" cultures that focus on the well-being of the group over the individual. Use this to your benefit in planning group work and setting goals for the class.

Jorge Bermudez, High School Math Teacher: How advisory periods are helping my students

CASEL definition: "The abilities to understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and contexts."

Taking others' perspectives

ELLs bring a rich diversity of perspective to the classroom. The opportunity to learn from those perspectives can be lost if ELLs aren't encouraged to share their ideas as part of a respectful class community.

Give ELLs scaffolds to support their participation in class discussions, such as sentence frames and sentence starters (e.g., "I agree that...because...")

Give ELLs lots of practice discussing informal topics so that they can become comfortable with using these structures.

In addition, ELLs have the opportunity to learn from their peers when classroom communication is working well.

Recognizing strengths in others

ELLs have numerous strengths, interests, and talents that may be overlooked. Provide frequent opportunities for all students, including ELLs, to share their talents and interests with the class and in personal ways.

Ask students to share special talents or interests as part of icebreakers early in the year.

Look for ways to incorporate students' interests in the classroom.

Demonstrating empathy and compassion

There are many ways to develop empathy in the classroom. Keep in mind that some of ELLs' life experiences will be shared, universal experiences; others will be very different from what their peers have gone through.

Introduce the concept of empathy and help students understand it before any empathy-focused activities.

Teacher Paul Barnwell describes an activity in which students write three statements about themselves. The teacher then reads them anonymously to the class and students begin to get an idea of the "range of intense experiences and perspectives (the) classroom community contains."

Regularly using questions such as, "What do you think that was like?" or "How do you think she's feeling right now?" can also help strengthen empathy muscles!

Using culturally responsive materials that reflect students' experiences can also open opportunities for students to share and provide teachable moments that develop empathy in peers. While it's important not to put students on the spot or force a point, being mindful of how your students see themselves in the classroom can open valuable doors.

Understanding and expressing gratitude

There are so many ways to express and lift up gratitude in the classroom. Asking students to reflect on when and why they feel gratitude is a valuable opportunity for growth.

Introduce the concept of gratitude and help students understand it before any gratitude-focused activities.

Invite students to share how they say "Thank you" in their language and make a poster board with signs of all of their translations!

We have lots of other ideas in our article Making Space for Gratitude: 15 Ideas for Schools During Challenging Times, which include appreciation boards, thank you note campaigns, and writing prompts.

You may be surprised at who in the school community or their own life is making a difference!

Identifying diverse social norms, including unjust ones

When it comes to social and cultural norms, there are a few different layers. First and foremost, students' own norms may be different, such as a cultural norm in which looking away from an authority perspective is a sign of respect, rather disrepect.

At the same time, different social norms may come up in classroom discussions. It is essential to create a culture of respect when discussing diverse experiences and perspectives. You may also need additional support if topics that relate to justice or differing expectations around concepts like human rights or women's rights are part of a discussion so that everyone feels safe within the discussion.

Teacher Omar Salem: My students' many talents

You Are Welcome Here: Preview

This preview of our award-winning film You Are Welcome Her e highlights what culturally responsive instruction can look like.

4. Relationship skills

CASEL definition: The abilities to establish and maintain healthy and supportive relationships and to effectively navigate settings with diverse individuals and groups.

Communicating effectively

Providing ELLs with lots of opportunities to interact in all kinds of situations and in different settings or group sizes will build their skills and confidence in communication.

Pay attention to whether ELLs are able to communicate their needs and ideas to you and to peers. Give them lots of practice to do so in both informal and formal settings.

When grouping students, you may sometimes wish to put students who speak the same language together so they can have an in-depth conversations and then summarize to the group in English.

Practicing teamwork and collaborative problem-solving

Peer learning is a great opportunity to practice teamwork and problem-solving. Making sure that ELLs understand their role, the purpose of the activity, and the steps they need to complete to make these activities more successful.

You can learn more in our related article 6 Strategies to Help ELLs Succeed in Peer Learning and Collaboration.

Peer learning Problem solving

Encourage students to try lots of hands-on activities and clubs.

Make sure ELLs know about enrichment activities where they can focus on problem-solving, such as robotics clubs, Maker space, Odyssey of the Mind, quiz bowls, and games clubs.

Resolving conflicts constructively

Students will need practice not only with new conflict resolution strategies but also with the language they need to use those strategies.

Introduce the concept of "conflict resolution" and any related vocabulary as needed.

Show students models of any strategies you are using through videos, photos, or role playing.

Give students practice with new strategies through role play or stories.

Review the tips in 8 Tips to Protect ELLs from Bullying in Your Classroom and School.

There may also be some cultural nuances in how students approach conflict and you may wish to ask students for ideas of different conflict resolution strategies before introducing new strategies.

In addition, it's critical to make sure that all students and families have a shared understanding of what bullying is and why it is not acceptable under any circumstance.

Showing leadership in groups

ELLs often have hidden reserves of leadership potential. Many ELLs are resilient, resourceful, and creative students who have navigated many challenges in their life and bring a big picture view of the world to their classroom. If the teacher isn't looking for those qualities and experiences, however, they may remain hidden.

Encourage ELLs to take leadership roles in pair or group work once they feel comfortable doing so. (Some may be ready to try it even if they are newcomers, while others may want a lot more practice!)

