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https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-the-six-most-effective-instructional-strategies-for-ells-according-to-teachers/2021/06

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

There are many more to come!

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

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

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

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

Now, to responses from today's guests:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Six Most Effective Instructional Strategies for ELLs-According to Teachers (Opinion)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teachers share their "go-to" strategies for teaching English-language learners, including sentence starters and Total Physical Response.

# data[].attributes.body
English-language learners is the use of sentence frames for

writing and speaking, the productive skills, accompanied

with a word bank, word phrases, and/or pictures

Using sentence frames helps students get more familiar with how sentence are set up so that they can add on to what is said.  It gives them help starting their own story.

Using sentence frames will allow ELL’s to be able to add words so that they can have stories making sense.  this will help them get more comfortable with words and how they are organized in sentences.

I will use sentence frames in my classroom when we are writing each day.

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-the-six-most-effective-instructional-strategies-for-ells-according-to-teachers/2021/06

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

There are many more to come!

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

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

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

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

Now, to responses from today's guests:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teachers share their "go-to" strategies for teaching English-language learners, including sentence starters and Total Physical Response.

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https://pce.sandiego.edu/11-essential-strategies-for-teaching-english-language-learners-for-any-teacher/

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University of San Diego - Professional & Continuing Education

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Imagine trying to learn a classroom lesson when you don't understand the language in which it is being presented. Teaching English language learners requires specialized strategies; and at the most basic level, one of those strategies is to "put yourself in their shoes."

More than 5 million children in U.S. schools are classified as English language learners (ELLs), according to the Department of Education. These students face the dual challenge of learning the material while also learning the language, as their teachers face the added challenge of using the right educational strategies to help them succeed.

Some of the most effective English language learner strategies start with common sense and respect for cultural differences. Simply getting to know the students is considered to be an essential part of the process.

For educators who teach English language learners, developing a deeper understanding of their unique needs and the best practices for teaching them has many benefits. These include:

Better and easier lesson planning

Improved ability to monitor student goals and achievements

The satisfaction of making a difference in the lives of young people learning to communicate in what can be a pretty confusing language

Here, we will review a range of time-tested English language teaching strategies that benefit students and educators alike.

How Can ELL Strategies Help Me as an Educator?

In addition to achieving better learning outcomes for students, embracing best practices and strategies for working with English language learners offers some fundamental, organizational benefits for educators as well.

For example, when you have a well-thought-out plan for engaging and teaching your ELLs, you are able to more effectively manage your lesson planning and monitor the progress of your students. You will also waste less time on strategies that don't work for your students.

Ultimately, an organized and focused approach to teaching non-native speakers is also the most effective way to create a solid foundation for them to become autonomous learners in English.

What About Using 'Scaffolding' for English Language Learners?

Scaffolding can mean a number of things when it comes to language development. First, it can refer to allowing students to continue limited use of their first language while learning English. Though the point is to train students to become independently proficient readers, writers and speakers of English, allowing native speech can help students figure things out, rather than go silent if they don't understand or know an answer.

According to CollaborativeClassroom.org, "A scaffold is a temporary framework that is put up for support and access to meaning and is taken away when the student feels success and masters tasks, concepts, and, in this case, language acquisition."

The use of sentence frames - partial sentences that include blank spaces where students fill in missing words or information - is another example of scaffolding-type techniques that can help students learn language. In a broader context, scaffolding refers to giving students the support, context and tools they need to learn new materials, ideas or skills.

11 Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners
1. Cultivate relationships
This one is a "no-brainer" no matter what language you speak. As a teacher, getting to know each student helps you understand who they are, where they come from and, perhaps, gain some insight into what teaching and learning styles are most effective for them.

For the students, knowing that your teacher cares enough to make the effort to get to know you as a person can have a motivating effect. It contributes to an atmosphere in which each student feels known and appreciated, and is therefore more likely to fully open themselves to the learning process rather than succumb to feelings of reticence or shyness that can often accompany a lack of language skills.
2. Be culturally aware
Since many English language learners come from outside the U.S., part of creating the ideal learning atmosphere may include cultivating an appreciation of diversity. Developing an awareness of each student's background, religious and cultural practices may also provide insights that affect how you interact with a particular student (for example, if they come from a cultural tradition where eye contact with adults is viewed as disrespectful).

At a very basic level, engaging in discussions about the different cultural backgrounds of students helps everyone get to know each other and reinforces the idea that different cultures include many similarities and differences - an important concept when some students are in the process of acquiring a new culture and language. Some educational advocates also suggest home visits as an effective "extracurricular" way for educators to invest in building rapport.
3. Teach language skills across all curriculum topics
In many cases, your English language learners may also be receiving specific English as a Second Language instruction from an ESL specialist. However, it is helpful for teachers of all curriculum topics in mainstream classrooms to understand and embrace the role of language teacher as well.
4. Speak slowly and be patient
You have a lot of material to cover, but there is no need to rush. In fact, teachers of ELLs are encouraged to consciously slow things down. This can mean:

Speaking in a slower, measured cadence

Being a bit more aware of your enunciation

Allowing extra time (an additional 3 to 5+ seconds) for students to respond

The extra seconds give all students a little extra time to think and formulate a response. "Researchers have found that typically most teachers give 1 to 2 seconds between asking a question and expecting a student response," Larry Ferlazzo, a teacher, education blogger and co-author of "The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide," told Edutopia. "The same researchers have shown that if you wait 3 to 5 seconds, the quality of responses is astronomically greater."
5. Prioritize "productive language"
Speaking and writing are sometimes characterized as "productive language" because they both literally require students to "produce" language output, in contrast with reading and listening, which are described as "receptive" skills.

Teachers who are not language specialists may not be aware that English language learners are likely to develop those receptive skills first. It is important to emphasize the fact that evidence that students are reading, listening or understanding does not necessarily equate to progress in expressing themselves through fluency in speaking or writing.
6. Use a variety of methods to engage learning
The idea here is to provide students with multiple options for taking in information, processing and making sense of ideas, and sharing what they are learning. This is often referred to as "differentiated instruction" - an educational practice that involves recognizing that "students each have their own unique gifts and challenges; interests, aptitudes and learning styles" and tailoring instruction to meet students' individual needs.

According to Edutopia, "All kids learn better when they engage with material in multiple ways: Lessons that involve writing, speaking, drawing and listening, for example, give students four opportunities to deepen their understanding of the work. For ELLs, those additional engagements also provide a little breathing room so they can work through the language barrier."
7. Utilize visual aids
The strategy of using visual aids also connects to the idea of differentiated instruction, which is considered central to teaching English language learners. In this case, it is understood that some students are "visual learners" whose ability to digest and process new concepts and material is enhanced by the use of pictures, diagrams, charts and other visual tools.

The belief is that combining "nonlinguistic representation" along with the linguistic component of each lesson benefits all students and not just English language learners - the operative strategy here is to "show" as well as "tell." In addition to pictures, diagrams, etc., teachers are encouraged to write everything on the board so students can see as well as hear the information.
8. Coordinate with the ESL teacher
Since ELLs are often receiving specific English as a Second Language instruction from an ESL specialist, it can be very helpful to check in with their ESL instructors. Doing so can help the educators involved develop a fuller understanding of how regular classroom work can support ESL instruction, and vice versa.

Such discussions can yield insights into individual students and their learning styles or challenges; they can also be helpful for sharing information about curriculum topics, potentially providing ESL teachers with ideas for highly relevant vocabulary words that can reinforce academic lessons.
9. Pre-teach new vocabulary words
When you have a challenging reading assignment coming up, some experts encourage you to preview or "pre-teach" new vocabulary words that may be unfamiliar to ELLs, or even to give them a copy of the article or link to the material ahead of time.
10. Build in some group work
Instructor-led, whole-class activities may make up most of your class period but it can also be very helpful to build in time for group work as well. This is because it affords additional opportunities for ELLs to practice their language skills with peers in a less formal, lower-risk setting.
11. Respect moments of silence
Many new language learners tend to be a little reticent and quiet, opting for silence over speaking up and saying something "wrong" in a language that is still unfamiliar. Therefore, teachers are encouraged to be mindful of this and not be too aggressive in forcing students to open up at the outset. Ongoing support and patience is preferable to pressure, since such initial silence is considered to be a normal stage in learning a second language.

