Geri McClymont (author) on August 07, 2016: Thanks for your feedback, Paul. This allows ELLs to hear correct English modeled to them and to practice their English in a less intimidating setting within the classroom. Placing your ELLs in small groups enables them to interact with students they may normally not have a chance to interact with. Just as important is that you not speak too fast. Make sure you enunciate clearly and if you're a fast talker, slow down! Dear ladies and gents, In Canada, I could borrow this book with ease from one of our public libraries. I prefer that to the $500 cost of the book. She was quiet, wore a headscarf, kind of blended into the background. It is so powerful and resourceful to especially international teachers who travels to poor countries across the ocean where resources are not easy to find. I just looked, and it’s $23.52 on Amazon (paperback). I also do a formal morning meeting in a circle, one portion of the meeting is, each student sharing out a response to a question that I have posed. As you fill them in, allow your students to fill in their own copies to help them make sense of what they’re learning. As a teacher of English learners (ELs), these ideas are very appropriate practices. I don’t think I realized that, or maybe something changed. In her podcast interview, Kim shared a story about watching a teacher ask a new Iraqi student how he felt about the war in his country, right in the middle of class. As teachers help bring culture into the classroom, English Language Learners will feel more support within the classroom. Many ELLs are also survivors of trauma which they experienced in their home country prior to immigrating or in the process of coming to the U.S. It can be difficult for teachers to discern whether these problems are simply down to a low level of English, or if they are related to a cognitive disorder like dyslexia. WOW!!! There is so much vocabulary to be used in an English-speaking classroom along with phrases as well! For this reason, it's critical that teachers be intentional about teaching vocabulary to their English learners. Hi, I just went on the link for the ESL manual and it’s about $24.00 on Amazon. Thank you. In terms of physical education, it is in a unique position as it has characteristics supportive of ELLs with conditions similar to those in which children acquire their first language (Clancy, M. & Hruska, B., 2005). (word count: 12). My daughter’s 2nd grade teacher asked her to “Speak some Korean (her 1st language) to the class.” What a silly teacher! If he didn’t have an answer ready when I called on him I would say, “If you’re not prepared to answer I will come back to you in a minute/after 2 more people share/at the end, etc….” I stayed true to my word and once he realized this was the case he was ready to answer much more often. Their students were even less learned than the teachers, and English as a foreign language fell to a nadir I was unaccustomed to finding in a classroom. “They’re doing twice the job of everybody else in the class,” Kim adds, “even though the result looks like half as much.” ♦. Teaching English Language Learners Across the Content Areas by Judie Haynes and Dr. Debbie Zacarian (ASCD, 2010), which I will refer to throughout the article. The two pratices that I like the most in this list are #1 and #2. So that means we have a problem here: Lots of ELL kids in regular classrooms, and no teacher training to ensure the success of that placement. Pair each of your less proficient ELLs with a native English speaker or a fluent ELL. Finally, this particular student loved math and did very well in the subject. High School students at low levels of language proficiency studying Geometry may need the teacher to explain the concepts in simple S-V-O sentences rather than complex sentences. Please keep sharing these ideas with teachers. The most common problem in providing meaningful access to thecurriculum has been the practice of viewing English-languagelearners with learning difficulties as simply low-performingnative English speakers.It is critical that teachers avoid this reaction when confronted with students who do not use English proficiently. I have a student who is really struggling to access content in English. Thanks for your wonderful shares and espeically your native-voice audio. You phrased it beautifully — when it’s done cautiously and respectfully, and on the student’s terms, we can most definitely ask questions and show interest in their background. Really eye-opening…I’m going to use the information in this to help me stay sensitive towards the needs of my ESOL students. Thank you for another great article! “When they explained what I’d said, I laughed so hard! Visuals are invaluable in helping ELLs make sense of new content. —This article from TeachThought kept coming up. It is a very good way to facilitate a group discussion and would be fantastic with all language learners of all ages. (word count: 23), "Today we'll look at three kinds of sentences: statements, questions, and exclamations." Available in both American English and British English versions, it promotes hands-on creative learning… I agree with all of your advice, except for “Honor the silent period.” We need to get our ELLs speaking as soon as possible. This article was very helpful for me because I am doing an assignment that is based on differentiated instruction and has something to do with ESL learners and what are different ways to