Also ensure that ELLs have opportunity to participate in any clubs or activities that foster leadership. Don't limit their options by assuming they won't be interested!

Note: Every spring, we read about high school valedictorians who started off in U.S. schools as ELLs and have achieved great things in a short time within a supportive school environment.

5. Responsible decision-making

CASEL definition: The abilities to make caring and constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions across diverse situations.

Identifying solutions for personal and social problems

As noted above, ELLs can show great resilience and resourcefulness when given the chance. They also understand the impacts of big social issues that may have touched their lives. For example, many ELLs were caregivers for younger siblings and relatives during school closures in the early months of the pandemic and continue those responsibilities now outside of school.

Give students choices to pursue topics that interest them where possible.

You may wish to try a project-based or inquiry-led approach where students can dive deep on a particular topic of interest.

Having lived through a range of situations (often in other countries) provides ELLs with different lens and perspectives that can enrich the class.

Anticipating and evaluating the consequences of one's actions

As with the other topics above, it's essential to ensure that students have the vocabulary and language they need to engage in conversations or activities related to sophisticated conversations about topics like consequences. Like their peers, ELLs will likely have meaningful examples to share when taking about the consequences of one's actions.

Note: An example of an English/Spanish cognate, or word that's related in two languages, is "consequence/ consecuencia."

Reflecting on one's role to promote personal, family, and community well-being

As noted above, ELLs may come from cultures that are focused on the well-being of the group, whether it's the family, community, culture, or country.

Be sure that students have opportunities to share how they are contributing to their families and community. Those activities and responsibilities may remain hidden otherwise.

Students may be caregiving, working for a family business, actively participating in a community or faith institution, and supporting their family through employment, translation help, and other ways.

Exploring these perspectives not only can provide interesting insights -- it can help your classroom run more smoothly and even improve family engagement, such as in the example of a teacher who switched to group parent teacher conferences with her ELL families and increased attendance dramatically.

Closing Thoughts

As you can from the examples above, considering ELLs' experiences and perspectives beforehand can go a long way in ensuring that they can fully participate in all classroom activities. Along the way, they and the rest of your class will also benefit from increased collaboration and communication around SEL and so much more!

Resources from Colorin Colorado

Resources from our partners

Resources collections

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SEL for English Language Learners: What Educators Need to Know

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What is social and emotional learning (SEL)? And how can schools ensure that English language learners (ELLs) are fully included and supported through SEL activities in the school setting? This article offers an introduction to SEL along with helpful resources from organizations such as the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL).

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ClassDojo is an educational platform that provides teachers with a range of tools to enhance classroom experiences. These tools encompass behavior management, communication tools, and student work sharing. It promotes the development of strong classroom communities by emphasizing effective communication and encouraging positive behavior, which in turn strengthens the partnership between families and schools. Students find great satisfaction in actively participating in the learning process and receiving constructive feedback. Students have the opportunity to take ownership of the avatar that is assigned to them at the start of the school year. ClassDojo promotes the social and emotional development of English learners by creating a caring environment.

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ClassDojo. (n.d.). Learn all about ClassDojo ♥. ClassDojo. https://www.classdojo.com/en-us/

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ClassDojo helps teachers, parents, and students build amazing classroom communities.

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The CASEL website offers resources and frameworks for integrating social and emotional learning (SEL) into educational settings. It provides research-based strategies for integrating SEL into curricula, helping educators enhance their understanding of the importance of SEL in daily routines. Integrating SEL helps ELL students develop essential skills, promoting active learning participation and positive peer interactions.

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Advancing Social and Emotional Learning - CASEL. (2024). CASEL. https://casel.org/

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Advancing Social and Emotional Learning - CASEL

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CASEL is helping make evidence-based social and emotional learning an integral part of education, preschool through high school.

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This website offers 30 practical social-emotional learning activities for English learners, enhancing research-based practices to foster emotional regulation, social skills, and self-awareness, crucial for their success. These activities are designed to support ELLs in developing important skills for academic and personal growth, such as empathy, communication, and problem-solving. By incorporating these activities into their daily learning routines, students can build a strong foundation for future success in school and beyond.

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How do I integrate social emotional learning? This is a question many educators are asking themselves. The good news is that there are countless ways to add SEL into the classroom, without it taking over your entire day. Social-emotional learning is a huge umbrella that accounts for the way we build relationships and teach meaningful skills from self-awareness to decision-making and everything in between.

This list is designed to give teachers and administrators options; no educator can do all of these activities all the time. Instead, choose a few and give them a try in your classroom to see what works best for you and your students.

Just a note: The majority of links below are free. This is intended to provide you with additional support to get started integrating SEL into your classroom. Every classroom deserves that. I've also included some extra paid activities if you need something more. I hope they make a difference for you and your students.

Maybe most importantly, these strategies are largely universal; they can be done with pre-schoolers all the way up to high schoolers. They can be done in a general education classroom, special education resource room group, a homeroom block, or an advisory period.

1. Daily Greetings

One of the simplest SEL techniques is starting the day with personalized greetings at the door. Have students choose the greeting (wave, fist bump, or thumbs up), or simply just say good morning to each student by name as they walk in.

