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As future teachers we can use gestures and modeling to act out concepts we are reading about! Through movement it reinforce what they are reading, better captivate their attention, and adds fun to the classroom! This is a very interactive way of learning, therefore hopefully stick in their memory. To implement this in your classroom, you could allow every student to mirror an action when mentioned (everyone pretend to eat if it's talking about eating) or pick various people to act out each page (pretend to go to bed then wake up).

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signal words are almost an inverse to giving the ELL student a set of sentence structures to fill in. The way signal words might work is by presenting a bank of words as building blocks for a full paragraph.
For example: prompting the writer with the bank and saying use 4 signal words to tell a story.

source: https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/blogpost/6-ways-scaffold-writing-ells

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Questions as Planned Scaffolds - Isabella Cowart

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Questions as Planned Scaffolds - Isabella Cowart

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As a teacher we can use guiding questions to direct students' understanding of readings. This will ensure students better focus on the important parts of the text in order to answer the provided questions. Besides this, the questions can build from simple questions to more complicated, conceptual questions, ensuring a deeper understanding.

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From our model 12 reading, we read about some of the guiding principles of accessing both language and academic achievement, outlined by Freeman, Ghiso, and Hamayan. They explain that “formative assessment data should inform instruction by helping teachers make decisions about the what, the how, and the why behind their instruction.” Making use of “such data will allow teachers to determine students’ strengths and weaknesses in both content knowledge and language development, making it easier to grade students separately in each area.” This short but explanatory video, Examples of scaffolding for ELLs, reiterates the beliefs of Freeman, Ghiso, and Hamayan. She explains how formative assessment reveals the strengths and weaknesses of students allowing teachers to create plans on how to assess students and more importantly how to assess individual achievement of students. Which makes it easier to grade students separately in each area, providing a more equitable classroom and allowing every student a chance at being a successful student. This will allow ELL students an “opportunity to show what they know with the language tools they have.” I think quick weekly online quizzes would help assess knowledge levels. You can check for understanding by encouraging students to rate their understanding on their fingers from 1-5. Assessment tools can be extremely helpful in guiding lesson planning.

Extra Information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUzMkLK4XbI

Montalvo-Balbed, M. (2012). Using Formative Assessment to Help English Language Learners. https://pdo.ascd.org/lmscourses/PD13OC002/media/ELL_CC_M4_Reading_Using_Formative01.pdf

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Using Technology to Scaffold Student Learning - Piper Williams

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Using Technology to Scaffold Student Learning - Piper Williams

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While reflecting on the techniques you utilize in our LLED classroom, I found technology to be a great one. When we have our daily meetings it is often an informative preview of what we will be covering in this section and gets us ready to be engaged with the content. In our presentations we normally have videos, that give us a visualization of the material. For our discussion posts, you provide links in our responses giving us different ways to engage with the content. This allows us to expand our knowledge and draw connections while engaging with different materials. I think using online tutorials could be extremely helpful when working with ELL students, it provides a visual demonstration accompanied by the English language. This could succeed in enhancing listening skills and if the subtitles are on reading skills as well. Technology in the classroom can be used in a variety of ways to scaffold students' learning; from enhancing the four domains, helping with lesson planning, and providing quick feedback on formative assessments.

https://www.gcu.edu/blog/teaching-school-administration/what-scaffolding-education
https://blog.nus.edu.sg/cdtkdr/2015/04/25/scaffold-student-learning/

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This specific exit ticket stuck out to me. The students are able to circle an emoji based on how they feel after the lesson. This allows the teacher to see where each student is at and allows them to make changes to their lesson plan with out embarrassing any students. This exit tick also allows the student to be vulnerable with the teacher and point out what specifically they might need help with in the lesson.

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Add a little fun to your closing activity with emoji exit tickets!

Exit tickets are quick informal assessments that provide feedback on how well your students understood a lesson.

While there are a variety of exit ticket ideas that elementary teachers can use to assess what learners "took away" from the lesson or activity, emoji exit tickets add a little pizzazz to the process.

Boredom may eventually set in when the same style of exit ticket appears too often at the end of a lesson.

