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Considerations for Developing Engaging Prompts

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Considerations for Developing Engaging Prompts

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

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Peer-Learning Routines to Scaffold Instruction

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Peer-Learning Routines to Scaffold Instruction

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Albuquerque teacher Ali Nava walks her students through a cooperative paragraph summarizing the beginning, middle, and end of Burro's Tortillas and uses the exercise as an opportunity to practice their writing skills.

School Name: Lew Wallace Elementary School, Albuquerque, NM

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Ali Nava is an elementary teacher in Albuquerque, New Mexico and a member of the first-grade cadre in our Common Core in Albuquerque project.In this video, Ali walks her students through a cooperative paragraph summarizing Burro's Tortillas, a southwestern adaptation of the classic folk tale "The Little Red Hen."

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Colorín Colorado

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Albuquerque teacher Ali Nava walks her students through a cooperative paragraph summarizing the beginning, middle, and end of Burro's Tortillas and uses the exercise as an opportunity to practice their writing skills.

School Name: Lew Wallace Elementary School, Albuquerque, NM

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Ali Nava is an elementary teacher in Albuquerque, New Mexico and a member of the first-grade cadre in our Common Core in Albuquerque project.In this video, Ali walks her students through a cooperative paragraph summarizing Burro's Tortillas, a southwestern adaptation of the classic folk tale "The Little Red Hen."

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Supporting Online Synchronous Collaborative Writing in the Secondary Classroom

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Supporting Online Synchronous Collaborative Writing in the Secondary Classroom

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Steiss, 2020

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Our students live varied and complex literate lives outside the classroom. Adolescents write in online forums, create fanfiction in digital writing communities, and participate in literacy activities as community organizers and activists. One way we as educators can recognize the diverse and expanding literacies of adolescents is by providing diverse writing opportunities in the secondary classroom, for example, online collaborative writing. By implementing evidence-based practices to support online collaborative writing, educators can increase the engagement and relevance of classroom writing tasks, help students gain important communication skills to participate in 21st century work and civic life, and support students' development of critical literacy skills essential for an information society.

The authors of this article, including the WRITE Center's Dr. Jenell Krishnan, describe ways that teachers can incorporate synchronous (writing in real-time) collaborative writing in their writing instruction through a hybrid approach. This approach emphasizes face‐to‐face and online opportunities for students to write and learn from and with their peers. Such writing responds to evolving educational standards that recognize the capacity for collaboration through online platforms like Google Docs, the expanding definition of literacy (NCTE, 2020), and the need for 21st century skills. For example, the National Education Association highlights the importance of the " Four Cs" to be emphasized across content areas and through learning opportunities. Online Synchronous Collaborative Writing (SCW) addresses the 4Cs because students

use critical thinking skills to support group writing goals;

collaborate on how to add, edit, and delete text;

communicate concerns when the writing moves are misaligned with a student's sense of writer's craft; and

use creative solutions to negotiate online group dynamics.

Defining Online SCW as " the social and technical act of real-time planning, drafting, and revising a text with others using a digital writing platform" (p.136), the authors outline the following considerations when introducing online SCW in the classroom: ​

What instructional sequence will best meet my students' needs?

How much modeling and practice time do they need?

What writing skills and interpersonal factors will positively impact groups' writing process and progress?

While intentionally reflecting on these questions will help educators plan and implement online SCW, the authors also provide the following insights:

Simultaneously learning how to collaborate and write in a new genre is difficult. Thus, some classroom writing tasks necessarily require more complex thinking and skills and may not be conducive to online collaborative writing immediately. Instead, practice online SCW with a familiar genre at first so students can build on their collaboration or write using Google Docs. Planning is an important component before beginning such work. Knowing the demands of the genre, students can plan together how they will approach the text and set their own norms of collaboration (i.e., "we will not edit other's words when they are typing).

Source: IES Educator's Practice Guide for Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively

Source: Krishnan, Yim, Wolters, & Cusimano, 2019

Grouping students who vary in writing ability may provide scaffolded opportunities for students to learn from their peers. Assigning roles to students may also be useful as each student has a concrete responsibility and clearly defined way to contribute to their group's success and learning. The following table shows three roles-time keeper, goal monitor, and facilitator. During remote instruction, the time keeper role may need to be replaced with other roles. For example, during a process-based writing approach where a teacher uses the Google Comments function to leave in-line feedback, students could submit their drafts with comments on areas they'd like feedback. In this case, a Comment Maker role might be in need.

Source: Krishnan, Yim, Wolters, & Cusimano, 2019

It is also important to highlight the teacher's role in creating an inclusive and safe space for collaboration. This is as essential in online collaborative work as it is during face to face group work. One way the teacher's role is key is in setting clear and explicit instructions about what effective collaboration (as opposed to a "divide and conquer" strategy) looks like. This also happens by normalizing tensions that typically arise during online SCW and offering students ways to resolve them while in their groups. The authors recognize that building a safe, inclusive, supportive classroom culture that promotes peer-to-peer collaboration takes trust and time. Providing students with multiple experiences within the same groups offers them an opportunity to build on their previously determined norms of collaboration.

​Research suggests the best feedback during the writing process is clear, constructive, and actionable. To help students provide productive feedback during collaborative writing, it is important that teachers model what good feedback looks and sounds like. It is also important to discuss when feedback is most helpful. Establishing a specific time during the writing process for formative assessment will also help facilitate timely feedback. Teachers can use rubrics for students to engage in formative assessment as seen in this previous blog. After such an assessment, students should have opportunities to collaboratively revise. This could occur with students working synchronously, when possible.

Students and teachers need to be aware of relative contributions and interactions in the online space. This promotes ownership of the task and ensures all students are participating and contributing. One important tool teachers can use is AuthorViz.

Source: Krishnan, Yim, Wolters, & Cusimano, 2019

This free add-on can be downloaded by teachers and students, and it shows how each student contributed to final product in a shared Google Doc. However, teachers should also acknowledge other ways of engaging like adding comments, dictating their thoughts, creating planning documents, and other forms of communication. In this way, AuthorViz is only a snapshot of how students may be engaging during online SCW. Nonetheless, this tool might help teachers understand whether groups are taking a balanced approach to online SCW, a pattern linked to longer, more effective writing in undergraduate writers.

Although circulating the classroom may not be possible in the near future, observing writers' interactions and offering feedback can occur during remote instruction. For example, teachers can observe their groups' interactions through weekly small group video groups' conferencing. (An appointment tool might help organize this.) Teachers might also sit in on groups' synchronous writing as a way of providing opportunities for just-in-time Q and A. Teachers can also offer feedback verbally using Notability or another audio tool, or in written form using the Comment function. You can find other tips for integrating technology tools into the writing process here.

Finally, teaching online SCW remotely offers teachers the opportunity to model the 4Cs for their student-groups. We will all need to think critically about issues of equity, access, and opportunities during the 20-21 school year. We'll also have to communicate with students in ways that work best for them. We'll also have to get creative and be flexible, centering students' experiences as they navigate a new way of learning. Finally, and, perhaps more importantly than ever before, we'll need to collaborate across and within grade levels with our colleagues to design learning opportunities that meet the needs of all learners. While online SCW can have many moving parts and requires digital literacy, a thoughtful and gradual approach to implementing this type of writing into instruction will help students develop the social, technical, and traditional skills that are a part of the expanding definition of literacy.

Full article: Krishnan, J., Yim, S., Wolters, A., & Cusimano, A. (2019). Supporting Online Synchronous Collaborative Writing in the Secondary Classroom. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 63(2), 135-145.

Interested in guest blogging for the National WRITE Center? See our guidelines by clicking here.

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Supporting Online Synchronous Collaborative Writing in the Secondary Classroom

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Linguistic Autobiographies Unit Plan Summary

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Linguistic Autobiographies Unit Plan Summary

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California Department of Education's English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework

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Mentor Sentence Video Examples - Patterns of Power

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Mentor Sentence Video Examples - Patterns of Power

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Anderson & LaRocca

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Teacher Resource Books for Multi-Grade Lessons
Multi-grade lesson planning resources ideal for differentiating instruction

Grade-level Specific Grammar Resources
Classroom-ready resources for 10-minute, grade-level specific lessons for grades 1-5

Free Resources
Additional resources that offer a deeper dive into the Patterns of Power approach

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Patterns of Power Family of Resources A flexible collection of resources that supports an authentic, inquiry-based approach to grammar instruction by inviting students to uncover and appreciate writing's beauty and meaning. Teacher Resource Books for Multi-Grade LessonsMulti-grade lesson planning resources ideal for di

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As more schools continue to adopt 1:1 in their buildings, the desire to reduce paper and enable ease of sharing within a students' and teachers' workflow has greatly increased. Awhile ago, we published a post that had several Google Apps templates for things like instagram posts, facebook pages, tweets, and more. That has been a very popular post and many of you have requested additional templates for use with things like graphic organizers and popular educational models (Frayer, for instance).