2. Emotions Check-In

According to some research, just expressing our emotions can help alleviate those very feelings. Use a daily emotions check-in to help students share how they are feeling and what they need to be at their best.

3. Class Circle

Once a day, gather as a group in a circle. Use targeted relationship-building questions to share. It's important to give everyone a chance to share who wants to. And on that note, it's also important to allow kids to pass if they're not comfortable sharing one particular question.

4. Journal Writing

Provide a SEL journal prompt each morning for kids to respond to. If your students are still working on writing skills, they can draw their responses and share aloud. SEL journaling provides a safe space to open up and allows you to integrate SEL with academic skills in a natural way.

5. Gratitude List

Once a day (or when time allows), have students write out a gratitude list. They should list out 3 things they are grateful for that day. These can be big things, like family or friends, but they can also be seemingly small things, like the smell of chocolate chip cookies or comfortable shoes. When we practice gratitude, we help kids and teens feel happier, more focused, and calm.

6. Morning Meeting

Start each day with a guided morning meeting. Any educator can implement a daily morning meeting some easy steps: greetings, a SEL-focused topic, guided discussion questions, a few activities, and a closing or reflection.

7. Mindful Morning Check-In

Use a mindful morning check-in to start the day. It is a five-step process that involves taking 5 deep breaths, listing 4 things you notice around you, identifying 3 things you are grateful for, saying 2 positive self-talk statements, and naming 1 thing you are looking forward to for the day.

8. SEL Read Alouds

Integrate social-emotional skills and reading using read alouds and stories. The truth is that read alouds are fun and engaging for kids of all ages (even big kids). Start or end your day with a read aloud, highlighting relevant SEL skills before, during, and after the story. You can choose a read aloud to work on a specific SEL skill (empathy or friendships, for example), or you can pick up any book and see where it takes you. Use a SEL read aloud list to help get started.

9. SEL Chats

Provide a targeted SEL question (or a few questions) and have students chat to discuss. Use SEL discussion-starters, such as: What is a good choice you've made recently? What could you teach someone else? What are some skills you feel most confident in? These questions are helpful to build relationships within the classroom, and they also allow for further discussion of critical SEL skills (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationships, and decision-making). Come up with your own questions or use these SEL task cards with prompts for the year.

10. Coping Skills Practice

Healthy coping skills are essential to learning how to manage emotions and stress. Make it a point to practice coping strategies together, such as listening to music, drawing, reading, exercising, practicing yoga, and talking with a friend. These techniques can be practiced for just a few minutes as a time as a meaningful reminder for students.

11. End-of-the-day Reflection

The end of the day is the perfect time for reflection. That includes thinking about what went well, what students learned, what they are most proud of, and how they feel. Use targeted end-of-the-day reflection questions to start the process.

12. Recite Positive Affirmations

Positive self-talk helps students feel confident and ready for success. Choose favorite positive affirmations, create a list, and read them together. A list can be read at the start of each day or before a big test.

13. Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is learning how to be present in the moment. This self-regulation technique helps students feel calm, focused, and happier. Start your practice with mindful breathing exercises. These can be done anytime, but really pay off first thing in the morning, in between transitions, or right before quizzes and tests.

14. SEL Art Activities

Use art activities to allow for self-expression while integrating SEL skills at the same time. Use self-portraits to focus on self-awareness. Try mindful coloring to work on healthy coping skills. You can have students work together to create a shared drawing to build teamwork skills.

15. Class Meetings

Hold a class meeting on a regular basis to review expectations and solve problems together. These become a healthy spot to work on conflict resolution skills, as students can share struggles they are working through and get feedback from others. Class meetings are also the perfect venue for reviewing class expectations on a regular basis.

16. SEL Quote of the Day

Quotes are character-building! Share a meaningful social-emotional quote on the board. Have students discuss and share what it means to them. Some favorites to start out with are, "You are enough and a work in progress all at the same time," and "It's never too late to stop and go down a different path."

17. Daily Check-In Journal

Provide a daily check-in journal first thing each day. This allows students to share how they are feeling, while also integrating other SEL skills and supports that kids need. As a bonus, journaling also means students are working on their writing skills.

18. "What Would You Do?" Scenarios

Integrate SEL skills by discussing some "What would you do?" scenarios. For example, you might ask, "You have a big test tomorrow, but a friend wants you to go out to the movies. What would you do?" Have students talk and share ideas to learn and grow. Make up your own questions or grab this set to get started.

19. Brain Breaks

Breaks are a critically important part of replenishing self-regulation skills. Provide brain breaks through movement like yoga or mindful breathing exercises. Schedule them into the day (such as between tasks) or use them when you notice students just need to refocus. Here are mindful brain breaks to try with a nature theme.

20. Show-and-Tell

Once a week, give students a chance to share items and ideas that are important to them. They might share an art project they created or a new game they got for their birthday at home. This gives kids a safe space to communicate and share a piece of themselves with their classmates.

21. SEL Skill of the Day or Week

Introduce one meaningful SEL skill of the day (or week). Briefly discuss it and ask some guided questions. Then, highlight that skill when you see it in action to help students generalize it to their own lives.

