A Few Words about English Language
Learners
Like
all learners, English language learners need teachers who have a strong
knowledge base and commitment to developing students’ language. It is crucial that teachers work carefully to
develop English language learners’ academic vocabularies. The following are some important principles
for supporting English language learners as they develop their vocabularies in
a new language:
·
Encourage
native language development. It is
easier for individuals to learn new labels for already-known concepts than to
learn new concepts. For instance, the
word indifferent is easier to learn in a new language if students already know
the concept and its verbal representation in their native language.
·
Create
a safe, comfortable, and nonthreatening atmosphere that encourages students to
use their new language and ensure that they have authentic reasons to engage in
language use with you and one another.
·
Respect
and raw on students’ backgrounds and experiences and build connections between
the known and the new.
·
Know
your students and capitalize on their interests. All of us are more likely to attend to and
communicate about what we find fascinating.
·
Model
and scaffold language use.
·
Take
advantage of the cognates that exists between languages. For instance, many English and Spanish words,
such as family and familia, have a common origin.
·
Make
use of realia, concrete materials, visuals, pantomime, and other nonlinguistic
representations of concepts to make input comprehensible. Write new words on the board as they are
shared or provide each student with a set of cards that contains the words. That way students can see the words as well
as hear them.
·
Introduce
new words in rich contexts that support meaning.
·
Ensure
that students have ample opportunities for social interactions, especially in
the context of content learning.
English language learners need many occasions to practice the academic
language they are learning.
·
Provide
wait time. Allowing students time to put
their thoughts into words is important for all students, but it is especially
so for students who are learning to communicate in a new language.
·
Keep
your expectations high for all students –and for yourself as their
teacher. Work for depth and breadth of
understanding of challenging content and promote critical thinking.
Strategies
for Encouraging Classroom Discourse
The following are some of the
strategies that will work with any content area and at nearly any step in the
instructional sequence. In these
strategies, most or all students will express their understandings of the content
or their perspectives about an issue.
1.
Think-Pair-Share
Think-Pair-Share (Lyman 1981), a
strategy that may be used in any content area, facilitates students’ use of
language as they first consider a question that the teacher has posed, briefly
discuss their responses with partners, and then share their answers with the
entire class. For example, when
teaching report with the topic Flood, a teacher may stop and ask students to
think of three important things from the lesson. Or the teacher may be more specific and ask
students to state some causes of flood.
After providing the students with a moment to think quietly, the teacher
announces, “Pair,” and students turn to their neighbors to talk about their
responses. Finally, the teacher asks
pairs to volunteer to share with the class some of the causes that they have
discussed. This strategy provides a
break from teacher talk and allows students to articulate what they have
learned. In their discussions, students
use the language of the subject matter.
In this example, words such as overflow,
heavy rain, high tide, -ones they have heard from the teacher-begin to
become part of their own repertoires because they have a chance to use them
immediately.
In
addition to providing a structure for students to respond to questions as a review
of content, Think-Pair-Share may be used to facilitate students’ thinking about
connections between the content and students’ lives or other content. For instance, if a teacher is about to begin
a lesson or unit of study on animals’ defenses, he or she may ask students to
think about any self-protective behavior they have witnessed in their pets or
in wild animals. Then students talk in
pairs about their observations, and finally, they share with the class.
2.
10:2 Lecture
A strategy similar to Think-Pair-Share
is the 10:2 Lecture. This strategy is
described by Brechtel (2001) as a means for providing English language learners
with an opportunity to practice language, but we believe it is useful for all
learners. The idea is that after approximately
every 10 minutes of instruction, students should be provided with two minutes
of oral processing time. In other words,
students should turn to a partner and discuss what they have learned. This paired response time provides a
risk-free environment for testing understanding of new ideas and information
and prompts the students to use oral language to express and clarify their
understandings. The 10:2 Lecture does
not include the think time that is a step in Think-Pair-Share, but it can
easily be modified to include think time prior to paired discussion. One advantage of this strategy is that it
requires frequent pauses in instruction for student talk, and the name
itself-10:2 Lecture-is a good reminder of the importance of providing students
with frequent opportunities to talk about what they are learning.