While I am a huge advocate of not confining ourselves to using one handout or constraining thinking into one format, providing students with an assortment of tools that will allow them to organize their thinking in a way that makes sense allows for student choice, differentiation, and individualization.

Consider providing the tools below as options for kids to help organize their thinking. And, since they live within the Google Apps ecosystem, they are extremely easy to share with groups of students or directly back with the teacher.

Have a template that you'd like to see created? Leave me a note in the comments.

As always, the "Preview" link will show you the template, the "Copy" link will force copy the doc into your Drive, automatically.

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8 Editable Graphic Organizer Templates for Google Apps

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As more schools continue to adopt 1:1 in their buildings, the desire to reduce paper and enable ease of sharing within a students' and teachers' workflow has greatly increased. Awhile ago, we publi...

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Austin's Butterfly: Building Excellence in Student Work

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Ron Berger from EL Education demonstrates the transformational power of models, critique, and descriptive feedback to improve student work. Here he tells the story of Austin's Butterfly. First-grade students at ANSER Charter School in Boise, ID, helped Austin take a scientific illustration of a butterfly through multiple drafts toward a high-quality final product.

This video accompanies the book Leaders of Their Own Learning: Transforming Schools through Student-Engaged Assessment.

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Strategy Overview

How This Strategy Supports Language Development

Engineering or amplifying texts provides in-text support so that students can read grade-level text that would otherwise be beyond their reading comprehension level. These embedded text supports can include chunking the text, adding labeled visuals, inserting synonyms after academic terms, and adding headings or guiding questions for each chunk.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Chunk an original text into shorter sections (one to two paragraphs/ chunk).

Add a guiding question or heading with the main idea above each chunk.

Add synonyms in parentheses next to transferable academic words.

Add images with captions associated with key ideas.

Add translated words or cognates for key words.

Lessons Learned

When possible, engineer texts on a slide. This makes inserting headings, images with captions, and synonyms easier.

Since engineering a text takes time, carefully choose essential passages from a text for this process. Engineering a multiple page article or chapter from a novel is not practical in most cases.

Teach students to read the synonyms in the parentheses.

Give students practice reading engineered texts before presenting this version of a text on an assessment.

Work with a small group of students who would benefit from guided reading of an engineered text.

Differentiation

Entering/Emerging

Engineer a text at the student's reading level.

Read the text aloud or make a voice recording of the text.

For students who are literate in their heritage language, add translations of transferable academic words.

Developing

For challenging or complex sentences, offer a summarization of that sentence in parentheses.

For students who are literate in their heritage language, add translations of transferable academic words.

Expanding

Engineer only the most complex sentences.

Add headings to longer sections of text.

Co-Teaching Considerations

Content or Grade-Level Teacher

Choose the grade-level text for the class.

Identify the key passages or paragraphs.

English Language Development Teacher

Engineer essential paragraphs for the multilingual learners in the class.

Walk your teaching partner through the process so that they can use this strategy independently as well.

Examples

The following slide shows an example of text chunking and engineering that includes:
Text source: Plants in Acadia National Park

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Strategy OverviewHow This Strategy Supports Language DevelopmentEngineering or amplifying texts provides in-text support so that students can read grade-level text that would otherwise be beyond their reading comprehension level.

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Sample group roles that can be used in SFUSD math group work using SFUSD math curriculum. C&I math.

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Cue Signals and Questions to Support Language Use

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Cue Signals and Questions to Support Language Use

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Sample Focused Listening and Nonverbal Communication Peer and Self-Assessment

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Sample Focused Listening and Nonverbal Communication Peer and Self-Assessment

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Zwiers & Hamerla, 2018

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Jeff Zwiers

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Shanahan on Literacy: How Can We Take Advantage of the Reading Writing Relationship

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Shanahan on Literacy: How Can We Take Advantage of the Reading Writing Relationship

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Shanahan, 2020

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Reading Writing Relationships | Shanahan on Literacy

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Reading Writing Relationships, This entry explores three major ways that reading and writing can be combined in the classroom to enhance literacy achievement.

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Reaping the Rewards of the Reading for Understanding Initiative

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Reaping the Rewards of the Reading for Understanding Initiative

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De-Mystifying Complex Texts: What are "Complex" Texts and How Can We Ensure ELLs and MLs Can Access Them?

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De-Mystifying Complex Texts: What are "Complex" Texts and How Can We Ensure ELLs and MLs Can Access Them?

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E. Billings and A. Walqui

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Elsa Billings and AídaWalqui, WestEd

Complex Text and English Language Learners (ELLs) and Multilingual Learners (MLs)

The New York state P-12 Common Core Learning Standards for English Language Arts (ELA) and Literacy ("the Standards") state that students graduating from high school should be able to "read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently." This challenging goal for learning is not unique to students' high school years. Rather, it is embedded in the learning standards throughout the K-12 grades so that students develop this ability over time, a skill that ultimately they will need throughout their lives. In addition, the ELA standards require that students engage with complex texts across a variety of disciplines. Comprehending text in different disciplines involves understanding the purposes, concepts, structural organization and language use unique to those disciplines, a consideration about learning in most disciplines that has typically not been explicitly addressed.

Because the idea of complex text permeates all the disciplines and levels of schooling, concern about its implications for teaching goes far beyond the high school English teacher. The new focus on complex texts across the disciplines generalizes these concerns (about not only how to select appropriate text materials but also how to support students in reading and comprehending complex texts) to all teachers. These concerns become particularly heightened when we consider English Language Learners (ELLs) and Multilingual Learners (MLs) in our classrooms, the students who are simultaneously asked to read and comprehend complex texts in a language they are still learning.

What is a "Complex Text"?

According to the Standards complexity is defined along three dimensions:

Quantitative elements of a text such as word length, word frequency, and sentence length;

Qualitative factors of a text such as text meaning or purpose, text structure, language conventions and clarity; and

Reader and task considerations that reflect characteristics of a specific reader, such as the reader's background, motivation, and knowledge about the topic, and the specific task, such as the purpose and complexity of the task and the questions asked.

The Challenges of a Narrow Focus on Quantitative Dimensions of Complexity

Although the Standards identify three elements in defining text complexity, emphasis is placed on the quantitative dimension, a dimension that can be easily measured. This narrow focus on the quantitative aspects of text is problematic for numerous reasons and can lead to instructional challenges that are particularly amplified for ELLs and MLs. Specifically, when the emphasis is on quantitative measures, the focus is shifted away from the reader and the substance of the text and equally if not more important factors are minimized, such as the reader's interest in and knowledge of the topic, familiarity with the text genre, and understanding of a text's purpose. As a result, we fail to consider the particular difficulties ELLs and MLs face in accessing a text and rely on strategies that are less than ideal for them.

Thus, when considering text complexity, it is useful to move beyond examining only quantitative features to consider the following questions:

What makes a specific text difficult for my students?

How can I, as a teacher, make a text more accessible to my students?

What Are the Particular Difficulties of Texts for ELLs and MLs?

Text difficulty refers to challenges a reader experiences with particular texts under specific conditions. For ELLs and MLs, challenges in accessing a text can arise from a multitude of factors, some of which have to do with their own prior experience (e.g., level of schooling, literacy in their native language) and some have to do with the instructional context (e.g., counterproductive use of simplified texts, learning tasks that discourage engagement in reading, and insufficient support for developing metacognitive reading skills). What follows is a more detailed discussion of these factors that can be controlled by teachers, followed by strategies that teachers can employ to support students' access to, interaction with, and learning from complex text.

Simplified text

Simplified text is text that has been rewritten with the intention of being understood by second language learners.

The Counterintuitive Effect and Challenge of Simplification
In order to support ELLs' and MLs' access to challenging texts, a common strategy used by some publishers and teachers is to revise and "simplify" texts for ELLs and MLs. This strategy is guided by the mistaken notion that fewer quantitative elements (e.g., word frequency count, sentence length, count) automatically make a text more comprehensible and, conversely, that a text with increased linguistic complexity makes it less comprehensible. In reality, the reverse is true for ELLs and MLs. With a focus on simplifying the linguistic features of a text, the elements that precisely make writ- ten language comprehensible are taken away. For example, while connectors make a sentence longer, they both alert and clearly establish the meaningful connection between the propositions made within a text. Eliminating these important text features leaves the ELL and ML readers with little syntactic and semantic cohesion to support understanding. The time, effort, and intent of the teacher who has worked so hard to create a comprehensible text for her ELL and ML students, has unknowingly provided her ELLs and MLs with a text that has so little natural linguistic material to work with, it is actually more challenging to comprehend. For example, note the lack of cohesion and the inauthentic nature of the following simplified text (Yano, Long, & Ross, 1994, p. 193, as cited in Bunch, Walqui, & Pearson, 2014):

Original Text: Because he had to work at night to support his family, Paco often fell asleep in class.

