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German, Spanish, Hindi, Mandarin and Japanese lessons

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German, Spanish, Hindi, Mandarin and Japanese lessons

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TED-Ed is excited to announce that our award-winning animations will now be available in German, Hindi, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish via 5 new YouTube channels!

TED-Ed's mission is to spark curiosity and spread lessons worth sharing to students, educators and life-long learners around the world. In an effort to make our animated shorts more widely accessible, TED-Ed has partnered with talented voice actors and translators around the world to publish professionally dubbed animated shorts on a weekly basis.
Subscribe to our new YouTube channels today:
German: TED-Ed Deutsch

Hindi: TED-Ed हिन्दी

Japanese: TED-Ed 日本

Mandarin: TED-Ed 中文

Spanish: TED-Ed Español

If you know a curious German-, Hindi-, Japanese-, Mandarin-, or Spanish-speaker - or perhaps you know someone trying to learn one of these languages - share this blog post with them to spread the word!

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TED-Ed is excited to announce that our award-winning animations will now be available in German, Hindi, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish via 5 new YouTube channels! TED-Ed's mission is to spark curio...

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Abilities of students by proficiency level and domain & what teachers can do to support.

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Abilities of students by proficiency level and domain & what teachers can do to support.

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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by Carol Salva Is it really a good idea to spend time having students write in content-area classes? The answer is YES! Here are some reasons and a few ideas on how to make writing time practical.
I have been a content-area teacher, both with and without in-class support, and everyone will agree that content teachers have a very heavy load. The stakes are higher than ever, and we could run through a very long list of issues facing teachers today, from grading to insignificant planning time. The issues are real, and time is limited! However, the more I work with teachers, the more I see examples of the value in integrating writing in all content areas.

A Concrete Example from the Field

In our trainings and in our book, Boosting Achievement, Anna Matis and I frequently mention a master teacher, Joseph Maurer. Joseph's math class was an excellent example of how writing and producing language in content areas can boost achievement of all learners. I was fascinated by Joseph's class, not only because he had documented years of impressive standardized assessment scores, but also because this was an anomaly for the area. Joseph taught in an area that was predominantly Hispanic and over 95 percent Free and Reduced Lunch (low socioeconomic status). And yet, he was able to close achievement gaps for so many students.

Mr. Maurer was utilizing several high-impact teaching strategies, but the one that struck me the most was writing. The students in Joseph Maurer's classroom had math journals that were filled with reflective writing about their math learning. There was a great deal of language being used, in class both orally and in writing. I was so thrilled about the learning environment that I requested to have my own son (who is not an English Learner and is gifted in the area of math) placed into Mr. Maurer's Algebra class. Anthony would tell me that Mr. Maurer was a great math teacher and that he let the students talk about math a lot. I noticed that his homework included fewer calculations and more writing reflection with sentence stems such as "I solved this problem by..." "I noticed..."

Mr. Maurer began offering staff development with me, and he strongly recommended that other math teachers incorporate writing into their instructional minutes. In our trainings, he shared that writing is basic to thinking, and according to Fulwiler (1983), writing promotes introspection and speculation. Additionally, in content areas, Fulwiler offers that students can use writing to individualize their instruction. Writing is personalized by nature because the author enters the writing wherever they are in their thinking.

A Practical Approach

Writing to learn in a content classroom need not be time consuming or misaligned with the lesson. For example, students can do a two-minute quick write to reflect or a short journal entry to warm up. Or, a favorite among content teachers is a short writing piece that serves as an Exit Ticket at the end of class. Content teachers have told me that Exit Tickets are valuable for many reasons:

"I get a check for understanding."
"It's a great formative assessment."
"The kids have to think about what we did today."
"I don't care how they write it; I want them to reflect on the science we learned."

YES! These are all great thoughts on how Exit Tickets can be powerful for content-area teachers.

As these comments suggest, writing is already happening as part of many content teachers' pedagogy.

I suggest a simple tweak to the idea of an Exit Ticket to get even more bang for your buck. For any classroom, I suggest that teachers consider framing the lesson so that we begin class by telling students what the Exit Ticket will be and including a sentence stem as part of the Exit Ticket. The sentence starter directs thinking and can help a teacher explain the learning intentions.

If we review the Exit Ticket with the learning targets, now our Exit Ticket is doing "double duty" for content area teachers. Not only will students use writing to reflect, but they also have an opportunity to understand the learning targets from the beginning of the lesson. Reviewing the objectives ahead of time, including the expected Exit Ticket, is a way to communicate the success criteria. It ties to what John Hattie (2009) calls "Teacher Clarity." Hattie describes Teacher Clarity as communicating the learning intentions and success criteria for the learning intentions (Almarode, 2017). His work supports that this effort has a significant effect on learning outcomes.

What About the Student Who Can't Yet Write?

Everyone can reflect. Everyone can put something down on paper. According to Carroll and Wilson in Acts of Teaching (2007), even pre-literate children have intention when they scribble or draw. We want the learners in a safe space to reflect on what they understand, what they wonder, and/or what they are confused about. So allowing any reflections and minimizing corrections of spelling or mechanics can support both content-area learning and writing ability as students internalize the new writing structures they encounter.

The sentence stem we mentioned in the Exit Ticket example above also gives your English learners an opportunity to write a complete academic sentence. If they are just gaining the ability to write (in English or in any language), you're offering them a chance to practice forming English words at the same time. So we allow native language to negotiate meaning, we ask everyone to use the sentence stem, and then we set students off to reflect in a way that most supports their learning.

Am I Supposed to Teach Students How to Write?

Yes, but in a way that makes sense for your subject. Teachers who are unfamiliar with teaching spelling, grammar, and the mechanics of writing need not despair. Spelling, grammar, and mechanics are not the main goal in a content-area classroom. The content is the main goal. Begin with a two-minute quick write, a writing warm up, or the Exit Ticket example above, and be sure to include a sentence stem that includes academic language of your subject. Consider how much language and writing students will produce over the school year if they write just one academic sentence each day. Over 180 days, these structured writing activities will go a long way to teaching the language of any content area...and they should also go a long way in boosting the learning of the entire class.
Read more about writing to learn with emergent English learners.

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by Carol Salva Is it really a good idea to spend time having students write in content-area classes? The answer is YES! Here are some reasons and a few ideas on how to make writing time practical. I have been a content-area teacher, both with and without in-class support, and everyone will agree that content...

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We all know reading is critical for our students' success - there's no arguing that. But when it comes to helping our students, particularly our ELs, improve their academic literacy and develop a passion for reading, it's tough to find just the right formula. So when I found out from Anita Robinson, the principal at Frisco ISD's Staley Middle School, that they'd seen a huge gain in English learner STAAR reading scores at the eighth grade level - from 16 percent to 61 percent 'Approaching Grade Level' - within , I knew they were doing something right.

I had to know what happened, so Anna Matis and I scheduled some time to sit down in Frisco with some of Staley's teachers, hoping to find out how they were driving such incredible results. We met with several teachers to find out what they were doing with the kids to inspire this kind of growth, but it wasn't until we sat down with one of the social studies teachers, Paul Somodevilla, that we were finally able to suss out exactly what Staley Middle School was doing differently.

What it came down to was that the principal, Ms. Robinson, was doing two major things to increase the actual amount of reading students were doing inside and outside of class - thus making a massive difference in their test scores. Principal Robinson took the initiative to do two things within the school:

When I asked Paul what he thought had helped dramatically improve the eighth-grade EL reading scores, he said, "I think it was the fact that all students were reading in class every day." He stressed that while reading in class every day to improve reading is, theoretically, a no-brainer, it's so easy to let that time slide to make way for other, more immediate tasks. But Principal Robinson found ways to help teachers get past this.

Paul explained to me that she had told him daily reading was expected in every content-area classroom. She made sure he included it as one of his goals for his teacher evaluation process. She made sure he integrated daily reading into his curricula, and when she'd do walkthroughs, she'd ask him what the students were reading that day.

Paul and his fellow eighth-grade teachers found resources, such as articles from NewsELA, that aligned to the standards, and they created activities to help ensure students were learning from what they read. For example, students would read passages, process what they'd read by drawing what the passages contained, and then explain their drawings to their neighbors while teachers walked around listening to the conversations.

By setting a clear, non-negotiable expectation, Principal Robinson made sure that daily reading time became a priority in every classroom. But she didn't stop there.

Here at Seidlitz, we've always been big proponents of Free Voluntary Reading - where students independently read self-selected texts - and followers of two of its chief advocates, Stephen Krashen and Donalyn Miller. And we're not alone. Countless administrators and teachers are fans of Free Voluntary Reading (FVR), but they don't all see the kinds of gains we saw at Staley MS. The difference here was that Principal Robinson didn't just advocate for FVR; she put systems in place to make sure it happened.

All the teachers at Staley Middle School had been trained on the importance of free voluntary reading, but there was more to it than that. Every single eighth-grade student was required to have three books checked out from the library at all times, and Principal Robinson collaborated with the librarian to set up activities and procedures to ensure the students always had access to books that would captivate them. They conducted student surveys to identify interesting books, and they tracked down high/low titles (high interest, low reading level) to be sure there were plenty available for struggling readers. They also held activities and events in the library, such as speed dating with a book, to promote the students' interest in books. (We found this great blog that explains the speed dating with a book process in detail.)

Then, they took the books outside the library: advisory (home room) teachers were required to set aside thirty minutes, three to five days a week, for their students to engage in free voluntary reading - supervised, of course, by their teachers, who'd been trained to maximize success with the FVR approach outlined in Robert Marzano's Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement.

Just like daily content-area reading, Principal Robinson's dedication to turning Free Voluntary Reading from a "nice to have" to a "must have" ensured the students spent significant time at school browsing the library and reading the books they found there. The result: dramatically improved STAAR scores and, along with them, more students who'd developed a passion for reading.

Every school has a handful of teachers who are dedicated to getting their students reading widely and frequently, and when even just one teacher makes this commitment, you'll see a big impact on his or her students' reading scores. But when school leaders get involved, making content-area and free voluntary reading a priority for an entire grade level, the results will be incredible.

These two strategies - making content-area reading nonnegotiable and systematizing FVR - helped Staley Middle School's eighth grade STAAR reading scores skyrocket from 16 percent to 61 percent 'Approaching Grade Level.' If you're looking to achieve similar results on your campus, we recommend you rally your administration to follow Principal Robinson's lead.

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Improving English Learner Reading Scores: Here's to You, Ms. Robinson!

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by John Seidlitz We all know reading is critical for our students' success - there's no arguing that. But when it comes to helping our students, particularly our ELs, improve their academic literacy and develop a passion for reading, it's tough to find just the right formula.

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by Valentina Gonzalez Do you feel like there is just so much curriculum to teach that you don’t have time to ask students to stop and talk? Let’s think about that. Why don’t we allow students to di…

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The chatterbox activity is really fun to get students talking, and it's a fortune teller foldable that student's enjoy.

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lead4ward makes a difference in the lives of students by helping educators focus their work, creating structures that give teachers and students a sense of hope and confidence, and supporting leaders with systems they can trust.

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by Valentina Gonzalez

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

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

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

1. Sentence Frames

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

The ___has ___sides.

The ____revolted against the___.

A ___is larger/smaller than a ____.

2. Sentence Stems

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

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

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

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

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

3. Mentor Texts

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

4. Interactive Word Walls

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

5. Model Writing

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

6. Quick Writes

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

7. Language Experience Approach

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

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

8. Mentor Sentences

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

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

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

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

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

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8 Ways to Scaffold Writing for English Learners

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

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by Valentina Gonzalez

"Learners who know the language can concentrate on the academic content. But learners who do not know the language, or do not know it well enough, must devote part of their attention to learning and understanding the very language in which the content is taught" ( Goldenberg & Coleman, 2010).

Imagine that for a moment. Let it soak in. If you didn't yet know a language well enough, you would need to spend energy understanding the very words and not just the reading. Maybe you've experienced this before. It's a literal struggle, trying to decode and put together sounds, then figure out and translate the words. This can take a toll on a person!

Now imagine a child doing this daily. Or for that matter, doing this all day long . Picture a newcomer in a high school biology class at the end of the day. If they are new to the language, they will most likely have to translate complicated text word by word after having spent every previous class that day translating each word. To help students, we can adapt and scaffold reading instruction to fit their unique needs.

The National Literacy Panel (2000) identified phonemic awareness, phonics, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, and writing as the five key components of literacy. With these components in mind, let's look at a few scaffolds (temporary supports meant to be gradually released) for reading that may work to enhance English learners' success with comprehension.

These reading scaffolds can be implemented in any grade level and content area through whole group, small group, or individual settings for differentiation:

Chunking

Chunking is a technique that breaks larger reading texts into smaller portions for students. When texts are dense or lengthy, they can seem overwhelming. By breaking them down into smaller pieces, we help to lower students' anxiety. Think of a large pizza. Would you eat the entire pizza in one bite? Probably not. It's sliced for us to hold a piece at a time. Then we take small bites from that one piece. It's manageable that way. Chunking texts is especially useful in areas like social studies and science, where text has the tendency to be vocabulary heavy.

Adding in opportunities to talk makes content even more comprehensive. For instance, a routine such as Nancy Motley's Talk, Read, Talk, Write offers students chances to access prior knowledge and build background before reading. Students discuss with a group or partner. Then students read a text with a purpose for reading that is given to them by the teacher. Once everyone has signaled that they are finished reading, they participate in structured discussion again. And finally students write about their reading while using the discussions they've had to support their thoughts. Teachers can chunk reading even more for students who are at beginner levels of English proficiency: talk, read, talk, read, talk, read, talk, write.

Shared Reading

Shared reading (Holdaway,1979) is the act of reading together in unison as a group. All students have access to the text. Shared reading is not just for elementary levels. In primary grades, teachers may read from big books, but in secondary classes, shared reading can be poetry, brochures, an excerpt from a chapter, a paragraph, song lyrics, etc. Teachers can provide each student with a copy of the text or can project the text on a screen for everyone to see. First the teacher models expectations by reading the text. Then the teacher invites the class to read together. This oral reading practice provides students with an opportunity to gain fluency in a risk-free setting. Everyone is reading aloud. Shy students can listen and read aloud as they feel brave enough, and more vocal students gain practice, too. Students benefit from practicing intonation and appropriate rate of speed.

Three ways to differentiate shared reading are Echo reading, Choral reading, and Reader's Theater.

Echo Reading is perfect when students need to hear the teacher model each sentence first while they are tracking print. Then students repeat the sentence. This technique is best for students at beginner proficiency levels or when a new language structure is being shared.

Choral Reading is a typical shared reading experience in which students and teacher read in unison, often with the teacher tracking print. English learners gain fluency and benefit from the low-risk environment. They have the ability to listen and join the reading at their comfort level.

Reader's Theater is an excellent method to use with students after they have had a chance to hear a text in its entirety. Reader's Theater can be done by dividing a text into parts and assigning students or groups to read certain lines or paragraphs. English learners benefit from rehearsal time with the lines or paragraphs they will read aloud to the whole group. Some teachers ask students to create props for their characters or parts. Acting out a story is both enjoyable and engaging for students as they participate in listening, speaking, and reading with expression.

Adapted Texts

Adapted texts are texts that have the same content but are at different reading levels. Using adapted texts helps English learners continue to learn content while they are learning English. Many teachers create their own adapted texts, which allows them to control the vocabulary that is embedded. However, creating adapted texts does take time. There are also many online platforms that offer adapted texts such as Newsela, Newsinlevels, and Wordify.

Partner Reading

Providing time and space for students to read together, or partner read, supports English learners with reading comprehension, listening, and speaking. Peer-to-peer interaction is important for English learners' language development. Partners usually read the same text and hold their own copies. In primary grades, and many times in secondary too, students are more successful when the teacher offers explicit modeling of expectations ahead of time. For example:

"During partner reading, I'm looking for partners who are sitting with their knees close to touching. You will take turns reading a page. After your partner reads, you will share what the main idea of their reading was. I'm listening for sentences like: 'The main idea was...' or 'I didn't understand...'"

Primary Language Support

When I was an ESL teacher, the students I taught spoke Korean, Urdu, Japanese, Russian, etc. I was not able to speak all of their languages, but I could still provide primary language supports. I provided my ELs with bilingual dictionaries and taught them how to use them. We also worked hard at valuing all languages. It was important for me to show my ELs that the literacy they had in their primary language was valuable and useful as they acquired English. We labeled the classroom in the students' home languages. I also made it known to them that continuing to read, write, and speak in their primary language was important, and so I encouraged them to read books in their primary language. Anytime we had extra funds, I asked to purchase books in our students' primary languages for the library.

Another way to include primary language support is through preview-review. This technique is sometimes referred to as preview-view-review and takes only a few extra minutes before and after a lesson ( Wright, 2015). It has been found to be effective in increasing comprehension, especially for students at beginning levels of English proficiency. Preview-review includes providing students with primary language support before and after a lesson or a read aloud. Let's look at a classroom example:

The second grade class is preparing to learn about living and nonliving things. The ESL teacher gathers English learners prior to the lesson to preview in their primary language. She asks them what they know about living and nonliving things. They discuss and make a chart in their primary language. The teacher reads a short passage and checks for comprehension, and then they return to the whole group.

The mainstream teacher conducts the whole-class lesson on living and nonliving things in English. The teacher shelters instruction to ensure that ELs comprehend the lesson. She uses repetition, visuals, and gestures. Then she sends them off to read and write with a partner in English.

Following the English lesson, the ESL teacher pulls the ELs back together once again to review what they learned in their primary language. This is an excellent opportunity to clear up misconceptions.
Note that, In this example, the ESL teacher is able to speak the students' primary language. But that is not always the case. It is suggested that if the teacher cannot speak the students' home languages, a same-language-speaking paraprofessional can provide the preview-review.
The bottom line of all this is that, when students enjoy what they are reading and they understand what they are reading, they will feel successful. The more often this feeling occurs, the more they will want to read, and the more their comprehension will increase.

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Teaching Techniques to Scaffold Reading for English Learners

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by Valentina Gonzalez "Learners who know the language can concentrate on the academic content. But learners who do not know the language, or do not know it well enough, must devote part of their attention to learning and understanding the very language in which the content is taught" (Goldenberg & Coleman, 2010).

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by Nancy Motley

At the end of my first year of teaching, my principal asked what my plans were for the summer. After outlining my still-fuzzy summer agenda, she volun- me to include getting ESL certified in those plans. She explained that it would be great for my career, that I'd earn a $500 stipend ($84.32 after taxes, right?), and most importantly, that she really needed me to help our English learners next year. Always up for a challenge, I agreed. Despite having had very little professional development regarding English learners, I was a good test taker and earned my certification. Upon returning to school for my second year, I had a class roster that included a majority English learners.

While I was, admittedly, ill-equipped to meet my students' linguistic needs, I did know a few things, one of which was that they needed to talk. My English learners would not acquire more English unless they had a chance to use it. Knowing this, I did " think pair shares" and " turn and talks " all the time. Multiple times in each lesson, my students were able to talk with a partner or their table mates about what they were learning. They became less shy, and I felt confident that they were all acquiring more English.

That second year of teaching was hard work, with many ups and downs, but as my students and I entered "testing season" we were all feeling good. However, the feeling only lasted until I received my students' TELPAS (Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System) results back. Less than 50 percent of my English learners had increased at least one level in their language proficiency. I was devastated and felt like I had failed them. I was speechless when I saw that even in the speaking domain , only a handful of my hard-working students had demonstrated growth. How could this be? They talked ALL the TIME!!

I wish I could go back to my second-year-teacher self and tell her, "Talk isn't enough!" The opportunity to speak (which was plentiful in my room) is not equivalent to a structured plan for students to use the language of the lesson. You see, even though my students were talking a lot, they were only using the words in English with which they were comfortable.

Let's look at an example. Imagine my class was solving a two-digit by two-digit addition problem (15 + 44) for their math warm up, which is a review of the previous day's learning. In this scenario, I asked my students to turn to their partner and explain how they solved the problem. Here is what typically happened:

Alicia (to Michael, her partner): Umm...I did 5 and 4 and got 9 and then did this one (pointing to the tens place) for 5, so I got 59.

Michael (at Alicia): Me too. 59.

Did Michael and Alicia do what I asked them to do? Yes...with the words in English that they were comfortable with and already "owned." Did they acquire more English as a result of this opportunity to talk? I do not believe so.

In order for our English learners, Michael and Alicia, and any other students to acquire academic English, we've got to ensure they are actually using the words and phrases about which they are learning. This is easier to accomplish than you might think. All we have to do is them to use them. Simply put, we tell them the words we want to hear right before we ask them to speak. I call this targeting the talk.

Let's go back to the example above. What are the academic words or phrases I would want to hear? How about "ones place," "tens place," "sum," "equals?" I might want to focus on phrases like "number sentence" or "solved the problem." So how do I "target their talk" toward these terms? I ask them to use them. Here are some options for how that might sound:

Please explain how you solved the problem to your partner. I'm listening for you to use the words "ones place" and "tens place."

When it is your turn, use this stem: "I solved this addition number sentence by..."

As you talk with your partner, use the words from our anchor chart. Let's read them together: "addition," "equals," "sum."

If I had used any of the phrases above, the overwhelming majority of my class would have followed those directions, which would have resulted in each of them actually using the academic English of the lesson.
My "go-to" phrases for targeting student talk:

"It should sound like this..."

A few less direct ways to target student talk:

"Remember to use your words from the ______ (word wall, anchor chart, smart board)."

"Open your journals/notes, and use them while you talk."

Can you imagine how much language our students will acquire if everytime we ask them to speak to each other, we use one of these phrases? When we consistently target student conversation, they not only use the new vocabulary, but they become more comfortable with speaking in a more formal and academic way. We are "normalizing" academic conversation.

I'd suggest picking one or two of the phrases above and practicing. In order to remember, I like to post these phrases in various places in my room to serve as visual reminders for me to do it. While it might take some practice to build this habit, it is worth the effort. I can promise you that when we target student conversation, we do not end the year with disappointing TELPAS scores. We finish with a classroom full of students who have dramatically increased their proficiency in academic English.

