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Classroom Strategies: Incorporate Technology in Their Native Language

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Classroom Strategies: Incorporate Technology in Their Native Language

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Using their native language is reinforcing curricular concepts (Ferlazzo, 2022).

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The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Math, Social Studies, & Science

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Having academic content available in the native language of English Language Learners is valuable for several reasons. One, it's useful for teachers who use the widely-respected and thoroughl...

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Parent Engagement: Use Effective Communication

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Parent Engagement: Use Effective Communication

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Communicating in their native language ensures that parents are aware of school activities (Breiseth et al., 2020).

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The following strategies offer tips for building relationships with the families of English language learners (ELLs), getting to know their strengths and stories, and creating a welcoming environment.

Supporting immigrant families

For related ideas, see the following:

1. Learn about your ELL population

A. What you need to know

Learning about your ELL families provides an important foundation for everything else you do at the school. Even basic information about students' ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, or the situations from which they have come, can help you match students with the appropriate services and programs.

B. Reflection

Answer the following questions about your ELL families using a KWL chart:

What do you know about your ELL students and families?

What do you want to learn?

Who on the staff works most closely with your ELL families?

What would be valuable for your school-wide staff to know?

C. Strategies

If you do not yet know this information about your ELLs, find out:

What countries your families come from

How many of your ELLs were born in the U.S.

What languages they speak (which may be at least two or three!)

If families who speak the same language, such as Spanish, come from different countries or different regions within the same country

The educational background of families and the school system of their countries

If any of your ELLs are refugees or students with interrupted formal education

If your families have experienced war or another traumatic event such as a natural disaster.

In order to learn more about your ELL families:

Start with your ELL/bilingual educators. These individuals are an important resource whose experience working with ELL students and families can benefit the entire school community - and they will appreciate the opportunity to share their expertise!

Find out what resources are available from the district and community. This may include helpful background information as well as a network of interpreters.

Enlist a knowledgeable staff member, community member, or parent. If you find such a person, examine his/her background as it relates to what you need. For example, you may know a Somali young adult who is bilingual but doesn't remember Somalia. He may be more helpful as an interpreter than as a liaison for Somali families who have just arrived in the U.S.

Ask the families. You may want to include some questions in your home language survey or a very basic questionnaire that ELL parents fill out with an interpreter during student enrollment.

Note: Remember that your ELL population is not homogeneous. The child of a migrant worker from Mexico and the child of a teacher from Mexico probably won't have the same educational and economic needs. Learn what you can about each child's unique circumstances to the extent possible.

D. Example

An administrator from Minnesota wanted to better understand the needs of the children who were arriving at her school directly from Kenyan refugee camps. She wrote a grant that enabled her to travel to Kenya and visit the camps from which they were coming. What she learned at the camps was not only helpful for her; it was helpful for the entire staff. Based on her experience, she was also able to prevent some major misunderstandings around discipline issues. (Related video: Understanding Student Background, Dr. Cynthia Lundgren)

Resources

2. Integrate cultural traditions of your ELL families throughout the school

A. What you need to know

Becoming familiar with and including the cultural traditions of your ELL families within the larger school community not only enhances your ability to create a welcoming and respectful school environment - it has practical considerations as well. These include:

Scheduling: Scheduling around important cultural or religious holidays will help prevent large numbers of students from missing important instruction time, exams, and school events.

Classroom opportunities: Familiarity with ELL families' cultural traditions will provide teachers a base from which to build upon ELLs' background knowledge, create educational opportunities for other students, and foster a sense of respect among students for their peers.

Improved communication: Learning about your ELL families' traditions may help avoid miscommunication or cultural blunders that can damage a budding relationship.

B. Reflection

What are your ELLs' cultural behaviors and values? Which celebrations and holidays do they observe? How does your staff feel about the changes in your school population? How do they feel about working with ELLs?

C. Strategies

Avoid scheduling important events such as conferences or tests on major holidays and celebrations that large numbers of students are likely to miss.

Share these dates with the entire staff.

Share information about cultural celebrations with teachers so that they are able to positively support them and incorporate them into lessons. Even a simple memo that explains why students will be out and offers some ideas for follow-up activities will be helpful. (Encourage teachers to start with children's books, which often have background information and activities, such as these titles about Ramadan, Chinese New Year, and Día de los muertos.)

Learn about, recognize, and celebrate special events or holidays throughout the school.

Invite parents to share food, activities, and music at school events and in the classroom.

