Yeah--The Year Is Slowly Coming to an End:)

 


Hello everyone!  There are only another 6 or so weeks left to the school year with probably just a handful of students who might need some support in ending the school year on a positive note.  This is especially important with English language learners who have spent the year not only tackling the course content but also the language.  The focus in this newsletter will therefore be dedicated to offering some last minute tips on helping your ELLs finish the year on a positive note.

Many teachers give final exams to their students.  May is often spent preparing students for the finals.  Here are some ideas that are popular and effective:

 

1. If teachers have had students keep notebooks throughout the year, they might consider letting them use their binders for their finals.Students who have religiously maintained their binders throughout the year will feel rewarded for their diligent work habits.
2. Teachers often have success with having students (in teacher organized groups) lead study sessions for the class.When the students are responsible for creating review lessons for their classmates, they become class experts on their assigned area in the process.The technique used to deliver the lesson is left up to the students (power point, video, games, visuals, etc.). This approach is a highly effective review process.As the class listens to peer review lessons, they take notes on student created study sheets.Again, teachers might consider allowing students to use these review sheets on their final exams.
3. Another popular review/final exam prep technique for teachers is to have students create a study card (index card).On it, students write everything they think that they will need for the final and then bring it to class on the day of the examination.
4. Final examinations may also be broken up in a couple of class periods.For example, students might take a multiple choice on one day and then on another day take the writing component.
5. Create a final exam game such as BINGO or JEOPARDY where, after participation rules are established, the entire class is actively involved in the review process.

Below are some websites with even more ideas to help students review and retain for finals:


12 Top Ways to Rev Up Classroom…


Making Review Time Fun and Worthwhile


Review Methods for Classroom Teachers

Have a great Memorial Day break!

Denise (denise@ellteacherpros.com)
Marnie (marnie@ellteacherpros.com)
Cheryl (cheryl@ellteacherpros.com)

Pinterest (dmcyberteacher) 5800 followers
Twitter (@ell_teacherpros) 4200
Facebook (ELL Teacher Pros) 161 followers

Happy Halloween Activities for ALL Grade Levels:)

ELL Teacher Pros Newsletter                                  October 2015 Halloween will be on every student’s mind this month; however, teachers can use this excitement to deliver fun academic activities that will lead to memorable experiences for their students!  (Remember that some religious groups may be  opposed to Halloween so some adjustments will be called for in some of the lessons.) How does one proceed here?  Well some background on the Halloween is necessary.  HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN – This site provides its ancient history, appearance in US, growth of candy treats, just to name a few.  The videos are short and to the point so they can be shown in classroom with ease.  Since this a general description of the holiday, teachers at each level will need to decide videos are appropriate for their students.   Below are some ideas for lesson plans for all students including English language learners. High School The New York Times learning log offers some incredibly innovative instructional activities for older students.  One sample suggestion that is quite creative is to have students explore the horror genre in film and literature.  Ideally, this might be approached in small groups with defined roles.  This approach brings in the English language learner or others with special needs since support is built into all interactions. Another activity might be to have students explore fears and phobias in an essay.  This lesson would easily bring in internet skills as students identify their fears and then describe them including here how accurate the fears are in describing themselves. Middle School Bright Hub Education is a site with great ideas for middle school students for this holiday.  Have them read The Tell Tale Heart.  Then have them identify all the vocabulary words that they find scary and note them on index cards for them later to use in writing their own skits using teacher starter sentences.  There are other ideas here also that teachers and students would enjoy. Teachers might also have students create masks of the scary characters the students created in their group horror stories. ESL/ELLs (at any grade level) This holiday may be new for them so introducing them to the holiday and all the activities that come with it is well worth the time (and will probably benefit others in the class as well).  ESL LIBRARY offers many fun (building language and content development while having fun). For fun and as a great opener, try Michael Jackson’s song THRILLER.  The lyrics are also available.  Print out copies so that ELLs can fully benefit from the video. Well, we hope you find some great ideas from these sites and have a fabulous Halloween! Denise, Marnie, and Cheryl ELL TEACHER PROS Please don’t forget to follow us on TWITTER (@ell_teacherpros  3,682 followers), Pinterest (dmcyberteacher 4,369 followers), Facebook (ELL Teacher Pros)

TWITTER, iPads in the Classroom? Why Not! GREAT WAY to Involve ELLs in Mainstream Classes:)

As the common core standards work their way into classrooms around the country, teachers will need a variety of tools to successfully implement them.  Technology will play a key role here.  As educators prepare their students for careers which do not exist, they must use 21st century tools to make that jump from the concepts in the text to real world application.  Teachers must encourage students to use all the tools at their disposal to prepare them for the future that lies ahead of them.  The more experience they have in solving real world problems using technology that may even be new to their teachers, the better their chances are of doing well beyond high school/college.