Simplified Text: Paco had to make money for his family. Paco worked at night. He often went to sleep in class.

As this example demonstrates, a text that has been pared down can often be more complex and difficult for ELLs and MLs as it challenges them to make sense of themes and concepts with minimal linguistic clues to do so. Contrary to what we might expect, simplifying a text becomes a case not of "less is more" but rather "less is more complex"!

The Challenge of Engagement

Engagement refers both to a student's direct interaction with the text as well as pedagogically guided activity through specified reading tasks. For ELLs and MLs, challenges in accessing a text can lead to disengagement if they have inadequate support, struggle excessively to process it, or if they cannot relate to the text. Similarly, ELLs and MLs may disengage if the tasks related to the text are not an appropriate match for the text and/or goals of the lesson, are not well-scaffolded or fail to pique their interest. Initial learning cannot take place without the active engagement of the learner. Challenges of engagement reside mainly within the lack of activating background knowledge, inad- equate scaffolding, including the development of metacognitive skills.

Lack of background knowledge activation

Background knowledge - knowledge students have which was learned through formal and informal learning experi- ences - is essential for reading comprehension, task engagement, and content learning. When a teacher assigns either a text or a task that does little to draw on ELLs' and MLs' prior experiences and understandings, they are likely to struggle with comprehension of the text and with successful engagement in the task.

Lack of metacognitive development

Metacognition, having awareness of what is and is not understood in a text, and what one may do to enhance understanding, is a critical skill used by efficient readers throughout the reading process. Metacognition helps students become autonomous readers and is developed through activities undertaken prior to, during, and after engagement with a text. ELLs and MLs who have not been taught metacognitive development skills are less likely to approach read- ing in a strategic manner, have fewer reading comprehension strategies to draw on, and are less likely to monitor and evaluate their own reading processes and understanding. In fact, we could say that metacognition is part of the road to autonomy in learning. Conversely, the lack of metacognitive skills not only has a negative impact on reading efficiency, but also comprehension, and engagement in reading in general. A learner who is not aware of what he does not understand, and what he may apply to repair this lack of understanding, is lost.

Lack of metalinguistic development

Metalinguistic awareness, a type of metacognition, refers to an awareness of how language is used in different types of texts. It alerts students to the purposes, organization of language, and the realization that language structures can be manipulated. Good readers have developed an understanding of text organization and structure across genres and disciplines which they apply as they read a text. For example, they understand that in a non-fiction recount, such as a biography, the purpose is to recount episodes from another person's life. Furthermore, they learn that in this type of text events are typically presented in chronological order beginning with when the person was born. For ELLs and MLs, a lack of metalinguistic knowledge of text structure can lead to less than efficient reading, lack of comprehension, and frustration.

How Can We Make Complex Text More Accessible to ELLs and MLs?

Here we present two ways of making texts more accessible to ELLs and MLs: pedagogical scaffolding and text engineering. Together, these strategies can address the difficulties of ELLs and MLs face in accessing challenging texts.

Pedagogical Scaffolding

Pedagogical scaffolding occurs when the teacher invites students to engage in activities before, during, and after reading a text which provide them with opportunities to make sense of, analyze, connect and finally apply their newly gained understanding in novel situations. Pedagogical scaffolding supports students in developing essential skills to tackle difficult text both now and in the future. Important pedagogical scaffolds for ELLs and MLs include thoughtful selection of engaging texts and tasks in which we activate or build on students' background knowledge, support the development of students' metacognitive skills and their metalinguistic awareness.

Background knowledge

When a teacher carefully selects a text and prepares students with tasks which activate or build needed background knowledge (e.g., inviting them to read in a jigsaw format about life during the times of Shakespeare before they be- gin to read Macbeth), engagement in both text and task is optimized and learning new information becomes easier. Therefore, it is critical that we as educators get to know our students, including their interests, strengths, and prior learning and use this information as we select texts and design learning tasks.

Metacognitive skill development

Time is taken to explicitly model and teach ELLs and MLs metacognitive skills can lead to increased development of strategies and resources. These are further amplified when the student draws on both L1 and L2 metacognitive resources to successfully engage in strategic reading. The idea is to support students with critical skill development so that challenges in reading can be handled in the moment, to then build on students' ability to handle challenges in the future. In this way, a teacher supports students' growth of autonomy in the reading process and their agency as learners.

Metalinguistic awareness

It is critical that we explicitly, and in interactive and powerful ways, teach ELLs and MLs text structures, along with their accompanying discourse signals, and how to apply this knowledge while reading. Furthermore, given that many English words are derived from Greek and Latin, ELLs and MLs who speak a romance language can be additionally supported to recognize the many cognates, words that are similar in spelling and meaning, that exist between the languages. Cognates then become additional metalinguistic resources ELLs and MLs can use as they tackle challenging texts.

Text Engineering

Text engineering involves 1) strategic amplification (not simplification) of the language of a text through additional linguistic clues and redundancy and 2) adaptation

Addressing text difficulty in action: Text engineering

Below is an example of text engineering in which the text has been "chunked" into units. Above each chunk, subtitles and focus questions have been inserted so as to alert the student to the most important information without revealing everything. Also included are pictures to help students visualize what they are reading, captions which elaborate on terminology that is new for learners, as well as a space in the margin for taking notes [refer to print version of this brief].

UNIT: Informational Texts
LESSON: Reading and Writing Informational Text

Group 1
Cheyenne Emerick:
A Dream Turned Nightmare

Cheyenne Emerick used to be a happy, carefree snowboarder. Now he never knows when an epileptic seizure will send him crashing and thrashing to the ground. As the uncontrollable fits take over his body, he jerks, roars, and screeches. Saliva foams out of his mouth. He is not aware of a fit when it is going on. But when it is over, he says that he can tell how intense a seizure was by the look on the faces of the people around him. "They're always, always scared out of their minds," he says.

Cheyenne was interviewed by Michael Paul Mason, who wrote about him, and other people with brain injuries, in a book called Head Cases. This is Cheyenne's story.
An Accident on the Mountain
How did Cheyenne's accident happen? How did he get injured?
When Cheyenne Emerick and his friends started snowboarding, they rode the icy slopes of Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine - as fast as they could. Like many young people, they thought they were invincible, that no harm could come to them even as they flew down the mountain at sixty miles per hour or soared through the air.

A snowboarding magazine took photographs and wrote about Cheyenne and his friends. After that, they thought they were special, that they could do anything. They decided to tackle the mountain that is every snowboarder's dream, the dramatic Snowbird Mountain in Utah.

The boys said goodbye to their families and headed west.

On Cheyenne's first day at Snowbird, he looked down from the chair-lift that was taking him to the top of the mountain. He was excited to see that the trail down would take him over a thirty-foot cliff,

We hope you found the ideas in this brief informative and useful. Please see our other briefs for additional information on pedagogical issues related to the effective instruction of ELLs and MLs.

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Topic Brief 3: De-Mystifying Complex Texts: What are "Complex" Texts and How Can We Ensure ELLs and MLs Can Access Them?

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Elsa Billings and AídaWalqui, WestEd The New York state P-12 Common Core Learning Standards for English Language Arts (ELA) and Literacy ("the Standards") state that students graduating from high school should be able to "read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently."

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Meaningful Classroom Talk: Supporting English Learners Oral Language Development

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Meaningful Classroom Talk: Supporting English Learners Oral Language Development

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A. Walqui & M. Heritage, 2018

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Consider this interaction between a teacher and his students, most of them English language learners, in a ninth-grade English language arts class:

Teacher: Who wrote The Pearl, Carmen?

Carmen: Steinbeck wrote The Pearl.

Teacher: Very good. And Rosa, who is the main character in this novella?

Rosa: I guess the main character is Kino, although his wife, Juana, is also important.

Teacher: That's right. And why do we say The Pearl is a novella? Jim?

Now contrast it with the interaction other ninth-graders had in their English language arts/English language development class:

Teacher: As we begin to explore this short story, "The Necklace," written by a French author from the 19th century, Guy de Maupassant, I am inviting you to read the first four paragraphs with your partner using types of "Question-Answer Relationships."* We have practiced this process several times, so unless we require some explanation-[students signal they do not]-then, please get started. As you engage in reading and discussing, I would like you to focus on the character Mathilde and think about what kind of person she is. We will then focus on the problem she faces.

Rodrigo (after reading the first paragraph of "The Necklace" aloud to his partner, Martha): OK, I am going to ask you a "think and search" question. Did Mathilde grow up in a rich family?

Martha: I am not sure. I think no, because the paragraph says she could not marry a "rich and distinguished man" and had to marry a little clerk. Is that an employee? [Rodrigo nods his assent.] I guess it is because she is not rich. But she was very pretty and charming, right?

So now I am going to read the second paragraph. [She proceeds to read aloud to Rodrigo, then pauses and thinks.] I am confused, so I guess I will ask you a think and search question. The text says "with women there is neither caste nor rank, for beauty, grace and charm take the place of family and birth." Is the author saying that for women, money does not matter? Why did she marry a clerk then?