3.
Numbered Heads Together
Numbered Heads Together is a
cooperative learning strategy that increases students’ opportunities to
talk. In this strategy, described by
Kagan (1994), the teacher asks questions about the content and, rather than
call on individuals to respond, he or she has the students meet in small groups
of four to discuss the answer. Students
are numbered off so there is a one, two, three, and four in each group. After allowing the students time to discuss
the answer to the question, the teacher randomly selects a number from one to
four (perhaps using an overhead spinner) and asks all the students with that
number to raise their hands. Then she
calls on one of the students whose hand is raised.
This strategy promotes high levels
engagement because the students work together to generate a response to the
question, and their task is to ensure that everyone in their group knows the
answer. All students realize they may be
selected to articulate the answer for their group and therefore are motivated
to participate. Kagan contrasted
Numbered Heads Together with the more typical classroom exchanges we described
earlier and noted that the traditional approach can promote negative
interdependence as students compete against one another for the opportunity to
answer the questions. Numbered Heads
Together instead promotes positive interdependence while also promoting
individual accountability. Furthermore,
because students work in small groups to craft a response, we believe the
strategy offers students who otherwise might not have volunteered to respond
the opportunity to share their thoughts and practice using academic language.
Teacher
questions may range from those that require a single brief response (e.g.,
“What is the highest building in Semarang?”) to those that require an
explanation (e.g., “Explain how to make iced coffee milk,”) and those that
invite diverse responses (e.g. “Describe three building you see on the way to
school.”). Of course, the more
open-ended the question, the more talk that will occur in the group.
As
we noted before, providing students with brief think time before talking with
peers allows them to gather their thoughts and thus increase the likelihood
that they will have something to contribute to the conversation. Even if some students have less to say in
their groups, the odds are one in four that their numbers will be selected and
so they generally listen actively and rehearse the response so they can
successfully represent their group if called upon.
4.
Powerful Passages and Significant Sentences
In Literature-Based Reading
Activities (H.K.Yopp and Yopp 2006), there is a description of a strategy that
encourages talk after students have read a selection from a work of literature
or content-area textbook. The teacher
prompts the students to identify a powerful passage (or, if the teacher
prefers, a significant sentence) they wish to share with their peers. Students read their passages aloud to several
partners, one at a time, and explain why they choose the passages. In other words, they share their passages
with several peers in succession and provide the rationale for their
selections. By using the strategy the
students become more fluent in their reading of the passage and more articulate
and detailed in their explanantions with each sharing.
This
simple strategy may be used with groups as they read the same text or as they
read different texts (e.g., after a silent reading period during which they
read self-selected books). When all
students have read the same text, they are interested in comparing their
passage selections with one another.
Because there is no “correct” selection, students engage in authentic
conversations about their choices, they demonstrate interest in the variety of
passages and their understanding of the text deepens as they discuss their
choices. When students have read
different texts, they provide their partners with contextual information about
the passages, perhaps summarizing the events in the story to this point or
describing a character’s personality prior to sharing their passages. Thus, the talk that surrounds the sharing of
the passages I plentiful.
5.
Inquiry Lessons
Inquiry lessons engage students in
investigations to satisfy their own curiosities and answer their own
questions. The lessons prompt
exploration and discovery. Students have
their hands on objects, materials, or resources; they seek information; and
they generate and test hypotheses as they look for explanations and solutions. Because vocabulary acquisition occurs most
easily in context when students care about the topics, inquiry lessons are
ideal for promoting students’ purposeful use of language and developing
students’ language.
Many
teachers are skilled at designing lessons that spark students’ active search
for knowledge. In science, for example,
they demonstrate starling events, such as a peeled hard-boiled egg being sucked
into a small-mouthed bottle.
Students
are surprised by the demonstrations, ask questions of the teacher and each
other, offer tentative explanations,
request replications of the event, and look to expert sources to seek
explanations for their observations-all the while engaged in purposeful
discussion about the unexpected event.