Academic Support for Teaching English Language Learners

Teachers whose work involves supporting the language development of non-native speakers also have the opportunity to take courses that are focused on skills, techniques and best practices for teaching English language learners.

For example, the University of San Diego offers an online course titled "Teaching Strategies for ELLs" that is ideal for K-12 teachers. Participants earn 2 graduate-level extension credit units while focusing on:

Ways to integrate language acquisition and academic content learning

Assessment approaches that measure student achievement within a linguistically diverse classroom

Research-based strategies for differentiating instruction to promote student learning

To learn more about the curriculum, expected learner outcomes and cost, contact us today or review the "Teaching Strategies for ELLs" course page.

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University of San Diego - Professional & Continuing Education

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11 Essential Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners [For Any Teacher] - University of San Diego - Professional & Continuing Education

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11 Essential Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners [For Any Teacher]. Advance your career with professional and continuing education from the University of San Diego.

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One of the most important things a teacher can do is learn all there is to know about their students.  finding out likes and dislikes and building a relation of trust is going to be helpful in teaching them.

This is benefical to the students because they feel comfortable and safe in the classroom where a teacher is fully supportive and appreciative for each person.  having a safe place will get rid of the shyness and help the students open up and be more willing to participate.

I will use this strategy in my classroom so that I will get to know each student and be able to follow thier success as they grow.

https://pce.sandiego.edu/11-essential-strategies-for-teaching-english-language-learners-for-any-teacher/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
University of San Diego - Professional & Continuing Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Imagine trying to learn a classroom lesson when you don't understand the language in which it is being presented. Teaching English language learners requires specialized strategies; and at the most basic level, one of those strategies is to "put yourself in their shoes."

More than 5 million children in U.S. schools are classified as English language learners (ELLs), according to the Department of Education. These students face the dual challenge of learning the material while also learning the language, as their teachers face the added challenge of using the right educational strategies to help them succeed.

Some of the most effective English language learner strategies start with common sense and respect for cultural differences. Simply getting to know the students is considered to be an essential part of the process.

For educators who teach English language learners, developing a deeper understanding of their unique needs and the best practices for teaching them has many benefits. These include:

Better and easier lesson planning

Improved ability to monitor student goals and achievements

The satisfaction of making a difference in the lives of young people learning to communicate in what can be a pretty confusing language

Here, we will review a range of time-tested English language teaching strategies that benefit students and educators alike.

How Can ELL Strategies Help Me as an Educator?

In addition to achieving better learning outcomes for students, embracing best practices and strategies for working with English language learners offers some fundamental, organizational benefits for educators as well.

For example, when you have a well-thought-out plan for engaging and teaching your ELLs, you are able to more effectively manage your lesson planning and monitor the progress of your students. You will also waste less time on strategies that don't work for your students.

Ultimately, an organized and focused approach to teaching non-native speakers is also the most effective way to create a solid foundation for them to become autonomous learners in English.

What About Using 'Scaffolding' for English Language Learners?

Scaffolding can mean a number of things when it comes to language development. First, it can refer to allowing students to continue limited use of their first language while learning English. Though the point is to train students to become independently proficient readers, writers and speakers of English, allowing native speech can help students figure things out, rather than go silent if they don't understand or know an answer.

According to CollaborativeClassroom.org, "A scaffold is a temporary framework that is put up for support and access to meaning and is taken away when the student feels success and masters tasks, concepts, and, in this case, language acquisition."

The use of sentence frames - partial sentences that include blank spaces where students fill in missing words or information - is another example of scaffolding-type techniques that can help students learn language. In a broader context, scaffolding refers to giving students the support, context and tools they need to learn new materials, ideas or skills.

11 Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners
1. Cultivate relationships
This one is a "no-brainer" no matter what language you speak. As a teacher, getting to know each student helps you understand who they are, where they come from and, perhaps, gain some insight into what teaching and learning styles are most effective for them.

For the students, knowing that your teacher cares enough to make the effort to get to know you as a person can have a motivating effect. It contributes to an atmosphere in which each student feels known and appreciated, and is therefore more likely to fully open themselves to the learning process rather than succumb to feelings of reticence or shyness that can often accompany a lack of language skills.
2. Be culturally aware
Since many English language learners come from outside the U.S., part of creating the ideal learning atmosphere may include cultivating an appreciation of diversity. Developing an awareness of each student's background, religious and cultural practices may also provide insights that affect how you interact with a particular student (for example, if they come from a cultural tradition where eye contact with adults is viewed as disrespectful).

At a very basic level, engaging in discussions about the different cultural backgrounds of students helps everyone get to know each other and reinforces the idea that different cultures include many similarities and differences - an important concept when some students are in the process of acquiring a new culture and language. Some educational advocates also suggest home visits as an effective "extracurricular" way for educators to invest in building rapport.
3. Teach language skills across all curriculum topics
In many cases, your English language learners may also be receiving specific English as a Second Language instruction from an ESL specialist. However, it is helpful for teachers of all curriculum topics in mainstream classrooms to understand and embrace the role of language teacher as well.
4. Speak slowly and be patient
You have a lot of material to cover, but there is no need to rush. In fact, teachers of ELLs are encouraged to consciously slow things down. This can mean:

Speaking in a slower, measured cadence

Being a bit more aware of your enunciation

Allowing extra time (an additional 3 to 5+ seconds) for students to respond

The extra seconds give all students a little extra time to think and formulate a response. "Researchers have found that typically most teachers give 1 to 2 seconds between asking a question and expecting a student response," Larry Ferlazzo, a teacher, education blogger and co-author of "The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide," told Edutopia. "The same researchers have shown that if you wait 3 to 5 seconds, the quality of responses is astronomically greater."
5. Prioritize "productive language"
Speaking and writing are sometimes characterized as "productive language" because they both literally require students to "produce" language output, in contrast with reading and listening, which are described as "receptive" skills.

Teachers who are not language specialists may not be aware that English language learners are likely to develop those receptive skills first. It is important to emphasize the fact that evidence that students are reading, listening or understanding does not necessarily equate to progress in expressing themselves through fluency in speaking or writing.
6. Use a variety of methods to engage learning
The idea here is to provide students with multiple options for taking in information, processing and making sense of ideas, and sharing what they are learning. This is often referred to as "differentiated instruction" - an educational practice that involves recognizing that "students each have their own unique gifts and challenges; interests, aptitudes and learning styles" and tailoring instruction to meet students' individual needs.

According to Edutopia, "All kids learn better when they engage with material in multiple ways: Lessons that involve writing, speaking, drawing and listening, for example, give students four opportunities to deepen their understanding of the work. For ELLs, those additional engagements also provide a little breathing room so they can work through the language barrier."
7. Utilize visual aids
The strategy of using visual aids also connects to the idea of differentiated instruction, which is considered central to teaching English language learners. In this case, it is understood that some students are "visual learners" whose ability to digest and process new concepts and material is enhanced by the use of pictures, diagrams, charts and other visual tools.

The belief is that combining "nonlinguistic representation" along with the linguistic component of each lesson benefits all students and not just English language learners - the operative strategy here is to "show" as well as "tell." In addition to pictures, diagrams, etc., teachers are encouraged to write everything on the board so students can see as well as hear the information.
8. Coordinate with the ESL teacher
Since ELLs are often receiving specific English as a Second Language instruction from an ESL specialist, it can be very helpful to check in with their ESL instructors. Doing so can help the educators involved develop a fuller understanding of how regular classroom work can support ESL instruction, and vice versa.