Therefore, I'm sharing 5 emoji exit ticket ideas that will heighten the interest of your students.

Like other exit tickets, these emoji exit tickets encourage elementary learners to reflect upon the learning process while also providing you with valuable data to use when planning upcoming instruction.

Emoji Exit Tickets

1. Rating Scale Self-Assessment

The Rating Scale Self-Assessment emoji exit ticket is a simple quick assessment that requires students to rate their understanding of the lesson by circling one of 3 choices...
I think I got this! I need a bit more practice. I'll get there, but I need help!
This emoji exit slip takes students less than a minute to complete and provides great feedback to you the teacher.

This makes it a fantastic choice for when you're short on time but need absolutely need some sort of feedback about students' understanding of the material.

2. Emoji Exit Ticket Prompts

A spin-off of classic exit ticket prompts and questions, emoji exit ticket prompts lend themselves to encouraging your elementary learners to dive a bit deeper into their thoughts.

Along with the prompts are emoji visuals that highlight for students the general type of response that's expected.

Customize the prompts to fit the needs of your learners and according to your specific learning objectives.

The above image displays a few general prompts that are ideal to use with any topic or subject area...
Today I learned... I'm still having trouble with... My favorite part of the story was... I don't quite understand...
Note that students don't need to complete all four prompts at a time; one prompt is sufficient.

The prompts you choose will depend on your goals as the teacher. What feedback exactly are you looking to gather from your elementary learners regarding the lesson topic?

These emoji exit ticket prompts are quick and serve well their purpose of proving the data you need to make informed choices about which concepts/ideas to reteach or extend in future lessons.

3. How Do I Feel Today Emojis

The How Do I Feel Today emoji exit slip fits best into the category of "morning work" or "bell work".

Though it isn't directly related to a lesson activity, it's essential nonetheless.

As an educator, you know all too well that students' moods affect the teaching and learning process.

If you have a student who normally performs well in class but on a particular day he's slacking, that may be cause for concern.

On the contrary, you may have a student who struggles daily but on this one day she's soaring.

It's a great idea to use the How Do I Feel Today emoji exit ticket daily as a morning exercise to gauge how your elementary students are feeling.

A bonus of this exit ticket is that the student has to explain why he or she is feeling that emotion. That's potentially a gold mine of valuable information available to you.

Observing patterns among their overall mood, work habits, and academic proficiency is priceless anecdotal evidence that you may want to document if you see alarming trends that last longer than normal.

4. How I Feel About Today's Lesson Emoji Exit Ticket

Want to know exactly how your students are feeling about that lesson you just taught?

The How I Feel About Today's Lesson emoji exit ticket will definitely give you that feedback.

Not only do learners circle the emoji that best reflects how they're feeling about the outcome of the lesson, but they must explain why they're feeling that way.

The open-ended nature of the prompt allows students the freedom to really express their thoughts without limitations.

To encourage responses that are detailed enough for you to gather an accurate picture of their learning state, you may want to model for them a few times what an appropriate response looks and sounds like.

5. Emoji Exit Ticket Sticks

Emoji exit ticket sticks are not only incredibly easy to use, but they're also easy to create.

Provide 2 popsicle sticks or straws to students along with two emoji faces: 1 "sad" and 1 "happy".

Learners glue 1 face to each straw or stick.

When you're ready to check for understanding, simply ask a question related to the targeted learning objective.

Students hold up whichever emoji exit ticket stick best reflects their understanding

"Sad" face emoji = "I don't understand.", and "happy" face emoji = "I get it."

To work smarter, have your students make their own set.

This emoji exit ticket idea is perfect for small groups and one-on-one instruction.

6. Emoji Sketch

Last but definitely not least, the Emoji Sketch exit ticket puts students artistic skills to use.

It's a simple yet powerful informal assessment.

Students sketch an emoji that represents their understanding of the day's activity.

Though the drawing is done quickly, students must remember to highlight features that allow you, the teacher, to infer exactly how they're feeling.

To provide support, consider displaying an anchor chart with a variety of emoji characters.

