Make Any Lesson Come to Life in Your Classroom!

Everyone knows that for students to truly understand lesson content, they must be actively engaged in the learning process in ways that address all learning styles.  To pull this off successfully, teachers must monitor student understanding regularly throughout a lesson in creative ways-ways that hold all students accountable for learning.  Regular checks for understanding keep all students alert and on their toes since they know that not only might they be called on once, but possibly more than once so it is necessary for all students to stay focused:)

Look at this turn to your partner activity from The Teaching Channel.  Notice how every student is on task and enjoying the assignment.  Note how the teacher monitors progress, intercedes when necessary, motivates strugglers, and ensures that all are actively engaged in the assignment.  Though the teacher makes the turn-to-your-partner activity look easy, it wasn't.  Rather it was the result of regular practice until all students knew what was expected of them and delivered.

Another approach which should be part of every lesson is an engaging effective HOOK.  The hook grabs student attention, plants the "seed" for the upcoming lesson, and sets students up to experience success with the lesson.  In this video from the Teaching Channel, a break-up letter sets the stage for the writing of the Declaration of Independence!  Note the giggling:)

One last suggestion is to never be afraid to add some humor:)  

Denise

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Earth BEFORE Satellite Images:)

Today's student population has grown up with millions of images of earth from satellites and spacecrafts mapping out this solar system.  Yet, how many have ever explored images of the planet before the age of space exploration?

In teaching astronomy, technology, ecology, space exploration, photography, etc., this site would  offer a view of humanity's achievement over time in bringing the solar system (here Earth) directly into the classroom in vibrant detail and color. 

Potential Activities for students:

1.  Students could do timelines on the technological advances which led up to Google Earth for example.  They are very visual and students at any English proficiency level could complete the task with minimal assistance.

2.  More advanced students could look at the advantages the improved technology could offer as opposed to the very early images.  This could also be part of a biology course at middle school or high school.

3.  Multi-level groups in language ability could compare/contrast early images with current ones.  How are they different?  How do the improvements over time support the work of scientists, astronomers, ecologists, meteorologists, environmentalists, etc. ?

4.  For the highly creative, have them make projections as to how this technology will evolve in 50 years.

Common Core fits into this with ease.  Students are encouraged to read, analyze, project, synthesize, write, etc.  Teachers here facilitate.  Students create:)


Denise

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Alternative Assessments and Why They Are Crucial to the Academic Success of ELLs in Mainstream Classes

Mainstream classrooms around the states now have ELLs in their classes.  For many, this is a new experience.  Some are unclear as to how to deliver grade level content to students who are not proficient in English.  The old approach was to send such students off to English Language Development (ELD) or Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE) classes.  This is now a rarity. 

In upper grades where students have 6 classes a day, this dilemma has surfaced as a major issue.  Long term ELLs make up the majority of students with D's and F's at the secondary level.  The long term effects of this is an ever increasing number of high school drop outs.  Students trapped in low paying jobs for the rest of their lives.

So what can be done to rectify this situation? Look to alternative forms of assessment.  This is crucial since many of these students, though they sound fluent when they speak, are far below grade level in reading and writing.  Further, many of these students come from homes where the parents/guardians have limited literacy skills in the home language.  Yet, these deficiencies do not equal below average I.Q.s.  They need a different approach to deliver content and build language.

Here are some approaches which I have recommended to educators. 

1.  Weight grades.  For example, set up several categories for points:  homework, groupwork, writing, presentations, quizzes/tests, active classroom participation, learning logs (my favorite), final exams, projects, etc.   Each group is assigned a percentage of the final grades. 

For me, homework was 15%,
cooperative group work 10%,
writing 10%,
presentations 15%,
quizzes/tests 15%,
projects 15%,
finals 10%
vocabulary 10%

With weighted grades, teachers get a much clearer picture of a student's strengths and weaknesses and that leads to a fairer grade.  When the grade is heavily weighted towards formal assessments and final examinations, the ELL suffers.  Weighted grades also provide the teacher with clear specifics to share with parents who are concerned about a student's grade.  Using this approach, teachers can zero in on areas where the student excels as well as where s/he struggles. 