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by Nancy Motley At the end of my first year of teaching, my principal asked what my plans were for the summer. After outlining my still-fuzzy summer agenda, she volun-told me to include getting ESL certified in those plans. She explained that it would be great for my career, that I'd earn a $500 stipend...

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by Natalia Heckman "The assumption has been that if students read enough, they'll simply pick up writing skills, through a kind of osmosis. But writing is the hardest thing we ask students to do, and the evidence is clear that very few students become good writers on their own" (Hochman, 2017).
A written language is an organized system of symbols. It's a logical structure guided by rules - for the most part. To be able to read, we need to be able to decode. In order to write, we have to encode. The encoding and decoding processes happen at all levels of the language system: words, sentences, discourse (paragraphs). We use phonics to decode words. We use syntax to decode sentences. Decoding is a necessary step to comprehension. Being able to use the rules that govern a written language is necessary, and it's also one aspect of literacy.

Can we acquire a foreign language naturally, simply by speaking it? Absolutely!

Can English learners figure out how to write and read by just "picking it up" naturally? Unfortunately, this is very unlikely. Research shows that full literacy is not something that happens accidentally, or on its own. So, hoping that our students will "break the code" of a written language through haphazard exposure to text and occasional written tasks is unrealistic, to say the least. While reading/phonics is a topic of constant debates, syntax is frequently overlooked. Why should we focus on syntax in every classroom? Why is syntax worth our time as we build lessons focused on language acquisition?

Rigorous Syntax Instruction: Why Is it Necessary?

To improve reading comprehension: The ability to grasp syntactic cues is one of the strongest indicators of reading proficiency. Students may know the words but fail to recognize connections between ideas and follow the trail of logic that is dependent on their understanding of sentence patterns and sentence structure. For example, according to Hochman and Lemov (2017), students often fail to understand coordination and subordination of ideas. The more complex the texts are, the more low-frequency syntactic features they contain. For example, participial verbal phrases are almost nonexistent in social oral communication, but they are common in written texts of various genres (Schleppegrell, 2004).

To ensure comprehensible written output: Trying to write without understanding syntax, or sentence structure, is like driving without knowing the rules of the road. As we learn a new language system, someone has to show us the ropes. Faced with a written task, English learners may struggle with the process (how to write) even more than they struggle with the message (what to write). By focusing on the target form (an example of what a sentence should look like) and providing scaffolds (such as sentence stems and frames), teachers can help students produce output that is accurate and comprehensible.

To ensure growth of students' language proficiency: Sufficient oracy and lagging literacy are the characteristics we often observe in our long-term English learners stagnating at intermediate/advanced levels. Expectations of near-native proficiency in reading and writing require that our students surpass the threshold of social language and become fluent academic readers and writers. Developing a broad and varied repertoire of complex syntactic features and cohesion devices necessary for written proficiency growth is not feasible without some targeted syntax instruction.

Demystifying Syntax: What Does this Word Do?

My father is a mechanical engineer. Days on end, he tinkered on our family car more for fun than out of necessity. I remember sitting in the garage looking under the hood of the vehicle, mesmerized by the intricacy of its insides and bugging my dad with questions like, "What does this part do?" Although I was about 10 years old, my father could explain to me, clearly and succinctly, which parts of the engine did what and how these parts working together "made the car go." As a language teacher, I want to lift the metaphorical hood and show my students how the parts of a sentence work together to make the sentence "go."

Asking function questions to each word in a sentence demystifies syntax for our students and shows them how sentences are made. Rather than getting bogged down into technical identification of parts of speech and types of sentences, I would focus on what each word/phrase does (its function) and how it serves the purpose of communication (contributes to the overall message).

Practical Application: What Would it Look Like in the Classroom?

Once we set the goal of giving syntax due attention, what actions can we take that will ensure our students' success?

Focus on one syntactic feature at a time: It is important to frontload specific language tools, but it is a teacher's decision what type of syntactic element is necessary for a specific lesson (Dutro & Moran, 2002). For example, if students work on contrasting characters, they will benefit from learning to build sentences with "while," "unlike," "on the contrary," and "nevertheless" according to a given sentence template. This sentence type is a language tool and the language form English learners need to express differences between characters in speaking and consequently in writing during the course of the characterization lesson.

Make models accessible: For model sentences to be effective, they must be aligned to the language proficiency of the students. As we model sentence structure, we need to make sure that our mentor sentences (the examples we use) are easy for all students to understand. Complexity of the vocabulary in a model sentence may detract from students' ability to focus on the structure of the sentence.

Provide abundant opportunities for scaffolded output: Let students do it!Pointing out a syntactic element and explaining how it is constructed is just the start. Syntactic dexterity does not come simply from exposure but from abundant opportunities for hands-on practice. Sentence-level practice is never a waste of time! Several types of scaffolded activities will solidify the skill and ensure its transition of the target element into students' independent writing.

Consider the following gradual release process as you teach a new syntactic element or a sentence pattern:

Step 1. Provide Models
This is the I DO of the lesson, where teacher models and students watch. Teachers may start by displaying the mentor sentence and breaking it into blocks of meaning by asking questions to identify the syntactic and logical purpose of each block.

Step 2. Have Students Identify Patterns
Students work with familiar texts to identify the target element in the writing of others. Students may work in groups with partners to complete scavenger hunts or sorting activities. It's a great time for teachers to see how well students understand the pattern and clarify any misconceptions.

Step 3. Have Students Construct Sentences Based on the Patterns
Sentence combining, sentence unscrambling, and building sentences with the help of sentence patterning chartsare just a few activities that provide opportunities to work with a particular sentence structure. Students construct sentences according to the displayed pattern, using word banks or phrases that they manipulate to fit the pattern.

Step 4. Provide Additional Patterns to Deepen Understanding
Teacher displays amentor sentence and a sentence stem (or a paragraph frame) that students have practiced before. Students build original messages according to the pattern. Teacher encourages students to share sentences orally to check with each other and hear multiple examples of completed frames from peers of various language proficiency levels. The goal is to deepen understanding of the pattern and to reach the minimum threshold of accuracy needed for comprehensible output. Teacher's in-the-moment feedback is crucial at this point.

Step 5. Encourage Students to Use Patterns During Independent Writing
Students complete a writing task independently. Students are encouraged to incorporate the practiced elements into their own writing to communicate an idea. Some errors may still occur as the students implement new elements independently. These errors do not always indicate the lack of understanding but may simply point to the need for more practice.

As we move students from basic to more complex structures, it is important to provide a safe environment where errors are perceived (and even encouraged) as an expected and inevitable attribute of risk-taking.

Want to learn more from Natalia? Visit our events page to register for her upcoming trainings.
References:
Wright, Wayne E. (2015) Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing, Inc.

Hochman, J. & Wexler, N. (2017) The Writing Revolution. San-Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass

Dutro, S & Moran, C. (2002) Rethinking English Language Instruction: An Architectural Approach S Educational Partnership Center, University of California, Santa Cruz. Retrieved on July 11, 2020 from file:///C:/Users/nheck/Downloads/Rethinking%20English%20Language%20Instruction.pdf

Schleppegrell, M. J. (2004). The language of schooling: A functional linguistics perspective. Routledge.
Zwiers, J. (2008) Building Academic Language. Newark, DE: Jossey-Bass/International Reading Association.

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Building Better Sentences: Rigorous Syntax for English Learners

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by Natalia Heckman "The assumption has been that if students read enough, they'll simply pick up writing skills, through a kind of osmosis. But writing is the hardest thing we ask students to do, and the evidence is clear that very few students become good writers on their own" (Hochman, 2017).

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Imagine you are a second grade student born in America, and you only speak English. You've attended English schools until now. But your father's job has relocated your family to France, and now you are in a classroom filled with students and a teacher who only speak French (a language you have never spoken). The science teacher hands you a book and signals for you to read it. You open the book and find that it is filled with pictures...no words. First a group of horses. A mare feeding a foal. A colt running wild. Then a group of pigs, chickens, cows, etc. Instantly, you begin to think about the information you know about animals. What they are called, where they live, what they eat, etc.

Though you aren't able to communicate this information in French yet, you are able to follow along with the class and think in English using the schema and background knowledge you have about animals.

Why Use Wordless Picture Books?

While wordless picture books have commonly been used with emergent readers and primary students in elementary grades, they are also useful when developing English in older students. Books that lack words allow for students themselves to produce language needed for each page, think critically about the ideas, and engage in deep inferencing to develop a plot and theme while building language skills.

Wordless picture books are accessible to learners who speak any language, as seen in the example above. No matter the language our learners speak, they can interpret pictures almost instantly in their minds. When we use wordless picture books with students, we are able to communicate with them at many levels.

As an ESL teacher, I had students who spoke several languages all in one classroom at the same time. Each student was unique. They had

various proficiency levels in their native languages and in English,

different background experiences, and

different educational histories.

But all of my students could access a visual representation at the same time. Using wordless picture books allows learners to think and process information using their own linguistic repertoires.

Wordless picture books lend themselves to opportunities for oral and written storytelling. The power of sharing a story and interpreting visuals in multiple perspectives is great with wordless picture books. When books include words, readers are somewhat limited to the ideas and text held by the author. However, wordless picture books give readers freedom to interpret the visuals through their own eyes, thoughts, and experiences.

Using wordless picture books with English learners can support all language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Listening: students listen to a partner or the teacher "read" or interpret the pictures from the book

Speaking/Reading: students share their interpretation of the book with a partner

Writing: students write captions or text for wordless picture books, or students create their own wordless picture books

How Can I Implement Wordless Picture Books With My English Learners?

Students love wordless picture books! They are fun because students get to interact with the book by adding their ideas.

Wordless picture books can be shared or interpreted together as a whole group. It's important to begin with ample modeling of the art of storytelling through shared experiences. After much modeling, encourage readers to try with a partner, and then be sure to make these books available for independent reading.

Students can also write captions or text for wordless picture books. This exercise shows learners that each page or picture tells readers something new and expresses main ideas and details. Take time to model for students how to glean the main idea and supporting details. When modeling writing for students, weave in authentic grammar instruction too. "Should we put a capital here? Why?" "Do we need a period at the end?" "Is there a word missing in this sentence?" "Let's read it one more time together to make sure it makes sense."

Once students see many examples of wordless picture books, they can create their own, too. Drawing is an excellent way to process information and is known for boosting memory while increasing recall of information. In addition, allowing students to create provides space for self-reflection and creativity.

Make Space for Nonfiction

Not all wordless picture books are fiction. Students can create nonfiction picture books related to information they are learning in specific content areas or to share their own lived experiences. In an Edutopia article, Kathryn Fishman-Weaver wrote, "Art gave the students I worked with new ways to process and tease out meaning, and to share their lived experiences." The student-created wordless picture books can be used to teach younger students, too.

A Short List of Wordless Picture Books

When considering which books to use with your students, think about not only grade level and content, but also student choice and interest. Allowing students to self-select wordless picture books to read gives them a sense of freedom and autonomy. English learners at earlier language proficiency levels will benefit from reading books that the teacher has already read to the group. The list below is not an exhaustive list but it's a good start for those interested in trying out wordless picture books with students.

Can Wordless Picture Books Be Used in Remote or Distance Learning?

The short answer is yes, they can. Remote or distance learning can be defined as learning situations where the teacher and the student are separated and unable to interact in the same classroom setting. Yet, not all families have access to computers and the internet, so providing instruction that is accessible to all children is important. If your school is using remote or distance learning for any reason, wordless picture books are one way to accommodate English learners because they lean on the total linguistic repertoire and not solely on English. Using a child's whole language repertoire, we can build the target language.

Teachers who have prior notice of school closures have the luxury of pulling together wordless picture books from the public or campus library and distributing them to English learners with choice boards such as this one.

What Does Reading a Wordless Picture Book Look Like?

Reading is more than decoding words. Wordless picture books provide students with the opportunity to analyze visuals, synthesize ideas, infer meaning, and create language structures to support their thoughts. Students are encouraged to narrate the pages.Older students benefit from being told that this practice will support their English development.

This is where the Gradual Release of Responsibility fits right in. Copious amounts of modeling for students will yield greater gains. Students who know and understand the expectations for reading a wordless picture book will be more successful. Show students exactly what reading a wordless picture book sounds like, then move to guided practice. Read wordless picture books together as a class or in small groups. Some students will need the support of questions such as "What is happening in this picture?" or "What makes you think that?" and "What will happen next?" Finally, have students practice reading wordless picture books independently and with partners.

If students have access to technology, they can record themselves reading wordless picture books on platforms such as Flipgrid and Seesaw. Students can watch their peers read and comment on their videos. Providing English learners with a model and sentence stems for sharing will enhance their experience. For instance, have them introduce the book with a stem like, "Today, I'm going to read a book to you called..." or "This is a wordless picture book I made. It's a (how to/all about/fiction/nonfiction) book. Let me share it with you." And after they read, have them comment with phrases like, "My favorite part was when..." or "I like this book because..." Or, they can ask questions about the book for their fellow students to answer, themselves.

Final Thoughts

Author Tanny McGregor recently shared the hashtag #WordlessBookWeekend on a Twitter chat. It's filled with ideas for wordless picture books and how teachers are using them with students.

No matter a student's language, language proficiency level, or grade, and no matter what content area you teach, wordless picture books can support learning. Wordless picture books are fun, engaging, multimodal, and interactive. Give them a try, and be sure to share with us how it goes with your students.

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The Potential of Wordless Picture Books for English Learners

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by Valentina Gonzalez Imagine you are a second grade student born in America, and you only speak English. You've attended English schools until now. But your father's job has relocated your family to France, and now you are in a classroom filled with students and a teacher who only speak French (a language you have...

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TED-Ed celebrates the ideas of teachers and students around the world. Discover hundreds of animated lessons, create customized lessons, and share your big ideas.

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A Simple Strategy to Get Students Talking About Math

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When students ask each other a range of questions about math-conversational, academic, and reflective-they work together to deepen their understanding.

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by Carmen Nguyen

During this time of uncertainty, we are faced with many challenges that detrimentally affect and change how we are teaching. Whether we are teaching in a traditional face-to-face setting, completely virtually, or a hybrid of the two, it remains true that, as educators, we will continue to create, find, or purchase a variety of resources for the students we serve. Unfortunately, it is also true that the Lexile level of the grade level resources we have access to is not always appropriate for the various students in our classrooms. It is often difficult to find resources that are authentic and challenging and address grade-appropriate concepts, but are also at the students' reading level. As educators we find ourselves adapting, changing, or supplementing the resources we have in order to teach our state-mandated curriculum.

Now, let's simply consider how to adapt the text in the resources we use in our classroom to make them more accessible for students who are not yet able to read grade-level appropriate text. Too often when text is adapted, it is stripped of all of the features we initially selected it for. It is important to take note that exposing students to complex text as well as the meaningful language structures found within the text offers students avenues for literacy development as well as grade level readiness. So offering a balance is key to ensuring students are able to meaningfully interact with the text. ASCD offers a publication that provides an in depth resource to understanding and evaluating text complexity.

There are several online platforms that provide leveled text and websites that will adjust the level of the text, but many times the adjusted text is still not what you need, or the information you needed is now removed. The following steps will help guide you in adapting texts or resources yourself while maintaining the rich features in the original text.

Step 1: Determine the Goal for Using the Text

Before you begin adapting a specific text or resource, you must determine what the goal of reading or using the text is. Are you using the text for students to acquire knowledge about a specific concept or topic? Or are you reviewing the text features to analyze the text for a specific purpose? The goal is really driven by the standards you are teaching, and how you adapt the text will vary based on a variety of factors:

Different content areas

Types of text

Whether the students will be interacting with the text independently, in a partnership/group, or with guidance from the teacher

Whether the text you created is an electronic version or printed

Step 2: Read Text Using Different Lenses

This may sound obvious, but in order to adapt the text you will have to read the text thoroughly and possibly multiple times using different lenses. The chart below describes the lenses you may need to use:

Read the text simply to determine what the text is about.

Identify what you would like for the students to learn from reading the text (ties back to the goal for selecting the text). What are the key points? What must remain in the text? What information is necessary for students to accomplish the task?

Identify vocabulary, phrases, or possibly even sentences that may be potentially difficult for the reader, are central to understanding, are used frequently in the text, are cross-curricular, have multiple meanings, and contain affixes (include sections that had you reference another part of the text or sections you may have had to reread for understanding). It is always good practice to categorize the vocabulary you identify into three tiers.
- Tier 1: Commonly Used Words
- Tier 2: Cross-Curricular Words
- Tier 3: Content Specific Words

¡Colorín Colorado! offers a great article with a further explanation on the differences among the tiers.

If you have text in an electronic format or that is short and you do not mind typing in, this can be easily done using the Longman Dictionaries Vocabulary Checker.

Is the information necessary for the students to accomplish the task?
Simplify

Delete

Is the information written in a clear, concise manner?
Leave it alone or Enhance

Enhance,Simplify, Delete

Are there vocabulary words that a student must know to meet grade level expectations?
Enhance

Simplify or Delete

Does the text contain charts, tables, pictures, diagrams, photographs?
Leave it alone or Enhance

Enhance

You may also find it beneficial to review the scoring rubrics found on the ASCD publication referenced above.

Step 5: Select and Add Features to the Text to Enhance the Readability

When selecting features to add to the text or resources, make sure to reference the goal for using the text (step 1) and be mindful of who you are scaffolding for (step 3). When you are learning or just beginning to dabble with adding features to text or resources, it is common to over scaffold. As you gain practice and find what works best for your students, you can gradually remove scaffolds. The same concept applies when you model for or guide students: you provide substantial supports at the beginning, and as students become successful, you gradually remove the supports. The chart below provides possible features that may improve the readability of text/resources and can be done either on printed or online resources:

Simplify Text
- Use simpler language or language that mirrors student proficiency level
- Remove unnecessary or confusing words and nonessential information
- Add redundancy if appropriate (repeatedly name objects/people/concepts)

Chunk Text
- Create smaller, manageable sections within the text
- Add additional headings

Add Visual Supports
- Use consistent charts, tables, pictures, diagrams, and photographs to support text
- Add captions to pictures when appropriate
- Add clear labels to visuals

Vocabulary
- Identify, highlight, or bold key vocabulary
- Provide a word bank with visual supports
- Add student-friendly definitions to the text
- Use synonyms if not essential vocabulary

Text-to-Speech
- Add oral read aloud to the text (add QR codes for printed text)

Here are a few examples to help you visualize potential ways to adapt text/resources.

A last piece of advice is to not overwhelm yourself with too many supports. Begin with embedding features that will give students just enough access and move forward from there. Yes, adapting texts or resources does take time and practice. But all things worth doing take time.
References:
Close Look at Close Reading: Teaching Students to Analyze Complex Texts, Grades K-5
by Diane Lapp, Barbara Moss, Maria Grant and Kelly Johnson
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/114008/chapters/Understanding-and-Evaluating-Text-Complexity.aspx#:~:text=What%20exactly%20does%20the%20term,answers%20to%20Questions%205%E2%80%939.
Selecting Vocabulary Words to Teach English Language Learners Mathematical Thinking and Communication Access for English Learners
By Dridcoll, Nikula, DePiper
From ¡Colorín Colorado!
https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/selecting-vocabulary-words-teach-english-language-learne

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Transforming the Resources You Have into Accessible Formats for All Students

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by Carmen Nguyen During this time of uncertainty, we are faced with many challenges that detrimentally affect and change how we are teaching. Whether we are teaching in a traditional face-to-face setting, completely virtually, or a hybrid of the two, it remains true that, as educators, we will continue to create, find, or purchase a...

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Educational Hip-Hop Songs & Videos for All Subjects, K-12

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Flocabulary is a library of songs, videos and activities for K-12 online learning. Hundreds of thousands of teachers use Flocabulary’s educational raps and teaching lesson plans to supplement their instruction and engage students. Our team of artists and educators is not only committed to raising test scores, but also to fostering a love of learning in every child.

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The Flipgrid Blog Helps You Bring Ideas to Life

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The Flipgrid Blog is your #1 resource for inspiration and tutorials. Discover new ways to make learning fun by using our free video discussion platform.

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A MiddleWeb Blog

There is no time to waste. Our middle grade English learners are relying on us to help them advance in language proficiency quickly. The sense of urgency on our part must rise. Whether we teach ESL, math, science, language arts or another subject, we teach students first and they are counting on us.

Writing supports every curriculum and is a lifelong skill that our students will need post-secondary. Here's how you can build the writing skills of your English learners now:

Model, Model, Model

Each kid benefits from seeing how to write before they DO the writing. BUT for English learners this is even more important because language structures may vary from their native language.

For example, if I want my students to write about themselves describing their age, I might show them that in English we write: " I am nine years old." This is different from other languages like my native language where a person might say, "I have nine years." Modeling what we expect from students gives them a clear goal for their writing.

Be Explicit

With English learners, being explicit with instruction is more than important. ELs have a heavy load. They are learning a new language, learning content, and possibly learning how to navigate a new culture. When we are explicit with instruction, we create a clear path to learning for them.

Content and language objectives are a great way to start when being explicit. For instance, "Today we are going to revise our writing for word choice. We will do this by reading our draft to a partner and discussing sound words." Then use an anchor chart that supports these objectives. Show students how you to do it using clear, actionable steps and let them try.

Anchor Charts

Anchor charts that are clear and interactive and are made with student input are best for all students. If kids can go back to the anchor chart while the teacher is working with a small group and they use the anchor to support their independent learning, then it's a good chart. The best anchor charts have minimal text and are supported with sketches, pictures or graphics.

An anchor chart is like a finger print of the teaching that took place. In some cases, students need their own mini-anchor chart to keep in their writing journal for easy reference. Taking a picture of the chart and printing it small or making a copy of the chart on a sticky note is a way to give the student an artifact from the lesson. On the contrary, if students cannot read the anchor chart, then it is useless to them and becomes nothing more than wallpaper.

Language Level

Know and understand each student's language level and use this information to guide you as you plan instruction. Second language learners may need linguistic supports to achieve success with grade level expectations. As beginners in language, they may first need to use pictures in their writing. Labeling, copying, and talking about the pictures will support their language and writing growth.

