English Language Proficiency Standards for Kentucky Schools

High School Instructional Companion

 

There is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers, and curriculum; for students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education.

                                                                                       Lau v. Nichols, 1974

 

The Program of Studies for Kentucky Schools Grades Primary –12 outlines the minimum common content required for all students. These content standards provide an instructional focus as teachers plan standards-based lessons and units of study. Students with limited English proficiency (LEP) have the additional challenges of attaining English proficiency and developing high levels of academic competence in English.

 

The English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS) for Kentucky Schools have been designed to move limited English proficient students along a continuum toward language acquisition Primary through Grade 12. These standards help LEP students acquire English language competency skills as a foundation to meeting state academic standards. Intentional links have been made to the state academic content standards. Content, therefore, becomes the context through which LEP students learn English language skills.

 

Regardless of their grade level, Kentucky has chosen to classify LEP students into four progressive levels of competence: beginning, lower intermediate, upper intermediate and advanced in four domains outlined in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001.  Language Acquisition Performance Goals have been defined for each progressive level in each domain: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. For instructional purposes, these descriptions outline the characteristics of what LEP students can do in content at each competency level. In an effort to provide support for creating effective standards-based student centered classrooms for LEP students, grade cluster-specific instructional companions have been developed.

 

Purpose

 

This Grade Cluster-Specific Instruction Companion to the English Language Proficiency Standards for Kentucky Schools has been developed to guide middle and high school teachers in planning developmentally appropriate, research-based instruction that is consistent with the principles of second-language acquisition and academic learning.

 

The transition into a new culture can be especially challenging for adolescents who are entering a time of intense change-emotionally, behaviorally, and physically.  Changes in sleep, diet, mood, weight, attitude and decreased pleasure from daily activities are normal for their native speaking peers.  Being accepted by peers becomes increasingly important. Teachers should understand that the use of materials that were designed for younger students and approaches that are not challenging signal to LEP students that they are different, not capable of learning and not like their peers.

 

 

As a companion to Kentucky’s ELPS, this instructional guide will be an important resource for Kentucky schools in planning curriculum, instruction and assessment to meet the needs of LEP students. Teachers need to supply many opportunities for language interaction in a supportive classroom environment where students can participate at their comfort level.  Providing an atmosphere that allows the English language learner to take in information, process vocabulary, and eventually produce language without overwhelming stress promotes student motivation and self-esteem.  http://www.everythingesl.net/quicktips/

 

Planning, Delivering and Assessing Instruction

The following considerations/best practices are important when planning instruction for LEP students:

ü      Incorporate listening, speaking, reading, and writing into instruction on a daily basis.   ü      Include language and content objectives in daily lesson plans.   ü      Determine vocabulary necessary to ensure student participation and understanding of the lesson.   ü      Provide content appropriate for students’ age, instruction level, and educational background.   ü      Access prior knowledge by linking past learning to new learning.   ü      Build background knowledge for students with limited experiences to increase content comprehension.   ü      Adapt content to students’ language proficiency level. http://nwrel.org/request/2003may/overview.html   ü      Involve students in meaningful, authentic activities that allow multiple opportunities to practice listening, speaking, reading and writing.   ü      Ensure learning results have value in real life beyond success in school. This is especially important for older students with limited formal schooling.   ü      Connect to real world experiences.   ü      Vary instructional groupings to address different learning styles, cultural backgrounds, and educational experiences (e.g., cooperative grouping, seating arrangements).   ü      Include a variety of instructional techniques to ensure understanding (e.g., visuals, hands-on activities, demonstrations, simulations).   ü      Incorporate scaffolding techniques to assist and support student understanding.

 

 

 

The following considerations/best practices are important when delivering instruction for LEP students:

 

ü      Review important concepts throughout a lesson (e.g., paraphrase, personal reference notebook, graphic organizers).   ü      Emphasis essential vocabulary throughout lesson.   ü      Provide feedback through clarification.  Feedback can be given orally, in writing, and through facial expressions and body language.   ü      Utilize a variety of instructional approaches (i.e., peer tutoring, hands-on materials, manipulatives, modeling, gestures, and body language).   ü      Provide opportunities for frequent interaction and content-based discussions between teacher and student and among students.   ü      Allow students to clarify key concepts in native language.   ü      Incorporate question types including those that promote higher order thinking skills.   ü      Provide sufficient wait time for student responses.   ü      Make instructional decisions based on student responses.   ü      Elicit group responses (e.g., thumbs up/down, response boards).   ü      Provide clear and understandable directions.

 

Students in the process of acquiring English have difficulty expressing their understanding of the content learned.  It is important that teachers provide a variety of ways to assess the learning and to document that learning so that appropriate lessons can be planned.  Authentic assessment consists of any method of finding out what a student knows or can do that is intended to show growth and inform instruction and is an alternative to traditional forms of testing, namely multiple choice tests. (Stiggins 1991)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following considerations/best practices are important for assessing progress of LEP students:

 

ü      Include informal assessments such as teacher observations, language samples, quick writes, anecdotal records checklists. http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/rubrics/weblessons.htm   ü      Inform instruction based on student responses.   ü      Tie in authentic assessment to real life (e.g., drawings, written pieces, audiotapes, oral group responses).   ü      Elicit group responses (e.g., thumbs up/thumbs down, response boards).   ü      Adapt traditional assessments (e.g., read instructions out loud, check understanding after a few minutes, allow bilingual dictionaries, practice on sample items, allow more time).

 

LEP Students with Limited Formal Schooling

According to a Stanford University resource, “LFS: Learners with Limited Formal Schooling,”  

Students with limited formal schooling (LFS) are generally recent arrivals to the United States, whose backgrounds differ significantly from the school environment they are entering.  This includes students whose schooling has been interrupted for a variety of reasons including war, poverty, or patterns of migration, as well as students coming from more rural settings.  These students may exhibit some of the following characteristics:

• Pre-or semi-literacy in a native language
• Minimal understanding of the function of literacy
• Performance significantly below grade level
• A lack of awareness of the organization and culture of school

http://www.stanford.edu/group/step/resources/LanguageSite/LFS_Page.html

 

The following considerations/best practices are important when working with LEP students with limited formal schooling:

 

ü      Access valuable life skills possessed by LFS students as a basis for academic learning.   ü      Prepare lessons that expand receptive vocabulary and develop reading strategies.   ü      Focus on literacy skills development.   ü      Teach the organization and culture of the school.   ü      Provide a nurturing classroom/school environment to promote self-esteem and to reduce dropout risk.

 

 

 

How to navigate this resource

 

The Instructional Companion for the English Language Proficiency Standards for Kentucky Schools follows the organizational pattern of the English Language Proficiency Standards for listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

–        The introductory page for each domain will highlight important general considerations for instruction.

–        Teachers will be able to link to a list of recommended classroom practices and/or activities for each of the Program of Studies categories that support the Language Proficiency Expectation and Linking Standard.

–        Each entry for the recommended classroom practice or activity  will include one or more of the following: definition, grade-specific example, performance level considerations, link(s) to additional web-based sites.

 

Links to:

Listening

 

Speaking

 

Reading

Writing

 

 

Listening

 

Listening is primarily a thinking process--thinking about meaning.

–Michael Rost, Listening in Action

 

Listening is a key to language development and much like reading involves comprehension rather than production. An effective listener depends on decoding sounds, understanding the structure of the language, and actively making predictions about content. Approaches to listening should be focused on meaning, integrating activities within the lesson. Listening may involve everyday talk among friends and talk that occurs in the classroom to gain important information. When listening to a teacher-directed lesson, a listener may not be called upon to respond. However, in two-way listening situations such as conversations and class discussions, the student becomes both a speaker and an active listener.

 

The following considerations for listening are important in creating an effective learning environment for English language learners:

 

ü      Use comprehensible input techniques at an appropriate pace corresponding to the students’ level s of English language proficiency.   ü      Understand that a low anxiety, supportive environment will keep a child’s affective filter down, which will increase language acquisition.   ü      Be aware that students may undergo a “silent” period before attempting to speak in English.  In this pre-production stage, listening is critical to the development of language. http://nwrel.org/request/2003may/overview.html   ü      Be aware that the use of “Do you understand?” is not an effective question to check understanding. Ask students to demonstrate understanding beyond just answering yes/no.   ü      Model questioning by providing the language students need (e.g., “Could you tell me again?” “When you said…, did you mean…?” “Could you repeat that please?”)   ü      Understand that exposure to spoken English leads to successful acquisition of the paralinguistic features of the language.   ü      Teach the use of idioms, clichés, and/or figurative language for these require explicit instruction.   ü      Promote communication that respects all languages and cultures.  http://www.knowledgeloom.org/practices3.jsp?location=1&bpinterid=1110&spotlightid=1110   ü      Help students to understand that even within the English language, speakers of different dialects pronounce words differently.   ü      Be aware of language interference (the same sound in two languages may be represented by different letters).  This confusion can interfere with comprehension when a student thinks you are saying a different word than what you are saying.   ü      Become knowledgeable of cognates (words that sound similar in two languages) with similar meanings, e.g., president (English) and presidente (Spanish).

Listening

English language learners make sense of the various messages they hear in order to communicate in socially and culturally appropriate ways and to achieve academically.

 

1.1       Students demonstrate an understanding of main ideas and supporting details.
The following are classroom practices and activities for phonological discrimination and/or paralinguistic features that will help students gain the foundational skills needed to reach this standard.
Chants/Jazz Chants Comprehension Checks Dictogloss Films/Educational TV programs Interviews Multimedia Presentations Patterned Books Phonemic Manipulation Predictable Charts	Read Aloud Read and Write Gold Rhymes Shared Reading Songs Word Sort Word Wall
The following are classroom practices and activities for standard speech that will help students gain the foundational skills needed to reach this standard.

Career Investigation Cartoons Cloze Activity Dictogloss Exit Slips Film Interviews Leveled Questions

Listening for Directions Ø      Back to Back Ø      Describe and Draw Ø      Simon Says Ø      Total Physical Response (TPR) Oral History Questionnaires Rehearsal Simulations Songs Think/Pair/Share

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.2       Students demonstrate comprehension skills that allow for interpretation, inference, and implication
The following are classroom practices and activities for interpretation, inference and implication that will help students gain the foundational skills needed to reach this standard.
Admit Slips/Exit Slips Career Investigation Cloze Activity Comprehension Checks Demonstrations Films/Educational TV Programs Interviews Leveled Questions	Listening for Directions Ø      Back to Back Ø      Simulations Ø      Tapes Ø      Total Physical Response Oral History Questionnaires/Surveys Rehearsal Songs Think/Pair/Share TV Shows Visual Support

 

Speaking

 

Productive talk does not just happen-it needs to be deliberately and systematically planned, just as we plan for literacy events.                                   

                     -Pauline Gibbons, Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning, 2002

 

Learning a language is a long process and must be supported in all areas of the curriculum. Effective teachers create many opportunities for students to use language. A number of researchers have described the dominant classroom exchange to be a three-part exchange. The teacher asks a question (the answer usually known), the student answers often with a one-word answer, and the teacher evaluates the answer. (Gibbons, 2002). Often this exchange is necessary; however, if this is the dominant practice, LEP students have little opportunity to use the language.

 

Students rely heavily in the very early stages on chunks of language and routine phrases, gradually substituting new words or phrases.

 

The following considerations for speaking are important in creating an effective learning environment for English language learners:

 

ü      Be aware that students may undergo a “silent or nonverbal period” before attempting to speak in English. http://nwrel.org/request/2003may/overview.html ü      Maximize opportunities for language use by asking carefully constructed questions (e.g., short answer, open-ended) based on students’ language proficiency levels.        http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/directions/12.htm ü      Allow for appropriate wait time. English language learners need additional time to process language. ü      Organize group work that requires talk from all students to complete the task. ü      Give corrective feedback based on the oral language proficiency level. ü      Consider the native language in terms of word order. ü      Be aware of language interference. The same letter in different languages may have different sounds. ü      Understand that even within a language speakers of different dialects pronounce words differently. ü      Recognize that English language learners will have difficulty producing sounds that do not exist in their native language. ü      Teach grammar within a meaningful context. ü      Note that not all English phonemes are present in every language. ü      Try to avoid using sarcasm. It takes a considerable amount of exposure to a language and culture to understand sarcasm.   Vocabulary ü      Use rich vocabulary (imagery, figurative language, etc.) to describe ideas, feelings, actions, and experiences. ü      Use precise vocabulary or circumlocutions (finding other words to express the same meaning/idea) to communicate in all settings. ü      Identify and describe in detail familiar and unfamiliar people, places, events, and objects.

Speaking

English language learners speak using appropriate forms, conventions, and styles in order to communicate ideas and information in socially and culturally appropriate ways and to achieve academically.

 

2.1       Students demonstrate a range and control of vocabulary (knowledge of and ability to use vocabulary)

The following are classroom practices and activities for attaining lexical competence that will help students gain the foundational skills needed to reach this standard.