22. SEL Crafts & Hands-On Activities

Provide hands-on learning opportunities with SEL crafts. Have students make a coping strategies wheel or practice mindfulness with hands-on tools. Activities that are hands-on are often memorable.

23. Play Games

Many games build social-emotional skills. Use games to fill some end-of-the-week reward time, also weaving in those social-emotional skills at the same time. Choose games you might already have in your classroom (such as Jenga and Scrabble), or use games that specifically target SEL skills.

24. Shout Out Board

Create a bulletin board in the classroom where students can give "shout outs" to others. The idea is that students can give compliments and kind feedback to their peers and teachers. For example, a student might give a classmate a shout out for helping them organize their notebook. This builds a sense of community and allows a chance to highlight SEL skills along the way.

25. AM / PM Check-In

Provide individualized check-ins for students in need. During an AM/PM check-in time, an adult might ask a student how they are doing, review goals for the day, and reflect on how the day went.

26. Weekly Goal Reflection

Meet with individual students once a week to review goals and track progress. Goal reflection meetings can just be a few minutes, but have a big impact because students are getting 1:1 support. One helpful strategy is to have an individual binder for each student to record their goals, grades, and progress.

27. Daily Jobs

Help build responsibility by assigning classroom jobs. Examples of jobs might include paper collector, technology set up, and lunch counter.

28. Provide Catch-Up and Organization Time

Everyone needs down-time sometimes. Provide catch-up and organization time to allow students the chance to re-organize materials, finish missing work, and even get a head start on future assignments.

29. SEL Question of the Day

Provide one SEL question of the day. Project it or write it on the board. Give students time to discuss with a partner and write about it.

30. Group Activities or Challenges

Help students build a stronger community by implementing group activities and challenges. Have students work in groups to design kindness posters or work through an escape room challenge.

Social Emotional Learning Curriculum

I've developed a complete yearlong social-emotional learning curriculum for elementary students grades 3-5. It comes with everything you need to target skills like empathy, decision-making, confidence, friendships, self-control, and more. Learn more here.

A complete yearlong social-emotional curriculum for grades 3-5.

Grab your free printable poster to help remind you about SEL activities and strategies in the classroom!

Remember that it's about finding the social-emotional learning activities that work best for you and your learners.

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30 Social-Emotional Learning Activities for Every Classroom

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How do I integrate social emotional learning? This is a question many educators are asking themselves. The good news is that there are countless ways to add SEL into the classroom, without it taking over your entire day.

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This resource, provided by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction from Washington State, offers a wide range of social-emotional learning activities for educators and families. These activities promote the development of social and emotional skills in English Language Learners by involving both the school and home environments. This helps to ensure that these skills are consistently reinforced.

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This resource provides an excellent curriculum and comprehensive SEL programs tailored to various grade levels. These programs are based on extensive research and offer well-organized lessons that assist English Language Learners in developing essential social and emotional skills, enhancing their academic and social success. Students find the videos and real life scenarios highly engaging and relatable. Materials are provided in both English and Spanish to support English learners.

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Social-Emotional Learning Programs | Second Step

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Discover Second Step, an evidence-based social-emotional learning curriculum that fosters students’ emotional intelligence, empathy, and problem-solving skills.

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Students love PBS Kids! It offers interactive games that assist young children in comprehending and handling their emotions. These games effectively incorporate research-based practices by utilizing play as a means to teach emotional literacy and providing visual representations. These practices are essential for the social-emotional development and overall learning engagement of among English learners.

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Feelings Games | PBS KIDS. (n.d.). https://pbskids.org/games/feelings

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Explore feelings and sharing games with your favorite PBS KIDS characters like Daniel Tiger, Clifford, Elmo, Donkey Hodie, and Xavier Riddle!

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Edutopia is a trustworthy website for ELL resources. This article offers effective strategies for instructing young learners in self-calming techniques. It promotes research-based practices by assisting ELLs in managing stress and anxiety, thereby enhancing their ability to concentrate and be prepared for learning in the classroom. Developing self-calming skills is crucial for success in any situation.

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)

To help early elementary students manage big emotions, try breathing exercises and sharing how you deal with overpowering feelings.

Big, sometimes overwhelming, feelings can be hard to contain, especially for our youngest students. In the past three years, many have experienced hardships-loss, grief, isolation, food and housing insecurity-and the fallout in school continues.

Of course, working with big feelings and dysregulation in early elementary school is nothing new. Our pre-K through grade two students have always come to us brimming with excitement, while also bringing their jitters, apprehension, anxiety, and frustrations into the classroom. Unaddressed, big feelings and nervous energy can go viral, with the power to disrupt a classroom in a few minutes or less.

So what to do? How do we help our youngest students feel safe, nurtured, and connected in school? What skills and practices can we introduce for them to learn to ground themselves so that academics can thrive?

MultiSensory grounding techniques

First, we need to make sure we maintain our center and stay grounded. As the teacher, you are the thermostat (not the thermometer) in your classroom. You set the tone. So when things escalate around you, feel your feet on the ground, take a deep breath, rub that stone you carry in your pocket for times like this, or take a whiff of that bottle of calming essential oil. You might also use calming self-talk, like "I've got this" and "Easy does it." According to research, silently messaging ourselves can reframe the story in our head and push back on the brain's stress response.

