# data[].attributes.body
Find 2 strategies that can be used in your ELL content area class for each language modality; listening, speaking, reading, writing, and vocabulary.
1-Explain how the strategy works.
2-Describe how this strategy will help ELLs
3-Provide an example of how you can/will use this strategy in your class.
4-Include a link to the website where you found this strategy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Strategies to develop listening skills

Students spend more time listening than doing anything else at school yet often we don't spend much time teaching students how to be good listeners. Listening with understanding is vital because it provides input for the learner. If learners are conscious of the processes underlying what makes a good listener then learning will be more effective. Key strategies that can be taught in the listening classroom include selective listening, listening for different purposes, predicting, visualising, and inferencing. These strategies should not be separated from the content teaching but woven into the ongoing fabric of the lesson.

Some possible Teacher Inquiry questions:

To what degree does what the students draw, reveal their depth of topic knowledge as opposed to their ability to listen and understand in English?

What other strategies can I use to build listening capability and how can I integrate them into my teaching and planning cycle as required?

Do my English language learners have a deeper level of topic understanding than their spoken English contributions to class discussions reveal?

How does what they draw reveal gaps in my students' knowledge and what does this mean for my future teaching?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Students spend more time listening than doing anything else at school yet often we don't spend much time teaching students how to be good listeners. Listening with understanding is vital because it provides input for the learner. If learners are conscious of the processes underlying what makes a good listener then learning will be more effective.

# data[].attributes.headline
Click on the + at the bottom to add a new post under each modality.  Refresh this page often to see what others have posted.

# data[].attributes.subject
Click on the + at the bottom to add a new post under each modality.  Refresh this page often to see what others have posted.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.colorincolorado.org/

https://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/

https://www.eslactivity.org/english-listening-tip/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12Mf-wpa0IaFOLajbNJaATiREWdbr0uCu/view?usp=sharing

https://www.newsinlevels.com/

https://www.tweentribune.com/

# data[].attributes.body
1. The strategy is to pre-teach vocabulary that is specific to a given novel being taught in class.
2. This will help students feel less intimidated by the vocabulary they are encountering while reading in-class or independently.
3. This can be used for each novel we teach.
4. The link is attached, and inside the link there are lists of vocabulary words for many popular books.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Pre-teaching vocabulary is a strategy in which teachers introduce students to new vocabulary words before reading a text selection that contains the new vocabulary words. According to Literacy in Context, "When teachers pre-teach vocabulary, they introduce unfamiliar terms to students before they begin to read the text, and students have a heightened awareness of the vocabulary that they will encounter while reading." (Miller and Veatch, 2011, p.19) Adolescent Literacy states that "[pre-teaching vocabulary] facilitates the reading of new text by giving students the meanings of the words before they encounter them." (2007, p. 16) This strategy is particularly helpful in situations where students will encounter words that they have no familiarity with and would have trouble deciphering the word meaning from context or word analysis.

Research has shown that this strategy will help students by helping to improve their comprehension of the text they are reading. (Miller and Veatch, 2011, p.19) Pre-teaching vocabulary reduces the number of unfamiliar words the students will encounter in the text and boosts vocabulary acquisition. (Adolescent Literacy, 2007, p. 16)

Some of the benefits of using this strategy include the ability to teach multiple meanings of words and the ability to teach both specific academic words and non-specific-academic words. According to Literacy in Context, "pre-teaching selected vocabulary allows students to see that some words have academic definitions that are different from their everyday meanings." (Miller and Veatch, 2011, p. 19) This text goes on to say that this is especially beneficial for English learners or students who are struggling with academic language. Adolescent Literacy discusses how both specific academic words and non-specific academic words can be taught with this strategy. Some of the non-specific academic words that should be taught are recognize, analyze, result, impact, and relationship. (2007, p. 16) These are words that are not related to a specific content area, but may be seen in a multitude of texts.

The best way to pre-teach vocabulary words is to allow students to have repeated exposures to the new vocab words. This can be done by using any of the following ideas: pronouncing the new word, giving the meaning, discussing the words parts, writing the word on the board, and using the word in a sentence or question. (Adolescent Literacy, 2007, p. 16)

The teacher in this video demonstrates how to use the pre-teaching vocabulary strategy. She first writes the new words on the board. She asks for student volunteers to pronounce the words and give definitions and examples. She then puts the students into groups and gives them a vocabulary word to act out. As students act out their words in groups, the rest of the students try to guess which word is being acted out.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Pre-teaching vocabulary is a strategy in which teachers introduce students to new vocabulary words before reading a text selection that contains the new vocabulary words. According to Literacy in...

# data[].attributes.body
One strategy would be using context clues in order to guess un-familiar words.
1 - The strategy works by reading the sentence before, during, and after the un-familiar word. The students can use key words and phrases to help them decide the part of speech of the word.
2- This strategy will help ELLs by allowing them to dissect the language and help them become familiar with vocabulary words.
3 - I would pick a list of words that I want my students to learn. I would then create sentences using these words and have them come up with guesses for these words.
4- https://www.mdc.edu/kendall/collegeprep/documents2/context%20cluesrev8192.pdf

# data[].attributes.body
1- recasting science terms or using familiar synonyms
2- They can become comfortable using words they know to understand new words
3- Attachment may be a tricky concept but love is not and they are similar in my area
4- https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/communication-and-language-strategies-science-inquiry-classroom-part-2

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Good science starts with a question. Using inquiry science, children discover answers to their questions in the same way that scientists do - with experiments, predictions, observations, and conjectures.

In this excerpt from Chapter 4 of Becoming Scientists: Inquiry-Based Teaching in Diverse Classrooms, Grades 3-5, Rusty Bresser and Sharon Fargason offer ideas for choosing appropriate language support strategies in the science classroom that will match students' proficiency levels. The activities described are designed to engage students in the practices outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Providing Support

The support that we provide English language learners during inquiry science falls into three categories: strategies that make content comprehensible, strategies that provide opportunities for communication, and strategies that provide support for communication.

Making Content Comprehensible

The strategies that make science content comprehensible include ones that Sharon uses to help students access key vocabulary:

the use of illustrated vocabulary banks

highlighting cognates

recasting science terms or using familiar synonyms

providing realia and concrete materials

Sharon also uses gestures or acts out words, phrases, and directions when teaching. She uses lots of visuals such as graphic organizers and pictures that help children "see" concepts. In addition, she modifies her teacher talk by slowing down and articulating clearly when giving directions, emphasizes key words, and avoids idiomatic phrases or slang. In addition to bridging new vocabulary with students' native languages, Sharon always taps their prior knowledge and experiences so that they can build on their current knowledge about science topics. All of these strategies help English language learners access science content because they allow them to visualize what the teacher is saying and connect what they are learning to what they already know.

Providing Opportunities for Communication

Sharon uses several different talk formats to provide students with the chance to discuss their learning:

Whole-class discussions provide a forum in which there are many opportunities for the cross-pollination of ideas.

Small-group formats create a safer environment in which more students get a chance to talk (See Figure 4.1).

Partner talks give English language learners an even safer place to share ideas and rehearse what they might report in a whole-class setting.

Figure 4.1: Student Conversation

When partnering students during pair-shares, Sharon sometimes places a student with advanced proficiency with a beginning-level English learner so that language modeling or translation can occur.

At other times, she places two students together who are at the same proficiency level in English so that more talk can happen. Sharon might even let the students choose whom they want to pair-share with.

To begin a science discussion, Sharon might ask a question and then give students sufficient time (sometimes up to ten seconds) to gather their thoughts and generate a response before talking to the group or to their partner. Providing wait or think time is crucial for all students, but particularly for English language learners, who may need more time to think before sharing.

The use of wait time and the different talk formats provide opportunities for all English learners to think and then talk about their learning. But what if the students don't have the language (in English) to say something? This is when it is important for the teacher to offer structured support to assist students in communicating.

Providing Support for Communication

Sharon uses a variety of strategies to help her students communicate their science thinking and practice new words and phrases they are learning (see Figure 4.2). Some strategies are easy to use and take little time or effort. For example, Sharon might ask for a thumbs-up or thumbs-down after asking a question such as "Do you agree or disagree with Carlos's hypothesis?"

Eliciting nonverbal responses supports English learners because the responses help teachers check for understanding without requiring students to produce language. English learners can participate and show that they understand a concept, or agree or disagree with someone's ideas, without having to talk. This is especially important for students whose comprehension of English is more advanced than their ability to speak the language.

Another easy strategy to use that supports students is having them give a choral response or echo in unison a new word or phrase. For example, when introducing the phrase conductor of electricity, Sharon had the class echo the phrase to her several times. This strategy exposes students to new vocabulary and serves as a model for correct pronunciation, syntax, and grammar. It also gives them practice using the language of science.

During a science lesson, students are exposed to many important concepts and ideas. These ideas may come from the teacher or from another student in the class. One strategy that holds students responsible for listening is having them repeat or reword someone else's idea. Although repeating may not seem like a high-level task, it is much more active than simply listening to the concepts as they are presented. Rewording encourages students to express a new concept in their own language, a language we know they understand. Students can repeat or reword statements made by the teacher or by other students. The teacher can also repeat or reword statements made by students to emphasize or question information (Bresser, Melanese, and Sphar 2009).

Figure 4.2 Strategies, Activities, and Tools to Support English Learners

Makes Content Comprehensible
Provides Opportunities for Communication

Provides Support for Communication

Provide illustrated vocabulary banks Modify teacher talk

Gesture/act out words, phrases, directions

Highlight cognates

Recast science terms

Use concrete materials/realia Connect to prior learning

Use graphic organizers

Use talk formats:

Elicit nonverbal responses

Elicit choral responses

Have students repeat or reword

Use sentence frames/prompts Differentiate questions

Partner talk

Table talk

Whole-group discussion

Use wait time

Sentence Frames and Prompts
Two effective tools that help students say something about their learning are sentence frames and prompts. Prompts can be oral or written and are used as sentence starters. For example, during an inquiry lesson on energy, Sharon showed the class a video and then had them talk and write about what they learned. She provided the following prompts to jump-start their thinking and writing:

In another lesson on UV beads, Sharon provided the following prompts to help students formulate testable questions:
What if...?
Does...?
I wonder...?
What will happen if...?
Is it possible to ____________?
Sentence frames serve a variety of purposes. They provide the support English language learners need to fully participate in science discussions, serve to contextualize and bring meaning to vocabulary, provide a structure for practicing and extending English language skills, and help students use the vocabulary they learn in grammatically correct, complete sentences (Bresser, Melanese, and Sphar 2009).

During a unit on energy, Sharon wanted the students to make a prediction about a pair of students' hypothesis. To help them make a prediction, she provided the following frames. The first frame is appropriate for beginning-level English learners. Sharon differentiated the second frame for intermediate/advanced English learners. Notice how the second frame includes the conjunction because. This prompts the learners to explain their thinking further but requires more language:
I predict ___________ hypothesis will work/won't work.
I predict ___________ hypothesis will work/won't work because __________.
During an investigation of UV beads, Sharon offered the following frame to help students describe the beads:
The beads are ____________ and made of ____________.
To create sentence frames, Sharon first thinks about what key vocabulary students will need to know and understand. She then thinks about the purpose for using language. Will students be using vocabulary to make predictions about a hypothesis? Draw conclusions about an experiment? Compare minerals? Describe an energy source? Ask questions about UV beads? Explain how they got a toy car to move?

Sharon tries to anticipate what students will say, and this guides her in creating the frames. When structured appropriately, sentence frames are flexible enough to be useful in a variety of contexts and open enough to allow students to give us their own ideas. These frames allow students to use the key vocabulary terms and put together complete thoughts, thoughts that can be connected, confirmed, rejected, revised, and understood. What's important is that the teacher model using the frames and give students practice so that they will actually use the frames during instruction.

The chart in Figure 4.3 includes examples of sentence frames for different topics in science and for different language functions or purposes for using language. The examples also include frames that are differentiated for different levels of English proficiency: beginning and intermediate/ advanced.

Supporting Students at Different Proficiency Levels

As mentioned, the students in Sharon's class represent a wide range of proficiency levels in English.

Native and advanced English speakers

For example, John and Felicia are native English speakers who require little linguistic support during inquiry science, although sentence frames for advanced proficiency levels can push them to use more sophisticated language.

Carlos and Benito are at advanced and intermediate levels of English proficiency, respectively, and with some added grammatical support, are able to perform all of the language functions that John and Felicia can. For example, when Carlos makes a grammatical error, Sharon models correct usage and has him repeat it to her. These two students, like everyone in Sharon's class, also need exposure to and support for using academic terms during inquiry science. They also need practice talking like scientists, since the language they are expected to use during inquiry is more formal than the English they use on the playground.

Students who are native English speakers, and those who are at advanced and intermediate levels of English proficiency, are able to respond to more open-ended questions during inquiry. For example, Sharon might ask, "What do you think will happen when we use the lemon to make a battery?" This is a good question for native English speakers and those at advanced and intermediate levels of proficiency. But a response to this question requires a lot of language for beginning-level English learners. These students must produce so much language just to structure their answer that they might choose not to answer at all.

Beginning English speakers

Jackie, Alejandra, and Dao are at the beginning stages of English language development and need lots of visual support. They understand more English than they can produce, and the questions that Sharon asks them are sometimes different from the questions she poses to students at more advanced levels. For example, to improve his participation, Sharon might ask Dao a question that requires a nonverbal or one-word response. (For example, "Do you agree with Carlos's hypothesis?" or "Thumbs-up if you agree with Carlos's hypothesis.")

Sharon might ask Dao a question that requires only a physical response. ("Point to the materials that make the bulb light up" or "Can you show me how to make the bulb light up?") Sometimes Sharon will build the answer into the question. ("Which works better, the potato or the lemon?")

Figure 4.4 shows what students at different levels of English proficiency can do, what support they need, and the types of questions that are most effective to ask.

Figure 4.4 * Support for Different Proficiency Levels in Englis

One-word or nonverbal
responses, can identify, match, categorize, and produce simple sentences

Lots of visual and
manipulative support

Questions that elicit one-word,
nonverbal, or physical responses, build the answer into the question

Can describe, explain, define,
retell, compare and contrast, justify, and more
Grammatical support

More open-ended questions,
questions that model the structure of an answer

When thinking about support for students at different proficiency levels, it's important to hold high expectations for all students. Just because a student is beginning to learn English doesn't mean he isn't good at science! And just because a student at the beginning stages of English language development typically struggles with responding to open-ended questions doesn't mean we can't ask them. When Sharon asks an open-ended question, she first asks everyone to think about it. If individual students need a more structured or modified form of the question in order to respond, she will provide one. Sharon's goal is for everyone to improve and move forward in their English language development, and she uses inquiry science as a context for them to do so.

Equitable Access For All Students

During inquiry science, Sharon wants all of her students to have access to science content. If language is a barrier to learning, she provides the necessary support. Without support, many of her students might not be able to participate in science discussions or express their learning through the language of instruction. Providing explicit language support is critical to equitable access.

Lisa Delpit frames this idea in her book Other People's Children (1999). She urges educators to explicitly teach those forms of language that will enable students to succeed in school and actively participate in their learning communities. Therefore, when we expect the students in our diverse classrooms to contribute their ideas during science discussions, we need to make sure that they have the skills in English to do so.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Communication and Language Strategies for the Science Inquiry Classroom (Part 2)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Good science starts with a question. Using inquiry science, children discover answers to their questions in the same way that scientists do - with experiments, predictions, observations, and conjectures. In this excerpt from Chapter 4 of Becoming Scientists: Inquiry-Based Teaching in Diverse Classrooms, Grades 3-5, Rusty Bresser and Sharon Fargason offer ideas for choosing appropriate language support strategies in the science classroom that will match students' proficiency levels.

# data[].attributes.body
RUMORS
1-Explain how the strategy works.
Each student gets a post-it. On the post it, the student is tasked to write about any question or new idea or required steps in solving a math problem.

Action Pattern – Listen, Say, Exchange
Students will then get up and walk around the room. They will partner up and speak to the partner about what they wrote on their post-it. The other student will read what they wrote on their post-it. Both students switch post-its and continue to another partner.

2-Describe how this strategy will help ELLs
This strategy helps ELLs to articulate a sentence and verbally speak what they wrote aloud to their partner?
Practice key ideas in different modalities.

3-Provide an example of how you can/will use this strategy in your class.
You can use this strategy to introduce new content or paired with multimedia.

# data[].attributes.body
sentence auction  where you can use this skill to enhance writing identification of valuable chunks of language or sentence structure
can also be used in reading for test strategies

If you have the students explain why or how can bring in the speaking literacies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"The meaning of even a single word is rather more complex than one might imagine."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to differentiate writing activities:

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

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

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

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

Language Experience Approach

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sentence Auction

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Error correction

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

Quick Write

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

Cinquain poems

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

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

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

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

Writing
Fun, creative
Thinking, sharing, revising
Lots of ideas.
Proud
The TESL Reading and Writing Forum
A forum to share teaching tips, handouts, syllabi, lesson plans and more!
Make Beliefs Comix
Make Beliefs Comix, created by acclaimed "Make Beliefs" author Bill Zimmerman, allows kids to create their own comics in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, or Latin.
LD OnLine: What is Dysgraphia?
This article from the National Center for Learning Disabilities, featured on LD OnLine, discusses dysgraphia and its warning signs, as well as strategies for addressing it for different age groups.
Reading Rockets: Writing Webcast
Reading Rockets webcast featuring Dr. Steven Graham, Dr. Louisa Moats, and Dr. Susan Neuman. These three renowned reading and writing experts address why writing is important, what the latest research tells us, and what educators and parents can do to support our children's development as writers.
Reading Rockets: Teaching Plot Structure with Picture Books
Use picture books to teach young writers how to organize plot logically. This article includes examples of basic plot structures, along with picture books that use those structures.
Reading Rockets: An Introduction to Letter Writing
This article from My Child Magazine, featured on Reading Rockets, offers samples of different styles of letters (from thank-you notes to letters to Santa) and style guidelines that children can follow.
ESL Writing Wizard: Handwriting Practice
This site lets you create your own handouts of words that students can practice writing. The paper is lined and the word is outlined in small dot print. Good for ELL students developing initial literacy skills.
ReadWriteThink: Comic Creator
ReadWriteThink offers a variety of fun, interactive writing activities, including the Comic Creator. Students can fill in comics with their own words and storylines.
PIZZAZ: Cinquain poems
A poetry site designed to assist instruction of ESL students in poetry and other creative writing forms. The site has links and detailed information on poetry such as Cinquain, Diamante, Haiku and Limericks. It also has further information on other types of creative writing and tips for instruction.
TeacherVision: Language Arts Graphic Organizers
These graphic organizers can be used to prepare for a five-paragraph essay, organize sentences in a paragraph, map concepts and events, compare topics with a Venn Diagram, organize notes for a presentation, create a double-entry journal, and much more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Improving Writing Skills: ELLs and the Joy of Writing

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

# data[].attributes.body
1 - Using audiobooks when reading novels allow students to visualize the words as they're hearing them read.
2 - This promotes a stronger familiarity with the language and might build the confidence needed to engage in discussion.
3 - This can definitely be used in my class because we often expect students to read on their own, and offering an audiobook can help with comprehension.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A pack of trained wolf-like creatures are chasing a man in the forest.

The man is trying to cross the border illegally.

Suddenly they stop and refuse to attack him.

But they've never let anyone pass before. So why this man?

This interesting story comes from the audiobook " Easy Reading for ESL Students " by the Canadian Language School, which captures and holds the attention of ESL learners.

Hear no English, speak no English.

It's no secret that listening is a vital part of learning English.

Listening activities help your students improve pronunciation, grow their vocabulary and increase their English comprehension.

While you've probably used podcasts and music for listening activities before, have you ever considered audiobooks?

Audiobooks are actually a wonderful way to help your ESL students improve their listening skills, and we'll show you how to use them effectively for the greatest benefits.

Why Use Audiobooks in ESL Classes?

A good piece of audio can go a long way in grabbing someone's attention. Just take the global phenomenon of the popular podcast "Serial," for example, which attracted millions of listeners around the world!

When you have a good piece of audio, your students will want to listen and follow along with the plot.

By hearing the proper pronunciation of words in an audiobook, students are able to better comprehend and retain the English language.

Often, students are given reading assignments to complete on their own, and it's difficult for them to grasp the pronunciation of words they might not know. But by listening and reading at the same time, students can improve their vocabulary and build confidence, which all help to build their English fluency.

And, not only does it increase fluency and build vocabulary, but audiobooks are interesting! Students get tired of listening to their teacher's voice all the time, so these books provide them with a new voice, in addition to an engaging story.

How to Use Audiobooks in the ESL Classroom

Many ESL teachers find that starting their class with a listening exercise is a great way to warm up the students and get their ears tuned into the language. Using an audiobook excerpt and exercise is a great way to do this. You can do a short excerpt or long, depending on the amount of time you want to devote to listening and reading.

Listening exercises can be tricky for ESL students. Depending on their level, the students can feel overwhelmed or lost if the audio is too fast or too colloquial. So when using audiobooks, one of the best ways to ensure success is to provide the transcript of the audio.

By providing a transcript for the students to follow along, they'll be able to listen to the story and see the words at the same time, providing a new level of understanding and reachable success.

Another important practice to implement when using audiobooks is to proceed slowly. Consider your students: Do they need to listen to a section two or three times? Should you repeat any portions of the audio? Be sure to stop often and check in with your students. It's important they can hear and comprehend the story.