Call/Response Content Conversation Describe and Draw Drama/Skits Find My Partner Hot Seat Mix and Match Picture Walk Socratic Discussion Reciprocal Teaching Teacher Guided Reporting Video/Audio Recording Vocabulary Study Ø      Mystery Box Ø      What Did You See? Ø      Taboo (Circumlocution Game) Ø      “I’m Thinking of A ….” Ø      “I Spy” Ø      Find the Difference Ø      Inquiry and Elimination Word Clustering Word Walls

 

 

 

 

2.3        Students demonstrate awareness and ability to control the organization of meaning in     terms of function, context, implication, etc.
The following are classroom practices and activities for attaining semantic competence that will help the student gain the foundational skills needed to reach this standard.
Book Clubs Book Talks Cause/Effect Graphic Organizer Content Conversation Debates/Discussion Describe and Draw Direct Reading and Thinking Activity Drama/Skits Picture Sequencing Presentations Prove It Question of the Day	Questioning Techniques Reader’s Theater Rehearsal Conversations Role Play Seating Arrangement Sequencing/ Directions Simulations Taping and Dubbing a Television Show Teacher-Guided Reporting Think Aloud Think/Pair/Share Wordless Picture Books

 

 

 

 

 

2.5   Students demonstrate knowledge and skills to deal with the social dimension of language use, e.g., register, conventions of politeness, non-verbal cues, etc.   The following are classroom practices and activities for attaining sociolinguistic competence that will help the student gain the foundational skills needed to reach this standard.   Call/Response Content Conversation “Expression of the Day” Mix/Match Modeling Oral Reports “Question of the Day” Riddles and Jokes Role Play Ø      Rehearsed Expressions Ø      Greetings-Formal & Informal Language Ø      Reader’s Theater Think Aloud Total Physical Response (TPR) TV

 

2.6       Students demonstrate the ability to arrange sentences in sequence in order to produce coherent stretches of conversation or presentation, including thematic organization, cause/effect, relevance, style, etc   The following are classroom practices and activities for attaining discourse competence that will help the student gain the foundational skills needed to reach this standard   Author’s Chair Book Clubs Book Talks Content Conversation Debates/Discussion Drama/Skits Literature Circles Picture Sequencing Presentations (How to…) Questioning Techniques Role Play Ø       Rehearsed Expressions Ø      Greetings-Formal & Informal Language Ø      Reader’s Theater Sequencing/Directions Simulations Storytelling Teacher-Guided Reporting Think Aloud

 

 

Reading

 

Research shows that English reading and writing development processes are essentially similar for both English learners and native English speakers. That is, in reading, all learners gradually come to use their developing English language knowledge, their world knowledge, and their understanding of print conventions to make sense of written text.

                              Peregoy and Boyle, Reading Writing, & Learning in ESL

 

According to Kathleen Fay and Suzanne Whaley in their book, Becoming One Community: Reading & Writing with English Language Learners, there are three types of information that readers use: information on structure (knowledge of syntax); meaning (the cues that help make sense of what is being read); and visual information (the shape and sound of letters). As teachers we need to think about how we can help students best use all three sources while they read. We need to think about the strategies readers use before, during and after reading.

 

The following considerations for reading are important in creating an effective learning environment for English language learners.

 

ü      Consider students’ literacy skills in both the native language and in English.   ü      Plan explicit instruction for students whose native written language differs from English written language (i.e., non-alphabetic system).   ü      Incorporate students’ prior knowledge, experience, and cultural background into reading activities.   ü      Evaluate the appropriateness of reading approaches based on students’ strengths and needs.   ü      Always teach phonics and other word recognition skills (i.e. sight words) within a meaningful context; enjoy the story or poem for its meaning first, then teach the skill.   ü      Create a print-rich classroom environment that reflects the students’ cultures and languages.   ü      Provide leveled texts.   ü      Focus on spelling patterns other than rules.   ü      Offer multiple exposures to new vocabulary.   ü      Build background knowledge before teaching vocabulary.

 

 

Reading

English language learners make sense of the variety of materials they read in order to communicate in socially and culturally appropriate ways and to achieve academically.

 

3.1       Students know and use word analysis skills and strategies to comprehend new words encountered in English
The following are classroom practices and activities will help students gain the foundational skills needed for mastering concepts of print. http://www.learner.org/channel/libraries/readingk2/front/otherterms.html
Alphabet Books Author Study Counting Words Cut-apart Sentences Dictionary Skills Language Experience Approach Modeling			Multi-Sensory Activities Ø      Make letters in shaving crème, sand, pudding, or Play dough Ø      Use wikki sticks One-to-One Matching Personal Dictionaries Preview Books Shared Reading
	Classroom practices and activities for word patterns/phonics instruction
	Oral Blending Ø      Ghost Talking Ø      Riddle Guessing Game Oral Segmentation Ø      Elkonin Boxes Pattern Books Phonemic Manipulation Activities Ø      Initial Sounds Switch	Rhyming Books Shared Reading Word Work Ø      Brand Name Phonics Ø      Making Words Ø      Tongue Twisters/ Alliteration Ø      Word Walls
	The following are classroom practices and activities for vocabulary instruction that will help students gain the foundational skills needed to reach this standard.
	Cloze Activity Context Clues Dictionary Skills Expression of the Day Graphic Organizers Word Clustering Ø      Concept Definition Mapping Inspiration Language Experience Approach Numbered Heads Together	Mini-Lesson Personal Dictionaries Predictable/Patterned Books/Charts Scaffolding Language Word Work Ø      Alpha Boxes Ø      Concept Sorts Ø      Rivet Ø      Word Walls/Portable Word Walls Vocabulary Study

 

 

3.2       Students use reading skills and strategies to build comprehension in English
The following are classroom practices and activities for experience with text, meaning of text, and text structure that will help students gain the foundational skills needed to reach this standard.  (B) – Before Reading Strategy     (D) – During Reading Strategy    (A) – After Reading Strategy
Book Clubs Cloze Activity Comprehension Checks Generalizations Ø      Admit Slips Ø      Literary Scavenger Hunts (B/D/A) Ø      QAR (B/D/A) (Question/Answer/Relationships) Ø      Reciprocal Teaching (D/A) Ø      SQ3R (B/D/A) Ø      Sticky note Reading (D) Ø      Summaries (A) Ø      Who Mixed Up Sentences? (D/A) Ø      Word Sort (D/A) Graphic Organizers (B/D/A) Ø      Bubble Maps Ø      Cycle Organizer Ø      Flow Charts Ø      K-W-L Ø      Reading Symbols Ø      T-charts Ø      Tree Maps Ø      Story Maps Ø      Venn Diagrams	Inferences/Predictions Ø      Anticipation Guides (B) Ø      Direct Reading Thinking Activity (B/D) Ø      Picture Walking (B) Ø      Prove It (B) Ø      Rivet (B/A) Ø      Who Did What? (A) Ø      X Marks the Spot (D) Literature Circles Paired Reading Partner Reading Personal Dictionaries Read Aloud Scaffolding Language Seating Arrangement Teacher Guided Reporting Text Interview Think/Pair/Share   Use of Technology (B/D/A)_ Ø      Internet (Readinglady.com, ReadingA-Z.com, Starfall.com, Kentucky Virtual Library) Ø      Smart Boards Ø      Software (Rosetta Stone, Read/Write Gold) Ø      Web Quest   Use of visual aids (B/D/A) Ø      Pictures Ø      Primary Documents Ø      Time-lines

 

 

3.3       Students read to comprehend, interpret, and evaluate texts from a variety of perspectives and for specific purposes
The following are classroom practices and activities for meaning of text that will help students gain the foundational skills needed to reach this standard.
Book Clubs Cloze Activity Comprehension Checks Generalizations Ø      Admit Slips Ø      Literary Scavenger Hunts (B/D/A) Ø      QAR (B/D/A) (Question/Answer/Relationships) Ø      Reciprocal Teaching (D/A) Ø      SQ3R (B/D/A) Ø      Sticky note Reading (D) Ø      Summaries (A) Ø      Who Mixed Up Sentences? (D/A) Ø      Word Sort (D/A) Graphic Organizers (B/D/A) Ø      Bubble Maps Ø      Cycle Organizer Ø      Flow Charts Ø      K-W-L Ø      Reading Symbols Ø      T-charts Ø      Tree Maps Ø      Story Maps Ø      Venn Diagrams	·        Inferences/Predictions Ø      Anticipation Guides (B) Ø      Direct Reading Thinking Activity (B/D) Ø      Picture Walking (B) Ø      Prove It (B) Ø      Rivet (B/A) Ø      Who Did What? (A) Ø      X Marks the Spot (D) Literature Circles Paired Reading Partner Reading Read Aloud Scaffolding Language Seating Arrangement Teacher Guided Reporting Text Interview Think/Pair/Share   Use of Technology (B/D/A)_ Ø      Internet (Readinglady.com, ReadingA-Z.com, Starfall.com, Kentucky Virtual Library) Ø      Smart Boards Ø      Software (Rosetta Stone, Read/Write Gold) Ø      Web Quest   Use of visual aids (B/D/A) Ø      Pictures Ø      Primary Documents Ø      Timelines
(A) – After Reading Strategy     (B) – Before Reading Strategy     (D) – During Reading Strategy

 

Writing

 

Writing workshop is especially supportive to English language learners because students are encouraged to discuss their ideas, work with a partner or group in revising and editing, and interact verbally with others.         

       Adrienne Herrell, Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners 2000

 

All students bring a rich background of personal experiences or personal stories to the classroom. The process approach to writing is valuable for English language learners because teachers can share prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing strategies within a safe writing community. Students with little literacy background can be provided temporary frameworks that allow them to concentrate on one aspect at time. Virginia Rojas, a language education consultant, reminds us that ESL writers need more time, more contact with English, and more opportunity to read and write.

 

The following considerations for writing are important in creating an effective learning environment for English language learners.

 

ü      Allow students to communicate their thoughts and experiences in writing/drawing even though higher levels of oral language development have not been acquired.   ü      Allow writing in the first language to reduce some of the frustration children feel when they are unable to participate in classroom tasks that they are well able to carry out in their native tongue.   ü      Be aware of cultural differences in the categories and approaches to writing. Some cultures have no experience with persuasive writing.   ü      Explicitly teach the conventions of writing. They will not be “picked up” by students who are unfamiliar to the language.   ü      Demonstrate different ways to plan and organize ideas for writing through the use of prewriting activities (e.g. graphic organizers). The most commonly used prewriting activities include brainstorming, concept mapping, outlining, discussion, note-taking from lecture, free writing, readings and film, lists, experiments or procedures, and a series of questions.   ü      Emphasize developing ideas and content first in written work/drawing; mechanics can be taught in mini-lessons or in the context of revising the text.   ü      Read aloud and discuss literature, giving students opportunities to make connections and tell their own stories.   ü      Give daily opportunities for writing even if each written piece does not culminate in a published work.   ü      Provide opportunities to write across the curriculum.   ü      Recognize that beginning writers progress developmentally in spelling: pre-phonetic, phonetic, transitional spelling, conventional spelling. Accept temporary or invented spelling.

 

Writing

English language learners write using appropriate forms, conventions, and styles in order to communicate ideas and information in socially and culturally appropriate ways and to achieve academically.

 

4.1       Students learn and apply the writing process and criteria for effective writing.

Classroom practices and activities for instruction in criteria for effective writing: purpose and audience, idea development, organization, sentences, language, correctness

Cut-Apart Sentences Dialogue Journal Graphic Organizers Ø      Cause and Effect Ø      Cycle Organizer Ø      KWL Ø      Story Maps Ø      T-charts Ø      Timelines/Sequencing Ø      Tree Maps Ø      Venn Diagrams Guided Writing Interactive Writing Journals Language Experience Approach Language Focus Lessons Looping Mini Lessons Models Personal Dictionaries Picture Stories Quick-Word and Quick-Write Books Semantic Mapping Sentence Combining Sequencing Story Boards Storytelling Text Reconstruction Timelines Writer’s Notebook Writing Process

 

 

4.2       Students will learn to develop story structures and language patterns through visual and symbolic language

Classroom practices and activities for structural patterns and sequencing

Color Coding Writing Free Writing Graphic Organizers Guided Writing Kentucky Marker Papers Language Experience Approach ·        Mentor Text Mini Lessons Models Picture Sequencing Talk-Write Approach Text Reconstruction Timelines Transactive Writing Ø      Letter to Editor Ø      Letters of Complaint Ø      Brochures Ø      Feature Article Ø      Speech Visual Writing Prompts Ø      Collages Ø      Story Boards Writer’s Notebook

 

 

 

4.3       Students will keep a working folder of writing for a variety of authentic purposes and audiences and in a variety of forms (i.e., personal, literary, transactive, reflective)

Classroom practices and activities for reflective, personal/expressive, literary, transactive purposes

Guided Writing Hennings Sequence Strategy© Journals Language Experience Approach Mini Lessons Models (e.g. Kentucky Marker Papers, different genres of writing) Talk Write Approach Text Reconstruction Writing Conferences Writer’s Notebook, Student generated and Great Source ©

 

4.4       Students will produce a variety of written responses that demonstrate independent and critical thinking: (a) writing to learn; writing to demonstrate learning)

Classroom practices and activities for writing to learn and writing to demonstrate learning instruction

Dialogue Journal Graphic Organizers Journals Language Experience Approach Open Response Story Boards Story Maps Storytelling Text Reconstruction Timelines

 

Content Area:  Social Studies                                              Core Content/Topic: Africa/Culture   Beginning and lower intermediate students should be given the language necessary to verbalize predictions such as, “I think that…” “I predict that…” “(Name) will probably…” “I would say that …” “I imagine that…”   Students will be reading “The Lion’s Share,” a Somali tale published in The Rainmaker’s Dog: International Folktales to Build Communicative Skills by Cynthia Dresser, Cambridge University Press, 1998. The class reads the first paragraphs together and practice making predictions. “The lion, the jackal, the wolf, and the hyena had a meeting and agreed that they would hunt together in one party and share equally among them whatever game they caught. They went out and killed an antelope. The four animals then discussed which one of them would divide the meat…” Students predict which animal will divide the meat and how the meat will be divided. ·        Students at the beginning level might draw their predictions for the story. The teacher might read to these students and stop to ask for more predictions. ·        Students at the lower intermediate level might talk about their predictions as the teacher guides and records them ·        Students at the upper intermediate and advanced levels might write their predictions. These students might read independently to a stopping point where they test their previous predictions and make new ones.   The story continues:        The lion said, “Whoever divides the meat must know how to count.”      Immediately the wolf volunteered, saying, “Indeed, I know how to count.” He began to divide the meat. He cut off four pieces of equal size and placed one before each one of the hunters.   The lion was angered. He said, “Is this the way to count?” And he struck the wolf across the eyes, so that his eyes swelled up and he count not see.   STOP. PREDICT WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT.        The jackal said, “The wolf does not know how to count, I will divide the meat. He cut three portions that were small and a fourth portion that was very large.  The three small portions he placed before the hyena, the wolf, and himself.  The large portion he put in front of the lion, who took his meat and went away.      “Why was it necessary to give the lion such a large piece?” the hyena said.  “Our agreement was to divide the share equally.  Where did you ever learn how to divide?” “I learned from the wolf,” the jackal answered.    STOP. PREDICT WHAT HE WILL SAY NEXT.        “Wolf? How can anyone learn from the wolf?  He is stupid,” the hyena said.       “The jackal was right,” the wolf said.  “He knows how to count.  Before, when me eyes were open, I did not see it.  Now, though my eyes are wounded I see it clearly.”

