RETELL – Rethinking Equity and Teaching for English Language Learners

RETELL and Interactive Strategies

ELL Terms and Laws

• FLNE: First Language Not English ~ this label does not change, even when the child speaks fluent English
• ELL: English Language Learner ~ this label can change
• Title III: Districts that have many ELL students receive this funding
• SEI:  Sheltered English Instruction. Differentiated instruction includes approaches, strategies, and methodologies that make the content comprehensible and promote academic English language development. WE ARE ALL SEI TEACHERS!
• SEI Characteristics: Language-rich environment with cooperative learning strategies, integrates the 4 language domains with language objectives aligning with content objectives and assessment.
• ESL: Explicit, direct instruction in English to promote English language development.
• Content Objective: Addresses concepts, grade level, subject area, curriculum, and targeted standards, as well as verbs related to content knowledge. Have 1-2 for each lesson.
• Language Objective: Think about the language of all of the content areas. What language do you need to teach for a math word problem, for example? Think of the 4 domains. Listening/speaking: draw, tell, role play. . . Speaking: name, rephrase, debate. . .   Reading: preview, read aloud, identify. . . Writing: list, summarize, state
• BICS: Basic interpersonal communication skills. Problems arise when teachers and administrators assume a child is proficient in a language based on their ability to demonstrate good social English.
• CALP: Cognitive academic language proficiency.
• Federal Policy: This relates to the fact that ELL students cannot be isolated from their peers. They deserve equal opportunity and receive the same type of instruction. Information must be sent home in the student’s home language, and the student needs time. Do not assume special education too quickly.
• Massachusetts State Policy: A result of 4 initiatives: Massachusetts Education Reform Act (1993), Ballot Question #2 English in Public Schools (2002), No Child Left Behind’s Title III Grant, and RETELL Initiative (2012).
• The 1964 Civil Rights Act to protect ELLs was followed by the Equal Education Opportunity Act of 1974 and again by Titles I and III of the 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, better known as No Child Left Behind.
• Content Objectives identify what students should know and be able to do at the end of the lesson. These objectives are used to form assessments and are derived from the core standards. They focus on the “What.”
• Language Objectives are “how” the students will demonstrate what they have learned. They are focused on the four domains of Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing. The ELP (English Language Proficiency) standards and the WIDA standards are sources of language objectives.

WIDA: The WIDA English Language Development Standards’ Guiding Principles are teacher-friendly, positive, and framed as can-do statements. Begin by exploring the WIDA website and identifying your English learners based on their proficiency levels according to the standards. Retrieve your ELL students’ ACCESS reports from last year. Then, download the Can Do Name Charts from the WIDA site, review them, and enter each student’s name in the appropriate boxes for each indicator.

• Can Do Descriptors, Key Uses Edition Kindergarten
• Can Do Descriptors, Key Uses Edition Grade 1
• Can Do Descriptors, Key Uses Edition Grades 2-3
• Can Do Descriptors, Key Uses Edition Grades 4-5
• Can Do Descriptors, Key Uses Edition Grades 6-8
• Can Do Descriptors, Key Uses Edition Grades 9-12

• Can Do Descriptors Name Charts, Grades K-12
• Can Do Descriptors Name Charts, Kindergarten
• Can Do Descriptors Name Charts, Grade 1
• Can Do Descriptors Name Charts, Grades 2-3
• Can Do Descriptors Name Charts, Grades 4-5
• Can Do Descriptors Name Charts, Grades 6-8
• Can Do Descriptors Name Charts, Grade 9-12

Websites

• Academic Language Functions ToolKit
• Guided Language Resource Book
• HCISD differentiated brochure 2
• Strategies Organizational Chart
• Differentiation 1
• Differentiation 2

• News in Levels. This is an excellent site for older ELLs. It features daily news with short video clips at three different English proficiency levels, accompanied by audio to help boost English skills.