Encourage students to share traditions in school assemblies, talent shows, potlucks, and fairs.

Offer food that reflects the cultural influences of your families on the cafeteria menu.

Be mindful that students who are fasting may be less energetic in the afternoon. If possible, avoid school-wide parties or food-centered activities during these times.

Notes: Staff may resist the changes happening around them, and they may be uncomfortable discussing those changes. Such was the case of a school custodian in Minnesota who asked a receptionist "why they (the Muslim students) get special days off and we can't even celebrate Christmas." Dr. Lundgren explains the importance of having an open, non-threatening conversation with the entire staff that acknowledges the challenges of serving a new ELL population and explores steps the school can take to address those challenges. (Related video: Cultural shifts, Dr. Lundgren)

You may find it helpful to bring in a neutral, outside party who specializes in cross-cultural education and communication in order to help moderate these conversations if they seem particularly fraught with tension. An open dialogue with a professional will give your staff the tools they need to adjust to the new reality and create a more positive, welcoming environment for everyone in the school.

D. Examples

Storyteller Lucía González remembers a storyteller-in-residence program she led at a Colorado elementary school. The program was going to culminate with a Spanish-language story hour for the Latino families at the school. On the night of the event, the weather was bad, and few people had arrived as she was getting ready to start. Seeing the small crowd, the principal turned to her and said, "Don't worry if they don't come, because usually they don't come." At 7:00 p.m., however, the parents began to arrive, led by the excited children who had heard her stories. (Related video: A dream come true - The Storyteller's Candle, Lucía González)

A group of Muslim students at Forest Heights Collegiate Institute in Ontario approached principal Jim Woolley about finding a place to pray within the school. After working with an immigration settlement worker and local imam, the school reserved a classroom in which students pray on Friday afternoon after the school is closed. They use the classroom and then lock the door when they finish. According to Mr. Woolley, it doesn't cost the school anything and it doesn't require supervision. "We trust them," he said (D'Amato, 2011).

3. Create a welcoming environment for families

A. What you need to know

A welcoming environment can make a tremendous difference for all families, including ELL families. Entering a friendly, vibrant atmosphere lets families know that the school is "an integral part of the community" (Houk, 63) and that they are valued members of that community. This is especially important for immigrant families who may be intimidated by the formal school environment and the English language needed to participate.

Another way to think of this is to keep your ELLs visible. ELLs are often treated as an invisible minority, but ELLs and their families should "see themselves" throughout the school:

On the walls, through student work and photos

In the classroom, with books and lessons that incorporate their experiences and traditions

In school-wide cultural activities

In the faces of staff and volunteers who come from similar backgrounds.

B. Reflection

Imagine that you have arrived in a new country where you don't speak the language and where you will be enrolling your child in a local school. Think about arriving at the school for the first time, only to discover that no one at the school speaks English. Imagine the feeling of leaving your child in the hands of people with whom you can't communicate. Now envision, instead, that someone who speaks English greets you at the door, and you see a picture of an American flag in the front hallway. What might you be able to accomplish as a parent in the second situation that you wouldn't in the first?

C. Strategies

Make sure parents know how to get into the building, especially if doors are usually locked during the school day.

Post signs in multiple languages.

Display student work on the walls.

Display student and family photos on the walls.

Display the maps and flags of your students' native countries.

Display a large map in the front lobby where parents can mark their native countries with a pin.

Enlist a bilingual morning greeter to welcome students and families.

Ensure that your bilingual staff and volunteers are visible throughout the building.

Create a parent room (such as a lounge or classroom) with bilingual information and magazine subscriptions, a bulletin board, a lending library, and a computer (Houk, 58, 63).

Include bilingual books in the school library and classrooms.

Consider playing music in the front entryway or lobby.

Encourage teachers to create a welcoming environment within the classroom.

D. Example

At Lincoln Options School, in Olympia, Washington, there are photos of the entire school community - students, staff, and families - to greet guests in the front lobby. Each year, the school hires a photographer to attend its annual back-to-school barbeque and take informal photos (Houk, 9). In addition, student work is posted throughout the building (16).

Resources

4. Make a personal connection with families

A. What you need to know

Getting to know ELL families helps build an important relationship based on trust, which in turn can pave the way to student success. This approach is most effective when the communication is personal and face-to-face (Hori, 40; Alford 85). While it will require additional time and effort, building a more personal relationship with ELL families early in the year will yield big dividends throughout the rest of the year (Hori, 40). It will also provide opportunities for the staff to see just how deeply ELL parents care about their children's education.