 

Link: http://www.pwcs.edu/curriculum/sol/directedread.htm

 

Drama/Skits

Go back to Speaking 2.1, 2.2,  2.3, 2.4,  2.6

 

The connection of action and speaking found in drama and skits can reinforce language acquisition. Role playing is the main focus of this particular strategy whether it is role playing a sequence in a story or the movement of a proposed law through the ratification process.

 

The most basic role playing strategy for beginning LEP students is that of action-acting out a variety of movements such as the following: walk, jump, run, hop, read, write, listen, eat, drink, etc. As their vocabulary increases, then basic skits can be developed by the more advanced LEP students, which incorporate these actions into the skit so that the beginner can better understand.

 

Charades is a basic role play game where the character has to act out a word or words and the audience must guess. At the beginning level, this is where drama would begin. Skits with characters, conversation, etc. would be developed later as vocabulary developed.

 

Overhead Transparencies for Creative Dramatics is a book of transparencies and headband patterns published by Creative Teaching Press. The transparencies provide the scenery. The students wear the headbands and act in front of the scenery that the overhead provides.

 

Echo Reading

Go back to Speaking 2.4

 

This guided reading intervention is a process whereby a teacher reads a sentence and the student repeats, or echoes, the sentence.

 

Elkonin Boxes

Go back to Reading 3.1

 

This oral segmentation activity promotes phonemic awareness. Students are given a sheet of paper with 3 or 4 connected one-inch boxes and four chips. As teachers say three or four letter words, students are asked to put one chip in each box for each sound that they hear. Silent letters do not get chips. (Enhancing English Language Learning in Elementary Classrooms, p. 17)

 

 

 

Films/Educational TV Programs

Go back to Listening 1.1, 1.2

 

Films involve students visually in a topic and contain narration that builds concepts and vocabulary. It is important to preview films for comprehensibility and to stop the film at crucial points to ask questions that clarify or underscore important points.

 

Find My Partner

Go back to Speaking 2.1, 2.2

 

This barrier game is effective for beginners, reinforcing question forms and describing. Four to six pictures are dealt out to a group of the same number-two of the pictures are identical, with the others having minor differences. Students must not show their cards to the other players. One of the two identical pictures is marked with an X, and whoever is dealt that card has to find the other picture by questioning other members of the group using specialized vocabulary for subject matter. Members of the groups are required to actively listen and report the differences or similarities (Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning, Gibbons, p. 33).

 

Content Area:  U.S. Government Core                                                               Content/Topic:                                                            U.S. Constitution 14 Most Influential Amendments   In U.S. Government, students have been learning the process of how an amendment is adopted and some key amendments that have been passed.   Activity: Half of the students would have a full description of one of the 14 amendments selected without the actual number of the amendment.  The other half of the students would have the amendment number and one or two word clues.    The group of students with the amendment number would be limited to asking only “Yes” or “No” questions.  For example, one student would have the full description of the first amendment which says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise there of: or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of people to peacefully assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”  Some other students would have on his/her card, “First Amendment-Freedoms” (clue).  It would be this particular student’s responsibility to go around and ask the “Yes/No” questions such as “Does your amendment mention anything about freedom of the press?” (Yes) or “Does your amendment allow for freedom to carry a gun? (No) ·         Advanced and upper intermediate LEP students would have a list of all the amendments that are listed on the various cards to help them formulate questions if given the cards with the numbers and clues only. ·         Lower intermediate and intermediate LEP students would have only the cards with descriptions of the amendments and need to answer “Yes” or “No” to questions. ·        Beginning level students who may have very limited reading skills would be paired up with a proficient English students that have one of the cards with the full description of the amendment.

 

Find the Difference

Go back to Speaking 2.1

 

This barrier game reinforces question forms and describing that involve an informational gap between two students or groups of students. A pair of students has two similar but not identical pictures. Students must be aware of the number of differences for which they are looking (the outcome of the task). They must find the differences by questioning each other and/or describing the picture (Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning, p. 144).

 

Find the Difference could be utilized in several science units by providing similar pictures with slight differences of animal habitats and ecosystems, magnet experiments, or electrical systems. Tasks should vary based on the cognitive ability of the age of the learner as second language learners must acquire language skills as they make academic advancement. Note the example below:

 

Content Area: Science                                 Core Content/Topic: Animal and Plant Cells   Students are studying plant and animal cell organelles and the teacher has just handout out pictures of either the animal or plant cell make up.  Students will have to ask questions to find out the differences between the cell picture they have and the cell picture that their partner has.  Sample questions would include: Do you have a nucleus? Do you have a cell wall?  Do you have a chloroplast? Do you have a mitochondria? Do you have a cell membrane?  Do you have a vacuole?  How big is your vacuole?                                  Plant Cell                                                         Animal Cell                                (illustrations)                                                         (illustration)   ·         Advanced and upper intermediate LEP students would not have their cell organelles identified and would be required to talk about the functions of the organelles. ·         Lower intermediate and intermediate LEP students would have their cell organelles identified and would consult a handout for the functions. ·         Beginning level students would be paired with a proficient English speaking student and be given both pictures and be required to write simple sentences stating what each cell consist of.

 

Flow Charts

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

Flow charts, also called relationship diagrams, are specialized graphic organizers that visually display a chain of instruction used and to show cause and effect relationships. Flowcharts have a beginning and multiple possible outcomes.  Symbols like arrows representing the direction of flow, circles and ovals indicating starting and stopping points, diamonds as decision points are used. For example, a flow chart could help students understand the events leading to World War II in social studies or species identification in science.

 

Graphic Organizers

Go back to Reading 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 Go back to Writing 4.1, 4.2, 4.4

 

Graphic organizers provide students with visual representations for their thinking and learning before, during, or after reading. They are effective for making abstract concepts more concrete, organizing and categorizing information, and depicting relationships among ideas.

ü      Look at the text and decide how the information can best be organized. If the text structure is topic/subtopic/details, you will probably want a web or data chart. If the text compares two or more things, a data chart or Venn Diagram works well. Time lines help children focus on sequence. Casual chains focus students on causal relationships.

ü      Let the children see you construct the graphic organizer skeleton. Use this time to discuss the words you are putting in the organizer since these are apt to be key vocabulary from the skeleton.

ü      Have students read to find information to add to the organizer

ü      Complete the organizer together.

 

Guided Reading

Go back to Speaking 2.4 Go back to Reading 3.1, 3.2, 3.3

 

Guided reading invites the teacher to model his/her own thinking and comprehension strategies out loud and teaches students to do the same. Small groups of readers at a similar reading level are guided through the decoding and comprehension of a new text that is slightly more challenging than those of their independent reading level.  In other words, the texts used in a guided reading lesson are leveled.

 

A guided reading lesson has three basic parts: pre-reading, guided practice, and post-reading. 

 

In the pre-reading portion, the teacher sets the scene by drawing on background knowledge.  The teacher also sets up scaffolding, which is support for reading strategies the students have not fully acquired. 

 

During guided practice, the teacher listens in on the students’ oral reading in order to both evaluate and to assist in the effective use of strategies.  When the students read aloud, softly at their own pace, it should not turn into a choral reading.  Another feature of guided practice is repeated readings, such as rereading with a “buddy” (thus, the term “Buddy Reading”). 

 

During the post-reading session, the teacher follows up with comprehension checks.  Also at this time, students share strategies that they used successfully during guided practice. 

 

Considerations for LEP performance levels:

• Beginners:  The beauty of the guided reading lesson is that it can be adapted to any reading level.  The most basic texts for beginners have just one word per page, and the meaning of the word is fully supported by the illustration.  This is perfect for the beginning English speaker.  Also, if the beginner happens to be literate in his or her first language, and that language is Spanish or French, the reading teacher is in luck.  Many of the leveled texts in ReadingA-Z.com come in Spanish, English, and French.  The students love to have back-to-back copies of the English and their native language.

 

• Intermediate:  Once again, there is no reason for the intermediate LEP learner to be left behind in a guided reading lesson.  He or she can be placed in a group at the appropriate level where learning will take place.  Buddy Reading is going to be a very beneficial part of the program.  The student can be paired with a native English speaking buddy, and receive modeling of a native speaker reading at his or her level.

 

• Advanced:  The advanced LEP learner will benefit from the guided reading context by continually being stretched to higher order thinking about a text in his or her second language. 

The following link will give more help in understanding the context of Guided Reading:

http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/curriculum/english/guided_rdg.html

 

Hennings Sequence Strategy©

Go Back to Writing 4.4

 

This drafting strategy, highlighted in materials distributed by Virginia Rojas, helps writers clarify the organization of information. Students complete the following steps:

• “Fact storm” to record knowledge after they have had a chance to become familiar with a topic through viewing films and slides, interviewing people, going on excursions, reading, talking, and observing
• Organize the concepts from “fact storming” by producing data charts in small groups (i.e., vertical and horizontal categories of information)
• Draft paragraphs by directly translating the information contained in the data charts’ columns, rows or cells
• Draft the introduction and conclusions through a teacher-guided, group writing activity
• Read through similar pieces of discourse using the data chart concept as a post-reading activity in addition to a prewriting one
• Return to their writing to revise their drafts.

 

Hot Seat

Go back to Speaking 2.1, 2.2, 2.3

 

This is an after-reading strategy that can engage the whole class in a role-play activity.  Students sit in a circle, with one student in the “hot seat.” The student in the “hot seat” takes on the role of a literary or historical character and is questioned by the class. Questions might include the following: Where do you live? How did you feel when…? What do you think of (another character in the book)? After reading a science selection on the monarch butterfly and its use of camouflage, for example, some questions could be: Where do you live? Where do you travel? What are your colors and why? How do you protect yourself?

 

During a weather unit, students could interview a tornado.  Some questions could be

Do you like cold air or warm air? What is your favorite part of the country? How do you form? How long do you last? If you are an F2, how fast are your wind speeds?

        

Beginning students would be provided very basic questions relating to whom the character is such as:  What is your name? Where do you live? Are you a boy or a girl/man or a woman? Or for the butterfly: What are you? Are you big or little? What colors do you have? Do you walk?  Can you fly?

Go back to Role Play.

 

“I’m Thinking of Something That…”

Go back to Speaking 2.1, 2.2

 

This group and pair activity allows students to practice describing things and their functions and can be used at any grade level, linguistic level, and in any subject area.  Critical to this strategy is the use of pictures.  Each student chooses a card from a group of pictures of objects related to a particular topic.

A student begins by saying “I’m thinking of something that…” and continues by describing the object.  Adjectives are used to describe persons, places, or things related to the particular topic.  Descriptions can be very broad and general in the beginning and then become very specific as the LEP student’s vocabulary develops.  In social studies, for example, this strategy could be used in describing the different regions of Kentucky with respect to cities, geographic features, economy, industry, etc.  Before utilizing this strategy for history, have the students complete a picture hunt for the particular topic being studied and assist in compiling the picture cards for the game.  If the description was going to be the Bluegrass region of Kentucky, the picture cards would have to include Lexington, Louisville, horse farms, racetracks, the grasses that appear blue, etc.

Inquiry and Elimination

Go to Speaking 2.1, 2.2

 

This activity helps to develop logical reasoning skills and practices question forms. From a large picture showing a range of objects within a set (i.e., animals, plants, food), one member of the group chooses one of the objects. Other students ask yes/no questions that elicit the maximum amount of information. A maximum number of questions allowed may prevent random guesses.

 

This communication game will also work when one student has a set of information that must be obtained by the others through questioning and elimination of irrelevant terms. The group then decides the solution based upon their inquiry. For example, if the students have been studying insects, one child is designated as the expert in the group and is given the name of an insect and a set of facts about that insect. By asking questions, the student must gather enough information about the insect so that they can determine which insect is described. When they have guessed the correct insect, they have also reviewed their knowledge of that insect (The preceding paragraph was taken from Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners, p.39.

 

Interactive Writing

Go back to Writing 4.1, 4.2

 

Interactive writing is a form of shared writing in which the teacher and students compose a story of text and “share the pen” in writing words down on paper. The students are encouraged to write the parts of the text they are able to write while the teacher supports the students’ decision making as they practice conventional spelling and mechanics. This technique helps LEP students because the students provide the language to be written and the teacher helps them in sound out the words to be written as well as teach the use of capitalization and punctuation.

 

The following steps for using the interactive writing strategy have been adapted from the resource Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners, page87-88:

 

·         Provide an experience to write about (e.g., after a field trip, daily news, after reading a story/book). The shared experience gives the group something to write about.

·         Gather chart paper, markers and correction tape (Use correction tape whenever necessary, but offer support to the student who made the error).

·         Negotiate a sentence to be written. In the beginning it is best to start with a fairly simple sentence. Have the students count the words in the sentence to help the students “see” the individual words as they are written.

·         Provide support that is necessary for the students to participate successfully. For example, ask students what letter they hear at the beginning of the word or if the beginning letter would be lower case or a capital letter. This support allows students to verbalize the decisions to be made so that all understand.

·         Reread the sentence(s) as the text is being written. Focus on decisions that must be made such as when to leave spaces, when to use capital letters, commas, periods etc.

·        Celebrate the finished story by having the group read it aloud.