The use of leveled sentence and paragraph frames will also benefit students as they continue to learn English. Remember that even students who are near grade level in English will still benefit from support in writing. Academic writing and grammatical structures can pose a struggle for students who are learning content and language simultaneously.

Sentence Stems

The use of sentence stems has become more common. And that's a great thing. However, we can do better if we tailor the use of sentence stems to meet the specific needs of ELs.

Beginner ELs have extremely different writing needs than Advanced ELs. Both have needs and we want both of them to grow in proficiency, but if we prescribe the same sentence stem to them, we are doing a disservice. It would be like a doctor prescribing the same treatment to each patient who walked into his door.

Instead, we need to assess each student and prescribe what they need at the time (not all year because if we do a great job, they won't need the same supports all year).

​Targets

This seems pretty obvious, but it's often forgotten. We all need targets. When I decided to go back to college to get my master's degree, I had to complete an Action Research Project. I had never heard of one before, so in my mind it was a vague project. It was totally new to me. I couldn't imagine how long it needed to be, what sections it had to include, what it looked like in general, etc. I needed examples of Action Research Projects in order to be able to hit the mark.

Our kids need the same, and these examples need to be attainable for them. They should be peer examples and not by adult authors. Yes, mentor texts are great, and I love reading them to my students, too. But I can't possibly expect my ELs to write like Kate DiCamillo right now. I need them each to feel successful, and then I continue to lift the bar. Succeed, lift the bar, repeat. We have to immerse them in the genre.

​Talk

The opportunity to talk and listen to a peer is vital for ELs. In the early stages of language development, they may be reluctant and that's okay.

However, the opportunities for talk should always be present. Structured conversations don't have to take long (35 seconds to 2 minutes) but their value is tremendous! My favorites are using talking heads or Q Triple S A.

We know that the person who does the talking is the one who is doing the learning. Unfortunately, if the talk is mostly coming from the teacher, then the teacher is probably learning more about the subject than the students are.

As a young teacher, I was guilty of being center-stage in my classroom and talking more than my students. I thought it was my job to deliver the content TO them. It was only after I realized that my talking was preventing them from uncovering the content that I had a mindshift. I had to let them do the talking.

I restructured the classroom environment and provided the students a way to discuss, negotiate for meaning, evaluate their thinking, and clarify by holding structured conversations.

Writing Is a Potent Elixir

When students talk before they write, their writing becomes more solid and definitely greater than without talk.

Writing is not just a way to check for understanding. Writing can help students to build on their existing knowledge. It can help them dig deeper into their thoughts and understandings.

​Writing is a powerful way to support learning. ​

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7 Things We Can Do Right Now for Our ELL Writers

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A MiddleWeb Blog There is no time to waste. Our middle grade English learners are relying on us to help them advance in language proficiency quickly. The sense of urgency on our part must rise. Whether we teach ESL, math, science, language arts or another subject, we teach students first and they are counting on us.

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Scanning Strategy to Support ELs in Reading

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Scanning Strategy to Support ELs in Reading

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Step 5: Use Visuals and Vocabulary

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Marzano's Six Step Process

In "Building Academic Vocabulary" (Marzano, 2004), Marzano outlines a comprehensive approach to learing the context specific academic vocabulary, or the brick words that students encounter in their reading. The first three steps help us introduce new terms during the frist lesson; the last three steps help students practice & reinforce those terms over time.

Remember: Describe, Describe, Draw, Do, Discuss, Play

Step 1: Describe - Instead of a standard definition, teachers give students a description or explanation of the word or term using examples and visuals. The goal is to appeal to learners of ALL types in order to help them understand new vocabulary.

Step 2: Describe - Students are asked to give their own description or explanation using their own words. By listening/reading student descriptions/explanations, we can assess mastery or provide help. Students record descriptions in their personal notebooks to reference later.

Step 3: Draw - Students draw representations of the new vocabulary word/term. Acceptable ways to complete this task include: drawing pictures, designing symbols, making graphics, creating cartoons, finding a visual on Internet or magazine. This can be done individually or in groups.

Step 4: Do - Give students more practice using new vocabulary words/terms. Have them participate in activities such as: identifying prefixes, suffixes, synonyms, antonyms, related words and additional visuals.

Step 5: Discuss - Students discuss words/terms as they work with/in partners, triads or groups. This conversation is more effective when structured. Monitoring discussions clears up any confusion students may have.

Step 6: Play - Students participate in games that reinforce deep understanding or new vocabulary words/terms. Examples of games include: Jeopardy, Wordo (like Bingo), Charades, Pictionary, Scrabble, etc...

If you like what you see be sure to follow along with #SiglerNation on Twitter. You can follow Matt Arend on Facebook and Twitter.

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7 Steps...Language Rich Classrooms - By, John Seidlitz by McClure Marshals | This newsletter was created with Smore, an online tool for creating beautiful newsletters for educators, nonprofits, businesses and more

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The Voice Memos app on your iPhone is the easiest way for you to record audio from your device. The files are saved within the Voice Memos app so that you can listen to or edit them later.

But you have some other ways that you can interact with your voice memos, including the ability to share those voice memos via email. Our guide below will show you how to choose one of your voice memos and include it as an attachment in an email that you send directly from your iPhone.

How to Send a Voice Memo as an Email on an iPhone

The steps in this article were performed on an iPhone 7 Plus, in iOS 10.1. Many email providers have file size limitations for attachments, so you may have difficulty sending very large voice memos files with some providers.

Note that you need to have an email account configured on your iPhone in order to complete this process. This article includes a section on setting up an email account on your iPhone.

Step 1: Open the Voice Memos app.

Step 2: Select the voice memo that you would like to send through email.

Step 3: Tap the Share icon.

Step 4: Select the Mail option.

Step 5: Enter the email address of your desired recipient into the To field, then click the Send button at the top-right corner of the screen.

Summary - How to send a voice memo as an email on an iPhone

1. Open the Voice Memos app.

2. Select the voice memo.

3. Touch the Share icon.

4. Select the Mail option.

5. Complete the email, then tap the Send button.

You can also send voicemails as email attachments from your iPhone. Learn how to share an iPhone voicemail with one of your contacts.

Disclaimer: Most of the pages on the internet include affiliate links, including some on this site.

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How Can I Send a Voice Memo as an Email from my iPhone 7?

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The Voice Memos app on your iPhone is the easiest way for you to record audio from your device. The files are saved within the Voice Memos app so that you can listen to or edit them later. But you ...

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We're living in a digital era; at a time when everything from ordering groceries to learning new skills is highly accessible and convenient. This is especially true for language learning. Now you can improve your English with just a couple of taps - all you need is your phone, laptop or computer, and good internet connection.

Whether you're jogging or commuting, podcasts are a great way to get a better grasp of any foreign language. They're the perfect way to complement your language classes and pick up some new vocabulary during your commute or workout. To get you started, we've rounded up 11 of the best podcasts for English learners of all levels.

Elementary-level podcasts

_Learn English
_Let's start with Learn English - a fantastic podcast from the British Council. The episodes are discussion-based and cover everyday vocabulary and situations. What's more, "Learn English" offers a wealth of free support material. Not only can you download each episode's transcript, but you can also take short quizzes to test your recently acquired knowledge. It's the best way to retain all those new words and make lightning-fast progress.

_Voice of America
_Do you want to improve your English while listening to current and interesting topics? Then, Voice of America: Learning English is for you. This information service has different kinds of audio programs that are narrated at slower than normal English speed. What's more, each program caters to different interests. The "American Mosaic" program discusses pop culture in the United States - like the new movies, for example. Meanwhile, history buffs will enjoy "The Making of a Nation", which talks about U.S. history. And that's just the tip of the iceberg: additional programs focus on science and even grammar - so not only will you learn English, but you'll get super smart, too!

Espresso English
With simple, clear and practical lessons, Espresso English is a fun yet effective way to pick up a little bit of English every day, whenever it suits you. Each lesson is only 5 - 10 minutes long and designed to teach you a lot in a short space of time. You'll learn English grammar, vocabulary, phrases, idioms, and more in no time!

Intermediate-level podcasts

_6 Minute English
_With its 6 Minute English podcast, the BBC has managed to create a fun way to learn English. The episodes are based on everyday situations and feature a discussion between two people, Nick and Alice. The topics are so entertaining - addressing questions like "Are bears back to stay?" or "How much is your spouse worth?" - you'll forget you're learning English. Plus, each episode has a transcript and a vocabulary list with definitions.

_Podcasts in English
_ Podcasts in English is remarkable if only for its sheer variety. Indeed, the website offers a wealth of podcasts for every level. What's more, the episodes are quite short -normally under 5 minutes - perfect for those pressed for time. They also address entertaining topics, which include such gems as "10 remarkable facts about the world cup" to "planking," and there's a wide range of quality support material.

_Culips ESL Podcast
_This one has something for everyone with over 600 episodes covering every level. Culips ESL Podcast features seven brilliant series with topics such as "Chatterbox", aimed at helping you to get used to English conversations at normal speed as they interview someone with an interesting story to tell. While "Speak Easy" teaches you how to perfect your accent and speak in clear and comprehensible English. Culips also offer free, downloadable study guide samples!

Advanced-level podcasts

_The English We Speak
_In The English We Speak, the BBC focuses on idioms and expressions - one of the final steps in mastering the language. The podcast features a light conversation between two people who take up one fun and popular idiom every week. One of my favorite episodes focused on expressions like "eye candy" and "sweet tooth." And the best part? You'll hear idioms used in context, which is the best way to pick up new vocabulary and polish your English.

_Splendid Speaking
_Perfect your language learning by listening to Splendid Speaking's fascinating podcasts. Designed to support advanced learners with reasonably good English communication skills, each lesson features interviews and discussions with non-native English language speakers, who carry out short tasks or give presentations. The recordings then include expert feedback on their performance. It's a very instructive and helpful way to learn as you listen in and hear how other learners are grappling with the language, and then learn from their mistakes alongside them!

_All Ears English Podcast
_Lindsay and Michelle's approach to language learning is "Connection not perfection". They aim to help you relax, have fun, and learn real, natural American English in their All Ears English Podcast for intermediate to advanced English learners around the world. In their 10 - 15 minute lessons, the two cheerful and very motivating Americans discuss and share tips on how to use everyday English vocabulary and idioms, expressions, and phrasal verbs, and how to make small talk in American English. They also offer useful tips on American culture, customs and etiquette.

_Luke's English Podcast
_Fancy a laugh while you learn? Then look no further than Luke's English Podcast. Luke is a qualified English teacher from London with 18 years teaching experience. Oh, and he's a stand-up comedian! Luke's multi award-winning podcast offers an insightful learning resource, with over 600 audio episodes, transcripts, and videos, including a special series on phrasal verbs - all of which aim to make you laugh while you learn. Episodes cover topics such as "Quintessentially British Things", "British Comedy" and "British Music" - so you'll learn a lot about life in Britain too, including a solid introduction to good old British humor!

_This American Life
_ This American Life is a weekly public radio program and podcast, featuring compelling, funny and often very surprising stories with intriguing plots - little movies for radio, as they call them.

Each week they choose a different theme and curate stories based around it. The focus isn't specifically on English language learning here, instead This American Life offers a great opportunity for English learners to get used to different regional American accents, while listening to unusual and interesting real-life stories from around the country - you'll be hooked from the first story!

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Learn English with these 11 free podcasts ‹ GO Blog | EF GO Blog

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Podcasts are the perfect way to complement your English classes and pick up some new vocabulary during your commute or workout.

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Reading in all content areas.

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Save valuable instructional time by combining content-area and literacy instruction with these handpicked collections of leveled books. Each category is arranged into relevant topics that contain instructionally focused groups of books at a range of levels to aid students as they learn to read and read to learn.

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MyCollege from the Chartered College of Teaching

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Have you ever tasted an Arab taco?

When was the Arab taco invented?

What is shawarma?

Find it out

How are currency exchange rates determined?

What was the gold standard?

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

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

Test your knowledge

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

Test your knowledge

What is an okapi?

Where do okapis live?

What do okapis eat?

Find it out

How can I use Wonderopolis?

What are the parts of a Wonder?

How do writers make a Wonder?

Find it out

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Where the Wonders of Learning Never Cease | Wonderopolis

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Where the Wonders of Learning Never Cease

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English language structures can be confusing for a student who is learning English as a second or other language. Language structures may differ and cause
​English learners to struggle with language structures in English. Enter...The Sentence Patterning CHART.
The Sentence Patterning Chart is an excellent method for exposing learners to English language structures while teaching content. The benefits of this technique are amazing:

lowers the affective filter

engages learners

builds vocabulary

provides oral language practice

imprints into the brain using song

categorizes words

offers an opportunity for shared reading and writing

I learned about this technique several years ago through Project Glad. And over the years, I've seen a few different takes on the Sentence Patterning Chart. As a certified Project GLAD trainer, I not only used the technique with my own students but I also trained teachers in the technique.
Here's how to implement it in your lesson plans to benefit all students:
1. Introduce the chart once students have some knowledge about the unit or theme. For example, if your unit is about farm animals, the sentence patterning chart would be appropriate after students already know about the animals, types, what they do, where they live, etc.
2. Create an outline of a 5 column chart in pencil very lightly so your students can't see the titles of the columns. Title the columns Adjective, Noun, Verb, Adverb, Prepositional Phrase (in that order).
3. Now, with students in close proximity, introduce a column at a time. Start with the noun. You might say something like this:
"A noun names a person, place, animal, or thing." As you are talking, trace over the word NOUN that you wrote in pencil with a colored marker and then draw a sketch of a person, place, animal and thing.
Then you might say:
"Today we are going to make lots of sentences about animals because we've been learning all about farm animals." Then write "animals" under the NOUN column. *The noun you use must be plural.
4. Next, explain what adjectives are. Trace over the word in a different colored marker.
5. Have students turn and teach their partner what an adjective is and share examples of adjective with one another. After a few moments, allow them to popcorn out as many adjectives as they can while you list them under the ADJECTIVE column using the colored marker. When the column is filled, stop to read each word in the list with the class. This can be practiced as a choral reading (read together) or echo reading (you read a word and they echo it back).
6. Repeat step 5 for the verb, adverb, and prepositional phrase columns.
7. Now that the chart is filled, we can move to the chanting and creating sentences using the Farmer and Dell tune. First model by singing this to the tune of Farmer and the Dell:
Adjective, Adjective, Noun.
Adjective, Adjective, Noun.
Adjective, Adjective, Noun, Verb, Adverb, Prepositional Phrase.
Then, place a sticky note by the words students will sing.

View the YouTube Video below to watch a demonstration of this lesson.

My friend, Katie Toppel from Oregon, also loves Sentence Patterning Charts and has used them with students. She presented this topic at TexTESOL in November 2017. To learn about how she uses them click here .

Let me know how your SPC lesson goes! Send pictures too! And connect with me on Twitter @ValentinaESL

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English language structures can be confusing for a student who is learning English as a second or other language. Language structures may differ and cause ​English learners to struggle with language structures in English. Enter...The Sentence Patterning CHART. The Sentence Patterning Chart is an excellent method for exposing learners to English language structures while teaching content.

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It's time to improve literacy skills during social studies instruction and ensure that readers of all abilities have what they need to access grade-level social studies concepts.

Join us on Thursday, December 7 for a look at scaffolded materials that provide extra literacy support while building key social studies concepts and skills.

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Newsela | Content and assessment platform

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Content Aligned To National & State Standard, Flexible To Support Relevant Curriculum. Find the Perfect Piece Of Content For Lessons. Go beyond the book.

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Seesaw creates a powerful learning loop between students, teachers, and families

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Easily create beautiful interactive video lessons for your students you can integrate right into your LMS. Track students' progress with hassle-free analytics as you flip your classroom!

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Parents, get 30 days free! Educators, get it free

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Parents, get 30 days free! Educators, get it free How to get your kids reading & loving it! MORE FEATURES AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Personalize their daily reading. Daily age- and level-appropriate recommendations customized to their interests. Track progress. See what books your kid likes, time spent reading and more.

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A second-grade teacher who knew her students had something to say to the world gave them the tools they needed to create a podcast.

One of the author's second-grade students works on the class podcast.

Podcasting offers an empowering way for students-even young ones-to express their ideas and connect with the world. It gives them opportunities to interview people, explain how to do something, teach on a topic, and many other possibilities. And the good news is that podcasting is easier than you may think. But having a growth mindset is important because your students' efforts might not be perfect the first time you try podcasting-you and your students need to be OK with that.

This year I decided to start podcasting with my second-grade students to empower them to express themselves authentically. I was new to audio recording, so I contacted my digital learning coaches. They were a bit surprised that I wanted to try podcasting with second graders but agreed to help me out.

Though I had a lot to learn, this activity turned out to be a good call-my proud 7-year-old podcasters are already planning more episodes.

The first step we took was to explore a handful of podcasts for about a week. After we talked about podcasting and analyzed some episodes, the students were ready to try creating one of their own. We used an app called Anchor because it seemed very user-friendly. When I'm unsure of how to use an app, I go to YouTube, and I found a video on Anchor that helped me teach my students how to use it properly. One of the district learning coaches was a great help with morale-sometimes it's scary to try new technology.

Our First Interview

This year, we had a new principal, and my students and I decided that getting to know her through an interview would make a good podcast episode. The class took a week to learn about the principal and to write questions that would help them learn more.

After some discussion and voting, the class selected five questions to ask and five interviewers, who each picked one question. They practiced recording themselves and correcting the audio using GarageBand. In addition, the kids practiced some interpersonal skills like how to shake hands firmly, look a person in the eye, and smile when greeting someone. The rehearsal stage took a week.

The students then requested an appointment for an interview with our principal, who was thrilled that she was going to be interviewed by her second graders. My students were both enthusiastic and nervous when they learned that the principal had agreed to the interview.

One of our digital learning coaches had experience with podcasting, and she shared technical knowledge with my students. She was familiar with how to correctly position a microphone-we used the one built into an iPad-next to an interview subject. We focused on getting the best possible audio of the principal so we wouldn't have to ask her for another appointment. The coach also helped line up the kids to take turns reading their questions so that we got a good audio recording of their voices with a minimum of noise from their movements.

Editing to Create a Polished Product

The last step was to put everything together, and this step took only one day. Though it was our first time working with Anchor, we discovered that it's easy to use. The kids voted for music to add to make the episode more appealing, and then a team trimmed the audio to remove some noises at the end.

Finally, we published our podcast, tweeted about it, and sent the link to the episode to my students' parents. The best part was seeing the kids' smiles when we finished and noting how proud they were of the result. They got another boost when the district shared our results and applauded how we were supporting one of the district's big initiatives-to give our students a voice.

This experience gave the students some practice with different apps and increased their technology skills. At the beginning, they had questions about how to use the apps-and they felt nervous. But their initial practice really eased those fears. Now that my students have some experience, they're deciding what they want to do next. Some of the kids want to explain a topic they are passionate about, and others want to keep interviewing other people. These second graders have strong opinions about how they can use podcasting to demonstrate their learning.

As we move forward, we'll work on improving the process by using different microphones to improve the quality of the audio we record. We also need to work on mastering Anchor to get the most out of this tool.

Podcasting might seem like a task for older students, but we tried it anyway, and we proved that everyone has something to say.

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A Way to Promote Student Voice-Literally

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A second-grade teacher who knew her students had something to say to the world gave them the tools they needed to create a podcast. One of the author's second-grade students works on the class podcast. Podcasting offers an empowering way for students-even young ones-to express their ideas and connect with the world.

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After only a few weeks working with Summit K12, I have seen a wonderful change in my students' disposition towards reading. They are more eager to become independent learners. They are using the skills, not only in their ELA classes, but also in their other core classes. The information we gathered from the pretest allowed students to have a better picture of their growth. ~ ESL Specialist, McAdams/Kranz J.H., Dickinson ISD (TX)

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What Makes Summit K12 Programs So Effective? ... K12's online, standards-based supplemental curriculum will close gaps and ensure growth for all students.

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You can get free Pear deck slides each week with NEWSELA articles. They come straight to your inbox and you get a slide deck with questions and activities.

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How to Use the Templates

The Daily Decks combine Newsela's curated news articles with Pear Deck's unique student engagement platform. When sharing with students, they will read the Newsela article directly in the Pear Deck session eliminating the need to direct students to a new tab or type in a URL.

The Decks are organized into a simple sequence of activities. To begin, select a topic from the gallery above. Note that you and your students will need to create a free Newsela account to set text levels and use the annotation features.

Step 1 . Login to Newsela and assign the article to your class. Make sure students are logged in, too!

Step 2 . Open the Daily Deck and launch your Pear Deck Session

Step 3 . Students will read and annotate the article, reflect and discuss

This simple instructional pattern makes it easy to practice literacy while building critical thinking skills and global awareness. Feel free to make these templates your own by editing the prompts or adding slides with links to other relevant articles!

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Newsela and Pear Deck teamed up to create daily activities that will help students explore current events while practicing their literacy, critical thinking, and communication skills. Each deck is paired with an article from Newsela's expertly curated news content and designed to get classroom conve

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This versatile pre-writing or publishing tool is easy for young storytellers to use. Dozens of photos sorted into categories including culture, people, family and fun, serve as inspiration for prompts. Kids can tell stories using the in-app recording feature. Teachers can also create custom prompts with their own images and voice. Giving ELLs a safe space to tell stories about their lives and experiences validates their unique contributions to the class community.

Students can create impressive video slideshows using research resources built right into the app. They can capture screengrabs from an interactive map, safely search for images from the Web and access image archives from trusted sources like the Library of Congress. Kids put the slides in order, add text, music and narration, and then export the final project as a video file. Shadow Puppet Edu supports ELLs in developing academic vocabulary in both collaborative groups and independently. Students can use it to review new concepts, present research, track progress, explain their thinking and more.