2.  Use rubrics for all major assignments.  Rubrics lay out in detail how student work will be graded.  Further, be sure to share examples of former student work as examples of what the rubric score actually looks like.  Rubrics offer holistic scores where the "big picture" is the focus and not lots of little red marks indicating errors on mechanics more so than content.

3.  When giving formal assessments, allow students to use their learning logs.  For an ELL to remember every detail of key content material in a second language s/he is not that proficient in leads to failure.  If the student knows from the beginning that this will be an option in formal tests, s/he will keep good notes since s/he will be able to use them.

4.  Have regular conferences with ELLs on their grades.  Highlight strengths first and then collaborate on what can be done to improve the weaker grades.

5.  When teaching writing, model, model, model!  Have posters all around the room of examples of good writing (student generated preferably).  Encourage peer partner writing, group writing, and last individual writing (with all drafts).  Again, try to see the big picture of what the student had to say and how well s/he laid out her/his argument first and then in the editing process, provide guidance on addressing errors in mechanics.  Find topics that excite them.  Write as a class.  Make it enjoyable!

6.  If students are failing in a teacher's class, s/he should ask other teachers the student has to see how that same student is doing in their classes.  The insight gained here may lead to re-evaluating the grading process in the teacher's class with that student.

The following two sites offer some ideas on forms of alternative assessments.  Some are for elementary school, but can be adapted to higher grades.

40 ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENTS


COLORIN COLORADO ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENTS

Denise

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Amazing Site "Common Core Standards in Action!"

First, let me apologize for not posting daily of late.  I am leading a 3 hour institute at the annual California Association of Bilingual Educators in two weeks and am still working on it.  When the conference is over, I will be posting all my materials on my website (ELL TEACHER PROS).  My institute is on developing teaching resources to support ELLs in mainstream classes.  I am quite excited about this opportunity to be a resource for teachers around the state (and beyond through this blog and the website).

Now---on to the blog post for today:)

If teachers still have some concerns over implementing common core over this year and the next, they may wish to keep this site in their bookmark folder (or mark as a favorite) for future reference.   Quite a few teachers are wondering if they must re-create all their lessons, assessments, assignments, etc. so they require proof positive that nothing could be further from the truth.  In the past, a "mile wide and one inch thick" was golden rule in prepping students to take standardized tests.  This is no longer the case.  Pacing calendars which were developed to make sure that teachers "covered" all the material in time for the test are on their way to being dropped.   Will implementation of CCSS improve the high drop out rate among high school students?  The belief is that they will if teachers are fully supported in developing a firm handle on how to effectively re-energize instruction with them.

So, though many schools in 46 states implementing CCSS have (or plan to have) already provided their teachers with many professional development sessions to facilitate the move to CCSS, teachers will need support far beyond a few all day inservices.  Some districts have added academic peer coaches to ease the transition.  Further, many schools encourage teachers to attend academic conferences in their field of expertise to further hone their skills.  Still, even with such support, it is not there 24/7:)  What other options are available to teachers then?

Let me state a resource which most don't really think about and yet use this source regularly--colleagues.  It seems that on almost every campus and within every department there exists several teachers who jump at new approaches and enjoy the process.  They are more often than not willing to jump and assist any colleague who asks for help.  Such untapped sources should be looked at for immediate feedback:)

There is also the internet.  That being said--it can be an exhausting process trying to find just the right tool.  With this in mind, this site (and there are others) has tried to develop a bank of sites, suggestions for their use, lesson ideas in all content areas and at all grade levels (just go to SEARCH and type in the subject area), etc. 