Rodrigo: Yeah, I agree. I don't fully understand. You said she was pretty but not rich. Now the second paragraph says that's in place of family and birth, so does that mean richness? Does it not matter if women are pretty? Does it matter or doesn't it matter? [Both students decide to raise these questions later during the whole-class discussion. Then Rodrigo proceeds to read the third paragraph to Martha.]

We have all observed classes resembling the first example, where the teacher already knows the answers to the questions being asked, as do most students. The exchange is just an exercise in reiterating the known using complete sentences. In contrast, students in the second example must actively consider the possibilities related to the text, by asking and responding to questions that reveal their understanding.

How do we ensure that all English language learners have opportunities to productively use oral language in academic settings? And how do we ensure that teachers leverage the power of classroom interactions to simultaneously foster language development, content knowledge, and analytical practices? In this article, we offer answers to these questions-and clarify common misconceptions-by presenting guidelines supported by both research and classroom practice.

A Framework for Oral Language

If English language learners (ELLs) are going to productively engage in classroom discourse and express their thinking related to content learning goals, teachers must create a trusting classroom culture in which students feel that whatever level of language they can produce, their contributions will be valued by their teacher and peers and will never be subject to ridicule, sanctions, or negative comparisons. 2 Establishing classroom norms such as close listening to understand the ideas ELLs are conveying and showing respect to each other during their interactions (learning, of course, from the models their teachers provide) is essential for successful oral language use. Students need to know that interrupting their peers as they are formulating ideas and finishing their sentences for them are not desirable classroom norms.

As teachers plan to engage students in oral interactions, the framework shown in Figure 1 below can help guide their support for their students' work and language development. The framework comprises six interconnected levels.
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First, teachers need to ensure that students clearly understand the purpose of the interaction they are being asked to undertake. For example, are they supposed to read a text and elaborate their thinking, highlighting what they understand and what they don't? Are they engaged in describing a scene to somebody who has not seen it? Are they being asked to make a prediction after observing phenomena they will later investigate?

Second, teachers need to make sure students have ideas upon which they will elaborate. For example, have they noticed the most important aspects of the scene (the background, main character(s) presented, what they are doing, other relevant details) on which they will center their description?

Third, teachers need to help students organize their thoughts and ensure their language follows specific patterns. For example, descriptions of a scene from a text cannot begin with sentences such as, "He kicks it, it breaks." Students need to first indicate the setting of the scene, then introduce the characters, describe them, and explain what they are doing. This sequence is essential to help participants engaged in a conversation paint pictures in their minds. Organization is marked by phrases that can be provided to students as formulaic expressions (which we discuss later in this article) to use: 3 "The picture we have shows a..." "We can see a..." "Our scene takes place in a..." "Based on my observation..." "The two historical contexts are..."

Fourth, teachers need to consider the types of sentences students produce and judiciously highlight how they may be combined and expanded to produce more complex language. Increasing complexity can be accomplished with the use of connectors and conjunctions, such as "besides," "furthermore," "additionally," "however," etc.

Fifth, teachers must pay attention to the words students use. Is one word repeated several times in an interaction? If so, teachers can take the opportunity to introduce a synonym. Do students incorrectly or imprecisely use a term? Teachers can take a moment to clarify usage and meaning.

Finally, when students are ready to present their work to others, teachers can focus on the pronunciation of carefully selected elements-only those that interrupt understanding.
Traditionally, many educators have been taught to focus on correcting student utterances by zeroing in on form and not on meaning. As a result, our framework may initially feel counterintuitive, but the more educators rely on it, the more it will assist them in supporting students' language growth.

Productive Talk

As a general pattern, we educators often talk too much, no doubt influenced by our "apprenticeship of observation" that began when we were students ourselves. 4 However, given the centrality of talk in learning, this pattern needs to change. By some estimates, ELLs spend less than 2 percent of their school day in oral interaction. 5 Teachers must find ways to provide students learning opportunities that engage them in productive talk and then listen carefully to the language they use in order to support their continued growth.

By productive talk, we mean speech that has the following characteristics:

Has depth: the specific idea being discussed is central to the theme of the lesson, is presented in interconnected ways, and engages students' analytical thinking.

Is sustained: one student's statement is followed by another student's response, which extends, refutes, or questions what was first said.

Is student controlled: students control what they say, not the teacher. But teachers set up parameters for the interactions, sometimes framing questions that start the conversation. These questions are intended to communicate new related ideas, propose counter ideas or examples, and in general enhance the theme at work.6

Now consider these characteristics in an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) class, which comprises students with varied levels of English competence. 7 "Language" is the theme of the students' exploration, and this was the third class on the topic. Table 1 below shows the deliberate moves of the teacher, Mr. DeFazio, during the lesson and the students' interactions. The text in the table indicates the multiple instances of productive talk that he promotes with his directions and actions.
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Let us look more closely at a specific interaction that occurred in the lesson after a student, Lavinia, reads the beginning of a letter she wrote about animal communication, and another student, Julio, reacts to one of her statements that animals do not have language.

Julio: Animal communication is not a language? It is a language-that's what I think-because they are communicating with each other.

Lavinia: But they don't speak.

Class: [Many students agree with Julio, saying "Yes, they do," or nodding.]

Julio: You said a language can have words, sounds, gestures, and everything.

Class: [Many students are in agreement with Julio's ideas once again.]

Lavinia: But they don't have words. They don't say "mama."

Julio: They don't need to. They have other characteristics. In animal language, some of the characteristics that you said are present-sound, pitch, gestures-so it is a language.

Mr. DeFazio: Julio is arguing very strongly that animal communication is language. Lavinia is saying that it's not. What do you think would be a way to help them resolve that argument in their writing?

Class: [The discussion continues and a resolution emerges. Then Julio reads a section of his letter.]

Mr. DeFazio: A lot is going to depend on how you define language, OK? You can define it in such a way as to exclude what animals do; you can define it in a very broad way, as a system of communication that includes everything. You are going to find linguists and zoologists who disagree, and if you are interested, I can give you some readings that were in the journal Science last year, people arguing back and forth.

Julio (reading his letter): First of all, I think that language is a way to inform others around you, your feelings, or just a simple thing that you want to let people know what is the deal. And it can be expressed by saying it, looking at a picture, or hearing it, you know what I'm saying? I don't know if you have heard about the kangaroo rat that stamps its feet to communicate with other rats. It's really funny 'cause we humans have more characteristics to communicate to each other, but we still have problems to understand other people. Characteristics like sound, grammar, pictures, and body language are some of them, while the rat only uses the foot. [Julio stamps the ground.]

Mr. DeFazio: Excellent! [The class applauds.] I never even heard about the kangaroo rat. Nice job, nice job. [Mr. DeFazio shakes Julio's hand.]

Applying the framework illustrated in Figure 1 to this interaction, we notice that students are clearly aware that the purpose of this exercise is to compare diverse positions on communication and to debate whether animals have language or not, providing evidence for their positions. They have ideas, and they choose which ones to debate based on a diversity of opinions. Mr. DeFazio's opportunity to correct student work, suggest changes, ask for elaboration, and so forth comes in the letters he is asking his students to construct. This written product is intimately tied to oral production. Oral activity feeds into writing, and writing produces oral activity.

In terms of productive talk, in Mr. DeFazio's class, students' analytic thinking is engaged, their interaction is sustained, and they control what they say. Mr. DeFazio has chosen a theme for the lesson that appeals to the students, and he has deliberately planned their active engagement throughout. As a result, the interaction engages students in deep thinking as they compare views on language.

Now that we have seen the characteristics of quality interactions for ELLs in practice, in the next section, we provide guidelines for promoting quality interactions during content lessons.

Six Guidelines for Promoting Quality Interactions

Design lessons that involve ELLs' participation in subject-specific and substantive oral practice to accomplish clearly defined lesson goals: Planning a lesson always begins with establishing the destination: Where do teachers need to lead students? Teachers should ask: Are my goals closely related to content standards? What is the knowledge that will be constructed? Which analytic practice will be promoted? What is the language (beyond isolated words or sentences) that will need to be developed? Unless teachers themselves are clear about the goals of a lesson, they will not be able to plan the tasks and activities that support students' language and conceptual development.

Construct tasks that appropriately scaffold student participation and growth: Tasks need to be deliberately constructed to engage students in working beyond their current competence. Such tasks should promote worthwhile interactions for students to acquire new conceptual understandings and analytical skills and language. They should also have appropriate scaffolds, which entail teachers closely observing students to ascertain whether the support is working, whether it is still needed, or whether it needs to be modified or replaced.

Make sure the task is designed to meet its purposes and the materials used are appropriate to support students working at the edge of their competence successfully: Learning is most effective when tasks are designed to match students' current competencies and also challenge them to move forward, with support.