So we have ideas about how to best use audiobooks in the ESL classroom, but which books should you use?

4 Captivating and Free ESL Audiobooks

This famous novel is widely considered to be the Great American Novel. It's a perfect choice for ESL students (high school or older) who want to learn more about American culture-specifically, the colorful era of The Roaring '20s. It's a cautionary tale about the American dream, and can be a great starting point for classroom discussions on money, greed, cruelty and despair.

This is another great American story, featuring a boy and his hunting dogs. It is yet another glimpse of American life, but this time a look at rural country life. This story is perfect for middle and high school ESL learners as well as adults. Conversation topics can highlight this bygone American way of life, and a boy's coming of age.

This novel centers around Holden Caulfield, a seventeen-year-old prep school student who is dealing with the death of his younger brother. This book is a high school classic, and is often listed as a favorite book for many young students. ESL learners can benefit from the use of slang in the novel, and high school learners can talk about similar experiences-do they have much in common with Holden? How are their lives the same, or different?

This novel is an ESL favorite. The simple language used in the book is easy for ESL learners to understand, but the plot-the story of Christopher Boone and how he perceives the entire world literally-makes for an entertaining and heart-wrenching story. ESL learners can discuss such topics as autism, human emotions, lying and much more.

ESL Audiobook Lesson Plan: Introduce the Book

You've now decided to take the plunge and introduce an audiobook in your ESL classroom. Congratulations on taking your students to a new level of English comprehension and listening! You won't be sorry!

Now, how do you get started? Books typically aren't short, so where should you even begin? Follow the lesson below to introduce the book and listening project to your class.

1. Show a visual.

Show your students the book cover and read a description or summary of the book. After providing the visual, ask some questions about their impression. What does the cover look like? Who typically reads this book? How has it been rated? Have any of your students read the book?

2. Provide a character family tree or outline.

I once had a university professor provide my English literature class with a complete family tree of the characters in a William Faulkner book, an author who can make you feel like you're reading a book in a second language! I kept this handy outline in my book and was able to better follow the plot and understand the characters from the beginning, ensuring a much better success rate of comprehending the novel.

This will also greatly help your ESL students understand the players in the book. Who is who and how are they related? Chart it out for your students and discuss.

3. Discuss the plot and guess the ending.

After reading the summary, have the students break into small groups and come up with a possible ending. Does the good guy get the girl? Does the dog die? Have your students discuss the possibilities, which will provide them with a better understanding of what the book is about, and where it could lead.

But, of course, don't provide any spoilers! Leave them curious as to what will happen!

ESL Audiobook Lesson Plan: A Typical Listening Exercise

It might take your students a whole semester or even a whole year to finish a regular-length novel, especially if you only meet once a week or the audiobook is only a small portion of your class.

The following exercise is a typical day of reading and comprehension. It includes listening, reading, speaking and writing.

1. Listen with a transcript.

Listen to the reading (length will be determined based on your schedule and reading plan). Provide a printed transcript for your students to follow along as they listen. Stop occasionally to discuss any difficult topics or vocabulary to make sure the students understand the story.

2. Practice reading excerpts in small groups.

Have students break into groups of at least two. Choose an excerpt of the reading and have them practicing reading to each other. Have students underline any words on the transcript that they don't know or understand. Go over any confusing words or phrases as a class.

3. Write a short summary.

Have students write a short summary of the excerpt or the day's reading. What happened? Who was involved? Then have your students read their summaries aloud.

Lindsay Nash is a freelance writer and photographer living in Daegu, South Korea. She is a former ESL teacher.

Oh, and One More Thing...

If you liked these learning tools, you'll love using FluentU in your classroom. FluentU takes real-world videos-like music videos, cartoons, documentaries and more-and turns them into personalized language learning lessons for you and your students.

It's got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch on the regular. There are tons of great choices there when you're looking for songs for in-class activities.

You'll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids' singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.

On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.

For example, if a student taps on the word "brought," they'll see this:

Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like "fill in the blank."

It's perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it's guaranteed to get your students excited about English!

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.
Bring English immersion to your classroom!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Ultimate Guide to Using Audiobooks in Your ESL Class

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Want to use audiobooks for listening activities in your ESL class? Here's the ultimate guide to using audiobooks, including two sample lesson plans!

# data[].attributes.body
1- scaffold reading using a site like newsela and pairing the readings with first language
2- give support and helps build confidence
3- taking a scientific article and make copies with 3 levels of proficiency and have students work together. Can use other language text to help at tricky spots.
4- https://newsela.com/about/solutions/for-your-state/new-york/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid-search&utm_campaign=search-learning-found-brand&utm_content=product-overview-page&utm_term=newsela&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhLKUBhDiARIsAMaTLnFXflgHCBo7D4VmwQyL8h2s-B9TaJlFm2n3P8I8Vvb_1mfh_23UNxYaAsCsEALw_wcB

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Skip to Content Back to top

Newsela for New York

Accelerate learning for New York students

Contact NY team

Navigate your district’s ever-changing needs with engaging content for every learner & subject.

1. Provide a trusted resource to support SEL initiatives and academic needs in ELA, Social Studies and Science

2. Support New York’s Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework

3. Provides resources in Newsela Social Studies that draw connections between citizenship and students' daily lives - supporting New York's Civic Readiness Initiative.

4. Adhere to NYS Ed Law 2-d legislation by protecting student data. Submit your DPA (Data Privacy Agreement) or Parents’ Bill of Rights here

Contact NY team

Some examples of ELA Curriculum Complement: Lucy Calkins Units of Study

Explore more Lucy Calkins content

Some examples of our Advanced Literacy Skills content

Explore NY literacy content

Some examples of DBQ Social Studies content

Explore NY DBQ content

Some examples of LGBTQIA+ Studies content

Explore NY LGBTQIA+ content

Instructional supports to expand students' learning experience and engagement

Curations, Lessons, and Customizations

Create custom activities, search for content by standard, curate Text Sets, and control the reading levels students experience.

Aligned to New York State and Local Standards

Use Newsela to teach the standards and priorities of your school, district and the state of New York. We support leading frameworks, and commonly used curricula to ensure instruction is both engaging and driving learning.

Aligned to New York State Next Generation English Language Arts Standards

Aligned to the New York State K-12 Social Studies Framework

Aligned to New York State P-12 Science Learning Standards

Quizzes, Writing Prompts, and Assignments

Create and share customizable assignments and give students access to reading comprehension quizzes, customizable writing prompts, and annotations.

Feel the love from New York educators

“Newsela allows students to access and understand content, no matter what their reading level is. With authentic, real-world texts to choose from, even the most reluctant readers can find something they like.”

“Newsela is a big hit and now it is a necessity. We really appreciate your support.”

“Thank you so much for your support to our entire school community. It is very much appreciated. We look forward to working with these components of Newsela.”

Meet our trusted New York partners

We partner with educators and leaders from around the state to meet your content and PD needs.

Keep New York students learning, wherever they are

Power Newsela content with NWEA assessments

You can now use MAP Growth scores from NWEA to deliver Newsela content to students at the reading level that’s just right for them, accurately and automatically. So it’s faster and easier to differentiate instruction when it matters most.

Learn more about NWEA and Newsela

Resources for New York educators

Events & resources to help New York educators get the most from Newsela’s content solutions.

On-Demand Webinar

Infusing Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Instruction in your Classroom.

View our Newsela+NYSCATE partner webinar with Jessica Turner of Ossining School District.

Watch the session

SEL

Reimagining Tier 1 instruction through SEL

Ensuring SEL instruction is inclusive for students of color.

Watch the session

On-Demand Webinar

Planning for 21/22 during COVID-19

Learn from five NY administrators & Newsela’s Co-Founder.

Watch Now

Content solutions across the curriculum

Authentic, standards-aligned content that supports the standards and mandates that matter to NY schools.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn why hundreds of NY schools trust Newsela's content for ELA, Science, Social Studies & SEL.

# data[].attributes.body
Annotations are a great way to help students become engaged in a text as they focus on specific details.
1. As students read a text, they can annotate the text by:
a. Circling unfamiliar vocabulary words
b. Highlighting important information
c. Asking questions
d. Reacting to the text
e. Making connections
2. This strategy would help ELLs because it facilitates their analysis of a text.
3. I can use this strategy each time we read a book and I would ask the students to refer back to their annotations as they compose/analyze different literary elements of the text.
4. https://examples.yourdictionary.com/annotation-examples.html

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You’ve likely encountered notes in the margins of a book or paper, but you may skip over them or not quite understand why they’re there. Annotations ensure that you understand what is happening in a text when you come back to it, or provide others with valuable information about the text.

Why Use Annotations?

Annotations are used in order to add notes or more information about a topic as well as to explain content listed on a page or at the end of a publication. These notes can be added by the reader or printed by the author or publisher.

Another common use of annotations is in an annotated bibliography which details the information about sources used to back up research. Ultimately, annotations help readers to understand the main text and ensure the reader has all the information they need.

Annotations in Content

Highlighting or underlining key words or major ideas is the most common way of annotating and makes it easy to find those important passages again. You may also find annotations in some texts written by the authors themselves, regarding related topics or expanding on an idea.

Annotations can be used to:

provide reminders

help a reader engage with the text

add context

offer further clarification

How to Annotate

Take notes for a class, prepare for a presentation, book club or any other occasion: You can make your annotations as simple or elaborate as you want. For instance, you can use different color highlighters or sticky notes to color code the text for different things such as:

comments and questions

observations

text you want to quote

use of themes

vocabulary words to look up

Reader Annotations

You can go beyond marking up text and write notes on your reaction to the content or on its connection with other works or ideas. A reader might annotate a book, paper, pamphlet. or other texts for the following reasons:

a student noting important ideas from the content by highlighting or underlining passages in their textbook

a student noting examples or quotes in the margins of a textbook

a reader noting content to be revisited at a later time

a Bible reader noting sources in their Bible of relevant verses for study

an academic noting similar or contradictory studies related to their article or book

Examples of Reader Annotations

In this example, the reader makes notes about the article including their understanding of the material and how they can apply it. Here, the reader asks questions about the text that they want to see answered in the following sections or questions they themselves will address in their own paper.

Author or Publisher Annotations

Sometimes annotations can be found in the margins of a book, paper, article or other text for various purposes, including:

pronunciation explanations

explanation about a word or information in a sentence

notes from a scholar about the historical context of an event described in the main text

notes from a scientist about the study discussed in the main text

notes made by a realtor on a housing listing

notes from the coroner on an autopsy report

notes in a law book showing related court cases

Example of Author Annotations

Authors, editors, publishers, or others may use annotations to give historical context, explain the meaning of a word, offer insights or highlight information. In this edition of The Art of War by Sun Tzu, annotations are provided to explain the text.

Annotated Bibliography

Annotated bibliographies should include a brief summary about the source, the value of the source, and an evaluation of the reliability.

The list should be titled Annotated Bibliography or Annotated List of Works Cited. The bibliography should be listed alphabetically by author or title, by date of publication or by subject according to MLA and APA formatting styles.

Examples of Annotations in an Annotated Bibliography

The purpose of an annotated bibliography is to explain how you will use a source and your understanding of the information.

Anxiety Disorder. (2013). NIMH Website. Retrieved from: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health...This is a comprehensive listing of anxiety-related disorders with descriptions of each disorder and narratives from those who have coped with the symptoms. The site discusses how sufferers can get help and what resources are available. There is information about research currently underway to help with these disorders.The National Institute of Mental Health is a renowned organization committed to the education of individuals on mental health issues as well as research and dissemination of information pertaining to all aspects of mental health. This site is a useful tool to understand anxiety disorders and how they affect those suffering from them.
Dimeff, Linda, Koerner, Kelly, and Linehand, Marsha. Dialectical Behavior Therapy in Clinical Practice: Applications across Disorders and Settings. Guilford Press. 2007.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy, initially created as a means of treatment for those with bipolar disorder who showed suicidal tendencies, is now a more generalized method of treatment, established as effective for many psychological disorders. This book outlines the method and its increased usage.

Guilford Press is a publisher of many reputable books, both scholarly and in the self-help genre, that relate to psychology and psychiatry. The authors are highly knowledgeable in their field of practice making the source highly reliable

Magnitude of placebo response and drug-placebo differences across psychiatric disorders. (2004). Psychological Medicine. Retrieved from http://journals.cambridge.org/...This article discusses the usage and effectiveness of various drugs in treatment for myriad psychiatric disorders, including anxiety. Six different disorders were studied using placebos to study the effects

Published by Cambridge Press, a respected and renowned publication, this scholarly article is highly informative, and the data considered reliable

Self Help Publications. (2013). Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Retrieved from http://www.adaa.org/finding-he...This site is a useful tool to find resources to help those dealing with anxiety-related issues, no matter what the disorder. It is useful for various age ranges, giving information for adults as well as how to help teens or young children. Furthermore, the list offers some informative texts that would be helpful to those whose family members, friends, or other loved ones are trying to cope with anxiety-related disorders.

Composed by a reputable organization, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, this list is a useful means of locating print resources to learn more about anxiety and how to help oneself, or others. Some treatment methods are discussed in detail in some publications, as well, helping researchers and others to better understand some of the specifics of treatment options.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The inclusion of annotations can bring additional value and information to your work. Understand how to properly include these with annotation examples.

# data[].attributes.body
1-Explain how the strategy works.
Put your class into teams of approximately five players per line. The one at the front has a picture of, say, rain. On go, the first player in each line asks number 2 in the line: ‘What’s the weather like?’ Next, number 2 replies with, ‘It’s raining,’ and takes the picture. Then number 2 turns to number 3 and asks, ‘What’s the weather like?’ Number 3 says, ‘It’s raining,’ takes the picture, turns to number 4, and so on. Finally, the rain image reaches the end of the line.

2-Describe how this strategy will help ELLs
This strategy will allow ELLs to review content and key terms.

3-Provide an example of how you can/will use this strategy in your class.

Before a test to review
Transition activity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
An easy vocabulary and grammar game for children

Here is a versatile classroom vocabulary game, for all class sizes, from a handful of children right up to a large class.  This game also works well with adults. It is ideal for drilling new vocabulary or grammar, in a fun way, of course!

Relay Race: How to play

Put your class into teams of approximately five players per line. The one at the front has a picture of, say, rain. On go, the first player in each line asks number 2 in the line: ‘What’s the weather like?’ Next, number 2 replies with, ‘It’s raining,’ and takes the picture. Then number 2 turns to number 3 and asks, ‘What’s the weather like?’ Number 3 says, ‘It’s raining,’ takes the picture, turns to number 4, and so on. Finally, the rain image reaches the end of the line.

The winning team is the one that finishes first. However, warm everyone that you will disqualify teams that fudge it!

Tips to make the game a success

Players must pronounce sentences correctly, and accuracy should not be abandoned for speed. To ensure this, name a referee for each team. This quality control referee must belong to another group so that they will referee properly. Swap them around, sharing this task among the stronger students.

Instead of a picture, pass an object down the line. That works well because it’s more fun for students to see the message’s progress in tangible form.

If this game does not work, you probably need to simplify the language or drill it more with another game first.

Language ideas to use with this game

Adapt this classroom vocabulary game to any language, from simply naming the item and passing it down to complete sentences with a particular verb tense or structure. Ideas are:

‘I am Shelley, and you are Maria.’
Jane continues with, ‘I am Maria, and you are Ali,’ etc.
Shelley: ‘I love ice cream.’ Maria: ‘She/Shelley loves ice cream, and I love chocolate.’
Ali: ‘She/Maria loves chocolate, and I love ice cream,’ etc.

Shelley: ‘I like ice cream. What do you like?’
Maria: ‘I like chocolate. What do you like?’
Ali: ‘I like cake. What do you like?’

Small group version

Here’s a way to play Relay Race with only five children. Let them pass the language down the line once and time them with a stopwatch. Then let them do it again and try to beat their previous time. Or instead of a stopwatch, walk across the room from one wall to the other – they have to finish before you reach the other side. The first time, saunter over there. Gradually speed up, but always let them finish before you!

Relay Race advanced variant

This game is also beneficial for advanced and older students to drill something students often get wrong. Alternatively, have pupils make up their own sentences during the race to make the game more challenging. For example, hand a picture or word card to the first student in each team. This student thinks of a sentence with the word in it. The student then passes the card to the next in line, who has to create a different sentence. This freedom allows intermediate students to work on speaking skills using a broader range of language.

However, if using this classroom vocabulary game to invent sentences on the spur of the moment, as described above, do not focus on correcting the language. Instead, you might note glaring errors and go over them on the board afterwards. If doing an accuracy drill, keep language sufficiently simple so that the game is well within the students’ grasp. If doing a fluency activity, errors are inevitable and are to be accepted.

Reading and spelling variants

Play with sentences instead. For a spelling game, the first player has a word flashcard and says it to the second player, who spells it. If the second player is correct, the first player hands the paper over, and the second child says the word to the third player, who spells it, takes the paper, and so on.

This spelling activity is pretty challenging. Therefore, you could play it with intermediate players. In addition, even teenagers and adults find it fun.

More great classroom vocabulary games

Sale!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Classroom vocabulary game Relay Race - Teaching English Games

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Relay Race is a versatile classroom vocabulary game for all ages and class sizes. Use it to drill vocabulary and grammar. For ESL students.

# data[].attributes.body
1 - This strategy calls attention to the importance of teaching the basic parts of speech.
2 - This will help students increase their comprehension of what is happening in each sentence, passage, and eventually, the bigger text.
3 - I can extract important excerpts from our anchor text, and ask students to break down the parts of speech.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Grammar instruction is one component of learning a language. For students, it is often beneficial to use a mixture of direct grammar instruction and indirect and in context activities.

This is particularly true when there is little time available to devote to direct grammar instruction. Here are some activities that are easily integrated into other content areas. They still allow students to practice new grammar skills.

Teach Basic Parts of Speech

In elementary school learning about the basic parts of speech is part of the language arts curriculum.  ELLs might need additional practice with these concepts and the vocabulary words used as examples. Older students will often need to be introduced to basic parts of speech, that their classmates learned about in lower grades.

I have sets of vocabulary sheets that are ready made as you are introducing your students to the parts of speech. They are great for speaking and writing. The vocabulary sheets go along with parts of speech color by code sheets (Grab a FREE set HERE). You can also create a chart with your students about a topic that they are learning about.

Use Picture Books

A fun way to introduce a new grammar concept is with a picture book. Picture books have illustrations and typically are not random sentences (like you may find on a worksheet.) They are also a great source for mentor sentences.

The Words Are CATegorical set of books show parts of speech and other grammatical concepts in a silly and fun way. There are many illustrated examples of the grammar focus of each book.

Many picture books are written in the past tense. Dreamers is about a women and her journey as a new immigrant to the United States.

Last Stop on Market Street tells the story of a young boy and his grandmother as they take a bus home. The boy asks why he doesn’t have all of the objects is sees around town. The book has examples of past tense verbs and ing.

Use Mentor Sentences

A mentor sentence is typically a sentence from a book or other text that students look closely at. It is helpful first to read the picture book to students without looking at the grammar. After they are familiar with the story, first, choose a sentence for students to examine. Students can identify the parts of speech in the sentence (color coding each part of speech works well for this activity). Another activity is to have students create their own sentence that is modeled after the mentor sentence.

Use Sentence Frames

Sentence frames are a simple way to incorporate grammar into a lesson. The sentence frame helps students to use correct sentence structure. Here are some simple examples of sentence frames to use with your students.

I like to ____ (verb).

The ____ (noun) is ____ (verb or adjective).

I am ____ (verb).

Yesterday I ____ (past tense verb).

Use Students Writing

Student writing is a great guide of which grammar concepts to teach and as a source for practicing the new information. If you notice students trying to use, but mixing up making the same grammar mistake, that is a great teaching point.

One strategy I used with a group of intermediate fifth graders was to copy sections of their writing that had the grammar concept that we were practicing. Then I would have them use colored pencils to edit their work and look for that mistake. They were able to focus since they were only looking for one grammar concept at a time. It was their own writing so they were more invested than doing the same activity from a workbook.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 Tips for Teaching Grammar to ELLs - A World of Language Learners

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Here are 5 tips for teaching grammar to ELLs in the classroom. These activiteis go beyond worksheets and teach grammar in the context of reading...

# data[].attributes.body
1 - The strategy is to encourage students to speak publicly in front of their peers.
2 - The speaking opportunities will build confidence and allow for practice.
3 - I often have students write TED Talks using an argumentative tone, after watching TED Talks as a model. Our ELL students can practice a very short version of a TED talk that still allows them a chance to participate.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Public speaking can be a scary thing.

Also known as glossophobia, the fear of public speaking is a major source of anxiety for roughly 75% of people worldwide.

And as much as we like to say imagining the audience in their underwear helps make public speaking easier, it doesn't-it just makes you lose your train of thought.

Public speaking is an essential skill everyone needs to have, including your language learners.

The good news is that it gets easier with practice, which is why you should think about teaching public speaking in your classroom.

Below are some ways to shift the spotlight and let your students take center stage.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Why Students Need to Learn Public Speaking

Whether it's at a wedding, a conference or in a department presentation at work, there's going to come a time when most students have to speak in front of a crowd.

For high school and university students, this may come in the form of presentations and oral assessments, which could make up a significant portion of their final grade.

Adult students may need to use public speaking skills in the professional world, especially if they're working in a business setting. In fact, many adult ESL students enroll in classes because they're required to conduct business meetings in English-and being able to speak confidently and fluently could lead to greater career opportunities.

