SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING SCIENCE VOCABULARY TO ELLS--SUPPORT FOR COMMON CORE SCIENCE STANDARDS

You have ELLs in your science class.  There are only a few of them scattered throughout the room.  How do you decide WHICH words must be expressly taught and WHICH only need to be touched upon?  Going strictly by the content vocabulary words the publisher has identified as IMPORTANT is not the best route to follow since the basic academic vocabulary needed to understand the text might be totally unfamiliar to them.  Teachers need to preview the material to look for academic vocabulary that ELLs will need help with so that they fully participate in activities based on common core.  In a word, science teachers must become English teachers.

EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING SCIENCE VOCABULARY  is a site that offers some excellent teaching tips on addressing this scenario.  Students must hear the word, see it, recognize it when they read it, use it in making scientific arguments, write it in lab reports/research, etc.  If they are new at learning English, they need the support of sentence frames to internalize the vocabulary in context.  These frames can be accessed as needed in any of the language skill areas:  listening, speaking, reading, and writing.  Do this on a regular basis in the class period (or part of the day when science is taught) and students will ALSO grow in their English language skills (big side benefit).

Many strategies are addressed here, but here are some of my favorites:

Graphic organizers where the focus is on building language is number one with me.  See the example.  In it, there is the main word in the center.  From that center point, students add synonyms, definition, picture, and a sentence.  I have even had kids keep them on a binder ring for easy access.  Over time, they build their own content language "dictionary." Have students quiz each other right before quizzes with the weaker student quizzing the stronger one first.  This way the weaker one has an opportunity to review the words before he is tested.

Word parts is an area that can be addressed in many content classes. The more word parts (affixes) a student knows, the richer the student's vocabulary will be.  Science is rich in Latin and Greek affixes.  Take for example -ology (the study of).  Add BIO- and you have biology.  GEO and you have geology.  Build a class list of important affixes on a wall chart and leave it up there for all students to refer to as needed.  Over time, students won't feel the need to check the list as much because they will have internalized it in long term memory.

Keep discussions in the ACTIVE VOICE "The moon controls the tides" as opposed to PASSIVE VOICE "The tide is controlled by the moon."

You have some successful strategies of your own as do your colleagues.  Collaborate on this area.  The more teaching tools at your disposal, the more successful ALL of your students will be in studying science!

Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS

Khan Academy--114 Geometry Videos To Support Your Instruction

If you are looking to develop more review support in your math classes for your ELLs and others, you should take a look at Khan Academy.  It covers all areas of mathematics and science.  The videos are simple to follow and clearly would support a teacher's instruction.  Further, if you have ELLs in your classes, you can find translations in every subject.  Imagine having a newly arrived Mandarin only speaker and offering this site as a tool to access the content of your lesson.  The anxiety level of that ELL would definitely drop since he or she would not be totally in the dark in following your activity.  KHAN LANGUAGES lists all the languages available on the site.

For this post, I pulled out only one subject area--KHAN ACADEMY GEOMETRY.  Within this section are 114 videos all on geometry.  The total viewing time is slightly over 15 hours.  Though the amount of time on each subject component varies, they typically do not exceed 10 minutes more or less.  Access to the site is free and open to anyone.  Since ELLs typically need to jump two hurdles academically--language and content, they would benefit from such online support because it would provide them with additional practice in mastering the content.

Denise
ELL TEACHER PROS

PS  If you use CHROME as your browser, you may have a problem accessing my blog.  What you should do is ENTER the site (ignore the warnings--for some reason it has a problem with WORDPRESS BLOGS---and then bookmark it.  Once bookmarked, the problem is fixed:)

NEED Incredible Supports for Science? Look No More:)

If you have limited resources when it comes to securing quality science video supports for your lessons, you may want to take a look at this site.  Click on TOPICS and you will find a wide range of science topics covering astronomy and space, earth and environment, chemistry, life science, mathematics, physics, medical sciences, engineering, and technology.  No membership is required.  SCIENCE 360

Another awesome feature here is the radio broadcasting segment.  Teachers (and students) can get the free iPhone and Android apps to listen at will.  If your school allows students to bring their smart phones to class, you can have them use them to complete assignments using this site.  Imagine how this might help your ELLs who often need more time to process academic content.  Now, they need only go to the app on their phones to review class material.  On this site are over 100 radio shows and audio podcasts.  Surely, there will be several that address your class content.
SCIENCE 360 RADIO BROADCASTS 

Would you also like to assign reading as part of your homework (or classwork)?  Here you will find news from science magazines, blogs, and news articles.  The readings cover 3-12+.  You need only scan for content and reading/grade level.  Since it is a change from the familiar textbook, students might exhibit a bit of excitement in doing the assignments:)  Further, for optimum use in class, assign small groups to read, review, analyze, and share out their understanding of assigned reading sections.  ELLs will benefit from this type of activity since they would not be navigating the site on their own.  Cooperative group learning communities make content accessible to everyone in the group so everyone is a winner:)  SCIENCE 360 NEWS SERVICE

Hope you enjoy the site. 

Denise


ELL TEACHER PROS