 

Interviews

Go back to Listening 1.1, 1.2

 

Interviews can promote two-way listening that LEP students need to be able to ask clarifying questions. Students can interview members of the class to gain personal information or information necessary for a class topic. The interview process requires the students to focus closely on the interviewee’s responses and ask further questions based upon the information provided. Interviews can also give LEP students an opportunity to interact in a formal way and in a more formal register with an adult other than their teacher or with someone they do not know. Questions prepared beforehand (and practiced with classmates) allows for discussion about what is appropriate to ask and how these questions should be asked in terms of appropriate social politeness. (Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning, Gibbons, p. 145)

 

“I Spy”

Go back to: Speaking 2.1, 2.2

 

This oral segmentation activity promotes phonemic awareness. Teachers display pictures from a book or use the classroom/school environment to play this game beginning with the line, “I spy something with my eye that starts with …” The game continues as the focus shifts to different sounds (Enhancing English Language Learning in Elementary Classrooms, p. 17).

 

Jigsaw

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

In this reading strategy, students are assigned to a group called the home, base, or beginning group.  Each member is assigned a chunk of the reading material.  Then students meet in expert groups with other students who were assigned that same chunk.  The experts decide what is most important in that segment and then return to their home groups to share the information.  This strategy is a good way to cover a long reading assignment.

 

For example, students are divided into 4 groups, 4 students per group. (Larger groups may be necessary).  In the initial group, all 4 students read the same material. Subsequent groups are comprised of one member from each of the 4 initial groups.  Students then report out what they learned in their initial groups.  For example, the water cycle has 4 major parts—Precipitation, Collection, Evaporation, and Condensation.  Each initial group would be responsible for one of these components.  Subsequent groups would have one representative each for the four components (Pollution, Collection, Evaporation, or Condensation).

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journals

Go back to Writing 4.1, 4.3, 4.4

 

Journals or Learning Logs can be used across the curriculum as an authentic and non-threatening activity that promotes language development as well as understanding.  Journals can be utilized for writing to learn activities in which the student writes about observations and wonderings about a given subject. Moreover, journal writing can be viewed as writing to demonstrate learning. Students can record what they have learned each day, tell what they understand better now after a unit of study or lesson, or answer an open response question. In this way, journals may also be used as sources for evaluation and records of progress. Journal writing can aid the English language learner in memorizing words and information, clarifying information and concepts, as well as build fluency. There are a variety of ways journals may be used:

Learning Log:

Students may answer or respond in journals at the end of the day.

Examples: What have you learned today?   Today I learned _____________.

What was your favorite lesson today? And why? My favorite lesson was _______________ because______________.

What did you have trouble with and now can do or understand better? I was having trouble with __________, but now I know that________________.

 

Science Log:

Students record observations, steps to an experiment, or draw and label diagrams from a lesson. Example: two-column entry of Observations/Reflections.

Observations     Reflections

I see snake on a stick.   Is he bored or scared?

It is green and brown.   Can he change colors?

             It flicks it tongue.   Can a snake hear or smell?

 

Math Log:

Students reflect and demonstrate their understanding of math functions and concepts.

Example: I know that 4 x 5 is ____ . I know this because_____________.

 

Literature Log:

Students respond to a book they have read individually or in pairs or from a read aloud.

Example: My favorite character in ____________________ is ___________________.

 I like ________________ because__________________.

 

Reading, Writing, and Learning in ESL- A Resource Book for K-12 Teachers by Suzanne F. Peregoy and Owen F. Boyle, p.349

Performance Level Considerations:

• Beginning level LEP students may use pictures to represent their understanding of content learning. Provide students with a word bank, perhaps on a sticky note, or picture dictionary and encourage the labeling or writing of simple phrases in entry. Depending on literacy level of student and bilingual support, writing in first language may also be acceptable.  A teacher or partner could take dictation of what the student says or copy the teacher’s model that includes an illustration with few words.
• Intermediate level LEP students may still use pictorial responses with greater use of labeling with words and phrases. Encourage strategies of using a word wall and print around the room, such as posters and content word walls. Scaffold student responses by providing prompts with word, sentence or paragraph completion and by brainstorming a list of words or phrases regarding the topic.
• Advanced level LEP students will still need assistance with vocabulary at times so word walls, posters, and dictionaries need to be available. They may also need scaffolds such as structured responses using graphic organizers.

 

Kentucky Marker Papers

Go back to Writing 4.2, 4.3

 

The Kentucky Marker Papers are examples of student work at each grade level, P1-12. The primary markers include a number of pieces to show progress made throughout each year in the primary program. The Grades 4-12 markers represent end-of-the year writing, the result of a year of effective instruction. The papers illustrate the progression of key writing skills in specific types of writing (personal narrative, memoir, short story, information writing and persuasive writing). Each piece is annotated to show the skills that the writer has demonstrated in that piece of writing and possible next lessons to continue the writer’s progress. The Kentucky Marker Papers can be used to examine LEP students’ individual pieces of writing at any performance level to determine evidence of strengths and weaknesses in the piece of writing, to determine next lessons, and to assess growth over time.

 

Kentucky Virtual Library

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

The Kentucky Virtual Library can be accessed through a link at the Kentucky Department of Education website: http://www.kyvl.org/html/k12/k12.shtml. The website offers equitable access to quality library and information resources.

 

Inspiration

Go back to Reading 3.1

 

Inspiration©, a software program created for students in grades 6-12, is advertised as “The visual way to think, write, and comprehend.”  This program promotes ways to develop ideas and organize thinking.  Students use graphic organizers to represent concepts and relationships. 

Link: http://www.inspiration.com/home.cfm

 

K-W-L

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3 Go back to Writing 4.1, 4.4

 

This well-known strategy can be used before, during, and after reading. Before reading, students are asked to record what they know about the subject of the text and what they would like to know. Then during and after reading, they write down what they have learned. Before beginning the chart, lead a general discussion about the children’s experience with the topic. For example, if the topic is mammals, a student should be encouraged to tell about seeing a bat at the zoo. After a general discussion, list the facts. If students disagree, turn the facts into questions for the “W” column. For example, the following exchange: “Bats eat fruit.” “No, they don’t!” is recorded as “What do bats eat?”

 

This strategy is already widely used in both LEP and regular education classes.  For LEP students, this strategy is helpful in connecting past content knowledge from their native language to content learning that is taking place now.

 

Language Experience Approach

Go back to Reading 3.1, 3.2 Go back to Writing 4.1, 4.2, 4.4

 

The language experience approach to reading and writing helps students to see the connections between their experiences, what is spoken and the written language. In this approach, the students’ own dictated stories serve as the bases for reading instruction. The activity builds on a student’s interest, background knowledge, and language proficiency and can be used with individual students, small groups, or the whole class (Reading, Writing & Learning in ESL, Peregoy and Boyle, p.268).

 

This approach is effective for LEP students because the students are able to read the text. The written words tell what they said about their experience. The following steps for using the language experience approach have been adapted from the resource Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners, pages91-92:

 

1. Provide opportunities for students to share individual or shared experiences (e.g., field trips, science experiment, art lesson).
2. Seat students so they can see the chart or board and engage them in conversation about their experience. Encourage them to use complete sentences as they describe the activity or experience.
3. Record the student’s descriptions.
4. Reread the entire text and invite the students to read along.
5. Provide time and materials for students to create their product.

 

Language Focus Lesson

Go back to Writing 4.1

 

Language focus lessons focus on English vocabulary and usage. Although the lessons may involve math, science, or social studies content, for examples, the lesson is on the language rather than the content. Lessons may center on articles, prepositional phrases, comparison words (i.e., smaller, larger, wider) etc.

 

The following steps in teaching a language focus lesson have been adapted from the resource Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners, page 95:

 

• Make decisions about the types of language instruction needed based on observation and other informal or formal assessment. Group students who have the same needs.
• Use a hands-on demonstration using visuals and realia.
• Introduce the vocabulary and model its use giving several examples for each term.
• Give the students an opportunity to actually perform or model a hands-on movement or activity.
• Design informal assessments that allow you to observe the students’ mastery of the focus language.

 

Leveled Questions

Go back to Listening 1.1, 1.2

 

Leveled questions refer to the way questions are asked so that students can answer according to their language acquisition level. Teachers may use gestures, visuals or a slower rate of speech. Students may be asked to point to a visual, give one-word answers or a complete sentence depending on the student’s acquisition level.

 

The following steps in teaching this strategy have been adapted from the resource Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners, pages 223-224:

 

• Determine a student’s current level of English acquisition (e.g., beginning, lower intermediate, upper intermediate, advanced) through observation, formal and informal assessment, and/or program services plan.
• Gather support materials to use with students during the lesson (i.e., visuals, artifacts) or determine gestures you will need to use to make meaning clear.
• Plan a series of questions that will help you to involve your students and determine their levels of understanding.

 

Literature Circles

Go back to Listening 1.2 Go back to Speaking  2.6 Go back to Reading 3.3

 

Alternatively called “reading circles,” this group approach to reading can improve and extend students’ understanding of what they read.  Although it is often used with fiction, it also works well with informational text and so it can be used in most high school classes with a reading assignment. The teacher determines key ideas for discussion, and then each student is assigned a job within the circle, i.e., “leader,” “summarizer,” “connector,” etc. 

 

At the  high school level when a reading assignment is given, the teacher can give a specific set of discussion questions to small groups of about 5 students each.  Students will be assigned specific tasks so that they can complete the assignment cooperatively.  LEP students will have a chance to interact with other students and learn. Teachers need to monitor LEP students’ progress and make sure that they have a task that they can do.

 

Link:  http://eduscapes.com/ladders/themes/circles.htm

 

Looping

Go back to Writing 4.1

 

This drafting strategy helps students develop details related to a topic. Students write for 3 to 5 minutes and then go back to circle key words or phrases in their writing. They repeat the procedure and write again to learn to develop details.

 

Manipulative Strategies

Go back to Considerations for Delivering Instruction

 

Manipulatives provide students an opportunity to “move” or “manipulate” devices to support thinking and learning. Manipulatives can be effective for any content area. For example, in science students may be asked to use models of the human body, Styrofoam balls and toothpicks for construction, and magnets and/or batteries in experiments. In mathematics, students often use beans as counters, colored linking cubes for building patterns, and measuring cups and containers for studying measurement. Vocabulary study can also be enhanced using colored blocks to teach colors, singular/plural forms or adjectives of shape, size, texture, and color (Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners, page 126).

 

Frank B. May, in Reading as Comprehension, uses the following definition:

“These materials are for developing concepts, vocabulary, graphophonic awareness, and for telling and retelling stories or ideas. Examples of manipulatives include sentence strips and word cards.”

 

Manipulatives are beneficial to all English language learners as they acquire new skills and demonstrate their knowledge.

 

Mini-Lesson

Go back to Reading 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 Go back to Writing 4.1, 4.2, 4.3

 

Mini-lessons are used to introduce and highlight concepts, techniques and information. Some mini-lessons may be on a single, highly focused topic (e.g., brainstorm titles, specific literary term, a punctuation mark). At other times the mini-lesson may be longer and interactive (e.g.,  generate ideas and build a theory, role-play a good peer conference technique, practice a strategy using students’ work). Teachers set up situations during mini-lessons to model specific strategies. Kathleen Fay and Suzanne Whaley talk about mini-lessons in their book, Becoming One Community: Reading & Writing with English Language Learners  (Stenhouse):

 

At the beginning of the year, reading workshop mini-lessons will be procedural in nature, such as how to choose books for independent reading or what to do when the teacher is working with someone and a students needs something. These lessons always include the teacher’s reading aloud a picture book or a poem to set the mood before independent reading and to model fluent reading. Soon the lessons shift to a greater focus on strategy. Here the teacher may provide an opportunity for shared reading by projecting a text on an overhead transparency, or may model such behavior as how to look at headings to preview an article, what to do when you don’t know how to pronounce a name, or how to make inferences while reading (p.40).

 

Mix and Match

Go back to Speaking 2.1, 2.2, 2.5

 

This cooperative learning strategy allows students of all levels of language proficiency to increase appropriate interaction with class members using both verbal and non-verbal means. Each student receives a prepared card and begins walking around the room greeting each other appropriately. Each time a student greets a classmate, they exchange cards until the teacher asks them to stop. Students work together to find the person with the card that matches the card they have at the end of the activity.

 

This is a good opening activity so that all students get to know each other.  In addition to exchanging cards with students, students can be asked to also memorize names or exchange other information that would help all students get to know each other.

 

While this is largely a cooperative learning activity to increase verbal communications between students, having a content area concept on the prepared cards would help decrease the anxiety of actually having to greet one another.  For example, on prepared cards have a math concept such as the products of multiplication tables while on other prepared cards, have the multiplication problem that matches the product. As students walk around and greet one another and exchange cards, the purpose and focus would be to find as many multiplication problem cards as possible to match the assigned product card. 

 

Modeling

Go back to Speaking 2.5 Go Back to Reading 3.1

 

Modeling can be useful in creating a higher interest level in reading material. Providing visual or aural examples re-enforces vocabulary, concepts or social customs (non-verbal language).    Modeling can demonstrate social customs (shaking hands) and provide a visual cue for understanding vocabulary (representation of chromosomes using pipe cleaners or ribbons).

 

Multimedia Presentations

Go back to Listening 1.1

 

Multimedia presentations involve the use of media such as audio and video equipment, computers and related software and Internet sources. VCR’s, videodisk players, video cameras, computers, and Internet access are becoming more accessible to students. These resources can be helpful for LEP students especially if it allows for access to information in multiple languages to support their learning.

 

The following steps in implementing multimedia presentations have been adapted from the resource Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners, pages 134-136:

 

• Model the use of multimedia by incorporating video clips, overhead projector audiotapes, and other media as you teach.
• Introduce the different media slowly. Begin with one piece of equipment and encourage students to use it as they demonstrate learning. (This approach will also help teachers who have little experience and may feel overwhelmed). For example, you may ask cooperative groups to work together to create a transparency that documents the work of the group. Give instructions as to where to stand and how to turn the projector on and off. Demonstrate how they can reveal one portion of the transparency at a time as the new information is discussed.
• Repeat the demonstration reviewing the reasons why the equipment is used so students can begin to make wise choices about the media they may use.
• Allow your students and yourself and time to practice with the equipment before using it for more formal presentations.
• Pair computer users by computer experiences. Remind the more experienced partner the importance of “talking the new user through the experience” and not just doing it.
• Assign a presentation that requires a multimedia element.