Academic Language Must Be Taught

• Reading Diverse Texts ~  Reading, thinking, and talking about different genres is essential for learning academic language. Please see Defining Different Genres and my nonfiction text features page:  Nonfiction Text Features and Nonfiction Mentor Texts.
• Introducing Summary Frames Based on the Language Function ~ Students read a section of text to themselves before verbally summarizing the passage to a partner. Then, they can complete sentence frames. See these found here: sentence-frame-sample-on-classroom-poster. 
• Helping Students Translate from Academic to Social Language (and Back) ~ Model how to say something more academically or paraphrase academic texts into more conversational language.
• Having Students Complete Scripts of Academic Routines ~ such as “The topic of my presentation is ______.  In the first part, I give a few basic definitions. In the next section, I will explain ______. In part three, I am going to show ______.”
• Dynamically Introducing Academic Vocabulary ~ Repeated encounters with a word in various authentic contexts can help students internalize the definition. Use the word in a funny or personal story. Show a short video from VocabAhead (6) that features 300 SAT words and categorizes vocabulary by grade level.
• Teaching Key Words for Understanding Standardized Test Prompts ~They are: infer, interpret, explain, describe, demonstrate, summarize, compare, contrast, persuade, and analyze.

Writing Content and Language Objectives

*** PDF of Content and Language Objective Verbs ***

Great examples and step-by-step directions!

Writing Content and Language Objectives

• Quick Writes: Have the students write or sketch what they know about a subject before or after it is taught. ELLs can work with a partner or even draw a picture to demonstrate knowledge. This is beneficial for activating prior knowledge. Have them write for 3-5 minutes.
• Anticipation Guides: A true/false list before a unit is taught to assess knowledge. Again, ELLs can work with a partner. It is a survey to gauge their understanding.
• Sentence Frames: There are many ways to do this, but if you want the student to observe:  I see ______. Infer:  I think this means _______. Ask questions: I wonder about _____.
• Clock Buddies: Numbers are universal, so picking a “clock” buddy is less intimidating for a limited English proficient student. Teachers can strategically suggest groupings for different purposes; this way, it appears “random,” but it is not.  🙂
• Think Pair Share: Give a question to think about. Pair with a partner and answer together. You can vary this with… 
• Think, Write, Pair, Share: Students have 1 minute to think, 2 minutes to write, and 2 minutes to share with a partner before they are invited to share their thoughts back with the whole class. 
• Think, Pair, Square, Share: Students think for 2 minutes, then share with a partner for 2 minutes, then each pair matches up with a second pair to discuss their reasoning and justify their responses. Finally, students report out to the whole class.
• Small-Group work
• Jigsaw: Break students into “expert” groups. Then break students into unlike groups. There will be an “expert” from each group to teach the others.
• Word sort: Sort by category, sounds…
• Find Your Corner: Different corners of the room represent different views. Students can share similar views.
• Visual scaffolding: Props and pictures to support the lesson.
• Exit ticket: This way, an ELL can respond to content without feeling intimidated. They write a response so the teacher can assess knowledge. It is an informal assessment to guide teaching.
• Reporting Back: Students work in small groups on different sections of the material. They then report key points back to the class.
• Snowball: Line students up ~ an A line and a B line. The A line throws a crinkled question/comment at the B line. They then pair with a B person to discuss. Then vice versa. It makes for a fun and random pairing for conversation. 
• College Talk: Use big words to give routine directions to help stretch vocabulary. Instead of “stop talking,” try “cease socializing.”
• Zipline: This is also known as “I Have / Who Has.” Start with one question written on a card. Then, students see if they have that answer on their card. The student who has it reads the answer PLUS the additional question on the card. So on and so forth. Every card has an answer and a new question.
• Turn and Talk: Students quickly turn to a partner and share their response to a teacher’s prompt. Encourages oral interaction. 
• Thinking Notes: The teacher provides students with a key and specific instructions for taking notes while reading. For ex., ?? means confusing to me – ? means I have a question, ! means I like this part, * relates to the main idea or author’s purpose. Students later review their notes with a partner or small group. 
• Numbered Heads Together: Students divide into groups of 4. Each student is assigned a  number 1-4. The teacher provides a list of questions or prompts for the group to discuss and explore.  When reporting back, the teacher calls students by number to report their group’s response.
• Graphic Organizers: Visual displays of information to help students see relationships among concepts or vocabulary. Examples are a word wheel, a lexical array, and a word form chart.  Please Google these.
• Gallery Walk: Have students respond to a prompt on chart paper, then post it around the room. Students visit each poster and add comments or questions.
• Divide and Slide: Students assemble in 2 lines facing each other. They share an idea with the partner facing them, then they slide to the right.
• Content Vocab. Roundtable: The teacher provides a prompt, topic, or text. Students write one key vocabulary word associated with it and pass it to the right. Next, they add a new word to THAT paper and pass it to the right. So on and so forth.  After one minute, stop. This provides students with a word bank to refer to when writing.
• Continuum: Line up students on a continuum to organize information in a visual/kinesthetic way. For ex., give students variations of the word “walk” ~ dawdle, stroll, walk, brisk walk, jog, dash, sprint, run. They line up with variations in intensity, or in alphabetical order, or in numerical order.