So what might a teacher's options consist of for starters?

50 WAYS TO USE TWITTER IN YOUR CLASSROOM 
Most students are quite familiar with it.  Many adults?  Not so much.  Adults know of its existence, but rarely use it.  Well, it is a teaching tool and one that would support ELLs since here content knowledge can be addressed by the ELL without getting bogged down in language (that is important, but not with twitter where abbreviations and symbols serve to illustrate understanding).  Imagine being in a history class studying world war 1.  The teacher puts up a picture of a soldier in the trenches with a question such as "What is going through the soldier's mind in your opinion?  Tweet your answer to @___________.  Since twitter limits a writer to 141 characters, lengthy responses are not needed.  Your ELL can easily respond without worrying about sentence complexity.  S/he can demonstrate understanding in only a few words.  A teacher can save all the tweets and print them out for students to use in essays or discussions later on in the lesson.  This site will offer other ways to use a program that most of the kids are already quite familiar with:)


TWITTER IN A COLLEGE CLASS
Here is a video of Twitter in a college class.  As in the example above, the students are more familiar with it than the instructor.  She shows her creativity in using a tool that she may not be as skilled with as her students, but she proceeds along confident in her ability to try it (and she does succeed).

TECHNOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM
You may already be using technology in your classroom.  This video should just affirm that you are on the right track.  Quote from video ""Teachers will not be replaced by technology, but teachers who don't use technology will be replaced by those who do."  Nothing could be further from the truth.

IPADS IN 2ND GRADE
Seeing students this young embrace the iPad so naturally underscores the need to re-evaluate current teaching practices.  Students come to school already tech savvy so why aren't schools using this experience as a jump-off point to accelerate learning?

Denise


ELL TEACHER PROS

Asus TF300T-B1-BL Tablet PC
Samsung 16GB Galaxy Tab 2 Wi-Fi Tablet - GT-P5113TSYXAR
Lenovo IdeaPad A1 Tablet 22282EU

Fully Engage Your ELLs in Social Studies--Strategies for Implementing Common Core!

When ELLs enter mainstream classes in the fall in big numbers, teachers will need a wide variety of teaching techniques to ensure that ELLs not only learn the content, but also grow in their language skills in English.  In this website, the focus will be on social studies classrooms and ELLs.  Please note that the strategies used here would also work in other content classes.

SOCIAL STUDIES In social studies, the ELL faces several obstacles.  Textbooks are written for those with background knowledge of the country (US history for example).  New arrivals to the country don't share a general understanding of American culture, American politics, landscape, etc.  Though American students might not know all the details, they still have a general understanding of those areas which the teacher must address so that ELLs can fully take part in the learning process.

Also, ELLs bring a different perspective to the world.  These viewpoints should add valuable components to a lesson.  Imagine teaching a world geography class.  You are working on India and you have several students from that  country in your classroom!  They become a resource for all as they talk about their culture and customs.  When teachers have a theme to the lesson, no one feels singled out to have an uncomfortable spotlight on them.  Every student would have an opportunity to discuss his/her culture in such a setting. 

Last there is the need to address academic vocabulary.  When teachers create lessons with built in academic language activities, they set the ELL up to be fully engaged in lessons.  The more exposure and practice with academic vocabulary, the more proficient the ELL will be in English over time.

CHAPTER 2 ON SUPPORTING ELLS IN MAINSTREAM CLASSES This chapter offers a great checklist to assist teachers in modifying lesson plans for ELLs.   It is amazing what a few simple adjustments can do to enable ELLs to fully grasp key concepts and build language skills.  Use it as a model to create your own.


TIER 1, 2, AND 3 WORDS
Last, Tier 1, 2, and 3 words can be found in every content class area.  Bring in cognates, teach how to use context to arrive at meaning, etc.  Lots of great strategies here as well.


Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS

"World Dry-Erase Map Decal"

GREAT Study Tool for ALL Students-ELLs and EOs Alike!

As the school year draws to a close, students are looking for ways to do well on final examinations.  Many have created study cards which some teachers will let them bring to their exams.  Here students are given one 3 X 5 index cars on which they write all the notes they think they will need for the exam.  Only 1 card can be used however.   Another strategy some use is to make their own decks of study cards to prep for exams. These cards are used to help students memorize key concepts.  Some teachers allow kids to bring their organized binders in which students have been adding key notes all year long.  These binders teachers have been checking (and grading) every 3 or 4 weeks to assess for completeness.  Now, the big reward comes---if they have been keeping it current with all the course content,  they will be able to refer to it in doing their finals.