Practical Benefits of Public Speaking Classes

Even if your students don't necessarily need to do any public speaking in their daily lives, teaching them the basics of public speaking still provides them with valuable benefits.

First of all, it helps your students build confidence in their English skills. Many people tend to be nervous when speaking in front of a group, and the only way to get them comfortable speaking in front of others is to have them practice. Give students the opportunity to speak in a safe and comfortable environment, and you'll see them flourish. As a teacher, that's one of the most rewarding and satisfying things to witness.

Public speaking also gives students a chance to improve their intonation. After all, no one wants to listen to a speech coming from a deadpan, monotone speaker. Not only will intonation practice make your students' speeches more interesting, they'll also help them learn how to talk like a native English speaker.

Having students practice giving speeches also does wonders for improving their fluency. Without a partner to carry a conversation for them, your students will have to rely on their own skills, memory and improvisation to deliver a compelling speech. This can be a challenge, but it's great fun as well.

Finally, these classes are ideal for helping your students to prepare for real-life scenarios-especially adults. Job interviews, meetings with foreign customers and citizenship tests can all be discussed in your public speaking classes. For younger students, these classes can prepare them for passing the TOEIC test, receiving a scholarship or going to an admissions interview at an international university.

Warm-up Exercises to Prepare Students for Public Speaking

Public speaking is a daunting subject for many people, including native English speakers! It's not something you want to put on your students at the last minute-they need to be primed for it, so that they're ready mentally and emotionally.

Here are a couple of ways to get your students ready for public speaking.

Show them TED Talks for inspiration

The best way to kick off a public speaking lesson is to show students some examples of how it's done right.

Playing videos from TED Talks is a fantastic way for your students to see people giving professional-quality presentations in English. The TED Talks website is filled with hundreds of different speakers, with topics ranging from the fascinating world of technology to the meaning of life. You don't have to trawl through the internet to find the best ones. Here's a list of excellent TED talks presentations for ESL students, along with guidelines on how to use them in the classroom.

Before playing the video, separate your class into groups of three or four and ask them to think about things they like and don't like about a presentation as they watch the video. Once the presentation has ended, have your groups write down the positive and negative aspects they observed in the presentation. This will get your students thinking about what kind of techniques they can implement in their own speeches, as well as which mistakes to avoid.

To give your students a well-rounded learning experience, add FluentUto your teaching toolbox.

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

Teach the importance of body language

Good public speaking skills aren't just about using clever words and speaking clearly- body language is equally as important. It changes the way we people respond to us, as well as how they interpret our messages. Incidentally, there's a TED Talk you can show your students covering the power of body language. It's a good idea to teach your students how to use body language to their advantage, so that they can also master the art of public speaking.

Start by brainstorming different types of body language, like gestures, postures and facial expressions. You can even demonstrate different types of body language for the class by performing actions like smiling, frowning, crossing your arms and more. After introducing body language to the class, ask students to match your examples to various emotions and messages.

The results of this can be surprising because some meanings of expressions and gestures vary depending on the culture. Gestures that may seem polite to your students could be offensive in other countries. For example, the "thumbs up" sign may seem universal for good job, but in Australia, Greece and the Middle East, it could be construed as an offensive insult. If you have time, you might even want to teach an entire lesson on body language and gestures to avoid in cross-cultural situations.

Once you've elicited examples of positive and negative body language, coach your students on how to use good body language in their presentations.

5 Stress-free Activities to Practice Public Speaking

The next step is to put all your students' knowledge to use.

Here are some classroom exercises to help your students practice their public speaking skills and learn how to talk confidently around others.

1. Recite famous speeches

Making a speech is difficult enough, but writing a good one can feel like an impossible challenge to a beginner ESL learner.

Take some of the pressure off your students by letting them practice reciting famous speeches. That way, you can focus on speaking skills without diving into writing or grammar.

Speeches can be taken from historical figures, social media and even movies. If you're teaching a class of beginners, you could give them a selection of famous short poems to read. For advanced students, try a longer speech, such as John F. Kennedy's " Moon Speech."

2. Give presentations in small groups

Standing alone in front of the class can be a nerve-wracking experience, even for the most gifted of learners.

If your students aren't ready for solo presentations, have them work in small groups so all of the attention isn't focused on one individual learner.

This can be done in just about any context, from proposing a business idea to describing how to cook their favorite food. Monitoring their activity can be difficult with several groups working at the same time, so have your students assess each other. Give every student a scoring sheet with criteria covering things like voice projection, timing, entertainment and ease of understanding. As your students listen, each group can score their partners based on this criteria. Then, you can use their scoring sheets to give feedback at the end of the class.

3. Assign solo presentations using PowerPoint

When your students feel ready to come up with their own material, have them prepare their own presentations with the help of PowerPoint.

PowerPoint slides are a great visual aid, as well as a way to make the presentation easier for nervous students.

Depending on your goals and the proficiency level of your class, you can either assign them individual topics or let your students present on a topic they're passionate about. Just make sure to give them enough time to write a presentation script and create the PowerPoint slides to go along with it. I recommend telling them about the project in advance so they have time to work on their presentations at home. Students who don't have PowerPoint on their computer can use Google Slides as an alternative. It's free and just as effective.

4. Do improvised presentations on random topics

Once your students have built up some confidence in their speaking skills, you can start throwing some real challenges at them, like on-the-spot presentations.

Do this by writing out a list of different topics and put them in a hat, bag or any other object the students have to stick their hand into. These topics could be anything from my dream job to the importance of a healthy diet.

Have your students randomly select one topic, and without any preparation time, talk to the class for as long as they can about their chosen topic.

5. Get dramatic with your class

Public speaking doesn't have to be about presentations. You can change things up a bit by using some drama activities as well. These could include role plays and reenactments of famous movie scenes. While acting, students still use skills like good body language, voice projection, intonation and even improvisation to make their dialogue sound natural and convincing.

Pass the Microphone

A public speaking class is a chance for your students to shine.

While lectures and note taking can be beneficial, nothing compares to the hands-on experience your students get from learning public speaking. That's why you should keep your teacher talk time to a minimum, speaking just enough to elicit the activities and give feedback. For the rest of the class, let your students do the talking.
Emma Thomas is an ESL teacher in Bangkok with more than five years of experience in teaching students of all ages. You can read more about her experiences as a teacher in Thailand at Under the Ropes.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 Public Speaking ESL Exercises That Put Your Students in the Spotlight

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Public speaking can be a scary thing. Also known as glossophobia, the fear of public speaking is a major source of anxiety for roughly 75% of people worldwide. And as much as we like to say imagining the audience in their underwear helps make public speaking easier, it doesn't-it just makes you lose your train of thought.

# data[].attributes.body
1- Sentence Frames and Prompts- gives students ideas of how to begin conversations (and it the terms are a method, process, etc.).
2- By providing the start it can help guide students in opening up to discussion
3- When introducing a process we can use sentence starters to guide students to speak accurately and take context hints from the roots/frames.
4- https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/communication-and-language-strategies-science-inquiry-classroom-part-2

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Good science starts with a question. Using inquiry science, children discover answers to their questions in the same way that scientists do - with experiments, predictions, observations, and conjectures.

In this excerpt from Chapter 4 of Becoming Scientists: Inquiry-Based Teaching in Diverse Classrooms, Grades 3-5, Rusty Bresser and Sharon Fargason offer ideas for choosing appropriate language support strategies in the science classroom that will match students' proficiency levels. The activities described are designed to engage students in the practices outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Providing Support

The support that we provide English language learners during inquiry science falls into three categories: strategies that make content comprehensible, strategies that provide opportunities for communication, and strategies that provide support for communication.

Making Content Comprehensible

The strategies that make science content comprehensible include ones that Sharon uses to help students access key vocabulary:

the use of illustrated vocabulary banks

highlighting cognates

recasting science terms or using familiar synonyms

providing realia and concrete materials

Sharon also uses gestures or acts out words, phrases, and directions when teaching. She uses lots of visuals such as graphic organizers and pictures that help children "see" concepts. In addition, she modifies her teacher talk by slowing down and articulating clearly when giving directions, emphasizes key words, and avoids idiomatic phrases or slang. In addition to bridging new vocabulary with students' native languages, Sharon always taps their prior knowledge and experiences so that they can build on their current knowledge about science topics. All of these strategies help English language learners access science content because they allow them to visualize what the teacher is saying and connect what they are learning to what they already know.

Providing Opportunities for Communication

Sharon uses several different talk formats to provide students with the chance to discuss their learning:

Whole-class discussions provide a forum in which there are many opportunities for the cross-pollination of ideas.

Small-group formats create a safer environment in which more students get a chance to talk (See Figure 4.1).

Partner talks give English language learners an even safer place to share ideas and rehearse what they might report in a whole-class setting.

Figure 4.1: Student Conversation

When partnering students during pair-shares, Sharon sometimes places a student with advanced proficiency with a beginning-level English learner so that language modeling or translation can occur.

At other times, she places two students together who are at the same proficiency level in English so that more talk can happen. Sharon might even let the students choose whom they want to pair-share with.

To begin a science discussion, Sharon might ask a question and then give students sufficient time (sometimes up to ten seconds) to gather their thoughts and generate a response before talking to the group or to their partner. Providing wait or think time is crucial for all students, but particularly for English language learners, who may need more time to think before sharing.

The use of wait time and the different talk formats provide opportunities for all English learners to think and then talk about their learning. But what if the students don't have the language (in English) to say something? This is when it is important for the teacher to offer structured support to assist students in communicating.

Providing Support for Communication

Sharon uses a variety of strategies to help her students communicate their science thinking and practice new words and phrases they are learning (see Figure 4.2). Some strategies are easy to use and take little time or effort. For example, Sharon might ask for a thumbs-up or thumbs-down after asking a question such as "Do you agree or disagree with Carlos's hypothesis?"

Eliciting nonverbal responses supports English learners because the responses help teachers check for understanding without requiring students to produce language. English learners can participate and show that they understand a concept, or agree or disagree with someone's ideas, without having to talk. This is especially important for students whose comprehension of English is more advanced than their ability to speak the language.

Another easy strategy to use that supports students is having them give a choral response or echo in unison a new word or phrase. For example, when introducing the phrase conductor of electricity, Sharon had the class echo the phrase to her several times. This strategy exposes students to new vocabulary and serves as a model for correct pronunciation, syntax, and grammar. It also gives them practice using the language of science.

During a science lesson, students are exposed to many important concepts and ideas. These ideas may come from the teacher or from another student in the class. One strategy that holds students responsible for listening is having them repeat or reword someone else's idea. Although repeating may not seem like a high-level task, it is much more active than simply listening to the concepts as they are presented. Rewording encourages students to express a new concept in their own language, a language we know they understand. Students can repeat or reword statements made by the teacher or by other students. The teacher can also repeat or reword statements made by students to emphasize or question information (Bresser, Melanese, and Sphar 2009).

Figure 4.2 Strategies, Activities, and Tools to Support English Learners

Makes Content Comprehensible
Provides Opportunities for Communication

Provides Support for Communication

Provide illustrated vocabulary banks Modify teacher talk

Gesture/act out words, phrases, directions

Highlight cognates

Recast science terms

Use concrete materials/realia Connect to prior learning

Use graphic organizers

Use talk formats:

Elicit nonverbal responses

Elicit choral responses

Have students repeat or reword

Use sentence frames/prompts Differentiate questions

Partner talk

Table talk

Whole-group discussion

Use wait time

Sentence Frames and Prompts
Two effective tools that help students say something about their learning are sentence frames and prompts. Prompts can be oral or written and are used as sentence starters. For example, during an inquiry lesson on energy, Sharon showed the class a video and then had them talk and write about what they learned. She provided the following prompts to jump-start their thinking and writing:

In another lesson on UV beads, Sharon provided the following prompts to help students formulate testable questions:
What if...?
Does...?
I wonder...?
What will happen if...?
Is it possible to ____________?
Sentence frames serve a variety of purposes. They provide the support English language learners need to fully participate in science discussions, serve to contextualize and bring meaning to vocabulary, provide a structure for practicing and extending English language skills, and help students use the vocabulary they learn in grammatically correct, complete sentences (Bresser, Melanese, and Sphar 2009).

During a unit on energy, Sharon wanted the students to make a prediction about a pair of students' hypothesis. To help them make a prediction, she provided the following frames. The first frame is appropriate for beginning-level English learners. Sharon differentiated the second frame for intermediate/advanced English learners. Notice how the second frame includes the conjunction because. This prompts the learners to explain their thinking further but requires more language:
I predict ___________ hypothesis will work/won't work.
I predict ___________ hypothesis will work/won't work because __________.
During an investigation of UV beads, Sharon offered the following frame to help students describe the beads:
The beads are ____________ and made of ____________.
To create sentence frames, Sharon first thinks about what key vocabulary students will need to know and understand. She then thinks about the purpose for using language. Will students be using vocabulary to make predictions about a hypothesis? Draw conclusions about an experiment? Compare minerals? Describe an energy source? Ask questions about UV beads? Explain how they got a toy car to move?

Sharon tries to anticipate what students will say, and this guides her in creating the frames. When structured appropriately, sentence frames are flexible enough to be useful in a variety of contexts and open enough to allow students to give us their own ideas. These frames allow students to use the key vocabulary terms and put together complete thoughts, thoughts that can be connected, confirmed, rejected, revised, and understood. What's important is that the teacher model using the frames and give students practice so that they will actually use the frames during instruction.

The chart in Figure 4.3 includes examples of sentence frames for different topics in science and for different language functions or purposes for using language. The examples also include frames that are differentiated for different levels of English proficiency: beginning and intermediate/ advanced.

Supporting Students at Different Proficiency Levels

As mentioned, the students in Sharon's class represent a wide range of proficiency levels in English.

Native and advanced English speakers

For example, John and Felicia are native English speakers who require little linguistic support during inquiry science, although sentence frames for advanced proficiency levels can push them to use more sophisticated language.

Carlos and Benito are at advanced and intermediate levels of English proficiency, respectively, and with some added grammatical support, are able to perform all of the language functions that John and Felicia can. For example, when Carlos makes a grammatical error, Sharon models correct usage and has him repeat it to her. These two students, like everyone in Sharon's class, also need exposure to and support for using academic terms during inquiry science. They also need practice talking like scientists, since the language they are expected to use during inquiry is more formal than the English they use on the playground.

Students who are native English speakers, and those who are at advanced and intermediate levels of English proficiency, are able to respond to more open-ended questions during inquiry. For example, Sharon might ask, "What do you think will happen when we use the lemon to make a battery?" This is a good question for native English speakers and those at advanced and intermediate levels of proficiency. But a response to this question requires a lot of language for beginning-level English learners. These students must produce so much language just to structure their answer that they might choose not to answer at all.

Beginning English speakers

Jackie, Alejandra, and Dao are at the beginning stages of English language development and need lots of visual support. They understand more English than they can produce, and the questions that Sharon asks them are sometimes different from the questions she poses to students at more advanced levels. For example, to improve his participation, Sharon might ask Dao a question that requires a nonverbal or one-word response. (For example, "Do you agree with Carlos's hypothesis?" or "Thumbs-up if you agree with Carlos's hypothesis.")

Sharon might ask Dao a question that requires only a physical response. ("Point to the materials that make the bulb light up" or "Can you show me how to make the bulb light up?") Sometimes Sharon will build the answer into the question. ("Which works better, the potato or the lemon?")

Figure 4.4 shows what students at different levels of English proficiency can do, what support they need, and the types of questions that are most effective to ask.

Figure 4.4 * Support for Different Proficiency Levels in Englis

One-word or nonverbal
responses, can identify, match, categorize, and produce simple sentences

Lots of visual and
manipulative support

Questions that elicit one-word,
nonverbal, or physical responses, build the answer into the question

Can describe, explain, define,
retell, compare and contrast, justify, and more
Grammatical support

More open-ended questions,
questions that model the structure of an answer

When thinking about support for students at different proficiency levels, it's important to hold high expectations for all students. Just because a student is beginning to learn English doesn't mean he isn't good at science! And just because a student at the beginning stages of English language development typically struggles with responding to open-ended questions doesn't mean we can't ask them. When Sharon asks an open-ended question, she first asks everyone to think about it. If individual students need a more structured or modified form of the question in order to respond, she will provide one. Sharon's goal is for everyone to improve and move forward in their English language development, and she uses inquiry science as a context for them to do so.

Equitable Access For All Students

During inquiry science, Sharon wants all of her students to have access to science content. If language is a barrier to learning, she provides the necessary support. Without support, many of her students might not be able to participate in science discussions or express their learning through the language of instruction. Providing explicit language support is critical to equitable access.

Lisa Delpit frames this idea in her book Other People's Children (1999). She urges educators to explicitly teach those forms of language that will enable students to succeed in school and actively participate in their learning communities. Therefore, when we expect the students in our diverse classrooms to contribute their ideas during science discussions, we need to make sure that they have the skills in English to do so.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Communication and Language Strategies for the Science Inquiry Classroom (Part 2)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Good science starts with a question. Using inquiry science, children discover answers to their questions in the same way that scientists do - with experiments, predictions, observations, and conjectures. In this excerpt from Chapter 4 of Becoming Scientists: Inquiry-Based Teaching in Diverse Classrooms, Grades 3-5, Rusty Bresser and Sharon Fargason offer ideas for choosing appropriate language support strategies in the science classroom that will match students' proficiency levels.

# data[].attributes.body
1. In this strategy, teachers take an accessible but exemplary piece of writing (usually paragraph or essay) and create a fill in the blank version to be applied to any standardized writing such as argument or regents.

2. This strategy works with ELLS because it provides
it provides ELLs the opportunity to incorporate smooth transition and signal words as well as to model appropriate structure.

It provides a framework for writing strong paragraphs

The frame guides students by providing the transitional phrases for sentences

It can incorporate various sentence types: long and short, simple and complex.

3. This could be used to prepare for formal academic writing that measures structure and sentence variety, such as the regents. It also reminds students to complete all of the required parts of the writing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Framing an essay helps a writer set the tone for the piece and creates a structure for the information that follows. Essay frames allow writers to address specific information, such as a discussion or a theme, a persuasive argument about an issue or a list of instructional steps or directions to complete a task. As young writers learn to develop strong essay framing techniques, they will master the art of writing convincing and detailed essays.

Pick an essay topic. Decide what you will write about and how you will structure your argument. For example, a persuasive essay will begin with a clearly stated thesis topic, while an instructional essay will begin with a clear statement about an activity or action. The writer must first form and state the topic in order to then write an essay that provides evidence or information regarding the topic.

Begin with a clear statement of the theme. Use a quote from an expert or a direct statement of your stance to begin the essay. For example, if you are writing a persuasive essay against the death penalty, you may frame the essay by opening with a quote from a respected activist who frequently speaks out against the death penalty. Your opening phrases will help define the topic and frame your tone and approach to it.

Outline and write the main points that support the frame of the essay. Once you have developed your frame and topic sentences, you can outline the main points for the body of the essay. In a persuasive essay the main points will support your view of the issue and help refute opposing views. You can check that your essay flows properly and is thorough by reviewing each point in the body of the essay and checking to see that it relates directly back to the essay's frame.

End with a concise conclusion that connects back to the frame. Effective essay framing helps you structure an essay point-by-point so you can arrive at a clear conclusion that supports your topic. In an instructional essay, the reader will have been given all the information necessary to complete a task or activity, while a persuasive essay will offer the reader sufficient information to support the views stated in the topic sentence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Framing an essay helps a writer set the tone for the piece and creates a structure for the information that follows. Essay frames allow writers to address specific information, such as a discussion or a theme, a persuasive argument about an issue or a list of instructional steps or directions to complete a task.

# data[].attributes.body
1. Engage students in a brief, shared experience.
2.Teach one or two specific strategies for writing. Provide brief examples or cue cards of strategies in order to support students' immediate use.
3.Provide students with time (5-10 minutes) to write at the small-group table but individually and as independently as possible.

# data[].attributes.body
Introduce current events that are relevant to your students’ lives. Discuss the events and the impact students feel it has on how they live each day.

Ask simple connection questions that will relate or connect to the lesson. Think in modern terms. For example, if you are teaching about the daily lives of children in Ancient Greece, start off with a bellringer about how clean your students keep their rooms. Let the discussion be fun with students describing their mess! Then transition to the expectations for children in history.

Hit critical or controversial topics. Students love to argue. Let them! Pick relevant topics that have opposing sides and let your students engage. It will keep them curious and ready to learn more about the topic or its connection.

Let your students be creative. Creative tasks get the brain going. Allow students to draw or doodle about your lesson topic. Then create a brain web on the board from their suggestions. It will be a great way to start using different strategies to teach Social Studies lessons with a connection they will remember.

example
use of a current event that the students can relate to their lives. Once the students do the visual or quick read ask a question to bring them back to the history lesson/ topic studying. A good example would be the lockdown in china that the ELL students know then relating to Bill of Rights. This can be a comparison and the students can see the concept in action

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Using different strategies to teach Social Studies can be a game changer for increasing student engagement and success. Simple tweaks to your daily routine can bring students alive and keep them looking forward to the learning in your classroom. Take a look at these simple suggestions for different and powerful strategies you can use in the Social Studies classroom!

Different & Powerful Strategies for Simple Starters

Getting students engaged at the beginning of class is key. And if you ask them to participate then, they are more likely to see the lesson through to the end. Consider bellringers that give them a voice or draw them in through simple curiosity!