Vocabulary Strategies

Here are all the words, by grade, that students should know in the various content areas, as outlined in the Marzano list.  Please also see my vocabulary page.

• 7 Steps: Please read about this below ~ it is a detailed procedure that I outlined in the Chapter 6 Teaching Vocabulary article summary.
• Tiered Vocabulary: Tier 1 words are the basic nouns we use in daily language. These are basic words that can be taught via a visual. Tier 3 are content-specific words that are used pretty much only in content area classes, such as entomologist, endoplasmic. We want to teach the Tier 2 words; these are words/phrases with multiple meanings – words that students will encounter repeatedly.
• Cognate Awareness: Research the words you are teaching to determine if they are cognates in your students’ first language. Listen for cognates and false cognates at a listening center. English/Spanish Cognates
• Sentence Frames: You need to create frames based on the academic language function. Please also see:  Academic Language Functions ToolKit[1]   
• Label drawings/pictures
• Print-rich environment
• Elaborate on students’ ideas as a starting point and clarify the meaning.
• Incorporate role-playing activities.
• Visualize letters in a spelling word, or visualize an association of a word’s meaning.
• Act out a word.
• Think aloud as they problem-solve.
• During read-alouds, emphasize new words, have students repeat them, and discuss them.
• Model think-alouds to determine the meaning or provide further examples of the word.
• Preview a selection, pointing out new words.
• Mapping after reading engages students in a mental activity that activates prior knowledge and provides contextual clues for new vocabulary and concepts.
• Classify words after reading ~ by figure of speech, topics, linguistic function, practical function, synonyms/antonyms.
• Create foldables ~ 3-dimensional organizers are helpful for recording words, definitions, meaningful sentences, and representations of words.
• Highlight new words
• Word Wheel ~ place the new word in the center, the wheel’s hubcap. Then, all around, put synonyms.
• Lexical Array ~ start with a base word and give synonyms of gradual intensities. Select a word and “stretch it out,” demonstrating to ELLs an array of precise word choices.   Research Wordsift.org for help! (meander/stroll/walk/jog/run) Use student-friendly language to discuss the various meanings.

WordSift

• Word Families: Select a vocabulary word and design a generative word tree to extend the root, prefixes, suffixes, etc. For ex., care, careful, careless, caring, cared, carefulness, carelessness
• Word Form Chart:   See below.  This is a good way to discuss the various parts of speech.