Other teachers supply a vary of materials related to the curriculum,
such as seeds or magnets, and allow students to explore them with peers. In social studies, teachers invite students
to view a range of print and nonprint resources, such as texts, images, and
other artifacts related to their study of hunger-gathered societies. As students interact with the resources, they
generate questions and the teacher supports them in refining those questions
and conducting investigations related to them.
Students
often have strong affective responses when they observe discrepant events,
handle materials, and view interesting images.
These responses are usually accompanied by language, as students
spontaneously express their thoughts and feelings or share their knowledge and
personal experiences. Teachers can
capitalize on student interest and further students’ language development by
creating environments that support inquiry and encouraging students to work
together to pursue the answer to their questions.
6.
Wordless Picture Books
Wordless picture books are rich in
images but contain very little or no text.
They typically narratives; that is, the illustrations convey a
story.
Wordless
picture books may be used with any age group.
With young children, teachers might begin by talking about the
illustrations in detail and using precise and complex language to share the
story the pictures tell (e.g., “On this page, we see the sun is rising. It casts a warm, red glow across the hills
and through the woman’s curtainless window.
It looks like early morning in the countryside.”). Then teachers invite the children to tell
what they see as they work their way through the pages together (e.g., “Ah!
What is happening on this page?”). If
multiple copies of the book are available, they may be distributed to the
students, who then revisit the book and tell the story to one another, changing
it as they wish to reflect their views of the story.
Older
students may be encouraged to work with partners to create a story based on the
illustrations. All students should be
prompted to provide details to foster oral language: What is the setting? What words might be used to describe the
hills? What can we tell about the
character by the expression on his or her face?
What is he or she thinking and doing?
Why is the character doing what he or she is doing?
A
meaningful extension of sharing wordless picture books is to have students
create original works and share them with one another.
Teachers
can alter books with text to make wordless picture books. The books must have illustrations that convey
the story sufficiently so that the words are not necessary. The teacher covers the text using strips of
paper or sticky notes and shares the book as he or she would a wordless picture
book.
7.
Photo Review
Photographs of students engaging in
learning activities may also be used as prompts for oral language. The teacher takes photos of students during a
lesson or unit of study and later distributes copies of the photos to the
class. Students are then asked to
closely examine the photos and talk with one another about what they see and
remember about the lesson. The teacher
encourages the students to be specific and use words that are important to the
content. He or she may even identify
particular words, writing them on the board or distributing word cards, that he
or she hopes to hear the students use.
In this way, the teacher promotes the students’ use of academic
vocabulary.
For
instance, students have a trip to a nearby museum. Students explore the museums. Teacher takes digital photos throughout the
visit as students record data. The teacher selects representative photos and
prints four of them on a single page, makes a copy for each group, and the next
day, asks students to meet in their same groups. The teacher distributes the photo pages and
gives each group a set of word cards. On
each card is written one of the following words: explore, observe, preserved, and pre-historic. The teacher
tells the student that he or she will be listening for them to use these words
as they discuss the photo one another.
The photos and word cards serve to spark the students’ memories and
promote a high lebel of engagement because the students are likely to be eager
to talk about what they see themselves and their classmates doing in the
photos.
8.
Sketch to Stretch
Adapted
from Harste, Short, and Burke (1988), Sketch to Stretch is intended to stretch
students’ thinking and promote discussion as students sketch their
understanding of the content after reading a text selection, hearing a lecture,
or participating in a learning experiences.
Sketches, quickly rendered, may be literal or symbolic, narrowly or
broadly focused, and elaborate or simple.
After allowing a few minutes for sketching, the teacher prompts students
to meet in small groups to share their work.
Students talk about what they see in one another sketches before they
offer detailed explanations of their own drawings. The teacher may circulate throughout the room
and record key words he or she hears in students’ discussions, later commenting
on their usage of important vocabulary.
Although
Sketch to Stretch is typically used after students have engaged with content,
it may be used before students engage content as a means of activating their
background knowledge on a topic. For
instance, just prior to studying the topic, a teacher might ask his or he
students to sketch images that come to mind when they hear the word erosion.
Thus, students’ background knowledge (including relevant vocabulary) is
activated. Again, the teacher may wish
to comment on students’ vocabulary or use their discussions as a springboard
for introducing key vocabulary.
