SAMUEL I

Survival Skills 101 For English Learners

Myths and RealitiesSecond Language Acquisition

Classroom Strategies in Content TeachingAssessing in Proficiency Levels

Pair and Share

1. What does differentiating instruction mean to you?

2. What are some ways you can differentiate instruction for ELs?

Differentiating InstructionBefore The Lesson

I Can

Plan ahead.

Look over your content to determine what concepts and vocabulary your ELs will need help with. Think about how you will make content comprehensible for your ELs.

As you organize your lessons, consider the following factors:

Build on students’ background knowledge. Consider showing a video or reading a book aloud about your topic.

Remember to teach concrete vocabulary and concepts first.

Think of creative ways to link the content of your lesson to the students’ previous knowledge.

Remember to link your current lesson with the one previously taught.

Decide what language and concepts need pre-teaching.

Reflect on how you can teach with oral, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning modalities.

 Prepare teaching aids in advance. Assemble graphic organizers, charts, graphs, and webs for the lesson.

Add vocabulary word banks to student activities.

Adapt textbooks to paraphrase key concepts in English. Eliminate nonessential details.

Ask native English speakers in your class to go to the library and find non-fiction books on the lesson topic that are written on a simpler level.

Before The Lesson

During The Lesson

Build on what ELs already know.  Use simplified vocabulary and sentence structure. Pre-teach

key vocabulary in context.  Provide ELs questions in advance so they can prepare.  Introduce concrete concepts and vocabulary before you move

to abstract topics.

Teach students to categorize their information using graphic. Create semantic and story maps for ELs.

 Demonstrate and practice highlighting techniques so that ELs learn how to highlight important information.

 

Review and repeat important concepts and vocabulary.

 Provide real examples and experiences.

 Explicitly teach ELs to find definitions for key vocabulary in the text. Help ELs become acquainted with their books.

  Model your thinking process for students using

Think Aloud Strategy.  Record important parts of your lesson to reinforce

learning.

During The Lesson

After The Lesson

Allow native English-speaking classmates to make copies of their notes for ELs to use.

Watch videos or listen to tapes about a current lesson.

Provide follow-up activities that reinforce vocabulary and concepts. Include maps, charts, outlines, graphic organizers, semantic mapping, cloze activities, drawing and labeling, flashcards, games, puzzles, and time lines.

Encourage students to work in small groups or pairs so that their native English-speaking peers can reinforce language and specific concepts.

Adjust ELs homework assignments to their English language proficiency. Show models of what you expect on their homework responses.

Adapt your assessments so that your ELs have an opportunity to show what they have learned.

Strategies For Teaching In The Content Areas

Talk to the people at your table and share your

feelings about teaching English Learners

What We’re Going To Do

Pick a piece of paper from the cup.Move to the table that has the color

you selected (Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Purple)

1. Red table = Science2. Blue table = Social studies3. Yellow table = Mathematics4. Green table = Reading5. Purple table= Writing

Job Roles Time Keeper- Keep team on time.

Recorder- Write input from the team.

Reporter- Report out to the whole group.

Gopher- Get needed supplies.

What Your Table Will Do

1. Discuss the challenges EL students encounter when learning the content assigned to your groups color (i.e., science, social studies, math, reading, writing)

2. List the challenges ELs encounter on chart paper

3. Discuss content strategies that would be helpful for ELs.

4. List content strategies on chart paper 5. Reporter presents to whole group

Science Challenges In some cultures science is based on

rote-learning and not hands on learning.

 Making predictions and drawing conclusions.

 Science vocabulary.  Following multistep directions.  Understanding visuals.  Using lab equipment.  Applying the scientific method. Drawing conclusions and making

hypotheses during the discovery process of the lesson.

Science Strategies Give ELs one step directions at a time. Allow them to complete

one step. Assess/re-teach and give the next step.

In small groups demonstrate Think Aloud while making predictions and drawing conclusions.

Pre-teach vocabulary and use pictures to help support the vocabulary.

Before the lesson: teach students the names of the lab equipment and make equipment vocabulary cards with the names of the equipment written on the cards and placed next to the object. Explain the use.

