Building Academic Language for ELLs--a MUST for Common Core

Common core is here.  For English language learners (ELLs) to survive and thrive in this new learning environment, they must have more developed literacy skills to tackle far more challenging academic demands than in the past.  Dictionaries should never be the first resources for any students and especially ELLs.  For the English only students, they are often confused by the different definitions for any given word.  The waters get muddier with ELLs since definitions for new words are defined in a language that they are not that familiar with for the most part. 

So how can teachers provide those crucial supports for ELLs so that they may experience success in completing academic tasks in the classroom?  Delivering such supports is not difficult.  It can be built into any instruction with just a few adjustments.  Further, these same adjustments will also support the English only students because often times what is good for ELLs is also good for EOs.

Here is one site with a few approaches to building academic vocabulary.  It is one I wrote for the Examiner a year ago.  Within it, there are two more websites which address key academic words students should learn along with additional strategies to teach vocabulary. Another link, though geared to science, the strategies would work in any classroom for any content area.

Find approaches which work for you and your students.  Make activities engaging, informative, and fun.  Then watch their academic vocabulary base grow:)

Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS
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Great FREE Tool to Build Reading Fluency and Academic Vocabulary

Common core demands students build a strong background in academic vocabulary.  Though teachers do their best in trying deliver grade level lessons with the vocabulary demands which accompany them to all of their students, they sometimes feel overwhelmed in addressing those language needs of their long term English language learners who have a long history of academic failure. 

This post offers just one tool to add to the teacher tool kit-the CLOZE.  I have seen many online cloze generators and this still ranks number one on my list due to its price (FREE), ease of use, and friendly formats.  It can be use for any subject area and any grade level.  Teachers will have to save what they generate on their own computers since the site does not store what is created, but that is only a minor inconvenience:)

Below are the options available for selecting words to remove.  Note that the last one leaves the choice completely up to the teacher to decide on.

every words

articles

prepositions

link words

auxiliaries

wh- words

quantifiers

modals

let me choose

Further, with older students, why not have them create "quizzes" for their peers?  They would be exploring the best passage to use and the key academic vocabulary to select.  They must know what the words mean that they pick.  This provides practice with academically challenging vocabulary in an engaging activity which builds self-confidence.

Students might also find passages of interest to them and create cloze activities for fun for their classmates to tackle.  All of this builds a foundation in gathering word meaning from text-any text.

CLOZE GENERATOR

Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS

AMAZING TOOL TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO ACADEMIC LANGUAGE FOR ELLS AND EOS ALIKE

As content teachers see the number of English language learners increase in their classes, they will be faced with the double duty of delivering access to academically challenging vocabulary along with building English language proficiency.  For many, addressing such language demands may be relatively new and therefore a bit overwhelming.  However, thanks to the work of Kenji Hakuta and Greg Wientjes of Stanford, delivering comprehensible academic language to ELLs can be done with ease.

ABOUT WORDSIFT  -- here is a detailed overview of the many features the site offers for free.  Basically, a teacher (or student) either types a passage into the box or does a copy and paste.  To sift out academic words, click on SIFT.  A word cloud appears with varying sizes of words in the passage.  Large print indicates rare while small print equals common.  Other options for sifting are common to rare, rare to common, academic word language, English, science, math, social studies, and custom. 

There is far more to this site than sifting however.  Once the key words appear, the teacher can find google images in the site to clarify word meanings for students.  Since a picture says a thousand words, teachers will be able to supply comprehensible meaning for every word selected.  Further, there is visual thesaurus where teachers can expand vocabulary for students with just a few clicks.

WORD SIFT Click here to enter the site.  Teachers only need to find passages from their content areas to copy and paste here.  Click on SIFT and find those academic words with ease.  These are the words ELLs will find difficult to decipher if left to reading on their own.  If teachers display the results on their screens or whiteboard via LCD projects, they can engage the entire class in discussing unfamiliar vocabulary via the visuals.  Such activities engage all students with ease.

TOUR THROUGH WORD SIFT
For a complete tour of the many rich features of the site, click here.   Teachers should have no problem exploring the site and designing many ways to weave it into their classes. 

DEMO LESSON WITH WORD SIFT
How would the site be used as a teaching tool?  This link takes the visitor through all the features of a a complete lesson.  This is a wonderful starting point for any teacher considering using this site in a lesson.  If there is some free time over the winter break, teachers may like spending some time playing with it.

Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS

Pacon Blank Flash Card Dispenser Boxes, 2w x 3h, Assorted, 1000/Pack (Google Affiliate Ad)
Boardwalk Butcher Paper, 15 x 900', White (Google Affiliate Ad)
Crayola Original Markers - Broad Line, Classic Colors, 10 ct. (Google Affiliate Ad)

How to Use LATIN and GREEK Affixes to Expand Academic Vocabulary Base for ELLs and Others

How do students make major jumps in their knowledge of academic vocabulary?  They achieve this goal through mastery of some key affixes.  With just a few, vocabulary bases grow.  Here is a fun rap on affixes.  It drives home the point with ease AND kids will like it:   FUN RAP ON AFFIXES   The song covers just a few, but that is enough to make the point that being familiar with a few can expand one's vocabulary with ease.