 

Mystery Box

Go back to Speaking 2.1, 2.2

 

This activity helps develop logical reasoning skills and practices question forms. To prepare mystery boxes, gather shoeboxes and items that fit in them. Place one item in each shoebox and place a rubber band around each. Students work in small groups to describe the weight, shape, texture and size of each object. Groups do this with multiple boxes. At the end of the activity the students open the boxes and compare the objects with their descriptions.

 

Content Area:  Science                                      Core Content/Topic: The Scientific Method   This activity illustrates the method that scientists use when they investigate something they cannot see, such as atoms. Pull together common items and put them into the mystery boxes. To prepare students for this activity, bring in an item such as a basketball and have students describe it orally, making sure students describe the weight, shape texture and size. Write the description on the board or on a transparency. If students are beginners, model this the first time; then have students work with you the second time. Ask yes/no and either/or questions to guide the students in their descriptions. Do this for a few objects that are very different from each other, writing adjectives used to describe the object.   Each time a description is given that uses a new type of sentence, write the sentence on the board as a model to use for students’ individual descriptions. For beginning students, do a simple drawing next to the adjectives so the students will know the meanings when they work individually. Next, model the process using an object in a box. Have students come up and give descriptions of the object in the box. Again, write any new adjectives that are used and any new sentence structures that model the language.   Before students work in groups, categorize the adjectives into shape, texture, weight and size. Have students brainstorm other adjectives that might be used in each category and write these on the board so students will have a reference as they begin to work individually. Students then work in groups. Each group is given a box and students write a description of what is in it. You might have students draw what they think each object will look like. Have groups exchange boxes and repeat this process a couple of times.   Open the first box that was used for the demonstration, and compare the object in it to the written description; then allow students to open the boxes and compare the objects with their descriptions.

 

 

 

Oral Blending

Go back to Speaking 2.4 Go back to Reading 3.1

 

Blending is the ability to combine individual phonemes together so as to pronounce a meaningful word (Phonics for the Teacher of Reading, Barbara Fox and Marion Hull, Merrill Prentice Hall, 2002) Oral blending activities help in the development of phonemic awareness and may focus on combining one or more of the following: phoneme by phoneme-/s/ +/a/ + /d/; onset/rime- /p/ +at; and/or syllables- can + dle. Teachers can choose from a variety of oral blending activities.

 

Oral History

Go back to Listening 1.1, 1.2

 

Oral history is a method of gathering and preserving historical information through recorded interviews with participants in past events and ways of life. Often performed by a guest storyteller, this activity allows individuals to bring his or her culture to the classroom by repeating oral traditions or history.  Visual support usually accompanies oral history. 

 

Oral Segmentation

Go back to Listening 1.1 Go back to Speaking 2.4 Go back to Reading 3.1

 

Segmentation is the process of separating spoken words or syllables into their individual phonemes (Phonics for the Teacher of Reading, Barbara Fox and Marion Hull, Merrill Prentice Hall, 2002). Oral segmentation activities help in the development of phonemic awareness and may focus on breaking words in one or more of the following ways:

 

·         phoneme by phoneme

     “Listen to the word sat. Say the word sound by sound (/s/ /a/ /t/)

     How many sounds do you hear?” (3);

·         onset/rime –

     “Listen to the word: pan. Say the first sound in the word and then the   

       rest of the word. (/p/ …an)”;

·         syllables – “Listen to the word candle. Say it syllable by syllable (can…dle).”

 

Teachers can choose from a variety of oral blending activities. For example, students listen closely to three words having a common sound (in the same initial, medial, or final position) and tell what sound is the same (e.g., sun, sick, send; game plain, late; doll, well, hill).

 

Paired Reading

Go back to Reading – 3.2, 3.3

 

In this collaborative during reading strategy, one student reads aloud and the other listens and then summarizes what he or she heard as the main ideas.

 

Paraphrasing

Go back to Listening 1.1

 

Paraphrasing is a technique that makes input more comprehensible.  Teachers speak or write words and phrases that a child is familiar with as a substitute for more difficult words and phrases.  Entire concepts can be explained more simply by choosing wording and examples that a child is familiar with.  Paraphrasing a student’s response can show the student that you are trying to understand his message, providing feedback without drawing attention to errors. Other students in the class will also have an opportunity to hear the message again in case they missed it the first time.

 

Partner Reading

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

A student is paired with a second student to read a text.  Students could be paired two LEP students together or one LEP student with a native English speaker.

 

Patterns

Go back to Speaking 2.4

 

Patterns are used to learn grammatical rules, classroom procedures, and even some math concepts. Using repeated phrases, refrains, and sometimes rhymes assist comprehension through the repetition of a simple pattern (e.g., days of the week, months of the year, counting by 2s or 5s, isolating variables to one side of an equation). 

 

Often, 9^th grade LEP students learn the phrase, “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” or the acronym PEMDAS in their Algebra classes when they are covering order of operations. By repeating the phrase or PEMDAS, LEP students memorize a pattern that they can use in solving equations.  They may not know at first that PEMDAS means parentheses first, exponents next, multiplication and division, and addition and subtraction.  When LEP students connect this pattern with their understanding of math from their own culture, they can solve the math problems involving order of operations.  In the process, LEP students also learn the English equivalents of mathematical terms. LEP students may need additional re-enforcement or practice with patterned examples.

 

Peer Tutoring

Go back to Speaking 2.2

 

Peer tutoring allows students who are from the same language background to become more accustomed to American schools.  However, at times, students should also be paired with native English speakers so that they have a need to use the English language.  Native English speakers can have language modeled by their peers.  For example, an English language learner should be paired with a native English speaker to provide cultural context in a mainstream class.

 

Personal Dictionaries

Go back to Reading 3.1, 3.2 Go back to Writing 4.1

 

A personal dictionary is a student-created, individualized reference tool. It can serve as an introduction to using standard dictionaries while also providing a useful instrument that allows students to access and use previously learned vocabulary. The following guidelines may be helpful:

 

1. Provide a blank notebook. Either you or the students should write the upper and lowercase letters at the top of each page. Some letters may need two pages, while others may only need one.
2. Provide useful high-frequency words on a piece of paper that can be glued to the front or back cover. A second option is to use high-frequency word strips that can be glued on each page. A third idea is to have students to copy words from the board each day until they have a useful collection.
3. Continue to have students add words they learn during word work to their personal dictionaries. Importantly, have students record commonly misspelled words from their writing pieces in their dictionaries. Make students responsible for correctly spelling words recorded in their personal dictionaries. The spelling of entries should be checked for accuracy.

 

Intermediate and advanced level English language learners can use personal dictionaries as they engage in the writing process. They are more meaningful and easier to use than standard dictionaries for students who are developing an understanding of conventional spelling.

 

Resources:

Word Matters: Teaching Phonics and Spelling in the Reading/Writing Classroom by Gay Su Pinnell & Irene C. Fountas, 1998

Becoming One Community: Reading & Writing with English Language Learners by Kathleen Fay & Suzanne Whaley, 2004

 

Phonemic Manipulation

Go back to Listening 1.1 Go back to Speaking 2.4 Go back to Reading 3.1

 

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds-phonemes- in spoken words. When students “work with phonemes,” they are manipulating the phonemes. Phoneme manipulation includes blending phonemes to make words (See Oral Blending), segmenting words into phonemes (See Oral Segmentation), deleting phonemes from words  (Smile without the /s/ is mile), adding phonemes to words (Add /s/ to park to get spark), or substituting one phoneme for another to make a new word (Change the /g/ in bug to an /n/ to form bun)

(Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read, September 2001).

 

Picture Sequencing/Stories

Go back to Speaking 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.6 Go back to Writing 4.1

 

The teacher provides students with a series of pictures in random order. Students arrange them in proper order and then they talk or write about the pictures. Examples include progression of color sequencing (primary to secondary to tertiary colors) and mathematical order of operations (PEMDAS). Students could organize pictures of parentheses, exponents, multiplication, etc. into the correct order.

 

Picture Sorts

Go back to Speaking 2.2 Go back to Reading 3.1, 3.2

 

This instructional activity allows students to categorize pictures according to concepts.

 

Content Area: Science                   Core Content/Topic: Populations and Ecosystems   Students receive pictures of different types of organisms including plants, animals, human, bacteria and fungi.  Pictures should be labeled to help build vocabulary.  Students will move these into one of three categories: producers, consumers and decomposers.   Before beginning, display a food web and discuss (through illustrations) the function each type of organism serves in the ecosystem.  This works well for beginning students.

 

 

 

Picture Walk

Go back to Speaking 2.1 Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

This guided reading intervention incorporates vocabulary and picture to support LEP students in predicting, inferring, and generalizing about text.

·         “Walk” students through the text, looking at some or all of the visuals.

·         Ask questions about the visuals, and let the students explain what they can learn from these to classmates.

·         Use the visuals to introduce key vocabulary.

·         Ask questions that might elicit the word, and if students don’t come up with the word, say something like, “We call this a …”

·        Have students say the key vocabulary word, and stretch it out to decide what letters they would expect to find in that word. Students can locate and point to that word in the text.

 

Predictable/Patterned - Books/Charts

Go back to Listening 1.1 Go back to Reading 3.1, 3.2, 3.3

 

Teachers can use predictable patterned books to create charts that focus on rhyme and predictable story patterns. Predictable charts and books give students an opportunity to make use of visual clues, develop or apply knowledge of word families (using onsets and rimes), develop concepts and new vocabulary, dramatize story events and incorporate new sentence structures into their own spoken or written communication.

 

Problem Solving

Go back to Speaking 2.2

 

Problem solving activities can be structured so that groups of students are presented a problem to be solved through discussion. Students then report back to the class about their solutions.

 

Prove It

Go back to Speaking 2.3 Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

This strategy asks students to make predictions based on all the visuals that a reading selection provides including the title, book cover, pictures throughout the selections, graphs, charts, maps, labels, captions and table of contents (if there is one). As predictions are made, they are numbered and written down. After the selection is read, the student must prove that the prediction is accurate by finding it in the text. You can put a check next to any predictions that are true, and cross out or modify any untrue predictions. This strategy can be used at any grade level; at the primary level, it is commonly called “picture walking.”  The student “walks” through all the pictures and visuals that the selection provides.

 

Question of the Day

Go back to Speaking 2.3, 2.5

 

Teachers put a “question of the day” on the board or the overhead as a prewriting strategy. The question should stimulate problem solving. Students brainstorm responses with a partner. Beginning LEP students may be encouraged to use drawings or diagrams.

 

Questioning Techniques

Go back to Speaking 2.3

 

Teachers should ask questions that promote critical thinking (Bloom’s Taxonomy), but reduce the linguistic demand while promoting higher-level thinking. “For example, in a study of plant reproduction, the following question requires little thought: ‘Are seeds sometimes carried by the wind?’ a nod or one-word response is almost automatic, if the question is understood. A higher-level question such as the following requires analysis: ‘which of these two seeds would be more likely to be carried by the wind: the round one or smooth one? Or this one that has fuzzy hairs?”  (Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners, The SIOP Model, 2000, p.86).

 

Questionnaires/Surveys

Go back to Listening 1.1, 1.2 Go back to Speaking 2.2,  2.6

 

Questionnaires and surveys offer students a chance to practice asking questions and interact in appropriate ways with others. Students can use information from surveying their classmates, other students in the school, teachers, or community members as a means of gaining information that involves graphing, making comparisons, or for larger projects.

 

Questionnaires and surveys lend themselves to beginning of the year ice-breaking activities to learn more about each other. Beginning and lower intermediate level LEP students can conduct simple surveys individually or in pairs on such topics as the following: What is your favorite color? What is your favorite animal? How many brothers and sisters do you have?

 

Questionnaires and surveys can also lend themselves to math topics by graphing the information for reporting it back to the class. The following is an example of a lesson that can be implemented with more advanced LEP, older students:

 

Content Area: Writing                   Core Content: Citizenship/Persuasive Writing   Use questionnaires as a basis for a civic project that will culminate in a persuasive address either in writing or oral presentation. As a whole class, brainstorm a list of issues that are relevant to the lives of the students. These issues may relate to school, neighborhoods, or local/national topics such as school uniforms, noise pollution, park maintenance, curfew, and violence. Each student selects a topic of importance for them, adopts a position, and identifies a person or people to interview on the topic. Through teacher and peer conferences, students formulate questions and practices asking them in appropriate manner. Provide models and demonstrations for students of appropriate schematic structures for presenting position in a persuasive manner.

 

 

QAR  (Question/Answer/Relationships)

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

This before, during, and after reading strategy helps students improve their comprehension by illustrating the relationship between questions and answers. QAR employs three types of questions:

 

Text-explicit questions can be answered with wording that comes directly from the text. Factual questions fall into this category.

Text-implicit questions require the reader to draw conclusions and make inferences based on the information found in the text. To answer the question, the reader must engage in higher-level thinking: interpreting, explaining, defining, analyzing, etc.

 

Script-implicit questions or prior knowledge questions ask readers to predict outcomes based on their own experience.

Link: http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest/strat/qar/html

 

Read Aloud

Go back to Listening 1.1, 1.2 Go back to Reading 3.2

 

Read-aloud offer opportunities for teachers to model fluency, build students’ comprehension, and develop students’ vocabularies. Teachers may choose to read only part of a book to peak students’ interest. Nonfiction books should also be included as they introduce more complex language patterns found in informative texts. Read the text aloud using appropriate pausing and expressions. The more something is read or heard, the more comprehension there will be. Look for texts with a strong storyline with some predictability, discernible stopping points, and strong discussion points.

 

Read & Write Gold

Go back to Listening 1.1, 1.2 Go back to Reading 3.2,  3.3

 

Read&Write (v7) GOLD is software program that supports reading and writing needs, bringing comprehensive literacy support through a unique set of tools for the user with literacy or learning difficulties. RWG allows users to work in a truly inclusive environment using standard applications, such as Microsoft Word, Outlook and Excel and Acrobat Reader, to hear and see text being read aloud.

