Browsed by
Category: English Language Learners

fact opinion
Teaching Fact and Opinion to MLs

Teaching Fact and Opinion to MLs

Comments 0 Comment

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…

Read More Read More

early readers
Early Readers for MLs

Early Readers for MLs

Comments 0 Comment

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…

Read More Read More

Thanksgiving activites
Thanksgiving Activities for MLs

Thanksgiving Activities for MLs

Comments 2 comments

Thanksgiving is an opportunity to integrate American culture into lessons. Some ELLs will have celebrated Thanksgiving their entire life.  These students will be able to share their family’s traditions around the holiday. Other students will have never experienced the holiday before and will benefit from a basic overview of what the holiday is. Here are some Thanksgiving activities to use for integrating the topic of Thanksgiving into your November lessons. Include Multiple Perspectives As you teach students about Thanksgiving, here…

Read More Read More

comparing contrasting
Comparing and Contrasting with MLs

Comparing and Contrasting with MLs

Comments 0 Comment

Learning how to compare and contrast are higher-order thinking skills and an important component of reading comprehension. They are also a great way for students to practice language skills and build academic language. When students compare they look for things that are the same. When they contrast they look for items that are different. Here are some activities to introduce comparing and contrasting to students. Comparing and Contrasting with Pictures Show students two sets of pictures. Have them compare and…

Read More Read More

fall books
Fall Books for MLs

Fall Books for MLs

Comments 1 comment

Here is a collection of books to use as read alouds and mentor texts during the fall season. These books feature diverse characters, have vivid illustrations. Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click on an Amazon link and make a purchase. This does not cost you any extra money. Autumn Story Books Hiking Day– Follow a family as they hike up Hickory Hill and reach the summit. They see colorful fall…

Read More Read More

fall teaching ideas
Fall Teaching Ideas for MLs

Fall Teaching Ideas for MLs

Comments 0 Comment

Fall is a great time to teach about changes. If you live in an area where the leaves change colors during the fall, this might be a new experience for English Language Learners that are new to the country. Apples and pumpkins are also popular fall themes. Here are some ideas for teaching about the fall to ELLs. Create text sets with longer articles and books that you read to students and short passages and books that they read independently…

Read More Read More

Phonemic Awareness Pictures
Using Pictures to Teach Phonemic Awareness to MLs

Using Pictures to Teach Phonemic Awareness to MLs

Comments 0 Comment

Have you heard that phonemic awareness is a skill that you can teach with the lights off? While this is true (phonemic awareness is about manipulating sounds orally) for many multilingual learners this means that many of these activities can seem like they are full of nonsense words. If you add in pictures then students are both practicing their phonemic awareness skills AND building their vocabulary. Here are some ideas on how to use pictures to teach phonemic awareness skills….

Read More Read More

diverse back to school books
Diverse Back to School Books for MLs

Diverse Back to School Books for MLs

Comments 3 comments

The beginning of the school year is a great time to read books about starting at a new school, culture, respect, names, and identity. Books with a diverse range of characters allow students to see their own and other cultures represented. It is especially important for MLs to read and listen to books where they see characters similar to themselves represented. Here are some great books to use a read aloud at the beginning of the school year. Many of…

Read More Read More

starting school year
Tips for Starting the School Year with MLs

Tips for Starting the School Year with MLs

Comments 3 comments

All students have a range of emotions when they start a new school year. Often they are excited to meet their teacher and see old friends. They can also be nervous about having a new teacher, learning new classroom procedures, and having to get to know new classmates. This is especially true for English Learners (ELs) and Multilingual Learners (MLs). ELs can also have the added stress of not entirely understanding the instructions from their teacher. Many English Language Development…

Read More Read More

Multilingual Learners Mainstream
Supporting MLs in the Mainstream Classroom

Supporting MLs in the Mainstream Classroom

Comments 0 Comment

Multilingual Learners typically spend the majority of their day in a mainstream classroom. This is especially true for elementary age students. English Language Learns (ELLs) receive either pull out support from an ESOL teacher or co-teaching support. Some MLs do not receive any support other than from their classroom teacher. A quick way to think about supporting MLs in the mainstream classroom, is to create a welcoming classroom environment and provide language supports and scaffolds. Who are Multilingual Learners? MLs…

Read More Read More