Such discussions can yield insights into individual students and their learning styles or challenges; they can also be helpful for sharing information about curriculum topics, potentially providing ESL teachers with ideas for highly relevant vocabulary words that can reinforce academic lessons.
9. Pre-teach new vocabulary words
When you have a challenging reading assignment coming up, some experts encourage you to preview or "pre-teach" new vocabulary words that may be unfamiliar to ELLs, or even to give them a copy of the article or link to the material ahead of time.
10. Build in some group work
Instructor-led, whole-class activities may make up most of your class period but it can also be very helpful to build in time for group work as well. This is because it affords additional opportunities for ELLs to practice their language skills with peers in a less formal, lower-risk setting.
11. Respect moments of silence
Many new language learners tend to be a little reticent and quiet, opting for silence over speaking up and saying something "wrong" in a language that is still unfamiliar. Therefore, teachers are encouraged to be mindful of this and not be too aggressive in forcing students to open up at the outset. Ongoing support and patience is preferable to pressure, since such initial silence is considered to be a normal stage in learning a second language.

Academic Support for Teaching English Language Learners

Teachers whose work involves supporting the language development of non-native speakers also have the opportunity to take courses that are focused on skills, techniques and best practices for teaching English language learners.

For example, the University of San Diego offers an online course titled "Teaching Strategies for ELLs" that is ideal for K-12 teachers. Participants earn 2 graduate-level extension credit units while focusing on:

Ways to integrate language acquisition and academic content learning

Assessment approaches that measure student achievement within a linguistically diverse classroom

Research-based strategies for differentiating instruction to promote student learning

To learn more about the curriculum, expected learner outcomes and cost, contact us today or review the "Teaching Strategies for ELLs" course page.

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University of San Diego - Professional & Continuing Education

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11 Essential Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners [For Any Teacher] - University of San Diego - Professional & Continuing Education

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11 Essential Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners [For Any Teacher]. Advance your career with professional and continuing education from the University of San Diego.

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Sharing Circle

A sharing circle is a fun way to introduce ourselves, The teacher and the students sit on the floor in a circle. The teacher has a ball and rolls it to the student who is ready to share 3 facts about themselves. First, they will share their name. Secondly, they can add their age or favorite color and third, they can share whatever they would like to share. Some students may feel intimidated or too shy to say anything. This is why I said the teacher will roll the ball to who ever is ready to share.

This activity will help the students learn different things about thier classmates.  Being able to understand where each person is coming from will create bonds between everyone.

This would be beneficial to the students because they  will build bonds with their classmates while learning more about them.

I use this activity alot because the students really enjoy it.

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https://www.oxfordseminars.com/blog/5-activities-for-your-first-day-of-class/?gclid=CjwKCAjwov6hBhBsEiwAvrvN6BKF7y9aPJJYHBELhsqtjbTeSMYbpBcprtfCxb6RaCbtL3TOzH6hlxoC8D0QAvD_BwE

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5 ESL Activities for Your First Day of Class - Teaching English Abroad Blog

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Your first class is likely to be one of your most anticipated experiences abroad. Having some ESL classroom activities ready will help you to get started.

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As you want to get to know your students using a fun activity that involves movement, four corners is a great activity to help break the ice. You can assign each corner with "I dislike" "I like", "I love" and "I hate".

You can bring up different topics such as traveling, food, sports, characters, etc. The students will run to the corner with what label they feel toward that subject. This can be a fun way to start a conversation and get to know your students.

Perfect for ELL students as you can easily translate words for those who need the translation and doesn't take up much time.

This activity is another get to know you game.   This developes relationships among thie students.

This would be beneficial to the students because they  will build bonds with their classmates while learning more about them.

I use this activity alot because the students really enjoy it.

https://www.oxfordseminars.com/blog/5-activities-for-your-first-day-of-class/?gclid=CjwKCAjwov6hBhBsEiwAvrvN6BKF7y9aPJJYHBELhsqtjbTeSMYbpBcprtfCxb6RaCbtL3TOzH6hlxoC8D0QAvD_BwE

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https://readinghorizons.website/blog/post/2012/08/07/classroom-activities-for-engaging-english-language-learners

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People learn to read better when they're having fun. They relax and lose some of the anxiety that often comes with learning to read a new language. Here are five English activities to make ELL reading instruction a little more fun!

1. Play Trivia

You will likely want to write some questions out ahead of time. Make the questions really easy-it's not the content we're learning, but how to communicate questions and answers. You may vary the difficulty of the questions based on the age and skill level of your students. If you are teaching a diverse group of learners, you may even want to target specific students with specific questions, e.g., give the more advanced students the more difficult questions. You can make it more fun by handing out buzzers or bells-the first person to "ring in" gets to answer the question. Just make sure that everyone gets a turn.

2. Role Play

Set up specific scenarios in your classrooms, scenarios that your students will likely face. Have one student order a pizza from another student. Have a student ask for directions. Or have one student invite another student to a party. Some students will need your help to get through the scene. Other students will be able to get through a scene without assistance. For more advanced learners, there is immense value in being the secondary role player, e.g., the person receiving the pizza order or the party invitation.

3. Turn on the Subtitles!

Find a television program that is appropriate for your class' age and learning level. (Humor is a plus.) Watch the program with closed captioning. The students will hear the words, see the people speaking, and see the text all at the same time!

4. Play Word Association

Have the students sit in a circle. Start the game with a simple word and ask the person to your left to say the first (English) word that comes to mind. Then, the person to his or her left should say the first word that comes to his or her mind. Be sure to stop every so often to debrief and define any mysterious words. A variation of this game is to have each student say a word that begins with the last letter of the previous word, e.g., word, donkey, yodel, loon.

5. Play Word Lottery

Before class, print out dozens of simple nouns and verbs. Cut them into little slips of paper and put them into a hat or bag. Invite each student to draw two words from the hat (you can use more for more advanced students). Give them each a minute to come up with a sentence that uses those two words, and makes sense. Then invite each of them to share their sentence with the class. Collect the words and go again. It's okay to repeat words, as the repetition helps!

Pinterest Reference Guide:

More ESL Teaching Tips:
Teaching Reading Strategies Supporting ESL Students: 10 Tips For Mainstream Teachers The Essential, But Often Forgotten Aspect of Effective ESL Reading Instruction Differentiated Reading Instruction for Multilevel Adult ESL Classrooms - Webinar Q&A 4 Key Differences in Teaching ESL to Adults vs. Children Robin Merrill is a children's book author, teacher, and writes for Teacher Certification Degrees, a career site providing teacher interviews and resources for individuals interested in becoming a teacher.

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5 Fun Classroom Reading Activities for Engaging English Language Learners

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People learn to read better when they're having fun. They relax and lose some of the anxiety that often comes with learning to read a new language. Here are five English activities to make ELL reading instruction a little more fun!

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An example of this would be in English: the Students would read a story from our Wonder's Curriculum that we are reading for the week. After reading we would act out the story.

This activity will help the students understand what they are reading and will help build vocabulary.

This activity will benefit ELLs by by increasing their understanding of what we read and also they will be able to build thier vocabulary list.

Article from Module 7: Supporting ELLs in the Mainstream Classroom: Language Tips

https://readinghorizons.website/blog/post/2012/08/07/classroom-activities-for-engaging-english-language-learners

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People learn to read better when they're having fun. They relax and lose some of the anxiety that often comes with learning to read a new language. Here are five English activities to make ELL reading instruction a little more fun!

1. Play Trivia

You will likely want to write some questions out ahead of time. Make the questions really easy-it's not the content we're learning, but how to communicate questions and answers. You may vary the difficulty of the questions based on the age and skill level of your students. If you are teaching a diverse group of learners, you may even want to target specific students with specific questions, e.g., give the more advanced students the more difficult questions. You can make it more fun by handing out buzzers or bells-the first person to "ring in" gets to answer the question. Just make sure that everyone gets a turn.