Students use it as a bank of ideas as they brainstorm which emoji to sketch for their emoji exit ticket.

To extend the Emoji Sketch exit ticket idea, require students to explain the reasoning of their drawing in 1 or 2 sentences written at the bottom of the exit ticket.

Wrapping Up

Now you're all set to add a little spice to your closing activity or morning work routine with these 5 engaging emoji exit ticket ideas.

Like other exit tickets, they quickly check your students' understanding of a lesson, topic, or idea.

Want to go a step further and add more emoji fun into your instruction? If so, check out these 10 cool ways to seamlessly incorporate emojis in your classroom.

Emoji exit tickets are the way to go for more lively informal assessments!

Best

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6 Emoji Exit Ticket Ideas That Make Reflection Time Fun

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Add a little fun to your closing activity with emoji exit tickets! Exit tickets are quick informal assessments that provide feedback on how well your students understood a lesson. While there are a variety of exit ticket ideas that elementary teachers can use to assess what learners "took away" from the lesson or activity, emoji exit tickets add a little pizzazz to the process.

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Repetition is used for students and teachers both to make sure that everyone is on the same page with the learning. Repeating information reinforces ideas in students' heads while also giving the teacher an understanding of where the class is at. This can be completed by singing a song and having the most important information be repeated multiple times, or even asking questions like "Can you explain what I just said?"

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Dictation is a scaffolding strategy in which the teacher will speak aloud a short sentence with vocab and context related to the class's content. The students are then required to record the sentence and the teacher will check for correctness.
This is a wonderful strategy for listening because it forces students to carefully pay attention to the sentence being spoken. The correctness of the sentence they wrote compared to the original sentence can show a student's comprehension with listening.

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This Irish French teacher uses the "I do, You do, We do" method. She asks them to go around the room, quickly counting the numbers. They give each other compliments in French, which helps them communicate and gain confidence.

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The Language Experience Approach is an effective and fun technique that allows students to feel more involved in learning. As the video linked above explains, the student will tell a story about themselves, and the teacher will write it out. From there, this piece of writing will be used as a part of reading that the students can use. By personalizing the literature in this way, students will feel connected and, furthermore, will see themselves in the curriculum. Another activity that is reminiscent of the Language Experience Approach would be an activity involving each student's family tree/heritage. The teacher could have parents help their children write and learn about their own culture/heritage/background. From there, these writings could be compiled into a book that the students could read together as a class. Not only would this help students with their reading and writing skills, but it would also allow them to learn more about their peers' cultures and backgrounds.

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Language Experience Approach: ESL, ELL, LEP & Bilingual Students.

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Students can benefit from an interactive word wall when creating and learning word definitions. It can be presented in a variety of ways depending on the teacher, but the main objective is to get students to concentrate on their vocabulary and how to apply it in their writing. By posting new terminology or synonyms on the wall, teachers can expose them to their students. In order to aid kids in making connections, they can also incorporate pictures that correspond to the word.

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Jigsaw is a strategy that puts students into groups. In these groups, the students learn about a topic and become "experts" on the matter. Then, the groups are rearranged and they have to teach the material they learned to another group of students. This strategy is a great way for students to work on their collaboration skills. This also helps with speaking and listening, because they are teaching information to their peers (speaking), as well as learning about new information from the other peers in the group (listening).

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Jigsaw Groups for Cooperative Learning

Defined broadly, Jigsaw is a grouping strategy in which the members of the class are organized into "jigsaw" groups. The students are then reorganized into "expert" groups containing one member from each jigsaw group. The members of the expert group work together to learn the material or solve the problem, then return to their "jigsaw" groups to share their learning. In this way, the work of the expert groups is quickly disseminated throughout the class, with each person taking responsibility for sharing a piece of the puzzle.

Jigsaw can be used for sharing different solutions to the same problem or for dividing up research responsibilities. For example, if the class is studying living cells, one group of students learns about the nucleus, another learns about the mitochondria, another learns about the cell wall, and so on. The groups are then reconfigured into jigsaw groups; the experts take turns teaching their specialty to their jigsaw group so that each group learns about every topic.

Why Is It Important?

