Teaching students the meaning of prefixes and suffixes is a great way to increase their vocabulary. When they know basic prefixes and suffixes they are better able to use context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words. This is true for all students, but it is particularly helpful for Multilingual Learners (MLs), as they may not be familiar with some of the words that have affixes from past exposure. Some suffixes can make changes to words such as tense,…
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…
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…
Phonics is an important component of teaching students how to read. For ELLs it is important to include pictures when possible to help with vocabulary development. Stay away from nonsense words. Here are some phonics activities to use with your English Language Learners and emergent readers. Build the word For these phonics activities use magnetic letters, letter tiles, or simply pieces of paper with letters written on them. Have students practice building words that have the phonics pattern that they…
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…