Just as with the original Toontastic app, Toontastic 3D is a storytelling app that's inspired by puppetry, theater, and animation. It employs a "Story Arc" with five sequential scenes to guide story structure (setup, conflict, challenge, climax and resolution). Kids move characters around each scene as they record narration and dialogue. For ELLs, Toontastic 3D can be an invaluable tool for building writing skills or practicing story analysis. Students can storyboard a piece of original writing or a story they read in class, and then bring it to life with fun settings and quirky characters.

Students or teachers can create and share media projects that incorporate video, image, voice, or even drawings. Once posted, projects can be open to text, voice or video comments from a select group or from all VoiceThread members. It's a natural fit for a range of student presentations and projects such as explaining research or retelling a story with original artwork. Alternately, teachers can create a VoiceThread to solicit student commentary. For ELLs who sometimes are hesitant to speak up in class, VoiceThread gives them a chance to thoughtfully craft their presentations or comments and contribute their ideas with confidence.

This formidable tool is like a superhero version of PowerPoint. Users can import photos, PDF files, movies and more from many sources to use in a presentation. Students can learn how to present information using multiple forms of expression (images, text, video and audio) through digital technology. Students can edit the audio in their presentations, which gives ELLs a chance to self-assess and revise before presenting to their peers and teacher. Plus, allowing students to create multimedia presentations can take some of the focus off the speaking task, and can give creative, tech-savvy students a chance to shine.

Sutori
(Middle/High)

Sutori* is a tool for creating interactive timelines and stories. Students can craft multimedia projects with text, images, videos, "Did You Know" call-out boxes, click-to-reveal text links, and multiple-choice quiz questions. Sutori offers collaboration features, allowing students to co-create stories for group projects as well. Teachers and students can access pre-made stories and view or contribute to a collection of community submitted stories. Sutori is another great option for empowering ELLs to share their stories and knowledge without the stress of an oral presentation.
Erin Wilkey Oh is Executive Editor of Education Content for Common Sense, creator of Graphite, a free service for educators in search of the best apps, games and websites for learning. Tools included here have received high ratings on Graphite by educators and by the editorial staff at Common Sense. Go to Graphite to read full reviews of digital tools and how teachers use them for learning in class. *This post has been updated to include Sutori.

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7 Storytelling Apps That Get English Language Learners Talking | KQED

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This versatile pre-writing or publishing tool is easy for young storytellers to use. Dozens of photos sorted into categories including culture, people, family and fun, serve as inspiration for prompts. Kids can tell stories using the in-app recording feature. Teachers can also create custom prompts with their own images and voice.

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Open a world of reading. Try Sora, the new reading app for students, by OverDrive.

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Teachers at King Middle School in Portland, Maine, make these sentence starters easily accessible by taping a talk moves printout to students' desks. King Middle School developed these talk moves inspired by Classroom Discussions: Using Math Talk to Help Students Learn, Grades 1-6, Second Edition, written by Suzanne H. Chapin, Catherine O'Connor, and Nancy Canavan Anderson (Math Solutions, 2009).

This video is part of our How Learning Happens series, which explores teaching practices grounded in the science of learning and human development.

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Encouraging Academic Conversations With Talk Moves

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

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Boosting Your English Listening Skills

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab has been providing online English listening comprehension activities for ESL and EFL learners since 1998. Visit Randall's other Web sites at DailyESL.com, EZslang.com, and Trainyouraccent.com for more language practice.

General ESL Listening Quizzes

Activities focus on everyday English comprehension skills at three levels based on content, voices, vocabulary, and natural speed. A combination of adult, teenage, and children's voices are included.

Explore More English Listening Activities

Randall has created a variety of other ESL listening activities to improve your comprehension, speaking, vocabulary, and cultural awareness.

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Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab - English Listening

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Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab helps ESL and EFL learners improve their English listening comprehension skills through conversations.

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Author: Marcy Voss
This booklet is designed to help students manage the intricacies of Academic Language.

When students know how to speak, read, write, and think using Academic Language, they can communicate effectively in school and in life. The Academic Language cards are full of challenging and engaging exercises for students in all subject areas.

Each set includes questions and statement stems that reflect varied levels of thinking skills.

There are eight skills included:

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Academic Language Cards w/Booklet - ENGLISH

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Author: Marcy Voss This booklet is designed to help students manage the intricacies of Academic Language. When students know how to speak, read, write, and think using Academic Language, they can communicate effectively in school and in life. The Academic Language cards are full of challenging and engaging exercises for students in all subject areas.

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by Katie Toppel

When I asked my fourth and fifth grade students to reflect on what they enjoyed the most from our ELD lessons this school year, the overwhelming answer was games! I was really pleased with this response because, even though my students were mostly focused on the fun factor, the games they'd played were also designed to provide them with opportunities for interaction, language and vocabulary practice, content concept review, and autonomy. Games are a great addition to lessons because they are highly engaging, and students may not even realize the extent of the academic benefit they are receiving. Additionally, Hammond (2015) champions "gameifying" lessons as one way to make them more culturally responsive because, in addition to getting the brain's attention and requiring active processing, games also incorporate cultural tools found in oral traditions with elements like repetition, solving puzzles, and making connections between unrelated ideas.

Depending on the instructional goal, a wide variety of games can be used in the classroom to support students in practicing skills and content. Games are fun and can transform instructional targets ("work") into play. But not all educational games are created equal, especially if the goal is to support language growth. Ideally, games incorporate practice of content knowledge while also supporting practice in some, if not all, of the language domains to facilitate content and language practice simultaneously.

When I incorporate games into my lesson plans, there are several considerations I make to ensure that my students will be engaged in purposeful language use.

1. Clear Purpose

Content and language objectives, which align to state, local, or national standards, guide teaching and learning so that both teachers and students have a clear understanding of what will be learned and what language will be used to demonstrate content knowledge (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2017). Content and language objectives should be carefully crafted to keep a laser focus on the intended lesson outcomes, and as such, all of the components of a well-planned lesson should directly correlate to the objectives. Because instructional time is precious and "English learners are students who can least afford wasted instructional time" (Echevarria, 2018), games, too, must have a clear purpose that directly aligns to the lesson or unit objectives.

2. Collaboration and Interdependence

Sometimes when students play games together, their interactions are merely cooperation as opposed to true collaboration and interdependence. There is nothing wrong with games that provide opportunities to practice elements of cooperation such as taking turns and sharing materials. These are important skills that we want our students to have, and games are a great platform for honing these competencies, but we can kick games up a notch by carefully crafting games that challenge students to truly rely on each other and interact meaningfully. A few ways to ensure that students are collaborating and interacting with each other are partner accountability, barrier games, and information gaps.

Partner accountability: One student takes a turn (ideally including spoken output), and the player's partner or a designated teammate responds by affirming, paraphrasing, or evaluating the answer. This ensures that the listening domain is included and that partners use their own content knowledge and language skills to process what their partners say. Consequently, there are no wasted minutes because both players are accountable during each turn. Sentence frames or scaffolds can be provided to remind partners to respond and guide partner responses.

Barrier games: Barrier games are great for promoting active listening because they involve placing a physical barrier, such as a file folder, between partners so they have to rely exclusively on what they heard. Partner A arranges one set of manipulatives, which could be pattern blocks, images, or cut-up sections of a text, in a specific way and describes the placement or order to Partner B. Partner B listens, and can ask clarifying questions, in order to recreate Partner A's placement with their own set of the same manipulatives. Partners check their work by removing the barrier.

Information gaps: In order to set the stage for true interdependence, tasks can involve an information gap. An information gap is when students each have different information that needs to be used collectively to complete the task.
Disclaimer: A little friendly competition is usually fun and motivating; however, sometimes competition can cause stress and actually raise the affective filter if games are fast-paced or students don't feel confident in the material being addressed. This is where we have to know our students in order to make the best choices around game play.
3. Speaking Practice

Fisher, Frey, and Rothenberg (2008) and Hammond (2015) affirm the importance integrating opportunities for students to be social in order to honor student's communal orientation. "Put simply, talk, or oracy, is the foundation of literacy" (Fisher, Frey, & Rothenberg, 2008, p.8). Students learn and solidify learning by talking, which pairs ideally with collaborative tasks like games. However, even in the context of games, talk must be academically purposeful. Prior to playing games, teachers can model the expected language (i.e., complete sentences, target vocabulary, language structures) so students know what appropriate responses will sound like and understand that academic language is expected as opposed to casual, social language. Games provide an excellent platform for students to practice those academic and interactive oracy skills in a low-stress context that builds efficacy and independence in their language use.

4. Multiple Language Domains

Games that require students to SWIRL (speak, write, interact, read, listen) offer opportunities to engage in all four language domains plus interact with one another. If reading and writing are not already part of games you use, try to tweak them to incorporate one or both! Incorporate writing by having students document some of their verbal responses, or write a brief reflection or opinion after playing. Add reading by giving written directions, sentence stems/frames, and/or word banks for students to use when they produce their oral responses. Or, have students trade what they wrote with someone else in order to read a classmate's perspective. If a game could be played silently, require students to narrate their actions, explain their answers or their thinking out loud to their partner, and utilize a partner accountability job so active listening and interaction are part of every turn.

5. Clear Directions, Meaningful Visuals, and Manipulatives

Planning comprehensible input for games helps maximize time engaged in content and language practice during play. Games need to have clear instructions (printed instructions are a great way to incorporate the reading domain) so students understand what to do and can get started quickly. Supplementary materials such as images and manipulatives also aid comprehension, support negotiation of meaning, and make games engaging. When my second graders were learning about penguins, I gathered images of penguins demonstrating many different verbs and printed the images in a small size to be the game cards students pulled and talked about. I also like to use a generic game board with dice and game pieces because students really enjoy interacting with those tools as they play. Any number of games can work with those materials, but they consistently provide a tactile experience, and they tie in numeracy skills as well!

Connect to content and language objectives

Require collaboration and interdependence

Involve speaking and use of target language

Incorporate multiple language domains

Utilize clear directions, meaningful visuals, and manipulatives

Whether you are using a game straight out of a box or creating your own from scratch, games can be a valuable way to incorporate so many important elements of language and can benefit students in so many ways.

References

Echevarria, J. [Jana Echevarria]. (2018, May 13). How much should we "push" English learners? [Video File]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R49oVkd4MJg&feature=youtu.be

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. (2017). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP model (5 . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Fisher, D., Frey, N., & Rothenberg, C. (2008). Content-area conversations: How to plan discussion-based lessons for diverse language learners. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

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by Katie Toppel When I asked my fourth and fifth grade students to reflect on what they enjoyed the most from our ELD lessons this school year, the overwhelming answer was games! I was really pleased with this response because, even though my students were mostly focused on the fun factor, the games they'd played...

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This is such a powerful video about the importance of oracy for our students.  I include this in my Sheltered Instruction training for teachers.

https://youtu.be/2ADAY9AQm54

Vanessa Harrah, Victoria ISD Bil/ESL Dept.

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This article from Edutopia provides some great examples and ways to support students speaking in the classroom. It's an easy read and helpful.

Kathleen

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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I've used this with my students for speaking, analyzing, and writing. It's not necessarily something to just give to the kids - can be used as notes and anchor charts when learning different structures. Older students you could give as a reminder of previous learning.

Kathleen McCusker

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Academic language scripts benefit out L-TELs in speaking using more academic prowess and 21st Century skill.

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A template for teachers when designing QSSSA.

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Podcasts are a terrific way to learn something new, whether you're at home, in the car, or in the classroom. They cover a wide variety of topics, so there's something to interest pretty much everyone. These podcasts for kids and teens are sure to engage young listeners and start interesting conversations. Plus, we've suggested enrichment activities to go along with each one!

Disclaimer: We've divided the list by grade level because some might be more intense or cover more mature topics than is appropriate for younger students. You are the best judge for your own kids or students, though, so we recommend vetting all material before sharing.

Best Podcasts for Kids in Elementary School

Teachers can get free access to this podcast to share with their class. The episodes focus on subjects in STEAM and language arts, all geared toward kids in grades K-5.

Activity to try: Use these educational podcasts as a launching pad for STEM challenges. Visit the Tinkercast website for lots of "podject" ideas!

On each episode, kids collaborate with famous, diverse authors to grow their story ideas. Then the author takes those seeds and writes an original story that you get to hear on the show!

Activity to try: Have students brainstorm a list of their own potential story ideas together. Then, ask each student to use one or more of those ideas to write a short story on their own.

Like Story Seeds, Story Pirates encourages kids to submit their own ideas. But instead of turning them into stories, the show transforms those ideas into songs and sketch comedy. So fun!

Activity to try: Take your students' story ideas and challenge them to write their own funny sketches and songs. This will really encourage their creativity.

In this debate podcast, participants take two different items and argue it out to determine which is best. Topics include "Hot Sauce vs. Butter" and "Palm Trees vs. Pine Trees."

Activity to try: This is such a fun way to introduce debating skills to kids. Hold your own "this or that" debates with students, or try this list of funny debate topics for all ages.

This podcast adapts folktales from around the world into music-rich radio plays for kids. Each episode explores universal themes like friendship, persistence, creativity, and generosity, and ends with an activity that inspires a deeper conversation between children and grown-ups. This is one of those podcasts for kids that appeals to adults too!

Activity to try: Print the free coloring page that goes along with each episode and let kids use their crayons or markers while they listen.

Life on Earth can be awfully strange, don't you think? The folks at Radiolab, creators of popular podcasts for adults and teens, produce this special series just for kids. Each episode has accompanying "shovels," which are activities to help kids dig deeper. This one is perfect for the classroom.

Activity to try: The drawing prompts for each episode are really unique. Have kids complete them, then display them on a bulletin board or slideshow for others to see.

These original audio stories are filled with whimsy and wonder for young listeners and their families. This is one of the best podcasts for kindergartners.

Activity to try: Let kids write, illustrate, and make a recording of their own original story.

Kids have all kinds of curious questions-it's one of the things we love most about them! This educational podcast for kids from Vermont Public Radio tackles such topics as Why Do People Have Nightmares?, Do Animals Get Married?, and Why Do Lions Roar?

Activity to try: Have kids start a log, using a special notepad, of all the crazy questions they can think of. They should take the notebook with them everywhere they go.

In an era of fake news, kids need to be able to determine what's true and what's false. And what better way to do that than a game show that puts kids in the driver's seat, adults on the hot seat, and a sound-effects robot strapped to the roof? Each week, a kid interviews two experts on a particular topic, one of whom is a genuine, credentialed expert, the other a liar. Hilarious and fast-paced, the show teaches kids to ask insightful questions, weigh the evidence before them, and trust their gut.

Activity to try: Play an in-class or at-home version of Two Truths and a Lie to polish truth-telling skills.

There's a whole lot going on in the world these days, and not all of the news is kid-friendly. KidNuz informs in a way that explains but doesn't overwhelm kids. Their mission statement says it all: "To engage the next generation with news that will inform without fear and educate without opinion."

Activity to try: Pick an issue and do a "deep dive." Specifically, look for the upside of a situation-people helping people, people bonding together, etc.

A fun-filled podcast for kids all about ethical questions that get kids and adults thinking. "Do you have to love your sibling?" "Are some lies actually OK?" "Is it ever OK to fight back against a bully?"

Activity to try: Have your students write down questions to which they don't know the answers and discuss them (after vetting them, of course).

If you're looking for science podcasts for kids, this one tells stories about science discoveries with help from actual scientists. They explore things like why cats always seem to land on their feet and what a journey to the center of the Earth would look like.

Activity to try: Discuss the topic of any given episode as a class, opening it up to questions and encouraging further research.

Follow the ongoing battle between Dr. Floyd and the evil mastermind Dr. Steve (along with his sock-shaped assistant, Fidgert). During all their fighting, Dr. Floyd learns about history. With more than 400 episodes, there are plenty to choose from.

Activity to try: Have students write their own episodes, including a historical event that they love or that you have covered in class.

The host of Brains On! and her kid co-host talk with food scientists and snake handlers, put on plays, write songs, and so much more. It's a science lesson for your ears!

Activity to try: Listen to the episode " Books: How they're made and how your brain reads them." Afterward, have a discussion with your class about the many ways that reading is great for them.

This is an online treasure trove of free audio stories. You can listen to a mixture of original stories, fairy tales, and specially adapted myths and histories. Storynory has published an episode every week since 2005, so there is plenty to love and something for everyone.

Activity to try: Have students write an original short story and then present it to the class.

In search of podcasts for curious kids? Every two weeks, the creative host of this podcast takes questions from kids and spins them into an entertaining tale. Check out What If Clouds Were Made of Cotton Candy? or What If Magic Didn't Exist?

Activity to try: Make a top-10 list of your own what-ifs. Write a story, create a comic strip, or make a drawing to go with your favorites.

In a distant future that's either really bad or really good (depending on whose side you're on), two strange and unlikely champions embark on a series of adventures to stop a wicked A.I., and in the process must struggle to understand "old-fashioned" ideas like "kindness" and "just hanging out not doing much."

Activity to try: Start a discussion on how devices such as smartphones impact students' interactions with the people around them. Discuss the pros and cons of technology and the things we can do to be more connected with one another.

James Hawkins helps his mom run a motel in modern-day Montauk, Long Island. When a mysterious man washes up on the beach with a treasure map tattooed on his chest, James discovers that Billy Bones is, in fact, a time-traveling pirate from the 18th century. James and his new friends, Morgan and Max, follow the map right into a magical portal that leads them back nearly 300 years and into a swashbuckling adventure.

Activity to try: Have students write the story of what they would do if they discovered someone was a time-traveler. Would they want to enter the portal and go back in time?

In the spirit of Mayan folklore, an 11-year-old Belizean girl accidentally invokes an evil spirit that threatens to consume the rainforest. She goes on a thrilling journey to save her home and her people.

Activity to try: Ask students to write their own story of what they would do to protect their home. Do they see any similarities to the environmental problems we face today?

Finn Caspian is an 8-year-old boy aboard the Famous Marlowe 280 Interplanetary Exploratory Space Station. He and his friends Abigail, Elias, and Vale are Explorers Troop 301, taking off from the Marlowe to explore uncharted planets, help the occasional alien, and solve a mystery that threatens to destroy their space station.

Activity to try: Have students create their own illustrations of Finn's adventures. Would they want to be among his explorer friends?

Best Podcasts for Kids in Middle School

In each episode, three real middle school students team up to talk about their favorite book. Episodes also include an interview with the author, celebrity readings, and more.

Activity to try: Put your students into groups of three, and have them record their own podcast discussion about a book they all love.

This clever teen has been uncovering the mysteries of the universe in this podcast since he was 11. Several years in, he's tackling topics like how to fix recycling, why math is so hard to love, and other subjects tweens can relate to in his educational podcasts.

Activity to try: Before listening to a podcast, pose the title question to students and ask them to think, write, or discuss their initial responses. After listening, see how their opinions stack up to Tai's findings.

Though this podcast focuses mainly on Australian girls and women, their stories are meaningful around the world. Learn about athletes, scientists, adventurers, and more.

Activities to try: Challenge students to try to find girls or women in their own lives who have had similar experiences to the ones featured in this podcast.

Listen as world-famous radio reporter Eleanor foils devious plots, outwits crafty villains, and goes after the Big Story. Eleanor's pursuit of truth takes her into orbit, out to sea, and even to the halls of Congress! Her adventures are entertaining and informative.

Activity to try: Have a discussion about Eleanor and her values, especially the importance of access to information, being inclusive to different points of view, and telling the truth. Then have your students write about what their values are.

If you're looking for podcasts for kids who are into hip-hop, this one for tweens might be just their speed. Episodes follow the main character, Antoine, a boy who is bullied and finds a magical book that transports him to another world.

Activity to try: Have students create an illustrated version of the story as they follow along with the podcast.

Famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about all things space: stars, planets, humans in space, and so much more. He also interviews a lot of amazing people, from astronaut Buzz Aldrin to actress Olivia Munn to former president Jimmy Carter.

Activity to try: Have students research the science topic covered in a given episode, learning more about the topic and sharing their findings.

Explore all of the oddities of the English language! Filled with good humor and levity, this podcast will help students explore the roots of words and phrases that we use every day.

Activity to try: Have students write their own grammatical or linguistic jokes, using these as starter examples.

Looking for educational podcasts about history for kids? This title speaks for itself. Learn about people and events that are often overlooked in a typical history class.

Activity to try: Choose a popular unit of historical study, like the Civil War or Great Depression, then have students research the little-told stories related to it. They could even write a readers theater based on their findings.

This is an award-winning listening-skills platform, searchable by topic area or school subject. It advances classroom learning by providing additional content and building listening skills. There is also a focus on current events that helps keep the learning tied to the real world.

Activity to try: Each episode comes equipped with teaching resources, so pick the topic that is best for your class and get listening.

Humans are a curious lot as this educational podcast attests to in its mission statement: "True stories of inspiration, humor, and the incredible achievements of all types of people, many of which are sadly under-shared."

Activity to try: Have your students reach out to relatives, friends, or neighbors and ask them to share stories from their past.

This thought-provoking podcast tells the origin story of middle schoolers Marcus Aronson and Mondo Ramirez, also known as Cupid and the Grim Reaper. Can these two mismatched heroes overcome their differences and learn to harness the powers of life, death, and love?

Activity to try: Start a conversation about what it would be like to be a teen with superpowers. Discuss the perspectives of the main characters. How would students feel if they were 13 years old and found out they are Cupid or the Grim Reaper?

Best Podcasts for Kids in High School

This inspiring podcast celebrates all the teens and tweens who are innovating, inventing, and making the world a better place. Listening to these episodes will remind students that they can accomplish great things at any age.

Activity to try: Do some research to find more inspiring teens and tweens, locally or around the world. Ask students to create their own podcast episode about their amazing finds.

Music-loving teens will be fascinated by this podcast in which musicians talk about the songs they've written, telling the stories of their creation. With guests that range from Billie Eilish to Yo-Yo Ma, everyone will find music they love here.

Activity to try: Have students choose a song they love, and see if they can find out more about the story of its creation and recording. They can record their own podcast or write an article about their discoveries.

We all have moments in our lives that we'd rather forget, but there's something reassuring about knowing other people feel the same way. This podcast invites adults (including celebrities) to share embarrassing things they wrote as kids. Teens will feel a real connection and also get an important reminder that we really do live down even the most embarrassing things.