Indeed, as Dr. Lundgren notes, many ELL families have come to this country with the hopes of offering their children a better future, and they are eager to talk with their children's teachers about what they can do to help their child be successful. (Related video: A better life, Dr. Lundgren)

B. Reflection

What are the challenges in meeting your ELL families personally? What are some ways to facilitate more personal interaction?

C. Strategies

Hold a special back-to-school event or picnic for ELL families in which they have time to meet you, other school leaders, their children's teachers, and school staff.

Create a welcome DVD in multiple languages. This may even be a great student project!

Provide staff the opportunity to learn some common phrases in your families' languages, as well as cultural gestures.

Visit local neighborhoods to meet families.

Connect new families with a contact person who speaks their language as soon as they enroll in the school for guidance and information (Houk, 66).

Create an "ambassador" program in which students and parents are trained to give tours.

D. Examples

Educator Maricela Rincon in Las Cruces, NM calls a different parent every day to share something positive about his/her child. According to Rincon, some parents say, "This is the first time I've had a positive phone call about my child." While Rincon is enthusiastic about the calls, they weren't her idea - they were required by the school principal (Flannery, NEA.org). (Related video: Parent outreach in high school, Bobbi Ciriza Houtchens)

A group of school educators asked experts from a local university to help them learn more about their ELL community. After the initial conversation, it was clear that the school leaders assumed that the parents' lack of input, communication, and attendance reflected a lack of interest in their child's education. After getting some parent input, however, the educators discovered that the parents weren't enthusiastic about the school letters inviting them to events. They didn't feel that the events were planned with them in mind, and the letters seemed very impersonal. The parents didn't see the letters as the invitations they were intended to be. They expressed preference for more personal contact and invitations from the school, at least in the beginning of the year, in order to establish a strong relationship (Alford and Niño, 81-82).

This is an excerpt from a parent letter to the principal about her first visit to her child's school:
I was very surprised when we were not able to speak to Lupe's teacher, Mrs. Gibbons, individually. In Guatemala we all knew the teachers and the teachers knew the parents...We do not know anyone here nor does anyone know us...we would have liked to tell Mrs. Gibbons how much we value education (Amaya, 53).

5. Show that you value families' native languages

A. What you need to know

As the school leader, one of your most important roles is defining the terms of engagement when it comes to ELLs' native languages. Do you see those languages as a barrier or an asset? Do you see native language literacy and instruction as a crutch or a tool?

Unfortunately, the political climate often dictates district or state policy regarding native language support (Wright, 51), and important information regarding the value of native language literacy is often left out of the debate. Frequently, ELL parents themselves are the party most resistant to promoting their native language at home or in school because they believe it will hinder their child's ability to learn English. While this belief is entirely understandable, the research is clear that strong native language skills contribute to ELLs' academic success throughout their education - in their native language and in English.

What can you do to navigate this tricky terrain and encourage the continued development of students' native language skills, as well as biliteracy and bilingualism for all students?

Respect parents' intentions: It is critical to assure parents that you respect their wishes and goals for their children; you can do so by explaining that strong native language skills will help their children learn English. This reassures parents that you have their children's best interests at heart and that you view their native language as an asset, not an obstacle.

Encourage native language use at home: Don't miss any opportunity to encourage parents to use their native language, whether it's through reading (which will help their children's reading skills in English) or taking the time to talk to each other at home. Look for ways that the school can support this interaction by offering bilingual books, educational materials, and activities.

Professional development: Provide training to all staff on the importance of maintaining students' native language and ways in which they can support students' bilingual development. Understandably, many teachers still feel that the best way to help ELLs is to forbid native language use in the classroom. Often, in this case, the teachers have good intentions - they just need more information. There may also be some anxiety about not being able to understand what students are saying. The best way to address this issue is through good professional development with an expert in second language or dual-language acquisition. Not only will the staff learn strategies that will help them and their students, they will learn how to answer parent questions about this topic with confidence as well!

B. Reflection

What is the current attitude towards ELLs' native languages in your school? Is a student's use of his/her native language encouraged or discouraged in the classroom? Do parents know where to get information in their language? How do teachers approach this issue?

C. Strategies

Post information in multiple languages.

Discuss with parents the value of strong native language skills and being bilingual.

Encourage parents to read or tell stories to their children in their native language.

Offer parent sessions, workshops, and classes in parents' native languages (Meyers, 44).

Include books in students' native languages in the school and classroom libraries (Freeman, 42).