Reading Strategies

• Partner Reading/Partner Reading Sentence by Sentence: This strategy helps build confidence as the ELL student only reads in small chunks. Do this for 10 minutes/day in each of the content areas. Both partners take turns reading a sentence, and then each summarizes what the sentence means. Follow this up with silent rereading; the ELL student will reinforce the concepts and make the reading more accessible as it becomes familiar.
• Sponge Activities: Have generic discussion questions prepared for partners to answer if they’ve finished ahead of the class. For ex.:  Discuss what you’ve learned. Map out ideas. Write in a journal. . . 
• Choral Reading: Set up any way you want, but limit to 3-5 min/content area per day (whole class with teacher or half the class by paragraphs or pages, etc.).
• Reciprocal Teaching: Each child in a small group assumes a specific role after completing a reading assignment. For example, one could be the summarizer, one could be the word wizard (who picks out interesting new words), one could be the connector (who identifies what the passage reminds them of), one could be the predictor, or the questioner.   Similar to the Literature Circle.   
• Think Alouds: The teacher talks aloud about her thought process as she does something, such as taking notes, finding the main idea, or making connections.
• Explicitly Teach Nonfiction Text Features: Please see on this page: Nonfiction Text Features. Teach captions, illustrations, maps, and other visual elements, along with their purposes.
• Numbered Heads Together: Put students in groups of 4 to answer a set of questions together. They come up with common answers. Now, each student in each group selects a number from 1 to 4. Next, the teacher calls the students with the said number to answer one of the questions.
• Double Entry Journals: The left side is teacher-prepared, and you break this down by WIDA level. You might ask the child to define a word on the right side, illustrate a quote on the right side that you’ve written on the left side, ask a question, have the students make a connection… Generally, the right side is not “right or wrong” but a comment or a reaction.
• Close Reading with Text-Dependent Questions: This strategy has students engage with a text of sufficient complexity, examining the meaning of the text thoroughly and methodically, reflecting on words, sentences, and central ideas and details. Questions are leveled from:

• Teach Genre Characteristics and Text Organization! This will help comprehension.  Please see my page:  Defining Different Genres.

• Identifying and Analyzing Text Features:  Have a nonfiction scavenger hunt where students must find examples of captions, diagrams, illustrations, maps, etc.
• Think, Pair, Square, Share: The teacher gives the students 30 seconds to think of a response to a prompt. Then, for another 30 seconds, share with a partner. For another 30 seconds, share with another set of partners (4 people/group).  Then share out/summarize points to the class.

Writing Strategies

• Language Experience Approach: Ask the students what they just learned after reading a text, watching a video, or taking a field trip. Write down precisely what the student says. Then, read back what you wrote. Have students read it back. Decide what changes to make. Then, read it together and reread it. This is also a good strategy to teach beginning readers to read.
• RAFT: This is a creative way to assign writing. RAFT stands for role, audience, format, and topic. The role could be that of a gardener, the audience could be wedding planners, the format could be a brochure, and the topic could be to persuade wedding planners to use particular flowers in their bouquets and explain why.  The possibilities are endless!
• Content Vocab. Roundtable: This is a good way to review content vocabulary for writing. It creates a word bank. After reading, each person takes a scrap of paper and writes one word from the text. Then, pass the paper to the left and repeat. 
• Information Gap: Have students read a story or an article. Prepare two grids. Each grid has opposite information. The object is for two students with opposite grids to ask each other questions, and then a whole grid is created.  The completed grid is then used as a graphic organizer for writing. The grid holds the ANSWERS. For ex., student A has the following grid. He will say to student B, “Name the character who blew down the houses.” Student B will write Big Bad Wolf on his grid. (Here is more information.)

• Write Around:  Have students in a group.  Each student writes a topic sentence. Then, they move papers to the right. They read what is there and add one sentence. At the signal, they pass the papers to the right, add another sentence, and continue. Finally, the team selects one paper to revise.
• Cut and Grow: Cut your writing into sentences. This way, it can be reorganized and expanded upon with adjectives, evidence, etc. Then, tape your sentences on construction paper.
• Sentence Combining: Explicitly teach how to combine sentences using conjunctions, to rearrange sentences, and to have sentences answer who, what, where, when, why, and how. For example, “The old man fell slowly down the staircase last night in the dark without his cane.” You can start with a base sentence and add a modifying sentence to it.  (The dog barked.  The barking was loud. Combine with and.) When combining two sentences, clue the students into the keywords to include. Also, teach students how to add conjunctions, such as ‘because’. Provide word order examples as well, such as “The teacher was angry” could be rephrased as “The angry teacher...”
• Ratiocination: This is an editing strategy. Teach a focus correction area, and have the students look out for it by coding their papers. For ex., circle all verbs. This way, students can check if they have noun-verb agreement and/or change verbs to more interesting ones. Perhaps have them underline all first words in sentences to ensure they’ve used uppercase. 
• Paragraph Frames: Please see Structured Writing for Content Areas.

