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Questions:

1. How do biology teachers make biology concepts comprehensible to culturally and linguistically diverse students?
2. What are some of the effective teaching strategies and techniques that lead to student academic and language learning?

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Observation:

One year-long observing the following:

1. Three biology teachers' instructions
2. 18 students
3. Two High Schools
4. 15 countries and speaking 14 languages

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Data Collected

The three teachers varied experiences from two to six years. They taught ESL biology classes. The biology class was composed of ESL students from various language, cultural, and literacy backgrounds. The three teachers were observed once a week for 24 weeks. This observation happened within the school year of 1997 and 1998. The classrooms were audiotaped and transcribed at a later time. The materials they used were handouts, textbooks, portfolios, and tests. Each teacher was interviewed and six students from each class were selected to be interviewed.

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Researcher/Location/Year

Yu Ren Dong
Queens, New York
Two New York High Schools
Scool Year 1997 to 1998

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Input Comprehensible:

The teacher would write a story on a new vocabulary. This would help an ESL student to understand the meaning of a vocabulary. The teacher would make sure to do physical movements for the students to create a mental picture.

The students in ESL will also benefit from the teacher teaching by asking challenging questions and using visual aids. This helps in many ways for the students to see and understand what the teacher is asking for.

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Group work and hands-on activities:

This helps ESL students to integrate within their groups. This will help them to communicate with each other and brainstorm to make sure the activity they are doing is worked within the team and their input is counted. This will help the students bring out their ideas and share out.

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Dictionaries and bilingual glossaries:

This is very useful and helpful for ESL students because they can see in their own language what the word means and go back and look up in the English dictionary to learn what it means and pronounce. Not only does it help to understand what it means. But it helps the students with their reading comprehension.

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Class Discussion:

The teacher would speak loud and clear. The teacher would provide a wait time for students to answer the questions. The teacher would call on those students who are quiet in the classroom and not just on those who raise their hand. This is a great idea for ESL students who are shy and quiet and who do not like to speak in front of the classroom. This is a way to make sure every student is participating and not those who would like to answer every question.

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Diversity in the classroom:

The teacher had to understand their students' backgrounds, culture, etc. The teacher would make sure every student participated in a discussion and not let any student out of the discussion. This is a great idea because this brings prior knowledge, home culture, and educational experiences from ESL students. The teacher makes sure the students are listened to and validated and appreciated.

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The teacher would provide projects where ESL students would report on their visits. The students would write journals on their observations or experimental study. This helps ESL students because it can help them with their writing skills and reading skills. This is something ESL students should use to help them read and write in English.

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I really enjoyed reading this article by Yu Ren Dong, because it really opened my mind to how ESL students are being taught to make sure they are understanding the English language. I wish I had these great activities, teachers to have taught me how to speak English. I would've enjoyed and loved to learn another language without being shy and quiet when I was called in front of the class. This has really helped me to make sure I make a difference when teaching ESL students because it wasn't easy to learn another language when you learned a different one at home. I really liked that the teachers had so much patience to help ESL students to learn English. The knowledge the teachers used are very helpful and useful to teach ESL students. The teachers made sure every student felt comfortable and made it a safe place for them to participate. The teachers made the students feel at home. We really want the students to feel safe and at home, because the students spend hours at school learning.