Make sure that activities or tasks follow and precede others logically to build coherent lessons: Leading students to increasingly more complex demands is essential if teachers want their lessons to flow smoothly and to incrementally build ELLs' understanding.

Integrate reading and writing into oral development activities: Oral interaction while reading texts not only allows ELLs to understand the text more deeply but also helps them develop awareness of what they understand as they read and what they can do to solve problems in reading.

Be selective in addressing errors and intentional in providing feedback: When ELLs use English to develop their understanding of content and their use of analytical practices, often their language will be neither accurate nor fully formed, although the intent of their communication will be apparent. Imagine, for a moment, the impact on ELLs' motivation and self-esteem if teacher responses to inaccuracies constituted a constant flow of error correction. Instead, consider formative feedback to students as invitations to understand how they are progressing in language development and to provide a resource for how they can advance. When feedback is given to students about language while they are learning discipline-specific content, the feedback should focus on language so that students can make sense of the academic content, rather than on correcting errors of language production. As such, feedback can increase the students' awareness and help them troubleshoot their own performance and eventually correct their own language.8

There is no hard and fast rule about how much feedback students should receive or how often it should be provided; this is a decision teachers will need to make for themselves, given their knowledge of their students, their language and content goals, and the students' current language use. However, because of the powerful impact that feedback can have on learning, 9 we advise teachers to make providing feedback a regular and routine part of their classroom practice.

Common Misconceptions

Designing and facilitating meaningful classroom talk is essential for ELLs-indeed for all students-to develop more extended and sophisticated language use while simultaneously learning subject matter. Yet in too many U.S. classrooms, we find ELLs sitting silently, watching their teachers do all the work, and waiting for opportunities to fully engage cognitively and linguistically.

By way of concluding thoughts, we outline five pitfalls to avoid in thinking about language learning, and we provide suggestions for how teachers can engage students in sustained, high-quality classroom talk.

Misconception 1: Sentence frames that provide students with a way of expressing their ideas about specific situations are helpful to them.

A sentence frame is basically a fill-in-the-blank type of activity that invites only one correct answer. Sometimes it can be open and provide starters for students (also called sentence starters for this reason) to be filled in any way. However, these starters may not provide students with phrases they can use time and time again in academic situations. 10 For example: "The main character in The Pearl is a modest and loving man, furthermore..." "His wife, Juana, loves Kino and Coyotito, their baby, and because of that..."

In addition to using sentence frames, we suggest teachers use formulaic expressions, which are phrases that help start or link ideas and can be used in many situations. Initially, students learn them as unanalyzed chunks, almost as if they were one word. Later on, as students learn more English, they begin to realize the formulaic expressions are formed by several words. Formulaic expressions are extremely useful in students' development of English and in making their interaction with peers possible and more effective. Examples of formulaic expressions are: "I agree with you, and I can add that..." "May I suggest a couple of other ideas? One example I can offer..."

Misconception 2: Correct mistakes students make as they talk or they will "fossilize."

Historically, correctness has been regarded as paramount in second language learners' use of English. More recently, however, researchers' attention has shifted to the larger components of communication, as discussed before: purpose, ideas, organization, types of sentences, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Fossilization, a concept popular in the 1980s, refers to the inability of second language learners to learn the correct forms of language if they continually misuse them. Our perspective, consistent with that of multiple applied linguists, is that language keeps evolving as a result of continuous practice. It may fossilize if it is no longer used productively or receptively. However, in their schooling, students will be invited to engage in uses of language continuously, and thus, they will have ample opportunities to correct themselves or be corrected by others.

Misconception 3: Rather than correcting students' ungrammatical oral language, it is better to provide them with recasts, which model correct English in response to students' mistakes.

It is common for teachers to believe that rather than correcting a student's mistakes-and putting him or her on the spot-it is better to repeat what a student has said, this time changing the student's utterance into grammatical English. They think that recasting saves a student's face and that it is a less authoritarian approach.

Research, however, shows that these implicit corrections may not be productive. 11 Students do not take teachers' recasts as corrections, but rather as reiterations of the idea and as acceptance of students' comments as being right. When the time is appropriate to focus on selected language forms to study and correct, the correction and expansion activity needs to be made explicit.

Misconception 4: Sustained, focused interactions are possible starting in fourth or fifth grade, but lower elementary students are not mature enough to carry them out because they get too impatient with the task and with each other.

Recently, during an open house at an elementary school in Portland, Oregon, one of us (Aída) had the opportunity to visit three classes. The first one was a kindergarten class. The teacher, Mr. Andanen, was preparing students to read and discuss Julius, the Baby of the World, a book by Kevin Henkes, an author the students were already familiar with because they had enjoyed reading three of his other books in class.

To introduce the book, Mr. Andanen set up nine stations around the room and invited students to walk through them. At each station, a picture illustrating a scene from the book was prominently displayed. Students were asked to rotate around the stations every three minutes. At each station, students needed to stop, look at the picture, and explain what they noticed. The teacher had asked students to use a "talking stick" so that the turns to speak were democratically divided within the group at each station. Peers had to listen attentively to the speaker and agree with, disagree with, or expand on what the student said. Formulaic expressions such as "In this picture, I notice..." and "I noticed that, too, and I want to add..." were familiar to the group. At one station, Aída heard the following exchange:

Student 1: I notice a woman holding a big baby. Her mouth is open. I think she is crying.

Student 2: I also noticed she had her mouth open, but I don't think she is crying. I think she is singing.

Student 3: I also noticed the woman with the big baby, and I want to add that he is very heavy. Perhaps that is why she is screaming.

The exchange shows that Mr. Andanen has created an environment that enables young children to notice and use language in purposeful ways. Although the students were only in kindergarten, they clearly articulated their ideas and listened to others. They showed they will soon be ready to start exploring the book more deeply so that they can eventually write an opinion piece based on evidence from the text about which Henkes book was their favorite.

Misconception 5: All students in a class need to master the same levels of oral development as a result of participating in lessons.

Because not all students in a class will be at the same starting point, a robust activity provides multiple entry points for all students to engage as they learn. The important idea is that they should all be gaining-not that all of them will arrive at the same point, in exactly the same way, developing at exactly the same level. This would only be possible if what is learned is limited, and if the learning demands recall. This is not necessarily what we want in education. Rather, we want to produce individuals who are thoughtful, engaged, and conscious of their own development.

English language learners bring valuable assets and immense potential to school. The role of educators is to realize that potential in deep and accelerated ways. Each classroom teacher must ensure the path to that development is paved with meaningful interactions to help students develop language skills, gain conceptual understanding, and learn academic content. Our students deserve no less.
Aída Walqui is the director of the teacher professional development program at WestEd. Previously, she taught in the Division of Education at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Margaret Heritage is a senior advisor at WestEd and was previously an assistant director at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing at the University of California, Los Angeles.
*Taffy Raphael's Question-Answer Relationships framework 1 is intended to call students' attention to the kinds of questions that may be asked about a text. In this class, students work in pairs, announcing first the type of question he or she will ask to increase the other student's awareness of the types of meaningful connections the question seeks. ( back to the article)

Endnotes

1. Taffy E. Raphael, "Teaching Question Answer Relationships, Revisited," The Reading Teacher 39 (1986): 516-522.

2. Alison L. Bailey and Margaret Heritage, Progressing Students' Language Day by Day (Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2018).

3. See Rod Ellis, Instructed Second Language Acquisition: A Literature Review (Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education, 2005).

4. Dan C. Lortie, Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975).

5. Diane August, referenced in Ivannia Soto-Hinman, "Increasing Academic Oral Language Development: Using English Language Learner Shadowing in Classrooms," Multicultural Education 18, no. 2 (Winter 2011): 21-23.

6. Aída Walqui and Leo van Lier, Scaffolding the Academic Success of Adolescent English Language Learners: A Pedagogy of Promise (San Francisco: WestEd, 2010).

7. Anthony DeFazio and Aída Walqui, Where Do You Want to Go Next? (San Francisco: WestEd, 2001), DVD.

8. David J. Nicol and Debra Macfarlane‐Dick, "Formative Assessment and Self‐Regulated Learning: A Model and Seven Principles of Good Feedback Practice," Studies in Higher Education 31 (2006): 199-218.

9. See, for example, John Hattie and Helen Timperley, "The Power of Feedback," Review of Educational Research 77 (2007): 81-112.

10. For more on sentence frames, see Ellis, Instructed Second Language Acquisition.

11. Ahlem Ammar and Nina Spada, "One Size Fits All? Recasts, Prompts, and L2 Learning," Studies in Second Language Acquisition 28 (2006): 543-574; Ellis, Instructed Second Language Acquisition; and Roy Lyster, "Differential Effects of Prompts and Recasts in Form-Focused Instruction," Studies in Second Language Acquisition 26 (2004): 399-432.

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Consider this interaction between a teacher and his students, most of them English language learners, in a ninth-grade English language arts class: Teacher: Who wrote The Pearl, Carmen? Carmen: Steinbeck wrote The Pearl. Teacher: Very good. And Rosa, who is the main character in this novella?