Summaries of the RETELL Course Required Reading

Who Are Gifted/Talented English Language Learners?  This article defines ELLs as not born in the US and whose heritage language is not English; American Indian or Alaskan heritage, and dominant language is not English; a migratory person whose heritage language is not English; a person who has difficulty speaking, reading, writing, or understanding English, which denies them the opportunity to learn effectively in classes where instruction is in English.  It takes 4-10 years to become proficient in the English language.

Stage 1 ~ Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills takes 1-3 years. This is when students develop conversational skills for basic survival.

Stage 2 ~ Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency takes 3-7 years. This is when students achieve academic success. This varies depending on students’ background, first language proficiency, and the support they receive from their family, school, and community. This article cautions against overlooking talented students who don’t “fit the mold” because they do not exhibit stereotypical behaviors of native English-speaking students. Typically, students get accepted into gifted/talented programs based on biased standardized tests.

Articles on Vocabulary

Chapter 6 Teaching Vocabulary  Vocabulary needs to be an integral part of teaching and learning, and it must be taught correctly and thoroughly. Knowing a word means the student understands its meaning when reading it in a variety of texts, can pronounce and spell it correctly, recognizes its characteristics, such as multiple meanings, can explain its meaning within the context of reading, and can use it naturally when writing. Vocabulary should be taught explicitly: teach the formal definition, plus give a student-friendly definition, offer multiple exposures to a word in various forms; ensure understanding of meaning; provide examples of the word’s use in phrases, idioms, unusual contexts; highlight characteristics or word parts; ensure proper pronunciation and spelling; teach the word’s cognate or false cognate in student’s native language. Students need explicit and varied instruction. (Cognate is a word related to another word, such as English brother and German bruder. False cognates are two words in different languages that appear to be cognates but are not (for example, the English advertisement and the French avertissement–“warning” or “caution”). Integrating rich vocabulary and reading into math, science, and social studies will help ALL students. Pre-teaching vocabulary is vital in any lesson. There is a 7-step process for teaching tier 2 and 3 words: 

1. The teacher says/shows the word, and students repeat 3x.  
2. The teacher reads and shows the word in a sentence.
3. The teacher gives the dictionary definition.  
4. The teacher provides a student-friendly definition, using pictures, props, and gestures. 
5. The teacher highlights various aspects of the word, including spelling, multiple meanings, false cognates, and prefixes. 
6. Think-pair-share activity with the word to orally use the word ~ ELLs need to produce the word 10- 12x at this time  (for ex. If the word is “manage,” ~ a question to discuss might be ~ What have you managed well lately? Students use the word manage during their brief discussion.
7. The teacher assigns peer reading with oral and written summarization activities and explains how the new words will need to be used/with accountability for word usage.  

Have these 7 steps written on chart paper. This should be a fast-paced activity ~ 2 minutes/word and 3-5 words/lesson. The WIDA Consortium provides strategies for teaching tier 1 words quickly and efficiently. The goal is to have ELLs constantly orally produce the words. When teaching tier 2 words, teach polysemous words, or words that have multiple meanings, but focus on the word meaning that is used in the text. Teach idioms, noun phrases, and prepositional phrases as whole chunks.  Teach connectors and transition words to enhance speaking and writing skills. Have these posted by function, along with sample sentence starters. The article states that long-term ELLs are long-term because they have been allowed to use simple vocabulary, and we need to break that cycle.  It is good to teach cognates as it is helpful for comprehension, and it helps ELLs become better spellers.  Tier 1 Words: These are words most children know in their primary language. They are frequently used in oral discourse. They are often easily demonstrated through visuals, motions, and gestures, not requiring an extended explanation. Tier 2 Words: “The most bang for your buck” when teaching because these words will come up again. Tier 2 words can include complex words and longer phrases (all of a sudden), multiple-meaning words, idioms, noun phrases (long time), and prepositional phrases. These words are specific and sophisticated, crossing multiple content areas. Tier 3:  Low frequency of use, limited to particular domains. Best learned when the need arises, such as scientific words like ‘isotope’ and ‘lathe’. CHOOSE 3-5 WORDS TO TEACH/LESSON USING THE 7-STEP PROCESS!  Work backward by listing all NECESSARY words to master the core concept under Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Cross out until you have 3-5 keywords. Choose based on importance and utility, instructional potential (does it have multiple meanings?), and conceptual understanding. Recommended: Britannica Dictionary