teach them and meet there needs. I have to also join some of the groups like you. Sheltered English instruction: English-learners, particularly those with low English proficiency, are taught in a stand-alone classroom. This training helps teachers build and show empathy in their approach to servicing the needs of a vulnerable population. This is what I need now. It's important to respect the language … Once you have the country straight, take things up a notch by learning about students’ religious and cultural practices. It's very important to ensure that all handouts (including worksheets) we give our English language learners are student-friendly. After all, if they don't enjoy coming to your class, they are unlikely to pay attention, participate or put forth much effort in learning or completing any work you give them. The language spoken in the lessons is English. English languages learners (ELLs) can enrich any classroom with their depth of knowledge of other cultures, languages, and traditions. Including pair-share and small group activities as a regular part of your lessons allows your ELLs many opportunities to practice English in ways that are fun and natural. Ask students to complete only a portion of worksheets you assign. “I tried to say the word ‘paint’ (pinta) in Portuguese and instead I said the word for ‘penis’ (pinto). Thank goodness mom and I both agreed that we would push on the student a bit more forcefully which we both did in our respective locations. Visual learning is beneficial to all students, and especially ELL learners. It could be over the summer, an online program, an annual conference – anything. Visual aids used in the classroom are essential for English language learners. Glance around the classroom at all of your students so you’re not singling anybody out. Along with speaking more slowly and clearly, just as important is that you not over-saturate your English learners with auditory input. I wanted to share an anecdote about the importance of learning your EAL students’ background. According to the National Education Association, English language learners represent the fastest growing student population group in the U.S. This will obviously boost their learning potential. It's not just handouts that need to be presented to ELLs in a simple format—other class material and assessments often do, too. '” Not taking the time to at least correctly identify a child’s country of origin, much like not bothering to pronounce their name correctly, is a kind of microaggression, a small, subtle insult that communicates hostility toward people of color. look on my face,” Yurkosky says. It is a small town public school that has little to no diversity. Actually, he drew an understanding of the words and wrote the words in his language words, along with the English. 5 Ways to Assess English Language Learners Without Resorting to Tests 1. Instead, quietly communicate your expectations to them before or during class. After years of teaching you sometimes forget things. Educating English Learners: Language Diversity in the Classroom, Fifth Edition [Crawford, James] on Amazon.com. ELLs are a large and growing proportion of the school-age population — according to National Center for Educational Statistics, in 2007, about 10.8 million (or 20%) school-aged children in the U.S. spoke a language other than English … One way to differentiate for ELL students is to consider the whole list of terms you’re going to teach for a unit, and if you think an ELL student may be overwhelmed by such a long list, omit those that are not essential to understanding the larger topic at hand. Rubrics and Performance Criteria. I know that I can do better and I will do better from now on due to your article! Display graphic organizers on your large screen with a document camera or simply draw them on the board. Every college today has a classroom, which allows students to enhance and maintain their day to day English language learning development. My favourite tip is number twelve. Create a welcoming classroom environment. Graphic organizers are excellent visual tools for organizing information to facilitate students' understanding of content. It's vital to know the language acquisition stage of each of your ELLs so that your academic expectations of them are realistic (see chart above). “The classroom teachers were always talking to me about what they were doing in their classes,” she says. Sara Davila is a Learning and Language Acquisition Expert. Their required daily journal, will reflect those students whom are able to grow in that practice. The intentional reluctance is a signal to the teacher that the instruction is not maximally effective and some adaptation is needed. I am currently observing various teachers in my local middle school. I am an ESOL teacher in a school district in Georgia and we use the SIOP model. As the ELL’s progress and answer on their own the rest of the class often will give a round of applause. ELLs are often overwhelmed by the amount of print on school handouts they're given. As their English skills develop, you can gradually ask them to complete more sections on the worksheets. We deeply need more of it in schools everywhere. Or classroom teaching may assume life experiences or cultural knowledge that students don’t have. If you have a lot to say, use several short sentences with pauses in between, rather than one long, drawn out sentence. 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