2. Role Play

Set up specific scenarios in your classrooms, scenarios that your students will likely face. Have one student order a pizza from another student. Have a student ask for directions. Or have one student invite another student to a party. Some students will need your help to get through the scene. Other students will be able to get through a scene without assistance. For more advanced learners, there is immense value in being the secondary role player, e.g., the person receiving the pizza order or the party invitation.

3. Turn on the Subtitles!

Find a television program that is appropriate for your class' age and learning level. (Humor is a plus.) Watch the program with closed captioning. The students will hear the words, see the people speaking, and see the text all at the same time!

4. Play Word Association

Have the students sit in a circle. Start the game with a simple word and ask the person to your left to say the first (English) word that comes to mind. Then, the person to his or her left should say the first word that comes to his or her mind. Be sure to stop every so often to debrief and define any mysterious words. A variation of this game is to have each student say a word that begins with the last letter of the previous word, e.g., word, donkey, yodel, loon.

5. Play Word Lottery

Before class, print out dozens of simple nouns and verbs. Cut them into little slips of paper and put them into a hat or bag. Invite each student to draw two words from the hat (you can use more for more advanced students). Give them each a minute to come up with a sentence that uses those two words, and makes sense. Then invite each of them to share their sentence with the class. Collect the words and go again. It's okay to repeat words, as the repetition helps!

Pinterest Reference Guide:

More ESL Teaching Tips:
Teaching Reading Strategies Supporting ESL Students: 10 Tips For Mainstream Teachers The Essential, But Often Forgotten Aspect of Effective ESL Reading Instruction Differentiated Reading Instruction for Multilevel Adult ESL Classrooms - Webinar Q&A 4 Key Differences in Teaching ESL to Adults vs. Children Robin Merrill is a children's book author, teacher, and writes for Teacher Certification Degrees, a career site providing teacher interviews and resources for individuals interested in becoming a teacher.

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5 Fun Classroom Reading Activities for Engaging English Language Learners

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People learn to read better when they're having fun. They relax and lose some of the anxiety that often comes with learning to read a new language. Here are five English activities to make ELL reading instruction a little more fun!

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Concentration Matching Game

This is a challenging, but fun game that kindergarten kids love playing. You make cards that are in pairs. What can be on each card depends on the level of the student. However, with kindy kids, it may be quite simple pictures and words. For example, cat, dog, blue, red, etc.

Then, you place the cards facedown and the first student has to pick two cards. Turn them over, and if they’re a match, they get to keep them. If not, turn them over in the same spot and the next student goes.

This memory game is an excellent way to review vocabulary. Learn more about it here:

This activity is great for the students to learn different words and helps them build on what they may already know.

This activity is beneficial to the students because it increases their vocabulary and reading skills.

I will use this is my classroom because it is a great tool to have to build voabulary.

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https://tefl-tesol-certification.com/blog/esl-games-and-activities-for-kindergarten

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York Fern

When it comes to teaching kids, perfect knowledge of the language is not enough to become a good teacher. Grammar tenses and speaking exercises don't make any sense if they are not accompanied by playing games. In comparison with teenagers or adults, young learners don't have any logical reasons to attend your class but feelings. Children will love English if you show them how much fun there. It is crucial to be positive, easy-going, and patient when you teach kids. Don't try to push them to do something because it's a rule, make them interested in the learning process. It seems to be difficult, to come up with games for kids and create something entertaining all the time, but it is highly rewarding job.

Young students have no intention to win a game, they just want to have some fun during your lesson. That is why, it is so hard to make them focus on one thing for a long time. Whether you teach listening or vocabulary, it must be an active task.

Fortunately, children memorize everything easily and quickly, you just need some supplies to catch their attention. We would like to tell you the most interesting and effective ESL kindergarten ideas that you can implement right away.

Video

Alphabet songs

This is an obvious start of your course with kids, who can't pronounce some letters and sounds in English correctly. Needless to say that rhythm helps to memorize words faster, however knowing all letters in English alphabet isn't the objective of this activity. It is significant to know but not enough to improve reading or pronunciation. What is more important that children should differ some sounds, which start from the same letter. It helps them to start reading too. For example, we know that C might be different in some words, like crocodile and cinema.

There are plenty of songs you can find on YouTube. Write some simple words to each letter on a board and make students repeat after you. Then change the game rules. They have to recall some words, which start from the letter you show.

Flashcard games

Flashcards is a flexible and adaptive type of ESL classroom games suits almost all vocabulary topics. Firstly, you can teach new words showing cards one by one. But there is a way to make such an exercise more interesting. For example, if you teach animals, start telling a story about all characters of a farm or a forest, and make some pauses to let students fill them in with a particular animal.

If you want to revise animals, choose one card and show to kids. They must raise their hands to say some facts about the creature on the picture. Prepare some small gifts or stickers to encourage students to compete a bit. Give such prizes to those, who names right facts about an animal.

Find something blue

As little students love to move, you can have a short useful break during a lesson. As soon as you teach colors, use all things in a classroom as a vocabulary game. When you say, "find something blue" or whatever color you name, all class must find the color and point it out. It might be a spot on a t-shirt, or a pen in someone's pencil case, what is more important that students have to identify the color as soon as they can.

An online version of this game might be conducted through bright pictures. Prepare some colorful illustrations with small details or animals on it. So, students will be able to revise one more topic, because they have to pronounce what things they have found.

Where is that?

Teaching grammar isn't something detached in children's course. It is integrated in all vocabulary topics to help young learners produce not only phrases but also sentences. They usually don't care what prepositions mean, or how to use Present Simple, they just learn through conversational patterns and lexical approach.

That is why, you should think in advance, how to combine two similar topics to train all productive skills. For example, if you are going to teach rooms and things there, include prepositions of place in your lesson plan. Show a picture for 10 seconds, while class memorizes all things and their positions. After 10 seconds, hide the picture and ask each one to recall one thing and its location in the picture.

Can or can't

There is a fun ESL game that doesn't require preparation at all. It perfectly fits animal topic. In order to help students use grammar correctly and increase their vocabulary, implement it while you teach names of animals. Discuss and show if you can, what each creature can or can't do.

Each kid thinks of an animal and explains what it can and can't do instead of just naming it. Other classmates try to guess what it is. It is also a good chance to train Present Simple after that. Such an exercise help to get used to endings in English. For example children may say, "A rabbit can hop. It hops every day".

If you want to make the game more difficult, pronounce your examples keeping secrets what animals you mean. You may ask, "It can swim but can't fly. What is it?"

Feelings and emotions

The most difficult thing in English for the majority of people is the verb "to be". Adolescents may understand the meaning of it, whereas children couldn't care less. So, the best way for them to get used to it is repetition. In addition to this activity, you should stress all options of "to be" when you speak.

This game is supposed to teach kids how to talk about mood in English. Prepare some flashcards with peoples' facial expressions and ask questions using basic adjectives.

Ask yes or no questions accompanied by a picture with some feelings. The learners have to answer either "Yes, I am" or "No, I'm not". For example, ask your class, "Are you tired?", while you show the picture where a person smiles. According to such a facial expression they will likely answer "No".

Categories

When little students have enough vocabulary to describe basic things like fruits, furniture, and animals, you may conduct a revision game. You need some baskets to prepare, the amount of those depend on the number of categories you want to have.

There might be following groups:

food;

jobs;

colors;

things at home;

family.

Write down relevant words to each category on small pieces of paper and put them on a surface. Everybody should move quickly as possible to take a sticker and choose what category it fits. Then one by one, they run to a certain basket with that category and put the word in it.

Close your eyes and show...

Parts of the body might be a piece of a fun game, if we add some physical work. Everyone must close eyes, while you as a host give instructions what to do.