Introduce current events that are relevant to your students' lives. Discuss the events and the impact students feel it has on how they live each day.

Ask simple connection questions that will relate or connect to the lesson. Think in modern terms. For example, if you are teaching about the daily lives of children in Ancient Greece, start off with a bellringer about how clean your students keep their rooms. Let the discussion be fun with students describing their mess! Then transition to the expectations for children in history.

Hit critical or controversial topics. Students love to argue. Let them! Pick relevant topics that have opposing sides and let your students engage. It will keep them curious and ready to learn more about the topic or its connection.

Let your students be creative. Creative tasks get the brain going. Allow students to draw or doodle about your lesson topic. Then create a brain web on the board from their suggestions. It will be a great way to start using different strategies to teach Social Studies lessons with a connection they will remember.

Different & Powerful Strategies to Teach Social Studies

Teaching strategies do not need to be magical to work. They can be simple, straight forward, and easy to implement. While some of my favorite strategies, like Walking Tours and Archeology Digs do require prior planning and prep, others can be used without much fuss at all.

Trying Different & Powerful Strategies the Easy Way

Engaging students and keeping them engaged does not need to be a stressful challenge. Make activities light-hearted and fun while they also provide content and practice skills.

Print chunked readings on card stock with images and let them draw the cards from a shredded paper dig site.

Use music or videos to enhance lessons and learning. Analysis is not just for text resources!

Teach as much social history as you do political history. It's much more fun!

Allow discussion and face-off activities where students can share their opinions.

Let your students have CHOICE! This is one with so many options for really taking your classroom to the next level.

Trying different & powerful strategies in your Social Studies classroom does not mean you have to revamp the way you do things 100%. It simply means you need to change up the delivery. Talk less. Let your students talk more. Sit less. Let movement guide learning for you and your students. And book less. Being tied to a textbook is often perceived as a boring task by students. Make your lessons look different and they will be seen as more than the norm!

Looking for More Ideas?

Take a look at the Strategies page on Facing History and Ourselves. It is filled with great ideas for making your classroom more interactive and keeping it filled with lessons your students will want to learn!
Happy Teaching!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Trying Different & Powerful Strategies in the Social Studies Classroom - A Lesson Plan for Teachers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Using different strategies to teach Social Studies can be a game changer for increasing student engagement and success. Simple tweaks to your daily routine can bring students alive and keep them looking forward to the learning in your classroom. Take a look at these simple suggestions for different and powerful strategies you can use in the Social Studies classroom!

# data[].attributes.headline
ELA: Four Part Framework for Argumentative Writing

# data[].attributes.subject
ELA: Four Part Framework for Argumentative Writing

# data[].attributes.body
1 - This strategy discusses breaking down a longer essay into a four part framework.
2 - This would benefit students by making an essay more manageable to write.
3 - My course ends with the ELA Regents, so I can see this framework being used to teach the argumentative essay found in Part 2 of the exam.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Teach Arguments in Writing

This is another exercise that helps ESL learn how to write arguments in English. The four part framework for this activity is as follows:

1. Question: Great ideas usually try to answer a question. In this speech, what is the question?

2. Claim: What is the speaker’s main idea? What does he want us to believe?

3. Premise: What are the reasons, or evidence, that make the main idea (claim) believable?

4. Warrant: What proof or reasons does he provide to make us believe the premise is good proof for the claim?

ESL Writing Activity

Here is a practice exercise to watch, listen and write arguments. Ask students to:

1. Listen to this one minute Steve Jobs speech.

2. Deconstruct the argument by writing out the four part framework: question, claim, premise(s) and warrant.

3. Evaluate this argument by describing his/her response (e.g. agree or disagree and why with a specific argument and warrant).

4. Put the whole thing together in a well-written one page analysis.

More Writing Activities

There are other writing activities that help ESL students to recognize arguments and warrants:

A great writing lesson that uses a 5 minute TED Talk video.

A one hour critical thinking lesson that expands argument writing by introductory the concept of questions and criteria and asks students to write an argument that answers the question, “What is a good leader?”

A lesson that teaches students the difference between correlation and causation.

A quick presentation with three examples to show how warrants can be used to support arguments.

Possible Answers

BTW, my answer looks like this:

1. Question: How can we live well?

2. Claim: Follow your heart when thinking about the big decisions in life.

3. Evidence: There really is nothing to lose.

4. Warrant: We are all going to die. Remembering this fact makes things like fear of failure, pride and outside expectations less important. When we are free from these external barriers, the only person stopping each of us from achieving something important is ourselves.

Teach writing?

Get the ebook Teach Essential Writing Skills. Transform the quality of EFL student writing by focusing on four essential skills. Click here for details about the ebook that should be part of every writing teacher’s resource library.

Save time. Teach well.

Cut your lesson prep time with this colossal collection of ESL resources that stimulate language learning and critical thinking. Simplify your lesson planning because teaching should be a joy, not a chore.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teach Arguments in Writing
This is another exercise that helps ESL learn how to write arguments in English. The four part framework for this activity is as follows: Question: Great ideas usually try to answer a question. In this speech, what is the question? Claim: What is the speaker’s mai

# data[].attributes.body
Strategy #1 - Utilize bilingual faculty and support staff

Strategy #2 - Invite non-Chinese speakers to speak to the class or create groups with non-Chinese speaking students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Xiao-lin Yin-Croft is a third-grade ELL teacher of Chinese bilingual students at Ulloa Elementary School in San Francisco. Originally from China, Xiao-lin learned English as an adult and now helps young Chinese students in the U.S. bridge the cultural and language gap that they face from an early age.

In this article written exclusively for Colorín Colorado, Xiao-lin shares some insights on ways that teachers can work effectively with Chinese students and parents, as well as some of her own classroom strategies for working with bilingual students. While some of these strategies are culturally/linguistically-specific, many can serve as a model when working with students from diverse backgrounds. You can learn more about Xiao-lin's own experiences as a student and teacher of English in our From the Heart interview with her!

Introduction

ELL teachers face a unique challenge. Not only must we provide sound instruction to students with diverse learning needs, we must provide instruction to students with diverse backgrounds who speak different languages, and whose cultural references may be completely different than ours. As a Chinese teacher working with Chinese bilingual students (and sometimes with students from other countries as well), I would like to share some of my insights about working with Chinese students and parents in the hope that this information can bridge cultural gaps and dispel stereotypes. Even though these observations are based on my own experiences, it may be helpful to think about these issues as they relate to students from all backgrounds.

Language: Some Differences Between Chinese and English

Pronunciation

Chinese is a monosyllabic language - each character has only one syllable, and most of the sounds of Chinese characters begin with a consonant and end with a vowel. Each character is clearly pronounced, unlike the flow of the sounds of English words. Based on these patterns, some pronunciation challenges that Chinese students face when learning English include:

the absence of the English sound such as /v/, and /th/ (Students may pronounce /v/ as /w/ in a word like "very", and may pronounce /th/ as /s/ or /z/ in words such as "tooth", "they" etc.)

the absence of the English consonant clusters such as /tr/, /dr/, /st/, /pl/ (Students may find it hard to blend the two consonant sounds, and it may take them a lot of practice to learn how to blend two sounds into one.)

a tendency to pronounce each syllable in an English word too clearly (Students may add a vowel sound after certain consonants, breaking the flow of English and making it sound choppy sometimes.)

a tendency to add a vowel after some consonants (For example, adding /ə:/ to consonants like "s", "x", "t", "d", "k", etc. Even I still find it hard not to add that /ə:/ sound after "k" and "d" in "asked," and after "t" in "football.")

Word Order

Due to differences in word order between Chinese and English, Chinese-speaking students often struggle with word order when learning English. These difficulties may appear in the following kinds of information:

Dates
In Chinese, dates are written in the order of year, month and day. So, April 20, 2008 would be written in this order: 2008, April 20.

Addresses
Addresses and people's names in Chinese are normally written in the reverse order to that of English. So an address on an envelope may look like this:

Country: People's Republic of China
Province: Jiangxi Province
City: Jingdezhen
Street/Number: Street name, house/building number, apartment number
Addressee: Last name followed by first name

Adjectives
In Chinese, adjectives or noun modifiers, no matter how lengthy, usually go before a noun, while in English long attributive phrases or clauses are placed after the nouns they modify. For example: "This is the best movie I have ever seen in my life." becomes "This is I/my whole life have seen the best movie."

Adverbial phrases of place and time
They are never placed at the end of a sentence in Chinese. Instead, they tend to come right before or after the subject of a sentence. "Come to see me at 9:00 tomorrow morning." becomes "Tomorrow morning at 9:00 come to see me." "I saw him in Beijing." becomes "I in Beijing saw him."

Omission or Misuse of Words

Omission of verb "to be" before an adjective
The literal translation of "She is beautiful" in Chinese is "She beautiful."

Omission of articles and inflectional endings / Misuse of verb tenses
Chinese students often make mistakes in places where linguistic phenomena are present in English but absent in Chinese, such as articles, inflectional endings, and subject-verb agreement. That's why my students often forget to use articles before nouns, omit inflectional endings such as "s" or "es" after plural nouns or verbs with third person singular subjects ("he", "she", or "it"), and incorrectly use verb tenses.

Misuse of simple personal pronouns or possessive personal pronouns
In Chinese, male or female personal pronouns, though written with different characters, have the same pronunciation. And pronouns have no inflectional differences in case. This may account for why Chinese students might say "he" rather than "she" or vice versa, and often use subject and object pronouns interchangeably.

Misuse of verb "to be"
In Chinese, the verb "to be" remains the same, disregarding whether the subject is "he" or "you" or whether the subject is singular or plural. And in Chinese, a verb does not change its form according to tenses. Therefore, Chinese students have great difficulties remembering to use the correct form of verb "to be," and often use incorrect forms and tenses of the verb.

Using Literal Translations

Even after being corrected many times, my students sometimes still say "Open the light" or "Close the light" when they mean "Turn on the light" or "Turn off the light" because they are translating directly from the equivalent Chinese expressions ("Kai Deng" and "Guan Deng").

Culture: Building Background Knowledge

I have found that my students usually live in a close-knit Chinese community with very little exposure to western culture; their experiences beyond their home and classroom are quite limited due to their parents' busy work schedule and financial conditions. Perhaps the most significant result of this is that students don't have as much background knowledge from which they can draw when learning vocabulary and content, so I try to provide my students with a variety of direct experiences on a day-to-day basis in order to build background knowledge. Some of the ways I do this include:

Since my students don't have too much interaction with adults who are not Chinese, I invite visitors from different ethnic backgrounds to our class who can talk with them about a wide range of topics. Not only do they learn about the topics, they have the opportunity to become more comfortable and confident around people of different backgrounds. Some of my visitors include museum docents, scientists, government officials, and college professors.

At our school we have set up reading buddies between our classes, and this year I have gotten a group of American high school students to be field trip buddies on our upcoming trip to a marine sanctuary. When I first told my students that they would be paired up with high school buddies who weren't Chinese, they were very nervous, but this is part of the strategy to broaden their horizons.

Another way of expanding my students' social circle is to have them participate in third-grade science rotation classes. My students join other third-grade students and are taught by a different teacher during each cycle of the science rotation class. During those classes, my students collaborate with students of different backgrounds, and have a taste of what it is going to be like in fourth grade, when they will be in a mainstream class.

In the beginning of a school year, it is impossible to use grade-level Social Studies textbooks to teach my students the subject effectively, so I give my students lots of non-fiction supplementary materials that are suitable for ELL learners. I start with something they are familiar with, such as hot dogs, chewing gum, hamburgers, coca-cola, blue jeans, baseball, etc. Gradually we move on to historical topics such as the Pony Express and the Gold Rush, as well as American symbols, landmarks, and people. My students interact with the texts by identifying main ideas and supporting details, and by learning to ask each other questions to demonstrate their learning. Through these ELL supplementary materials, they learn the organization of non-fiction materials, enlarge vocabulary and background knowledge about American history and culture, and practice academic oral English. After about half a year, the foundation is built, and they are usually able to read and understand the textbook materials as homework and, to participate in class discussions.

Taking them out on meaningful and educational field trips
I align educational field trips with social studies and science curriculum in order to provide my students with firsthand experiences as they learn and have fun at the same time. We recently went to a technology museum, and the students were able to learn about what it takes to put together a newscast. They worked in groups to write their own news scripts, pick a background, and choose related sound effects. They dressed up as the people in the news, and posed as news reporters. They loved it!

Inviting non-Chinese speakers to speak to the class

Working with a group of other students

Collaborate with my colleagues to conduct rotations

Use high interest non-fiction supplementary materials to bridge students' vocabulary and background knowledge.

Parent Outreach: Bridging the Gap

Understanding Chinese Families

For teachers who are working with all ELLs, it is very important to increase understanding and knowledge about students and their family backgrounds. I have learned about this first-hand even as I teach students with whom I share a cultural connection. When I first heard what the people around me would say about the Chinese community, I felt that they had it all wrong. Many people believe that the Chinese are only good at numbers, and in schools, I heard so many negative stereotypes; learning a bit more about a culture and a community, however, can go a long way in fighting those stereotypes.

Most of my students are second-generation immigrants, but each year I may have some newcomers from China or Vietnam. The majority of them are from economically-disadvantaged families where both parents often work at a number of low-paying jobs for long hours. Often my students are in bed by the time their parents get home. The parents often know very little English or none at all, and usually the families do not go outside the confines of their ethnic communities. For many of these students, besides watching television, school is the only place where English learning and American culture acquisition take place. Yet even at school, the children they talk to and play with are mostly Chinese because they are in the bilingual program through third-grade.

Although Chinese parents cannot provide as much support in terms of time because of their busy work schedules, they value education very much. They hold teachers in high regard, and trust the teachers' opinions and decisions. For the most part, they will do everything they can to support the teachers and the school so that their children can fulfill the dreams that they themselves couldn't due to a lack of education and the inability to speak English.

Using Parents' Native Language

Communication with parents in Chinese is crucial in order to keep them informed about their children's academic progress, their classroom behavior, and what they as parents can do to help their children to achieve success. At my school, once a week, parents get a school newsletter translated into Chinese sent home with the children, and everyone in our school office speaks Chinese. Our school provides bilingual paraprofessionals as well, and they act as interpreters at parent-teacher conferences. For schools that don't have teachers that speak Chinese (or other languages spoken by students and their families), it is imperative to use interpreters and to translate important school documents - otherwise parents will not be able to participate in their children's education at all.

It is also helpful to remember that Chinese parents are typically shy. They feel embarrassed when they don't speak English. For example, parents are often willing to help on field trips - I usually have all the help I need and parents are even willing to take time off from work - but they are willing because they know they will be with other Chinese-speaking parents.

If their child is in a non-bilingual class and all other parent helpers are speaking English, parents may think, "I will be embarrassed. Why should I go?"

I would recommend that ELL teachers who want to have increased parent involvement find a group of two or three parent volunteers who speak the same language so that they have someone to talk to on field trips - it will make a big difference.

Another issue is that of fundraisers. It's hard for our families to contribute, but we always raise the money we need to raise. Many times, the issue is simply that parents don't know that money is being collected, and that it is used for their children's education. Communication is the key.

Encouraging Bilingualism

At back-to-school night, I try to make parents aware that their children need to keep the home language alive even as they learn English. I encourage parents to do whatever they can to make that possible. My students' parents usually think they cannot play a role in helping their children to learn English because they don't know English. I tell them that native language literacy skills can transfer to new languages, and I encourage them to read to their children in the language they feel comfortable with whenever they can.

I also talk about how important Mandarin is. Cantonese is more common in San Francisco, but it is only spoken by people in Hong Kong and one province in China. There will be lots of opportunities for our young people because China is developing so fast, but those opportunities will be more available if they know Mandarin. I encourage parents to speak Cantonese at home, and then find schools where their children can study Mandarin.

In addition, I encourage parents to supervise what their children watch on television, and to watch news and other educational programs together because it is a good way for their children to learn English and build background knowledge.

Drawing Upon Strengths and Interests: Using Math as a Stepping Stone

At the beginning of a school year, I give my students an informal survey to measure their interests and abilities. Over the years, I have consistently identified math as the subject my Chinese students are best at and most interested in when they first enter third grade. Since math is often their strongest subject, I use it as a stepping stone for instruction and accelerate instruction in the beginning of the school year. The other advantages of this strategy are that my students love solving challenging problems, and it's an area where parents can provide immediate support at home.

First, we read math word problems; I demonstrate the logical thinking process while translating words into pictures and, finally, into number sentences. Soon, they start to explain their own thinking after reading complicated word problems that involve several steps. They correct each other, and argue about which number sentences they should use to arrive at the correct final results. As they sharpen their math skills, I capitalize on their enthusiasm to teach them how to extract the most important information from texts, and move them toward the oral and reading fluency they need to understand and discuss more challenging texts.

When new immigrant students arrive, math is the usually subject with which they have at least some prior knowledge. Besides giving them extra support in phonics, encoding and decoding, and exposing them to the basics of sentence structure and grammar through daily language spiral review, this is another way I introduce them to academic English. From learning math, they pick up frequently used words and phrases and learn how to understand questions posed in English. They also start to acquire a "language feeling" (automaticity) in English that will later help them understand other content-knowledge (science, social studies et al.), though they occasionally require translation of specific content-related vocabulary.

While it is challenging to bridge cultural and language gaps, the effort is necessary - our students' success depends on our ability to help them (and their parents) make those transitions. If your school is serving a community whose customs and cultural expectations regarding education seem to differ from yours or those of the school staff, talk with your principal about the possibility of working with liaisons who can offer staff training and provide you with the tools you need to communicate effectively and include all families in the school's activities. Not only will your students and their parents appreciate the effort, but it may go a long way in bringing the family together around the children's education - a goal we all share.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
From the Classroom: Working with Chinese ELLs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Xiao-lin Yin-Croft is a third-grade ELL teacher of Chinese bilingual students at Ulloa Elementary School in San Francisco. Originally from China, Xiao-lin learned English as an adult and now helps young Chinese students in the U.S. bridge the cultural and language gap that they face from an early age.

# data[].attributes.body
Writing well-developed paragraphs allow students to compose ideas in an organized and cohesive matter.
1 and 2. The strategy works by providing students an acronym to help them remember the structure of a well developed paragraph
T - Topic sentence
I - Intro to textual evidence
E - Evidence
D - Discussion of evidence (Analysis)
I - Intro to second textual evidence
E - Evidence
D - Discussion of evidence (Analysis)

3. I can use this strategy to help students write paragraphs about literary elements and/or central ideas.

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/693464026750910466

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
CWG

6 years ago

6575 views

Welcome to ThingLink!

This quick tutorial will show you how to create wonderfully engaging experiences with ThingLink.

Create

Simply click the Create button and select the type of project you want to create.

Upload

Select a file from your device to be your base image or video.

Edit

Watch this short video to learn about tag types, basic customization options and the simple publishing process - a perfect intro to editing your thinglinks!

Share

When you’re ready to share your thinglink, click the blue Share button in the top right corner of the page.

Track

Statistics help you understand how many people have seen your content, and what part was most engaging.

TIED Paragraph

CWG

6 years ago

6575 views

Do you want to create similar content?

# data[].attributes.body
Strategy #1 - Have students share problem-solving strategies.

This involves asking a simple question such as, "Did anyone else get the answer in a different way?" Then allow enough wait time so students can think through how their problem-solving process was similar or different to the one offered. Create opportunities in the class to engage students in pair sharing activities.