Introduced by Aronson (1978), Jigsaw is an efficient way for students to become engaged in their learning, learn a lot of material quickly, share information with other groups, minimize listening time, and be individually accountable for their learning. Since each group needs its members to do well in order for the whole group to do well, Jigsaw maximizes interaction and establishes an atmosphere of cooperation and respect for other students. Teachers who listen in to the sharing of one of the jigsaw groups can quickly hear what each of the original groups has been doing.

Aronson compared classes that used the cooperative jigsaw approach with classes in which students worked in competitive groups. He found that children in the jigsaw classrooms outperformed children in competitive classrooms in terms of mastery of classroom material. Black and Hispanic children performed significantly better in jigsaw classrooms than in competitive classrooms.

Jigsaw II is an alternative strategy, developed by Robert Slavin (1990). The process is as described above, with the exception that students in jigsaw groups read the entire assignment or all of the materials to acquire the information. Group members then take an individual test on the material, the results of which contribute to a team score.

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Jigsaw is a grouping strategy in which the members of the class are organized into groups then rearranged in new groups to share their learning. This is an excellent method for improving students' teamwork and communication skills.

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The Station Rotation scaffolding strategy allows for the teacher to group students at the same level in order to cater to their needs. The video talks about the blue group meeting the standards so when she works with the students she adds Ven-Diagrams and doesn't for those who find it a little more confusing. The three stations also focus on different things, one focuses on speaking and listening, another on reading, and another on writing and more kinesthetic activities. There is so much variety in this method that caters to each student.

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Station Rotation: Differentiating Instruction to Reach All Students

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Students are given dice and asked to do the activity that their number of di lands on. this could be a homework activity or with certain accommodations, it could also be a classroom activity. To do this activity in the classroom, a teacher could change "read in your bed" to read at your desk. This activity can be used when introducing independent reading to young grade levels.

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Signal responses are a great way to ensure that your students are not only listening to the content being presented in class but they are also engaged and comprehending what is being asked of them. Some examples of whole class signal responses are students providing a thumbs up/down when asked a question, using a whiteboard as a form of personal response, or even holding up different colored cards that each represent different things. Signal responses provide for fast and silent feedback that allows the teacher to know whether or not students are listening and comprehending the content. It is an efficient method of scaffolding and it is something I will be using with my future students, whether or not they are ELLs.

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This strategy allows students to use what they know while providing a sense of belonging for their self in the classroom. It helps them gain confidence in their ability to speak while using visual cues. A lot of students are visual learners, so by incorporating physical objects as a scaffolding strategy will help the child remember words in English better. The teacher can show the children specifically what the word or phrase means so the students can build a connection. Then, the children can bring in or find materials to explain what they are in English to show understanding.

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Students are given a few minutes to write down what they know or what they can think of about any topic. This scaffolding strategy helps students with their writing skills as they use their prior knowledge to come up with information. If they need to write something down that they do not know how to write in English, they can write it in their native language. This strategy is also good because there is not a right or wrong answer. It builds their confidence in their answering abilities. They can write about a personal experience, an idea they had, a question, etc. as long as it stays on topic for the Quick Write. After completing the Quick Write, the teacher can choose whether or not to have the students share in pairs or as a class. This can help students grow and ask questions when they are normally too intimidated to.

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This can assist ELL students in multiple domains - speaking, listening, writing, and reading. By providing posters or sheets that have pictures associated with vocabulary creates more opportunities for exposure and growth. ELLs can use it as a reference, but can also use it to build mental images to form connections between words and objects.

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Interactive Read Aloud and Shared Reading (Paige Landers)

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Interactive Read Aloud and Shared Reading (Paige Landers)

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I think it is important that teachers model and show students how they should be doing their reading and the activities. It also allows students to fully understand what is expected of them for their reading assignments, so there is no confusion. The teacher is guiding them through the reading, so it becomes easier for students to provide the feedback and work because their teacher has modeled it.