Make resources available to students in their native languages to support content learning.

Consider the possibility of adding academic coursework (such as Spanish Literature for Spanish speakers) or AP courses in students' native languages.

Hire bilingual staff and recruit bilingual volunteers to the extent possible.

Inform parents that they are welcome to bring their own interpreter to a school meeting.

Provide training to all staff on why maintaining students' native language is important and how to support students' bilingual development.

Offer staff guidance on how to respond to parents' questions and comments.

D. Examples

In Illinois' Evanston/Skokie School District 65, parents are continually encouraged to use their native language at home and read to their children in their native languages daily. Washington School, a two-way immersion school, offers a family literacy program funded with a state grant in which parents participate in afternoon and evening literacy activities at the school and public libraries. Parents also learn how to help their children with homework - all in their native language (Yturriago, 51-52).

At Webster Elementary School in Long Beach, California, the school library has a large collection of books in Spanish and Samoan, the two dominant languages of the school's ELLs. Parents are encouraged to borrow books and bring younger siblings to the library (Houk, 45-56).

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Connecting with ELL Families: Strategies for Success

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The following strategies offer tips for building relationships with the families of English language learners (ELLs), getting to know their strengths and stories, and creating a welcoming environment. Supporting immigrant families For related ideas, see the following: A. What you need to know Learning about your ELL families provides an important foundation for everything else you do at the school.

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English as a Second Language, is a language instruction educational program for students who speak their native language as their primary language and live in a country where English is the primary language (Bilingual vs. ESL) .

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To support the 9 to 14 % of students who speak another native language by learning English to be able to flourish in the American education system and be able to effectively communicate in our nation.

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Upon enrolling in public education parents complete a survey to indicate both the language spoken at home and the primary language that a student speaks. If either are marked with a language other than English, then the students will be assessed by the LPAC committee who evaluates the home language survey and the English proficiency test to determine whether a child qualifies for ESL/ Bilingual/ or general public classes. the educators in ESL/ELL classes only instruct in English and students are in classes with students that speak multiple native languages.

In Elementary school students are usually in a separate class with other English language learners. Once in middle school and throughout high school, the students are individually pulled from their general-public classes for one-on-one support with their ESL/ELL teachers. Students can test out of the ESL program by demonstrating acceptable language skills through the TELPAS (Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment.) TELPAS scores are evaluated by LPAC to determine whether reclassification skills have been met. After a student has been reclassified as “English Proficient” the state requires that the student be monitored for two years to ensure that students are maintaining successful education standards (12 ways to support English learners in the mainstream classroom 2022) .

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ESL teachers are not required to be bilingual but they do have to be certified (Alien, 2020).

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ESL certification is in high demand in Texas. Huge numbers of English language learners in the state, along with recent certification requirement changes by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), will only continue to drive the need for teachers qualified to teach English as a second language.

By becoming ESL certified in Texas, aspiring teachers can more easily pursue their dream career and fill a pressing need within the state. Here is what you need to know about ESL certification in Texas, and how Teacher Builder can help.

ESL certification in Texas: A growing need

Two factors are driving the need for ESL teachers in Texas. Here is a brief look at both.

English learners

With 1 million English learners representing 18 percent of students in the state, Texas has the highest percentage of English learners in the country. These numbers continue to rise within Texas, representing a pressing need for qualified teachers to support their language learning, particularly in the 13 school districts that have more than 15,000 English learners each.

ESL certification requirement changes

In order to ensure that these English learners receive high quality education and language learning support, the Texas Education Agency recently changed the requirements for ESL certification. These changes broadened the circumstances under which schools needed to provide an ESL-certified teacher for classrooms containing English learners. As a result, school districts require more ESL-certified teachers and often prefer an ESL-certified teacher over one who is not.

In light of these trends, ESL certification is a path worth pursuing for many individuals who are preparing to teach in Texas.

Do all Texas teachers have to be ESL certified?

According to TEA, the certification requirements do not mean that all teachers must possess ESL certification. Instead, they apply only to teachers who work within an ESL program approved by the state.

The expansion of ESL certification requirements beginning in 2018 has led some to wonder whether all teachers must now possess ESL certification in order to work in Texas.

If you want, you can therefore look for school districts that do not require ESL certification in Houston, Texas, or elsewhere.

However, the new requirements do increase the need for ESL-certified teachers within school districts, making certification an extremely desirable quality of teaching candidates and expanding their ability to work across programs, classrooms, and schools. Aspiring teachers would be wise to consider adding ESL certification to their career preparations.