Ideally, the instruction should be tied to the work they are studying.  This way teachers can spend time on reinforcing the concept.  For example, the GEOLOGY has the root GEO (earth) and LOGY (the study of).  From that word, there is the adjective GEOLOGIC and the adverb GEOLOGICALLY.  Break the word down into its components.  Bring in the use of the suffix to identify the part of speech.  The more affixes they know, the more their vocabulary base will grow.  It is also never too early to learn.  Elementary school students start exploring it in the early grades so they have a head start on many of the older ELLs.  Tie it to what students are studying, give points for applying their new skills outside of class, bring in games with prizes, create class competitions on affixes, have kids create their own words to test classmates on (lots of fun), bingo, etc.   All of this leads to a better grasp of academic text, literature, and higher test scores on college entrance exams. 

If you need some lists of common affixes, I have the following two: 

PREFIX SUFFIX CHARTS AND MORE Pick the affixes which work for your discipline.  You can do a copy and paste.  This will allow you the freedom to pull affixes out as needed or to create personalized reference sheets for your students.  One more comment on the need to allocate time on this area of vocabulary development comes from
READING ROCKETS--COMMON GREEK AND LATIN ROOTS Just another source:)


Denise
ELL TEACHER PROS

Boardwalk Butcher Paper, 36 x 900', White (Google Affiliate Ad)
Elmer's White Poster Board - 50/carton - Display Boards (Google Affiliate Ad)
SJ Paper Colored Index Cards, 4"x6", 250/PK (Google Affiliate Ad)

SETTING ELLS UP TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES/HISTORY CLASSROOM:)

How do you actively engage the typical ELL in a mainstream social studies class?  What tools does the teacher need to scaffold or support the ELL in a world history class or U.S. history one?  How does a teacher bring the ELL into class discussions in ways where the ELL won't feel uncomfortable or ill at ease.  After all, her/his English language proficiency will be below that of the native speaker of English so the fear that s/he might not be able to articulately share her/his opinion can be a bit intimidating. 

In this site (NYU School of Education), stumbling blocks to comprehension for the ELL will be addressed and successful approaches to dealing with them.  MAKING SOCIAL STUDIES/HISTORY ACCESSIBLE TO ELLS  Vocabulary will once again be an issue.  How will you determine what IS important and therefore must be taught as opposed to what can just be talked through in the lesson and not mentioned again.  Once that decision is made by the teacher, s/he must then decide what vocabulary words the ELL needs to know and why.  This is an important decision since the ELLs are also still working with a new language.  Processing content in a language that a student doesn't yet fully comprehend can be overwhelming to say the least.  So a teacher has to target those key crucial words and use them in context, reading, writing, speaking, speaking regularly so that ELLs will eventually incorporate them in their vocabulary base.  A teacher should build in the class a variety of activities and scaffolding devices that students could use to internalize the words.  Though the site will have some proven strategies, here are few more not mentioned: word walls (use chart paper and when the word walls are done, post them throughout the classroom), concept maps (all students enjoy this tool--the visuals help everyone remember the key information), mind maps (blogged on in the past in this site), sentence frames (geared to high beginners, intermediates, and advanced ELLs),  FRAYER MODEL, etc. 

GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS FOR SOCIAL STUDIES/HISTORY


MORE GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS

It is also necessary that the teacher set up speaking supports for ELLs.  They must know how to present their opinions in ways that are accepted as non-confrontational.  This is accomplished through lots of practice.  Ex.  "Though I respect your opinion, I have a different one.  I believe that....."  Think-pair-share, elbow partners, cooperative learning, etc. are just some of the grouping strategies which can be used to provide the ELL with speaking and listening practice using academic language and sentence frames.  Time must be allocated for intensive listening and speaking time for the ELLs so that they will start to build a based of academic words and sentences that they will eventually use in their writing as well as recognize when they read.  With listening, speaking, reading, and writing going on regularly in class, the ELL's English skills will improve as well as her/his grasp of content.

Last, but not least, a teacher should have lots of visuals, timelines, concept maps, key vocabulary (frayer model layout), etc. all around the room so that the ELL has all the support necessary to get the content and grow in English language skills:)

Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS

How About FREE Online Graphic Novels for Your Students to Read Over the VACATION:)

It is every teacher's hope that students will pick up a few good novels over the summer both classic as well as graphic (similar to comic book layouts).  One way to have this occur is to add a convenience feature to it.  After all, if everything is free and the selection offers many genres, they should have no trouble finding something to suit their interests.

Students will need a computer or a good smart phone to access the materials.  Once downloaded, they are free to read at at their leisure.  If they are older, why not encourage them to read to younger siblings?  Or, after reading, create their own graphic short story on a topic of interest to them.  This brings in writing, and unbeknownst to them, keeps their writing skills sharp.  There is also the added bonus of enriching their vocabulary base.  English teachers will be quite happy to say the least.

FREE ONLINE GRAPHIC NOVELS

Denise


ELL TEACHER PROS