 

Readinglady.com

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

Readinglady.com is a recommended free web resource offering support for all areas of teaching and learning. Visitors may choose to access articles, web links, reviews, and lesson plans.  Of particular interest are sections devoted to the following: Four Block, Six Trait Writing, Author’s Studies, Comprehension, Guided Reading, Mathematics, Poetry, and Reader’s Theater. 

Link: http://www.readinglady.com

 

Reader’s Theater

Go back to Speaking 2.4, 2.5 ,  2.6 Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

Reader’s Theater is an excellent activity for beginning and lower intermediate second language learners. This activity allows LEP students to read for fluency. These students can read and dramatize a script from a story they have read. The stories should be somewhat brief and have a simple structure with a clear beginning, middle and end.

• Choose stories in which there is a lot of dialogue.
• Work together as a class to turn the first part or chapter into a script.
• Have the children work in groups to write some of the script.
• Give the children in the groups specific roles, and determine how many children should work together according to the parts needed. If necessary, work with one of the groups to help them succeed.

Links: http://www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm

           http://members.tripod.com/~emu1967/theater.htm

Reading A-Z.com

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

Reading A-Z.com offers downloadable materials to teach guided reading, phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency and comprehension   The web site has more than 1,000 downloadable books (including Spanish and French versions) and thousands of teaching and learning materials. Subscription required: Individual, School/Group License, and District License available.

 

Reading Symbols

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

Reading symbols can help students to monitor their own comprehension. Reading symbols include symbols such as the following:  “x” for important,  “?” for a question,  “!” for interesting, “*” I knew that, “+” new information, “??” I don’t understand, and “!” for Wow!

 

Reciprocal Teaching

Go back to Speaking 2.1, 2.2 Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

Reciprocal teaching leads to the mastery of important thinking skills including predicting, questioning summarizing, and clarifying. After the teacher models these skills and the students practice them, students assume the responsibility for using the skills to learn and teach new material to small groups. A student leader is alternated after each selection so that each student has a chance to lead the discussion. Reciprocal teaching cards can be utilized to guide the discussions. The following guidelines may be helpful:

 

1. Before reading the selection, a single student acting as the teacher (e.g., student leader) initiates discussion on predictions for the reading selection.

·         Card #1- “Please get ready to read to page or subtitle or heading.”

·         Card #2 -“I predict this section will be about __________________.”

·         Card #3 -Does anyone else have a prediction?

·         Card #4 -“Please read silently to the point we selected.”

2. The student leader asks some questions to which the classmates respond. The questions are designed to help student identify important information in the passage.

·         Card #5-“Are there any words you thought were interesting?

·         Card #6-“Are there any ideas that you thought were interesting or puzzling?

·         Card #7-“Do you have comments about the reading?

3. After students have silently or orally read a short selection of the passage, student leader summarizes what has been read

·         Card #8-“This was about 2 to 3 sentences.”

Revisit, Reflect & Retell: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension-Hoyt, p. 138-139.

 

This classroom practice can be used across the curriculum and provide LEP as well as all students with better understanding of subject matter whether it is by using selections from textbooks, trade books, or special articles. Note the example below:

 

Content Area:  Reading                                      Core Content/Topic: Literature Circles   Place students in flexible reading groups. Provide each with a selection of 2-4 books that are level and interest appropriate. Each group needs to select a student leader and the order in which the discussion is going to rotate (either by volunteers or chance). The first student leader guides groups in deciding which book to read first and in setting a reading goal for the period. Prior to reading, students read the first set of Reciprocal Teaching Cards ·         Card #1-“Please get ready to read to page ______ (or subtitle or heading). ·         Card #2- “I predict this section will be about ____________.” ·         Card #3-“Does anyone else have a prediction? ·         Card #4-“Please read silently to the point we selected.”   Near the end of the period, students regroup and student leader initiates discussion using the second set of cards Card #5 Are there any words you thought were interesting? Card #6-“Are there any ideas that you thought were interesting or puzzling? Card #7-“Do you have comments about the reading?) Then summarizes the reading section and passes the cards to the next student leader.   The following modifications are examples of ways to address students’ varying levels of English language proficiency: Advanced and intermediate LEP students can complete the activity as described above using the Reciprocal Teaching Cards but also being encouraged to contribute to discussions with more relevant questions. Lower intermediate and beginning level LEP students may need to have a reader or reading buddy who can also assist them in assuming at least a minor role in group discussions by reading the Reciprocal Teaching Cards with little or short responses that students can help clarify for them.

 

Rehearsal

Go back to Listening 1.1, 1.2 Go back to Speaking  2.3

 

Rehearsal allows students to organize and make sense of information.  Students may be asked to simply repeat the same information in the same form (rote), or they may be asked to elaborate making connections.  Rote memory may work for some learning but much learning depends on making meaning and connections to what has already been learned (Differentiated Instructional Strategies, Gayle H. Gregory & Carolyn Chapman, p.80).

 

Rhymes

Go back to Listening 1.1 Go back to Speaking 2.2, 2.4

 

The use of rhymes and books containing rhyme help students with learning to read and write. Being able to recognize words that rhyme and to be helped to produce rhymes is especially useful for students who are less familiar with the sounds of language.

 

Rivet

Go back to Reading 3.1, 3.2

 

This guided reading intervention can be done with higher-level informational text (such as content area textbooks) and literary selections to help LEP students use prior knowledge, visual and contextual cues to derive word meaning for new vocabulary from texts, specifically text found in the content areas such as science and social studies, that contain unfamiliar words, expressions, and multiple meaning. The students’ attention is riveted to the board as they attempt to guess the letters in an unknown word, phrase, or expression.

 

• Choose six to eight important words, including important names and words likely to be difficult for your students to decode.
• Draw lines on the board to indicate the number of letters in each word.
• Write the letters in each word, one at a time, pausing for a second after you write each letter and encouraging students to guess the word. When a student guesses the word, finish writing it. (Unlike hangman, students are not guessing letters. Their eyes are “riveted” to the board as you write the letters, and they are trying to guess the word based on the letters you have written and the number of remaining blanks.)
• When all the words are written, have students use as many of the words as possible to make predictions about what is going to happen in the story. Record these predictions.
• Have students read the selection and determine which of their predictions actually happened.

 

This method of guided reading can be used for most high school classes in which informational reading is involved.  Instead of just assigning a reading assignment, teachers can be actively involved in the reading process showing students how to recognize key words and make predictions about the text based on an understanding of the key terms.

 

Role Play

Go back to Speaking 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6

 

Students assume the character or characteristics of a person or thing. Students could take on roles such as Salesperson/Customer, Land Developer/Environmentalist, and Galileo/Pope. See also “Hot Seat.”

 

Links: http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=217

            http://www.aspa.asn.au/Projects/english/txrp.htm

            http://ww.myread.org/guide_drama.htm

 

Rosetta Stone

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

Rosetta Stone offers a comprehensive language learning system. Software allows teachers to create lesson plans for the entire class or customize instruction for individual students.

 

Scaffolding Language

Go back to Reading 3.1, 3.2, 3.3

 

A reading or writing activity that provides built-in teacher or peer assistance, permitting students to participate fully at a level that would not be possible without assistance. An example is the use of a dialogue journal, shared reading, mapping, patterned writing, directed listening, thinking activities, readers’ theatre, and interactive journal writing. (Reading, Writing, & Learning, Peregoy and Boyle, 2001, p. 92-93)

 

Scaffolding is all about assisting students as they learn to become more and more able to complete a task independently.  According to Vygotsky, “What a child can do with support today, she or he can do alone tomorrow.”

Link:     http://www.myread.org/scaffolding.htm.

http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/JK_CL_03.html

 

Seating Arrangement

Go back to Considerations

 

Teachers should consider seating organization and its influence on content and English language acquisition.  At first students may need to sit with a student who is from the same language background so that he/she can become more accustomed to American schools.  However, students should be paired with native English speakers and speakers of other languages so that they have a need to use the English language and so that they can have language modeled by their peers.

 

Sentence Combining

Go back to Writing 4.1

 

Sentence combining activities offer a way for students to write meaningful sentences by combining shorter sentences into longer ones. Using examples from student’s own work as well as sentence combining exercises found in books can help students write more sophisticated sentences.

 

Shared Reading

Go back to Listening 1.1 Go back to Speaking 2.4 Go back to Reading 3.1

 

Sometimes called “shared book,” this strategy can be highly effective as an early reading activity.  Through shared reading, students can experience how reading involves getting meaning from print.  The book is introduced through a series of before-reading activities and is then read aloud several times.  Students are encouraged to join in as they remember or recognize words.  Later readings can help students link the sound of words with their shape on the page, demonstrate directionality and/or word spacing (Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning, Gibbons, p. 89).

 

Researchers are emphasizing the importance of shared reading for students in the upper grades.  “Reggie Routman writes ‘shared reading is an ideal way to demonstrate and support what good readers do.  The teacher not only makes reading visible and explicit for students but provides scaffolding so that students will be successful’ (Routman 2003)” (Becoming One Community: Reading & Writing with English Language Learners.

 

Simon Says

Go back to Listening 1.1

 

“Simon Says” is basically a game using Total Physical Response.  The only difference is that the students need to be able to refrain from an action when they do not hear the cuing phrase “Simon says…”

 

Simulations

Go back to Listening 1.1, 1.2 Go back to Speaking   2.6

 

Simulations provide a direct experience and build background knowledge that will help students comprehend difficult and/or abstract texts. Research indicates the importance of building background prior to reading texts on new and unfamiliar topics. (Reading, Writing, & Learning in ESL, p. 328)

 

 

Content Area: Science                                               Core Content: Separating Charges   To demonstrate how you can separate the negative and positive charges of an object, the following demonstration can be used to build background before students read the text.   Run a comb in your hair to show how the comb gets extra negative charge so it has an overall negative charge. Your hair loses negative charges. It now has an overall positive charge. Demonstrate that when clothes tumble in a dryer, they rub against each other. Negative charges move from one piece of clothing to another. Hold a piece of wool next to a balloon. Neither the wool nor the balloon is charged. The numbers of positive and negative charges on the balloon are equal. The charges are also equal on the wool. Both items have a neutral charge. Rubbing the wool on a balloon separates charges. Negative charges move from the wool to the balloon. The balloon is negatively charged. The wool is positively charged. For all LEP students: Illustrate the steps for them Repeat the steps verbally. Emphasize any technical (new) vocabulary. Ask students to replicate the simulations Encourage students to repeat at home

 

Socratic Discussion/Seminar

Go back to Speaking- 2.1, 2.2

 

This is an after-reading strategy that can engage the whole class through discussion.  Students sit in a circle with one or two students assigned as the leader.  Student leaders assign roles for each student so that all students participate.  Teachers may provide questions for discussion but stay out of the discussion process.  The teacher’s role is to observe and assess student participation.

 

This form of discussion is an effective strategy for high intermediate and advanced LEP classes.  The purpose of this method for LEP students is to get them to discuss a topic that the whole class knows through reading.  LEP students often find it difficult to express opinions and thoughts in a regular class.  This method allows LEP students to practice discussion in a “safe” environment, a class with other LEP students who have similar language challenges.

 

Songs

Go back to Listening 1.1, 1.2 Go back to Speaking 2.1, 2.2, 2.4 Go back to Writing 4.2

 

Songs include repetition and chunks of language that make language memorable. Songs sung at a reasonably fast speed contain natural phonological features that students can learn to recognize. The following activities are adapted from The Onestop Magazine at http://www.onestopenglish.com.

 

Listening Activities: Choose songs that are clear, make sense and do not contain a lot of unknown vocabulary. You may need to pre-teach some key vocabulary.

1. Gap Fills-

Write out the song lyrics but leave gaps instead of some words. For example, you may gap all the verbs or adjectives. Students listen and fill in the missing words. They may need to listen two or three times. If you feel students will find this difficult, write the missing words randomly around the text.

 

2. Jumbled Lines-

Write out the song lyrics, but jumble whole lines. Ask students to put them into the correct order while listening to the song. You may wish to cut up the lines, to make the task easier for students or get them to cut up the sheet before the activity.

 

3. Spot the Mistakes

Write out the lyrics of the song, but make about 20 mistakes. For example, you may want to change the tense or write an opposite or synonym instead of the correct word. The first time students listen, ask them to underline the words that are different. The second (or third) time, students write what they hear above the word or phrase that is wrong. After each hearing they can check with each other. In a mixed ability classroom this ensures no one is left behind.

 

Music playing in the background can help to create a relaxed atmosphere and create a situation in which students, especially shy students, need to raise their voice to be heard by their partners.

 

SQ3R	Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

The SQ3R strategy provides an overall structure for before, during, and after reading.  Students begin by surveying or previewing the text, looking for text features that will help them make predictions about content and begin to create a scaffold for their learning.  Based on their survey, they develop questions that they will answer as the read.  After they read the selection, they recite-tell a partner what they have learned and listen to the partner’s recitation.  Last, they review their questions and answers to make sure they haven’t missed any important concept.

 

This strategy is effective in all classes where a reading assignment is involved.  It is important that teachers guide LEP students through the process until they are comfortable doing it by themselves.  In a mixed class, an LEP student can be paired with a native English speaker who can guide his/her LEP partner through surveying, questioning, reading, reciting, and reviewing.  The pair work is cooperative and beneficial to both partners.

 

Sticky Note Reading

Go back to Reading 3.2

 

This cooperative learning activity focuses on listening, speaking, reading and writing on a limited topic with group input.  Students work in small groups from prepared charts such as the following:

            “Y” shape with 3 division spaces such as looks like, sounds like, feels like

            “T” shape with 2 division spaces such as looks like, sounds like.