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August, 2018

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Teaching Academic Content to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School

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Teaching Academic Content to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School

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Baker et al., 2014

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Toward Comprehensive Effective Literacy Policy and Instruction for English Learner/Emergent Bilingual Students

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Toward Comprehensive Effective Literacy Policy and Instruction for English Learner/Emergent Bilingual Students

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Written by Kathy Escamilla, Ph.D., Laurie Olsen, Ph.D., and Jody Slavick, Ph.D., National Committee for Effective Literacy for Emergent Bilingual Students, 2022

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Tool#2: Considerations in Intentionally Grouping Students

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Tool#2: Considerations in Intentionally Grouping Students

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Empowering English Language Learners Through Language Dives

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Empowering English Language Learners Through Language Dives

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Jepson & Vilen, 2018

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ASCD Express 13.17 - Empowering English Language Learners Through Language Dives

May 10, 2018 | Volume 13 | Issue 17
Kevin Jepson and Anne Vilen

If you step into a language arts classrooms at Lead Academy in Greenville, South Carolina, you'll hear English language learners (ELLs) deep in conversation with small groups of their classmates, both native speakers and other ELLs. They'll be talking about how English works, discussing why an author chose specific words in a key sentence, and trying out their new understanding of syntax and usage in sentences of their own. When we visited the school recently, 3rd grade students were examining how author J. M. Barrie uses pronouns in the following sentence from his novel Peter Pan: If you peer over the edge you can see the trees all growing upside down, and they say that at night there are also drowned stars in it.

One student started out the discussion with a telling comment: "I like looking at stuff and wondering." That spirit of inquiry set the tone for a lively discussion about who Barrie means by "you" and "they" in the sentence. Students figured out that the first "you" means "the reader." By the end of the dive, both ELLs and native speakers realized that in English, "you" and "they" can refer either to a specific person addressed by the speaker or to a general group, depending on the context. This is a sophisticated insight into English, especially when contrasted to many languages that have different words for singular and plural-and for familiar and formal-pronouns.

These conversations, called "language dives", are based on the "juicy sentence" research by Lily Wong Fillmore and Charles J. Fillmore of the University of California at Berkeley. Language dives are an integral part of the transformation in student achievement and culture in Lead Academy language arts classrooms, where as many as 50 percent of students are ELLs. At Lead Academy, K-5 teachers are using EL Education's (formerly Expeditionary Learning) language arts curriculum, which integrates language dives into lessons that include both ELL and native English speakers. But language dives can be designed by any teacher at any grade level in any subject area. When used consistently, these exercises not only equip students to meet required academic standards, but they also have the potential to turn quiet, passive students into curious, empowered, and more proficient communicators. Teachers will need to experiment and practice for language dives to become effective in teaching them, but the benefits for ELLs are worth the effort. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you put language dives to work in your classroom.

Choose a Sentence that Offers Multiple Opportunities for Learning
The first step toward designing an effective language dive is to choose a sentence that you think will be purposeful and meaningful for students. A worthy sentence unlocks the meaning of the text students are reading and fortifies the meaning they are making themselves as writers and speakers. A language dive sentence should meet the criteria below. To explain these criteria, we'll use a sample sentence that 5th graders at Lead Academy study as part of a unit on human rights: Everyone has the right to own property alone, as well as in association with others.
A language dive sentence should

Come from a complex text, often from a primary source, from authentic literature, or a real-world nonfiction text. In this case, the sample sentence presents a main idea in the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is a central text in these students' unit on human rights.

Be relevant to the content and skills of the unit students are studying. For instance, the sample sentence helps students answer the guiding question of the entire human rights unit: "What are human rights, and how can they be threatened?"

Contain language functions (or purposes for using language) that relate to the content and tasks at hand. In their examination of human rights, students at LEAD must discuss a human right as part of a writing assessment.

Contain complex language structures. The complex structures in the example above include as well as and in association with. The sentence also features an implied ellipsis. After as well as, the authors intentionally omitted the structure to own property because readers don't need the structure to understand that the author is still talking about owning property: Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as [to own property] in association with others.

Get Students Talking Purposefully
To become proficient in English, ELLs need lots of opportunities to speak to and listen to other ELLs as well as their native-speaking peers. Teachers can turn the conversation over to ELLs during language dives by using conversation cues that invite students to join the conversation in ways that foster dialogue and extend ideas. Conversation cues, based on Sarah Michaels and Cathy O'Connor's Talk Science Primer (2012), are tied to specific purposes for talking, which include:
To share, expand, and clarify thinking
- "Can you say more about that?"

- "So, what are you saying?"
To listen carefully to one another
- "Can you repeat what X just said?"
To deepen reasoning
- "Why do you think that?"

- "Does it always work that way? Can you think of another example that's a little different?"

To think with others
- "Do you agree or disagree? Why?"

- "Would anyone like to respond to that?"

To explain what someone else means
- "Who can explain what X means when they say XYZ?"

- "How do you think X came up with that answer?"

Sarah Mitchell, instructional coach at Lead Academy, says "conversation cues have been one of the single most important drivers of equity. The neat thing is they are not just something we do when we're doing language dives. Conversation cues promote equity at all grade levels in all subjects. Any teacher-from Spanish to physical education to math-can use conversation cues. They are based on our core belief that all students have something important to say."
Ask Students to Rearrange the Building Blocks of Language
As students deepen their conversations with each other, they become more playful with language and through speaking, discover how English works. You can encourage this language play through a routine we call "deconstruct-reconstruct-practice." This routine begins by breaking the language dive sentence into smaller "chunks" that contain academic language structures, such as noun phrases or prepositional phrases. Then students move the chunks around like a puzzle to alter the word order or substitute alternative words and phrases to discuss any change in meaning.

For example, the 3rd grade language dive at Lead Academy focused on a description of the characters Wendy, the mermaids, and Tinker Bell from Peter Pan. ELLs and native English speakers discussed the meaning and purpose of the comparative phrase in the sentence, "Much to Wendy's disappointment, the mermaids turned out to be as unfriendly as Tinker Bell." ELLs needed to know that writers can use the formula as + adjective + as to compare, and proficient English speakers refreshed their understanding of describing a character through simile. Students then engaged in a rich conversation about how J.M. Barrie used this phrase to help reveal the mermaids' feelings toward Wendy.

Conversations like this one are crucial for ELLs, and native and proficient English speakers also benefit. Through such play, and talking about their new sentences, students learn how to use parts of speech effectively and come to understand what a complete, syntactically sound sentence is. This close attention to syntax is a key to closing the achievement gap.
Create Opportunities to Practice and Apply
Once students become more comfortable playing with language and testing out their new understanding of English through talking, it's important for them to use the chunks of sentences they deconstruct and reconstruct in meaningful classroom tasks where "getting it right" counts. The 3rd graders at Lead Academy practiced their use of the simile "as + adjective + as" to help reveal another character's feelings in Peter Pan for their performance task. For example, one student wrote, "Captain Hook turned out to be as violent as a storm." Students also transferred the comparison to incorporate their own lives: "He was as courageous as an immigrant," remarked another student.

Just as new English speakers are intrigued and empowered by learning a new idiom or slang greeting in everyday conversation, understanding how to use the academic constructions they read during school in their own writing strengthens both confidence and competence. In the process, students begin to lead classroom conversations as inquirers, experts, and collaborators. The rewards for students-and for educators determined to make their classrooms and the world a more equitable space for all students-are profound.

By enabling students to investigate and articulate how writers use language to communicate ideas, language dives boost ELLs up the ladder of text complexity so that they can meet grade-level standards, as well as state language proficiency standards for ELLs. After a year of implementing Language Dives regularly in half of their grades K-5 classrooms, school leaders noticed that those classrooms saw a 24 percent increase in ELA proficiency, as compared with the classrooms that didn't use the dives. Given the school's growing population of ELLs, language dives have helped foster equity in student achievement. In fact, some ELLs have gone from near silence in the classroom to leading conversations about English. Among the many important aspects to consider in teaching and learning a language, language dives should be a priority because they enable students to grasp the peculiarities and subtleties of academic language and to punctuate their own writing with powerful claims. As such, language dives are not just an effective instructional technique, they are a tool for equity.
Anne Vilen is a senior writer for EL Education and the author of Learning that Lasts: Challenging, Engaging, and Empowering Students with Deeper Instruction (Jossey-Bass, 2016). Kevin Jepson was a lead curriculum designer for the second edition EL Education K-5 Literacy Curriculum. Currently a professional development specialist for EL Education, he supports curriculum implementation and English language learner (ELL)instruction. He was born in Korea and lived and worked abroad for 15 years in five countries.
ASCD Express, Vol. 13, No. 17. Copyright 2018 by ASCD. All rights reserved. Visit www.ascd.org/ascdexpress.

