When spring is in the air, take advantage of the nice weather and integrate seasonal topics into your lessons. Learning about springtime is a fun way to help Multilingual Learners (MLs) learn about the environment around them. Here are some fun spring teaching ideas for MLs. Teach about Animals Animal life cycles are great for teaching transition words. One fun activity is to show students a video of an eagle or other animals with eggs or newborn babies. In the…
Figurative language uses figures of speech including metaphors, similes, idioms, and personification. It typically describes something by comparing it with something different. Figurative language can be challenging for multilingual learners to understand. This is particularly true for newcomer and beginning English Language Learners (ELLs) as they are still learning literal language. Here are some strategies and ideas for teaching figurative language to ELLs. Culture plays a role in figurative language. Metacognition helps students to understand when they encounter figurative phrases…
Teaching students about facts and opinions helps them to develop critical thinking skills. A fact is a true statement. An opinion is a person’s belief about something. You can include the domains of reading or listening, speaking, and writing in fact and opinion practice activities. Keywords Keywords are one way to support students as they are learning about fact and opinion. Some helpful keywords for stating an opinion are: think, feel, should, good, better, best, bad, worst. It is important to point…
Teaching phonics is an important aspect of a literacy program. This is especially true for ELLs. Phonics is the relationship between sounds and the letter or letters used to write them. Phonics connects sounds with letters and combinations of letters. In the English language, there are 26 letters and 44 sounds (called phonemes). A grapheme is how to spell each sound with either a single letter or letter combinations. Phonics helps students learn specific sounds in the English language. For…
Groundhogs are also known as woodchucks are ground squirrels that create burrows underground and hibernate in the winter. Create groundhog text sets using articles and books to introduce students to this furry rodent. Text sets allow students to build background knowledge about a topic as they read each new text. Discover books and articles to create groundhog text sets for students to read. Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click…
Text sets allow students to build background knowledge about a topic as they read each new text. Discover books and articles to create squirrel text sets for students to read. Nonfiction Books About Squirrels Squirrel Emergent Reader and Decodable Books – Learn facts about the squirrel. This squirrel text also comes with a long and short vowel one page decodable book. Heggerty Frog Series: I Have Soft Paws– Readers learn about similarities between squirrels and other animals. Uses short vowels: a,…
Sentence structure is how the different parts of a sentence fit together. There are multiple ways to write sentences. There are also many incorrect ways to fit together words that do not create a sentence. For students that are learning English one challenge is that sentence structure may work in a different way in their native language. Sentence Structure Basics Even the most basic sentence needs a verb (action) and a subject (noun). We sit. Sometimes the subject can be…
Word study looks at spelling and phonics patterns of individual words. Word Work activities give students practice working with words. This helps them learn how to both read and spell words. For ELLs, it is helpful to include pictures when possible for word work activities. This allows students to better understand the meaning of the words that they are learning how to read and spell. Word Sorts Word sorts are a simple word work activity to give students practice with…
Early reader books are designed for students that are beginning to read independently. Students at this stage typically know a large number of sight words, cvc words, blends, digraphs, and are beginning to read some long vowels. Illustrations play an important role in most early reader books. They assist students in understanding the meaning of unfamiliar words and add in details about the story that the author is not able to do so with the limited text length. Typically students…
Integrating the themes of gratitude and being thankful is a common practice around Thanksgiving. These themes are great to teach about throughout the year as well. Here are some thankful activities to use with your students, including a FREE writing activity. I am Thankful Writing Vocabulary This set comes with vocabulary words to help students tell what they are thankful for. This is a great opportunity to integrate basic vocabulary into a lesson for all students. The vocabulary words…