What is ESL certification in Texas and how does an aspiring teacher obtain it?

Certification consists of completing TESOL education requirements and passing a supplemental exam in addition to your content (PPR) exam.

What follows is a look at the basic process aspiring teachers should follow to earn their teaching certification, with the addition of an ESL certification.

1. Fulfill TESOL requirements

All aspiring teachers in Texas must complete a bachelor's degree. In addition, they must complete a teacher education program, either as part of their bachelor degree program or as part of an alternative teacher certification program.

Individuals who wish to become ESL certified must also complete what are called TESOL ( Teaching English to Speakers of Other L anguages) education requirements.

Education courses in TESOL are typically part of an educator preparation course and take the form of a separate degree or certification in addition to your bachelor degree.

Expect to address some of the following topics in your TESOL courses:

Cultural diversity

Linguistics

Pedagogy of learning English

ESL student teaching

Crafting an ESL curriculum

There are a number of avenues you can pursue to complete your TESOL requirements:

As part of an educator preparation program taken as part of your 4-year bachelor degree program at a university or college

As part of an alternative teacher certification program like Teacher Builder

As a separate graduate certification course for teachers who already hold teaching degrees and who wish to add ESL certification to their qualifications.

2. Complete basic skills and PPR exams

Once you have your bachelor degree and have completed your TESOL courses, you will need to take the following tests to receive your teaching certification:

Basic Skills Test

PPR Exam for early childhood (EC) through 12th grade

These tests will demonstrate your competencies in foundational subjects like reading and math and your basic competencies as a teacher. All aspiring teachers in Texas must pass these exams to earn certification.

3. Take the supplemental ESL test

In order to earn your ESL certification for Texas, you will need to take an additional ESL exam that corresponds to the grade level you plan to teach. They are as follows:

ESL Exam 193 for EC through grade 6

ESL Exam 120 for grades 4-8

ESL Exam 154 for grades 9-12 or to add ESL certification to an existing teaching certification

4. Apply for your teaching certification

Once you have passed the required exams, you can apply for your ESL teaching certification. If you are a first-time teacher, you will complete this application as part of your application for your teaching license. This process will include submitting transcripts and test scores and submitting to fingerprinting and a background check.

Prepare through Teacher Builder

If you choose to pursue ESL certification, you will need to pursue a TESOL program as part of your educator preparation course. There is no better place to prepare for your ESL teaching certification than Teacher Builder.

Our full online alternative teacher certification program allows you to study in any of more than 25 areas, including ESL. Fulfill your TESOL, and teaching certification, requirements anytime and anywhere, with a curriculum that is available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Easy, efficient, and flexible, Teacher Builder puts ESL certification at your fingertips. Pursue your dream teaching career today and prepare for one of the thousands of teaching jobs available in Texas every year with a program that allows you to study at your pace and supports you through your first year of teaching.

Call Teacher Builder today to learn more about how our accredited online program can equip you to teach ESL in Texas.

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Want to learn how to become an ESL teacher in Texas? Learn how our accredited online program can equip you to teach ESL in Texas.

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A sign of mastery is being able to teach others. Let the students teach their peers (VERNER, 2021).

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4 Great Grouping Strategies for More Effective ESL Group Work

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This is the oh-so-simple answer to the oh-so-common question, "Why the heck are we doing group work in class?" You might ask yourself this question in more challenging moments, when it has become exceedingly difficult to rally students together, get them to choose groups peacefully, settle them down and have them really get work done together.

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Classroom Strategies: Use Sentence Framing...

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Classroom Strategies: Use Sentence Framing...

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Focus on what they know and help them frame it....(Brakebill, 2018).

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Communicating in the classroom promotes stickiness of concepts and academic vocabulary. Yet, in nearly every classroom, English language learners (ELLs) often struggle to communicate their feelings, ideas, and thoughts because they are not confident about how to phrase things. You may notice that your ELLs don't raise their hands to answer questions in class or don't provide input when working with a partner or a group. The struggle to communicate can stymie both content mastery and academic language acquisition in ELLs, widening the achievement gap between them and their native English-speaking peers.

Improving outcomes for ELLs continues to be an important topic in education and even more so as of late, as federal requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) require an English language proficiency (ELP) indicator in all state plans. One scaffold that teachers can use to help their ELLs communicate more clearly and confidently is using sentence frames.