Consider sharing your practices with students in the moment; as you feel your blood pressure rising, you might name your own big feelings. Model and talk students through some five-finger (aka starfish) breaths as you compose yourself. Invite students to breathe along with you as you take everyone's feelings down a few levels. And if multisensory breathing isn't your thing, consider modeling self-talk or progressive muscle relaxation. Whatever it is that works for you, share it. Letting young people know that we, as adults, experience big feelings, too-and that we have ways to work through them-is powerful stuff.

Have a mindful practice for students to draw on when the going gets tough. They don't call it a "practice" for nothing. Starting the school day with some starfish, rainbow, or snake breaths can help students learn how to calm and center themselves. Some teachers I work with add mindful movement. As students develop a practice that works for them, they can return to it more easily in moments when big feelings threaten to overwhelm them.

Have you ever passed the quiet? This magical practice was shared with me by a pre-K teacher, Mr. Holifield, years ago. He would cup his hands and announce in a quiet whisper that he had the quiet. He'd look into his hands and nod excitedly. Students would perk up and lean in to see what was happening. Mr. Holifield's contained excitement was contagious, and as he had his students pass the quiet around the circle, their rowdy and unregulated excitement calmed down. Mr. Holifield was the classroom thermostat, always.

Create a soothing environment. Playing calm, rhythmic music in your classroom is another way to intentionally quiet the senses. Fluorescent classroom lights can be activating, so consider dimming them; or, if possible, rely on natural light or introduce warmer light sources altogether. I once worked with a teacher who used calming essential oils in her classroom. I made sure to always pop in when walking by her room, inhaling deeply, before going on my way again.

Build a peace corner. Once you've introduced your students to centering and grounding techniques, peace corners can provide them with a place to practice. To start, ask students to draw their peaceful place and discuss what it is about their place that makes it peaceful. Next, look around the room and decide together where a peace corner could go. Also ask students about tools they use to calm themselves. Stuffies? Paper and crayons to draw or doodle? Books about feelings? A glitter jar perhaps? Decorate the space together using student artwork. Once it's ready, have students take turns visiting, emphasizing that we all have moments in which we need to collect ourselves, including us, the adults.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is key. As teachers, we know that teaching students skills is important. As is practice. Consider introducing talking circles to invite students to share their stories and perspectives while they practice mindful listening and patiently wait their turn. As the talking piece goes around, students make connections with other students, feel less alone, and are able to better understand where peers are coming from. The connections, empathy, and skills that students build in circles can be tapped when they get into a dispute or altercation. Guided skillfully by the adults at first, students learn how to problem-solve and repair harm. With practice, students can begin to host their own circles, using a talking piece to moderate challenging conversations.

So there it is. It may seem like a lot, and we're already dealing with a lot these days. Just take it slow, one step at a time. Reflect and learn with your students. See what works, and keep building.

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Teaching Young Learners Self-Calming Skills

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To help early elementary students manage big emotions, try breathing exercises and sharing how you deal with overpowering feelings.

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Students eagerly anticipate shoutouts! This article from Teach Create Motivate provides valuable insights on utilizing student shoutouts to foster a positive classroom community. Through acknowledging and commending students' efforts, this approach cultivates a nurturing atmosphere and boosts the sense of belonging and motivation among English Language Learners. Students find great enjoyment in reading all the shoutouts that are posted on the classroom bulletin board.

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Student shoutouts are an easy and effective way to build your classroom community. They empower students to uplift one another, which is why I continue to use shoutouts in my classroom.

I recommend using your morning meeting time to introduce shoutouts and discuss ideas for how students can make them meaningful. Instead of mentioning someone's hairstyle or only writing them for their best friends, encourage your students to focus on significant compliments about a classmate's character. The shoutout below was written by a student a few years ago and it still blows me away!

Allowing students to fill out shoutout forms at any point during the week (excluding teaching time) is a great way to establish them in your classroom. Students might fill them out during morning work, as an early finisher task, or while packing up. Class leaders will announce the shoutouts during your weekly class meeting, with students who receive one having the choice to put it in the classroom display or keep it.

When students are in charge of giving shoutouts for their classmates, this strengthens a student-led classroom community.

Tips for using shoutouts in your classroom:

Talk with your students about the importance of writing meaningful shoutouts and discuss examples

Give students the freedom to fill out shoutout forms throughout the week (outside of teaching time)

Encourage students to choose friends other than their "besties"

Read shoutouts during the weekly class meeting

Designate a place in your room to feature shoutouts

Give students the option to display or keep their shoutouts

Building classroom community through a computer screen can be difficult, but digital student shoutouts will make it easier. With distance learning, it's more important that ever to include activities that allow your students to learn about each other and grow as a class family.

Below is a freebie for using student shoutouts DIGITALLY with your students!

You can also grab the shoutout printable slips by clicking HERE!

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Building Classroom Community with Shoutouts - Teach Create Motivate

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Student shoutouts are an easy and effective way to build your classroom community. They empower students to uplift one another, which is why I continue to use shoutouts in my classroom. I recommend using your morning meeting time to introduce shoutouts and discuss ideas for how students can make them meaningful.