Here is the latest tool on assisting teachers with using CCSS based lessons--COMMON CORE STANDARDS IN ACTION!  Most of the material is free, but to receive support in developing lessons (as well as have access to already developed ones), teachers must have a premium account.  However, that is only $50 a year.  This is small change and title 3 would cover it.  Such a tool for such a price will ease teacher stress levels.  Still, some might not need that level of service.  If that is the case, just sign up for the limited access one (I have that one since I have been following CCSS for over 1 year now).

Last, if you look at the top 10 blog posts for this site, 9 of them are on CCSS--videos, lessons, instructional strategies, etc.:)

Denise
ELL TEACHER PROS

P.S.  Enjoy the inauguration of Pres. Obama tomorrow.  It will be broadcast around the world.  Regardless of political party loyalties, the history beyond this inauguration to all the others which preceded it will be woven throughout and that should excite history buffs:)

Teacher-Student Conferences On Writing Do Wonders to Improve Writing Skills of ELLs:)

Becoming fully proficient in the writing process is no easy task for many English language learners.  It takes time, practice, and regular productive feedback and guidance from teachers.  Technology, group work, partner paragraphs/essays, daily journals, etc. all assist ELLs along the way, but it is that special time with the teacher which can make a major difference in clarifying the writing process.

In my classes, I have always included that one-to-one conference time with each student when working on essay writing.  Students enjoy it because they know that for 2 or 3 minutes, they have 100% of my attention while the rest of the class continues to revise or edit their writing. 

How are such conferences conducted?  Let me share how I do it and then I will address the video clip of a teacher conducting a writing conference with a 5th grader.   For me, the type of writing conference would depend on where the student is in the writing process. 

If analyzing for grammar issues, I would tell the students that I am looking to see X amount of complex sentences in their work.  In a conference, we would read the student's work as a team with pausing to identify complex sentences while checking for accuracy.  If there were no complex sentences, we would see how some of the simple sentences could be joined and how.  I would start the process with one and then have the student try it on his/her own with me watching.

If looking for more details (The man ate his dinner-->The tall thin man gobbled down his food because he hadn't eaten in 2 days!), I would have the student pull out a sentence that he felt was weak on development and then we would collaborate in strengthening it.  The student would then try a few more with me providing feedback through the process.

Basically, the focus of the conference could be determined by the student, the teacher, or both.

In this video, STUDENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES, the teacher reviews a student's work with him.  She praises what he has done well and then, by helping him analyze the problems of his writing through referral to the sample essays in his writing book, guides him along the path to writing a more detailed, more complete, more effective persuasive essay.  Here it is crucial not to tell a student what to do, but rather set him/her on the right path to creating an original work worthy of the teacher's praise.

There are many ways to conduct such conferences AND they can be done in all content areas.  I think that they are worth the time because students can safely open up to teachers about any problems they are having with an assignment:)

Denise

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Project Based Learning in FIRST GRADE Lays the Foundation for University Success Down the Road:)

Anyone who still doubts the effectiveness of implementing Common Core Standards in classrooms across the nation has not really paid much attention to how it has revolutionized instructional delivery in all grades.  CCSS attaches meaning to any lesson since it opens the door to real world application at every turn, in every subject area, and at every grade level.

An example of this revolutionary thinking is quite apparent in this video clip of first graders exploring topics of interest to them through the guidance of the teacher.  As the children present her with various animals they would like to study in depth in their classroom, she gently guides them to more practical choices without outright dismissal of their ideas.  This approach is one of validation of their thoughts and recognition of their efforts.  PROJECT BASED LEARNING IN FIRST GRADE

After the worm project, the door opens up to other interests of the students.  One of them relates to an illness a fellow student in their class suffers from-multiple sclerosis.  As they do the research on the disease, they explore avenues of discovery that would never have been approached in the traditional textbook.  It is incredible to see students so young taking on topics far beyond their typical first grade curriculum. 