A sentence frame is a structure with fill-in-the-blank words created for your students to use as a starter to answer questions. Sentence frames can be used for any subject, including math, science, history, and English. For example, an ELA sentence frame for retelling a story could look like: "I think that Bob ____________ his mom because____________." A math sentence frame for studying decimals and describing how the number can be broken apart could look like: "There are ____________ ones and ____________ hundredths in 5.41."

Sentence frames are a great starting point for ELLs to begin forming answers on their own because they aren't having to think about how to correctly phrase an answer and they can instead focus their cognitive effort on the academic content.

Here are some benefits of the use of sentence frames in the classroom:

Sentence frames clarify the instructions.

By providing the students with a structure for their response, they'll already have an idea of what is being asked of them. Remember, ELLs may not understand every word of the instructions, so the sentence frame gives them a better idea of the response you are expecting.

2. Students can focus on learning the content.

Even when ELLs understand the instructions and the type of response they should give, they may still get stuck when it comes time to produce a response because they aren't sure how to phrase it in English. With sentence frames, students can focus on the content because the correct sentence structure is already written for them.

3. Students learn English sentence structure and grammar.

In addition to being able to focus on the content, when using sentence frames, students will also pick up on correct English grammar and sentence structures to use in the future. ELLs can learn more easily by good modeling and repetition.

4. Classroom conversation is enriched.

Once students feel confident speaking up in class, they will start to do it all the time. Sentence frames are a helpful tool when you are looking to get discussions moving in the classroom because they give students a place to start conversation and share opinions.

Creating Sentence Frames

To create a sentence frame, start with the end goal in mind. What are you wanting your students to get out of using them? Before creating your structures, decide what your focus will be. Do you want your ELLs to learn specific vocabulary or just learn how to structure an answer? Once all of that is decided, consider their language level and what type of sentence you should present them with. Next, go ahead and create the sentence structures, leaving blanks where you want the students to provide their thoughts. Use simple structures and words with beginning ELLs, and make the language more complicated as students become more advanced. Finally, creating a word bank can be especially helpful for students in the early stages of English-language acquisition.

For example, if I were a teacher currently focusing on vocabulary, I could create a few sentences with blanks where I want them to insert the words we are learning. Let's say that my students are learning the words "adopt" and "absorb." To use sentence frames, I would create some structures where my students can fill in the vocabulary words:

____________ means to soak up something.

____________ means to take in and take care of a person or animal.

As my students would begin learning the vocabulary, I could add new sentence frames to give students context or simplify a specific one into a general frame to be used across content areas.

You can use a paper towel to ____________ a ____________.

My family will ____________ a ____________.

____________ means to ____________.

Looking for more strategies for working with English language learners? Check out our blog posts on preparing ELLs for high-stakes testing and supporting ELLs in a mainstream classroom.

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Why You Should Be Supporting Your English Language Learners with Sentence Frames

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Improving outcomes for ELLs continues to be an important topic in education and even more so as of late, as federal requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) require an English language proficiency (ELP) indicator in all state plans. One scaffold that teachers can use to help their ELLs communicate more clearly and confidently is using sentence frames.

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Build upon what they know. Build confidence and engagement (Haynes).

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In this blog, I am going to highlight how teachers of ELs can meet the language needs of their students through scaffolding. Teachers need to take into account the language demands that ELs face in content classrooms and use scaffolding to meet these demands. When teachers scaffolds lessons, they break down the language into manageable pieces or chunks. This way, students can be given the necessary support to understand the information provided in the lesson. Here are four ways of scaffolding lessons when ELs need support during a content area lesson.
1. Connect new information to prior experiences and learning.
Introduce new concepts by linking them to what ELs already know. The goal for teachers should be to provide comprehensible input to students. Teachers need to consider what schema ELs bring to the classroom and to link instruction to the students' personal, cultural, and world experiences. Teachers should also strive to make the information relevant to ELs and to understand how culture impacts learning in their classroom.
2. Preteach academic vocabulary.
Previewing and preteaching new vocabulary words is a scaffold necessary to help ELs understand academic content. We can't do this by giving ELs a list of vocabulary words from a unit and having them look up the words in a dictionary. ELs will not know which definition applies to the context of the word, and they won't understand the definition. They require direct instruction of new vocabulary. Teachers should also provide practice in pronouncing new words and multiple exposures to new terms, words, idioms, and phrases. Word walls should be used at all grade levels.
3. Use graphic organizers to make lessons more visual.
I can't say enough about the importance of employing all kinds of visual supports when teaching ELs. The most important scaffold for teaching content-area material is the use of graphic organizers. Teachers need to use organizers such as webs, Venn diagrams, and charts to help them better comprehend academic texts and organize information. Graphic organizers can also help students develop higher level thinking skills and promote creativity.
4. Support EL writing by using sentence frames.
Sentence frames allow ELs to use key content area vocabulary when writing. Frames provide structure so that ELs can produce sentences on their own. When scaffolding writing, teachers need to provide a sentence frame. The blanks can be located in the beginning, middle, or end of sentences. ELs can be required to fill in one word or more to finish the sentence. Here is an excellent lesson on Teacher Tube that illustrates using sentence frames to jumpstart EL writing.