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This YouTube video helps students take mental pauses and concentrate by doing the quick exercises in the videos. By helping ELL students with stress management and concentration maintenance, it allows for successful learning. These brain breaks reinforce research-based strategies of movement and mindfulness that have been shown to improve focus and academic performance in students. Incorporating these short breaks into the school day can help students stay engaged and alert, leading to a more productive learning environment overall.

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SEL Kids With Ms. O. (2023). SEL Kids Shorts: BRAIN BREAK [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NKYdw81y48

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This author offers thorough strategies for teaching literacy that are specifically suited for young ELLs. The use of visual aids, differentiated teaching, and scaffolded learning, which are research-based best practices that have been shown to improve ELL students' language acquisition and literacy development are addressed throughout the book. This is an excellent resource for learning more about supporting tactics in-depth. This would be excellent for work study instruction.

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Xu, S. H. (2010). Teaching English Language Learners: Literacy Strategies and Resources for K-6. United States: Guilford Publications.

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Grounded in research and practical expertise, this volume helps K?6 teachers skillfully support all of their English language learners (ELLs)?from a single student to an entire classroom. Ideas for teaching ELLs across different grade and proficiency levels include ways to link instruction to students? lived experiences, use a variety of motivating print and electronic texts and materials, engage families, and conduct effective assessments. Chapters are packed with tools and activities for promoting ELLs? development in oral language, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and grammar. Handy reproducibles and ?Voice from the Classroom? teacher vignettes enhance the utility of the book.

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Grounded in research and practical expertise, this volume helps K?6 teachers skillfully support all of their English language learners (ELLs)?from a single student to an entire classroom. Ideas for teaching ELLs across different grade and proficiency levels include ways to link instruction to students?

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The practical reading comprehension techniques covered in this article for English Language Learners (ELLs) include developing prior knowledge, specifically teaching vocabulary, and regularly evaluating understanding. These tactics, which help ELLs by increasing the accessibility of complicated texts and encouraging active involvement with the subject matter, are based on research-based approaches.

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Reading Comprehension Strategies for English Language Learners

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Note: This article originally appeared in ASCD Express: Vol. 5, Issue 11, “Reading to Learn.” Comprehension is the reason for reading, but it can be the most difficult skill to master — especially for English language learners (ELLs). ELLs often have problems learning science, math, or social studies concepts, for example, because they cannot comprehend the textbooks for these subjects.ELLs at all levels of English proficiency and literacy development will benefit from improved comprehension skills, which allow them to:read more accuratelyfollow a text or story more closelyidentify important events and concepts in a textmaster new concepts in their content-area classescomplete assignments and assessmentsfeel motivated to read in school and for pleasureThere are a number of ways to build ELLs’ comprehension skills. Often standard strategies that are used in mainstream classrooms are a good starting point — they just need to be tweaked with ELLs’ language and academic needs in mind! This article focuses on strategies that are part of three main approaches: building background knowledge, teaching vocabulary explicitly, and checking comprehension frequently.I. Build background knowledgeDraw on students’ existing knowledgeStudents may already possess content knowledge that they cannot yet demonstrate in English. Look for opportunities to make associations between students’ experiences and new content. Allow students to use their native language with peers for a quick brainstorm about what they know about a topic before presenting their ideas to the whole class.Related Videos Video bonus: See classroom videos and interviews about reading comprehension in our related resource section and classroom video library!Build students’ background knowledgeStudents with limited or interrupted schooling may not have that same level of knowledge as their peers, especially when it comes to historical or cultural topics. When starting a new lesson, look for references that may need to be explicitly explained.Take students on a “tour of the text”At the beginning of the year and each time you hand out a new textbook, take students on a “virtual tour.” Show them different elements of the text, such as the table of contents and the glossary, and discuss how these sections can be helpful. Explain how the text is organized, pointing out bold print, chapter headings, and chapter summaries. Once students learn how to recognize these elements, they will be able to preview the text independently. Remember that students need to know how to use a tool in order for it to be useful. Learn more about this strategy in Teaching ELLs to Navigate Textbooks Effectively.Use a “picture-walk”This strategy can be used for fiction or non-fiction books. “Walk through” the book with the students, pointing out pictures, illustrations, and other graphic elements. Ask them what they notice about the pictures and how they think those details may be related to the story or content.Use outlines to scaffold comprehensionProvide a brief, simple outline of a reading assignment or an oral discussion in advance of a new lesson. This will help ELLs pick out the important information as they listen or read.II. Teach vocabulary explicitlyFocus on key vocabularyChoose vocabulary that your students need to know in order to support their reading development and content-area learning. Provide student-friendly definitions for key vocabulary.Include signal and directional wordsRemember that students may also need explicit instruction in signal or directional words (“because” and “explain”), in addition to key content vocabulary (“photosynthesis” and “revolution”).Use a “picture-walk” for vocabularyOnce students know a new word’s definition, ask them connect those new words to the pictures they see in the text.Teach students to actively engage with vocabularyTeach students to underline, highlight, make notes, and list unknown vocabulary words as they read.Give student practice with new wordsEnsure that your students can:Define a wordRecognize when to use that wordUnderstand multiple meanings (such as the word “party”)Decode and spell that wordIncorporate new words into discussions and activitiesFor students to really know a word, they must use it — or they will lose it. Use new words in class discussions or outside of class in other contexts if appropriate, such as on field trips. Give the students as many opportunities to use and master the new vocabulary as possible.III. Check comprehension frequentlyUse informal comprehension checksTo test students’ ability to sequence material, for example, print sentences from a section of the text on paper strips, mix the strips, and have students put them in order.Test comprehension with student-friendly questionsAfter reading, test students’ comprehension with carefully crafted questions, using simple sentences and key vocabulary from the text. These questions can be at the:Literal level (Why do the leaves turn red and yellow in the fall?)Interpretive level (Why do you think it needs water?)Applied level (How much water are you going to give it? Why?)No matter what the proficiency level of the student, ask questions that require higher-level thinkingTo probe for true comprehension, ask questions that require students to analyze, interpret, or explain what they have read, such as:What ideas can you add to…?Do you agree? Why or why not?What might happen if…?How do you think she felt…?Use graphic organizersGraphic organizers allow ELLs to organize information and ideas efficiently without using a lot of language. Different types include Venn diagrams, K-W-L charts, story maps, cause-and-effect charts, and timelines.Provide students lots of different ways to “show what they know”Drawings, graphs, oral interviews, posters, and portfolios are just a few ways that students can demonstrate understanding as they are beginning to develop their reading and writing skills in English.SummarizeAsk students to use the following strategies to summarize what they have read (orally or in writing):Retell what you read, but keep it short.Include only important information.Leave out less important details.Use key words from the text.It may be challenging to get ELLs’ comprehension skills where you want them to be, but the extra effort it takes will be well worth it as you put them on the path to becoming successful readers.