 Group members first discuss the topic of the chart without writing.  When the teacher instructs the group members to begin completing the chart, each member uses a different color pen/pencil.  When finished, each group passes their chart to the next group.  First the group members review and discuss the content of the chart, and then they write comments, questions, additions, changes or suggestions on sticky notes.  These notes are attached to the chart. Groups continue passing charts until they return to the original group.  Groups review their charts and the comments that have been stuck to them making decisions about whether or not to amend the original chart.  If clarification of comments is needed, group members may seek out members of other groups using the pen color as a guide. (Enhancing English Language Learning in Elementary Classrooms, p. 281)

 

 

 

Story Map

Go back to Reading 3.2 Go back to Writing 4.1,  4.4

 

A story map is a visual representation or chart of story elements (characters, plot, setting, conflict and resolution, climax, point of view). Some, like a storyboard, are mostly pictorial, and illustrate the major events of a story in chronological order. The following ideas were taken from a user-supported website: http://www.enhancedlearning.com

 There are many types of story maps that examine different elements of the story:

·                Summarize the beginning, middle and end of a story

·                List the 5 W’s: the who, when, where, what and why of a story

·                List the title, setting, characters, the problem, the solution, and the moral or theme of a story

·                List a complex chain of events that summarize all key elements of the story, in chronological order.

 

Beginning, Middle, and End Map Printout This story map prompts the student to summarize the beginning, middle, and end of a story.

Beginning, Middle, and End Map Printout This story map prompts the student to summarize the beginning, middle, and end of a story, with two extra cells for each (to list extra details).

Honeycomb Story Map Printout This story map prompts the student to summarize the place, time, characters, problem, and solution of a story.

Honeycomb Story Map Printout #2 This story map prompts the student to summarize the title, place, time, characters, problem, solution and moral of a story.

 

Storytelling

Go back to Speaking 2.6 Go back to Writing 4.1, 4.4

 

English language learners can benefit from telling stories during writing workshop. Storytelling provides a structure to assist students in the act of writing and gives students a chance to orally rehearse their stories before attempting to write. In Becoming One Community, Kathleen Fay and Suzanne Whaley explain what is already in place for students given the time to tell each other their stories:

·                An authentic audience: Their peer or the teacher.

·                An authentic purpose: Students may, for example, share a memory, remember a funny or sad event, or explain how to do something.

·                An immediate response: Peers laugh at the funny parts, use facial expressions to show they understand, ask questions when they are confused.

·                Revision: Peer response encourages the speaker to clarify meaning; the speaker can back up and fill in the missing parts without “undoing” the parts already spoken.

·                Wholeness: Speakers don’t intend to tell their stories in isolated bits and unorganized pieces; if parts are left out, the listener can probe with questions, which helps the speaker gain a sense of unity with the story.

 

Summaries

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

This strategy for understanding and retaining information has been the subject of extensive research. Summaries come from the Language Experience Approach, which came to the forefront years ago. Students would basically read from a text, either fiction or nonfiction, and they would provide a summary of that text in their own words. The key to this strategy is the students’ ability to provide the summary using vocabulary they have already mastered. The summary would not only check the overall understanding and comprehension but would also provide a building block for further vocabulary expansion and concept development.

 

At the beginning levels, the teacher would read from a given selection. The students would then retell the story that the teacher would chart the story as the students dictated. Words would then be substituted for possible synonyms. For higher-level students, similes and metaphors could be introduced in the chart story.

 

Taboo

Go back to Speaking 2.1, 2.2

 

Taboo is a commercial game produced by Milton Bradley Company, Springfield, MA, a division of Hasbro, Inc.  Players in teams try to get their teammates to say the secret word. However, there is a list of words that are “taboo” and cannot be spoken. This word game encourages vocabulary development.

 

Talk-Write Approach

Go back to Speaking 2.3 Go back to Writing 4.1, 4.2

 

This drafting activity helps students to work out vocabulary and linguistic structures that might impede their writing. In pairs, each student talks about what he or she wants to write in response to questions posed by their partner. Students then draft what was said (from materials distributed by Virginia Rojas).

 

Taping and Dubbing a TV Show

Go back to Speaking 2.3, 2.4

 

Taping and dubbing a favorite television show promotes oral language development in the classroom.  A teacher may play the show through once with the sound to help students understand the original story or begin by taping a show and showing it to students without the sound.   Working with partners or in small groups, students are asked to create their own script for the show and “dub” their version onto a tape to play along with the video.  This activity allows students to negotiate the meaning of the pictures (Reading, Writing and Learning in ESL).

 

T-charts

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3 Go back to Writing  4.1, 4.2, 4.4

 

T-charts are a type of graphic organizer that allows students to list and examine two facets of a topic (e.g., pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages, facts vs. opinions). The following ideas were taken from a user-supported website: http://www.enhancedlearning.com

 

Students can use a T-chart to help graphically organize thoughts about:

·                     Making a decision by comparing resulting advantages and disadvantages (like taking a new job)

·                     Evaluating the pros and cons of a topic

·                     Enumerating the problems and solutions associated with an action (e.g., analyzing the plot of a book)

·                     Explaining the strengths and weaknesses of a piece of writing

·                     Listing any two characteristics of a topic

 

Teacher Guided Reporting

Go back to Speaking 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.6 Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

A student is asked to report to the whole class about what he/she has done or learned during a classroom activity. The teacher provides scaffolding by clarifying, questioning, and providing models for the speaker (recasting) so that the learner and teacher together can build up what the learner wants to say. The teacher initiates the exchange by a prompting phrase such as “Tell us what you’ve learned about ____________” or “Tell us what you found out about ________________.”  It may be necessary for the teacher to slow down the conversation and to give up to 8 seconds wait time for additional prompts such as “Can you say that again?”, “Can you explain that a little more?”  or “What do you mean by ____________________? “(Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning, pp. 34-35)

 

Teacher Guided Reporting lends itself very well as a post activity to open response math questions and a science inquiry experiment as students are often asked to report on the hands-on procedures and outcomes of tasks. During the teacher guided reporting, teachers must be aware of students’ zone of proximal development in language usage. Intermediate and advanced LEP students might be comfortable reporting to the whole class, while beginning LEP students may need an individual or smaller group audience. Note the following example:

 

Content Area:  Science                                                                Core Content:  Water Filtration   Organize materials (cups, bottles, sand, pebbles, small rocks, cotton, paper, charcoal, and middy water) for small groups to conduct a water filtration experiment such as the one provided in Activity #2 of “The Best Filter in the Adventures in Water,” a curriculum developed by the Louisville Water Company. http://www.louisvillewater.com/funzone/default.asp Explain the experiment’s purpose and roles/jobs of each member of the group (i.e., leader, builder, tester, illustrator, and reporter). Following the experiment, the reporters participate in the teacher guided reporting in front of the class or small group.   The following modifications are examples of ways to address students’ varying levels of English language proficiency: Advanced and intermediate students can complete the activity as described above. Lower intermediate and beginning students may use a graphic organizer to assist them with the activity. We learned (dirty water can be cleaned). First, we chose to use (sand, cotton, and charcoal) to make the filter. Then we poured our water through  (number) times. I think that our filter (worked/did not work) because (_________).   Since each filter would be constructed with slight differences, each reporter would be giving new information to the class. Another way to provide for a variety of information in teacher guided reporting is to select a number of experiments that all pertain to the same subject such as electricity or erosion. Have each group do a different experiment and report on it. Remember to have students vary their roles/jobs during each experiment.

 

Text Reconstruction

Go back to Writing 4.1, 4.2, 4.4

 

Teachers can use this after reading activity using a familiar text as a springboard. This type of activity encourages students to return to a text to reread and check for specific information. Cut an excerpt from the text into paragraphs or sentences. Students reconstruct a text and explain the sequence they have chosen. This is a good activity for focusing on the cohesive links across sentences and for drawing attention to reference words and conjunctions.

 

Text reconstruction can also be used when modeling a specific type of text. For example, after drawing attention to the characteristics and organizational structure or “shape” of an editorial, students in pairs are asked to do a text reconstruction. Students would reconstruct the jumbled sentences into a coherent text. Alternately, teachers could mix up sentences from two editorials so that students must first sort out which sentence belongs to which editorial and then sequence them (adapted from Gibbons, Scaffolding Language Scaffolding Learning).

 

Think Aloud

Go back to Speaking 2.3, 2.5, 2.6 Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

Think aloud refers to the kind of talk that allows learners to explore and clarify concepts. Students are given an opportunity to negotiate and reword what they are trying to say (Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning, p. 15).

 

Think/Pair/Share

Go back to Listening 1.1, 1.2 Go back to Speaking 2.3 Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

The cooperative learning activity gives students time to think in their new language and then to try out communicating their ideas with a partner before sharing with the whole class. Given a topic or a question, students individually think and may write a few notes to record their thoughts. Pairs of students discuss their ideas and may agree on a response to share with the whole class (Enhancing English Language Learning in Elementary Classrooms, p. 280). 

 

Kathleen Fay and Suzanne Whaley share the following opportunities in their book Becoming One Community:

·              Before writing, students tell their partners what they will write about that day as a rehearsal for their ideas before writing.

·              Before solving math problems, students tell a partner one way to solve the problem.

·              Pairs can be used for reflection. Students who are not fluent writers may be able to reflect orally.

·              Pairs can explore an open-ended question previously asked to the whole group.

·              Pairs can help activate students’ background knowledge before a read-aloud session or the introduction of a new concept.

·              Paris can review a lesson or discussion from the previous day.

 

Timelines

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3 Go back to Writing 4.1, 4.2, 4.4

 

This after-reading activity allows students to focus on the information in the text by representing the information in a different form. Texts that incorporate the passage of time lend themselves to a time line. Illustrating key events on the time line can help students communicate their ideas (Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning, p. 92).

 

Content Area:  Social Studies                  Core Content:  Revolutionary War   In the study of the Revolutionary War, illustrating the causes that build up to the war between the colonies and English could easily be placed on the timeline as the students study. Prior to reading or beginning the unit, have students go on an Internet Scavenger Hunt of pictures that illustrate specific events such as the Boston Tea Party or Taxation without Representation.   As selections are read, the appropriate pictures would be placed on the timeline with student descriptions of the event. In this manner, not only is the student becoming actively involved with the text but is continuing to develop language.

 

The timeline is also critical when referring to the students’ favorite subject-themselves. Even with beginning LEP students, the use of the timeline for the most basic information such as birth, family, and important events makes a vital connection between English and their own experiences.

 

Total Physical Response (TPR)

Go back to Listening 1.1, 1.2 Go back to Speaking 2.5

 

Total Physical Response or TPR is a strategy that models a command and students mimicking  the behavior of the teacher. With this strategy, students associate movement with learning language. (Example:  Turn off the lights. Open the door. Draw a circle. Adjust fine focus on a microscope.) TPR is an excellent strategy to use when introducing an activity. It gives students the opportunity to learn new vocabulary in the context with which they will use the words. See Simon Says.

 

Content Area: Science                                                  Core Content/Topic: Chemical Reaction   A student will do an activity in which they will use a thermometer, a pad of steel wool, a jar and a lid to experience a chemical reaction.  In this activity, from Reeko’s Mad Scientist Lab (http://www.spartechsoftware.com/reeko), the students follow these commands: ·         Put the thermometer in the jar and close the lid. ·         Wait about 5 minutes and write down the temperature. ·         Remove the thermometer from the jar.  ·         Soak a piece of steel wool in vinegar for one minute. ·         Squeeze the vinegar out of the steel wool pad. ·         Wrap the steel wool around the bulb of the thermometer ·         Put the thermometer and steel wool back into the jar and close the lid. ·         Wait 5 minutes. ·         Re-record the temperature.   For LEP students at the beginning level, demonstrate the following actions with the objects listed before the activity:   Thermometer-Put the thermometer on the table.  Put the thermometer under the table. Put the thermometer on your chair. Remove the thermometer from the chair.  Put the thermometer on the table.   Jar: Pick up the jar.  Point to the lid.  Open the lid.  Close the lid.  Put the thermometer on the jar.  Open the lid and put the thermometer in the jar.  Remove the thermometer from the jar.   Steel Wool:  Pick up the steel wool.  Put the steel wool on the table.  Put the steel wool on the jar.  Put the steel wool around the jar.  Wrap the  steel wool around your pencil.  Wrap the steel wool around the thermometer.  Model “soak” by having students pick up an imaginary glass of water.  Have students soak the steel wool in the water.  Do the same with an imaginary soft drink and/or fruit punch.    Upon beginning the experiment, hand out the containers of vinegar and instruct the students on what to do.  Read the experiment to the students and have them act out (but not actually perform) what the instructions indicate.  At this point, students should be able to perform the experience without the teacher modeling.  Finally, allow students to conduct the experiment.

 

 

 

Tree Maps

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3 Go back to Writing 4.1, 4.2, 4.4

 

Tree maps or diagrams show how items are related to one another. The tree’s trunk represents the main topic, and the branches represent relevant facts, factors, influences, traits, people or outcomes.

 

Venn Diagrams

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3 Go back to Writing 4.1, 4.4

 

Venn diagrams are graphic organizers used for comparison. They consist of two or more overlapping circles, each of which represents a different item or concept. Students list the similarities between the items in the intersecting area and list the differences in the parts of the circles that are separate. (KDE)

 

Video/Audio Recording

Go back to Speaking 2.1, 2.3, 2.4

 

Videotape or record audio of students and then let them see what they did.  This allows them to analyze their own performance.

 

Visual Support

 

Visual support refers to using props as you speak.  They may include real objects, pictures, demonstrations, charts, video clips, and anything else that gives visual clues to the meaning of the spoken word.

 

Vocabulary Study

Go back to Listening 1.2 Go back to Reading 3.1

 

Semantic Word Maps illustrate the relationship among words. The target word is written in a circle with descriptors such as definition, characteristics and examples extending from the circle.  Additional information may be added as well.