Do you have a scaffold that you'd like to share? Post a comment in the box below to communicate your strategies to colleagues.

About Judie Haynes

Judie Haynes taught elementary ESL for 28 years and is the author and coauthor of eight books for teachers of ELs , the most recent being "Teaching to Strengths: Supporting Students Living with Trauma, Violence and Chronic Stress" with Debbie Zacarian and Lourdes Alvarez-Ortiz. She was a columnist for the TESOL publication "Essential Teacher" and is also cofounder and comoderator of the Twitter Chat for teachers of English learners #ELLCHAT.

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| 4 Strategies for Scaffolding Instruction for ELs

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In this blog, I am going to highlight how teachers of ELs can meet the language needs of their students through scaffolding. Teachers need to take into account the language demands that ELs face in content classrooms and use scaffolding to meet these demands.

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Help comprehension with visuals (GONZALEZ, 2022).

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nonlinguistic representation

( noun) Expression of an idea in a way that goes beyond the use of words: diagrams, pictures, graphic organizers, 3D models, movement, demonstrations, role-plays, simulations, or mental images.

Overview: One way to teach something is to explain it, either verbally or in writing. This is a linguistic way of presenting that information - using language only. But most people learn concepts better when they are also presented in other, nonlinguistic ways: For the most part, this means visually or through some kind of movement. If you've ever heard a guy stop in the middle of an explanation and say Hold on, let me draw you a picture, that guy is getting ready to sit you down for a big heaping plate of nonlinguistic representation.

If you're a teacher, you should know that nonlinguistic representation can help you make any concept stick better. Although some content areas, like PE and art, lend themselves more naturally to this technique, you'd be amazed to discover how well it works with everything else, too. Any time you notice that students aren't "getting" something, it's time to switch gears and stop trying to explain it with words. Your efforts don't need to be fancy, either. Usually the tools you need to represent an idea nonlinguistically are right in front of you:
Say you're having trouble getting your fourth graders to understand the relationship between the sun, the earth, and the seasons. Grab a couple of kids and make one be the sun and one be the earth. Then start spinning them around accordingly. From that day forward, no kid in that class will ever forget that Gina's head got kind of cold when she moved away from Anthony. Or suppose you've tried to explain to your 8th graders just how many American Indians were wiped out by disease after Europeans began settling in the New World, but the numbers don't seem to be sinking in. To get the point across, you pour 300 green M&M's into a tray, representing the native population before European settlement. Using blue M&M's to represent the European settlers, you read a description of key events of European settlement, adding blue candies and removing green ones as you go, until the tray is crowded with blue and students have a visual picture how small the native population has become. Or maybe your seniors are sleeping through a long section of landscape description in Wuthering Heights. Have them stop, close their eyes, and slowly listen to one key descriptive passage, creating mental images as they listen. (Yes, there is still language involved here, but the focus is on the image-making and really feeling what it's like to live on the Yorkshire moors. Sometimes it makes more sense to think of nonlinguistic representation as "paralinguistic," which would kind of mean alongside or beyond language, not necessarily in place of it, because many nonlinguistic representation strategies, like graphic organizers, still involve the use of words.)
If you're a parent, you should understand that when your child comes home from school with doodles on his science worksheet, or her math homework asks her to represent an equation with pictures, the school isn't wasting your kid's time. Those drawings are actually part of sound instruction. You can help by asking your child to explain his picture to you, or if she is having trouble coming up with a drawing for a particular concept, brainstorm with her - the key is helping her remember the concept, and that conversation with you will help embed it even further into her brain.