Further their use of technology is incredible.  This is what teachers at all grade levels are trying to implement.  Students of the 21st century are already familiar with many forms of technology, but often times, schools don't have many tech tools due to budget constraints.  This must change if American students are to be prepared to enter the global workforce as equals.

I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did.  Wow!  If they keep this up, they will all the major universities knocking on their door to admit them by the time they are in their junior year of high school:)

Denise

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P.S.  Be sure to sign up for our November Newsletter at ELL TEACHER PROS.  It will cover politics:)

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COMMON CORE: BRAINSTORM, DISCUSS, WRITE-HOW TO INVOLVE ALL STUDENTS

Here is a fifth grade teacher doing an incredible job at fully implementing common core standards with informational text.

The techniques used here work equally well in upper grades (middle school and high school).  Further, ELLs are fully engaged in the lesson and the teacher scaffolds them without watering down the content.  In fact, her ELLs worked on the SAME questions as the other students.  This approach satisfies any equity issue. 

The next three videos move from one stage to the next and arriving finally at the writing stage.  Like legos, each "block" adds to another until a final product is created.  Notice the classroom and the heavy student engagement with the teacher guiding, scaffolding, supporting students as needed.  She does not dominate the discussion.  Rather, she lets the students interact with the text and each other in sharing their individual understanding of it.

ANALYZING TEXTS:  BRAINSTORM BEFORE WRITING  In first segment, the teacher has students talk within their small groups about what the text made them think about.  Students had written notes on post-it notes, in their journals, or just remembered what interested them (probably auditory learners).  With these ideas, they discussed their findings with their table groups.  Small groups are not intimidating for ELLs.  They can safely share their ideas and also listen to their peers without distractions.  Further, it is a safer environment for them to ask clarification questions of their table group members than to pose similar questions to the whole class.  Also, through discussion, ELLs and others are speaking and listening to accomplish the class objective (preparing to eventually write about their findings).  The stronger the speaking and listening skills, the better the reading and writing will be.

TEXT TALK TIME  Students have previously brainstorm ideas about the text with their peers.  Now, they begin to make connections to it.  They are interacting with the text.  They are revealing with the text told them.  The teacher asks many open-ended questions to allow a wide range of responses.  Students want to share their thoughts and are eager to provide evidence from the text to back up their sources.   This is a goal of common core to have students not be spoon fed information only from the teacher.  With common core, it is expected that students be able to read a text and pull information from it.

ANALYZING TEXT:  PUTTING THOUGHTS TO PAPER  Now, after steps and and two above, students are now ready to start writing.  The questions they are writing on are not new.  It is important to stress this.  Students are now putting to paper the thoughts they have already been working on through brainstorming and text-to-text activities.  Further, the teacher pulls the ELLs aside to scaffold their attempts to answer the SAME questions that the rest of the class is working on.  There is no watering down of the task for them.  By not bringing in writing topics that students had never seen before, they are not being set up for failure.  Common core wants students fully prepared to demonstrate their knowledge in writing by pulling together all the resources that they had accumulated over the lesson.  Students are set up to be successful with their assignments this way.

I hope you find these approaches useful for you and your students:)

Denise

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SOLID STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP ACADEMIC VOCABULARY FOR LONG-TERM ELLS AND STRUGGLING ENGLISH ONLY STUDENTS

Students will start back to school shortly and among them will be many academically struggling students.  With Common Core Standards being rolled out this year in many parts of the country, students will be undertaking tasks far more academically challenging than those in the past.  The need to do more independent work will be new to many of them.  Teamwork will also be a focus.  Here the group is confronted with a problem that they must solve as a team.  Each member of the group contributes possible solutions to the problem along with evidence to back up their ideas.  This is the goal of CCSS--- to prepare our students to succeed in life beyond high school be it in the global workforce or in college. 

In doing research or following academic lectures in content classes, students will encounter academic vocabulary that will be totally unfamiliar to them.  Of course, developing techniques to share with students to overcome this obstacle will fall on their teachers:)  There are specific strategies which address this issue with relative ease.  In fact, most teachers are familiar with some if not most of them. 