Activity to try: Invite students to write a journal entry or letter to themselves about an embarrassing time in their lives. Encourage them to return to it in a few years to see if they still feel the same way.

Ever wanted to know more about your subconscious, the part of your brain that influences and manipulates you without your even knowing it? This podcast dives deep into exactly that topic.

Activity to try: Encourage students to take some time to reflect on their own subconscious, perhaps in a journal entry. Can they identify times when it had a real influence on their actions?

This long-running NPR favorite is one of the best educational podcasts for kids in high school. They'll get a chance to challenge their own knowledge of news and current events while laughing at the show's guests as they try to do the same.

Activity to try: Host your own segment of the show each week, with one student responsible for coming up with a series of current events questions to test their classmates.

Help students connect with this centuries-old play using this new bilingual podcast version. It's ideal for schools where Spanish is just as prevalent as (or even more common than) English.

Activity to try: Ask students to select a passage from the original play and translate it into another language. Rather than insisting on word-for-word translation, encourage them to rewrite the passage in a way that captures the rhythm and emotion of the original.

Teens will especially enjoy Adult ISH, a culture, advice, and storytelling podcast produced entirely by youths who are almost adults. They tackle a wide variety of topics from a late-teens point of view.

Activity to try: Have your students select a topic in the news today and write their own podcast that shares their take on the news.

A podcast created by the co-author of Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics, Stephen Dubner, invites listeners to explore the hidden sides of everything. And given his almost 300 episodes on topics ranging from "Millionaires vs. Billionaires" to "How To Win a Nobel Prize," he is well on his way to talking about everything.

Activity to try: Have students pick an episode and find how it affects their everyday lives. These can be written or presented to the class, allowing for discussion and questions.

Tune in to the community radio of this desert town for the news on local weather, the mysterious lights overhead, announcements from the Sheriff's Secret Police, a dog park that prohibits dogs, and dark-hooded figures with unknowable powers.

Activity to try: Challenge students with this prompt: You have been hired by Night Vale Community Radio to write a segment. It could be a continuation of a segment that already exists, like "The Children's Fun Fact Science Corner" or "Community Calendar," or a report of a strange happening in the town, told in Cecil-fashion. These could be performed in front of the class, written, or put in podcast form.

This podcast brings you the "ins and outs of everyday things," from the "Pledge of Allegiance" to Mexican jumping beans to "Your Limb Is Torn Off" (obviously for teens and older!).

Activity to try: Ask each student to give a short presentation on something they think all their classmates should know about-whatever they find fascinating!

Sarah Koenig tells one story week by week. The first season covers the true story of Adnan Syed, convicted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend in Baltimore. The problem: Adnan cannot remember what he was doing the day of the murder. And as if that weren't bad enough, there's someone claiming that he helped Adnan hide the body.

Activity to try: Have students find a famous crime in history and write a dialogue between themselves and the accused, having the accused tell their side of the story. These projects can be handed in, performed in front of the class, or put into podcast format.

The incredibly popular Radiolab is a show about curiosity, where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience.

Activity to try: Listen to the episode Sight Unseen about a soldier's last moments and the photographer who captured them. Divide the class in half, and have them prepare and then conduct a debate on whether or not the photographer has the right to publish the photos.

Stories of people who've done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. Phoebe Judge explores topics from owls killing people to how to fake your death to the life of a police dog.

Activity to try: Have students pick an episode that interests them and do more in-depth research on the topic, presenting their findings to the class.

Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers and The Tipping Point, looks back through the overlooked and misunderstood in history, reexamining the past and asking whether we got it right the first time.

Activity to try: Listen to the three-part series on college (season one, episodes 4-6), and have a class discussion. Trust me, there will be plenty to talk about.

Each episode of This American Life centers around a theme. Most are journalistic at the core, but some are comedic. This podcast is hard to generalize, especially after hundreds of episodes. But the number of episodes and the podcast's massive popularity should speak for themselves.

Activity to try: Have students take a theme from an episode and write their own report or story surrounding that theme.

Hosted by Roman Mars, 99% Invisible is a narrative podcast about all the thought that goes into the things we don't think about-the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world.

Activity to try: Ask students to pay closer attention to the buildings and infrastructure in their town or city. Have them make a list of things they had never noticed before.

Covering the outer reaches of space to the tiniest microbes in our bodies, Science Friday shares news about science, technology, and other cool stuff. Host Ira Flatow mixes it up by featuring people in the know and those who want to be. The podcast frequently features listeners that call in with their most riveting science questions. If you're looking for the best science podcasts for kids in high school, this is a winner.

Activity to try: Choose from a wide range of topics such as Racism and Mental Health, Privacy and Big Data, and Structure of Conspiracy Theories, and spark a discussion.

Will and Mango have lots of questions. Will we ever live without sleep? How do rats keep outsmarting humans? Where are the sunniest tax havens to hide your money? Join these Part-Time Geniuses as they dive into ridiculous topics and discover some pretty smart stuff along the way.

Activity to try: Ask students to come up with an interesting question. Then, once their topic is approved, have them share the answer with their classmates.

This highly acclaimed podcast is one of the best podcasts for kids because it delivers honest and unfiltered conversations with celebrities, activists, athletes, and influencers focusing on real-life issues-from mental health and political activism to pop culture and more.

Activity to try: At 18, Sammy Jaye became the youngest person to host her own podcast on iHeartRadio. Have students write a short paper on whether they'd want to have their own podcast while reflecting on the challenges they might face.

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50 Best Podcasts for Kids in Elementary, Middle, and High School

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The best podcasts for kids and teens are perfect to listen to at home, or use them in the classroom with our accompanying activity ideas!

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action english pictures: photocopiable activities for total physical response

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foreign language study/english as a second language

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foreign language study / english as a second language

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foreign language study/english as a second language

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Action English Pictures: Photocopiable Activities for Total Physical Response

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Action English Pictures: Photocopiable Activities for Total Physical Response [Frauman-Prickel, Maxine, Takahashi, Noriko] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Action English Pictures: Photocopiable Activities for Total Physical Response

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The Spanish cognates here are organized according to subject to aid you in finding the English and Spanish cognates for language arts, science, math or social studies.

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How to turn Live Captions on in Chrome

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You can use Live Caption to generate captions automatically for videos, podcasts, games, live streams, video calls, or other audio media from Chrome browser on your computer. Audio and captions are processed locally and stay on the device.

Live Caption is only available in English.

Turn Live Caption on:

Tips:

To turn on captions for a video, at the top right, select Media control .

To use live captions for videos that autoplay, turn on the video volume.

When you select away from the tab with sound, live captions will appear in a hover-bubble that you can drag. To return to the tab with audio, select .

Turn Live Caption off:

Customize your captions

Customize your captions to make them easier to read. You can:

Collapse and expand captions with the arrow on the caption box.

Select the captions to move them to your preferred place on your browser.

Change your caption font, size, color, and opacity.

Change the background color and opacity.

Related Resources

How can we improve it?

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You can use Live Caption to generate captions automatically for videos, podcasts, games, live streams, video calls, or other audio media from Chrome browser on your computer. Audio and captions are pr

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Tan Huynh's blog empoweringells.com

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Guiding Questions

1. Why is writing important for ELs?

2. How can teachers support ELs in developing writing fluency?

Article's Goal

The goal is to share a quick strategy to informally develop ELs' writing skills. This practice also simultaneously supports critical thinking.

Research Suggests

Research suggests that writing is a powerful instructional tool because it helps students internalize concepts (Deshler et. al., 2007; Abell, 1992).

Writing requires that students "[p]ay closer attention to details, organize data more logically, and structure the arguments in a more coherent way" (Kober, 1993, p. 45).

This kind of cognitive work strengthens critical thinking. Writing is not just a skill to be mastered or tested, but it should be recognized as an essential tool to foster learning (Rivard, 1994).

Writing is especially beneficial for students with developing academic skills because writing reveals the areas of inaccurate understanding that teachers can address (Mason et. al., 2009; Green, Smith, & Brown, 2007). Writing is also a tool to develop understanding for students while simultaneously serving as a formative assessment for teachers.

A Cross-Content Skill

Because writing encourages learning and can be assessed easily, all teachers, regardless of their content area, can tap into that potential to enhance learning and foster critical thinking.

In my experience, however, content teachers who are frustrated with an EL's developing writing skill will make comments such as, "Why can't you just teach them how to write a lab report, and then bring them back" or "I don't have time to teach report writing."

The area-specific teachers who say this sometimes forget that:

1) every content area benefits from students having established writing skill,

2) communicating understanding in any field is inhibited by underdeveloped writing skills,

3) each content area has its own technical writing and

4) students perform better on standardized assessments when they have been explicitly taught academic language, such as writing specific to that field (Short, Echevarria, & Richards-Tutor, 2011).

Sharing the Responsibility

The strategies I'll be sharing over the next 4 posts in our Visible Literacy series will not directly help ELs in a science class write lab reports or produce analytical essays in art. Content educators are still required to explicitly teach the language of their discourse, but we, as language specialists, are charged with modeling the process.

I consider writing an "invisible task" because it occurs mainly in our minds. Idea generating, organizing them, crafting sentences into paragraphs, revising, and editing are all decisions made in the mind and are only see when written text is produced.

This week's strategy, Quick Writing, will develop the writing fluency and familiarity necessary to complete more extensive academic works.

Mistake # 1- No Writing Time

Mistake # 2 - Overloading the Cart

I made writing seem like this massive task with many factors to consider: organization, sentence structure, grammar, mechanics, voice, tone, brainstorming, creating, editing, revision and the list goes on.

This seemingly momentous task turned students away from writing before they even began. In truth, thinking about teaching all these elements of writing scared me. I didn't teach what "scared" me.

Like many teachers, these are not the only mistakes I made; I committed many more, which I will include in the next few posts as they are more relevant to those topics.

How I Teach Now: Quick Writes (QW)

In March of 2016, I attended and presented at the English Language Specialist in Asia Conference (ELLSA) in Bangkok, Thailand where Elly Tobin was the keynote speaker. She held a workshop there entitled "Managing a Multilingual Classroom: Every Teacher is a Language Teacher,"in which she taught the Quick Write (QW) strategy (2016).

A QW is "brief written response to a question or probe" that requires students to quickly explain, comment, or reflect on an assigned topic (Green, Smith, & Brown, 2007; Nunan, 2003; Shen, n.d.).

I ask students to not worry about the things they are traditionally concerned about when writing for summative purposes such as grammar, mechanics, or sentence structure.

The brief nature of a QW frees ELs of these constraints and invites them to use writing as a tool to reflect and think. Thinking is messy, and writing that aids thinking is allowed to be messy too. Students are expected to refine these elements of writing for summative assessments but not during these informal experiences.

This is a video of Jake deciding to do a Quick Write to help him synthesize his understanding of the text. His classmates are busy discussing their understanding of the text. He chose to pause, reflect, and write before talking.

This is Jake's QW from the video. Notice he is trying to show the sequence of events and the relationship between the characters.

At the end of this post, I'll show you how I use QWs with my ELs.

Informal Practice

I encourage educators to see formal writing assignments as Olympic swimming events. The athletes are able to compete at this advanced competition because they had frequent exposure to swimming in low-stress experiences when they were younger.

Beginning swimmers use aids such as foam noodles, paddle boards, and an array of floating devices. Their initial free swim readies them for learning more advanced swimming skills. QWs are like paddle boards for EL students: the informal exposure to writing and thinking prepares them for more challenging future tasks.

The Benefits of QWs

There are many benefits of quick writing. ELs become clear thinkers when given space to sort out their thoughts. They internalize content when given the extra processing time. This brief period to breathe, gather their thoughts, and synthesize information is critical to ELs who naturally need more time to think than their native English-speaking peers. Thereby, QWs both support critical thinking and foster communication skills (Kober, 1993), both of which are essential to academic achievement.

Most importantly, QWs cultivate writing fluency because it's used frequently (Ward, 2013). ELs slowly develop a familiarity with writing because they engage in it more frequently; producing text is no longer a daunting task. The more we practice something, the less scary it seems.

ELs also shift their definition of "writing practice" with QWs. Traditionally, their experience was in the form of composing high-stress, extended texts like essays and reports.

In contrast, QWs offer low-stress, shortened practice experiences that are much more manageable to produce. ELs who are at the Entering and Emerging phases of English development feel less stressed by composing text because QWs demand only brief, controlled written responses.

QWs help ELs perceive writing as, "A non-threatening and informal opportunity for students to express their thoughts" (Shen, n.d.; Fisher & Frey, 2008).

QWs and "Visible Writing"

I understand some readers might be thinking, "Wait. how do QWs connect to the concept of making writing 'visible'?" In truth, the Visible Literacy philosophy is to explicitly teach academic literacy skills, but QWs is just about using writing to process and think. QWs don't seem to align with Visible Literacy.

Because writing is such a cognitively demanding task, QWs make writing more familiar and comfortable for students. It's similar to the Olympic swimmer analogy. QWs help build the "writing muscle" and develop stamina for composing text. Therefore, it is essential to helping ELs cultivate academic writing skills later on.

QWs & Content Classes

Because no content area owns either thinking or writing, QWs can be used in all disciplines (Fisher & Frey, 2008) to process information, internalize concepts, develop critical thinking, and cultivate communication skills. Content teachers are free to use QWs at the beginning, middle, or end of the class (Mason, Benedek-Wood, & Valasa, 2009) - whenever they feel a need for ELs to stop, think, and process information.

Anytime content teachers want their ELs to synthesize information, draw conclusions, or provide their opinions,

Quick Writing in My Class

QWs can be done digitally on laptops, mobile devices; physically on scraps of paper or sticky notes. As my ELs spend a significant amount of time working in front of screens, I have my students QW in their English notebook to give their eyes a break. Interestingly, their minds seemed to be more engaged, and they produce much more thoughtful ideas when Quick Writing in the notebooks than on their laptops.

Vocabulary

I run a vocabulary program with my ELs to teach them the most frequent words used in academic language (I'll post about it in more detail in a few weeks).

First, I present a situation that uses the vocabulary word. For example, I would ask students, "What factor do you have to think about before buying a car?"

Then I ask students to do a QW to internalize the word "factor" by completing a sentence starter such as, "A factor I have to think about is..." Using QWs this way enables ELs to engage with the vocabulary word and build context around the word.

There's no formality to it - no table of contents, no dividers, no page numbers. I just ask them to write the date every time they QW so that we gather formative data about their writing progression and thinking skills. Here is an example of a student's QW in her English notebook. On the same page, you will see a QW completed after Free Reading followed by a QW to internalize the vocabulary word "indicate". This page represents three days of using QWs.

Speaking

I use a collaborative discussion method called the Harkness Discussion to help students develop critical thinking and speaking skills. Usually, after viewing the stimulus, we start the discussion with student-generated questions. At times, I will switch up the routine and start with a QW where students reflect on the stimulus quietly through writing.

Then they share their reflections in pairs or small groups without reading the responses. This momentary pause allows them to gather their thoughts before speaking to the group (Mason, Benedek-Wood, & Valasa, 2009; University Writing Council, 2011). Because QWs are quite flexible, I might have students QW about the ideas shared during a discussion if it was particularly thoughtful.

When to Use QWs

Beginning

When used at the beginning of class, QWs can connect prior knowledge to new concepts (Cleland, Rillero, & Zambo, 2003). For example, when introducing my "Heroes" Unit to my 10th graders, I asked them to describe a time they observed when someone did something heroic, in real life or in the media. The QW was served as an introduction into the unit by asking students to connect their experiences to the concept.

Middle

I use QWs in the middle of class to have students process new information. For example, when my 7th graders use Visible Reading to comprehend Patricia McCormicks' , I ask them to QW about their thoughts on the events that we read in the past few pages. This lets them organize the events and synthesize new details about the characters.

End

I often use QWs at the end of class to help ELs process a skill that we have been working to cultivate. For example, I might ask my 6th graders to QW to describe how they used reading strategies in today's lesson. When a student quick writes about a specific process, it helps them form internalized skills that are transferable to other disciplines.

It encourages ELs to form new insights, reflect on the problems they have experienced, and evaluate how they dealt with those challenges (Literacy & Learning, n.d.). Using QWs to process a skill is one of the most powerful uses of QWs because it builds ELs' awareness of learning. When students think meta-cognitively, they fully take part in their own learning instead of having learning be imposed upon them.

Things to Consider: Sharing QWs

There are multiple options when considering sharing QWs. Students can share with a partner, in small groups, just with the teacher, or with the whole class.

It's important to let students share their thinking orally with others because it further develops their cognitive skills produces deeper insights. Partner and small-group sharing experiences build ELs' confidence in speaking with the larger group .

Grading

I advise against grading QWs because it goes counter to the informal nature of a QW where students are free to make mistakes without incurring a penalty. The purpose of a QW is to allow students to casually express their thinking in writing.

Teachers can still use the data from QWs to inform their instruction, however, so it can still serve as a formative assessment.

Standardized Assessments

I remember the tremendous pressure the standardized assessments produced when I worked in publics school in New Orleans and Philadelphia. This pressure caused teachers to cover only content and leave less time to process information and internalize skills.

QWs might offer an alternative by encouraging educators to invite their students to pause and think through writing. This pausing allows ELs to synthesize and internalize content needed for the assessment. Therefore, QWs help students retain content that are assessed on standardized tests. When I want my ELs to retain an important idea, I let it sink in through the QW.

Other Strategies

There are various other strategies that facilitate writing daily and across disciplines. You can find seven specific strategies shared by Jennifer Gonzales from the Cult of Pedagogy. Many educators appreciate her resources because she offers practical advice to solve permanent education issues. She specifically mentioned using sentence stems, which I have provided several on my Bathroom Briefs posters #6 -8.

Takeaways

1). QWs are opportunities for ELs to informally express their ideas in writing.

2). QWs develop communication skills, foster critical thinking and serve as formative assessments.

3). Quick writing is a flexible structure that can be used in all disciplines.

Next Week

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I hope that it inspires you to use Quick Writes in your class to facilitate the processing of information, to reflect on learning, and to cultivate writing fluency.

Next week's article we'll continue the theme of making writing visible to ELs. I will share a process of deconstructing the writing prompt with ELs to empower them to understand what the prompt is expecting. This approach is mainly about modeling the process for students so that they have skills needed to write independently.

Free PDF

References:

Abell, S. (1992). Helping science methods students construct meaning from text. Journal of Science Teacher Education , (1), 11-15.

Literacy & Learning. Literacy Strategies: the Quick Write. Literacy & Learning: Reading in the Content Areas. http://www.litandlearn.lpb.org/strategies/strat_quick.pdf

Shen, D. (n.d.) Quick Write. Retrieved from http://ablconnect.harvard.edu/quick-write

Tobin, E. (2015). Managing a Multilingual Classroom: Every Teacher is a Language Teacher. English Language Learning Specialists in Asia, Bangkok.

University Writing Council, UPEI. (2011, May 16). The Quickwrite: A Brief Introduction . Retrieved from http://www.upei.ca/uwc/wac/strategies/quickwrite.html

Ward, T. (2013). Six Ways to Use Quick Writes to Promote Learning.

. http://oncourseworkshop.com/life-long-learning/six-ways-use-quick-writes-promote-learning/

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A8. Cultivating ELLs' Writing Fluency with Quick Writes | ELL Strategies | Empowering ELLs

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Guiding Questions Why is writing important for ELs? How can teachers support ELs in developing writing fluency? The goal is to share a quick strategy to informally develop ELs' writing skills. This practice also simultaneously supports critical thinking. Research suggests that writing is a powerful instructional tool because it helps students internalize concepts (Deshler et.

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ESLactivity.org blog

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I used to teach a lot of academic writing when I worked in the English department at a university in Busan, South Korea. Most of the writing textbooks, as well as curriculums focus on accuracy in writing and certainly not on things like English journaling. This is not a bad thing certainly because who wants an employee to write a work report in English filled with grammatical inaccuracies?

However, fluency in writing should also be a goal as well. After all, what employer wants someone to spend an hour (waste 50 minutes) writing a simple email that should take 10 minutes. That's where keeping an ESL journal can come in. Spending time on an activity like this can help to increase fluency in writing.

ESL Journaling Can Improve Writing Fluency

One way to work on fluency in writing is through journaling. I used to dedicate the first 10 minutes of all my writing classes (and sometimes 4-skills English classes) to it. I'd give the students a topic and they'd get to it. I made a rule about not using their phones or a dictionary, but to just focus on writing quickly, without worrying about spelling or grammar.

Here are a few examples of topics I'd use:

A favourite memory from childhood

What's your family like? (more ideas here: Family ESL Activities)

Summer vacation plan

A memorable vacation

Let's get into more details about journaling. What follows is a guest post from Stephanie Schottel at Cup of Tea Language Coaching.

Thanks for your insights about how to improve English writing fluency!

ESL Journals: Writing Just for Fun

How do your ESL students feel about English writing? Perhaps for some, writing is a joyous activity, but many learners associate writing with the academic writing they've been required to do in intensive ESL classes or for strict teachers in their homeland.

How many of your ESL students come from a background in which they were encouraged to write for fun, just for the pure joy of it-in English or in their native language for that matter? Maybe some, but probably not many.

But learning to write for fun in the form of journaling can be amazingly beneficial to language learners. Not only can it accelerate fluency, it can be a tool that brings more self-awareness to the process of learning English. I'd like to expand on these benefits and offer some fun and creative journaling activities that you can incorporate into your classroom or ESL coaching sessions.

What is English Journaling?

Journaling can take many forms. Journaling can be a way to explore feelings or to describe situations and daily events. It can be used to observe the world around you and make connections to your own life. In its simplest form, journaling is writing without any strict guidelines or rules. It's generally exploratory and not directive. With journaling, the writing doesn't call for a specific outcome or agenda.

In other words, it's writing for the sake of writing.

This process of unstructured free-writing tends to go against the grain of the traditional classroom. In most classrooms, teachers might assign a topic and offer an outline for the writing assignment. They might even show examples or models of acceptable finished products.