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This resource discusses effective literacy instruction for English Language Learners (ELLs), focusing on phonics, vocabulary development, and reading fluency. It covers grade-level strategies and teaching advanced skills like Common Core State Standards. The use of various instructional strategies that align with research-based practices that enhance ELL students' literacy skills. Additionally, the resource emphasizes the importance of providing opportunities for ELL students to practice reading and writing in informational contexts to promote their literacy development.

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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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This guide offers evidence-based strategies, such as the use of leveled texts and explicit phonics instruction, for teaching reading to beginner English language learners (ELLs). By providing a structured and sequential literacy education, these techniques complement best practices which are crucial for developing fundamental reading abilities. By using these tactics in their lessons, teachers may assist newly arrived English Language Learners in acquiring the skills they need to become fluent readers.

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Krasley, A. (2024, February 2). ESL Reading 101: A Research-Based Guide for Teaching Reading to Newcomers. Continental Educational Publisher. https://www.continentalpress.com/blog/esl-reading/

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ESL Reading 101: A Research-Based Guide for Teaching Reading to Newcomers | Continental Educational Publisher

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Learn evidence-based tips for newcomer ESL reading instruction as well as strategies for developing each of the five pillars of literacy.

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A range of digital education tools from Imagine Learning are intended to help English language learners by offering individualized, flexible learning opportunities in reading, mathematics, and language development. To improve learning, these applications make use of interactive material, quick feedback, and engaging assignments. Imagine Learning supports differentiated instruction, personalized pacing, and a variety of teaching approaches by following research-based best practices. This guarantees that ELLs receive specialized help to advance their academic and language skills.

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Online Curricula and Solutions | Imagine Learning - Imagine Learning. (2024, May 16). Imagine Learning. https://www.imaginelearning.com/

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Online Curricula and Solutions | Imagine Learning

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Get back-to-school product help. imagine empower potential learning Solutions that inspire boundless possibilities: every day, every student Core Curriculum Explore Core Solutions Courseware Discover Courseware Products Supplemental and Intervention Find Supplemental Solutions Instructional School Services View Virtual School Services In a year, Imagine Learning serves: 15 million students 400,000+ teachers 38,000+ U.S.

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Achieve the Core offers tools and techniques for teaching K–2 students, including ELLs, the basic principles of literacy. These tools, which place a strong emphasis on phonemic awareness and systematic phonics, are in line with research-based methods that are crucial for developing young students' early reading abilities. This tool can also help teachers identify teacher clarity within state standards and have a better understanding of them. There is a ton of material on professional growth on this page.

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Phonemes, graphemes, prosody, phonological awareness, rhymes, and rimes ...there is a whole lot to know about how language works! Many of us have not had opportunities to engage in deep learning about the foundational skills of English, and it is not always prioritized in teacher preparation or professional development.

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This is another great educational blog that provides an overview of effective strategies for teaching reading to ELLs, including explicit vocabulary and the use of scaffolding instruction. These research-based practices ensure that ELLs receive the support they need to develop strong reading skills. By incorporating these routines and strategies into lesson plans, educators can create a more inclusive and supportive learning environment for ELLs. The blog also offeres free resources for teachers to use in their classrooms.

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An Overview of Teaching Reading to ELLs. (2020). A World of Language Learners. https://www.aworldoflanguagelearners.com/reading-ells/

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Learning how to read is a complex process for all students. When you are teaching reading to ELLs, there is the added challenge that they are learning the vocabulary of English as they learn how to read. Some ELLs have the benefit of knowing how to read in their native language. This is helpful as many of the same skills will transfer over as they learn how to read in English. For young ELLs they are learning to read for the first time. They have the benefit of classroom instruction that is generally designed to help them learn how to read. The most challenging group of students are those that are older and not literate in their native language. For these students, teachers will want to use many of the same strategies as for young students but integrate content information into the text selection that they are using.