 

Definition                                  Non-Example                                                   Characteristic                                                                                 Word                                            Sentence                                                Book Examples     Story Sentence

 

 

 

Square Vocabulary Approach provides an interactive way to introduce key vocabulary words and helps students draw on prior knowledge and personal experience.  The strategy takes less time as students learn how to use the strategy on their own. First, students fold and number their papers into four squares.  In square 1, students write the key term while the teacher presents the word in context and explains its definition.  In square 2, students write an example from personal experience that fits the term (can be done in the native language if necessary).  In square 3 students write a  non-example of the term. Finally, in square 4, students write their own definition of the word.  Note the example below:

 

Square 1   compromise   compromised compromising	Square 2   Sometime people have to settle things by giving up something they want.   Some government delegates had to agree to give up some things they wanted to reach an agreement.
Square 3   The fighting couple could not settle their differences and so they divorced.   An agreement between the two counties was not reached, and so a war was started.	Square 4   A compromise in an agreement between two or more people or groups where both must give up something,

 

From materials distributed by Virginia Rojas, Language Education Consultant

 

Web Quest

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

A WebQuest is defined, by Bernie Dodge, bdodge@mail.sdsu.edu at San Diego State University, as "an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet.”

Links:  http://tli.jefferson.k12.ky.us/EDTD675Projects/Default.html

            http://www.edhelper.com/

            http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/webquest/webquest.html

            http://sesd.sk.ca/teacherresource/webquests.htm

            http://www.techtrekers.com/webquests

 

What Did You See?

Go back to Speaking 2.1, 2.2

 

This barrier game allows students to practice vocabulary. A selection of objects or pictures of objects related to the topic being studied are set out. After students have looked at them for a few minutes, the objects are covered and students see how many objects they can remember (Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning, p. 34).This strategy could be utilized to incorporate any category in any subject area.

 

Science- Water Cycle

In the study of the water cycle, pictures would include examples of precipitation, condensation, and evaporation. The game would be expanded further to include weather vocabulary-hail, rain, sleet, wind, snow, hurricane, tornado, blizzard, water spout, cold front warm front-all of which pictures would be needed.

 

Math

Blocks representing the various shapes could be used. Denominations of money could be used. Place value blocks could be could also be used-the student would have to remember the actual number that the blocks represented

 

An entry for beginning students may be to use objects such as toy cars, trucks, vans, buses, trains, planes, and/or ships to introduce modes of transportation.

 

Who Did What?

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

• Select the first few sentences (1^st paragraph at most) from a book, book chapter, story or article. Make sure there are several pronouns with different antecedents.
• Print or write this selection on a transparency with up to the first 10 pronouns bordered or circled.
• Work to achieve consensus among the students as to whom or what the first bordered/circled pronoun refers. Write the antecedent most agreed upon about the pronoun.
• Continue pronoun-by-pronoun until consensus is achieved as to whom or what each bordered/circled pronoun refers.

 

Content Area:  Social Studies                                                                         Topic: Rosa Parks   In 1955 on a cold December day in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was coming home from work. A white man told her to get up from her seat on the bus so he could sit. She said No and was arrested. Montgomery’s black citizens learned of her arrest. It made them angry. They decided not to ride the busses until they could sit anywhere they wanted (Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport).   Her----------------Rosa Parks He-----------------white man She----------------Rosa Parks Them, they -----Montgomery’s black citizens   Suggestions for LEP students: Each student should have individual copy. The pronouns and antecedents should be color coded for better clarification Students should draw a line back to the pronoun to which the antecedent refers

 

 

Who Mixed Up Sentences?

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

• Select the first six or fewer sentences from a book, book chapter, story or article.
• Print or write those sentences on a transparency in random order in a numbered list.
• Work to achieve consensus among the students as to what sentence should be first. Number the sentence with a “1”
• Continue sentence-by-sentence until consensus is achieved as to the correct order of all the sentences.

 

Word Clustering

Go back to Speaking 2.1 Go back to Reading 3.1, 3.2, 3.3

 

This activity can assist LEP learners with developing vocabulary.  Students are given an opportunity to guess a word’s meaning by the context of its use.  An example of this strategy was highlighted in Peregoy and Boyle’s book, Reading, Writing, & Learning in ESL.

• Choose and make a transparency of a passage from students’ reading, leaving out words students might need help in determining the meaning. 
• Ask students to guess what word would fit in the blank space. 
• Place a circle on the board to represent the unknown word and then surround it with the students’ guesses. 
• Place the word used in the passage in the center circle in the cluster after students have completed their guesses.
• Point out the words in the cluster that are synonyms for the central word.

 

The following example is from a social studies passage:

 

After the Louisiana Purchase, President Thomas Jefferson wanted to find out if the Missouri River went all the way through the United States to the Pacific Ocean.   If it did, it would provide a possible trade route.  To find out he sent Lewis and Clark on an expedition up the Missouri River to, he hoped, the Pacific Ocean.  On this ________ Lewis and Clark took 48 men.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                     expedition

 

Wordless Books

Go back to Speaking 2.3

 

Wordless books and/or wordless cartoons tell stories through their pictures. Students share orally their versions of stories in response groups.

 

Word Walls

Go back to Listening 1.1 Go back to Speaking 2.1, 2.2 Go back to Reading 3.1

 

The teacher and the students display words that are relevant to a particular topic or text being studied. For LEP students, word walls can serve as a reference as they write or verbally interact. Often teachers will create one word wall with high frequency words written alphabetically and displayed on butcher paper or sheets of construction paper and other word walls specific to the focus of a unit of study (e.g., literature word walls, content area word walls). When the focus of the unit changes, words can be placed on a word ring or in a notebook for reference. “Placing a picture of the cover of the book to which the words are related helps the students to locate words by simply recalling the context in which the words were studied” (Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners).

 

The following steps in implementing a word wall have been adapted from the resource Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners, pages 223-224:

 

1. Begin by brainstorming a list of words with the students. For easy access, arrange the words in alphabetical order on individual cards and tape them on a wall or place them in a pocket chart. For a multilingual classroom add translations and illustrations to the words to support writing and speaking.
2. Refer to the word wall whenever a word is discussed. For example, if a student asks the spelling of a word that is on the word wall, direct their attention to the word.
3. Use the words for activities such as word sorts, definition games, and phonemic manipulation.

 

Word Sort

Go back to Listening 1.1 Go back to Reading 3.2

 

In this vocabulary development strategy, appropriate for before and during reading, students sort vocabulary terms into categories. The goal is to help them recognize semantic relationships among important concepts in their reading. One type of word sort is “closed”: that is, the teacher provides the categories for the students. In an “open sort,” students develop their own categories for sorting vocabulary.

ü      Before reading provide a word sort which includes words and phrases from the text they will be reading (Be sure they do not see the title of the story or key pictures before they do this.)

ü      Encourage students to tear or cut the words apart so they can be easily moved around. The goal is to arrange the words in an order that supports the telling of story.

ü      Students tell stories they create using the words and phrases.

 

Link: http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/Phonics_Link/lessons/wordsort.html

          http://www.lite.iwarp.com/cra2002B.html#labvocab

 

Writer’s Notebook

Go back to Writing 4.1, 4.2, 4.3

 

A writer’s notebook is a place where students can begin to collect meaningful parts of their lives such as memories, observations, and thoughts. These entries become seed ideas for developing pieces, some of which will eventually be published. In a writer’s notebook, a student has the opportunity to try out, or rehearse, skills that writers use. Importantly, it provides a safe environment for English language learners to experiment with language. It is usually a notebook with lined pages, but can also be as simple as pages of notebook paper stapled together with a student-made cover. Students should be encouraged to decorate their notebooks in a way that is personally meaningful in order to emphasize that it is entirely theirs. If the notebook is beautiful in the student’s eyes, many times, it will be valued all the more.

 

The teacher models how to develop a writer’s notebook, often using literature as a way to explore and verbalize personal memories and connections. It is important to note the power of multi-cultural literature in achieving this purpose for English language learners. The written pieces of former LEP individuals can be especially relevant to students who are learning English. The teacher demonstrates how reading or listening to a story helps you to connect to your own memories. Then, she records phrases about thoughts or memories and shares these with the students. It is important that time be spent helping students develop the language of feelings. The teacher needs to help the students with vocabulary such as worried, afraid, joyful, anxious, and nervous, etc. These words and their meanings should be posted in the classroom as they are discussed so that students can access them for use in their own writing. When students are at the beginning level, it is important to allow them to discuss and record their responses in their native language so that they can participate. They can also draw prior to writing.

 

An important last step is sharing. Students must understand that they will be asked to share, not every day, but regularly, and that they must be good listeners. Sometimes students might share in small groups with native language support. After sharing, add to a class chart that records ideas for what might go in a writer’s notebook based on student responses. Some examples are: memories of special people, memories of special places, memories of special things, things I wonder about, things I like, things I don’t like, things I notice.

 

The teacher evaluates students as she circulates and talks to them about their writing. Some questions she may ask herself are: Did the student make connections to the story? What other sorts of stories are needed? Did the student feel comfortable sharing orally, but not writing? How is this related to the level of language acquisition? Was the student comfortable with the task? What cultural characteristics might be affecting the student? (For example, it may be discouraged in a student’s culture to share personal feelings in a group. How can this student be made to feel safe?) 

 

Performance Level Considerations:

• Beginning level LEP students may use pictures to represent their ideas and memories. Depending on literacy level of student and bilingual support, writing in first language may also be acceptable, take dictation of what the student tells you.
• Intermediate level LEP students may still use pictorial responses with greater use of labeling with words and phrases. Encourage strategies of sounding out words or using word wall words and print around the room.  Also teach students when coming to an unknown word in English, write it in their first language or leave a blank or dash so they can come back to it later. Dictionaries need to be an available resource.
• Advanced level LEP students will still need assistance with vocabulary at times so word walls, posters, and dictionaries need to be available. They may also need additional guided conferences.

 

Writing Process

Go back to Writing 4.1, 4.2

 

• Pre-Writing
  • Brainstorming, Clustering, Listing, Modeling, Outlining
• Drafting
• Conferencing
• Peer Reviews/Teacher Conferences
• Revising
• Proof Reading/Editing

o         Publishing

Link: Writing Development Teachers’ Handbook; go to Chapter 9, “Writing Process”

http://www.education.ky.gov/KDE/Instructional+Resources/High+School/English+Language+Arts/Writing/default.htm

 

 

X Marks the Spot

Go back to Reading 3.2, 3.3

 

The active reading strategy requires students to monitor their own comprehension by using reading symbols such as “x” for important, a “?” for a question, a “!” for interesting, or “*” I knew that, “+” new information, “??” I don’t understand, and “!” for Wow!

 

1. Post symbols/codes where all can see and use them or give students’ individual handouts or bookmarks with them.
2. Model using the coding symbols with a text on a transparency using an overhead projector. (Beforehand determine if students are going to use sticky notes with codes in the margin, if you are going to provide students with photocopies of the text so that they may write in the margin, or if you are going to give students a one inch strip of paper to paperclip in the margin so that they can write on it.)
3. Have students read individually to complete the task.
4. At the end of the assigned reading selection, students meet in small groups to discuss their reactions and understanding of the text.

 

Content Area: Social Studies                                         Core Content: American Civil War   Introduce a selection from classroom social studies text for the class to read. Remind students to use reading codes or symbols during the reading. Have students read individually and use chosen method (sticky notes, photocopy, or one inch strip). The following are examples of ways to address students’ varying levels of English language proficiency: Advanced LEP students can complete the activity as described above. Intermediate level LEP students may use a graphic organizer to assist them with the activity such as one located in Revisit, Reflect, Retell: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension-Hoyt, p. 131.   Nonfiction Scaffold Name_____________________________________ Topic/Book ________________________________ Before I read I thought ____________________________________ _______________________________________________________ After reading more I found _________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Besides this, I learned _____________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Finally, I noticed that _____________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Create an illustration below to show what you learned   Beginning level LEP students may need a reader or reading buddy to perform coding task and graphic organizer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Acknowledgement

The Kentucky Department of Education extends appreciation to the Instruction Companion Development Committee for their effort and dedication to Kentucky students.

 

 

Sylvia Baxter                                        Julester Bennett                        Cabrina Bosco

Karen Botts                                          Latricia Bronger                        Saundra Byrd

Tonya Cook                                         Cathy Fernandez                      Rina Gratz                   

Sonia James                                         Alexander Johnson                   Maureen Keithley

Marti Kinny                                          Elaine Maggard                        Tim Mitsumori

Mary Morgan                                       Danna Morrison                       Pat Potts

Shannon Sampson                                Maria Scherrer             Jena Thacker   

Cathy Weber                                        Norka Whatley

 

Bibliography

 

Armbruster, Bonnie. 2001. Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for

Teaching Children to Read. National Institute for Literacy.

 

Boyle, Owen and Suzanne Peregoy. 2000. Reading, Writing, and Learning in ESL, Third

Edition. Pearson Addison Wesley.     

 

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Acknowledgements

The Kentucky Department of Education wishes to thank the members of the English Language Proficiency Standards Advisory Committee and the Development Team for their guidance and assistance in the development of this draft document.

Kentucky Language Proficiency Standards Advisory Committee

 

Ruth Carneal Instructional Supervisor Mayfield Independent School District	Shelia Duncan Teacher Boyd Central High School Boyd County School District	Ronald Eckard Professor Western Kentucky University Kentucky TESOL Board Member
Cathy Fernandez ESL Teacher Bend Gate Elementary School Henderson County School District Bend Gate Elementary Henderson County School District	Beth Gniot ESL Director Woodford County School District	Sonia James ESL Teacher/Consultant Dishman McGinnis Elementary School Bowling Green Independent School District Kentucky TESOL President
Maureen Keithley ESL Instructor Oldham County School District	Marti Kinny ESL Curriculum Specialist Jefferson County School District	Elaine Maggard ESL Resource Specialist Fayette County School District
Mary Morgan ESL Resource Specialist Jefferson County School District	Denise Munizaga Coordinator of Foreign Languages and ESL Fayette County School District	Shannon Oldham ESL Resource Specialist Fayette County School District
Angie Reimer ESL Resource Teacher Jefferson County School District Kentucky TESOL Treasurer	Therese Suzuki ESL Teacher Warren Elementary School Warren County School District	Jena Thacker ESL Consultant Northern Kentucky Cooperative for Educational Services
Cathy Weber ESL Consultant Kenton County School District	Vicki Writsel ESL Director Bowling Green Independent School District	Guangming Zou Professor Murray State University Kentucky TESOL Vice-President for Membership