For instance, "jump on your right leg" or "bend with your left knee". Keep in mind, you should observe everyone's result and pay attention to those, who couldn't figure it out quickly.

Also, you can use this game again in terms of imperative verbs. When you start teaching road signs or popular phrases, your students will recognize this grammar pattern. You may say, "count you fingers", and they will know what to do.

Describe a picture

It is better to show the meaning of the structures "there is" and "there are" on tangible and bright examples. Teaching ESL offline, go around the room and ask children to describe different places of the classroom.

When it comes to online teaching, you can find 3-5 pictures with furniture, food, or animals, in that case learners don't have to move, they can do everything verbally. In order to challenge your class, ask questions to confuse students. If there are 7 dogs in the picture, you may ask, "Are there 3 cats in the picture?".

Charades

There is another ESL idea to make kids laugh. Learning new words might be boring for little students, so let them let their hair down and move a bit. The important rule in this game is to use only nouns. Choose a topic that you would like your class to work on, and give everybody a role to play. Explain that hosts can't speak only show the word they have on a sticker. That's a good way to recall some words, which students have learned recently, and finish a lesson.

Simon says

When we teach imperative verbs, it is also essential to drawn students' attention to politeness. The ESL activity "Simon says" is an illustrative way to make a group get used to saying "please". You as a Simon should speak quickly and check kids' reaction to your words. The point is to say random instructions, whereas class must do what you say only if they hear the word "please". It doesn't take much time, however everyone will love such an active break.

Hot potato

Truth be told, this type of game is so convenient, because you can adapt it to a topic every time when you have no idea what to do with ESL kindergarten. Turn music on and warn students that when music stops, nobody will be able to pass a hot potato. Start passing it around the class adding some emotions to show that a potato is real, it makes students feel excitement too. A person, who holds a potato when music is mute, must do the task. It depends on the topic you have chosen.

You can assign:

name 3 red vegetables;

say 5 your favorite animals;

how many pictures on the wall;

what time is it.

Emoji game

The young generation is better at technology than we. That is why, they will be amused by this ESL game. Start a new message in a chat on your phone and make a list of emojis. Try to place them in order that seems to be someone's day in life. If you teach offline print it out, or share this picture on your screen if you work online.

There is the great idea to demonstrate household chores or daily routine. Firslty, teach phrases according to the emoji, and then assign students to match each small image with a phrase. When students know all necessary vocabulary, get rid of prompts and phrases and show only emoji in a particular order.

The point is to make a story about one day in somebody's life. Each child makes only one sentence according to his turn and emoji. It is better to write the whole story down and laugh together in the end.

Summary

As you understand, there is much work to create a worth lesson and make young ESL students happy. Teaching English includes a lot of things at the same time except having fun with students.

There are some basic duties of English teachers during a lesson:

to make instructions short and informative;

to make sure that everybody understands what to do;

to check difficulties that class faces during an exercise;

to explain words in the easiest way and even show their meaning;

to change and adapt activities very time when students get bored.

All ESL games that we have prepared might be changed in terms of a topic. There is only one principle to teach children - make them curious. Try to become a students' friend but stick to your guns as a teacher and an adult. Whether you have teaching experience or not, it might be difficult to catch young learners attention and make them listen to you.

TEFL/ TESOL courses provide knowledge on how to react on children's offense, or how to give them a positive but an honest feedback. Also, there are so many materials to use whether you teach online or offline. After a TEFL/TESOL course you won't be surprised by kids behavior or expressions, and will always know what to do.

Enroll in an online TEFL/TESOL course to become a high-qualified ESL teacher in a couple of months. Check the link to get a course program with a 50% discount.

We hope this article will help you to organize your lessons and amuse little learners. What are you favorite ESL games and activities for kindergarten kids? Let us know in the comments below and don't hesitate to leave there your questions if you have.

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ESL games and activities for kindergarten

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York Fern When it comes to teaching kids, perfect knowledge of the language is not enough to become a good teacher. Grammar tenses and speaking exercises don't make any sense if they are not accompanied by playing games. In comparison with teenagers or adults, young learners don't have any logical reasons to attend your class but feelings.

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Categories

When little students have enough vocabulary to describe basic things like fruits, furniture, and animals, you may conduct a revision game. You need some baskets to prepare, the amount of those depend on the number of categories you want to have.

There might be following groups:

food;

jobs;

colors;

things at home;

family.

Write down relevant words to each category on small pieces of paper and put them on a surface. Everybody should move quickly as possible to take a sticker and choose what category it fits. Then one by one, they run to a certain basket with that category and put the word in it.

Who are you?

Jobs is one of the basic topics. That's a chance to have a role-play and an introduction game with little English learners. Write down all professions on stickers and give to everyone. Each kid should explain the job with some prompts, whereas others must guess it.

If it seems difficult, assign learners to think of only one fact. If the word is «chef», a child may say, «I cook food», or «I make dinner». Also, you can change the rules and explain different professions, where children have to listen to you carefully and answer correctl

This activity is great for the students to learn different words and helps them build on what they may already know.

This activity is beneficial to the students because it increases their vocabulary and reading skills.

I will use this is my classroom because it is a great tool to have to build voabulary.

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Playing with playdough is an activity loved by children of all ages, and probably not used enough in the classroom considering the benefits that it offers the children in their learning.

Making the playdough

Firstly, you can make some homemade dough using these instructions. There are cooked and uncooked recipes, but I much prefer the texture of the cooked playdough, and it lasts much longer. (If you keep it in a zip-lock bag in the fridge it can last for weeks!) The ingredients are cheap and available in the supermarket, so you can easily make several different colored batches.

You could also let the children make the dough, which in that case it would be better to use the uncooked variety. This activity is in itself a valuable language learning activity, as you carefully demonstrate and give each instruction in English.

Playing with the playdough

Just playing with the dough is an activity that children will enjoy and benefit from, but you can spice it up by adding some competition with a challenge, or by cooperating together in a game. Here are some ideas to start:

Make the best: Using vocabulary words you want to practice (nouns and maybe numbers, but probably not verbs) challenge individual children/pairs/groups to make it the fastest/biggest/smallest/best/etc.

Throw the ring: Line up the best several playdough models and challenge students to throw a ring over them. Place them at different distances for different points.

Order by size: After everyone has made the same model/shape, have everyone work together to line them up in order of size. To be competitive, you could then choose three random numbers (for example: 3, 7, 12) and reward the models that are the third, seventh and twelfth in the line.

Match the model: Make a model, and show it to the children very briefly, all the time talking about it, saying the name, describing it. Then, ask students to make a matching model. You could reward the “best” three if you like.

Pass the Dough

Here is a final game using playdough:

Seat the children in a circle.

Pass a lump of dough around the circle while playing music. (As they become better at it, you could introduce more than one lump of dough.)

When the music stops the student holding the dough has to quickly make a particular shape. This could be decided and announced before passing the dough, or it could be called out after the music stops.

Everyone counts (slowly) to 10 (or a number of your choice) while the person holding the dough quickly makes the shape and holds it up for everyone to see.

There could be a reward (for completing it satisfactorily in time) and/or a sanction for failing, or you can just start the music again and continue the fun.

This activity is great for the students to learn different words and helps them build on what they may already know.

This activity is beneficial to the students because it increases their vocabulary and reading skills.

I will use this is my classroom because it is a great tool to have to build voabulary.

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https://www.niehs.nih.gov/

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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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NIEHS research uses state-of-the-art science and technology to investigate the interplay between environmental exposures, human biology, genetics, and common diseases to help prevent disease and improve human health.

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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences | The mission of NIEHS is to discover how the environment affects people in order to promote healthier lives

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This ELL website was established by the National Institute of Environmental Health Services (NIH) in an effort to combine learning with informative information about health, ecology, the environment, science and other important issues.