Strategy #2 - Allow students to discuss how they are thinking about math.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Math Instruction for English Language Learners

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Several years ago, I met a high school math teacher named Hillary Hansen who had just taught her first Basic Math course for English language learners (ELLs). She wanted so much to provide the students with the good foundation they needed, but she felt unable to engage them in her lessons. By the end of the year, she was exhausted and frustrated.That summer she had an opportunity to join a district Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) cohort to receive professional development and support the needs of ELLs in content classes. She learned about the importance of language acquisition, building background knowledge, increasing student language production, and explicitly teaching academic language. She began the following school year with a new set of tools and a deeper understanding of the instructional scaffolding ELLs need in order to learn the content while also learning English.While Hillary still felt challenged and was working hard, the second year was much more successful for her and her students. She felt she was providing them with the foundation they needed not only to understand the mathematical concepts, but also to successfully interact within a math classroom in order to learn more advanced concepts.As a result of more effective instruction, her students:Understood the content better and were working together to find creative ways to learnIncreased their participation in discussions and learned how to use instructional supports in the classFelt more comfortable with math and asking questions to get the help they neededYou can learn more about some strategies that Hillary and other teachers recommend for teaching ELLs math in the information below, along with reflection tips and ideas for getting to know your students’ math backgrounds.ELL Math Resource CollectionThis resource collection features several ideas for teaching math to ELLs.Reflection QuestionsHow much math instruction have your ELLs received in their prior schooling?How much do their levels of math background vary?What are some of their strengths related to math?What are some of their challenges?What are some practical ways your ELLs are using math in their daily lives?What kinds of strategies have supported their success or engagement in other areas?What are some ways that collaboration or co-teaching might support your ELLs?What are some leadership opportunities you might give ELLs in pair work or small group work?Learn About Students’ Math BackgroundsTeaching ELLs: Tips for Math TeachersPrint PDF >It’s important to remember that ELLs’ math backgrounds may vary significantly. Some students may have had consistent schooling where they developed strong math skills. Others may have limited or no formal schooling, but may have practical skills related to time, money, or other daily topics. If possible, find out whether students have attended school regularly and what kind of experience they have had with math instruction and with math in general. Look for ways to tie instruction to student interests (like sports) and responsibilities at home that involve math, such as helping with family finances, working in family businesses, and holding other jobs. For example, students from migrant farmworker families may be using math related to agriculture, such as weighing or selling produce. Also keep in mind that students may use other numeric and measurement systems students, such as metric system, Celsius, military time, etc.In addition, Pennsylvania educators Sally Lopez and Erin Minick also encourage educators to:Look for leadership opportunities for all students in math classProvide students with opportunities to “teach” others, work together, and demonstrate what they know in multiple waysGroup students intentionally and with sensitivity, avoiding the designation of specific students as “needing more help” in their grouping, partner assignments, or placement in the classroom(Ms. Lopez and Ms. Minick conducted a book study focused on Teaching Math to Multilingual Students, which you can learn more about from their website.)Keep in mind that veteran educators of ELLs also stress the importance of getting to know students as a key part of supporting student success. For example, in this NCELA webinar, Dr. Haiwen Chu, a national expert on mathematics education for English Learners at WestEd, recalls that visiting his high school students’ neighborhoods provided valuable insights on their experiences and familiar topics.See additional ideas for getting to you know your ELLs in 10 Strategies for Building Relationships with ELLs.The Language of MathAlthough it is easy to assume that many ELLs will excel in math class because math is a “universal language” and students may have had prior educational experience that included mathematical instruction, that assumption can lead educators astray. While computational skills may transfer, ELLs may still need support with language-focused tasks, such as solving word problems, learning (and using) math vocabulary, and writing explanations. All of these skills require a language proficiency that sometimes exceeds our expectations. We tend to think of mathematics as a subject that does not require a strong command of language. In reality, however, mathematical reasoning and problem solving are closely linked to language and rely upon a firm understanding of basic math vocabulary (Dale & Cuevas, 1992; Jarret, 1999), especially when considered along with the demands of college- and career-ready standards.Co-Teaching and CollaborationFor many educators, the challenge of bringing language and math instruction together is a relatively new one. ELL teachers who hadn’t taught content areas previously are now being asked to lead or support instruction in the math classroom, and many math teachers who don’t see themselves as language instructors are now responsible for providing effective math instruction to ELLs. When educators collaborate, however, they can better understand each other’s expertise and combine their expertise for the benefit of students.For example, when planning a lesson, a math teacher and an ELL teacher could collaborate to identify both the target content, such as key standards, concepts, or specific topics, as well as key vocabulary, academic language, and the language-focused tasks students will need to complete the lesson. These tasks might include writing out a proof, reading a math problem, explaining how to solve a problem, or writing out numbers as words. The ELL specialist could walk the math teacher through this process several times so that it becomes a more integrated part of the math teacher’s planning over time. After the lesson, the teachers could identify other areas of focus or clarification needed and share these insights with their colleagues.Another tool content teachers can use is language objectives, which help target the language demands of the lesson. You can learn more about them in the videos featuring Mr. Jesus Ortiz below.Teaching Academic VocabularyVocabulary instruction is essential for effective math instruction. Not only does it include teaching math-specific terms such as “percent” or “decimal,” but it also includes understanding the difference between the mathematical definition of a word and other definitions of that word, as well as understanding the concept a vocabulary word describes.The following example, used in a presentation by Dr. Judit Moschkovich of the University of California at Santa Cruz, underscores why vocabulary must be introduced within the context of the content (Moschkovich, 2008): In this problem, the student is instructed to “find x.” The student obviously knew the meaning of the word “find” because they “found” it on the page and circled it. The student even put a note on the page to help the teacher in locating the lost “x”. The student understood the meaning of “find” in one context, but not in the appropriate mathematical context.I recently helped a math teacher create a sheltered lesson, and I was surprised to find that there were some vocabulary words that I didn’t understand. My lack of familiarity with the words hindered my ability to do the math problem and gave me a deeper empathy for ELLs who struggle in the same way with vocabulary and comprehending math assignments.Following is a list of tips for explicitly teaching mathematical academic vocabulary.Teach key academic vocabularyAfter you identify your target content, identify the academic vocabulary words that students will need to understand that content. Some of these key phrases or new vocabulary words may also be helpful to pre-teach in small groups or mini lessons. Think about:Academic vocabulary (equilateral)Words and phrases needed to solve a problem (less than, given, arrange)Common words needed to solve word problems (train station, dolphin, favorite)Homophones (eight/ate, plane/plain, one/won, two/to/too, four/for, some/sum)Words that students are likely to encounter in other settings (formula, prove)Words that represent a numerical value necessary for solving the problem, such as measurement words (foot, feet, meter, pounds, kilometers)After you identify the vocabulary you wish to teach, use scaffolds for academic vocabulary, such as: Visuals: These can include visual representations of concepts, photos, and illustrations of key vocabulary words, posters, and number lines.Realia (real objects) and manipulatives: These might include hands-on objects related to a topic or small items, such as coins or small blocks for counting, sorting, weighing, etc.Graphic organizers: Graphic organizers are tools that allow students to organize information in a visual or hands-on way.Anchor charts: Anchor charts are posters that students and teachers co-create to highlight key concepts and vocabulary that students will need for reference.Offer students the chance to work with objects and images in order to master vocabulary. If there aren’t enough items for each student, use manipulatives on the overhead or posted throughout the classroom, and demonstrate the vocabulary in front of the students. For example, Hillary created a Math Word Wall that has three parts: key vocabulary, “in your own words” definitions, and a variety of ways to portray a function. For example, multiplication is portrayed by the following symbols: x, *, and ( ).In addition, it can be helpful to ask students which strategies support their learning. Students often can provide valuable information on what is working for them!For examples of how vocabulary can impact students’ understanding of math problems, see the related video with ESL teacher Anne Formato below.Teach words with multiple meaningsDemonstrate that vocabulary can have multiple meanings. Help students understand the different meanings of words, as well as how to use them correctly in a mathematical context. This is also a good opportunity for using visuals and realia. Examples include:YardPlotTableProofAreaEvenPlanePlaceTimesBillQuarterChangeDraw on students’ home languagesUse cognates, which are related words in two languages. English and Spanish have many cognates within academic terms, like fraction/fracción.Use translated words or phrases strategically. For example, New York University has published bilingual glossaries for several topics.Allow (and encourage!) students to use their languages in group work to solve problems, brainstorm, and review material. Students will understand material better if they explain it to another student, and the new student will benefit from hearing the explanation in their first language.Increasing Student Language ProductionThe language demands of math are complex. Working with an ELL specialist can be a good starting point for identifying some of the math demands of the lessons you are teaching, as well as for planning how to teach and scaffold those language demands.As I’ve worked with content area teachers in my district to develop Sheltered Instruction lessons and activities to enhance ELL learning, I’ve told them, “If a student doesn’t say it in your class, they’re never going to say it.” This is a bit dramatic, but it’s true to some extent. When students learn new vocabulary, the opportunity to use it must be presented in class, because students are unlikely to try it out on their own — especially academic words like “parallelogram” or “function”!Here are some tips to increase student-to-student interaction with academic language in the math classroom:Have students translate symbols into words, and write the sentence out. Hillary used this strategy to check students’ comprehension of problems before they solved them. For example, 3x + 4 = 16 would be written out, “Three times X plus four equals sixteen.” This helps students process the operations involved in the question and gives them an opportunity to think through how to solve it. It also gives students a chance to familiarize themselves with important vocabulary words. Writing out the answer to a problem is a very important skill to develop because many state math tests require a constructed response to questions.Create a “sentence frame” and post it on the board. Write the format of the sentence you would like students to use in discussion and then hold them accountable for using it. For example, “The answer is _______ degrees because it is a _________ triangle. (Learn more in our sentence frame and sentence stems strategy.)Have students share problem-solving strategies. This involves asking a simple question, such as, “Did anyone else get the answer in a different way?” Then allow enough wait time so students can think through how their problem-solving process was similar or different to the one offered.Allow students to discuss how they are thinking about math. This is a way of redirecting the lesson from teacher-to-student to student-to-student. For example a student might ask a question, “How do you know what kind of triangle it is?” Instead of the teacher answering and going to the board and pointing out the names and different triangles, the teacher can simply ask, “Does someone have an answer? Or “Would someone like to offer help to Mario?” Allow students to share how they think about the math concept and any tips they have for remembering the information.Incorporate writing activities, such as entrance/exit tickets or math journals. This is an excellent way for students to process what they’ve learned and what questions they still have. The journal or exit/entrance ticket prompt could start with simple prompts such as, “One thing I learned today...” “One thing I still don’t understand…” “One way I can get the help I need…” “The answer to this problem is…” “Something that helped me was...“Challenge students to create their own math problems. This can be a fun activity if students create a problem similar to the ones you have used in class and they exchange problems with a partner. By creating the problem and checking the answer they are reinforcing their own learning.Teach students how to read, interpret, and summarize data. Provide students with explicit, step-by-step instructions in how to read charts, graphs, tables, and infographics, as well as how to describe what they observe in visual representations of data.Model the kinds of writing students are expected to complete (e.g., written explanations). Students need to see and understand what they are expected to do and produce, such as explaining how they solved a math problem. This is a great opportunity for the “gradual release” strategy -- I do, we do, you do.Try AI tools. Consider using AI tools to rewrite math problems for students at early levels of proficiency or to generate math problems with familiar vocabulary that achieve your target objective. Bilingual Glossaries in Content AreasNew York University has published several bilingual glossaries in multiple languages that cover different content areas, including elementary math, middle school math, Algebra 1 and 2, Calculus, and related math terms.Reading and Understanding Written Math ProblemsWritten word problems present a unique challenge to ELL students and teachers alike. In Reading and Understanding Written Math Problems, Brenda Krick-Morales writes, “Word problems in mathematics often pose a challenge because they require that students read and comprehend the text of the problem, identify the question that needs to be answered, and finally create and solve a numerical equation — ELLs who have had formal education in their home countries generally do not have mathematical difficulties; hence, their struggles begin when they encounter word problems in a second language that they have not yet mastered” (Bernardo, 2005).Teacher Xiao-lin Yin-Croft has encountered this pattern in her classroom of bilingual Chinese students in San Francisco. She has developed a very creative way to use her students’ background knowledge of math as a stepping stone for other language learning. She does this by accelerating math instruction at the beginning of the school year and then building on what students have learned in math in reading and other content areas. In Building Bridges for the Future, Xiao-lin explains her strategy:First, we read math word problems; I demonstrate the logical thinking process while translating words into pictures and, finally, into number sentences. Soon, they start to explain their own thinking after reading complicated word problems that involve several steps. They correct each other and argue about which number sentences they should use to arrive at the correct final results. As they sharpen their math skills, I capitalize on their enthusiasm to teach them how to extract the most important information from texts, and move them toward the oral and reading fluency they need to understand and discuss more challenging texts.Even if you aren’t accelerating math instruction, however, there are a number of ways to help students master word problems. Krick-Morales offers suggestions in the previously mentioned article, such as explicit instruction of key vocabulary, daily practice of problem solving, repeated readings of the word problem together as a class, and hands-on activities such as movement, experiments, or drawing to help students comprehend the problem. As students become more familiar with math vocabulary, they will be able to solve problems more easily.Identify key background knowledge in math problemsIt’s important to identify what kinds of background knowledge students will need to understand a math problem. For example, Ms. Lopez and Ms. Minick used this activity with a conference session: Ms. Lopez chose four math problems from her son’s math textbook and asked session attendees to brainstorm the kinds of background knowledge students might have questions about, some of which were relevant to solving the problem and some of which weren’t. Here are some things that attendees came up with:A math problem about a coupon and sales tax at a dog groomer: What is a dog groomer? Why do people take their dogs to get groomed? What is sales tax? What is a coupon? What is “deluxe”? What is an estimate and a discount?A math problem about people receiving a voucher for a free water bottle at a football game: Is football different from soccer? What is a voucher? Does the water bottle come with water inside it?A math problem about a fishing pole on sale: What is “percent off”? What is a sale? What is “regularly priced”? What steps have to be followed to solve this problem?A math problem about calculating a tip in a restaurant: What does “leave a tip” mean? What is a tip? Does the fact that there are four sisters (Emilia and three sisters) impact the outcome of the problem? Why aren’t they using an app like Venmo?As seen from the example above, this can be a powerful area in which math teachers and ELL teachers can collaborate.The Role of Background KnowledgeWhen it comes to background knowledge that impacts students’ understanding of new concepts, students may have relevant experiences to what you are teaching that just need to be drawn out (as in the vignette below). In other cases, students may not have the needed background knowledge. My colleague Hillary found that sometimes her students would get “lost” in a problem simply because they didn’t understand the context. Following are some tips to help in tapping into and building background knowledge of students.Identify connections to your students’ experiences. When planning the lesson, consider whether they might have relevant experiences, and as you introduce the lesson, find out what they know, giving them an opportunity to make connections. They may come up with connections you never had imagined!Modify the linguistic complexity of language and rephrase math problems. Students will understand the problem better if it is stated in shorter sentences and in language they understand. This may be an area in which you wish to experiment with AI tools that can rewrite problems.Guide students to cross out the unnecessary vocabulary in word problems. Doing so allows students to focus on the math function required. For example, one problem Hillary’s students came across referred to a “school assembly.” Even though the meaning of that phrase wasn’t important in the solving of the math problem, students didn’t know it wasn’t important, and the lack of understanding contributed to their confusion.Build knowledge from real world examples. Try to reinforce concepts with examples that students can picture and talk students through the situation. For example, if you need to paint a room, you need to know how much area will be covered so that you know how much paint to buy. Look for familiar ideas or props that can be used to engage students such as recipes, news stories about the economy, or discussion of personal spending habits.Use manipulatives purposefully. This is important at all grade levels. Hillary has found math cubes to be very useful in having students represent the numbers in the problems and then manipulate the cubes to get the answer. She used the cubes and the terms “hot” and “cold” numbers when teaching with the concept of negative numbers. Students would use the red cubes as “hot” or positive numbers and the blue cubes as “cold” or negative numbers. As students laid out the number of hot cubes and cold cubes represented, they could easily see if the answer would be a positive or negative number by which color had the most cubes. A problem such as -2 + 1 = -1 would look like this: The student then removed pairs of cubes — one red, one blue — until they could no longer remove any blocks. The remaining blocks represent the answer. Classroom vignette: A moment of humilityA middle school math teacher was trying to teach points on a grid and vertical/horizontal axis to her ESL students, three boys from Vietnam. She tried many approaches, including visuals, games, simulations, and manipulatives, and was just about to give up after very little progress. Suddenly, a student said, “Oh, I know — same same you drive a boat!” (“The same as you drive a boat!”) It turns out the child had helped his uncle use the stars to navigate a raft when they were fleeing Vietnam and trying to reach refugee camps in Thailand. He explained the concept to the other boys in Vietnamese with gestures and drawings on the board, who knew exactly what he was talking about. The teacher reflected, “I felt so humble. These boys knew a lot more about math than I had given them credit for. I had failed to activate their prior knowledge, and in the process had almost given up.“Source: This vignette is presented in Chapter 4 of Special Education Considerations for English Learners: Delivering a Continuum of Services. Using TechnologyTechnology can also be a powerful tool in math instruction for ELLs. Here are some ways you can play with technology in a math lesson:Look for educational resources that accompany your school’s technology tools and programs. There may be online or software programs available for teachers. For teachers who have an electronic whiteboard in the classroom, there are many resources available on links that can be easily accessed and brought into the classroom.Find out what’s available online. Both PBS Learning Media and Vital NY (Video Teaching and Learning for NYS Educators) on Teachers’ Domain offers an online library of free public media resources. Teachers’ Domain resources include video and audio segments, Flash interactives, images, documents, lesson plans for teachers, and student-oriented activities. (Free registration required.)If students are using a calculator or other device, ensure that they learn how to use it. Based on background and prior educational experience, students might not be familiar with how to use a calculator, graphing calculator, or math apps on devices such as phones or tablets. Give students a chance to practice solving problems with their calculators once you have reviewed different functions. Texas Instruments offers numerous activities and product tutorials in their educational materials.Learn more about how to use AI tools in math. AI tools can be used to generate, differentiate, or rewrite a math problem; create a summary of a lesson plan; and many other tasks. Keep in mind that AI-generated content always need a careful review and edit. (See more in Using AI in Math from Edutopia.)Look for interactive games that offer students a chance to practice their mathematical skills. Nintendo DS has an educational game called Brain Age, which is not language specific. The game provides excellent mathematical training for numbers and tracks results, showing student improvement over time.Books About Math and MathematiciansIn addition, there are lots of books about math and mathematicians that you can incorporate into your classroom and classroom library. You can see a wide range of titles for different ages in our Math Resource Collection.Closing ThoughtsEven if it doesn’t come easily at first, there are ways to get ELLs excited about math. By keeping their language skills and needs in mind when planning mathematical instruction (and by helping your colleagues do the same), you will be taking important steps in helping students master mathematical concepts and skills. You never know — your students may be the next generation of economists, rocket scientists, and math teachers just waiting for the tools they need! Note: I’d like to thank my Minnesota colleagues, Hillary Hansen at Burnsville Senior High School and Kim Olson at Hidden Valley Elementary, as well as Xiao-lin Yin-Croft from San Francisco, for providing many of the helpful math teaching tips in this article. It is inspiring to know that there are talented, creative teachers who are always finding better ways to teach and are willing to share the knowledge.Related VideosHow vocabulary can get in the way of solving a word problemELL Specialist Anne Formato talks about the trouble a student had in understanding a written math problem based on a vocabulary word. Teacher Alejandra Rojas: Why cognates are your “best friend” in math classElementary teacher Alejandra Rojas, who teaches in a dual-immersion program, explains why cognates support vocabulary development in her Spanish-language math class. Teacher Alejandra Rojas: When bilingual students translate for their parentsAlejandra Rojas, a teacher at a dual-immersion school in Arlington, VA, shares some of her experiences as a child and teenager translating for her mother. How to Write Language Objectives: Tips for ELL EducatorsIn this video from Syracuse, NY, Jesus Ortiz, a bilingual teacher, learns how to write a language objective from Areli Schermerhorn, a peer evaluator with expertise in ELL and bilingual education. Teacher Observation Cycle: A Math Lesson on PictographsThis video highlights Mr. Ortiz’s math lesson on pictographs. While the main topic of the video is teacher evaluation, numerous best practices and strategies related to math instruction for ELLs are mentioned in the video. Recommended ResourcesNCELA Teaching Practice Brief: Math (A related podcast is available as well)Supporting English Learners in Math and Science: Effective Instructional Practices and Examples from NCELA’s Teaching Briefs PBS Learning Media: Math LessonsEngageNY: Common Core and MathCommon Core Math and ELLs: Blog PostsDiscovery Education: PuzzlemakerCatherine Snow: Word Generation SMART Notebook Lesson ActivitiesTranslating Word ProblemsColorín Colorado Webcast: English Language Learners in Middle and High School

# data[].attributes.body
Strategy #1 - Accelerate math instruction at the beginning of the school year and then build on what students have learned in math in reading

“First, we read math word problems; I demonstrate the logical thinking process while translating words into pictures and, finally, into number sentences. Soon, they start to explain their own thinking after reading complicated word problems that involve several steps. They correct each other, and argue about which number sentences they should use to arrive at the correct final results. As they sharpen their math skills, I capitalize on their enthusiasm to teach them how to extract the most important information from texts, and move them toward the oral and reading fluency they need to understand and discuss more challenging texts” (Xiao-lin).