This type of assignment has its place and its benefits. However, if your goal as a teacher is to promote creativity and cultivate a love of writing in the target language of English, adding journaling as a daily practice can take your ESL students to a new level of skill and confidence.

Here are some of the main benefits of journal writing for students.

Benefits of ELL Journaling

There are a number of reasons why you might consider doing journalling with your students. Here are just a few of them.

1. Journaling can help reveal areas of vocabulary that are weak or missing in a student's mental database

When we write freely, the truth about our active vocabulary is revealed. Let me give you an example. I'm a language learner myself, and once when I was journaling in German about my day, I figured out that I was missing some basic vocabulary around my daily routine. There were expressions that I thought I knew but discovered I wasn't exactly sure of. Was "to brush my teeth" reflexive or not? How do I describe "running errands"? What is the word for "mother-in-law"?

These were missing links that I had no idea were missing! It can be humbling but extremely helpful to have these discovery moments. And, they are not prompted by a teacher at all. On the contrary, with journaling it becomes self-evident to the student that he or she needs to do further research on the necessary vocabulary to be clear or make her point effectively.

2. It makes the vocabulary personal, which increases retention

With developments in the science of language learning, and more specifically neuroscience, we now know that making learning personal and relevant to the learner is crucial for learning.

Professor Mary Ann Christison explains: "Second language classroom activities that are meaningful create an ideal learning opportunity for second language students to learn more information in a shorter time, with less effort."

With journaling, the language is made truly meaningful because the student immediately sees the relevance of a particular word in his or her own life. This activates the brain in a way that memorizing lists of words and definitions simply cannot.

3. Journaling brings multiple skills together

When journaling, students have an opportunity to incorporate everything that they have learned: grammar, vocabulary, and the ability to connect ideas. This engaging, language-producing activity lays the perfect groundwork for learning:

Educator and Neurologist Judy Willis expands on this in her article, The Brain-Based Benefits of Writing for Math and Science Learning:

"The practice of writing can enhance the brain's intake, processing, retaining, and retrieving of information. Through writing, students can increase their comfort with and success in understanding complex material, unfamiliar concepts, and subject-specific vocabulary."

Journaling is very much an active activity-and very different from receptive activities like copying lists and definitions of words or grammar formulas. The brain is at its best when it is creating and building connections.

ESOL Journaling Activities

Are you ready to give regular journaling with your ESL students and clients a try? Here are a few ideas you can implement:

1. Encourage your students to use their ESL journal like a diary. They may write down their routines and personal observations each day.

2. Students can use their journal as a way to record their goals (for language learning or for other areas of their life) and the specific actions they will use to achieve them.

3. Encourage true freewriting, in which students write about the first thoughts or ideas that come to their mind.

4. Have students recall an incident or situation that held significance for them.

5. Google "writing prompts" and choose three that you can share with your students. Always offer options if you are giving prompts. Once again, the writing must be personally relevant to the student for it to engage the key components of the learning brain.

Should Teachers Correct ELL Journals?

In order to make journaling a safe and brain-friendly activity that facilitates real learning, you as a teacher, will need to decide what level of correction you will provide, if any. You may choose to have students self-correct as a supplementary activity after the actual writing is complete. You may choose to correct the journal yourself, although this might raise the student's affective filter that Krashen and others have discussed for decades.

On the flip side, you can also leave the journaling an uncorrected work-an example of exactly where the student is skill-wise in one moment in time. In this way, these writings will build a body of work that will help the student see his or her progress form themselves.

One Final Suggestion for Journaling...

I suggest that your students use a journal that is aesthetically pleasing and inviting to them. This might seem trivial, but there is nothing that beats the feeling of acquiring a beautiful journal that is filled with blank pages that just calls to be written in. In the same way, writing in a favorite color that your students associate with positive feelings can also inspire them to write in its own subtle way.

The mind is a fascinating tool that is designed to make connections, and if seeing a beautiful journal and a favorite colored pen releases feel good hormones, then you and your students will be more apt to stick with this new habit.

Through journaling students can see their own strengths, weaknesses, and progress, and this information can help them to take ownership of the language learning process. And, when the student is truly in charge and intrinsically motivated, real leaps in language learning can happen.

ESL Journal Topics

Here are some ESL journal prompts that you might want to consider:

What is something you do well?

Name one thing you like, and one thing you don't like about yourself.

What is the worst thing parents can do to their children?

What's a normal day like for you?

Who are the people you spend the most time with?

What's something that makes you feel sad or worried?

What is something that makes you angry?

What's some great advice that you've gotten or given?

Talk about your favourite holiday.

What's a happy memory that you have from childhood?

What's the best way to pack for a trip?

What do you spend time doing when not at school?

What are some tips for learning English or another language?

How to Teach Writing to ESL Students

Need more ideas for teaching writing? Check out this short video:

What do you Think about ESL Journals?

Are you an English teacher who teaches writing? Do you get your students to do journaling? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think. We'd love to hear from you.

Also be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter. It'll help other busy English teachers, like yourself find this useful resource.

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Journaling for English Learners: The Why and How | ESL Activities

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I used to teach a lot of academic writing when I worked in the English department at a university in Busan, South Korea. Most of the writing textbooks, as well as curriculums focus on accuracy in writing and certainly not on things like English journaling.

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Colorin colorado website

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"The meaning of even a single word is rather more complex than one might imagine."

- Editors of the American Heritage Dictionary, 1980, p. viii

"Teacher, do we need our pencils today?" my Puerto Rican elementary students would urgently ask when I came to their classroom to escort them to my English as a Second Language classroom. I was a student teacher in a Massachusetts elementary school, and it took me awhile to figure out the correlation between the pencil and hallway behavior. If I replied, "Yes, you should bring a pencil," the walk to my classroom took 15 minutes and involved a lot of disruptions, student squabbles, drifting students and other various misbehaviors. As a student teacher, I was very focused on keeping order and creating a challenging learning environment. If I replied, "No, you don't need a pencil today," the walk to my classroom took about five minutes, even with a stop at the drinking fountain.

So, what was the correlation? Writing. The students knew that if they had to bring a pencil they would have to do writing in the class, and they dreaded it. If they didn't need a pencil, we would be working on projects or doing more verbal work, and they liked that. What they weren't expecting was that half-way through my student teaching, I bought 10 boxes of pencils and kept them in my classroom, so they never had to bring a pencil to class - I had plenty to go around. This improved the hallway behavior, but still left me with the question of how to improve ESL student writing when they were frustrated by the practice and went to great lengths to avoid it.

I have been teaching ESL for many years and there is no perfect solution to this problem; however, I do believe I have added quite a few writing activities to my bag of tricks and improved my ability to differentiate writing tasks based on student ability. As I improved my ability to ensure that each student would be successful in the writing activity, their confidence increased, and they were less likely to engage in disruptive behavior. You know what I'm talking about - the long, dramatic search for a pencilâ€¦ and then paperâ€¦ or the meandering walk about the room to get yesterday's writing draft, or the ever popular, "15 minute pencil sharpening" session. I hope some of the writing activities I share with you will help you to reduce anxiety in your ESL students and increase their language and writing skills.

There is a very important correlation between writing and language development. As students develop language skills, they often develop listening skills first (lots of input they can understand), then speaking (they begin to formulate their ideas in the second language), then reading (they can understand the sound/symbol correspondence of the new language and make sense of the words) and finally writing (they have enough language to express their own ideas in writing). This is not true for 100% of language learners, but it is true for the majority of them. Why is writing often the last skill to emerge? It almost seems that reading would be more difficult because the student needs to sound out words and understand the author's message. It would seem writing might be easier because students are sharing their own ideas already in their heads and simply putting them on paper. However, writing requires a lot more processing of language in order to produce a message.

First the student must have an idea, then think of the appropriate way to say it, then start to write it and spell it correctly, and then create another sentence to continue to communicate the idea. If we add the students' worry that they are making huge, embarrassing errors or that their ideas aren't very good in the first place, then we begin to understand the complexity involved in writing in a second language. In fact, the way we communicate, or the way students put their ideas on paper, is largely influenced by their culture. In some of my classes, my Asian students were very confused when I told them to revise their writing because this was a "first draft." In their experience they had always written an item once and submitted it as "the final," and then the teacher would correct it. The idea that they had to write it over again didn't make sense to them. Students from other cultures may have developed a storytelling style that involves laying out a lot of background information and detail and takes quite a while to get to the point. In most western writing, we expect a topic sentence or a lead paragraph that will tell us what the point is, and then everything written after that leads to a direct conclusion. Many of my students had great difficulty connecting their ideas this way.

With that said, teachers have a big task in improving ESL student writing skills, but the payoff for instructional dedication can be great. A researcher on adolescent literacy at the University of Minnesota, David O'Brien, did a study on improving the reading skills of adolescent students. All of the students were involved in a six week study and during that time they were responsible for creating brochures and other types of communication on computers. They had criteria to input a certain amount of text and graphics to create a final project. This required lots of thought and revisions to achieve the final result. At the end of the six weeks the students took a reading test and the majority of them had improved their reading skills significantly. This was a very interesting result, considering that the teachers had not focused on teaching reading skills. The conclusion was that students used meta-cognition to process language and work with it in a more meaningful way, so that consequently their reading skills improved even though they were mostly working on writing.

Additional positive academic results have been seen in the "90 90 90 Schools." These are schools that researchers have identified as 90% poverty, 90% students of color and 90% achieving standards. This is a most remarkable combination in the educational world. The researchers examined these schools and found one common denominator among them - they all focused on developing writing skills. Each school had an agreed upon writing curriculum and methodology that was used at all grade levels, and student writing was prominently displayed throughout the building and in classrooms. Students used writing in all content areas to demonstrate academic concepts learned. In the end, 90% of the students in these schools were able to pass state grade-level tests based on the academic standards.

Now that I have hopefully convinced you that all your hard work will pay off, I would like to introduce some effective writing activities. I would like to acknowledge that there are many types of effective writing instruction used in classrooms today, including process writing, graphic organizers as writing planning tools, vocabulary stretchers, etcâ€¦ and all of those are beneficial to ELL students. For the purpose of this article, I will focus on a few writing activities that I think are particularly useful when working with students with a wide-range of English language skills.

How to differentiate writing activities:

With some pre-planning, a teacher can create a writing assignment that will allow every student to be successful. For example, the teacher may give a writing assignment that has A, B and C levels (or they can be number or color-coded).

ELL students at Level A copy a sentence or short passage exactly as it is written. This helps beginning-level students who are not very familiar with the language, but may be able to interpret some of the information as they copy it.

Level B students receive a paragraph or two that has blank spaces in the text. The students write the word or phrase that completes the sentence. This allows the student to write an amount that is not overwhelming and helps them comprehend the information.

Level C students write on their own, but perhaps they receive paragraph prompts or are allowed to look in a book, but must put the idea in their own words. After some practice with this system and getting to know your students' English language skills, you will be able to create a system that works best for your class.

Language Experience Approach

The Language Experience Approach draws on instructional techniques used with younger children who have not yet developed literacy skills. In this approach, the teacher presents information to the students, or they have an "experience" of some sort - for example, a field trip, or acting out a scene in a book. Then the students tell the teacher what to write on the board to explain the experience. This may be useful as an activity for a volunteer or teacher's aide to use with a small group of ESL students during literacy time. Here are the steps.

1. Experience something - for example, the students have listened to the story, "The Little Red Hen" and then acted it out.

2. The teacher stands by the board or a large sheet of paper and says to the students, "Tell me the story of the Little Red Hen."

3. As each student tells a part of the story, the teacher writes it down on the board, just as it was stated. For example, a student might say, "The Little Red Hen work so hard and nobody want help her." This continues until each student has spoken or the story is finished.

4. Then the teacher tells the students, "Let's read the story together and listen to see if the story makes sense and if there is anything we want to change."

5. After reading the story, the teacher asks students if they want to change anything. For example, one student may raise her hand and say, "I think it should say, "worked" not "work." The teacher may ask other students if they agree or disagree.

6. If the suggested change is correct, the teacher offers praise and moves on to the next suggestion. If the suggested change is not correct, the teacher should help the student analyze the suggested change. For example, if the student says, "I think it should say, â€˜The Little Red Hen she worked so hardâ€¦." The teacher would ask if others agree and see if there is discussion, then the teacher could point out that the Little Red Hen is the pronoun or "name," so in English we don't need to put it in twice. We can say "She worked so hard." Or "The Little Red Hen worked so hard."

7. When students have analyzed and corrected the whole text, the teacher may either circle a few more spots where students missed corrections and they can be challenged to figure out what the change should be, or the students can be instructed to copy the text with the corrections included.

8. As a final activity, students are instructed to take the story home and read it to three people and bring it back with signatures.

After this activity, usually even beginning-level ELL students are able to read the story to others because it was their experience, it is in their own words, and they have worked with the text in a meaningful way.

Sentence Auction

This activity helps students analyze common writing errors through a personalized activity since they are trying to buy their own sentences. Once a week or once a month, a teacher can hold a "Sentence Auction." The teacher takes sentence examples from student writing - some of which have errors and some that don't, and writes them on a handout or overhead projector. The identity of the student who wrote each sentence is not revealed. To begin the sentence auction, each student is given an "account" of perhaps $300. The students are told to "bid" on the good sentences. The winner is the student with the highest number of "good" sentences.

1. The teacher takes on the persona of an "Auctioneer" and opens the bidding at $10.

2. The teacher reads out the sentence confidently exactly as it is written. "Him want to go to school very bad." Who will give me $10?"

3. The students take turns bidding until the teacher decides who has "won" the bid.

4. Some sentences will not sell because students will know they are "bad." Just leave those sentences and move to the next one.

5. After all the sentences have been sold, the teacher goes through the list and the students say whether the sentence was good or bad. If they agree that it was a bad sentence, then the teacher asks them to explain how they can make it a "good" sentence.

6. Finally the students can count how many "good" sentences they have (since they may have bought some bad ones) and a winner is declared.

7. The teacher may want to give a little prize or certificate to the student. In a variation of this activity students can work in pairs or groups to buy the sentences.

Error correction

I have never "corrected" my students' writing mistakes, at least not in the traditional way. I have always told my students, "If I correct your English, I improve my English; if you correct your English, you improve yours." I handled corrections in one of two ways: either I identified what errors I would be looking for in the writing submission or I told them I would only circle five errors in the whole paper. If I pre-set the errors I would look for, for example correct use of past tense, I would only correct past tense errors, even if I saw other glaring errors in the paper. Sometimes this was hard to do, but I wanted to maintain the students' focus on the writing improvement we were working on. If I set a number of errors I would circle, for example, five, then I carefully chose those five and ignored the rest. When I returned the papers, the students were responsible for correcting their own mistakes. If they weren't sure how to do it, they could check with a classmate, and if no one knew, then I would assist. Invariably the students would ask, "Are these the only errors in the paper?" and I would tell them no. They might be disappointed, but they came to understand the value of correcting their own errors when they submitted a piece of writing.

Quick Write

One of the challenges for ELL students when they approach writing is their anxiety about writing their ideas correctly and writing a lot of information in English. This may feel overwhelming when a student is assigned an essay. In order to get students comfortable with the idea of just putting ideas on paper and not worrying about mistakes, we do regular "quick writes." For "quick writes" I give the students a topic and then tell them to write as much as they can for five minutes. They need to keep their pencils on the paper and even if they can't think of anything to write or they are worried about how to spell things, they are supposed to keep writing. At the end of five minutes, the students count how many words they were able to write and they keep track in a log. The objective is that they will see progress in the amount of writing they are able to do in five minutes' time and hopefully apply this fluency to their essay writing.

Cinquain poems

Cinquain poems offer great flexibility in working with ELL students of a variety of language levels. The basic Cinquain formula is as follows, but teachers can modify it as needed according to the student language level.

One noun
Two adjectives
Three gerunds (words + ing)
A short sentence.
A one-word summary
An example of a Cinquain a student might write:
Home
Warm, happy
Loving, welcoming, helping
People you love.
Family

There really is no wrong way to do a Cinquain, students can put key vocabulary words together any way they like to create the message they desire. Teachers may want to use Cinquains to reinforce new content vocabulary and concepts as well.

With these writing activities to try in your classroom, the only thing left is to buy a few boxes of pencils, hand them out to your ELL students and help them discover the possibility of joy in writing. Teachers who use a variety of activities and strategies to help ELL students become comfortable with expressing their ideas in a new language and finding success with small writing tasks, will give their students' confidence for a lifetime of self-expression. I offer this Cinquain poem to sum it up.

Writing
Fun, creative
Thinking, sharing, revising
Lots of ideas.
Proud
The TESL Reading and Writing Forum
A forum to share teaching tips, handouts, syllabi, lesson plans and more!
Make Beliefs Comix
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LD OnLine: What is Dysgraphia?
This article from the National Center for Learning Disabilities, featured on LD OnLine, discusses dysgraphia and its warning signs, as well as strategies for addressing it for different age groups.
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Reading Rockets: Teaching Plot Structure with Picture Books
Use picture books to teach young writers how to organize plot logically. This article includes examples of basic plot structures, along with picture books that use those structures.
Reading Rockets: An Introduction to Letter Writing
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ESL Writing Wizard: Handwriting Practice
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ReadWriteThink: Comic Creator
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PIZZAZ: Cinquain poems
A poetry site designed to assist instruction of ESL students in poetry and other creative writing forms. The site has links and detailed information on poetry such as Cinquain, Diamante, Haiku and Limericks. It also has further information on other types of creative writing and tips for instruction.
TeacherVision: Language Arts Graphic Organizers
These graphic organizers can be used to prepare for a five-paragraph essay, organize sentences in a paragraph, map concepts and events, compare topics with a Venn Diagram, organize notes for a presentation, create a double-entry journal, and much more.

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Improving Writing Skills: ELLs and the Joy of Writing

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"The meaning of even a single word is rather more complex than one might imagine." - Editors of the American Heritage Dictionary, 1980, p. viii "Teacher, do we need our pencils today?" my Puerto Rican elementary students would urgently ask when I came to their classroom to escort them to my English as a Second Language classroom.

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20 Types of Journal entries for all levels of writing proficiencies.

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20 Types of Journal entries for all levels of writing proficiencies.

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20 Types Of Learning Journals That Help Students Think

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A learning journal is an ongoing collection of writing done for the purpose of learning rather than the purpose of demonstrating learning.

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20 Types Of Learning Journals That Help Students Think

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Best Practices for Lubbock ISD Educators for English Language Learners and students who struggle with academic vocabulary.

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V.I.P. (Very Important Points)

by Diana L. Grady | 18 Oct 2013

Content related reading material (adapt the text as necessary) Materials and Technology:
Self sticking notes
Pencil and paper

Objective(s):

The learner will read an assigned passage.

The learner will pick the most important part of that passage.

The learner will paraphrase that information orally to a partner.

The learner will paraphrase that information in writing, using two to three complete sentences.

Students are given a passage to read and 3 or 4 self sticking notes. Instruct students to cover their reading, beginning at the top of the page, with one hand (horizontally, thumb and palm down) and use one of the self sticking notes to show where their hand ends. Instruct students to read the part that was covered by their hand, and stop at the sticky note. This is usually about one paragraph. This limits the amount of reading they do prior to discussing the "very important points" of the passage. It is a good way to lower anxiety as they know they will only read as much as their hand will cover and then discuss it with a partner.

Students then read the passage, individually or with a partner, and mark two "very important points" (VIP) with their sticky notes. After reading and picking two important points, the class comes back together for a discussion. This is especially important the first time this is introduced. As they volunteer to share what they think are the most important points of the reading, be sure to repeat or rephrase their comments. Write their ideas on the board in full sentences. Repeat the above steps, until the entire article or textbook section is read and summarized on the board.

When students are ready to try this independently, they can work in small groups and go through the same process of reading, talking about the important points and then writing them as a group. To do this, students assemble into small groups and discuss where they placed their markers and why. I suggested they begin with "I picked this point because....."

Individual students then sit down and paraphrase what they have read in 1 - 3 written sentences. The sentences must be complete with punctuation and capitol letters in appropriate places.

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by Diana L. Grady | 18 Oct 2013 Content related reading material (adapt the text as necessary) Materials and Technology: Self sticking notes Pencil and paper Objective(s): The learner will read an assigned passage. The learner will pick the most important part of that passage. The learner will paraphrase that information orally to a partner.

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Talking through their math work helps students understand it better, and these strategies get those conversations started.

Michael Dwyer / Alamy Stock Photo

Math teachers often focus on having students complete problems in writing, rather than talking through their thought processes. However, if students are not talking and explaining in math class, they are not truly understanding. Luckily, there are some routines that can be implemented in math classrooms to increase student voice. The routines discussed here are drawn from Principles for the Design of Mathematics Curricula: Promoting Language and Content Development, published by Stanford University's Graduate School of Education.

We both work as instructional coaches. Prior to our work as full-time coaches, we were both classroom teachers. We have witnessed firsthand how the implementation of these routines can transform a classroom of disengaged students into engaged learners.

Routine 1: Stronger and Clearer Each Time

The purpose of Stronger and Clearer Each Time, according to Principles for the Design of Mathematics Curricula, is "to provide a structured and interactive opportunity for students to revise and refine both their ideas and their verbal and written output."

Strategy-Successive Pair Share: This strategy is used when you want students to revise their own work. Teachers provide an equation for students to solve independently. Then, with a partner, each student shares the steps they used to reach the solution. After hearing what worked for their classmate, each student has a chance to revise their own work based on what they heard. The process continues, and the students share the new version of the equation with a new partner, get feedback, and return to editing.

In a recent trip to a geometry class, students were tackling paragraph proofs to show triangle congruence. The teacher had students engage in Successive Pair Share in order to help their proofs become more precise. As I (Rachel) watched this activity, I saw students start with a vague and incomplete proof, and through ideas from their classmates, they solidified their own ideas, which resulted in a more complete proof. I also witnessed multiple emergent multilingual students gain a better understanding of how to use the mathematical vocabulary in their writing.

Routine 2: Critique, Correct, and Clarify

This routine is used when you want students to respond to each other's work, thoughts, and ideas.