NIH Kids’ Pages has a lot of excellent ELL content you and your students can benefit from. The material is perfect for students from grades 5 to 8. It conveys relatable issues and information in a way that’s easy to understand.

You can draw exceptional ideas from this website and incorporate them into a lesson or browse the website together with your students. The Topics page, for example, offers a handful of topics your students can dive into in a fun and interactive way.

NIH Kids’ Pages gives access to videos, key vocabulary, readings and many more interactive and enticing resources to help students learn.

The site also has a Lesson Plans & Activities page with an assortment of printable material perfect for any ELL classroom. The printable content covers booklets, fact sheets, interviews, flyers, lesson plans, presentations and a whole lot more

This Activity will help thhe students the students get more familiar with using a computer.  it will allow them to visit different sights to aid in their learning.

this will be benefical to the students because technology is growing and the students need to be aware of what they can access to help with their vocabulary.

I will use these websites for my students as a different type of learning tool.

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FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language lessons.

You can also browse the FluentU blogs for English teachers and learners to gather tons of lesson ideas. You will find additional blogs focused on standardized English tests and business English for the more developed learner.

This Activity will help thhe students the students get more familiar with using a computer.  it will allow them to visit different sights to aid in their learning.

this will be benefical to the students because technology is growing and the students need to be aware of what they can access to help with their vocabulary.

I will use these websites for my students as a different type of learning tool.

https://padlet.com/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fluentu.com%2Fblog%2Feducator-english%2Fesl-kindergarten-games%2F

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https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/esl-kindergarten-games/

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5 Endlessly Fun ESL Games for Kindergarteners

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Not sure what to do with your kindergarten ESL students? Here are 5 super fun cooperative games they’ll want to play again and again!

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5 Endlessly Fun ESL Games for Kindergarteners

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Find It! Catch It! Throw It! Jump on It!

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Find It! Catch It! Throw It! Jump on It!

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This card game is very flexible to whatever content you’d like to practice. For example, to learn letters/sounds/printed words, you could use flashcards with the target letters or words. If you are practicing English vocabulary, then picture cards are clearly better. For numbers you could have the actual number written on the card, or representations of numbers (i.e. dots, or a series of small pictures such as three dogs). Or you can even use regular playing cards to teach numbers with this game.

Preparing the cards

For the main game, you would need enough cards for each student (or pair, or group) to have identical sets of cards. Below we will also look at some variations that require just a single deck of cards.

You can use ready-made cards, or make your own. If you make your own:

Either make your cards really hardy (printed on cardboard and carefully laminated) or really cheap (lots of copies printed on cheap or recycled paper that will get used up and replaced).

You could print pictures from clip-art or photos on the Internet, cut and stick pictures from magazines, or ask the children to draw pictures for added learning.

The number of different cards you have will depend on what learning you want to support with a game. As you are deciding, remember that little kids love/need repetition. It gives them a chance to know and prove what they know—and that is all part of “the game.”

Playing the game

If each student (or pair, or group) has an identical set of cards, then you can begin play by asking “Who can…?”

Possible questions include:

Who can hold up the picture of the frog?

Who can hold up the 6 and the 8 at the same time?

Who can bring me the picture of a car?

Who can be the fastest to put an elephant in that box?

It can be competitive, as pairs/groups race against the others to follow the command, and there could also be points. There could even be a reward for the winner(s) at the end.

If you are using a single set of cards for the whole class, students could also compete individually or in pairs/groups with the following ideas.

Find: Place/stick cards on the board and ask students to race to find a particular card. Winning students could have a turn at calling what to find next.

Catch: Have the children standing in a line at the back of the room as you throw/flick cards for them to catch and then identify. (You need to be confident that you can control the safety of the students so no one gets a card in their eye nor bumps their head with another while trying to retrieve cards!)

Throw: Students pick a card from a pile, identify it and then throw it at/into a target (the door, a bin, etc.). If using disposable cards, they could crumple it to throw it.

Jump: Spread cards out on the floor in an open area, and students attempt to step/jump onto a card as identified by you or them. The cards could be in a sequence like stepping stones.

Again it can be as competitive as you choose, with points and/or rewards for winners (or everyone) and winning students could also have turns at calling which card is the next target. Build suspense as you pause when calling which card they should be looking for.

This activity is great for the students to learn different words and helps them build on what they may already know.

This activity is beneficial to the students because it increases their vocabulary and reading skills.

I will use this is my classroom because it is a great tool to have to build voabulary.

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Use Visuals and Add Images

As often as possible, try to use visuals and add images in daily activities and work. You can make mini books for the students because this type of source provides visual support for learners.   Each activity will promote the useage of vocabulary words.

this will be beneficial to the students because it gives them a picture that goes with the words that might be in a story that is being read to them.

I will use this in my classroom so that the ELLs have a reference to what a word might mean.

https://tefl-tesol-certification.com/blog/esl-games-and-activities-for-kindergarten

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York Fern

When it comes to teaching kids, perfect knowledge of the language is not enough to become a good teacher. Grammar tenses and speaking exercises don't make any sense if they are not accompanied by playing games. In comparison with teenagers or adults, young learners don't have any logical reasons to attend your class but feelings. Children will love English if you show them how much fun there. It is crucial to be positive, easy-going, and patient when you teach kids. Don't try to push them to do something because it's a rule, make them interested in the learning process. It seems to be difficult, to come up with games for kids and create something entertaining all the time, but it is highly rewarding job.

Young students have no intention to win a game, they just want to have some fun during your lesson. That is why, it is so hard to make them focus on one thing for a long time. Whether you teach listening or vocabulary, it must be an active task.

Fortunately, children memorize everything easily and quickly, you just need some supplies to catch their attention. We would like to tell you the most interesting and effective ESL kindergarten ideas that you can implement right away.

Video

Alphabet songs

This is an obvious start of your course with kids, who can't pronounce some letters and sounds in English correctly. Needless to say that rhythm helps to memorize words faster, however knowing all letters in English alphabet isn't the objective of this activity. It is significant to know but not enough to improve reading or pronunciation. What is more important that children should differ some sounds, which start from the same letter. It helps them to start reading too. For example, we know that C might be different in some words, like crocodile and cinema.

There are plenty of songs you can find on YouTube. Write some simple words to each letter on a board and make students repeat after you. Then change the game rules. They have to recall some words, which start from the letter you show.

Flashcard games

Flashcards is a flexible and adaptive type of ESL classroom games suits almost all vocabulary topics. Firstly, you can teach new words showing cards one by one. But there is a way to make such an exercise more interesting. For example, if you teach animals, start telling a story about all characters of a farm or a forest, and make some pauses to let students fill them in with a particular animal.

If you want to revise animals, choose one card and show to kids. They must raise their hands to say some facts about the creature on the picture. Prepare some small gifts or stickers to encourage students to compete a bit. Give such prizes to those, who names right facts about an animal.

Find something blue

As little students love to move, you can have a short useful break during a lesson. As soon as you teach colors, use all things in a classroom as a vocabulary game. When you say, "find something blue" or whatever color you name, all class must find the color and point it out. It might be a spot on a t-shirt, or a pen in someone's pencil case, what is more important that students have to identify the color as soon as they can.

An online version of this game might be conducted through bright pictures. Prepare some colorful illustrations with small details or animals on it. So, students will be able to revise one more topic, because they have to pronounce what things they have found.

Where is that?

Teaching grammar isn't something detached in children's course. It is integrated in all vocabulary topics to help young learners produce not only phrases but also sentences. They usually don't care what prepositions mean, or how to use Present Simple, they just learn through conversational patterns and lexical approach.

That is why, you should think in advance, how to combine two similar topics to train all productive skills. For example, if you are going to teach rooms and things there, include prepositions of place in your lesson plan. Show a picture for 10 seconds, while class memorizes all things and their positions. After 10 seconds, hide the picture and ask each one to recall one thing and its location in the picture.