9.
Mystery Bags
Mystery Bags can be used to spark
conversations about a topic. The teacher
prepares a bag by inserting objects that are related to the content of an
upcoming lesson or unit. For instance,
if ninth graders are beginning a unit of procedure text of making food and
beverage, the teacher might place a knife, a spatula, etc inside the bag. Small groups of students are each given a bag
(which may or may not contain identical items) and either at the teacher’s
signal or on their own, students remove one object at a time from the bag. As each object is removed, the students’ task
is to identify and talk about the object.
They are encouraged to draw on their experiences with or knowledge about
the object. If a spatula is pulled from
the bag, for instance, students share what they know about its use. Then another item is taken from the bag. Students again identify it.
10. Response Cards
This strategy engages students in
talking about content from a variety of perspectives. The teacher prepares for the activity by
gathering colored index cards, making decisions about the tasks he or she wants
the student to perform, and recording those tasks on the cards. For example, the teacher might write
“Question” on all of the yellow cards, “Connect” on all of the blue cards, and
“Summarize” on all of the green cards.
Then he or she randomly distributes the cards to the students, one card
per student.
As
the teacher reads, lectures, shows a video, or provides some other
instructional input, he or she invites the students to think about the content
from the perspective of a questioner, connector, or summarizer, depending on
the card they received. Those with
yellow cards think about questions they have about the content, those with blue
cards think about connections they can make between the content and their lives
or other material they have learned, and those with green cards think about how
they would summarize the information being presented.
The
teacher pauses in his or her instruction after several minutes and asks the
students with the yellow cards to meet with one or two other students with a
yellow card and, as a team, generate questions.
Likewise,
he or she asks the students with the blue card to meet with one or two
others. After giving students a few
minutes of talk time, the teacher asks the students to share their questions,
connections, and summaries with the whole group. Then the teacher continues with his or her
instruction and, at an appropriate point, stops and gain asks the students to
meet with partners and engage in their assigned tasks.
After
several opportunities to question, connect, or summarize, the teacher tells the
students to trade their cards for one of a different color. The students engage in the new tasks and meet
with different classmates as they talk about the content of the lesson.
The
response cards strategy is generally a highly motivating experience that
stimulates considerable discussion about the topic and provides students with
an opportunity to think-and talk-about the content from more than one
perspective.
11.
Jigsaw
The Jigsaw strategy has a long
history and numerous variations (Kagan 1994).
It is an approach to instruction that involves the students becoming
experts in some portion of the learning material. Students form groups and each member is
assigned or selects one section of the material to be learned. The students gather information about heir
portions of the material, often using text resource, and then teach the
information their groupmates. Jigsaw
provides an outstanding opportunity for students to deeply process content and
use specialized content vocabulary to teach their peers.
12.
Four Corners
Four Corners gets students out of
their seats and talking with classmates about important content or ideas. The teacher asks a questions or makes a
statement and then sends the students to the four corners of the classroom to
respond to the prompt. For example, the
teacher might ask students to think about whether they agree with the following
statement after reading A Single Shard by
Linda Sue Park (2001): “Tree-ear was foolish to carry the potter’s vases to the
royal court.” After giving the students
a few moments to think about this statement, the teacher asks them to go to the
corner of the room that reflects their reaction to the statement. The corners are designated Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree. In their corners, the students discuss
their ideas about the statement. Then
the teacher invites students in each corner to share the group’s thinking about
the statement. Sometimes teachers
prepare and ask for responses to several statements before students begin
moving to corners to that after discussing the first statement, students can
travel to the next corner-at a signal-to discuss their responses to the next
statement.
A
variation of this strategy is to assign the students to corners. After the students have learned about changes
to the earth’s surface, for example, the teacher might randomly assign students
to corners labeled Earthquake, Erosion
and Weathering, Landslides, and
Volcanic Eruptions. Students talk
about what they know about each of these change processes and then summarize
the group’s discussions for the class.
(Source:
Vocabulary Instruction for Academic
Success by Ashley Bishop, et al)
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