Strategy #2 - Repeated readings of the word problem together as a class

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Math Instruction for English Language Learners

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Several years ago, I met a high school math teacher named Hillary Hansen who had just taught her first Basic Math course for English language learners (ELLs). She wanted so much to provide the students with the good foundation they needed, but she felt unable to engage them in her lessons. By the end of the year, she was exhausted and frustrated.That summer she had an opportunity to join a district Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) cohort to receive professional development and support the needs of ELLs in content classes. She learned about the importance of language acquisition, building background knowledge, increasing student language production, and explicitly teaching academic language. She began the following school year with a new set of tools and a deeper understanding of the instructional scaffolding ELLs need in order to learn the content while also learning English.While Hillary still felt challenged and was working hard, the second year was much more successful for her and her students. She felt she was providing them with the foundation they needed not only to understand the mathematical concepts, but also to successfully interact within a math classroom in order to learn more advanced concepts.As a result of more effective instruction, her students:Understood the content better and were working together to find creative ways to learnIncreased their participation in discussions and learned how to use instructional supports in the classFelt more comfortable with math and asking questions to get the help they neededYou can learn more about some strategies that Hillary and other teachers recommend for teaching ELLs math in the information below, along with reflection tips and ideas for getting to know your students’ math backgrounds.ELL Math Resource CollectionThis resource collection features several ideas for teaching math to ELLs.Reflection QuestionsHow much math instruction have your ELLs received in their prior schooling?How much do their levels of math background vary?What are some of their strengths related to math?What are some of their challenges?What are some practical ways your ELLs are using math in their daily lives?What kinds of strategies have supported their success or engagement in other areas?What are some ways that collaboration or co-teaching might support your ELLs?What are some leadership opportunities you might give ELLs in pair work or small group work?Learn About Students’ Math BackgroundsTeaching ELLs: Tips for Math TeachersPrint PDF >It’s important to remember that ELLs’ math backgrounds may vary significantly. Some students may have had consistent schooling where they developed strong math skills. Others may have limited or no formal schooling, but may have practical skills related to time, money, or other daily topics. If possible, find out whether students have attended school regularly and what kind of experience they have had with math instruction and with math in general. Look for ways to tie instruction to student interests (like sports) and responsibilities at home that involve math, such as helping with family finances, working in family businesses, and holding other jobs. For example, students from migrant farmworker families may be using math related to agriculture, such as weighing or selling produce. Also keep in mind that students may use other numeric and measurement systems students, such as metric system, Celsius, military time, etc.In addition, Pennsylvania educators Sally Lopez and Erin Minick also encourage educators to:Look for leadership opportunities for all students in math classProvide students with opportunities to “teach” others, work together, and demonstrate what they know in multiple waysGroup students intentionally and with sensitivity, avoiding the designation of specific students as “needing more help” in their grouping, partner assignments, or placement in the classroom(Ms. Lopez and Ms. Minick conducted a book study focused on Teaching Math to Multilingual Students, which you can learn more about from their website.)Keep in mind that veteran educators of ELLs also stress the importance of getting to know students as a key part of supporting student success. For example, in this NCELA webinar, Dr. Haiwen Chu, a national expert on mathematics education for English Learners at WestEd, recalls that visiting his high school students’ neighborhoods provided valuable insights on their experiences and familiar topics.See additional ideas for getting to you know your ELLs in 10 Strategies for Building Relationships with ELLs.The Language of MathAlthough it is easy to assume that many ELLs will excel in math class because math is a “universal language” and students may have had prior educational experience that included mathematical instruction, that assumption can lead educators astray. While computational skills may transfer, ELLs may still need support with language-focused tasks, such as solving word problems, learning (and using) math vocabulary, and writing explanations. All of these skills require a language proficiency that sometimes exceeds our expectations. We tend to think of mathematics as a subject that does not require a strong command of language. In reality, however, mathematical reasoning and problem solving are closely linked to language and rely upon a firm understanding of basic math vocabulary (Dale & Cuevas, 1992; Jarret, 1999), especially when considered along with the demands of college- and career-ready standards.Co-Teaching and CollaborationFor many educators, the challenge of bringing language and math instruction together is a relatively new one. ELL teachers who hadn’t taught content areas previously are now being asked to lead or support instruction in the math classroom, and many math teachers who don’t see themselves as language instructors are now responsible for providing effective math instruction to ELLs. When educators collaborate, however, they can better understand each other’s expertise and combine their expertise for the benefit of students.For example, when planning a lesson, a math teacher and an ELL teacher could collaborate to identify both the target content, such as key standards, concepts, or specific topics, as well as key vocabulary, academic language, and the language-focused tasks students will need to complete the lesson. These tasks might include writing out a proof, reading a math problem, explaining how to solve a problem, or writing out numbers as words. The ELL specialist could walk the math teacher through this process several times so that it becomes a more integrated part of the math teacher’s planning over time. After the lesson, the teachers could identify other areas of focus or clarification needed and share these insights with their colleagues.Another tool content teachers can use is language objectives, which help target the language demands of the lesson. You can learn more about them in the videos featuring Mr. Jesus Ortiz below.Teaching Academic VocabularyVocabulary instruction is essential for effective math instruction. Not only does it include teaching math-specific terms such as “percent” or “decimal,” but it also includes understanding the difference between the mathematical definition of a word and other definitions of that word, as well as understanding the concept a vocabulary word describes.The following example, used in a presentation by Dr. Judit Moschkovich of the University of California at Santa Cruz, underscores why vocabulary must be introduced within the context of the content (Moschkovich, 2008): In this problem, the student is instructed to “find x.” The student obviously knew the meaning of the word “find” because they “found” it on the page and circled it. The student even put a note on the page to help the teacher in locating the lost “x”. The student understood the meaning of “find” in one context, but not in the appropriate mathematical context.I recently helped a math teacher create a sheltered lesson, and I was surprised to find that there were some vocabulary words that I didn’t understand. My lack of familiarity with the words hindered my ability to do the math problem and gave me a deeper empathy for ELLs who struggle in the same way with vocabulary and comprehending math assignments.Following is a list of tips for explicitly teaching mathematical academic vocabulary.Teach key academic vocabularyAfter you identify your target content, identify the academic vocabulary words that students will need to understand that content. Some of these key phrases or new vocabulary words may also be helpful to pre-teach in small groups or mini lessons. Think about:Academic vocabulary (equilateral)Words and phrases needed to solve a problem (less than, given, arrange)Common words needed to solve word problems (train station, dolphin, favorite)Homophones (eight/ate, plane/plain, one/won, two/to/too, four/for, some/sum)Words that students are likely to encounter in other settings (formula, prove)Words that represent a numerical value necessary for solving the problem, such as measurement words (foot, feet, meter, pounds, kilometers)After you identify the vocabulary you wish to teach, use scaffolds for academic vocabulary, such as: Visuals: These can include visual representations of concepts, photos, and illustrations of key vocabulary words, posters, and number lines.Realia (real objects) and manipulatives: These might include hands-on objects related to a topic or small items, such as coins or small blocks for counting, sorting, weighing, etc.Graphic organizers: Graphic organizers are tools that allow students to organize information in a visual or hands-on way.Anchor charts: Anchor charts are posters that students and teachers co-create to highlight key concepts and vocabulary that students will need for reference.Offer students the chance to work with objects and images in order to master vocabulary. If there aren’t enough items for each student, use manipulatives on the overhead or posted throughout the classroom, and demonstrate the vocabulary in front of the students. For example, Hillary created a Math Word Wall that has three parts: key vocabulary, “in your own words” definitions, and a variety of ways to portray a function. For example, multiplication is portrayed by the following symbols: x, *, and ( ).In addition, it can be helpful to ask students which strategies support their learning. Students often can provide valuable information on what is working for them!For examples of how vocabulary can impact students’ understanding of math problems, see the related video with ESL teacher Anne Formato below.Teach words with multiple meaningsDemonstrate that vocabulary can have multiple meanings. Help students understand the different meanings of words, as well as how to use them correctly in a mathematical context. This is also a good opportunity for using visuals and realia. Examples include:YardPlotTableProofAreaEvenPlanePlaceTimesBillQuarterChangeDraw on students’ home languagesUse cognates, which are related words in two languages. English and Spanish have many cognates within academic terms, like fraction/fracción.Use translated words or phrases strategically. For example, New York University has published bilingual glossaries for several topics.Allow (and encourage!) students to use their languages in group work to solve problems, brainstorm, and review material. Students will understand material better if they explain it to another student, and the new student will benefit from hearing the explanation in their first language.Increasing Student Language ProductionThe language demands of math are complex. Working with an ELL specialist can be a good starting point for identifying some of the math demands of the lessons you are teaching, as well as for planning how to teach and scaffold those language demands.As I’ve worked with content area teachers in my district to develop Sheltered Instruction lessons and activities to enhance ELL learning, I’ve told them, “If a student doesn’t say it in your class, they’re never going to say it.” This is a bit dramatic, but it’s true to some extent. When students learn new vocabulary, the opportunity to use it must be presented in class, because students are unlikely to try it out on their own — especially academic words like “parallelogram” or “function”!Here are some tips to increase student-to-student interaction with academic language in the math classroom:Have students translate symbols into words, and write the sentence out. Hillary used this strategy to check students’ comprehension of problems before they solved them. For example, 3x + 4 = 16 would be written out, “Three times X plus four equals sixteen.” This helps students process the operations involved in the question and gives them an opportunity to think through how to solve it. It also gives students a chance to familiarize themselves with important vocabulary words. Writing out the answer to a problem is a very important skill to develop because many state math tests require a constructed response to questions.Create a “sentence frame” and post it on the board. Write the format of the sentence you would like students to use in discussion and then hold them accountable for using it. For example, “The answer is _______ degrees because it is a _________ triangle. (Learn more in our sentence frame and sentence stems strategy.)Have students share problem-solving strategies. This involves asking a simple question, such as, “Did anyone else get the answer in a different way?” Then allow enough wait time so students can think through how their problem-solving process was similar or different to the one offered.Allow students to discuss how they are thinking about math. This is a way of redirecting the lesson from teacher-to-student to student-to-student. For example a student might ask a question, “How do you know what kind of triangle it is?” Instead of the teacher answering and going to the board and pointing out the names and different triangles, the teacher can simply ask, “Does someone have an answer? Or “Would someone like to offer help to Mario?” Allow students to share how they think about the math concept and any tips they have for remembering the information.Incorporate writing activities, such as entrance/exit tickets or math journals. This is an excellent way for students to process what they’ve learned and what questions they still have. The journal or exit/entrance ticket prompt could start with simple prompts such as, “One thing I learned today...” “One thing I still don’t understand…” “One way I can get the help I need…” “The answer to this problem is…” “Something that helped me was...“Challenge students to create their own math problems. This can be a fun activity if students create a problem similar to the ones you have used in class and they exchange problems with a partner. By creating the problem and checking the answer they are reinforcing their own learning.Teach students how to read, interpret, and summarize data. Provide students with explicit, step-by-step instructions in how to read charts, graphs, tables, and infographics, as well as how to describe what they observe in visual representations of data.Model the kinds of writing students are expected to complete (e.g., written explanations). Students need to see and understand what they are expected to do and produce, such as explaining how they solved a math problem. This is a great opportunity for the “gradual release” strategy -- I do, we do, you do.Try AI tools. Consider using AI tools to rewrite math problems for students at early levels of proficiency or to generate math problems with familiar vocabulary that achieve your target objective. Bilingual Glossaries in Content AreasNew York University has published several bilingual glossaries in multiple languages that cover different content areas, including elementary math, middle school math, Algebra 1 and 2, Calculus, and related math terms.Reading and Understanding Written Math ProblemsWritten word problems present a unique challenge to ELL students and teachers alike. In Reading and Understanding Written Math Problems, Brenda Krick-Morales writes, “Word problems in mathematics often pose a challenge because they require that students read and comprehend the text of the problem, identify the question that needs to be answered, and finally create and solve a numerical equation — ELLs who have had formal education in their home countries generally do not have mathematical difficulties; hence, their struggles begin when they encounter word problems in a second language that they have not yet mastered” (Bernardo, 2005).Teacher Xiao-lin Yin-Croft has encountered this pattern in her classroom of bilingual Chinese students in San Francisco. She has developed a very creative way to use her students’ background knowledge of math as a stepping stone for other language learning. She does this by accelerating math instruction at the beginning of the school year and then building on what students have learned in math in reading and other content areas. In Building Bridges for the Future, Xiao-lin explains her strategy:First, we read math word problems; I demonstrate the logical thinking process while translating words into pictures and, finally, into number sentences. Soon, they start to explain their own thinking after reading complicated word problems that involve several steps. They correct each other and argue about which number sentences they should use to arrive at the correct final results. As they sharpen their math skills, I capitalize on their enthusiasm to teach them how to extract the most important information from texts, and move them toward the oral and reading fluency they need to understand and discuss more challenging texts.Even if you aren’t accelerating math instruction, however, there are a number of ways to help students master word problems. Krick-Morales offers suggestions in the previously mentioned article, such as explicit instruction of key vocabulary, daily practice of problem solving, repeated readings of the word problem together as a class, and hands-on activities such as movement, experiments, or drawing to help students comprehend the problem. As students become more familiar with math vocabulary, they will be able to solve problems more easily.Identify key background knowledge in math problemsIt’s important to identify what kinds of background knowledge students will need to understand a math problem. For example, Ms. Lopez and Ms. Minick used this activity with a conference session: Ms. Lopez chose four math problems from her son’s math textbook and asked session attendees to brainstorm the kinds of background knowledge students might have questions about, some of which were relevant to solving the problem and some of which weren’t. Here are some things that attendees came up with:A math problem about a coupon and sales tax at a dog groomer: What is a dog groomer? Why do people take their dogs to get groomed? What is sales tax? What is a coupon? What is “deluxe”? What is an estimate and a discount?A math problem about people receiving a voucher for a free water bottle at a football game: Is football different from soccer? What is a voucher? Does the water bottle come with water inside it?A math problem about a fishing pole on sale: What is “percent off”? What is a sale? What is “regularly priced”? What steps have to be followed to solve this problem?A math problem about calculating a tip in a restaurant: What does “leave a tip” mean? What is a tip? Does the fact that there are four sisters (Emilia and three sisters) impact the outcome of the problem? Why aren’t they using an app like Venmo?As seen from the example above, this can be a powerful area in which math teachers and ELL teachers can collaborate.The Role of Background KnowledgeWhen it comes to background knowledge that impacts students’ understanding of new concepts, students may have relevant experiences to what you are teaching that just need to be drawn out (as in the vignette below). In other cases, students may not have the needed background knowledge. My colleague Hillary found that sometimes her students would get “lost” in a problem simply because they didn’t understand the context. Following are some tips to help in tapping into and building background knowledge of students.Identify connections to your students’ experiences. When planning the lesson, consider whether they might have relevant experiences, and as you introduce the lesson, find out what they know, giving them an opportunity to make connections. They may come up with connections you never had imagined!Modify the linguistic complexity of language and rephrase math problems. Students will understand the problem better if it is stated in shorter sentences and in language they understand. This may be an area in which you wish to experiment with AI tools that can rewrite problems.Guide students to cross out the unnecessary vocabulary in word problems. Doing so allows students to focus on the math function required. For example, one problem Hillary’s students came across referred to a “school assembly.” Even though the meaning of that phrase wasn’t important in the solving of the math problem, students didn’t know it wasn’t important, and the lack of understanding contributed to their confusion.Build knowledge from real world examples. Try to reinforce concepts with examples that students can picture and talk students through the situation. For example, if you need to paint a room, you need to know how much area will be covered so that you know how much paint to buy. Look for familiar ideas or props that can be used to engage students such as recipes, news stories about the economy, or discussion of personal spending habits.Use manipulatives purposefully. This is important at all grade levels. Hillary has found math cubes to be very useful in having students represent the numbers in the problems and then manipulate the cubes to get the answer. She used the cubes and the terms “hot” and “cold” numbers when teaching with the concept of negative numbers. Students would use the red cubes as “hot” or positive numbers and the blue cubes as “cold” or negative numbers. As students laid out the number of hot cubes and cold cubes represented, they could easily see if the answer would be a positive or negative number by which color had the most cubes. A problem such as -2 + 1 = -1 would look like this: The student then removed pairs of cubes — one red, one blue — until they could no longer remove any blocks. The remaining blocks represent the answer. Classroom vignette: A moment of humilityA middle school math teacher was trying to teach points on a grid and vertical/horizontal axis to her ESL students, three boys from Vietnam. She tried many approaches, including visuals, games, simulations, and manipulatives, and was just about to give up after very little progress. Suddenly, a student said, “Oh, I know — same same you drive a boat!” (“The same as you drive a boat!”) It turns out the child had helped his uncle use the stars to navigate a raft when they were fleeing Vietnam and trying to reach refugee camps in Thailand. He explained the concept to the other boys in Vietnamese with gestures and drawings on the board, who knew exactly what he was talking about. The teacher reflected, “I felt so humble. These boys knew a lot more about math than I had given them credit for. I had failed to activate their prior knowledge, and in the process had almost given up.“Source: This vignette is presented in Chapter 4 of Special Education Considerations for English Learners: Delivering a Continuum of Services. Using TechnologyTechnology can also be a powerful tool in math instruction for ELLs. Here are some ways you can play with technology in a math lesson:Look for educational resources that accompany your school’s technology tools and programs. There may be online or software programs available for teachers. For teachers who have an electronic whiteboard in the classroom, there are many resources available on links that can be easily accessed and brought into the classroom.Find out what’s available online. Both PBS Learning Media and Vital NY (Video Teaching and Learning for NYS Educators) on Teachers’ Domain offers an online library of free public media resources. Teachers’ Domain resources include video and audio segments, Flash interactives, images, documents, lesson plans for teachers, and student-oriented activities. (Free registration required.)If students are using a calculator or other device, ensure that they learn how to use it. Based on background and prior educational experience, students might not be familiar with how to use a calculator, graphing calculator, or math apps on devices such as phones or tablets. Give students a chance to practice solving problems with their calculators once you have reviewed different functions. Texas Instruments offers numerous activities and product tutorials in their educational materials.Learn more about how to use AI tools in math. AI tools can be used to generate, differentiate, or rewrite a math problem; create a summary of a lesson plan; and many other tasks. Keep in mind that AI-generated content always need a careful review and edit. (See more in Using AI in Math from Edutopia.)Look for interactive games that offer students a chance to practice their mathematical skills. Nintendo DS has an educational game called Brain Age, which is not language specific. The game provides excellent mathematical training for numbers and tracks results, showing student improvement over time.Books About Math and MathematiciansIn addition, there are lots of books about math and mathematicians that you can incorporate into your classroom and classroom library. You can see a wide range of titles for different ages in our Math Resource Collection.Closing ThoughtsEven if it doesn’t come easily at first, there are ways to get ELLs excited about math. By keeping their language skills and needs in mind when planning mathematical instruction (and by helping your colleagues do the same), you will be taking important steps in helping students master mathematical concepts and skills. You never know — your students may be the next generation of economists, rocket scientists, and math teachers just waiting for the tools they need! Note: I’d like to thank my Minnesota colleagues, Hillary Hansen at Burnsville Senior High School and Kim Olson at Hidden Valley Elementary, as well as Xiao-lin Yin-Croft from San Francisco, for providing many of the helpful math teaching tips in this article. It is inspiring to know that there are talented, creative teachers who are always finding better ways to teach and are willing to share the knowledge.Related VideosHow vocabulary can get in the way of solving a word problemELL Specialist Anne Formato talks about the trouble a student had in understanding a written math problem based on a vocabulary word. Teacher Alejandra Rojas: Why cognates are your “best friend” in math classElementary teacher Alejandra Rojas, who teaches in a dual-immersion program, explains why cognates support vocabulary development in her Spanish-language math class. Teacher Alejandra Rojas: When bilingual students translate for their parentsAlejandra Rojas, a teacher at a dual-immersion school in Arlington, VA, shares some of her experiences as a child and teenager translating for her mother. How to Write Language Objectives: Tips for ELL EducatorsIn this video from Syracuse, NY, Jesus Ortiz, a bilingual teacher, learns how to write a language objective from Areli Schermerhorn, a peer evaluator with expertise in ELL and bilingual education. Teacher Observation Cycle: A Math Lesson on PictographsThis video highlights Mr. Ortiz’s math lesson on pictographs. While the main topic of the video is teacher evaluation, numerous best practices and strategies related to math instruction for ELLs are mentioned in the video. Recommended ResourcesNCELA Teaching Practice Brief: Math (A related podcast is available as well)Supporting English Learners in Math and Science: Effective Instructional Practices and Examples from NCELA’s Teaching Briefs PBS Learning Media: Math LessonsEngageNY: Common Core and MathCommon Core Math and ELLs: Blog PostsDiscovery Education: PuzzlemakerCatherine Snow: Word Generation SMART Notebook Lesson ActivitiesTranslating Word ProblemsColorín Colorado Webcast: English Language Learners in Middle and High School

# data[].attributes.body
Strategy #1 - Incorporate writing activities like math journals.

Writing out the answer to a problem is a very important skill to develop because many state math tests require a constructed response to questions. Incorporate as homework a journal entry at the end of the week.

Strategy #2 - Have students translate symbols into words, and write the sentence out.