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Empowering English Language Learners Through Language Dives

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May 10, 2018 | Volume 13 | Issue 17Kevin Jepson and Anne Vilen If you step into a language arts classrooms at Lead Academy in Greenville, South Carolina, you'll hear English language learners (ELLs) deep in conversation with small groups of their classmates, both native speakers and other ELLs.

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Using context clues to understand specific vocab at the sentence level

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Using context clues to understand specific vocab at the sentence level

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I found this a while ago, and I have been using consistently in my classes.

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This guide is a practical tool that teachers, and teacher-trainers, can use (and re-use!) in order to build fluency with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

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A. Mendoza

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Find Definitions & Meanings of Words | Britannica Dictionary

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Clear and simple definitions in American English from Britannica's language experts. More usage examples than any other dictionary.

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Teaching, Learning & Assessment " K-12 Standards & Instruction " Mathematics " Instructional Resources

Mathematics vocabulary word wall cards provide a display of mathematics content words and associated visual cues to assist in vocabulary development. The cards should be used as an instructional tool for teachers and then as a reference for all students, particularly English learners and students with disabilities.

Suggested uses as a formative instructional tool:

Integrate the use of cards into daily instruction and then post on the classroom wall for student reference.

Include an "active" vocabulary card section containing cards that are currently being used as an instructional tool.

Highlight key words or portions of pictures.

Add notation, words, or pictures that connect to instructional discussions or formal definitions.

Group multiple cards when teaching units that include multiple vocabulary words.

Reformat cards to create a personal set on a ring that can be used for student reference.

Vocabulary word wall cards may be modified to address the instructional needs of teachers and students.

Word Wall Cards - 2016 Mathematics SOL

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Mathematics Vocabulary Word Wall Cards | Virginia Department of Education

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Teaching, Learning & Assessment " K-12 Standards & Instruction " Mathematics " Instructional Resources Mathematics vocabulary word wall cards provide a display of mathematics content words and associated visual cues to assist in vocabulary development. The cards should be used as an instructional tool for teachers and then as a reference for all students, particularly English learners and students with disabilities.

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rewprdify.com

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In my last post, I shared briefly about a strategy that I use to build vocabulary for my beginning English Language Learners (ELLs) called the K.I.M. Strategy. Today I want to share with you in more detail about what this strategy is, why I use it, and how I differentiate it to meet the needs of ALL students.

The K.I.M. Strategy is a low prep, high yield strategy that supports ALL levels of learners across ALL content areas. Now, you can't get much better than that!

What is it? It's a direct vocabulary instruction strategy. The acronym stands for Key word, Important information, Memory clue and S entence. I have my students do this right inside their notebooks (no-prep), but you could also use a graphic organizer or vocabulary booklet (low-prep).

Why I use it! I use it because it's effective in building vocabulary, and my students enjoy it. As vocabulary grows, so does comprehension. I teach English language learners who happen to be of low socio-economic status. Those are two subgroups who come to school with significantly lower vocabulary knowledge than their English only and higher SES peers. I believe explicit vocabulary instruction is a crucial component of instruction, especially for kids in these subgroups. However, as we know, every child benefits from direct and purposeful vocabulary instruction. I say purposeful because looking up definitions in a dictionary is not purposeful, or meaningful, IMO.

How I use it! In my students' notebooks, I have designated a section to vocabulary. This includes notebooks across content areas (math, science & social studies).

The K.I.M. Strategy format is easily modified to meet the needs of students. For example, my beginning English language learners build their basic vocabulary using K.M.S. because they are new to the language, I do not have them add "Important information;" I simply want them to learn words and what they are.

My intermediate and higher students always include K.I.M., and usually add "S" for a sentence as a follow up activity.

A typical vocabulary lesson looks something like this... Before I give my students a word, I show them examples, pictures or drawings of the word. Then I'll say, this is a "_____." So, what do you think "_____" means? I let them explore the meaning first based on the visuals that I provide. I then steer them to the important information that they need to add in their notebook.

Here's a recent example with my 6th grade math group. They were starting a geometry unit and needed to learn some new vocabulary. I used the document camera to project my notebook.

The visual of my notebook provides them with a scaffold to ensure accuracy with their spelling and the "important information" of new terms. Memory clues and sentences are independent activities.

First, they drew 6 KIM boxes for their 6 new words...

... then, I drew various sized and shaped quadrilaterals on the whiteboard.

I said, "These are all quadrilaterals. What do you think a quadrilateral is?" Hands shot up and students shared their guesses. With teacher support, we narrowed down the information to the most important information. Students then filled in the Key word - quadrilateral, the Important information - 4 sided shape with 4 angles, then they drew a quick picture for a M emory clue.

Next, I drew several examples of parallel lines and told them that these lines are parallel. "What do you think the word parallel means?" Again, hands shot up. After that, a right angle, and so on...

On this day I did not have them write a sentence because of time constraints, but that could be a follow up activity at a different time or day.

When I do direct vocabulary instruction, I typically teach about 5 new words in a lesson, but that can vary. I also typically add a fun, kinesthetic activity as an exit ticket. Recently I needed to teach my students just 2 words, "ascending" and "descending." We did the K.I.M. Strategy for those 2 terms, then towards the end of class we did a quick human number line activity! I passed out index cards with a percent written on each, then told them to get into "ascending" order. Once that was complete, I mixed them up and told them to get into "descending" order.

For the follow up activity of the geometry terms, I wrote each term on an index card, and corresponding pictures on another. I randomly passed out all the cards and told them to find the classmate who has the matching term or picture for their card, then stand next to each other. That was their exit ticket for that day.

We are a good ways into the school year now, so my students know the process and expectations of using the K.I.M. strategy, however, when the strategy was first introduced, I did provide an anchor chart for students to use as a reference.

If you are looking for a new way to incorporate direct vocabulary instruction into your lessons, I think you'll find this strategy to be effective, engaging and super easy to implement. I also think that your students will find it to be a fun way to learn new vocabulary. It's my go-to strategy this year for teaching new vocabulary.

If you have a great strategy for direct vocabulary instruction, I'd love to hear about it!

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K.I.M. - A Highly Effective Strategy to Build Vocabulary Across Any Content Area

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An educational blog for sharing ideas, strategies and resources that support English Language Learners.

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Teaching Compare and Contrast in K-3. Teaching Compare and Contrast with story elements in K-3 with engaging anchor charts and fairy tales!

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How to Create a Welcoming Classroom Environment

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How to Create a Welcoming Classroom Environment

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Colorín Colorado

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An important first step in helping English language learners (ELLs) succeed is making them feel welcome in the classroom.

This will:

increase their confidence

make them feel more comfortable in the class

build a foundation for positive relationships with you and their peers.

Here's how you can get started!

The ELL student population includes students who were born in the U.S. and students who have immigrated from another country. For ELLs who have recently arrived in the U.S., they will face the challenge of learning a new language in addition to adjusting to an unfamiliar cultural setting and school system.

On a daily basis, ELLs are adjusting to new ways of saying and doing things. As their teacher, you are an important bridge to this unknown culture and school system.

In the same way that ELLs go through stages of English language learning, they may also pass through stages of cultural accommodation. These stages, however, may be less defined and more difficult to notice. Being aware of these stages may help you to better understand "unusual" actions and reactions that may just be part of adjusting to a new culture.

Euphoria: ELLs may experience an initial period of excitement about their new surroundings.

Culture shock: ELLs may then experience anger, hostility, frustration, homesickness, or resentment towards the new culture.

Acceptance: ELLs may gradually accept their different surroundings.

Assimilation/adaptation: ELLs may embrace and adapt to their surroundings and their "new" culture.

It is also common for students who are learning a new language to be 'silent' for a period of time, when they are listening to the language around them without speaking yet (much as a young child listens to language first before learning to talk). This is considered the first stage of language acquisition.

Patience and creating opportunities for small successes in speaking with you and peers can help build students' confidence. In addition, keep in mind that students' silence could also be a sign of respect for you as an authority - and not a sign of their inability or refusal to participate.

Students may also have experienced trauma or face different kinds of hardship in the U.S. You can better prepare yourself for this possibility by:

Learn more from the following:

This award-winning documentary highlights how the Dearborn, MI public school district is helping its immigrant students succeed. Learn more about this project and see related videos.

Getting to Know Students

Learn how to pronounce students' names correctly

Don't forget to smile and use positive body language!

A lot of communication happens through expressions, body language, and tone. Smiling and using positive body language can go a long way in making students feel welcome and comfortable, particularly if they are newcomers, as seen in the vignette shared by a teacher below.

Build relationships with students

Veteran teachers of ELLs always point to building relationships as the most important step in their work with ELLs. Not only does it increase engagement and support students' later academic success, it also provides invaluable information that can inform your instruction and family engagement.

In addition, it can help build bridges with students who may have particularly unique experiences, such as children in migrant farmwork families or Indigenous students.