————————–

Chapter 6 continued ~ Teaching Vocabulary During Reading 

• One way to teach new words is to read aloud and model how to determine the word’s meaning through context clues.
• When listening to a child struggle with a word, tell the meaning on the spot, and have the child use the word in a sentence.
• Provide sticky notes for confusing words.  Encourage the ELLs to figure out the meaning with a partner and look the word up in a dictionary. Then, post these words in a “parking lot” to review later.
• Have students record new words on a table:  New Word/Maybe It Means/It Means. After reading, they discuss their new words to determine their meanings and look up the words in the dictionary. Keep these words on a binder ring as personal dictionaries!
• Use context clues. Keep this list handy: What word doesn’t make sense? Reread the sentence before and the sentence after. Change the unknown word to a word you know. Does it make sense? Write it down so you can look it up.

Develop students’ metalinguistic and metacognitive skills by teaching them to become semantically aware.

• What helped you remember the word?
• What will help you remember the meaning?
• How did you and your partner help each other figure out the word?
• Share a semantic strategy.

Try having children go to the four corners of the room and discuss the words introduced, one word for each corner. Then, in a go-to-the-wall activity, students stand along the wall in 3’s, and each has 30 seconds to tell the other how many words they remembered from the reading and vocabulary pre-teaching. Remember, always use the new words in conversation and writing during the class period, and use the vocabulary as a “ticket to leave.” Require students to use the new vocabulary in writing summaries. It is fine for a peer to translate for an ELL. Point out lexical items (tense, roots, affixes, etc.) and use these as strategic learning tools.

————————–

More on Teaching Reading and Vocabulary Language and literacy knowledge involve the process of reading, writing, listening, and speaking, all 4 supporting each other. Reading can be an essential way to develop oral vocabulary, which is crucial for speaking and can also influence writing. Therefore, it is essential to create a classroom environment that integrates all aspects of language learning. Vocabulary knowledge is one of the best predictors of oral ability as it contributes to young children’s phonological awareness, which in turn contributes to their word recognition abilities. In kindergarten and 1^st grade, vocabulary level and ability are significant predictors of reading comprehension in the middle and secondary grades. We also know that the difficulty of a text strongly influences its readability.   Therefore, explicit and targeted teaching can improve reading comprehension. How do we know if a student KNOWS a word?

• He knows a word’s meaning when reading it in a variety of texts.
• He can pronounce and spell the word correctly.
• He recognizes characteristics of the word, such as multiple meanings.
• He can explain its meaning within the context of reading.
• He can use it as a natural part of their writing repertoire.

————————–

Word Consciousness strategies help students to recognize, understand, and use new words. Teachers should foster Word Consciousness in their classes and vocabulary to create compelling, engaging, and efficient vocabulary instruction. Foster Word Consciousness includes teaching cognate awareness, prefixes, suffixes, synonyms, and various strategies so students can figure out new words on their own. Try:

• Student-generated glossaries ~ maybe keep these on index cards on rings
• Track and post tiered vocabulary
• Vocabulary language objectives
• Content word walls
• Sticky note vocabulary

Oracy is the listening comprehension and oral production of language. The Common Core has highlighted the importance of students being able to speak, listen, read, and write. There is a direct connection between reading and writing, as well as between listening and speaking.   Oracy lays the groundwork for reading and writing. Students who have strong oral proficiency in English are more likely to develop strong literacy skills.