 In small group model the thinking process for drawing conclusions and making hypotheses. Ask guiding questions while avoiding yes/no questions.

 Place ELs in cooperative learning groups so they can hear other students’ ideas and reasoning. Allow ELs to work with many different groups.

Social Studies Challenges

Facts are not relevant to the student. No background knowledge to understand new concept.

 Uses high-level thinking skills for reading and writing.  Reading text contains complex sentences, passive

voice, and multiple pronouns. Taking notes. Comprehending large blocks of text during class. Deciphering what is important in the text.  Accessing background knowledge.  Understanding nationalistic or culturally focused maps.  Recognizing the proper names of countries, cities, and

oceans that are not the same as they have learned in their country.

 Understanding the passive voice in English texts.

Social Studies Strategies Find similar ideas of the topic and link to student’s culture and

history. Provide opportunities through role playing so students can feel the experience.

 Use non fiction books related to the topic that is at the ELs reading and comprehension level.

Use graphic organizers to help students’ record facts and organize information.

Decide what is most important for the student to learn and write this on paper for the student. Use simple sentences and vocabulary at the students’ level of comprehension.

Use videos to help with comprehension. Pre-teach vocabulary and have pictures to match the vocabulary words.

Teach lessons on how to find important facts and information from the textbook.

Mathematic Challenges Students with low reading comprehension skills will

struggle in math.  Mental math is the norm in many cultures. Students

have difficulty explaining how they arrived at an answer.  In many cultures math concepts are not taught over a

period of time. For example, students might have no prior exposure to estimation, rounding, or geometry.

 Numbers and problems are sometimes formed or written differently. In the U.S. we use decimals to separate the dollars and cents. In South America they use a comma to mark this distinction.

 Using the U.S. measurement system and Fahrenheit.  Using math manipulatives. ELs can view this as play.  Understanding time on a 12-hour clock. Many cultures

us a 24 hour clock.  Understanding math vocabulary. A huge problem.

Mathematic Strategies Pre-teach vocabulary and use visuals for clarification.

Assess students through questioning to make certain they understand the process. Never use yes/no questions.

 Explicitly teach how to solve problems and demonstrate how to show your work. Model and use Think Aloud and Questioning strategies.

 Show students how to properly use math manipulatives and let them know it is not meant for play.

 Know your students culture and be prepared to provide lessons on the U.S. measurement system etc.

Give students suggestions on how to help them express their ideas.

Reading Challenges Comprehending the meaning of a text. Comprehending a text that contains a

large number of unknown words. Understanding text that includes

idioms, homophones / homonyms, and synonyms.

 Deciphering regional U.S. dialects.  Understanding the cultural background

depicted in a literacy piece.  Recognizing correlation between

letters and sounds.

Reading Strategies Help ELs build background knowledge

before reading. Provide student experiences. Show

videos. Teach unfamiliar vocabulary before

presenting a new concept. Use pictures and realia.  In small group tell ELs about the story

before its read. Act out the story. If using a textbook, highlight the most

important facts you want the ELs to learn.

Writing Challenges ELs have a limited vocabulary and are reluctant to

use inventive spelling.  They use verb tenses inaccurately and often

usually write in the present tense.  Some ELs have not internalized the sentence

structure of English grammar.  Some students are reluctant to share their work

during peer editing. When they do, they prefer working with same language peers who may not provide appropriate feedback.

 ELs don’t have a sense of what sounds right when they read their writing aloud.

 In many cultures, students are not encouraged to express their opinions. ELs may have little experience with creative writing in their native language.

Writing Strategies Teach nonfiction reading and writing. ELs can easily access facts and language

chunks that they can use in their writing.

Spend more time helping ELs in the prewriting stage. Generate oral sentences and make a chart of facts a nonfiction topic. This helps them learn to speak the words they are going to write.

Use graphic organizers to help students gather facts. Create a web to help students learn how to organize information. Have students practice writing from the web. Model repeatedly.

In small group with teacher, help students brainstorm vocabulary and themes.

