strategies for ell students

Quite simply, students feel more empowered to: Take responsibility for their own learning. For English language learners (ELLs), vocabulary development is especially important. Provide students lots of different ways to "show what they know" Drawings, graphs, oral interviews, posters, and portfolios are just a few ways that students can demonstrate understanding as they are beginning to develop their reading and writing skills in English. Rebecca Oxford published a book in 1990 called “Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know.” Reading this will help you become more familiar with the research surrounding language learning strategies. However, if they create timelines using different written sources, or they have access to other students’ timelines from different sources than theirs, they’ll be equipped with various ways of describing the same events. Teachers may be uncomfortable identifying students for additional reading instruction if their English language skills are low. Assessment plays a variety of roles in the instruction of English language learners (ELLs). Designing instruction based on student strengths (what the student can do) provides an important foundation for success and offers opportunities to build upon those strengths in order to address areas where the student is struggling. Perhaps in a vocabulary learning exercise, you’d prefer to see the direct translation into your own language alongside the new vocabulary. Body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice can let them know that you care. If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos. The average ELL may know 5,000 words in his or her native language, but very few words in English. This can be as simple as asking students to show "thumbs up or thumbs down" to show their understanding or asking students to share one thing they learned on an exit slip at the end of class. Effective modeling is arguably the most straightforward of scaffolds and requires the least amount of customization for individual students. Grammar drills, book exercises, flashcards and other quiet, traditional methods are useful but can only get your students so far. Classifying is a great learning strategy that most of us use without even thinking, but it’s particularly useful for ELL students who have the daunting task of learning about various subjects in a language different from their own. We have put together the list below based on professional experience, research (including White, Schramm & Chamot (2007) and Rubin, Chamot, Harris & Anderson (2007)) and also with ELL students in mind. Colorín Colorado is a national multimedia project that offers a wealth of bilingual, research-based information, activities, and advice for educators and families of English language learners (ELLs). You’ll probably already be aware of the similarities between some words in English and other European languages if you’ve studied them. ELL students want to know that they’re important, intelligent and are subjected to the same academic rigor as all students in the class. Teach word-study skills. Please check your email for further instructions. More effectively manage your lesson planning and progress monitoring. Click here to get a copy. When planning a lesson for a class that includes English language learners (ELLs), it may be difficult to know how to help students at different language levels participate fully in the activities. Provide information that the beginning EL can understand. A very simple example is this great little song from Rockin’ English Lessons. Whether you teach a class composed of all English language learners or a mainstream class in which you have a mix of ELLs and non-ELLs, keep in mind that many of these strategies will assist not just your English learners, but your other students as well, including slower processors and special needs students. These are just to mention but a few learning strategies in a very specific context, and they all have their own merits. They’ll finally get to realize that, hey, what they like best really makes a difference! Imagine you’ve been looking at a recorded political debate, either as a language focus or in a specific subject you might teach, such as politics. Classmates are a valuable resource in helping English language learners succeed, whether by showing students around the school on their first day or serving as a buddy in the clasroom. Once they learn to do this, it can help to accelerate their learning massively as they feel personally responsible for their own progress. Homepage illustrations ©2009 by Rafael López originally appeared in "Book Fiesta" by Pat Mora and used with permission from HarperCollins. Now, the most likely outcome of this process is that students begin to look up every single word that they don’t recognize. Perhaps drawing an image helps to stimulate your memory. Prosody is a term that is frequently heard in discussions of fluency. Perhaps, if your student is a visual learner, they would benefit from maps (maybe even interactive ones if you have access to technology) which they can model depending on their own needs, using pictures of the food eaten, style of dress worn and traditional customs practiced in each country. Similarly to imagery, using role play as a learning strategy can help your students to use the target language as they would do in real life—communicating with others. (Download). This is an example of planning on a small scale, but this can also be applied to more long-term learning goals. Mayda is a former student of mine who had become utterly discouraged by her slow progress towards English fluency. Getting students to talk is the name of the game for many ESL teachers. Imagine that you’re giving your students a novel or short story that they’re required to read, as well as an accompanying dictionary. allows them to learn the same material as other students as they continue to develop their English language skills. Teaching your students how to plan their learning is essential, as it sets their expectations and gives them goals to reach. There are many, many more strategies out there for different subject matter. Use a timeline to help students visualize the location of the event in terms of time, and encourage them to do the same. Spend some time walking them through exactly what topics you’ll be covering and what’s expected of them at each stage. Instead of jumping straight into a task, students can take some time to predict what it entails and what knowledge will be required to complete it. And in context! Knowing that ELLs represent a growing part of the U.S. student body and that elementary schools are feeling the weight of that impact, it’s critical that K–5 educators are prepared to support these students. Therefore whenever role play is used in the classroom, or indeed encouraged in autonomous learning time, you and your students should try to ensure that you’ve covered the language and background information which will allow your students to succeed in a role play scenario. If you’re teaching students the strategy of creating rules, walk them through various examples of this and check at each stage that they understand the rules you have made. Why not give your students a copy of your long-term plan for the week, month or even year ahead? Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates. Some may have already cultivated their own unique ways to learn classroom materials. And like many scaffolds, effective modeling helps all students—not just ELs. FluentU is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. The most important thing is that they work for you. Therefore you should model whatever strategy you wish to teach by walking your students through it. These ELL students can often become overwhelmed by the challenge of attaining an English-language education with a limited proficiency in English, which makes it so much more important for them to focus on their existing strengths and to use the learning strategies that suit them best. One of the most critical components of helping English language learners (ELLs) succeed academically is the role of background knowledge. With generous support provided by the National Education Association. Different linguists adhere to different rules about how to teach learning strategies. The good news? Though such tests may provide information about an ELL’s reading comprehension and writing composition skills, they may not give an accurate picture of student progress towards attaining instructional objectives or provide feedback to the teacher about the level of success of instructional strategies. Start by providing flashcards or illustrations for your students (there are loads of these online) and then gradually allow them to find or create their own using the internet. Illustrations ©2009 by Rafael López originally appeared in `` book Fiesta '' by Mora... Learn new things, surely, is the name of the strategies we use to make these connections their. National education Association these strategies in learning situations means be encouraged to use language... 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