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…
Studying a topic in depth is engaging for students. They are able to use their background knowledge each time they interact with a new text or piece of information. Text sets are one way to support ELLs. A text set is a collection of books, articles, and multimedia such as video clips about a topic. Using text sets with ELLs helps to lower their affective filter when they are reading. You can start off by reading aloud a book or…
Patterned texts can be a helpful tool to use with students. Some of these books use words that are difficult for students to decode independently. This means that these books are not the best choice for beginning readers to use in a guided reading lesson until they have learned the phonics skills and sight words to read the majority of the words. Instead, try using patterned or predictable books for read alouds, shared reading, and writing lessons. Find suggestions for…
You may have heard that math is a universal language. This is not the case when students are solving word problems. Many students struggle to solve word problems, they can be particularly challenging for ELLs. Here are some strategies for solving math word problems with English Language Learners. Academic Language Teach students the important vocabulary for the type of word problems that they are solving. This will help students to begin to figure out that how many more might mean to…
Learning basic vocabulary will help newcomer students improve in all areas of English development. Students with basic reading skills can benefit from reading simple sentences and matching pictures with words. Google slides is one format students can use the practice new vocabulary. Learn more about teaching newcomer ELLs. Accessibility Tools For students that are not able to read in English, having a screen reader can help them improve their English. Read Aloud: A Text to Speech Voice Reader– This extension…
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…
Word sorts are one way to help students learn spelling patterns and how to pronounce new vocabulary words. Students are able to focus on two or three patterns instead of trying to memorize a list of words. They are then better able to apply those spelling patterns to new words that follow a similar pattern. Students are also able to practice the correct pronunciation of words. Here are some ways to set up word sorts with ELLs. Small-Group The small…
Students at the beginning stages of writing need support with vocabulary development. One way to give this is to have students label pictures. This supports English Language Learners and beginning writers in learning new vocabulary and using beginning sounds. Here are some benefits of having students label pictures before they begin writing. Vocabulary Support As students label a picture they are getting practice writing the vocabulary word. For ELLs, they might not know what all of the objects and actions…
Teaching rhyming and word families are simple ways to include phonemic awareness and phonics activities. Recognizing and producing rhymes is one aspect of phonemic awareness. This is a skill that emergent readers experience through games, listening to stories and nursery rhymes. For older ELLs, rhyming often does not come as naturally. Rhyming ability is one predictor of reading success. It is not necessary to spend a large amount of time on rhyming activities. Short exposure is just as beneficial as…
Using sentence starters and sentence frames are one strategy to support students in speaking, reading, and writing. A sentence starter is when you give students the beginning part of a sentence and they fill in the rest. A sentence frame is when there are blanks inside a sentence that students fill in. Here are some ways to use sentence stems and frames as a scaffold to support your ELLs. Support Newcomers & Emergent Readers Simple sentence starters allow students to…