What Backs it Up: Nonlinguistic representation is an incredibly powerful tool for teaching. Plenty of research supports this contention, but probably the most substantial and recent is this: In a 2009 meta-analysis on instructional strategies, Robert Marzano and his colleagues found that when teachers used nonlinguistic representation, student achievement increased an average of 17 percentile points. Not too shabby, eh?
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Know Your Terms: Nonlinguistic Representation

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If you've ever heard a guy stop in the middle of an explanation and say, "Hold on, let me draw you a picture," that dude is fixing to serve you a heaping plate of nonlinguistic representation.

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Actively Connect ESL Families Resilient Educator (How to help create an ELL community for students: Resilient educator 2020),

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Educators in both primary and secondary settings are looking for innovative ways to engage ELL (English Language Learners) students that will improve language acquisition efficiency. To accomplish this goal, some classroom teachers are looking to professional development strategies. Creating a learning community that is supportive and encouraging and that works toward a shared goal is one approach that is producing results.

Creating a community for ELL students

In New Jersey, as in other states, educators are embracing professional development standards designed to give teachers more insight into the benefits of creating communities within school systems that foster better outcomes.

The primary objective for New Jersey schools that have chosen to incorporate professional development as a means to reach more ELL students is to improve student performance through the implementation of high-functioning, collaborative efforts to create successful communities.

These collective efforts work to achieve better results by creating individual teams to monitor several areas of progress. These teams are designated to monitor or address areas like the ones listed below..

Key sectors

Reviewing measurable data related to student progress

Analyzing student work-product

Identifying strategies that improve or enhance learning

Developing or modifying lesson plans

Establishing qualitative measurement guidelines for classrooms

Rewarding successful outcomes through continuing support

According to Education Week staff writer Lesli A. Maxwell, school districts often struggle to find ways to include parents who do not speak English in the school community. In her article titled Ark. District Asks Former ELLs to Return as Bilingual Teachers, Maxwell praises the efforts the Springdale, Ark. school districts that are making an effort to engage students' family.

Jim Rollins, the current superintendent of schools, champions programs and funding options for former ELL students to encourage them to find their way back into the classroom as teachers. By enlisting former non-English speaking students to train and teach in the classroom, the cultural as well as educational aspects of the program are improved and a more inviting community for students and their families is fostered. This approach serves a two-fold purpose. First, it encourages current students and it also provides continued support to former students as they continue to build community ties.

Ways teachers can help ELL students create a community

Classroom teachers can help students build a community that connects through common native languages and cultural similarities. In addition, teachers can encourage their students to focus on activities that increase positive outcomes by utilizing strategies that require group participation.

1. Foster team collaboration

2. Encourage students to define team goals

3. Establish common learning objectives

4. Enlist former ELL students

5. Involve family and support networks in school projects or events

Changing the mindset

According to Linguistics specialist and educator Mari Haneda, it is important to consider what these students are doing each day in their own communities outside of the classroom in order to set up effective learning communities on educational campuses.

The abstract for Haneda's 2008 paper, published in the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism discussing ELL students in United States middle schools, brings home the importance of understanding the diversity that is involved in these students' daily lives. They already serve as translators for family and friends, engage in adult level negotiations for non-English speaking family members and strive to live up to academic and cultural expectations. Exploring opportunities to use these daily activities and bilingual learning platforms serves to strengthen community engagement.

Haneda suggests that teachers move away from focusing on acquisition and work toward participation as a way to provide community success. She also suggests observing students closely to discover both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators for individual students.

Classroom community

In order for the classroom teacher to help her students create a true community that fosters more successful outcomes, schools must accept that change is not going to happen overnight. School district leadership must search for creative ways to encourage students to apply English to their daily lives, making transitions from home to school more fluid and less stressful. Teachers who provide participation opportunities for their students throughout the school day and across all subjects in more practical and applicable ways, should see the number of positive results among their students begin to rise.

Further professional development for ELL educators

Stay updated on best practices and strategies for educating ELL students. Our ESOL Curriculum & Instruction program provides the knowledge to help you develop instructional strategies. Promote learning for students whose native language is not English. Click here to read more information about the program and to apply.

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How to Help Create an ELL Community for Students | Resilient Educator

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Educators in both primary and secondary settings are looking for innovative ways to engage ELL (English Language Learners) students that will improve language

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No need to recreate the wheel, follow these simple ideas for creating your parent engagement plan.

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1718 Designee training How to write an effective

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The more involved the parents are the more at home support children will receive.

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Parent Engagement: Embrace Their Culture

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Parent Engagement: Embrace Their Culture

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Understanding the cultural differences teachers can avoid misunderstanding with parents and develop strong rapport.