Design Graphic Organizers to Support ELLs in Your Classes---FOR FREE!

With English language learners in practically every classroom and at every grade level throughout the United States, teachers need to create scaffolding devices to support student efforts to derive meaning from content.  Though there are many ready to print graphic organizers available on the internet, not all fit equally in any given lesson.  So what is a teacher to do?  COOL TOOLS to the rescue:)

Within COOL TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS,  teachers are offered a wide variety of online tools to develop their own graphic organizers to meet the specific needs of the students in their classes.  Differentiation is done with ease and all designs created can be saved for later use. 

I see myself using DIAGRAMMR with my low intermediate students in class, but I also see it working with ELLs in more advanced English classes as they try to incorporate more complex sentence structure into their writing, dissect more complex sentences to better understand the content, and edit their written work before it is handed in for grading.

Denise

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Graphic Organizers Support Students in Both Writing and Accessing Content

Though this blog has addressed graphic organizers as well as thinking maps in the past, it never hurts to deliver refreshers on the topic:)

These tools offer support to ELLs as well as any other students who need additional assistance in navigating the content of a lesson.   They can be used at any grade level and in any subject area.  Another bonus feature of these tools is that technology is not necessary (though there are sites online where they are woven into content). 

So how might they be used in class?  If students are reading a text and looking for comparison/contrast details, they might use a double-bubble mind map or a venn-diagram.  To brainstorm new topics, a concept map fits the bill.  All student replies would be posted to a chart and kept on the wall for students to revise or add to as they study their passage, book, news article, etc. 

There are no limits to their use in class.  In fact, why not have students create their own from time to time:)

GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS AND MUCH MORE (including FREE E-Book)
--with this site, you are invited to subscribe.  Once you do so, you receive a FREE E-Book on Education Technology Resources).

Denise

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Anticipation Guides--Very Powerful Tool to Build Background Knowledge for ALL Students in ALL Subjects and at ALL Grade Levels

For common core based lessons to succeed, teachers need to know what background knowledge a student has in the topic of the lesson to be delivered before the instruction begins. If students have some knowledge of the topic, teachers can adjust lesson plans accordingly.  If the reverse is true, teachers must build those missing pieces of knowledge for students to experience success with mastering the lesson content.

There are of course many ways to assess for prior knowledge, but for this post, I would like to bring in the use of ANTICIPATION GUIDES  (VIDEO here on its use in a second grade class) because they are great motivators or hooks for upcoming lessons.  When students think they have some knowledge of the topic, they are more engaged when the actual instruction occurs.

How do teachers proceed with this pre-reading strategy?  The teacher constructs anywhere from 5-10 statements on the content.  The students must decide if the statements are correct or incorrect.  There is no writing here.  Sometimes the statements might be a bit controversial as in "It is a fact that girls are more intelligent than boys."  (To Kill a Mockingbird).  Imagine 9 more such hot topic statements on bias or injustice etc.  Students should not be allowed to share their answers with others at this point since the sole purpose of this exercise is to build interest in the soon-to-be taught novel.  Once the answers are completed, students would revisit their answers during the reading of the novel.  The difference here is that they will not only correct their answers, but also note the page references where those answers were either found or implied.  At this point, students might be allowed to work with partners, in small groups, or as a whole class to review original choices.  Notes here would be saved by students for future reference for tests, projects, reports, etc.

ANTICIPATION GUIDE FOR MATH   Of course, anticipation guides may be used for math at any level of mathematics.  Remember that the sole focus of the guide is stimulate student interest while assessing the amount of background knowledge students have on the topic.

ANTICIPATION GUIDE FOR SCIENCE  Here is a quick guide for science.  Remember that the ideal number of statements ranges from 5-10. 

Get students excited about learning even before the lesson starts:

Denise

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This strategy

Interactive History Site from GOOGLE!

Google continues to amaze teachers in the incredible resources it offers for free to educators around the world.  History teachers will have at their fingertips a formidable collection of key historical world events from 1905 to late 20th century.  The pictures would supply accessible content accessibility for English language learners who often times don't quite understand everything discussed in class.  Such visuals also activate background knowledge for them.  Think of this as schema building.  The more information an ELL can bring from his/her past school or life experience to a lesson, the more likely it is that s/he will connect with the content and therefore do well.

Though Google's video on the features of the site is temporarily down, most teachers won't really need to refer to it since, as history teachers, they already have all the background knowledge necessary to navigate the site.  Using the incredible resources will put a face on the dry materials in the textbook.  The human side of history presented here will build a deeper understanding of the time periods and the issues people of the time had to struggle with.

Google is continuing to build on the site so bookmark it to return to periodically for updates.  GOOGLE CULTURAL INSTITUTE

Denise

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