There are five main components of teaching reading. Here is an overview of the different components of reading with strategies to assist ESOL students.

Phonics

Phonics is the relationship between sounds and the letter or letters used to write it. My biggest tip is to use pictures as you teach phonics to ELLs. This helps students to connect words that they are learning how to read with their English meaning. Word sorts are a great way to help students find phonetic patterns. Students can then read books or simple sentences that have those word patterns. Read more about teaching phonics to ELLs.

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words. Again pictures are key for helping ELLs pick up new vocabulary as they practice sounds. Read more about teaching rhyming words to ELLs.

Vocabulary

Improving vocabulary is key for ELLs. There are many strategies for increasing student's vocabulary knowledge. Vocabulary instruction can be direct and indirect.

Students learn vocabulary indirectly when they listen to books being read aloud, read on their own, and listen to others talking.

Direct vocabulary instruction can take place before, during, and after reading a book. For guided reading, it is helpful to preselect one - five words that you think students are unfamiliar with and are important to the meaning of the book. Try and avoid choosing words that have rich context clues. During reading is a great time to model using context clues so that students can learn how to discover the meaning of unfamiliar words independently as they are reading. Reflection questions can incorporate vocabulary from a text. This way students are encouraged to go back and reread a section as they answer the question and think about the meaning of those new words. Here are additional ideas for teaching vocabulary to ELLs.

Comprehension

Reading comprehension is extracting meaning from what you are reading. One difference between teaching reading to a native English speaker and ESL student is that sometimes ELLs are able to decode words but do not understand what they are reading. This is most common in older ELLs. Some strategies for improving reading comprehension including using picture walks to help build background knowledge before students read a book. This also helps students to preview new vocabulary and practice oral language skills. Use short comprehension checks as a way for students to show their understanding of what they are reading. It is important to ask students higher thinking level questions. Students need exposure to these questions to be able to understand more complex texts.

Some reading comprehension skills students need practice with are finding the main idea of a text, comparing and contrasting, retelling, and summarizing.

Fluency

Fluency is the ability to read words accurately, with appropriate speed, and with expression. This can be challenging for some ELLs. Especially reading with expression. Sometimes students will become experts at decoding but do not fully comprehend what they are reading. This will impact their reading expression. Having students practice reading out loud is a good way to improve reading fluency. This must be balanced with preventing students from becoming self-conscious that they will read a text incorrectly. Choral reading is a great way to give ELLs practice both reading out loud and hearing fluent reading. Listening to fluent reading is another way to help improve the fluency for ELLs. Students can also listen to read alouds or recorded books. Here are other ideas for teaching reading fluency to ELLs.

Oral Language Development

Oral language is made up of phonology, grammar, morphology, vocabulary, discourse, and pragmatics. For ELLs it is important to add in oral language development as a part of reading instruction. One strategy is to use structured, academic conversations to guide students speaking development.

Resources

Why Do English Learners Struggle with Reading gives an overview of teaching reading to ELLs. It also goes over ways to differentiate language differences from a learning disability when students struggle with reading.

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An Overview of Teaching Reading to ELLs - A World of Language Learners

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Learning how to read is a complex process for all students. When you are teaching reading to ELLs, there is the added challenge that they are learning the vocabulary of English as they learn how to read. Some ELLs have the benefit of knowing how to read in their native language.

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This article offers seven evidence-based tactics, by encouraging interactive reading activities, to help ELL students excel in reading. The author provides a list of helpful ways that include sharing personal stories, reading bilingual books, listening to audio books, and letting children choose exciting and relevant reading material. These methods introduce students to new concepts, ideas, and vocabulary while also fostering a love of reading. Students may develop a closer relationship with readings and improve their vocabulary and understanding by being allowed to select their own learning paths.

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7 Strategies for Reading Success with English Learners

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Try these 7 ELL strategies for reading success. Help your ELL students to engage with reading and foster a desire to connect with texts.

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This website offers resources on phonological and phonemic awareness, which are key components of early literacy instruction for ELLs. These resources support research-based practices by focusing on the foundational skills necessary for reading success.  The importance of phonological awareness is explained and discussed, along with how it incorporates the ability to recognize and work with the many parts of spoken words, including phonemes, rhymes, and syllables. Teachers who possess a solid knowledge of these fundamental reading principles can assist English Language Learners (ELLs) in their early reading efforts.

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

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ELLs can benefit from the phonemic awareness practices described in this Voyager Sopris article. The author goes further into the definition, significance, and application of phonemic awareness, drawing connections between it and the five main elements of reading. These strategies, which highlight the significance of early phonemic awareness as a predictor of reading achievement, are in line with research-based techniques. For fresh teachers who are trying to understand the distinction between phonological awareness and phonic awareness, this material is really helpful.

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Implementing Phonemic Awareness with English Language Learners

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Teaching phonemic awareness with English language learners is important. Phonemic awareness is a foundational cornerstone for students’ future fluency.