See more ideas on how to build these relationships from the following:

Video: Showing students you care

Corpus Christi teacher Christine Price talks about the importance of showing students you care early on.

Identify students' strengths and interests

It's important to remember that ELLs bring lots of strengths, talents, and rich experiences to the classroom. Getting to know students' interests can help:

build rapport

engage students in learning

find connections with new friends.

Families are also an important source of information and are often happy to talk about the activities that their child enjoys. They may also appreciate the fact that their child's teacher is taking an interest in the child's strengths and talents. (This is especially true in special education settings.)

Teacher Omar Salem describes a student who not only sings and dances but manages her own YouTube channel and edits all of the video she posts of her performances.

Video: Using parent letters to get to know my students

Albuquerque teacher Clara Gonzales-Espinoza asks her parents to write her a letter at the beginning of each school year telling her about the child's personality, interests, strengths, and anything else they think she should know. In this interview, Clara speaks more about this strategy and its impact on her relationships with parents and students.

Ensure that students have information about activities and clubs

Make sure that students have information about extra-curricular activities, sports, and clubs related to their interests. You can also encourage them to start their own club within the school.

ELL educator Christine Rowland notes, "Many students find involvement in school clubs and teams to be extremely helpful, as they are often experts in these areas, and they can provide a space where they more easily feel they belong."

Welcoming Students' Language and Culture

Invite students' cultures into the classroom

Encourage ELLs and their families to share their culture with you and your class. Show-and-tell is a good opportunity for ELLs to bring in something representative of their culture, if they wish.

Invite students and families to:

share photographs, visuals, or meaningful artifacts such as flags or mementos

tell a popular story or folktale using words, pictures, gestures, and movements

share information about important holidays or celebrations.

Looking beyond the classroom

Imagine that you are walking into your school for the first time as a parent.

What do you see on the walls?

If your first language weren't English, would you see signs in your language?

Would you see flags, maps, or books representing your home country?

Would you see your child's work on display in the hallway?

If you think more could be done to make families feel welcome, consider:

sharing some ideas with colleagues or administrators and taking small steps that you can point to as successes

looking for opportunities to celebrate all families and their languages, customs, and cultures, whether in the classroom or at a school-wide event

keeping a lookout for a special part of their lives that other families might appreciate getting to know.

See more ideas in the following:

Video: What happened when the students realized the Yemeni flag wasn't on stage

ELD Specialist Diana Alqadhi tells the story of some students who realized that the Yemeni flag was not featured prominently enough on stage before a school show.

Invite students' languages into the classroom

Label classroom objects to allow ELLs to better understand their immediate surroundings. These labels will also assist you when explaining or giving directions, and it gives peers an additional opportunity to learn some words in their classmates' language.

Start with everyday items, such as "door/puerta," "book/libro," and "chair/silla."

You may wish to ask students who can write in their first language or family members to help you with this project.

You can also invite students to teach the class some words from their home language.

Learn more about the resources available in students' home languages

Students benefit from support in their home language - what Dr. Fred Genesee calls their " most valuable resource." You have may have access to learning material in students' languages, or you may be able to find resources that support those languages.

Language access for multilingual families

In addition, it's critical to understand what language access resources you have available through your school and district, particularly for communication with families. Keep in mind that all families have a legal right to information in their home language. Family liaisons, interpreters, ESL teachers, or administrators may have more information about what language access resources are available in your district.

Video: What Do School Districts Need to Know About Language Access?

This helpful overview about what language access means for school districts is a great introduction to the requirements, best practices, and funding streams related to language access in public education. This interview features Dr. Jennifer Love, the Supervisor of Language Access and Engagement in Prince George's County Public Schools, Maryland.

Video: Language Access for Multilingual Families

What does appropriate language access mean for multilingual families? This interview also features Dr. Jennifer Love.

Ensure your students see themselves reflected in the classroom

Ask yourself if students can see representations of their culture, race, gender, and other aspects of identity reflected in your:

classroom materials and library

lesson plans and activities

classroom visuals (both in-person and virtual).

In addition:

Success in the Classroom

Encourage your students

Some ELLs may not answer voluntarily in class or ask for your help even if they need it. ELLs may smile and nod, but this does not necessarily mean that they understand. Offer one-on-one support and encouragement as much as possible. For convenience, it may be helpful to seat ELLs near your desk.

Assign a buddy

Identify a classmate who will make a good buddy for new students - someone who is friendly, patient, and a good communicator to be a buddy. This student can make sure that the new student understands what he or she is supposed to do during class activities. It is helpful if the peer partner knows the ELL's first language, but not necessary. However, remember to never use another student as an interpreter in any situation.

Learn more about ways to increase peer interaction and collaboration in these related strategies.

Ask the class how they can help welcome new students

Ask students to brainstorm ways to help ELLs in particular. You may wish to make a list of ideas on how to welcome new students at the beginning of the year so that students have these strategies in mind if a student comes with little advance notice.

Be vigilant about health issues, dietary concerns, and allergies

Students may have specific health issues or dietary restrictions due to health, cultural, or religious reasons. Be sure that you learn all essential information you need to know about student health and diet from parents or guardians. For ELLs, be sure to confirm and clarify this information with the help of interpreters.

If you learn information about a student that would be helpful for other staff to know, particularly regarding health or food allergies, talk with administrators about how to keep the child safe. In addition, be sensitive to cultural or religious norms, such as fasting for religious reasons.

Keep an eye out for signs of culture shock

Moving to a new country and leaving a familiar life, relatives, friends, and language behind can be traumatic for children in the best of circumstances. Those challenges are compounded if children have experienced trauma, violence, or upheaval. Learn more about how culture shock can impact students in the classroom and affect student behavior so that you recognize signs if newcomers act out.

Encourage students to take ownership of the classroom culture

Ask students to answer the following questions through drawings or written responses.

How can I be a good classmate to others?

What are examples of unkind or disrespectful behavior in the classroom?

To support ELLs in their discussions of these questions:

Encourage students who speak the same language to discuss their ideas in groups.

Provide scaffolded materials such as graphic organizers, sentence stems, and sentence frames.

Use a picture book to talk about different kinds of behavior with students.

Create a shared set of classroom expectations together

Return to your earlier discussion of what a respectful classroom looks like.

Brainstorm ideas on possible class rules based on that discussion.

Streamline the list of class guidelines or rules.

Add any rules or guidelines that are missing.

In order to establish appropriate consequences for disrespectful behavior, you may wish to come up with ideas with the class or determine those consequences yourself.

Post the final list classroom rules in the classroom.

Translate the rules into ELLs' native languages so that they can keep the list handy and share it at home.

To see an example of this proces in action, take a look at ELL expert Carol Salva's process for developing a community contract each year.

Help your ELLs understand expectations for the classroom

ELLs may need some extra support in understanding expectations for classroom behavior. Helping them understand these expectations can avoid misunderstandings, discipline problems, and feelings of low self-esteem.

At the same time, it's important to remember that students bridging two cultures may need guidance which behaviors are appropriate in which setting (such as eye contact, physical proximity, etc.). If you have questions, talk with a cultural liaison in the school to learn more about appropriate responses and ideas for helping students navigate a new culture. You can also learn more about cultural norms of your students, particularly related to schooling, to help inform your approach.

Here are a few strategies that you can use in class:

Use visuals like pictures, symbols, and reward systems to communicate your expectations in a positive and direct manner.

Physically model language to ELLs in classroom routines and instructional activities. ELLs will need to see you or their peers model behavior when you want them to sit down, walk to the bulletin board, work with a partner, copy a word, etc.

Be consistent and fair with all students. Once ELLs clearly understand what is expected, hold them equally accountable for their behavior.

Post a daily schedule. Even if ELLs do not yet understand all of the words that you speak, it is possible for them to understand the structure of each day. Whether through chalkboard art or images on Velcro, you can post the daily schedule each morning. By writing down times and having pictures next to words like lunch, wash hands, math, and field trip, ELLs can have a general sense of the upcoming day.

Finally, remember ELLs can make unintentional "mistakes" as they are trying hard to adjust to a new cultural setting. They are constantly transferring what they know as acceptable behaviors from their own culture to the U.S. classroom and school. Be patient as ELLs learn English and adjust - and remember that you will learn a lot from this experience too!

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How to Create a Welcoming Classroom Environment for ELLs

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An important first step in helping English language learners (ELLs) succeed is making them feel welcome in the classroom. This will: increase their confidence make them feel more comfortable in the class build a foundation for positive relationships with you and their peers. Here's how you can get started!

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Our self-paced learning online courses allow educators to learn at their own pace, earn PD hours, and gain Multilingual Learner strategies.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching For Multilingual Learners: Tools for Equity

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Culturally Responsive Teaching For Multilingual Learners: Tools for Equity

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Snyder & Staehr Fenner, 2021

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Culturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners

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What will you do to promote multilingual learners’ equity? Our nation’s moment of reckoning with the deficit view of multilingual learner…

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