Everything you will see here is courtesy of Pearson Publishers. They have set up a free site to offer suggestions and support to teachers of ELLs. Though the options are there to buy textbooks from them, much of their material is free including video clips to offer details on instructional programs (SIOP), ELL Rights, approaches for teaching content, and much more.
ELL SUPPORT FROM PEARSON Here you will see the overview of everything on the site. The description is quite direct and therefore easy to follow. Again, it is a publisher and they hope you will buy books from them, but the free resources would be enough for most teachers who are accustomed to teaching ELLs. Dr. Cummins' work is evident in Pearson's products. His work on 2nd language acquisition (BICS--conversational language--and CALP--COGNITIVE ACADEMIC LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY) was a major contributor in the major shift from grammar only programs to academic success in mainstream classes.
ELL BILL OF RIGHTS There are millions of ELLs in US schools and teachers are searching for better programs and support to meet the diverse needs of this audience. This site is one source of support obviously, but there are many others. Schools offer onsite professional development workshops in this area. Many of those are well done. Where administration asks for input from teachers, they are even more successful. Look at the list and see if some (or all) of the ELL rights addressed are met in your school.
APPROACHES FOR TEACHING CONTENT TO ELLS Dr. Cummins and other leaders in teaching ELLs created this package for Pearson. Here is the overview of the next two pieces below.
FIVE BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR TEACHING CONTENT TO ELLS Five basic principles are outlined here on how ELLs can succeed in their classes. Many of you are probably already aware of many of them so feel free to share them with others.
1. Clear learning objectives.
2. Front load content/vocabulary.
3. Comprehensible Input.
4. Enable language production.
5. Assess for content and language understanding.
A good class has all 4 language skills going on all the time: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. A good class provides constant support and regular checks for understanding. A good class sets ELLs up to experience success with independent assignments/homework/projects. (Video clips elaborate on those 5 basic principles.)
SIOP (SHELTERED INSTRUCTION OBSERVATION PROTOCOL) One instructional approach that has experienced quite a bit of success is SIOP (video clips elaborate on this approach).
1. Lesson preparation.
2. Building background.
3. Comprehensible input.
4. Strategies.
5. Interaction.
6. Practice and application.
7. Lesson delivery.
8. Review and assessment.
I have been a teacher for years and this approach led me to re-evaluate the completeness of my lesson. Reflection on the effectiveness of our lessons is something each of us does in the hopes of identifying the weak areas so that they can be corrected for the next lesson:)
I hope you enjoy this post. I was impressed with Pearson's support of teachers.
Denise
ELL TEACHER PROSPS If you haven't voted for this blog yet, please do. It is much appreciated:)
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