Can or can't

There is a fun ESL game that doesn't require preparation at all. It perfectly fits animal topic. In order to help students use grammar correctly and increase their vocabulary, implement it while you teach names of animals. Discuss and show if you can, what each creature can or can't do.

Each kid thinks of an animal and explains what it can and can't do instead of just naming it. Other classmates try to guess what it is. It is also a good chance to train Present Simple after that. Such an exercise help to get used to endings in English. For example children may say, "A rabbit can hop. It hops every day".

If you want to make the game more difficult, pronounce your examples keeping secrets what animals you mean. You may ask, "It can swim but can't fly. What is it?"

Feelings and emotions

The most difficult thing in English for the majority of people is the verb "to be". Adolescents may understand the meaning of it, whereas children couldn't care less. So, the best way for them to get used to it is repetition. In addition to this activity, you should stress all options of "to be" when you speak.

This game is supposed to teach kids how to talk about mood in English. Prepare some flashcards with peoples' facial expressions and ask questions using basic adjectives.

Ask yes or no questions accompanied by a picture with some feelings. The learners have to answer either "Yes, I am" or "No, I'm not". For example, ask your class, "Are you tired?", while you show the picture where a person smiles. According to such a facial expression they will likely answer "No".

Categories

When little students have enough vocabulary to describe basic things like fruits, furniture, and animals, you may conduct a revision game. You need some baskets to prepare, the amount of those depend on the number of categories you want to have.

There might be following groups:

food;

jobs;

colors;

things at home;

family.

Write down relevant words to each category on small pieces of paper and put them on a surface. Everybody should move quickly as possible to take a sticker and choose what category it fits. Then one by one, they run to a certain basket with that category and put the word in it.

Close your eyes and show...

Parts of the body might be a piece of a fun game, if we add some physical work. Everyone must close eyes, while you as a host give instructions what to do.

For instance, "jump on your right leg" or "bend with your left knee". Keep in mind, you should observe everyone's result and pay attention to those, who couldn't figure it out quickly.

Also, you can use this game again in terms of imperative verbs. When you start teaching road signs or popular phrases, your students will recognize this grammar pattern. You may say, "count you fingers", and they will know what to do.

Describe a picture

It is better to show the meaning of the structures "there is" and "there are" on tangible and bright examples. Teaching ESL offline, go around the room and ask children to describe different places of the classroom.

When it comes to online teaching, you can find 3-5 pictures with furniture, food, or animals, in that case learners don't have to move, they can do everything verbally. In order to challenge your class, ask questions to confuse students. If there are 7 dogs in the picture, you may ask, "Are there 3 cats in the picture?".

Charades

There is another ESL idea to make kids laugh. Learning new words might be boring for little students, so let them let their hair down and move a bit. The important rule in this game is to use only nouns. Choose a topic that you would like your class to work on, and give everybody a role to play. Explain that hosts can't speak only show the word they have on a sticker. That's a good way to recall some words, which students have learned recently, and finish a lesson.

Simon says

When we teach imperative verbs, it is also essential to drawn students' attention to politeness. The ESL activity "Simon says" is an illustrative way to make a group get used to saying "please". You as a Simon should speak quickly and check kids' reaction to your words. The point is to say random instructions, whereas class must do what you say only if they hear the word "please". It doesn't take much time, however everyone will love such an active break.

Hot potato

Truth be told, this type of game is so convenient, because you can adapt it to a topic every time when you have no idea what to do with ESL kindergarten. Turn music on and warn students that when music stops, nobody will be able to pass a hot potato. Start passing it around the class adding some emotions to show that a potato is real, it makes students feel excitement too. A person, who holds a potato when music is mute, must do the task. It depends on the topic you have chosen.

You can assign:

name 3 red vegetables;

say 5 your favorite animals;

how many pictures on the wall;

what time is it.

Emoji game

The young generation is better at technology than we. That is why, they will be amused by this ESL game. Start a new message in a chat on your phone and make a list of emojis. Try to place them in order that seems to be someone's day in life. If you teach offline print it out, or share this picture on your screen if you work online.

There is the great idea to demonstrate household chores or daily routine. Firslty, teach phrases according to the emoji, and then assign students to match each small image with a phrase. When students know all necessary vocabulary, get rid of prompts and phrases and show only emoji in a particular order.

The point is to make a story about one day in somebody's life. Each child makes only one sentence according to his turn and emoji. It is better to write the whole story down and laugh together in the end.

Summary

As you understand, there is much work to create a worth lesson and make young ESL students happy. Teaching English includes a lot of things at the same time except having fun with students.

There are some basic duties of English teachers during a lesson:

to make instructions short and informative;

to make sure that everybody understands what to do;

to check difficulties that class faces during an exercise;

to explain words in the easiest way and even show their meaning;

to change and adapt activities very time when students get bored.

All ESL games that we have prepared might be changed in terms of a topic. There is only one principle to teach children - make them curious. Try to become a students' friend but stick to your guns as a teacher and an adult. Whether you have teaching experience or not, it might be difficult to catch young learners attention and make them listen to you.

TEFL/ TESOL courses provide knowledge on how to react on children's offense, or how to give them a positive but an honest feedback. Also, there are so many materials to use whether you teach online or offline. After a TEFL/TESOL course you won't be surprised by kids behavior or expressions, and will always know what to do.

Enroll in an online TEFL/TESOL course to become a high-qualified ESL teacher in a couple of months. Check the link to get a course program with a 50% discount.

We hope this article will help you to organize your lessons and amuse little learners. What are you favorite ESL games and activities for kindergarten kids? Let us know in the comments below and don't hesitate to leave there your questions if you have.

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ESL games and activities for kindergarten

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York Fern When it comes to teaching kids, perfect knowledge of the language is not enough to become a good teacher. Grammar tenses and speaking exercises don't make any sense if they are not accompanied by playing games. In comparison with teenagers or adults, young learners don't have any logical reasons to attend your class but feelings.

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Incorporate Technology

Technology may or may not be something that ELL students are comfortable using. However, don’t be afraid to give it a try and incorporate helpful websites into your daily routine. The fact that most of these sites will read and speak to your students while they work on tasks is an added bonus. There are numerous sites and apps that students can use individually or that can be modeled and used in a whole group environment. A few suggestions are:

Starfall – A learning website with interactive games, songs and activities.

Kahoot! – A game-based learning program for creating, playing, and sharing learning games.

Quizlet – This program uses digital flashcards for learning vocabulary.

National Geographic Kids – The site has numerous educational videos that allow for closed captions to be turned on which can be helpful for ELL students.

Duolingo – A website and app that targets specific skills to practice vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation.

This Activity will help thhe students the students get more familiar with using a computer.  it will allow them to visit different sights to aid in their learning.

this will be benefical to the students because technology is growing and the students need to be aware of what they can access to help with their vocabulary.

I will use these websites for my students as a different type of learning tool.

https://padlet.com/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fluentu.com%2Fblog%2Feducator-english%2Fesl-kindergarten-games%2F

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Build on Background Knowledge

Although students are learning a new language,  they have many personal experiences that can help support learning. Consider students’ background knowledge. How can you help activate that background knowledge in order to make learning more meaningful and impactful?

Even if you don’t have any background knowledge to build upon, you can create shared experiences for your students. Read a book on the topic, watch a short instructional video, or create a “being there” experience in your classroom. By incorporating these strategies into your instruction, your students, both ELL, and non, will have prior information they can link new knowledge to.

With this strategy Teachers are learning as much personal information about each student so that a bond in formed and the child builds trust.

This is beneficial to the student because it creates a safe enviornment for the them.

I will apply this strategy to my classroom so that each student feel safe. This will help with the learning process

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https://educationtothecore.com/2022/04/15-strategies-for-english-language-learners/

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English Language Learner (ELL) students do not necessarily learn differently than other students. However, they can have specific educational needs. The term, ELL, refers to a student who does not speak English as a first language. They typically come from non-English-speaking homes and may need modified instruction and additional support in English and other subject areas at school.

