Eight Ways to Use Video With English Language Learners
This blog was co-authored by Katie Hull Sypnieski. This post is excerpted from their new book, The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools, and Activities for Teaching English Language Learners of All Levels. "I like the way you use videos with us -- you get us moving, talking, writing and speaking. We can think of far worse things a student might say to us, and John's comment demonstrates our perspective on using video with English-Language Learners (and, for that matter, with all students) -- research and our experience show that it can be a very effective learning tool, but it has to be used as an active one. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. 1. "Critical Pedagogy" is the term often used to describe a teaching approach whose most well-known practitioner was Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. Describe what you see: Who is doing what? 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
English-Language Learners and Academic Language
Editor's Note: This blog was co-authored by Katie Hull Sypnieski. Portions of this post are excerpted from their book, The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools, and Activities for Teaching English-Language Learners of All Levels. Helping English-language learners develop proficiency in academic language has always been a priority for K-12 educators, and its importance has only been heightened with the advent of the Common Core. To better understand academic language, let's examine the distinction between two terms introduced by Jim Cummins, basic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP), that have impacted both policy and practices in second-language education: More recent research has extended CALP to include the following three dimensions of academic English: Now That We Know What Academic Language Is, How Do We Help Students Learn It? "Do you believe that ______________________?"
Do's & Don'ts For Teaching English-Language Learners
The number of English-Language Learners in the United States is growing rapidly, including many states that have not previously had large immigrant populations. As teachers try to respond to the needs of these students, here are a few basic best practices that might help. We have found that consistently using these practices makes our lessons more efficient and effective. Modeling Do model for students what they are expected to do or produce, especially for new skills or activities, by explaining and demonstrating the learning actions, sharing your thinking processes aloud, and showing good teacher and student work samples. Don't just tell students what to do and expect them to do it. Rate of Speech and Wait Time Do speak slowly and clearly, and provide students with enough time to formulate their responses, whether in speaking or in writing. Don't speak too fast, and if a student tells you they didn't understand what you said, never, ever repeat the same thing in a louder voice!
Five Tips for Getting the ESL Student Talking
I wanted to talk to someone. But who? It's moments like this, when you need someone the most, that your world seems smallest. -- Rachel Cohn, Dash & Lily's Book of Dares Let's face it -- everyone has something to say some time or another. ESL learners are no different. Are the students afraid to make mistakes? After you ask yourself these questions and alter your teaching based on honest self-evaluation, you can incorporate more ways to encourage your students to learn English. 1. The most important thing to remember is that your students need to be speaking English as much as possible. 2. With the current educational journals consumed with such topics as Differentiated Education, Meeting the Needs of All Learners, Maximizing the Disconnect Between the Real World and the Classroom, etc., it is important that you, too, focus on each student. 3. We all learn more when we are engaged. 4. 5. Learning a language is developmental.
Ideas for E.L.L.s | 'Gangnam Style,' Emotion Words and More
“Long Division Style,” a parody of PSY’s “Gangnam Style” made by a Brooklyn teacher and her students. Go to related SchoolBook post » Each month we post a list of ideas for English Language Learners written by teacher and “edublogger” Larry Ferlazzo. Sometimes, like last month’s on the presidential election, they focus on a timely theme, while others, like this edition, pull from a variety of Times content. The goal of all of our E.L.L. posts, however, is to suggest ways to make The Times accessible for a range of learners. Let us know if you have ideas, too. Times Videos Using Video Clips The Times’s video page has a very useful search engine, and searching the word “clip” brings up many short clips from movies and television shows that can be effective with this simple strategy, adapted from the book “Zero Prep”: Divide into pairs with one student facing the screen and the other with his or her back to it. For example, there’s this segment from a Nickelodeon show called “Yo Gabba Gabba.”
Express 8.02 - Strategies for Teaching English Learners and Students with Learning Disabilities
Strategies for Teaching English Learners and Students with Learning Disabilities John Carr As a researcher, I have always been interested in learning about the instructional strategies that work for students with learning disabilities, for English language learners, and for students in general. I began my search with Classroom Instruction That Works (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001), a synthesis of research on strategies for students in general, and Classroom Instruction That Works with English Learners (Hill & Flynn, 2006). From these two sources, I went on to look for other effective strategies for students with learning disabilities that fit the following criteria: The strategy should not be entirely new so that teachers don't feel overloaded. Based on these criteria, I discovered six instructional strategies that research suggests are effective for native English speakers and English learners (Carr, Sexton, & Lagunoff, 2007; Carr et al., 2009). Six Strategies Scenario References