• Read this article:  Stephen Krashen’s Theory of Second Language Acquisition. Teachers should  be talking to ELLs at “i + 1.” This means talking to ELLs at their interest level, but just one level up to teach them more English, without frustrating them.
• Keep low anxiety levels in the classroom. Don’t force the ELL to speak on the spot. Instead, give them forewarning of what to prepare for.
• When an ELL is speaking, be respectful of the message. Pick and choose appropriate times to correct grammar and vocabulary.
• Understand the affective filter. The affective filter is a theoretical construct in second language acquisition that attempts to explain the emotional variables associated with the success or failure of acquiring a second language. Lower the filter by spending more social time, using gestures, teaching cognates, encouraging partnerships, utilizing sentence frames, and incorporating humor. 
• ELLs should be given ample opportunities to communicate with proficient English speakers.  This is predominantly how second languages are acquired.

————————–

Using Sentence Frames to Develop Academic Vocabulary for English Learners This article stressed the importance of backward lesson planning to determine the concepts that students are expected to learn based on state standards. Determine the essential vocabulary words that students need to understand the concept, and teach them using the 7-step method. Then, consider the language function that students will need to use, think, talk, and write about the core concept. Does it involve description, compare/contrast, inferring, etc.? Create sentence frames based on the students’ levels, AND provide a word bank, pictures, and props. A compare/contrast frame can be as basic as:  ____are____ .  ______ are ______ to as complex as The main difference between ____ and ____ is ____ are ____ while _____ are _____. When giving a frame to use, always have the students practice familiar words, such as Lemons are sour. Oranges are sweet.  The students need to know the academic vocabulary of comparison, questioning, description, inference, and making judgments.

————————–

Teaching Vocabulary with a 4-Prong Approach

• Provide rich and varied experiences through reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
• Teach word-learning strategies, including word parts, using context to infer word meanings, utilizing a dictionary, and leveraging cognate knowledge.
• Teach individual words through multiple exposures, rich, deep, and extended teaching, providing definitional and contextual information.
• Foster word consciousness: polysemous words (multiple-meaning words). Consider the various definitions of “solution” across different disciplines, such as math, science, and language arts, which all define it differently.  Word consciousness integrates metacognition, motivation, and word interest.

Article on Reading

Chapter 7: Teaching Reading. The primary language helps develop language and literacy in English, while content reading helps accelerate this development. When a student has an academic vocabulary in their native language at grade level, and their reading in that language has become automatic, and they comprehend, they can write at grade level; that is a good time to transition to English. Prepare well to teach a text by pre-teaching vocabulary, activating background knowledge, using props, selecting a comprehension strategy to focus on, choosing a writing strategy as a follow-up, and differentiating scaffolding levels. The more they read and write, the more they will want to, because they will be learning many more words.  Reading comprises oral language proficiency, phonological processing, working memory, word-level skills, and text-level skills. Comprehension calls for knowing 85-90% of the words in a sentence, question, paragraph, or text. Have ELLs read smaller chunks and respond in writing. Do not have them reread the same text over and over ~ they need to be exposed to new words constantly. For comprehension strategies, start with asking/answering questions, determining important information, summarizing, making connections, and monitoring comprehension. Model these strategies first.  Use sentence starters that fit each strategy. Teaching literature is challenging due to the use of idioms, metaphors, and other literary devices. It is best to teach with content area books. Model thinking aloud (checking for understanding by talking back to books) and summarizing after each sentence/paragraph; it is a good strategy to model and have students do so with a partner. Model cause/effect conversation, sequencing conversation, main idea conversation. Partner reading is an excellent idea, with alternating turns after each sentence and doing think-alouds. Reading one sentence at a time helps build confidence, and it keeps both partners alert and on task. Choral reading can be done for 3-5 minutes/subject area per day. Think about active and passive voice. The active voice requires a subject: “She bored us.” The subject is she.  The passive voice doesn’t specify who. “Teachers will be introduced. . .” It doesn’t determine who. Be mindful of this when dealing with lower WIDA levels: use the active voice. The example, “Teachers will be introduced…” introduced appears to be past tense ~ it has an “ed” ending. History and science texts often use a passive voice; for example, you don’t use “I” in lab reports.

Articles on Writing

Better Evidence-Based Education, Volume 3, Issue 2. Vocabulary teaching is equally crucial for comprehending a text as word recognition skills.  

