Spelling is an important component of literacy. At the beginning levels of literacy, decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) can be taught at the same time. As students advance in their decoding skills, they typically surpass their spelling skills. It is easier to remember that a_e, a, ai, and ay all make the long a sound than it is to remember which spelling pattern to use in each word. For multilingual learners it is important that students know the meaning of…
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 who are new to the country. Apples and pumpkins are also popular fall themes. Here are some ideas for teaching ELLs about the fall. Create text sets with longer articles and books you read to students and short passages and books they read independently or in groups….
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…
Learning how to read is a complex process for all students. When you are teaching reading to ELLs, there is the added challenge that they are learning the vocabulary of English as they learn how to read. Some ELLs have the benefit of knowing how to read in their native language. This is helpful as many of the same skills will transfer over as they learn how to read in English. For young ELLs they are learning to read for…
Choral reading is one strategy to help MLs practice their reading fluency. During choral reading, the teacher and a group of students read a text together. This allows students to practice reading the text fluently and without the stress of missing a word. Here are some tips for choral reading with MLs. Selecting a Choral Reading Text Choral reading works best when the text is close to the instructional reading level of the students. It is a good opportunity to…
Matching pictures with text is one strategy to assist English Language Learners and primary students with reading comprehension and vocabulary development. Students can match pictures in a range of ways. This includes matching pictures with words or sentences. Here are some ideas for using picture matching with ELLs. Match Pictures with Words Choose pictures from a text that students are reading or relevant vocabulary words. Depending on the choices of words, students are able to practice beginning and ending sounds…
April is National Poetry Month, which makes it a great time for writing poetry. Any point in the year is also a great time to have students write poems. For English Language Learners, writing poetry can be a welcome change from other forms of writing. Many of the traditional writing conventions are not as strictly enforced in poems. Students can use fewer words to convey powerful messages. Poems are a fun way to play around with language. Here are some…
Finding the main idea and supporting details is a reading comprehension skill that students are expected to understand starting in kindergarten. By third grade, students are expected to do this with more complex texts independently. This can be a challenging skill for all students. For some ELLs, they have the added challenge of not yet reading grade level texts independently. Here are 5 ideas to support students learning about main idea and supporting details. Sorting One simple way to introduce…