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Using Questions As Planned Scaffolds (Paola Medellin)

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Using Questions As Planned Scaffolds (Paola Medellin)

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Planning questions ahead of time can help students build from basic comprehension to more abstract understanding. This can help a student better focus on reading comprehension by directing them to specific parts of the text to help them answer the questions and also know what it important to know. It can also help to provide paragraph or line numbers or even section headings.

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Sentence frames are partially completed sentences that have blank spaces for students to fill in. This helps them learn sentence structure and also fill in notes about a subject without having to worry about grammatical choices. It is good for students who may struggle to write complete sentences or need to learn sentence structures.

From "6 Ways to Scaffold Writing for ELLs" https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/blogpost/6-ways-scaffold-writing-ells

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This talks about how has a teacher it is best to speak slowly and pronounce your words clearly to your students. Use simple questions that will help them learn. Using simple questions help them know what we are saying in a more simple way.

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Scaffolding Techniques for English Language Learners: Part 1

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When supporting English Language Learners during instruction we must consider that the instruction is two-fold. Teachers are supporting content and language acquisition simultaneously. This is not an easy task! Scaffolding has been praised for its ability to engage most learners. When the learning is scaffolded students are constantly building on prior knowledge and forming associations [...]

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This strategy gives students time to show understanding. They have time to understand what they have been asked and they have time to develop an answer to the question as well.
- Teachers can put students in small groups or pairs to talk with one another.
- Teachers can pause and wait after asking a question so that students can think and then give an answer.
Wait time allows them to organize their thoughts before they speak and allows time for reflection.

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Numbering the lines and sectioning the text into smaller portions so students do not feel overwhelmed with large amounts of text. They can digest the text in a deeper way.

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Learning logs are a great tool to use as a formative assessment for ELLs. Students can document their learning process throughout a lesson and then write a reflection once the lesson is completed. This gives them not only practice with writing in English, but also mastering the concepts they are learning by representing them creatively visually through sketches and developing metacognition as they write and think about the learning they are doing as they are doing it. Its a great assessment at the end of a lesson to see what the students took from it as well as at the end of the year for teachers, parents, and students to look back on what the student learned as well as how their writing and thought processes have developed throughout the year!

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Students each have three cards of the colors red, yellow, & green. At the end of a lesson, the teacher will ask them to hold up a card depicting how they feel about their level of understanding. (Red=very confused, Yellow=somewhat confused but somewhat understands, Green=fully understands) The teacher will then use this to note how well the students are picking up on the material.

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The teacher would give each student a piece of paper with a question about the lesson on it. Then, each student would write their answer on the paper and crumple it up. Then the students will engage in a "snowball fight" and toss these papers across the classroom. At the end, the student will choose a "snowball" and uncrumple it and read the question and answer aloud. The class can discuss the answer and the teacher can see how effective the lesson was.

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This formative assessment requires students to display their work or projects around the room so that their peers can view what they did, and then the teachers ask the students to write one thing they liked about their peers work and one constructive criticism. This allows the students to be vulnerable which can create a better class community and hearing their peers feedback and ideas can be very beneficial to students.

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Offer students a "3,2,1" Meaning: 3 things I learned, 2 questions I still have, and one thing I really enjoyed.
It allows them to remember part of what they learned, it allows us to see what questions they have, and for them to get the chance to ask questions, and it also allows us to hear what they enjoyed so that we can continue to help them learn in the ways they enjoy learning.

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"Turn and Talk" is a speaking scaffold in which students will discuss a topic (usually a question posed by the teacher at the start or end of a class) with a partner. This is a great scaffold for speaking because it allows casual, peer learning to occur; in a less formal setting, ELLs can build their confidence speaking in the classroom.

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Teacher Toolkit: Turn and Talk (Secondary)

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Total Physical Response is a scaffold for ELLs that encourages students to engage multiple modes of learning. This video explains the process in depth and shows real life classroom examples at the end!

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ESL Teaching Strategies: #1 TPR or Total Physical Response (VIPKID)

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The students will be asked to write down a question that they have about the day's lesson. They will crumble up the piece of paper and through it around the room. Each child will get a different question, and they will have to answer it out loud to the class.

