Effective Instruction for English Language Learners

Agenda

•Dialogue

Demonstration

Application

•By the end of the session you will have more:

•knowledge about the unique needs of ELL’s

•strategies to implement this fall

•confidence to plan and modify lessons for ELL’s

•enthusiasm for teaching ELL’s

• Dialogue:

• What do you know about English Language Learners?

• Your own experiences

• or What you’ve learned

•“exploding demographics”

•(Flores, 1994)

•home language/school language

•time required to learn English

•instructional resources

•classroom segregation

•teacher capacity

Issues

•“English learners are best served when their teachers provide instruction-including corrective feedback--when it is needed.”

• Source: (Scarcella, 2004, p. 53)

Instruction!

•“The most powerful way of learning academic English is through good instruction.”

• Source: (Scarcella, 2004, p. 53)

Big Ideas

• Increase academic vocabulary: multiple encounters with words.

Oral language development: lots of dialogue

Automaticity with sight words

Big Ideas

•Safety nets of increased context: e.g., visuals

Focus on comprehension through strategic, analytic reading and think-alouds-explicit instruction!Don’t make assumptions-check for understanding often

• Natural Order (Krashen): pre-production, speech emergence, intermediate, advanced

• Affective Filter (Krashen)

• Comprehensible Input (Krashen)

• Output (productive speech) (Swain)

Second Language Acquisition

• Natural Order (Krashen):

• pre-production

• speech emergence

• intermediate

• advanced

•TELPAS• Beginner (B)

• Intermediate (I)

• Advanced (A)

• Advanced High (AH)

• Linguistic Transfer from L1

• Prior knowledge/declarative knowledge

• Strategic/procedural knowledge

• Motivation to learn English

• Cultural and linguistic resources

• “Funds of Knowledge”

What ELL’s Bring:

•Vocabulary/Academic English

• English Grammar

•Increased CONTEXT

What ELL’s need:

• Modifications:

• VOCABULARY focus

• Visuals/video/multimedia

• Hands-on

• Real Objects

• Preview-TEACH-Review

• Small group/partner work

•“Unstructured and unplanned grammar instruction is a disaster for ELL’s.” (p. 100)

•No on-the-fly instruction!• Source: (Scarcella, 2003)

•http://www.learner.org/resources/series204.html

•Clip: 17:00-23:00

Annenberg Video

•Thoughts?

•Shared reading component

•Singing

•Poetry/chart stories

•Routines

More on oral language development

•<Word Study>

•Automaticity

•Word lists

•250 words

•Source: Bear, D. R., Helman, L., Templeton, S., Invernizzi, M., & Johnston, F. (2007). Words their way with English learners: Word Study for Phonics,

Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction. Columbus, OH: Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Sight Words

•100 most common words=

• 50% of words in a text

• Source: (Nation, 2005)

•Interactive-DAILY!

•Students contribute synonyms

•Student “own” the words--they sign their name.

Word Walls: Build Academic Vocabulary

•Word Walls•Visual

Scaffolding

•<Sheltered English>

•What is Sheltered English?

•Content learning + language learning

•Importance of schema building: front-loading

•Pre-reading activities

Shared Reading

• Advantages of shared reading

•Active reading and engaging texts.

•Thinking aloud to make meaning explicit.

Application

Consider a classroom reading book you recently used. What vocabulary or

concepts were presented in the book that could cause confusion for ELL

Learners?What could you do to scaffold the

reading experience that would benefit ELL learners?

1.What might this look like in your classroom?

Turn and Talk