Amazing as it is, the first semester is half over. For those ELLs in mainstream classes, this may not be good news for them since their grades at this point of the year might not be as high as they had hoped. With teachers working their best to accommodate the many language and academic needs of ELLs, they need quick effective strategies to address the gaps such students face. These strategies must be ones that visually provide student access to content not just for a few days, but for the length of the lesson. How can this daunting task be met?
Welcome to WORD WALLS The download here covers 14 pages of just about every possible use of word walls conceivable. It is well written and quite easy to follow. One of the most effective uses is to make it accessible to all by posting it in a highly visible section of the room. After all, if students can't see it, they won't be able to use it. Another way to use it is to have students keep copies in their binders to refer to as needed. In this day of age of smartphones, students can take pictures of it to store on their phones for home use. Teachers could also expand the vocabulary by identifying word parts (prefixes, roots, suffixes). As students become more familiar with word parts, they become more effective in using what they know to determine meanings of unfamiliar words.
Games? There are many possibilities here. How about having students look at several word walls, creating categories and then grouping words under those categories? This is another vocabulary builder. Another fun activity is to have students in small groups, select a word and draw a picture of its meaning to test the class on identifying the word?
You will of course have your own activities here. The main message is that a word list does little to nothing on building academic vocabulary for students, especially ELLs.
Denise
ELL TEACHER PROS
Boardwalk Butcher Paper, 36 x 900', White (Google Affiliate Ad)
Binney & Smith Crayola Classic Colors Markers - Craft Pens & Pencils (Google Affiliate Ad)
SJ Paper Colored Index Cards, 4"x6", 250/PK (Google Affiliate Ad)
Showing posts with label word walls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label word walls. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
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
ELL TEACHER PROS
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
ELL TEACHER PROS
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