This allows students to process the operations involved in the question and gives them an opportunity to think through how to solve it. It also gives students a chance to familiarize themselves with important vocabulary words.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Math Instruction for English Language Learners

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Several years ago, I met a high school math teacher named Hillary Hansen who had just taught her first Basic Math course for English language learners (ELLs). She wanted so much to provide the students with the good foundation they needed, but she felt unable to engage them in her lessons. By the end of the year, she was exhausted and frustrated.That summer she had an opportunity to join a district Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) cohort to receive professional development and support the needs of ELLs in content classes. She learned about the importance of language acquisition, building background knowledge, increasing student language production, and explicitly teaching academic language. She began the following school year with a new set of tools and a deeper understanding of the instructional scaffolding ELLs need in order to learn the content while also learning English.While Hillary still felt challenged and was working hard, the second year was much more successful for her and her students. She felt she was providing them with the foundation they needed not only to understand the mathematical concepts, but also to successfully interact within a math classroom in order to learn more advanced concepts.As a result of more effective instruction, her students:Understood the content better and were working together to find creative ways to learnIncreased their participation in discussions and learned how to use instructional supports in the classFelt more comfortable with math and asking questions to get the help they neededYou can learn more about some strategies that Hillary and other teachers recommend for teaching ELLs math in the information below, along with reflection tips and ideas for getting to know your students’ math backgrounds.ELL Math Resource CollectionThis resource collection features several ideas for teaching math to ELLs.Reflection QuestionsHow much math instruction have your ELLs received in their prior schooling?How much do their levels of math background vary?What are some of their strengths related to math?What are some of their challenges?What are some practical ways your ELLs are using math in their daily lives?What kinds of strategies have supported their success or engagement in other areas?What are some ways that collaboration or co-teaching might support your ELLs?What are some leadership opportunities you might give ELLs in pair work or small group work?Learn About Students’ Math BackgroundsTeaching ELLs: Tips for Math TeachersPrint PDF >It’s important to remember that ELLs’ math backgrounds may vary significantly. Some students may have had consistent schooling where they developed strong math skills. Others may have limited or no formal schooling, but may have practical skills related to time, money, or other daily topics. If possible, find out whether students have attended school regularly and what kind of experience they have had with math instruction and with math in general. Look for ways to tie instruction to student interests (like sports) and responsibilities at home that involve math, such as helping with family finances, working in family businesses, and holding other jobs. For example, students from migrant farmworker families may be using math related to agriculture, such as weighing or selling produce. Also keep in mind that students may use other numeric and measurement systems students, such as metric system, Celsius, military time, etc.In addition, Pennsylvania educators Sally Lopez and Erin Minick also encourage educators to:Look for leadership opportunities for all students in math classProvide students with opportunities to “teach” others, work together, and demonstrate what they know in multiple waysGroup students intentionally and with sensitivity, avoiding the designation of specific students as “needing more help” in their grouping, partner assignments, or placement in the classroom(Ms. Lopez and Ms. Minick conducted a book study focused on Teaching Math to Multilingual Students, which you can learn more about from their website.)Keep in mind that veteran educators of ELLs also stress the importance of getting to know students as a key part of supporting student success. For example, in this NCELA webinar, Dr. Haiwen Chu, a national expert on mathematics education for English Learners at WestEd, recalls that visiting his high school students’ neighborhoods provided valuable insights on their experiences and familiar topics.See additional ideas for getting to you know your ELLs in 10 Strategies for Building Relationships with ELLs.The Language of MathAlthough it is easy to assume that many ELLs will excel in math class because math is a “universal language” and students may have had prior educational experience that included mathematical instruction, that assumption can lead educators astray. While computational skills may transfer, ELLs may still need support with language-focused tasks, such as solving word problems, learning (and using) math vocabulary, and writing explanations. All of these skills require a language proficiency that sometimes exceeds our expectations. We tend to think of mathematics as a subject that does not require a strong command of language. In reality, however, mathematical reasoning and problem solving are closely linked to language and rely upon a firm understanding of basic math vocabulary (Dale & Cuevas, 1992; Jarret, 1999), especially when considered along with the demands of college- and career-ready standards.Co-Teaching and CollaborationFor many educators, the challenge of bringing language and math instruction together is a relatively new one. ELL teachers who hadn’t taught content areas previously are now being asked to lead or support instruction in the math classroom, and many math teachers who don’t see themselves as language instructors are now responsible for providing effective math instruction to ELLs. When educators collaborate, however, they can better understand each other’s expertise and combine their expertise for the benefit of students.For example, when planning a lesson, a math teacher and an ELL teacher could collaborate to identify both the target content, such as key standards, concepts, or specific topics, as well as key vocabulary, academic language, and the language-focused tasks students will need to complete the lesson. These tasks might include writing out a proof, reading a math problem, explaining how to solve a problem, or writing out numbers as words. The ELL specialist could walk the math teacher through this process several times so that it becomes a more integrated part of the math teacher’s planning over time. After the lesson, the teachers could identify other areas of focus or clarification needed and share these insights with their colleagues.Another tool content teachers can use is language objectives, which help target the language demands of the lesson. You can learn more about them in the videos featuring Mr. Jesus Ortiz below.Teaching Academic VocabularyVocabulary instruction is essential for effective math instruction. Not only does it include teaching math-specific terms such as “percent” or “decimal,” but it also includes understanding the difference between the mathematical definition of a word and other definitions of that word, as well as understanding the concept a vocabulary word describes.The following example, used in a presentation by Dr. Judit Moschkovich of the University of California at Santa Cruz, underscores why vocabulary must be introduced within the context of the content (Moschkovich, 2008): In this problem, the student is instructed to “find x.” The student obviously knew the meaning of the word “find” because they “found” it on the page and circled it. The student even put a note on the page to help the teacher in locating the lost “x”. The student understood the meaning of “find” in one context, but not in the appropriate mathematical context.I recently helped a math teacher create a sheltered lesson, and I was surprised to find that there were some vocabulary words that I didn’t understand. My lack of familiarity with the words hindered my ability to do the math problem and gave me a deeper empathy for ELLs who struggle in the same way with vocabulary and comprehending math assignments.Following is a list of tips for explicitly teaching mathematical academic vocabulary.Teach key academic vocabularyAfter you identify your target content, identify the academic vocabulary words that students will need to understand that content. Some of these key phrases or new vocabulary words may also be helpful to pre-teach in small groups or mini lessons. Think about:Academic vocabulary (equilateral)Words and phrases needed to solve a problem (less than, given, arrange)Common words needed to solve word problems (train station, dolphin, favorite)Homophones (eight/ate, plane/plain, one/won, two/to/too, four/for, some/sum)Words that students are likely to encounter in other settings (formula, prove)Words that represent a numerical value necessary for solving the problem, such as measurement words (foot, feet, meter, pounds, kilometers)After you identify the vocabulary you wish to teach, use scaffolds for academic vocabulary, such as: Visuals: These can include visual representations of concepts, photos, and illustrations of key vocabulary words, posters, and number lines.Realia (real objects) and manipulatives: These might include hands-on objects related to a topic or small items, such as coins or small blocks for counting, sorting, weighing, etc.Graphic organizers: Graphic organizers are tools that allow students to organize information in a visual or hands-on way.Anchor charts: Anchor charts are posters that students and teachers co-create to highlight key concepts and vocabulary that students will need for reference.Offer students the chance to work with objects and images in order to master vocabulary. If there aren’t enough items for each student, use manipulatives on the overhead or posted throughout the classroom, and demonstrate the vocabulary in front of the students. For example, Hillary created a Math Word Wall that has three parts: key vocabulary, “in your own words” definitions, and a variety of ways to portray a function. For example, multiplication is portrayed by the following symbols: x, *, and ( ).In addition, it can be helpful to ask students which strategies support their learning. Students often can provide valuable information on what is working for them!For examples of how vocabulary can impact students’ understanding of math problems, see the related video with ESL teacher Anne Formato below.Teach words with multiple meaningsDemonstrate that vocabulary can have multiple meanings. Help students understand the different meanings of words, as well as how to use them correctly in a mathematical context. This is also a good opportunity for using visuals and realia. Examples include:YardPlotTableProofAreaEvenPlanePlaceTimesBillQuarterChangeDraw on students’ home languagesUse cognates, which are related words in two languages. English and Spanish have many cognates within academic terms, like fraction/fracción.Use translated words or phrases strategically. For example, New York University has published bilingual glossaries for several topics.Allow (and encourage!) students to use their languages in group work to solve problems, brainstorm, and review material. Students will understand material better if they explain it to another student, and the new student will benefit from hearing the explanation in their first language.Increasing Student Language ProductionThe language demands of math are complex. Working with an ELL specialist can be a good starting point for identifying some of the math demands of the lessons you are teaching, as well as for planning how to teach and scaffold those language demands.As I’ve worked with content area teachers in my district to develop Sheltered Instruction lessons and activities to enhance ELL learning, I’ve told them, “If a student doesn’t say it in your class, they’re never going to say it.” This is a bit dramatic, but it’s true to some extent. When students learn new vocabulary, the opportunity to use it must be presented in class, because students are unlikely to try it out on their own — especially academic words like “parallelogram” or “function”!Here are some tips to increase student-to-student interaction with academic language in the math classroom:Have students translate symbols into words, and write the sentence out. Hillary used this strategy to check students’ comprehension of problems before they solved them. For example, 3x + 4 = 16 would be written out, “Three times X plus four equals sixteen.” This helps students process the operations involved in the question and gives them an opportunity to think through how to solve it. It also gives students a chance to familiarize themselves with important vocabulary words. Writing out the answer to a problem is a very important skill to develop because many state math tests require a constructed response to questions.Create a “sentence frame” and post it on the board. Write the format of the sentence you would like students to use in discussion and then hold them accountable for using it. For example, “The answer is _______ degrees because it is a _________ triangle. (Learn more in our sentence frame and sentence stems strategy.)Have students share problem-solving strategies. This involves asking a simple question, such as, “Did anyone else get the answer in a different way?” Then allow enough wait time so students can think through how their problem-solving process was similar or different to the one offered.Allow students to discuss how they are thinking about math. This is a way of redirecting the lesson from teacher-to-student to student-to-student. For example a student might ask a question, “How do you know what kind of triangle it is?” Instead of the teacher answering and going to the board and pointing out the names and different triangles, the teacher can simply ask, “Does someone have an answer? Or “Would someone like to offer help to Mario?” Allow students to share how they think about the math concept and any tips they have for remembering the information.Incorporate writing activities, such as entrance/exit tickets or math journals. This is an excellent way for students to process what they’ve learned and what questions they still have. The journal or exit/entrance ticket prompt could start with simple prompts such as, “One thing I learned today...” “One thing I still don’t understand…” “One way I can get the help I need…” “The answer to this problem is…” “Something that helped me was...“Challenge students to create their own math problems. This can be a fun activity if students create a problem similar to the ones you have used in class and they exchange problems with a partner. By creating the problem and checking the answer they are reinforcing their own learning.Teach students how to read, interpret, and summarize data. Provide students with explicit, step-by-step instructions in how to read charts, graphs, tables, and infographics, as well as how to describe what they observe in visual representations of data.Model the kinds of writing students are expected to complete (e.g., written explanations). Students need to see and understand what they are expected to do and produce, such as explaining how they solved a math problem. This is a great opportunity for the “gradual release” strategy -- I do, we do, you do.Try AI tools. Consider using AI tools to rewrite math problems for students at early levels of proficiency or to generate math problems with familiar vocabulary that achieve your target objective. Bilingual Glossaries in Content AreasNew York University has published several bilingual glossaries in multiple languages that cover different content areas, including elementary math, middle school math, Algebra 1 and 2, Calculus, and related math terms.Reading and Understanding Written Math ProblemsWritten word problems present a unique challenge to ELL students and teachers alike. In Reading and Understanding Written Math Problems, Brenda Krick-Morales writes, “Word problems in mathematics often pose a challenge because they require that students read and comprehend the text of the problem, identify the question that needs to be answered, and finally create and solve a numerical equation — ELLs who have had formal education in their home countries generally do not have mathematical difficulties; hence, their struggles begin when they encounter word problems in a second language that they have not yet mastered” (Bernardo, 2005).Teacher Xiao-lin Yin-Croft has encountered this pattern in her classroom of bilingual Chinese students in San Francisco. She has developed a very creative way to use her students’ background knowledge of math as a stepping stone for other language learning. She does this by accelerating math instruction at the beginning of the school year and then building on what students have learned in math in reading and other content areas. In Building Bridges for the Future, Xiao-lin explains her strategy:First, we read math word problems; I demonstrate the logical thinking process while translating words into pictures and, finally, into number sentences. Soon, they start to explain their own thinking after reading complicated word problems that involve several steps. They correct each other and argue about which number sentences they should use to arrive at the correct final results. As they sharpen their math skills, I capitalize on their enthusiasm to teach them how to extract the most important information from texts, and move them toward the oral and reading fluency they need to understand and discuss more challenging texts.Even if you aren’t accelerating math instruction, however, there are a number of ways to help students master word problems. Krick-Morales offers suggestions in the previously mentioned article, such as explicit instruction of key vocabulary, daily practice of problem solving, repeated readings of the word problem together as a class, and hands-on activities such as movement, experiments, or drawing to help students comprehend the problem. As students become more familiar with math vocabulary, they will be able to solve problems more easily.Identify key background knowledge in math problemsIt’s important to identify what kinds of background knowledge students will need to understand a math problem. For example, Ms. Lopez and Ms. Minick used this activity with a conference session: Ms. Lopez chose four math problems from her son’s math textbook and asked session attendees to brainstorm the kinds of background knowledge students might have questions about, some of which were relevant to solving the problem and some of which weren’t. Here are some things that attendees came up with:A math problem about a coupon and sales tax at a dog groomer: What is a dog groomer? Why do people take their dogs to get groomed? What is sales tax? What is a coupon? What is “deluxe”? What is an estimate and a discount?A math problem about people receiving a voucher for a free water bottle at a football game: Is football different from soccer? What is a voucher? Does the water bottle come with water inside it?A math problem about a fishing pole on sale: What is “percent off”? What is a sale? What is “regularly priced”? What steps have to be followed to solve this problem?A math problem about calculating a tip in a restaurant: What does “leave a tip” mean? What is a tip? Does the fact that there are four sisters (Emilia and three sisters) impact the outcome of the problem? Why aren’t they using an app like Venmo?As seen from the example above, this can be a powerful area in which math teachers and ELL teachers can collaborate.The Role of Background KnowledgeWhen it comes to background knowledge that impacts students’ understanding of new concepts, students may have relevant experiences to what you are teaching that just need to be drawn out (as in the vignette below). In other cases, students may not have the needed background knowledge. My colleague Hillary found that sometimes her students would get “lost” in a problem simply because they didn’t understand the context. Following are some tips to help in tapping into and building background knowledge of students.Identify connections to your students’ experiences. When planning the lesson, consider whether they might have relevant experiences, and as you introduce the lesson, find out what they know, giving them an opportunity to make connections. They may come up with connections you never had imagined!Modify the linguistic complexity of language and rephrase math problems. Students will understand the problem better if it is stated in shorter sentences and in language they understand. This may be an area in which you wish to experiment with AI tools that can rewrite problems.Guide students to cross out the unnecessary vocabulary in word problems. Doing so allows students to focus on the math function required. For example, one problem Hillary’s students came across referred to a “school assembly.” Even though the meaning of that phrase wasn’t important in the solving of the math problem, students didn’t know it wasn’t important, and the lack of understanding contributed to their confusion.Build knowledge from real world examples. Try to reinforce concepts with examples that students can picture and talk students through the situation. For example, if you need to paint a room, you need to know how much area will be covered so that you know how much paint to buy. Look for familiar ideas or props that can be used to engage students such as recipes, news stories about the economy, or discussion of personal spending habits.Use manipulatives purposefully. This is important at all grade levels. Hillary has found math cubes to be very useful in having students represent the numbers in the problems and then manipulate the cubes to get the answer. She used the cubes and the terms “hot” and “cold” numbers when teaching with the concept of negative numbers. Students would use the red cubes as “hot” or positive numbers and the blue cubes as “cold” or negative numbers. As students laid out the number of hot cubes and cold cubes represented, they could easily see if the answer would be a positive or negative number by which color had the most cubes. A problem such as -2 + 1 = -1 would look like this: The student then removed pairs of cubes — one red, one blue — until they could no longer remove any blocks. The remaining blocks represent the answer. Classroom vignette: A moment of humilityA middle school math teacher was trying to teach points on a grid and vertical/horizontal axis to her ESL students, three boys from Vietnam. She tried many approaches, including visuals, games, simulations, and manipulatives, and was just about to give up after very little progress. Suddenly, a student said, “Oh, I know — same same you drive a boat!” (“The same as you drive a boat!”) It turns out the child had helped his uncle use the stars to navigate a raft when they were fleeing Vietnam and trying to reach refugee camps in Thailand. He explained the concept to the other boys in Vietnamese with gestures and drawings on the board, who knew exactly what he was talking about. The teacher reflected, “I felt so humble. These boys knew a lot more about math than I had given them credit for. I had failed to activate their prior knowledge, and in the process had almost given up.“Source: This vignette is presented in Chapter 4 of Special Education Considerations for English Learners: Delivering a Continuum of Services. Using TechnologyTechnology can also be a powerful tool in math instruction for ELLs. Here are some ways you can play with technology in a math lesson:Look for educational resources that accompany your school’s technology tools and programs. There may be online or software programs available for teachers. For teachers who have an electronic whiteboard in the classroom, there are many resources available on links that can be easily accessed and brought into the classroom.Find out what’s available online. Both PBS Learning Media and Vital NY (Video Teaching and Learning for NYS Educators) on Teachers’ Domain offers an online library of free public media resources. Teachers’ Domain resources include video and audio segments, Flash interactives, images, documents, lesson plans for teachers, and student-oriented activities. (Free registration required.)If students are using a calculator or other device, ensure that they learn how to use it. Based on background and prior educational experience, students might not be familiar with how to use a calculator, graphing calculator, or math apps on devices such as phones or tablets. Give students a chance to practice solving problems with their calculators once you have reviewed different functions. Texas Instruments offers numerous activities and product tutorials in their educational materials.Learn more about how to use AI tools in math. AI tools can be used to generate, differentiate, or rewrite a math problem; create a summary of a lesson plan; and many other tasks. Keep in mind that AI-generated content always need a careful review and edit. (See more in Using AI in Math from Edutopia.)Look for interactive games that offer students a chance to practice their mathematical skills. Nintendo DS has an educational game called Brain Age, which is not language specific. The game provides excellent mathematical training for numbers and tracks results, showing student improvement over time.Books About Math and MathematiciansIn addition, there are lots of books about math and mathematicians that you can incorporate into your classroom and classroom library. You can see a wide range of titles for different ages in our Math Resource Collection.Closing ThoughtsEven if it doesn’t come easily at first, there are ways to get ELLs excited about math. By keeping their language skills and needs in mind when planning mathematical instruction (and by helping your colleagues do the same), you will be taking important steps in helping students master mathematical concepts and skills. You never know — your students may be the next generation of economists, rocket scientists, and math teachers just waiting for the tools they need! Note: I’d like to thank my Minnesota colleagues, Hillary Hansen at Burnsville Senior High School and Kim Olson at Hidden Valley Elementary, as well as Xiao-lin Yin-Croft from San Francisco, for providing many of the helpful math teaching tips in this article. It is inspiring to know that there are talented, creative teachers who are always finding better ways to teach and are willing to share the knowledge.Related VideosHow vocabulary can get in the way of solving a word problemELL Specialist Anne Formato talks about the trouble a student had in understanding a written math problem based on a vocabulary word. Teacher Alejandra Rojas: Why cognates are your “best friend” in math classElementary teacher Alejandra Rojas, who teaches in a dual-immersion program, explains why cognates support vocabulary development in her Spanish-language math class. Teacher Alejandra Rojas: When bilingual students translate for their parentsAlejandra Rojas, a teacher at a dual-immersion school in Arlington, VA, shares some of her experiences as a child and teenager translating for her mother. How to Write Language Objectives: Tips for ELL EducatorsIn this video from Syracuse, NY, Jesus Ortiz, a bilingual teacher, learns how to write a language objective from Areli Schermerhorn, a peer evaluator with expertise in ELL and bilingual education. Teacher Observation Cycle: A Math Lesson on PictographsThis video highlights Mr. Ortiz’s math lesson on pictographs. While the main topic of the video is teacher evaluation, numerous best practices and strategies related to math instruction for ELLs are mentioned in the video. Recommended ResourcesNCELA Teaching Practice Brief: Math (A related podcast is available as well)Supporting English Learners in Math and Science: Effective Instructional Practices and Examples from NCELA’s Teaching Briefs PBS Learning Media: Math LessonsEngageNY: Common Core and MathCommon Core Math and ELLs: Blog PostsDiscovery Education: PuzzlemakerCatherine Snow: Word Generation SMART Notebook Lesson ActivitiesTranslating Word ProblemsColorín Colorado Webcast: English Language Learners in Middle and High School

# data[].attributes.body
Strategy #1 - Encourage students to offer bilingual support to each other

Students will understand material better if they explain it to another student, and the new student will benefit from hearing the explanation in their first language. Create groups of students that speak the same language or seat them near each other in the classroom.

Strategy #2 - Demonstrate that vocabulary can have multiple meanings.