Various resources and strategies can be utilized to provide a positive learning experience for ELL students. While many of these strategies for English Language Learners below are helpful for all students, they can be particularly effective when teaching students that have a native language other than English.

ELL Strategy 1 - Build Relationships & Create a Welcoming Environment

It's important that ELL students feel welcome when they come into the classroom. Learning a language can be intimidating. Knowing they are learning in a safe and welcoming space can make a big difference. While they are still learning to speak and read English, relationships can be built through:

Using a daily check-in activity is a great way to start building trusting relationships with your ELL students. I recommend having them draw pictures of how they are feeling that day, or give a thumbs up or down on "yes/no" questions.

2 - Use Positive Gestures and Tone of Voice

Using positive gestures and tone of voice can help ELL learners feel at ease. This can help them feel comfortable and safe in their learning environment. A start for this is to simply smile and keep a calm and relaxed body. Incorporating play-based learning is also an opportunity to model positive gestures. Throughout the day, model acceptance of others to encourage this welcoming atmosphere.

3 - Incorporate Language Skills Throughout the Curriculum

ELL students will benefit from explicit language instruction. However, it is also important to include language skills throughout the curriculum. By incorporating these skills throughout all lessons, language exposure is increased. This will have a positive impact on student learning.

Utilizing the Listen and Color printable from the Kindergarten Monthly Activities allows students to engage with both vocabulary and position words. The activity can be completed using a teacher model to provide additional support for students. This is an opportunity to hear and visualize positional words such as above, between, or next to.

ELL Strategy 4 - Speak Slowly and Increase Wait Time

Speaking too quickly can make it difficult for ELL students to process the new language, so slowing down your words can be helpful. This can allow students additional time to listen and process the information. I also always try and model, point to, or visually show while I am verbally giving directions.

Consider that students might need the extra time to answer a question or might need a question to be restated or rephrased. Be patient and encourage students to become comfortable with asking for more time or asking a teacher to repeat a question. Teaching students to ask for help can benefit them in many ways as they learn the English language.

5 - Differentiate

ELL students have a variety of academic needs. It's important that your instruction is designed to meet students' individual needs. This can be accomplished by getting to know as much as possible about your students, using a variety of research-based instructional strategies, and using ongoing assessments. The Premium Membership from Education to the Core provides you access to a variety of differentiated resources at your fingertips, ready to print and use.

ELL Strategy 6 - Incorporate Technology

Technology may or may not be something that ELL students are comfortable using. However, don't be afraid to give it a try and incorporate helpful websites into your daily routine. The fact that most of these sites will read and speak to your students while they work on tasks is an added bonus. There are numerous sites and apps that students can use individually or that can be modeled and used in a whole group environment. A few suggestions are:

Starfall - A learning website with interactive games, songs and activities.

Kahoot! - A game-based learning program for creating, playing, and sharing learning games.

Quizlet - This program uses digital flashcards for learning vocabulary.

National Geographic Kids - The site has numerous educational videos that allow for closed captions to be turned on which can be helpful for ELL students.

Duolingo - A website and app that targets specific skills to practice vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation.

7 - Utilize Cooperative Activities

Encouraging teamwork and cooperation can build language skills quickly. Cooperative activities allow students to be inquisitive, curious, and learn from each other. Activities that lend themselves well to cooperation are STEM Challenge Stories. These challenges give students opportunities to have discussions and share ideas while completing hands-on learning activities.

8 - Offer Choices

Ensure that students know they have options. For example, if students don't know the answer to a question, it's important to have resources they can use for help. They also should know they have the choice to say they don't know or aren't sure. Having resources in the classroom for students to refer to can be a big confidence booster. Having a Sound Wall in your classroom is a great student reference tool to have.

ELL Strategy 9 - Build on Background Knowledge

Although students are learning a new language, they have many personal experiences that can help support learning. Consider students' background knowledge. How can you help activate that background knowledge in order to make learning more meaningful and impactful?

Even if you don't have any background knowledge to build upon, you can create shared experiences for your students. Read a book on the topic, watch a short instructional video, or create a "being there" experience in your classroom. By incorporating these strategies into your instruction, your students, both ELL, and non, will have prior information they can link new knowledge to.

10 - Use Visuals and Add Images

As often as possible, try to use visuals and add images in daily activities and work. The Monthly Mini-Books resource provides visual support for learners. In each monthly activity, there are vocabulary words with pictures that can be used in a variety of ways. These vocabulary words can then be found in the coordinating mini-books. Each month, there is a themed sight word activity for students. These comprehensive monthly activities can be a good place to start building vocabulary with the use of visuals.

11 - Pair your ELL Students with a Buddy

This is always a student favorite! Pairing ELL students with a buddy who can encourage, and model language skills is very beneficial. Be mindful of student skill level as well as cooperation skills when selecting a buddy. The buddy can help answer questions, work on activities, and provide support for your ELL student.

12 - Use a microphone or amplification device

Using a device such as a microphone or amplification device can allow students to clearly hear some of the sounds of words. While this might not always be an option, it is something to consider adding to your daily classroom routine.

13 - Give both Verbal and Written Directions

Written directions are important so that students can practice reading skills they are working on. However, written directions might not be accessible for ELL students. Including verbal directions as well as written, gives students the opportunity to ask questions if they do not understand. Verbal directions can also prevent mistakes that might occur from lack of understanding of a written direction. Preventing these mistakes and providing students clarification through verbal directions can boost students' self-confidence.

ELL Strategy 14 - Model

Providing students with a model when doing activities can give them the reassurance they need to keep going. You might find that you can slowly take the models away or use them less frequently. However, starting with models is important for ELL students to become comfortable with learning the English language. Projecting the activities onto a large whiteboard or Promethean board with a document camera can easily provide students with a viewable model.

15 - Teach Vocabulary

Vocabulary can be added to daily lessons, but can also be taught in isolation. Pre-teaching vocabulary can be helpful for ELL students. An idea for teaching vocabulary is through the use of Write the Room activities. These activities provide colorful clip art images and incorporate various academic skills. These cards allow your students to associate an image with a vocabulary word. This is an engaging way for students to build vocabulary.

Being consistent with these strategies and practices will make your lessons more effective and meaningful for your students. However, it is also important to be flexible and make modifications based on your students' needs. Utilize these tips and strategies to begin building your toolbox of resources to support ELL students.

Written By - Sarah Cason

At Education to the Core, we exist to help our teachers build a stronger classroom as they connect with our community to find trusted, state-of-the-art resources designed by teachers for teachers. We aspire to be the world's leading & most trusted community for educational resources for teachers. We improve the lives of every teacher and learner with the most comprehensive, reliable, and inclusive educational resources.

If you enjoyed what we have to offer at ETTC, be sure to join our email list, so you won't miss a beat. We are here to help with all your resource needs. Become a Premium Member of Education to the Core and receive immediate access to thousands of printable activities. For one small monthly or annual fee, everything ETTC can be at your fingertips all of the time.

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15 Strategies for English Language Learners

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Various resources and strategies can be utilized to provide a positive learning experience for ELL students. While many of the strategies below are helpful for all students, they can be particularly effective when teaching students that have a native language other than English.

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Use Positive Gestures and Tone of Voice

Using positive gestures and tone of voice can help ELL learners feel at ease. This can help them feel comfortable and safe in their learning environment. A start for this is to simply smile and keep a calm and relaxed body.  Incorporating play-based learning is also an opportunity to model positive gestures.  Throughout the day, model acceptance of others to encourage this welcoming atmosphere.

With this strategy Teachers are learning as much personal information about each student so that a bond in formed and the child builds trust.

This is beneficial to the student because it creates a safe enviornment for the them.

I will apply this strategy to my classroom so that each student feel safe.  This will help with the learning process