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Mind Maps are like brainstorms with pictures. there is a central topic and then branches come off that topic into subsections and then branches come off the subsections to make smaller subsections. This could be given to students when starting a new unit. Some parts of the mind map could be provided to the students like central topic and subsections that are going to have a lot of branches coming off. Then the student fills in the knowledge as we progress through the unit.

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Using graphic organizers as a reading scaffold helps ELLs organize the information they pull from the text. Directive labels may help them to know key information to look for as well.

From "The GO TO Strategies: Scaffolding Options for Teachers of English Language Learners, K-12"

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Read-alouds allow students to make connections by seeing how words are pronounced, used, and how context clues are used. It also gives the teacher the opportunity to help students that struggle with story-telling and how pictures help tell the story.
https://www.collaborativeclassroom.org/blog/scaffolding-techniques-english-language-learners-part-1/

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This activity, as shown in the video below, is a great way for students to get up and moving. Hula Hoops are placed on the ground with numbers in them in sequential order from 1-20 (or any group of numbers that you want your students to review). Then the students are asked to jump in the hoops, like hop scotch, in the correct number order. This scaffolding activity, like the others in the video below can be altered and created based on the students learning level. By creating differentiated groups, you can cater a more individualized learning experience for your students to be successful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iki2hAYK74

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This activity can be used when introducing a new "sound" into the classroom. For example, if you are practicing the /ae/ sound (like in “cat,” “hat,” etc…, you could read the following script. “Yesterday, my cat ate a plastic toy and swallowed it fast.” Whenever students hear this sound for the first time (cat), they should stand. When they hear it again (plastic), sit down. This is beneficial for ELL because something as simple as developing recognition of a sound may be harder for them as they are not native speakers, so spending time on really listening for these sounds will help in all domains. This also encourages movement in the classroom which I believe to always be better than requiring children to sit in a desk all day.

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by abepiusc 654,456 views

Listening is the gateway to understanding and communicating and, therefore, is absolutely critical for language learners of all skills.

If students struggle to listen carefully, they will miss out on important interactions both inside and outside of the classroom.

The problem with listening instruction is that it is commonly thought to be boring and passive; students simply sit and listen. However, teaching listening doesn't have to be dull! There are many ways to create engaging and interactive lessons that focus on listening skills. Here are eight different ways to build students' listening skills:

Try These 8 Activities to Improve Listening Skills

1. Voice blogging

Using a free website (such as Voice Thread) have students record voice journals about their week. Encourage students with semi-personal topics or hypothetical questions (e.g. What would you do if you had one million dollars? Describe your best vacation. etc..) to prompt speaking. This works just like a blog but with student voices rather than writing. Even if your school doesn't have computers with microphones or recording capabilities, with VoiceThread students can use any phone to record their voice blog.

Students can then be assigned to listen to several of their classmates and give each other comments. By listening to each other and giving encouraging comments, you are building a positive classroom environment and cooperation within the classroom all while students build their listening skills.

2. Listen for the hidden phrase

An engaging whole class activity is to pair students up and give each pair a "secret" word or phrase. For easier dialogues, give a simple phrase such as "I love soccer," or "My father works a lot;" etc... To challenge students, give a slightly more obscure phrase, such as "John does yoga every Saturday," or "I saw a UFO in my yard last night."

Students are then tasked with developing a dialogue with their partner that somehow uses this phrase. Students may script the dialogue if they wish, but only give them limited planning time (5-10 minutes). After they have prepared their dialogue, students perform the dialogue in front of the class, and the other students listen carefully to hear which words or phrases seem extra carefully planned to find the secret phase. If you have individual white boards, have the students write down the phrase as they hear it and then show their board after the pair has finished the dialogue. If they found the correct secret phrase, they get a point. If no one finds the pair's secret phrase, the pair that developed the dialogue gets a point.

3. Listen for the word

Using popular culture media is always a good way to practice listening skills. Using songs, watching TV shows, or even listening to podcasts will help build skills. To go an extra step, have an additional task while listening to the song or TV show such as assign students different words to listen for and have them keep track of how often they hear these words. This is particularly helpful with reductions like gonna, wanna, hafta.