Help students understand the different meanings of words such as "table" and "quarter," as well as how to use them correctly in a mathematical context. Create opportunities in the classroom to identify different words with non-mathematical and mathematical definitions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Math Instruction for English Language Learners

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Several years ago, I met a high school math teacher named Hillary Hansen who had just taught her first Basic Math course for English language learners (ELLs). She wanted so much to provide the students with the good foundation they needed, but she felt unable to engage them in her lessons. By the end of the year, she was exhausted and frustrated.That summer she had an opportunity to join a district Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) cohort to receive professional development and support the needs of ELLs in content classes. She learned about the importance of language acquisition, building background knowledge, increasing student language production, and explicitly teaching academic language. She began the following school year with a new set of tools and a deeper understanding of the instructional scaffolding ELLs need in order to learn the content while also learning English.While Hillary still felt challenged and was working hard, the second year was much more successful for her and her students. She felt she was providing them with the foundation they needed not only to understand the mathematical concepts, but also to successfully interact within a math classroom in order to learn more advanced concepts.As a result of more effective instruction, her students:Understood the content better and were working together to find creative ways to learnIncreased their participation in discussions and learned how to use instructional supports in the classFelt more comfortable with math and asking questions to get the help they neededYou can learn more about some strategies that Hillary and other teachers recommend for teaching ELLs math in the information below, along with reflection tips and ideas for getting to know your students’ math backgrounds.ELL Math Resource CollectionThis resource collection features several ideas for teaching math to ELLs.Reflection QuestionsHow much math instruction have your ELLs received in their prior schooling?How much do their levels of math background vary?What are some of their strengths related to math?What are some of their challenges?What are some practical ways your ELLs are using math in their daily lives?What kinds of strategies have supported their success or engagement in other areas?What are some ways that collaboration or co-teaching might support your ELLs?What are some leadership opportunities you might give ELLs in pair work or small group work?Learn About Students’ Math BackgroundsTeaching ELLs: Tips for Math TeachersPrint PDF >It’s important to remember that ELLs’ math backgrounds may vary significantly. Some students may have had consistent schooling where they developed strong math skills. Others may have limited or no formal schooling, but may have practical skills related to time, money, or other daily topics. If possible, find out whether students have attended school regularly and what kind of experience they have had with math instruction and with math in general. Look for ways to tie instruction to student interests (like sports) and responsibilities at home that involve math, such as helping with family finances, working in family businesses, and holding other jobs. For example, students from migrant farmworker families may be using math related to agriculture, such as weighing or selling produce. Also keep in mind that students may use other numeric and measurement systems students, such as metric system, Celsius, military time, etc.In addition, Pennsylvania educators Sally Lopez and Erin Minick also encourage educators to:Look for leadership opportunities for all students in math classProvide students with opportunities to “teach” others, work together, and demonstrate what they know in multiple waysGroup students intentionally and with sensitivity, avoiding the designation of specific students as “needing more help” in their grouping, partner assignments, or placement in the classroom(Ms. Lopez and Ms. Minick conducted a book study focused on Teaching Math to Multilingual Students, which you can learn more about from their website.)Keep in mind that veteran educators of ELLs also stress the importance of getting to know students as a key part of supporting student success. For example, in this NCELA webinar, Dr. Haiwen Chu, a national expert on mathematics education for English Learners at WestEd, recalls that visiting his high school students’ neighborhoods provided valuable insights on their experiences and familiar topics.See additional ideas for getting to you know your ELLs in 10 Strategies for Building Relationships with ELLs.The Language of MathAlthough it is easy to assume that many ELLs will excel in math class because math is a “universal language” and students may have had prior educational experience that included mathematical instruction, that assumption can lead educators astray. While computational skills may transfer, ELLs may still need support with language-focused tasks, such as solving word problems, learning (and using) math vocabulary, and writing explanations. All of these skills require a language proficiency that sometimes exceeds our expectations. We tend to think of mathematics as a subject that does not require a strong command of language. In reality, however, mathematical reasoning and problem solving are closely linked to language and rely upon a firm understanding of basic math vocabulary (Dale & Cuevas, 1992; Jarret, 1999), especially when considered along with the demands of college- and career-ready standards.Co-Teaching and CollaborationFor many educators, the challenge of bringing language and math instruction together is a relatively new one. ELL teachers who hadn’t taught content areas previously are now being asked to lead or support instruction in the math classroom, and many math teachers who don’t see themselves as language instructors are now responsible for providing effective math instruction to ELLs. When educators collaborate, however, they can better understand each other’s expertise and combine their expertise for the benefit of students.For example, when planning a lesson, a math teacher and an ELL teacher could collaborate to identify both the target content, such as key standards, concepts, or specific topics, as well as key vocabulary, academic language, and the language-focused tasks students will need to complete the lesson. These tasks might include writing out a proof, reading a math problem, explaining how to solve a problem, or writing out numbers as words. The ELL specialist could walk the math teacher through this process several times so that it becomes a more integrated part of the math teacher’s planning over time. After the lesson, the teachers could identify other areas of focus or clarification needed and share these insights with their colleagues.Another tool content teachers can use is language objectives, which help target the language demands of the lesson. You can learn more about them in the videos featuring Mr. Jesus Ortiz below.Teaching Academic VocabularyVocabulary instruction is essential for effective math instruction. Not only does it include teaching math-specific terms such as “percent” or “decimal,” but it also includes understanding the difference between the mathematical definition of a word and other definitions of that word, as well as understanding the concept a vocabulary word describes.The following example, used in a presentation by Dr. Judit Moschkovich of the University of California at Santa Cruz, underscores why vocabulary must be introduced within the context of the content (Moschkovich, 2008): In this problem, the student is instructed to “find x.” The student obviously knew the meaning of the word “find” because they “found” it on the page and circled it. The student even put a note on the page to help the teacher in locating the lost “x”. The student understood the meaning of “find” in one context, but not in the appropriate mathematical context.I recently helped a math teacher create a sheltered lesson, and I was surprised to find that there were some vocabulary words that I didn’t understand. My lack of familiarity with the words hindered my ability to do the math problem and gave me a deeper empathy for ELLs who struggle in the same way with vocabulary and comprehending math assignments.Following is a list of tips for explicitly teaching mathematical academic vocabulary.Teach key academic vocabularyAfter you identify your target content, identify the academic vocabulary words that students will need to understand that content. Some of these key phrases or new vocabulary words may also be helpful to pre-teach in small groups or mini lessons. Think about:Academic vocabulary (equilateral)Words and phrases needed to solve a problem (less than, given, arrange)Common words needed to solve word problems (train station, dolphin, favorite)Homophones (eight/ate, plane/plain, one/won, two/to/too, four/for, some/sum)Words that students are likely to encounter in other settings (formula, prove)Words that represent a numerical value necessary for solving the problem, such as measurement words (foot, feet, meter, pounds, kilometers)After you identify the vocabulary you wish to teach, use scaffolds for academic vocabulary, such as: Visuals: These can include visual representations of concepts, photos, and illustrations of key vocabulary words, posters, and number lines.Realia (real objects) and manipulatives: These might include hands-on objects related to a topic or small items, such as coins or small blocks for counting, sorting, weighing, etc.Graphic organizers: Graphic organizers are tools that allow students to organize information in a visual or hands-on way.Anchor charts: Anchor charts are posters that students and teachers co-create to highlight key concepts and vocabulary that students will need for reference.Offer students the chance to work with objects and images in order to master vocabulary. If there aren’t enough items for each student, use manipulatives on the overhead or posted throughout the classroom, and demonstrate the vocabulary in front of the students. For example, Hillary created a Math Word Wall that has three parts: key vocabulary, “in your own words” definitions, and a variety of ways to portray a function. For example, multiplication is portrayed by the following symbols: x, *, and ( ).In addition, it can be helpful to ask students which strategies support their learning. Students often can provide valuable information on what is working for them!For examples of how vocabulary can impact students’ understanding of math problems, see the related video with ESL teacher Anne Formato below.Teach words with multiple meaningsDemonstrate that vocabulary can have multiple meanings. Help students understand the different meanings of words, as well as how to use them correctly in a mathematical context. This is also a good opportunity for using visuals and realia. Examples include:YardPlotTableProofAreaEvenPlanePlaceTimesBillQuarterChangeDraw on students’ home languagesUse cognates, which are related words in two languages. English and Spanish have many cognates within academic terms, like fraction/fracción.Use translated words or phrases strategically. For example, New York University has published bilingual glossaries for several topics.Allow (and encourage!) students to use their languages in group work to solve problems, brainstorm, and review material. Students will understand material better if they explain it to another student, and the new student will benefit from hearing the explanation in their first language.Increasing Student Language ProductionThe language demands of math are complex. Working with an ELL specialist can be a good starting point for identifying some of the math demands of the lessons you are teaching, as well as for planning how to teach and scaffold those language demands.As I’ve worked with content area teachers in my district to develop Sheltered Instruction lessons and activities to enhance ELL learning, I’ve told them, “If a student doesn’t say it in your class, they’re never going to say it.” This is a bit dramatic, but it’s true to some extent. When students learn new vocabulary, the opportunity to use it must be presented in class, because students are unlikely to try it out on their own — especially academic words like “parallelogram” or “function”!Here are some tips to increase student-to-student interaction with academic language in the math classroom:Have students translate symbols into words, and write the sentence out. Hillary used this strategy to check students’ comprehension of problems before they solved them. For example, 3x + 4 = 16 would be written out, “Three times X plus four equals sixteen.” This helps students process the operations involved in the question and gives them an opportunity to think through how to solve it. It also gives students a chance to familiarize themselves with important vocabulary words. Writing out the answer to a problem is a very important skill to develop because many state math tests require a constructed response to questions.Create a “sentence frame” and post it on the board. Write the format of the sentence you would like students to use in discussion and then hold them accountable for using it. For example, “The answer is _______ degrees because it is a _________ triangle. (Learn more in our sentence frame and sentence stems strategy.)Have students share problem-solving strategies. This involves asking a simple question, such as, “Did anyone else get the answer in a different way?” Then allow enough wait time so students can think through how their problem-solving process was similar or different to the one offered.Allow students to discuss how they are thinking about math. This is a way of redirecting the lesson from teacher-to-student to student-to-student. For example a student might ask a question, “How do you know what kind of triangle it is?” Instead of the teacher answering and going to the board and pointing out the names and different triangles, the teacher can simply ask, “Does someone have an answer? Or “Would someone like to offer help to Mario?” Allow students to share how they think about the math concept and any tips they have for remembering the information.Incorporate writing activities, such as entrance/exit tickets or math journals. This is an excellent way for students to process what they’ve learned and what questions they still have. The journal or exit/entrance ticket prompt could start with simple prompts such as, “One thing I learned today...” “One thing I still don’t understand…” “One way I can get the help I need…” “The answer to this problem is…” “Something that helped me was...“Challenge students to create their own math problems. This can be a fun activity if students create a problem similar to the ones you have used in class and they exchange problems with a partner. By creating the problem and checking the answer they are reinforcing their own learning.Teach students how to read, interpret, and summarize data. Provide students with explicit, step-by-step instructions in how to read charts, graphs, tables, and infographics, as well as how to describe what they observe in visual representations of data.Model the kinds of writing students are expected to complete (e.g., written explanations). Students need to see and understand what they are expected to do and produce, such as explaining how they solved a math problem. This is a great opportunity for the “gradual release” strategy -- I do, we do, you do.Try AI tools. Consider using AI tools to rewrite math problems for students at early levels of proficiency or to generate math problems with familiar vocabulary that achieve your target objective. Bilingual Glossaries in Content AreasNew York University has published several bilingual glossaries in multiple languages that cover different content areas, including elementary math, middle school math, Algebra 1 and 2, Calculus, and related math terms.Reading and Understanding Written Math ProblemsWritten word problems present a unique challenge to ELL students and teachers alike. In Reading and Understanding Written Math Problems, Brenda Krick-Morales writes, “Word problems in mathematics often pose a challenge because they require that students read and comprehend the text of the problem, identify the question that needs to be answered, and finally create and solve a numerical equation — ELLs who have had formal education in their home countries generally do not have mathematical difficulties; hence, their struggles begin when they encounter word problems in a second language that they have not yet mastered” (Bernardo, 2005).Teacher Xiao-lin Yin-Croft has encountered this pattern in her classroom of bilingual Chinese students in San Francisco. She has developed a very creative way to use her students’ background knowledge of math as a stepping stone for other language learning. She does this by accelerating math instruction at the beginning of the school year and then building on what students have learned in math in reading and other content areas. In Building Bridges for the Future, Xiao-lin explains her strategy:First, we read math word problems; I demonstrate the logical thinking process while translating words into pictures and, finally, into number sentences. Soon, they start to explain their own thinking after reading complicated word problems that involve several steps. They correct each other and argue about which number sentences they should use to arrive at the correct final results. As they sharpen their math skills, I capitalize on their enthusiasm to teach them how to extract the most important information from texts, and move them toward the oral and reading fluency they need to understand and discuss more challenging texts.Even if you aren’t accelerating math instruction, however, there are a number of ways to help students master word problems. Krick-Morales offers suggestions in the previously mentioned article, such as explicit instruction of key vocabulary, daily practice of problem solving, repeated readings of the word problem together as a class, and hands-on activities such as movement, experiments, or drawing to help students comprehend the problem. As students become more familiar with math vocabulary, they will be able to solve problems more easily.Identify key background knowledge in math problemsIt’s important to identify what kinds of background knowledge students will need to understand a math problem. For example, Ms. Lopez and Ms. Minick used this activity with a conference session: Ms. Lopez chose four math problems from her son’s math textbook and asked session attendees to brainstorm the kinds of background knowledge students might have questions about, some of which were relevant to solving the problem and some of which weren’t. Here are some things that attendees came up with:A math problem about a coupon and sales tax at a dog groomer: What is a dog groomer? Why do people take their dogs to get groomed? What is sales tax? What is a coupon? What is “deluxe”? What is an estimate and a discount?A math problem about people receiving a voucher for a free water bottle at a football game: Is football different from soccer? What is a voucher? Does the water bottle come with water inside it?A math problem about a fishing pole on sale: What is “percent off”? What is a sale? What is “regularly priced”? What steps have to be followed to solve this problem?A math problem about calculating a tip in a restaurant: What does “leave a tip” mean? What is a tip? Does the fact that there are four sisters (Emilia and three sisters) impact the outcome of the problem? Why aren’t they using an app like Venmo?As seen from the example above, this can be a powerful area in which math teachers and ELL teachers can collaborate.The Role of Background KnowledgeWhen it comes to background knowledge that impacts students’ understanding of new concepts, students may have relevant experiences to what you are teaching that just need to be drawn out (as in the vignette below). In other cases, students may not have the needed background knowledge. My colleague Hillary found that sometimes her students would get “lost” in a problem simply because they didn’t understand the context. Following are some tips to help in tapping into and building background knowledge of students.Identify connections to your students’ experiences. When planning the lesson, consider whether they might have relevant experiences, and as you introduce the lesson, find out what they know, giving them an opportunity to make connections. They may come up with connections you never had imagined!Modify the linguistic complexity of language and rephrase math problems. Students will understand the problem better if it is stated in shorter sentences and in language they understand. This may be an area in which you wish to experiment with AI tools that can rewrite problems.Guide students to cross out the unnecessary vocabulary in word problems. Doing so allows students to focus on the math function required. For example, one problem Hillary’s students came across referred to a “school assembly.” Even though the meaning of that phrase wasn’t important in the solving of the math problem, students didn’t know it wasn’t important, and the lack of understanding contributed to their confusion.Build knowledge from real world examples. Try to reinforce concepts with examples that students can picture and talk students through the situation. For example, if you need to paint a room, you need to know how much area will be covered so that you know how much paint to buy. Look for familiar ideas or props that can be used to engage students such as recipes, news stories about the economy, or discussion of personal spending habits.Use manipulatives purposefully. This is important at all grade levels. Hillary has found math cubes to be very useful in having students represent the numbers in the problems and then manipulate the cubes to get the answer. She used the cubes and the terms “hot” and “cold” numbers when teaching with the concept of negative numbers. Students would use the red cubes as “hot” or positive numbers and the blue cubes as “cold” or negative numbers. As students laid out the number of hot cubes and cold cubes represented, they could easily see if the answer would be a positive or negative number by which color had the most cubes. A problem such as -2 + 1 = -1 would look like this: The student then removed pairs of cubes — one red, one blue — until they could no longer remove any blocks. The remaining blocks represent the answer. Classroom vignette: A moment of humilityA middle school math teacher was trying to teach points on a grid and vertical/horizontal axis to her ESL students, three boys from Vietnam. She tried many approaches, including visuals, games, simulations, and manipulatives, and was just about to give up after very little progress. Suddenly, a student said, “Oh, I know — same same you drive a boat!” (“The same as you drive a boat!”) It turns out the child had helped his uncle use the stars to navigate a raft when they were fleeing Vietnam and trying to reach refugee camps in Thailand. He explained the concept to the other boys in Vietnamese with gestures and drawings on the board, who knew exactly what he was talking about. The teacher reflected, “I felt so humble. These boys knew a lot more about math than I had given them credit for. I had failed to activate their prior knowledge, and in the process had almost given up.“Source: This vignette is presented in Chapter 4 of Special Education Considerations for English Learners: Delivering a Continuum of Services. Using TechnologyTechnology can also be a powerful tool in math instruction for ELLs. Here are some ways you can play with technology in a math lesson:Look for educational resources that accompany your school’s technology tools and programs. There may be online or software programs available for teachers. For teachers who have an electronic whiteboard in the classroom, there are many resources available on links that can be easily accessed and brought into the classroom.Find out what’s available online. Both PBS Learning Media and Vital NY (Video Teaching and Learning for NYS Educators) on Teachers’ Domain offers an online library of free public media resources. Teachers’ Domain resources include video and audio segments, Flash interactives, images, documents, lesson plans for teachers, and student-oriented activities. (Free registration required.)If students are using a calculator or other device, ensure that they learn how to use it. Based on background and prior educational experience, students might not be familiar with how to use a calculator, graphing calculator, or math apps on devices such as phones or tablets. Give students a chance to practice solving problems with their calculators once you have reviewed different functions. Texas Instruments offers numerous activities and product tutorials in their educational materials.Learn more about how to use AI tools in math. AI tools can be used to generate, differentiate, or rewrite a math problem; create a summary of a lesson plan; and many other tasks. Keep in mind that AI-generated content always need a careful review and edit. (See more in Using AI in Math from Edutopia.)Look for interactive games that offer students a chance to practice their mathematical skills. Nintendo DS has an educational game called Brain Age, which is not language specific. The game provides excellent mathematical training for numbers and tracks results, showing student improvement over time.Books About Math and MathematiciansIn addition, there are lots of books about math and mathematicians that you can incorporate into your classroom and classroom library. You can see a wide range of titles for different ages in our Math Resource Collection.Closing ThoughtsEven if it doesn’t come easily at first, there are ways to get ELLs excited about math. By keeping their language skills and needs in mind when planning mathematical instruction (and by helping your colleagues do the same), you will be taking important steps in helping students master mathematical concepts and skills. You never know — your students may be the next generation of economists, rocket scientists, and math teachers just waiting for the tools they need! Note: I’d like to thank my Minnesota colleagues, Hillary Hansen at Burnsville Senior High School and Kim Olson at Hidden Valley Elementary, as well as Xiao-lin Yin-Croft from San Francisco, for providing many of the helpful math teaching tips in this article. It is inspiring to know that there are talented, creative teachers who are always finding better ways to teach and are willing to share the knowledge.Related VideosHow vocabulary can get in the way of solving a word problemELL Specialist Anne Formato talks about the trouble a student had in understanding a written math problem based on a vocabulary word. Teacher Alejandra Rojas: Why cognates are your “best friend” in math classElementary teacher Alejandra Rojas, who teaches in a dual-immersion program, explains why cognates support vocabulary development in her Spanish-language math class. Teacher Alejandra Rojas: When bilingual students translate for their parentsAlejandra Rojas, a teacher at a dual-immersion school in Arlington, VA, shares some of her experiences as a child and teenager translating for her mother. How to Write Language Objectives: Tips for ELL EducatorsIn this video from Syracuse, NY, Jesus Ortiz, a bilingual teacher, learns how to write a language objective from Areli Schermerhorn, a peer evaluator with expertise in ELL and bilingual education. Teacher Observation Cycle: A Math Lesson on PictographsThis video highlights Mr. Ortiz’s math lesson on pictographs. While the main topic of the video is teacher evaluation, numerous best practices and strategies related to math instruction for ELLs are mentioned in the video. Recommended ResourcesNCELA Teaching Practice Brief: Math (A related podcast is available as well)Supporting English Learners in Math and Science: Effective Instructional Practices and Examples from NCELA’s Teaching Briefs PBS Learning Media: Math LessonsEngageNY: Common Core and MathCommon Core Math and ELLs: Blog PostsDiscovery Education: PuzzlemakerCatherine Snow: Word Generation SMART Notebook Lesson ActivitiesTranslating Word ProblemsColorín Colorado Webcast: English Language Learners in Middle and High School

# data[].attributes.body
Multi-Language Word Wall / Dictionaries

1-Explain how the strategy works.
Students create Target Language-Home Language visual references to help learn target vocabulary. English can also be included to be a trilingual reference.

2-Describe how this strategy will help ELLs
This strategy does not assume English as the starting point for World Language learners. Many of our students in WL are learning our Target Language as their 3rd or 4th language. Connecting to their home language is both affirming and helps build better multilingual connections in the brain.

3-Provide an example of how you can/will use this strategy in your class.
When learning new target vocabulary (beginning of unit or cycle), create a picture plus + target lang. + home lang + English reference to hang on the wall for the remainder of the unit.

# data[].attributes.body
1-Document analysis routine: sourcing, and identify point of view; repeat the steps with the second document and compare and corroborates the two documents to see if one source backs up the other.

2-This routine strategy will help ELLs in developing historical thinking skills of corroboration

3-Is Lincoln racist (by our current standard) or not (by the standard of the 19th century America)?

4-https://sheg.stanford.edu/history-lessons/corroboration-classroom-poster

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Corroboration asks students to consider details across multiple sources to determine points of agreement and disagreement. This poster reminds students corroborating documents to ask:
•   What do other documents say?
•   Do the documents agree? If not, why?
•   What are other possible documents?
•   What documents are most reliable?

The file is designed to be printed on 18" by 24" paper.

[Spanish poster updated on 06/23/20.]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Corroboration Classroom Poster | Stanford History Education Group

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Corroboration asks students to consider details across multiple sources to determine points of agreement and disagreement. This poster reminds students corroborating documents to ask: • What do other documents say? • Do the documents agree? If not, why? • What are other possible documents?…

# data[].attributes.body
Active-Passive Voice Translation

1-Explain how the strategy works.
Students take a story, paragraph, or sentences and translate it from active voice to passive, or vice-versa. "The dog was walked by Jake. --> "Jake walked the dog."

2-Describe how this strategy will help ELLs
English non-fiction tends to use the passive voice, where that is not the case for non-fiction texts in other languages. Teaching students to explicitly translate between the two will be a transferable skill to content areas.

3-Provide an example of how you can/will use this strategy in your class.
Students can read a fictional short story in the passive voice. Then "fix it" by translating it to the active voice.

Students can read a non-fictional paragraph in the active voice and translate it to the passive voice.