Based on the article STRATEGIES FOR VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT FOR ELLS AND STRUGGLING STUDENTS and my own experience in teaching such students, the following approaches DO NOT WORK:

1.  Use the dictionary to find the meaning.  Copying down the definition is pointless.  No connection is  being made between the word and the student's background knowledge.
2.  Write a sentence using the word in it.  If this is done before the meaning of the word (within context) is made clear, it is not effective.
3.  Take note of the context in which the word is found.  This approach only really works when a student brings background knowledge to the reading passage in which the word is found.  Since the context is totally unfamiliar, such an activity would serve little benefit to the student.
4.  Memorize the definitions.  Students are highly unlikely to remember word lists and definitions.  Think back to the vocabulary tests you took in school.  The isolated words had no connection to anything studied.  You memorized them for the test and that was all.

What DOES work?
1.  Tie new vocabulary to what students already know.  Activate prior knowledge and help students make connections to it.
2.  Use the new words repeatedly in different formats so that students can eventually internalize the definitions. 
3.  Provide many opportunities for the students to use the new words in reading, writing, and academic discussions.  By taking this approach, teachers are broadening their academic vocabulary bases.  As this base grows,  it leads to better writing and easier access to demanding reading assignments.
4.  Bring in word parts in context.  The more word parts (affixes) students know, the broader their vocabulary becomes.
5.  Use dictionaries aimed at second language learners.  Longman, Cengage Learning, and Oxford have excellent dictionaries for ELLs (beginning through advanced).  These dictionaries have clear examples, CDs, and workbooks.  Struggling native speakers would benefit from them also.
6.  Identify the MUST-KNOW words and teach those.  If teaching a science class, narrow down the vocabulary to 7-10 absolutes a week.  The other vocabulary can be talked through by the teacher when they are encountered.
7.  Point out antonyms, synonyms, examples and non-examples when teaching vocabulary.  In doing so, students will be able to establish more connections between known and new.

This article has even more on this topic.  The ones above I have used and with success:)

Denise


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Common Core and ELLs--Practical Suggestions for Mainstream Teachers To Offer Support For These Students

The common core standards will also be transforming the ELD standards (still in draft form).  These new standards will provide more direction for teachers in identifying their ELLs and their levels.  With this information, it will fall on teachers to address language and content in their classes. 

So what is a teacher to do?  Well, some of the strategies that have worked in the past will also transition here:  visuals, scaffolding, graphic organizers, lots of class interactions with their English peers, accommodations in assessments, structured cooperative learning activities, sentence frames, word walls, concept maps, etc.  All of those approaches and many more like them do work; however more is needed.

Teachers will need to be very focused in the delivery of their lessons.  Clear content standards written in student friendly language will especially clarify for ELLs what they will be expected to learn.  If there is no mystery behind the content standards, teachers can expect full class participation.  Next, the learning objective must be read by all and dissected by teacher into comprehensible chunks with a few random checks for understanding to ensure that everyone knows what s/he will eventually be held accountable for learning.  Then there is the need to identify academic vocabulary (words that are used in all content areas) and key content vocabulary for the immediate class.  How many words should a teacher bring in here?  Typically, no more than 7 per lesson for academic words and they are used repeatedly in all language areas thus allowing the ELL time to process and retain the words.  With key vocabulary, students need to be made aware of them and allowed time to work with them through highly supported venues.  Word walls, concept maps, frayer models are just some of the tools that can be used to provide the ELL with ways to remember those 5 or so words.  If there are more words, teachers will need to decide what words are crucial to their understanding of the concept and which words can just be talked through by the teacher in delivering the lesson.   In addition, teachers will need to do a variety of checks-for-understanding:  whiteboards, games, random call-ons, problem solving, structured cooperative groups with each student holding a role, jigsaw, numbered heads together, skits, posters, etc.