Listening to various media is also a good time to practice unfamiliar words. Encourage students to write down words they have never heard before. Without subtitles or lyrics, students will have to rely on the sounds they think they heard to make a guess at how to spell this unfamiliar word. Encourage students to write down other surrounding words to help you decipher what the word might be or to write down the time when they heard the word so you can go back to the spot and listen again. These are important skills for students to master so that they can continue learning even outside of the classroom by hearing new words.

5. Student-designed quizzes

If students are in a computer lab or if they have iPads/iPhones, give each student a dialogue, lecture, or song to listen to. These can be easily found on various free listening websites. Have students listen to the lecture multiple times and then create a quiz for another student to take. Students will be excited to "play teacher" by creating quiz questions, and they will have to rely on their listening skills to write accurate questions.

6. Describe the...

Place students into pairs and have them sit back to back. Give one student in the pair a unique picture with a lot of simple shapes drawn on it. I prefer to draw my own pictures with some randomly placed like:

Hearts

Flowers

Stars

Houses

Stick Figures

1. Put these shapes in different places, angles, and with extra features as desired. Give the second student in the pair a blank piece of paper. The student with the picture must dictate to his/her partner how to draw the picture. Make sure to emphasize no cheating or peeking! When finished, change the pictures around the groups and have the partners switch roles. When everyone has drawn once, the team with the most similar pictures win!

2. Put the celebrity in the right place

Similar to the picture describing game, this game has a similar setup but without the drawing. Give students a chart with many different celebrities in the boxes/grid. This can be easily done by creating a table in a word processing program and pasting internet images of celebrities in the table. Be sure to make several different versions with celebrities in the different spaces. It's okay if the students don't know all of the celebrities; in fact, it may be better if there are some they don't know, so they have to rely on describing physical features rather than giving names. Print a second blank grid with the pictures of the celebrities cut out into individual pieces but not attached to the grid.

Students should sit back to back and be instructed to not peek or cheat. The student with the table with pre-assigned celebrities should give the other student instructions on how to fill in his table with the celebrity picture pieces. For example, the first student might say "The picture of Brad Pitt goes in the first square, and Angelina goes in the square below Brad Pitt." It may be helpful to pre-teach the vocabulary "columns" and "rows."

3. Stand up/sit down

When working on individual sounds, give students a target sound and then read a script out loud that contains multiple examples of this sound. For example, if you are practicing the /ae/ sound (like in "cat," "hat," etc..., you could read the following script. "Yesterday, my cat ate a plastic toy and swallowed it fast." Whenever students hear this sound for the first time (cat), they should stand. When they hear it again (plastic), sit down. Read slowly enough for them to have time to stand up or sit down. This activity is great because it gets them out of their seats and lets them get some excess energy out!

5. Vowel discrimination

Another good activity to do when you are studying specific vowel sounds is to give students two different color note cards (e.g. one red card and one blue card). For a review activity, assign one vowel to the red card (e.g. the /ae/ sound as in "bat") and another card to the blue card (e.g. the /ei/ sound as in "bay"). When you read a word, have students raise the card in the air for the correct vowel/sound they heard. For a more advanced game, give students several colors of cards to correspond with several different vowels. Also, you could give the students several cards and read a sentence where each word represents a different vowel. Students must recreate the pattern of sounds they heard by lining up their note cards in the correct order.

Students engage in listening every day, so it's important for ESL students to continue developing their listening skills.

Engaging them in fun listening activities will hopefully motivate them to practice more listening and take advantage of all opportunities around them.
How do you get your students excited for listening practice? If you're an English teacher teaching students aged kindergarten to senior high (or even adults), check out our partner sites HelpTeaching, KidsKonnect, and Elementary Librarian for hundreds of additional ESL resources including worksheets, quiz questions, tests, books, and more!

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Do You Hear What I Hear?: 8 Activities to Improve Listening Skills

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by abepiusc 654,456 views If students struggle to listen carefully, they will miss out on important interactions both inside and outside of the classroom. The problem with listening instruction is that it is commonly thought to be boring and passive; students simply sit and listen. However, teaching listening doesn't have to be dull!