Don’t expect ELs to edit their work because they usually don’t find their mistakes. Pick out one skill for them to edit, provide a mini lesson for this skill, and group EL with a partner to edit this skill.

Show ELs models of good writing at their language level. If student is learning how to write an opening paragraph let them see several pieces of good work.

Give students real writing situations such as letters, invitations, postcards, lists, and classmate interviews.

What Do You Know About Assessing ELs?

Turn and Tell

Assessing Entering Stage: For students who have attended a U.S. school one year or less.

 

Ask beginning students to answer yes/no or either/or questions. One or two word responses should be accepted.

 Allow early elementary students to point to or circle the correct picture in response to the teacher’s question.

 Have students point, gesture, or act out key vocabulary and concepts from a science or social studies unit.

 Provide cloze activities using sentences from the text for student evaluation.

 Supply a word bank so that students do not have to generate English vocabulary. For example, students can label a map or fill in a chart using a word bank to demonstrate their understanding of the 13 original colonies.

 Use visuals or realia to elicit information. For example, teacher can display pictures of the jobs early English settlers had to do to survive and then ask students to discuss those jobs.

Assessing Entering StageContinued

Give students yes or no items on a list. For example, during a science lesson, allow students to signal yes or no when asked whether certain animals are mammals.

  Use hands on tasks such as drawings, graphs, maps, and charts to

demonstrate comprehension. For example, in science allow student to draw the stages of the life cycle of a frog or the water cycle to demonstrate comprehension.

Encourage students to complete class projects in cooperative groups and grade ELs on their participation in the group.

Use a K-W-L chart to record student progress. Ask beginners to complete the “What I learned” section using pictures.

Use portfolio assessments to evaluate students’ writing and oral language. Tape your ELs’ oral language on a regular basis and keep a file of their writing to measure their growth.

 

Assessing Advanced Beginners to Intermediate ELs

For students with a basic vocabulary of 3000 words. Most can ask questions about the material they studied.

Have students role play to show their understanding of a topic. Group ELs with native English speakers. For example, students can act out the conditions on the Mayflower or the hardships of the first winter in Plymouth.

Allow students to show their comprehension of a book by participating in role playing, making a cover, or designing a bookmark instead of writing a book report.

Encourage students to complete a graphic organizer using the concept or vocabulary to be evaluated.

Provide simplified study guides and limit assessment to key vocabulary and concepts covered in this guide.

Assessing Advanced Beginners to Intermediate ELs Continued

Allow ELs to consult their books or notes during a test.

Allow students to take their test in the ESL classroom.

Allow students to answer essay questions orally.

Have students compare and contrast concepts that were previously taught in class.

Use a completed graphic organizer to review information in class. Have students study the organizer at home before the assessment.

Assessing Advanced Beginners to Intermediate ELs Continued

Have students fill in a modified outline, story web, chart, graph, or time line. Provide some of the answers and have students fill in what is missing.

Include larger type and more white space.

Use a dialogue journal to discuss specific topics with students. Have ELs respond to a particular question in the journal.

Simplify essay questions or break them into manageable parts.

Read questions allowed and modify questions.

Review For The Day

Form concentric circles People on the inside of the table will

be the listeners. People on the outside of the table

facing the inner person will do the talk.

Share what you have learned for the day.

Swap roles of listener vs. speaker and share what you have learned for the day.

SAMUEL References

Myths and Realities, Best Practices for Language Minority Students,by Katharine Davies Samway and Denise McKeon

Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners by Jana Echevarria, MaryEllen Voght, and Deborah J. Short

Classroom Instruction that Works with English Language Learners by Jane D. Hill, and Kathleen M. Flynn

Contact Information

Heidi Goertzen– Title III/ESL Specialist hgoertzen@alsde.edu

Dely V. Roberts – Title III/ESL Specialist droberts@alsde.edu

Dr. Tammy Hallman Starnes– Title III/ESL Coordinator tstarnes@alsde.edu

5348 Gordon Persons Building--50 North Ripley Street Montgomery, AL--334-242-8199