Strategy-My Favorite No: The teacher chooses work from a student that has a commonly made error. The teacher then presents that work to the class. The first prompt from the teacher is "What is correct about this work?" The students confer in small groups to discuss places where the student's work is correct. The teacher then asks, "What could the student have done better?" The students return to their small groups to discuss aspects of the work that could be improved. The students then have time to correctly solve the problem individually.

I (Rachel) used exit tickets at the end of each class period that asked students to reflect on material we'd covered in class that day. I would then use My Favorite No at the start of every class period to review the exit ticket from the day before. By using My Favorite No, teachers are both celebrating the learning process and reinforcing the idea that mistakes are necessary. My Favorite No is typically done anonymously. However, if there is a strong classroom culture where mistakes are highly valued, then it can be done using a student's name.

Strategy-Always Sometimes Never: The teacher provides statements to the students, and the students decide if the statement is always, sometimes, or never true. For example:

Linear equations have slope (sometimes).

Linear equations have a y-intercept (sometimes) .

Linear equations have an x-intercept (sometimes) .

A point that satisfies the equation will also appear on the graph of the equation (always).

The graph of a linear equation will travel through all four quadrants (never).

Students work in pairs or teams to decide if the statements are always, sometimes, or never true. There are a few options for implementing this strategy. All groups can be given the same statements on paper or projected using a slide. Or, each table can get a different statement and then make a Flipgrid video with an example that defends their reasoning. I (Stephanie) often support the use of Flipgrid, a recording tool that promotes social learning, in math classes.

Routine 3: Discussion Supports

The Discussion Supports routine is used, as Principles for the Design of Mathematics Curricula notes, to increase student voice by supporting "rich and inclusive discussions about mathematical ideas, representations, contexts, and strategies."

Strategy-Revoicing: When I (Rachel) revoice during instruction, I start with the problem and review it. For the problem "Graph the line 3 x + 6 y = 12," my direct instruction begins like this: "There are multiple ways to graph this line. I'm going to start by converting it into slope-intercept form. Slope intercept form is y = mx + b, so I need to isolate the y term. To do this, I'm going to subtract 3 x from both sides of the equation." Table groups then explain the process I just reviewed to one another. At this point, I expect students to say something pretty similar to what I just said. If they can't explain it back, that is an indication that they need to ask a clarifying question of either their classmate or me.

These routines transform learning into an active process. If students are only watching their teacher do math, they are not able to explain what is happening because they are not the ones experiencing the math. When voice is increased in math, students not only become more engaged but also gain a deeper understanding of the content.

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3 Strategies to Get Students Talking in Math Classrooms

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Talking through their math work helps students understand it better, and these strategies get those conversations started. Michael Dwyer / Alamy Stock Photo Math teachers often focus on having students complete problems in writing, rather than talking through their thought processes. However, if students are not talking and explaining in math class, they are not truly understanding.

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In this episode, Chris Hagy joins me to explain a strategy and also to talk about how his district is supporting teachers to support their Multilingual Learners.

Christopher Hagy is the Assistant Director for Multilingual Learners in Charleston County School District in Charleston, South Carolina.

You can watch, listen or read about this content.

To listen, just go to your favorite podcast app or listen right here:

Listen to “BAP108 QSSSA Resources ft Chris Hagy” on Spreaker.

The show can be watched on YouTube or right here:

The links we mention are all below. I’m excited to share Christopher’s padlet which contains some of our favorite resources around the QSSSA strategy.  He offers the padlet for anyone who would like to use it or share it with their staff.  The padlet address is: padlet.com/christopher_hagy/qsssa

We begin the show by explaining the QSSSA strategy.  Chris’s educators in Charleston are being directed to this show and this padlet to learn more about the QSSSA technique that was first introduced to us by John Seidlitz and Bill Perryman in their 7 Steps to a Language-Rich, Interactive classroom. So here is an overview:

QSSSA

Question – Ask a question based on a key concept.

Signal – Offer a way for students to indicate readiness

Stem – Offer the sentence stem or sentence starter to answer the question.

Share – Turn and talk / Share with a partner.

Assess – Get a formative assessment by randomly calling on someone or having students write something.

The technique has been very popular for over a decade because educators recognize that it helps overcome some of the common challenges we face when trying to faciliate an effective “turn and talk.”

To make things as easy as possible for his teachers, Chris is offering them a padlet with several different resources to learn about this strategy. For example, we discuss some of the 2 to 4-minute videos that explain the technique and show teachers using it in class.

We also point out that you can copy a slide deck by Molly Lang that serves as a “starter-pack” for facilitating a conversation this way.

And we also describe a very effective script created by Michelle Gill from Abbotsford, Canada.

Another great resource we pointed out was created by Cherry-Ann Gildharry for her math teachers.  It has several stems that make sense for any content area.

Chris explains that all of these resources are in one place because he recognizes that educators are busy.  They may not have time to take 5 graduate classes to get an ESOL endorsement.  He explains that he is happy that teachers have that option and that Charleston County School District supports them to do that.  But he is also glad that they offer other options like book studies and 1-hour webinars.  This padlet that we are explaining today is just one of multiple entry points that Charleston County SD is offering to their teachers.

I applaud Chris for taking an innovative approach to professional learning.  He is offering CCSD teachers different options for how they can personalize their learning journey.

In fact, earlier this year Charleston Co SD and Berkely Co SD teamed up to bring me for a day of learning with all of their ESOL teachers.  I brought the DIYpd4MLs training to their teachers to help them see all that is available to take your professional learning to the next level.  Tan Huynh, Dr. Katie Toppel, and I wrote the DIYpd book so that educators of Multilingual Learners could see multiple entry points for their self-directed learning. And we offer a workshop to teachers see how easy it is to get bite-sized, powerful professional learning.  I am inspired that these two districts would empower their teachers with it.

Big thanks to Christopher Hagy for coming on the show and for all he is doing for the field.

We wrapped up the conversation by talking about the fact that language acquisition strategies are not ‘one more thing’ as some teachers may fear.  What we know is that many of the strategies that are necessary for multilingual learners to succeed are strategies that boost the learning of the entire class.  A strategy like structured conversations results in higher achievement for the average learner.  It is good, Tier One instruction.

That is it for this episode! Please reach out to let me know what you think of the show or if you have any suggestions.  Chris also offers this email address if you have questions for him: christopher_hagy@charleston.k12.sc.us.

Thank you for stopping by this blog!

Please take good care,

Carol

“Language acquisition strategies are not one more thing.  They are THE thing.”

PS:  I mentioned the TexTESOL conference and the TABE conference this fall.  As soon as I have links for these events I will post them here and also send them out to subscribers of this blog.

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BAP108 QSSSA Resources ft. Chris Hagy | Newcomers at Grade Level and Beyond

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In this episode, Chris Hagy joins me to explain a strategy and also to talk about how his district is supporting teachers to support their Multilingual Learners.

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Here's some great vocabulary instruction for reading new academic terms. Scroll to 7:50 to get to the lesson. 

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Here's some great vocabulary instruction for reading new academic terms. Scroll to 7:50 to get to the lesson. 

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What's my reason for writing? Different types of texts we can teach in our varied contents. 

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What's my reason for writing? Different types of texts we can teach in our varied contents. 

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A guide to understanding different types of writing and text types.

Reading and writing are very complex skill sets that make heavy demands on our students.

Beyond the challenges of grammar, punctuation, and spelling, students need to understand the conventions and structures of the many different text types or genres.

Each time we put pen to paper, we set off with the intention of completing a specific task. That is, we begin with a purpose we wish to accomplish with our writing.

There are lots of different reasons that can spur us to begin writing. For each of these reasons, there are general conventions or criteria that students must understand and incorporate into their work if they're to achieve their purpose effectively.

What are the main text types?

There are many different text types a person may encounter in the course of a single day. They might read a newspaper article in the morning, then write a letter (or email) to a friend, follow a recipe to make dinner, complete an application form, and pick up a leaflet before finally savouring a good novel at bedtime. While all of these forms of text have the written word in common, each has unique features and conventions.

There are many different ways to categorize the broad range of reading and writing materials we can encounter in a single day. But, generally speaking, it's helpful to think of them in terms of two overarching and broad categories: factual and literary.

Within each of these two broad categories are several sub-categories, which we will explore in the rest of this article. Take note, depending on the curriculum you are working with; text types may be referred to using slightly differing terms.

It's also worth noting that while the two general categories are a very useful way to think about the different text types, not all text types will sit exclusively in one camp or the other. For example, the increasingly common genre known as literary nonfiction, or creative nonfiction, has a foot in both camps.

That said, for the vast majority of text types that our students will look at, these categories are functional and practical.

Now, let's take a closer look at some of these text types. We'll start with the factual.

DAILY WRITING JOURNAL UNIT FOR ALL TEXT TYPES

Factual Text Types

Discussion Texts

Purpose: The purpose of a discussion text is to explore more than one point of view on a given subject in order to reach an informed opinion or to make a decision on an issue.

Structure: Generally speaking, discussion texts will begin by providing background information on the issue before introducing the central area or areas of contention. At this point, the text will then begin to explore the various arguments for and against with an examination of the supporting evidence. The conclusion will summarise both sides of the argument before giving a recommendation based on the writer's evaluation of those arguments.
Main Features:

The title is often in the form of a question

Written in the present tense

Generic statements are followed by specific examples

Arguments are sometimes supported by diagrams, illustrations etc

Suggested Activity: An effective way to lead to writing a discussion text is to hold a discussion or debate in the classroom on a contentious issue or a topic that piques the interest of your class. For example, Should video games be considered a sport? Or Due to technology, homeschooling should replace traditional schooling.

Explanatory Texts

Purpose: Explanatory texts move beyond providing straightforward descriptions to looking at things like causes and reasons. They move beyond retelling what happened, such as in a simple report, to address the why and how of what happened.

Structure: Explanatory texts usually open with a general statement that introduces the topic to be explored, for example, "During the winter, some birds migrate to warmer parts of the world." The various steps of the process are then explained in a logical order.
Main Features:

The title reveals what is being explained

It may contain diagrams, flowcharts, illustrations etc

Written in simple present tense

Time connectives are used such as first, after, then, next, finally etc.

Talks to the reader directly, e.g. "You'll be surprised to learn...."

Suggested Activity: Task students with going to the library and gathering a range of explanatory texts on various topics. In groups, students go through these texts analyzing the various features they have in common. From their findings, students draw up a detailed list of criteria they can use to write their own explanatory texts later on.

Instructional / Procedural Texts

Purpose: Instructions and procedural texts communicate rules or processes to follow. They are commonly found in games, household appliances, recipes, etc. While, in some ways, instructional/procedural texts are similar to explanatory texts, the main difference is that while instructional/procedural texts tell you what to do, explanatory texts describe something.

Structure: This type of text begins with a defined objective or goal, which will often form the title. Usually, a list of resources, equipment etc., will be included, followed by a step-by-step description of the process to achieve the desired outcome. Often, the written process will be supported by diagrams and/or illustrations. Occasionally, the diagrams or illustrations may replace the written text entirely.
Main Features:

The title indicates the process described, e.g. How to...

Includes resource/equipment list

The process is described step-by-step using bullet points, numbers etc

Time connectives are used to organize writing (first, next, then, finally etc.)

Imperatives used

Diagrams / Illustrations are used to support or replace text.

Suggested Activity: Partner students up for this writing task. Ask the students to think of something they know how to do well. It could be anything from how to tie shoelaces to how to perform a cartwheel. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as the student clearly understands how to do it. Students then write an explanatory text that explains how to do it. Partners swap their work with each other. They then try to perform the task exclusively following the explanation within the text. If they can't perform the task as it's meant to be done, then the writer needs to redraft their work until it can be done.

Persuasion Texts / OPINION WRITING

Purpose: The purpose of persuasive type texts is to convince the reader of the merits of adopting a particular viewpoint or taking a specific course of action.

Structure: Beginning with an opening statement or thesis statement, persuasive texts start by summing up the viewpoint to be presented. The body paragraphs then organize, present, and elaborate on this viewpoint. A closing statement then restates and reinforces the original thesis of the text.
Main Features:

Written in the simple present tense

Moves from a general point to specific points

Uses logical connectives (therefore, because of this, this proves that)

Employs rhetorical devices

Uses facts and evidence to support arguments

Addresses reader directly

Employs various methods of psychological persuasion

Suggested Activity: Distribute copies of a persuasive text to students in groups. For example, this could be in the form of an advertisement or newspaper editorial. Challenge students in their groups to identify various persuasive strategies employed within the text, whether in terms of structure, presentation, visuals, or language used. Students can compare and contrast their findings between groups.

InFORMATIONAL TEXTS

Purpose: The purpose of an informational text is to provide readers with information on a chosen topic by providing them with facts, most commonly in the form of an information report.

Structure: Informative Writing generally opens with a definition, classification or brief description of the subject before using the body of the text to explain facts about it. These facts are organised by logical subheadings and can be supported by pictures, maps or diagrams.
Main Features:

Written in the third person perspective, detached from emotive language.

Specialized vocabulary and language related to the subject are used.

Comparative language provides a context in areas such as size, speed and age.

Frequently, the passive voice is employed.

It may contain several subheadings.

Often include tables, maps, diagrams, or images.

Suggested Activity: Students will enjoy creating an information report about their favorite animal. Providing facts and information about aspects such as appearance, habitat, movement, food and life cycle. Images and Diagrams will significantly enhance the finished product.

Non-chronological reports

Purpose: The purpose of non-chronological reports is to give information and detail about something that happened, but without being tied to providing a linear account in terms of time.

Structure: Though non-chronological reports don't conform to the usual chronological structure of reports, there is generally an underlying logical structure at work, albeit not a temporal one. Information is often grouped by category, and the report tends to move from a general opening statement on the topic to detailed and specific information as the report progresses.
Main Features:

Often written in the present tense, third person

Sometimes written in the past tense, e.g. on a historical event

Frequently, the passive voice is employed

Usually focused on general subjects

It may contain several subheadings

Dispassionate in tone

May include tables, diagrams, or images

Suggested Activity: An informational leaflet is one form of a non-chronological report. Challenge students to produce an information leaflet on something they are familiar with, such as a local attraction or historical site. When students have completed their leaflets, please encourage them to review each other's work and offer feedback.

Recounts

Purpose: Recounts focus on retelling events and are generally intended to inform and/or entertain.

Structure: Recounts often open with a scene being set or other devices that establish context. They provide an account of the events that took place, usually in chronological order. At times, the chronological structure can be reordered by using techniques such as flashbacks, etc., but generally, this is the domain of fictional recounts.
Main Features:

Most often written in the past tense as text type relates events that already happened.

Time connectives are used extensively to organise chronology, e.g. first, then, next, after that, etc.

Details are used extensively to flesh out the bare bones of the events.

Suggested Activity: In the library, challenge students to gather together as many different types of recounts as they can find. In their groups, students look through the various recounts and compile a list of criteria for this text type. As a whole class, the groups share their results. Encourage students to pay particular attention to the range of topics that can be presented as recounts and how this can affect the language style. For example, a recount of a science experiment will use more technical and formal language than the informal and personal style that might be employed to recount a travel adventure.

BIOGRAPHIES

Purpose: A biography is an account of someone's life written by someone else. The purpose is to provide your audience with a factual recount of significant events and insight into what type of personality traits they may have had.
Structure: Biographies begin with a solid hook to draw the reader in and grab their attention. They are written in chronological order and generally cover most of your person's life up until that point, using connective language to link events. A Biography concludes with a statement about your subject's legacy and future direction depending on whether they are still alive or dead. Main Features:

Written in the past tense, depending upon the status of your person of interest.

Biographies provide facts about events, dates and times etc. (Timelines may be of use here.)

Biographies are written in the third person perspective.

Suggested Activity: Students should research and gather the key events of the person's life, covering each period of their life from when they were a baby, through childhood and adolescence, right up to adulthood and old age. They should then organize these onto a timeline. Students can include photographs with captions if they have them.

Literary Text Types

Poetry

Purpose: As with all literary genres of writing, poetry can be written to serve a wide variety of purposes. For example, poetry can be written to entertain, inform, amuse, share knowledge, pass on culture, advance culture, etc. Poetry comes in many forms, and sometimes these forms come with their own specific purposes. For example, limericks are crafted to amuse readers, while elegies are usually written to praise or mourn a person.

Structure: The different types of poetry make use of a variety of different structures. There are way too many to list here. That said, the structure of poetry usually revolves around the use of rhyme schemes, rhythmical patterns, grammatical patterns, and line and stanza length.
Main Features:

The musicality of language is utilised through the use of rhyme, rhythm, and various literary devices.

Language that appeals to the senses is used.

Imagery is used to paint pictures in the readers' minds.

The sounds and meanings of language are played with through the use of literary devices.

Suggested Activity: Find an anthology of poetry that groups poems together according to themes. Task your students to look at poems exploring a common theme. Have the students look at the features these poems have in common and the features that differ. Can the students identify the different types of poems?

Narrative

Purpose: The purpose of narrative texts is to tell a story. That said, there can be many reasons for storytelling in the first place; for example, myths can be told to explain natural phenomena, and legends can be used to pass on cultural beliefs. Storytelling is a means to entertain and inform readers and allows writers to express themselves creatively and imaginatively. There are many types of narrative text, including myths, fables, traditional tales, novels, short stories, etc., to name but a few.

Structure: There are many narrative text types, but broadly speaking, they all begin by establishing the setting and introducing characters. A problem or complication is then introduced, which serves as the driving force behind the ensuing events. After the rising action reaches a dramatic high point or climax, a resolution is achieved, and the story ends.
Main Features:

Most often written in the past or present tense

Most often, it uses the third or first-person perspective

Characters are often recognisably human in their motivations and actions

Language is used creatively to paint a picture in the reader's mind

Storytelling may be supplemented by the use of images

Suggested Activity: This task can be completed using novels, short stories, or even concerning movies the students are familiar with. On a piece of paper, have the students draw an x and a y-axis. Students label the x-axis time and the y-axis action. Students then plot and label the narrative's introduction, complication, rising action, climax, and resolution. The more intense the action at each point of the story, the higher on the y-axis the point will be plotted. The points are then joined with a line. This will give the students a sense of the 'shape' of the story. Internalizing an understanding of this general pattern of storytelling will help students immensely in their writing.

Drama

Purpose: As with narrative texts, the purpose of drama is primarily to entertain through storytelling. Drama can also be used to provide social commentary, communicate culture, amuse, and inform too. While there are similarities between narrative storytelling and dramatic storytelling, drama endeavors to tell a story through enacting it on the stage, usually requiring the use of dialogue as a primary means of moving the story on.

Structure: As drama is primarily concerned with storytelling, it often follows the same types of plot structures as other narrative forms, along with various conventions particular to this form itself. For example, where a novel might have chapters and parts, a drama has scenes and acts. Drama also has written conventions that distinguish it from prose forms of storytelling, such as its extensive use of dialogue and occasional stage directions.
Main Features:

Story related largely through the use of dialogue with the page showing the character's name and the words they speak.

Organisational information included, such as set descriptions and stage directions.

Story structures common in narrative texts are also used here

Suggested Activity: Students can explore the different conventions, similarities, and differences between prose and drama by taking a story written in a prose genre, such as a fable, short story, etc., and converting it into a script for a drama.
In Conclusion
Understanding the various aspects of the different writing genres will help students to navigate their way through writing that serves a broad range of purposes.

It will also help students with their own text compositions. Understanding the various underlying text structures will provide students with an effective means of organizing their work, helping to ensure their writing is fit for purpose.

Exposing your students to as many different genres as possible, and providing opportunities to explore how these text types operate, will go a long way to helping them develop into adaptive and organized readers and writers in the future.

A COMPLETE YEAR OF WRITING FOR STUDENTS - 1000+ PAGES

VIDEO TUTORIALS ON DIFFERENT TEXT TYPES

OTHER GREAT ARTICLES FROM LITERACYIDEAS.COM

The content for this page has been written by Shane Mac Donnchaidh. A former principal of an international school and English university lecturer with 15 years of teaching and administration experience. Shane's latest Book, The Complete Guide to Nonfiction Writing, can be found here. Editing and support for this article have been provided by the literacyideas team.

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Text Types and Different Styles of Writing: The Complete Guide

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Learn to write a variety of text types in the classroom. Different types of writing styles and genres for students and teachers. Resources for students and teachers.

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Working with trauma-affected students is a difficult balancing act.

We acknowledge the harmful impacts of the past, and hold out hope for a future of healing. We create a safe environment for students to share their lives, yet maintain professional boundaries. We provide our caring and our help to others, but have to pay attention to our own well-being, too. We work in our classrooms but depend on the support of our community.

These were the clear takeaways for teachers who participated in Edutopia's recent Twitter chat on the topic of trauma and social and emotional learning (SEL). Two parallel ideas emerged in the back and forth. First, as teachers we need to focus on the individual student and the strong, one-to-one relationships that support our trauma-affected kids. And second, creating these bonds requires a broader cultural adjustment and reprioritization, where the whole community works together to cultivate a space in which students, educators, and staff members thrive.

What about classrooms without a lot of trauma? It's risky to assume that our students haven't experienced trauma-according to a seminal study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood trauma is far more pervasive than previously believed and is often invisible. And chat participants asserted that trauma-informed and SEL practices benefit all children, building critical skills like self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and an openness to teamwork and cooperation. Adopt a "universal approach," suggested the nonprofit Zero to Three, and "assume all children are trauma-affected and need social and emotional learning instruction and support."

An emerging body of research backs that stance. A 2017 metastudy of over 97,000 K-12 students, for example, found that SEL practices boost academic success, decrease disruptive behavior, and reduce emotional distress in the long term.

So how do we balance the individual focus with a community commitment to trauma-informed SEL? Luckily, our Twitter chat participants had some great advice to share.

Know Your Students

To support students who have experienced trauma, start by flipping the traditional classroom paradigm: Relationships have to come before content, insisted dozens of educators.