Once the lesson is done, teachers will want to try one more quick check-for-understanding called the exit ticket.  The students will be given a 3X5 index card on which they will respond to a few questions designed by the teacher based on the content the class studied that day.  Typically this tool only takes about 5 minutes for students to do and less than 5 for the teacher to assess the effectiveness of the lesson.  If 80-90% have the right answers, they will be fully capable of doing the homework assignment.  For the 10-20% who are still struggling, the teacher can pull them aside and provide some guidance while the rest of the class possibly starts on a more challenging assignment based on the day's work.

If time is spent effectively delivering solid content to every student and academic language in addition to the ELLs, 90% will be fully prepared to complete assigned homework.  That 10% who are still having difficulty can be given adjusted assignments with the understanding that the teacher may give them the more difficult assignment when the teacher feels that they have fully demonstrated their ability to now do the work that they found impossible only a couple of days ago.

COMMON CORE AND ELLS--SUGGESTIONS FOR MAINSTREAM TEACHERS TO SUPPORT ELLS  This site offers a more detailed layout on this area.  You may wish to bookmark it.  It is a good source to go to when you need some inspiration:)

Denise


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Supporting ELLs in Mainstream Common Core Classes:)

The common core standards movement  in education will not leave ELLs behind.  Teacher commitment is strong.  After all, how many teachers want their students to fail?  In truth, teachers want the best for their students.  The motivation becomes even more earnest when faced with ELLs.  The heart is there, but often times, teachers don't have much in the way of training to fully support these students in their mainstream classes.

So, let's start with a teacher attitude that can make a world of difference in achievement for ELLs and other struggling students-attitude of the teacher towards students.  ABC News captured some of those exceptional qualities that make a major difference in inspiring all kids to succeed.  WHAT MAKES A GREAT TEACHER?  Notice regular physical checks for understanding are prominent.  If the teacher doesn't monitor progress, s/he leaves students behind academically.  With those quickie assessments, the teacher keeps her/his pulse on the learning going on.  If there is a problem, teachers can quickly do some repair work to assist the strugglers in catching up to the class.  Another big asset for teachers is setting high goals for all their students.  Let students rise to the teacher's expectation.  Encourage students to reach for the stars and help them get there.  Also, if a lesson is not working out as planned, change it.  Confess to students that it isn't working and that is your fault.  Students of all ages appreciate honesty here. 


HOW TO SUPPORT ELLS IN MAINSTREAM CLASSES WITHOUT DUMBING DOWN CONTENT  Though this is aimed at elementary, many of the teaching tips also work in the higher grades.  What components transfer over?

First, teachers must build background knowledge so students will be ready to appreciate your lesson.

Second, teachers must provide explicit instruction (tell students exactly what they will be doing and held responsible for learning) and modeling (teachers must model the behavior they expect their students to copy).

Third, teachers need to provide time for guided practice so that students will be fully familiar with what is expected of them to produce eventually on their own.  Here, the teacher monitors their progress offering assistance or guidance as needed.  With sufficient support here, students can successfully complete project or homework assignments.

Fourth, instruction can not be top down all day.  Students need to interact with peers (THINK-PAIR-SHARE, elbow partner, small cooperative learning groups) to fine tune their understanding of key concepts to complete assigned tasks.  This is also an ideal time for ELLs to further develop their knowledge of English while simultaneously growing in English.

Fifth, teachers must offer various means of assessment to be sure that at least 80% of the class is following along with the instruction.  For that 20% that isn't, the teacher can clarify in a small group while the rest proceeds with additional tasks.

HELPING ELLS SURVIVE IN MAINSTREAM CLASSES
Here is a great overview in a checklist like format of problems teachers need to look for in planning content lessons for ELLs in all content areas.  It is a great tool to use in planning a lesson for classes with some ELLs in them.  Of course, other students would benefit as well.

Denise


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