————————–

Evidence-based Practices for Teaching Writing:  Students must be given ample time to write.  Individualized support is necessary for writers who struggle with their writing.  Teach self-regulation skills and goal setting!

• Teach strategies for planning, writing, and editing.
• Have students write summaries of texts.
• Permit students to write collaboratively with peers.
• Set goals for student writing.
• Allow students to use a word processor.
• Teach sentence-combining skills.
• Use the process writing approach.
• Have students participate in inquiry-based writing activities.
• Involve students in prewriting activities.
• Provide models of good writing.

————————–

Teaching 50,000 Words

• Vocabulary knowledge in kindergarten and 1st grade is a significant predictor of reading comprehension in the upper grades.
• Vocabulary difficulty strongly influences the readability of a text.
• Teaching vocabulary can improve reading comprehension for both native English speakers and ELLs.
• Growing up in poverty can seriously restrict children’s vocabulary before beginning school, making attaining adequate vocabulary challenging.
• Learning English vocabulary is one of the most crucial tasks for ELLs because of the relationship between vocabulary and comprehension, and ELLs’ difficulty comprehending text in a second language.
• Provide students with a rich array of language experiences in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
• Teachers need powerful vocabulary programs—a multifaceted program that provides ELLs with rich and varied language experiences, teaches individual words, instructs word-learning strategies, and fosters word consciousness.

————————–

Vocabulary: What Words Should We Teach? 

• Word meanings are acquired in a predictable sequence.
• Children with the lowest vocabularies know 2,000 fewer root words than their average peers by the end of the second grade.
• Vocabulary teaching programs can stimulate general vocabulary, not just those words that are taught.
• Words Worth Teaching is a book you can buy on Amazon. It’s a good program that teaches root words.

————————–

Harnessing Grammar: Weaving Words and Shaping Texts:

• Embed grammar in writing lessons.
• Encourage discussion, experimentation, choice, and decision-making rather than correct writing methods.
• Be explicit about how texts work, drawing on grammar, where appropriate, to explain effects.
• Focus on grammar as a creative tool.
• Teaching contextualized grammar can improve children’s writing when: grammar is linked to aspects of the writing task; there is the explicit teaching of grammatical features of texts that focus on how texts work; there is a classroom climate that fosters discussion, experimentation, choice, and decision-making; the teaching goal is to create a repertoire of possibilities, not adherence to norms.

————————–

Learning to Write and Writing to Learn:

• Writing is not just a way of communicating or displaying what has been learned. It can serve as a tool for acquiring content knowledge, developing understanding, and enhancing thinking skills.
• Shorter writing assignments are more effective.
• Young writers vary in their use of writing strategies and adapt them to new tasks.
• Students can learn to write by observing and evaluating the writing processes of other students.

————————–

Teaching Argument Writing to 7-14-Year-Olds:

• Oral argument can help to inform the written argument.
• Successful modeling includes demonstrating and peer modeling of dialogue.

————————–

Reclaiming Recess: Learning the Language of Persuasion 

• Attend to the students’ interests, and develop a purposeful project around that.
• Identify an audience.
• Identify an academic genre suited to students achieving their purposes in writing about this topic for this audience.
• Analyze the features of the genre, paying special attention to the vocabulary, grammatical structures, and rhetorical conventions.
• Design materials to support students in the above, such as graphic organizers, guidelines for revision, and assessment tools.
• Provide students with multiple models and explicit instruction, analyzing the genre’s features. You want the students to control targeted vocabulary, syntactic structures, rhetorical conventions, and genre-specific practices.
• Provide time to collaborate with teachers and peers.
• Track students’ use of targeted, genre-specific practices.

Academic language uses greater content-specific vocabulary. It employs various grammatical structures to convey more information in sentences, utilizing more conjunctions. Academic language is less interactive than everyday language. There is less use of gestures and intonation to convey meaning. There are also greater formatting conventions and graphics to construct meaning, such as headings, paragraphs, charts, and images. Students need to learn how to present their ideas in an impersonal, detached, and authoritative manner in the content areas.

 

Copyright 02/07/2014

Edited on 07/22/2025

 Copyscape alerts me to duplicate content. Please respect my work.