To add some variety to the review tools just mentioned, teachers may want to consider adding the following online site:  STUDY STACKS  Here, teachers can create flashcards on as many subjects as they wish for their students to use in a variety of ways.  Offer students options using formats that appeal to them and they will do well on their examinations.   Teachers may also use flashcards created by other teachers if they like.  Further, if teachers have really ambitious students, charge them with creating flashcards for the class!  This site will take the pain out of studying:)  Remember that the site is FREE to join.

Example GEOGRAPHY

Flashcards

StudyStack

Study Table

Matching

Crossword

Unscramble

Type In

Quiz

Test

Hangman

Chopped

Bug Match

Hungry Bug

Targets

Apps

Questions

Hmm...

Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS

Have Access to Vast Video Library on ALL Subjects and Grades for FREE!

If you are eternally looking for just the right short clip video to support student understanding of key concepts of your lessons,  you will be quite pleased with this site.  Teachers' Domain is for educational use and is free thanks to public broadcasting.  Along with thousands of media resources, instructional tools, and a wide range of classroom activities, you will also find sites offering professional development for classroom teachers.  Registration is free for full access.  If you don't register, you will only be allowed to access 7 sites.

TEACHERS' DOMAIN offers materials in all subject areas (Art, Physical Education, English language arts, Mathematics, and Social Studies) and at all grade levels.  You may browse for resources by your state standards, national standards, or Common Core State Standards.  The choice is strictly up to you.  This collection of outstanding materials will make core content less overwhelming for ELLs especially.  When teachers spend time building in tools to either help ELLs access prior knowledge OR build it when it is not there, they are setting ELLs up to experience success with the lesson.

For those of you looking for new teaching strategies, look no further.  Under Professional Development, you simply type in the lesson planning support you are looking for and click.  You will be presented with a wide variety of videos on teachers modeling the teaching strategies you need.  The videos are of exemplary teachers.  I took notes on WORD STORMING since I would like to share it with some novices at my site (I am an English Language Instructional Coach supporting teachers with ELLs or ESL students).  I believe it will provide teachers with a better view of what their ELLs actually know BEFORE a lesson is started.

Remember that to use this site you must register with a school name.  Please share this with colleagues.

Denise:)


ELL TEACHER PROS

            

Take Your Class on VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS and Go ANYWHERE for FREE!

Spring is here!  Often times, this is the ideal time for teachers to take students on field trips, but with the economy still being quite soft, field trips are minimal at best.  So teachers need to bring the wonders of the world to the classroom.  How?  The internet of course!

Many ELLs rarely have the opportunity to explore national museums, state parks, aquariums, etc. due to monetary constraints.   To build some background knowledge in these areas, teachers should create virtual field trips.  From a classroom, teachers can take students to every corner of the world with a mouse click.

For ELLs especially to truly reap major benefits from these virtual excursions, teachers will need to preview the sites first and then design activities that will not only peak interests, but also be accessible to every level of English language proficiency.  In other words, a beginner might follow a checklist of every item he saw and then write 5 sentences (using sentence frames) on one display that impressed him the most.  An early intermediate student may have a checklist of key displays and then would need to write 2 or 3 sentences on the exhibits he studied.    An intermediate might have to do a presentation on an exhibit that fascinated him.  This would include pictures, note cards for his speech, etc.  He could also do a power point.  Early advanced and advanced are closer to English only so they would not need as much support or scaffolding from the teacher.

5 BEST VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS  This link has some absolutely incredible websites here.  The Smithsonian actually allows a student the opportunity to "walk around" the entire museum.  Also, where ever there is a small camera icon, students can zoom in on artifacts.

GOOGLE EARTH AND MORE  From this site you can see the world!  I just finished exploring the Giza Pyramid!  See Google's description of all of its features below:

• Discover the Earth: Fly to any location in the world, learn about a city and it's geographic features, find local businesses, and create tours.

• Explore the Sky: Enjoy the wonders of the heavens and learn about our solar system.

• Dive in the Ocean: Go beneath the surface and visit the depths of the ocean and explore the planet's deepest underwater canyons. Learn about ocean observations, climate change, and endangered species. You can even discover new places to surf, dive and fish.

• Walk on the Moon: Take tours of landing sites narrated by Apollo astronauts and view 3D models of landed spacecraft.

• Visit Mars: Travel the Red Planet and explore NASA's latest imagery of our galactic neighbor.  (from Google EARTH website)

Imagine student excitement in exploring the depths of the oceans or the wonders of the universe---all from this site!  This site could be used in history, science, and geography classes with ease.


As an instructional coach, I selected sites that my teachers would be able to use immediately.  You may like the other 3 sites and see a way to use them in your classrooms:)


Denise


ELL TEACHER PROS

PS  If you like what you see in my blog, please vote for me by clicking on the VOTE FOR ME BADGE:)  Thanks.