It's a simple enough rule, but it runs against the grain and needs to be constantly reinforced: "If you're not addressing the trauma, and the students are distracted, checked out, and falling increasingly behind, even the best curriculum won't matter," explained Wendy Clark, reflecting on the order of events that drive real learning. If that point wasn't a settled matter by the end of the thread, Bill Waychunas cut straight to the heart of the issue by inverting the original proposition entirely: "Better question," he wrote, turning Edutopia's opening salvo around: "How do you teach academics WITHOUT having SEL embedded throughout your teaching and classroom?"

Excellent question. Wish we'd thought of it.

Still, if teachers agreed that one-to-one relationships were the critical building blocks of good SEL-and good trauma-informed practice-how can that effort be scaled to 20 or 30 unique students, each of whom experiences trauma differently? The good news is that it's not all on the individual teacher; system-wide supports are required to distribute the work and create a broader culture of belonging and mutual support (more on that below). Within that context, though, all educators need to row in the same direction: The trick, according to Mathew Portell, principal of the trauma-informed school Fall-Hamilton Elementary in Nashville, is to never lose sight of the individual student: "Trauma affects children in so many different ways. Some kids are reactive while others are reserved. It is key to know the students' stories in order to know how to support them."

With so much pain in the classroom, educators should be mindful that traumatic life experiences can sometimes emerge as behaviors that we might otherwise label as challenging. "Trauma can manifest in so many behaviors! Hypervigilance can masquerade as hyperactivity," offered Sarah MacLaughlin, recasting a child's nervous disposition as a possible response to a difficult home environment. "Fear can look like aggression: flight, freeze, or fight."

And it's not just very young children whose behavior may mask an underlying challenge. Math teacher Kareem Farah sees a connection between anger and trauma in his high school kids: "Students in poverty have been conditioned to suppress their pain. It often manifests as anger. It is critical to recognize that frustrated students are often those that have experienced the highest levels of trauma and need the most loving attention."

The Whole School Model

So relationship-building in the classroom is essential-the one-to-one with students is indispensable-but the impact of the work is amplified and reinforced only when it occurs within the broader contexts of the school and community.

Many teachers in the chat highlighted the need for a consistent, team-based approach. As Carmen Zeisler put it, "Being trauma-informed is not a checklist, but a mindset change. It is critical that everyone in the building is working towards being trauma-informed." Other educators agreed, adding that administration and school board support is needed to sustain these changes.

Teachers recommended ways to develop staff buy-in: Sarah Giddings shared that colleagues at her school meet in small groups to stay accountable to one another, and that extends to support staff like computer technicians. Lindsey Mattingly's school, Valor Collegiate in Nashville, engages all staff in restorative circles so teachers get firsthand experience of the social and emotional skills required of students in that model-with powerful results: "When teachers fully understand trauma and its manifestations, the mindset will shift from one more thing to do to THE thing we must do."

Understandably, there's bound to be pushback. Acknowledging that there is sometimes skepticism about broad, new programs is helpful-teachers and administrators won't all jump onboard enthusiastically. Several educators recommended connecting trauma-informed practices to the existing compassion and empathy among teachers: "You show them what they are already doing. Then they realize they are already partly there," says English teacher Alison Killy. And Joe LaCasse agreed that the foundations of trauma-informed practices were already embedded in many classrooms, and it was really a matter of emphasis: "Deep down, all teachers care about kids. So, this really gets at the core of being a teacher. It's not just something 'extra.'"

What About Me?

Well exactly. What about you?

The teaching profession is intellectually and emotionally challenging. Many educators in the chat recognized that the social and emotional work has to start with themselves. Educators who see the value of a practice in their own lives are more likely to be passionate advocates, and the learning ecosystem is only truly healthy when all members of the community are thriving. In other words, helping teachers feel emotionally grounded and supported is helping students, too. "Don't forget that teachers have SEL needs! Concentrate on teacher well-being and empower them to address their own needs," suggested the organization Move This World. In a school culture that focuses on wellness for all, teachers can practice and then model positive social and emotional skills for their students more authentically.

Social and emotional support for teachers also helps buffer the effects of secondary traumatic stress and vicarious trauma-when teachers experience symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder because of the stress of bearing witness to others' trauma. Supportive peer connections are an important part of that prevention: "Don't let teachers with struggling students feel alone," recommended Rosa Derricott. "It should be a school-wide approach where everyone's supporting each other."

In the end, of course, we can't rely on our schools alone to address systemic issues of poverty, violence, or drug addiction. The net of responsibility must be cast more widely. "A trauma-informed approach to social emotional learning requires partnership between counselors, teachers, parents, and other trusted adults to help guide students through short and long-term challenge," suggested the chat participant Mom of All Capes. Not to put too fine a point on it, but perhaps it was user Belinda Talonia who said it all most succinctly: "SEL belongs to all of us."

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The How and Why of Trauma-Informed Teaching

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In an extraordinary Twitter chat, educators discuss building trauma-informed social and emotional learning environments.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Latin & Greek morphemes (prefix, root, suffix) 

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Latin & Greek morphemes (prefix, root, suffix) 

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I found that our students would understand better.My thoughts on this, they will be better speakers.

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I found that our students would understand better.My thoughts on this, they will be better speakers.

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27 Formative Assessment Tools for Your Classroom

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In this post, you will find 27 Formative Assessment Tools for Your Classroom! Formative assessment is such an essential part of the learning process and student success, and many digital tools can help support this process.This list has a wide variety of features and options to help you solidify your formative assessment strategies! Many of the tools below are great for both formative and summative assessments.

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Speech to text for teacher to student and student to teacher, etc.

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Mote Chrome extension | Introduction and Overview

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Save your frequently recorded audio feedback notes. 

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Save your frequently recorded audio feedback notes. 

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Mote - THE voice note tool - using motebook to reuse voice feedback #moteminutes

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SPEAK your languages for FREE with the 1st AI-based language teacher 👩‍🎤

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GlotDojo a new chrome app for dual language closed captioning. 

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GlotDojo a new chrome app for dual language closed captioning. 

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Automatically switch to local language, bilingual subtitles, subtitle download, subtitle dubbing, custom subtitle style.

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

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

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SENDING PICTURES HOME - INCREASE UNDERSTANDING

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SENDING PICTURES HOME - INCREASE UNDERSTANDING

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by Valentina Gonzalez

The class is approaching a unit on life cycles. Ms. Prasad finds three images of living beings and their life cycles: a butterfly, a chicken, and a plant. She sends the three images home with each student for families to pick one and discuss. Families are asked to talk with their children about the image in the languages they are most comfortable with. They can share facts and vocabulary, and even make up stories about the picture.

When students come to class the following week, Ms. Prasad has all three pictures up on the screen, and students are asked to discuss them with their partners. They talk about the one their families picked and what they learned. Ms. Prasad walks around the room, listening and gathering information about students' prior knowledge before she begins the unit.

Pictures offer families an easy entry point into academic conversations and help lay the groundwork for the learning ahead. When families use primary languages to discuss the pictures, multilingual learners' second language acquisition is also supported. This culturally inclusive method of family engagement positions family members as experts and partners in learning. Family members are able to share what they can, and in the language they are most proficient in.

Here's what a typical plan might look like:

1. Begin by sharing with families how this home-school connection will work and what it looks like. Be clear about telling families what their role is and what the expectations are. Families should know they are encouraged to talk about the pictures in the language they are most comfortable and proficient in. Some might think they need to speak in English in order to help their child learn more English. Be explicit about sharing with families the value, importance, and role one's first language plays in second language acquisition.

2. Let students know the expectations too. Model what this type of engagement looks and sounds like. Many students are familiar with paper and pencil homework, but fewer are accustomed to assignments that ask for listening and speaking. It may be helpful to record a couple of video examples to share with students and families.

3. Before a new unit of study, select a few pictures and send them home for discussion. They can be shared in print, digitally, or both. Remind families and students about the assignment and the expectations. This article by Dr. Fleenor offers additional tips on selecting images and visuals.

4. When it's time to begin the unit, include the pictures in the introduction. The pictures can be used in a variety of ways:

Have students brainstorm what they know about the upcoming unit and what they want to know.

Label the pictures or one picture (PWIM).

Ask students to share with a partner about the picture they discussed at home.

5. Finally, as the unit is wrapping up, send the pictures home again and have students share all of their new learning with their family members (again, in the language they are most comfortable speaking).

What I've described above is a modified version of preview-view-review, a strategy for helping multilingual learners make cross-linguistic connections as they simultaneously learn new information and acquire a new language. This modification includes engaging family members and partnering with them for the sake of students and their success.

While Ms. Prasad's example was derived from a lesson that taught students facts (nonfiction), pictures of people or animals doing things can also be used to support fiction, literacy, story elements, and storytelling.

This technique is not limited to elementary schools or to multilingual learners. Middle and high school students can also engage in conversation with family members around images that tie to the curriculum and are relevant and compelling to their age group.

Teachers have been using visuals to help make content comprehensible for multilingual learners for decades. But when we ask students to engage with the visuals, we can take them to the next level.

Valentina Gonzalez is the co-author of Reading and Writing with English Learners.

Published

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Sending Pictures Home: Engaging Families, Building Language, & Helping MLs Learn Content

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by Valentina Gonzalez The class is approaching a unit on life cycles. Ms. Prasad finds three images of living beings and their life cycles: a butterfly, a chicken, and a plant. She sends the three images home with each student for families to pick one and discuss.

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Syntax can be better than other online translators

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Source text

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Drag and drop to translate Word (.docx) and PowerPoint (.pptx) files with our document translator.

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DeepL Translate: The world’s most accurate translator

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Translate texts & full document files instantly. Accurate translations for individuals and Teams. Millions translate with DeepL every day.

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Released STAAR Questions 2023!   Link for how to access is in the comments.

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Released STAAR Questions 2023!   Link for how to access is in the comments.

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Video about some of our kids who end up translating

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Video about some of our kids who end up translating

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Translators (full film) – This is their story.

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Great ideas for engagement. Brain breaks. 

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Great ideas for engagement. Brain breaks. 

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Any teacher who has taught for any amount of time will point to one key factor for teaching success.

Relationships.

Having solid relationships with your students will open doors. They'll cause your students to listen to you differently. They'll give you a level of influence that you wouldn't have otherwise.

And influence is what we're in this for, right? We got into teaching to make a difference!

Helping students build relationships with each other -- student to student relationships -- is crucial, too. That's at the heart of classroom community. It answers these questions: "What do we stand for? Who are we? What is this school, this classroom made of?"

So ... how do you build relationships? How do you develop classroom community?

Lots of teachers can give you their own answers to those questions.

But that doesn't mean those are the only answers! Seeing how others build classroom community and relationships can give us new tools, new keys to unlock the doors to student success.
Here are 20 ways to build classroom community and relationships!
Many of these were suggested by educators through EfficienTEACH, our FREE collaborative project to share research-based and best practice-based teaching ideas. The goal: help teachers teach better and save time for what matters most ... so they can get home quicker AND they'll want to stay in the teaching profession! Find all of our FREE resources at EfficienTEACH.com.
Note: Some links in this post are affiliate links. If you make a purchase with these links, I may, at no additional cost to you, earn a small commission.
1. Create a Google Forms database

A simple Google Form can do the trick. Just create a Google Form (or use this template) with a few simple fields:

A short answer field with the student's name (or a dropdown if you only have one class of students)

A dropdown field with student's class (if you have multiple classes in a day)

A paragraph text field with what you learned about the student

Bookmark that Google Form or put a quick shortcut on the home screen of your cell phone. When a student says something you want to remember, pull up that form and fill it out -- in less than 30 seconds probably.

Then, every once in a while, open up the responses to your form. It'll help you remember ...

students' favorite things so you can use them as examples in instruction

birthdays and important dates so you can celebrate or mention them

things you can look up so you can follow up with students on them later

It'll make you look like you have super-human memory! But really, you just have a good quick place to store things so you don't forget.

2. Try a 2 minute relationship builder
Strategy shared by Kristin Daley
Looking for a way to connect to a student that is particularly challenging? Try the 2x10 strategy. For ten consecutive days spend two minutes a day getting to know that student. Make sure your questions go beyond just "how are you today?" and really spend time making a connection.

3. Get to know even more students with the 2x4 calendar
Strategy shared by Trisha Seyfert
4. Start a dialogue journal
Strategy shared by Taylor Halliday
Dialogue journals aren't just for elementary students! Journaling is one of the best ways to get to know your students and provides a safe space for them to express themselves without speaking to the entire class. Want to learn more? Jennifer Gonzalez of Cult of Pedagogy talks about How Dialogue Journals Build Teacher-Student Relationships on her podcast and blog.

5. Make positive phone calls home
Shared by Nate Ridgway, author of Breaking the Blockbuster Model and co-author of Don't Ditch That Tech
6. Welcome students all year long

7. Celebrate students often

8. Create a Google Classroom banner quilt

Give each student a square blank Google Drawing and have them decorate it. Download each square and put them together to make a "quilt" or collage Google Classroom banner. Alternatively you can have each student add their name to a collaborative Google Drawing Classroom banner by making the file "anyone with link can edit" and asking students to add their name using word art. Don't forget to revisit this activity when any new students join your class.

9. Tell me something good!
From The Teacher Toolkit (www.theteachertoolkit.com)
In order to promote a positive, caring atmosphere in the classroom, devote a portion of class for " Tell me something good' from the teacher toolkit (You can even play this quick little clip from the classic Chaka Khan and Rufus song!) This exercise takes just a couple of minutes from a class period, but has long-lasting effects and sets an optimistic tone for working together. During this time, students can share any positive aspect of their life, from school, friends, or family. Taking time for the class to get to know each other promotes a positive environment, builds confidence, and creates a sense of community within the class.

10. Make time for Morning Meetings
Shared by Abbey Bobbett
Morning Meetings are a great way to get your day started! You can even have other "important" people on campus join your meetings (principal, custodian, admin assistant, etc.) once in awhile.

11. Break the ice!

12. Try a fun team building activity

13. Incorporate STEM Challenges into your weekly plans

14. Have students introduce one another
Shared by Jerry Meyer
Have students interview each other about themselves at the beginning of the year, then have them "present" or introduce each other to the class. Make sure that everyone knows you are taking good notes, but don't forget to refer to those notes often!

15. Create an appreciation board

Appreciation is powerful. The more you spread it around, the more confident everyone becomes -- and the more we realize the power in appreciation! An appreciation board provides a space for students to recognize each other. It can be a physical space, like a bulletin board or a spot to put up sticky notes. It can be a digital space, like the digital white board on your interactive display or a Jamboard file. Students can share specifics of why they appreciate someone else and include their name (or not). Then, decide what happens when a student recognizes another. Is it announced in front of class? Do you notify the appreciated student individually?

16. Use "peer praise" after projects and activities

Lots of teachers use peer feedback. It's an effective strategy to get students more feedback than they can just get from the teacher. Plus, the different perspective helps students understand content and feedback better if they're giving the feedback.

Peer praise uses the same concept -- students interacting with students. But the focus is positive. After looking over something a peer has created, the student leaves a single simple statement of praise for something good that peer did in their work. Some versions of this:

Trade papers with one classmate and leave one positive comment

Leave student work on desks and have students circulate, leaving three positive sticky notes on each other's work

Pass student work down a row or column of student desks, writing something nice in the margins

17. Institute a system of classroom voting
From Our Class, Our Voice by Gina Ruffcorn
In her fifth grade classroom, Gina Ruffcorn's students have a BIG say in how the class runs. One way Gina amplifies the voices of her students is through classroom voting. They vote on all sorts of "non-essential items," as she puts it. They decide what the classroom lighting will be for the day. They get to help pick the class read-aloud book. Why? It helps students realize their voice has power. They get practice choosing an option and standing behind it. In the free video below -- and in her book, Our Class, Our Voice -- Gina shares concrete tips and strategies to get started.

18. Build relationships with classroom surveys
From Our Class, Our Voice by Gina Ruffcorn
How do we know what our students think and feel if we never ask them? When we know what students want in a classroom, they can be more productive learners. Plus, they get a say in creating the classroom community that they envision. When they realize their voice has the power to do that, they realize it can do even more. Fifth grade teacher Gina Ruffcorn, author of the book Our Class, Our Voice, uses three types of classroom surveys to empower her students. In the free video below -- and in her book, Our Class, Our Voice -- she shares those three types of classroom surveys and how to use them.

19. Instill responsibility with classroom jobs
From Our Class, Our Voice by Gina Ruffcorn
There's only one of you, the teacher. But there are dozens of them! How can we keep up? By delegating responsibility to the students! In her fifth grade class, Gina Ruffcorn -- author of the book Our Class, Our Voice -- creates classroom jobs. Then the students choose weekly which jobs they'll assume. It gives Gina more time to do what she, the teacher, can only do. But it also helps the students feel a new value and purpose in the classroom. In the free video below -- and in her book, Our Class, Our Voice -- Gina shares a list of 20 different classroom jobs that will instill responsibility in your students -- and also lighten your teacher load so you can do what matters most.

20. High Five or Handshake?
Shared by Gabriele Hughes and Trisha Seyfert
Greet your students at the door and let them choose the greeting. Make it even more personalized by creating your own class handshake. Have your students come up with a handshake together and use it to greet one another.

You can also give out High Fives all day long. Research shows the the power of a high five goes a long way! Check out The High Five Habit by Mel Robbins.

Are you looking for quality, meaningful professional learning that both equips and inspires teachers?

Matt provides in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops and breakout sessions that equip, inspire and encourage teachers to create change in their classrooms. Teachers leave with loads of resources. They participate. They laugh. They see tech use and teaching in a new light. Click the link below to contact us and learn how you can bring Matt to your school or district!

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20 ways to build classroom community and relationships

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Any teacher who has taught for any amount of time will point to one key factor for teaching success.Relationships.Having solid relationships with your

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DIFFIT - Make a reading activity fit for all levels and some languages for side by side. Pick your topic. Free for teachers. 

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DIFFIT - Make a reading activity fit for all levels and some languages for side by side. Pick your topic. Free for teachers. 

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Many articles for educators, teens, and kids regarding health. 

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Many articles for educators, teens, and kids regarding health. 

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Nemours KidsHealth - the Web's most visited site about children's health

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KidsHealth is the #1 most-trusted source for physician-reviewed information and advice on children's health and parenting issues. For parents, kids, teens, and educators, in English and in Spanish.

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An awesome bilingual Ed Puzzle on how to use a bilingual dictionary with Youtube.

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Edpuzzle video lesson. Make any video your lesson. Take a video and crop it, add your voice or embed questions at any point.

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Great advanced game for prefixes, suffixes and roots, etc. 

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Great advanced game for prefixes, suffixes and roots, etc. 

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"In the padlet, under reading, I found the 7 Steps to a language rich environment. My thoughts on it are that I already incorporate many of these strategies. However, there are some such as the addition of writing that I could add to our daily routine. i want a language rich learning environment.

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"In the padlet, under speaking, I found Target Talk. My thoughts on it are it is a great way to continue using new vocabulary. I like that it normalizes the use of academic language. I can see how writing in journals while discussing can be a life long positive study habit.

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"In the padlet, under writing, I found 7 Things to do Now for our ELL writers. My thoughts on it are it is interesting to see the connection between talking and writing. I also am reminding to model writing consistently and often.

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"In the padlet #29. Talk-Read-Talk-Write: Creating a Language-Rich Classroom, under speaking, I found that students go through a silent period. I also understand that as a pre-k teacher, it is important to respect their language and not force them to speak until they are ready to talk.  My thoughts in speaking is that I see this is true about the 4 year old students. I have noticed that the first 3 to 4 months of school, they are learning to grasp thinking and are trying to learn the process of what to say and how to say it. It is most important to give them time to reflect on their thinking before they speak. I find myself repeating what they say, to offer them an understanding of what they are saying and sometimes rephrase the words to give the correct language and to increase communication skills. I agree, with this article, my 4 year old students use single words and phrases of vocabulary words they feel confident using because they are still learning, developing language, and comfortable in using words they hear. As the students learn to speak, they memorize words and phrases they hear overtime. The vital thing about speaking is to model intonation and correct pronunciation when the student is sharing by rephrasing the words and respecting "share talk, talk write and talk read.” This process helps the student understand that spoken words can be written on paper, and are read orally.”

Georgia Martinez

Pre-K

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This article from Edutopia has great activities, I will continue reading to learn more. I will incorporate the secret word game to encourage my students to play and to increase their language.

Georgia Marintez

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"In the padlet in the colorin colorado website, the article about scaffolding, under writing, I found that the Language Experience Approach is often incorporated for the young English learners. My thoughts about shared writing is that students are more ready to share talk, write talk and read talk because they connect their learning experiences about what they see in a field trip.  They have many opportunities to learn language when they see, learn, and hear our community speakers share things with them. They share information with the teacher in sharing writing because they have a vivid picture and live experience about what they have seen. They also connect learning to the reading context they have learned about in reading and role model through acting out a scene about their favorite story. The teacher guides writing and will ask the students to make changes to edit their writing ."

Georgia Martinez

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In Writing, it is important to demonstrate an understanding to the English learners about what is spoken can also be written as they make learning connections to add vocabulary in their daily communication and journal writing.”

Georgia Martinez

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In the padlet, under writing, I found 7 Things We Can Do Right Now for our ELL writers. My thoughts on it are its something that every teacher could incorporate. It was a good reminder to include students in every anchor chart that is created.

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In the Padlet under speaking, I found the instructional strategy playlist really helpful. I added some new strategies to my toolkit that will support not just ESL students, but all of my students in interacting and communicating in different ways.

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I use sentence stems, quick writes, interactive word walls, and modeled writing with my students. These strategies help set them up for success while reminding me that every child learns differently. Sentence frames, in particular, really support my ELL students in confidently participating in class.

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In the padlet, under writing, I found 7 Things We Can Do Right Now. My thoughts on it are this that would really be beneficial. I loved the part about sentence stems and how beginning ELs are very different from advanced, so using sentence stems can really help build that proficiency. -Sierra Myers

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The LeadForward strategy gives students valuable chances to interact in fun and creative ways. It encourages teamwork, creating an active learning environment where students can share their ideas openly. The strategy’s interactive features make learning enjoyable, which helps students build communication skills and work well in groups. Overall, LeadForward improves education and prepares students for real-world situations.