1. ELL Strategies to Improve Learning

2. What Makes Content Areas Easy or Hard for ELL Students?

3. Math Easy Some notation is the same Some is “hands-on”
Some concepts transfer
Lower volume of written material
Computation uses less “language”
Hard
Some notation is different
Some processes are different
Word problems, vocabulary
Concepts are often abstract

4. Science Easy Demonstrations, “hands-on” Visuals, pictures, diagrams
Hard
Cause-effect, if-then relationships
Hypothesis-testing
Volume of vocabulary
Terms with technical & non-technical meanings (table, kingdom, power, etc.)

5. Social Studies Easy Interesting to different cultures
Opportunities to incorporate ELL students culture
Hard
Technical & non-technical terms (subjects, power, etc.)
Volume of reading
Cultural assumptions are not always explicit
Abstract concepts

6. Literature Easy Interesting to student from another culture
Opportunities to incorporate ELL students culture
Hard
Volume of reading requires analysis & evaluation
Required background knowledge
Variety of language used (poetry, Shakespeare, root words, etc.)

7. BICS versus CALP Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills
Skills involved in everyday communication; listening, speaking, carrying on basic conversation, understanding speakers & getting basic needs met.
Pronunciation
Grammar
Vocabulary
Not related to academic achievement
Universal across all native speakers
Attained after 2 or 3 years in the host country

8. BICS versus CALP Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency
Skills that are needed to succeed in the academic classroom; problem solving, inferring, analyzing, synthesizing & predicting.
Language of the classroom; decontextualized
Language outside of the immediate interpersonal context
CALP in 1st & 2nd language overlaps in spite of differences in language
Related to literacy skills
Attained between 5 to 7 years in the host country

9. BICS versus CALP Cognitively Undemanding (BICS) Content Embedded A C
B D
Content
Reduced
Cognitively Demanding (CALP)

10. BICS versus CALP Quadrant A
Following directions, face-to-face conversation, getting absence excuse, buying popcorn, oral presentations, art, music & PE classes
Quadrant B
Demonstrations, experiments, audio-visual lessons, basic math facts, projects & activities, health instruction, social studies, science experiments

11. BICS versus CALP Quadrant C
Telephone conversation, note on the refrigerator, written directions, instructions without diagrams or illustrations
Quadrant D
Standardized tests, reading & writing, math concepts & applications, abstract concepts, lecture with few illustrations, social science texts, mainstream English texts

12. BICS versus CALP Cognitively Undemanding (BICS) Content Embedded A C
B D
Content
Reduced
Cognitively Demanding (CALP)

13. Three Principles Which Help ELL Students in Content Classrooms
Increase Comprehensibility
Increase Interaction
Increase Thinking Skills

14. Increase Comprehensibility
Provide additional/non-verbal clues (pictures, objects, demonstrations, gestures, intonation cues, etc.)
Share lesson objectives in “student language”
Break new material into smaller chunks with frequent comprehension checks

15. Increasing Comprehensibility
Use a lesson sequence which proceeds:
From prior knowledge to new knowledge
From the concrete to the abstract
From oral language to texts
From more contextual support to less contextual support
Use Contextual Support (visuals, hands-on, non-verbal clues, etc.) to communicate the overall message, then correlate the message with the language.

16. Increase Comprehensibility
Did I make the instruction understandable to my students by providing clear, meaningful context & reinforcement?
Visual aids, labels, classroom routines, realia, graphic organizers, previewing content, activating prior knowledge, role-plays, theme-based instruction, chants, songs, etc.

17. Increase Interaction One-on-one Interaction Small Group Interaction
Provide opportunities for active participation to share ideas & language in smaller setting

18. Increase Interaction Think-Write-Pair-Share Numbered Heads Together
Jigsaw
Peer Tutoring
Pair Assignments
Cooperative Projects

19. Increasing Interaction
Did I give students multiple opportunities to practice the content, to build understanding, & to improve their command of the language through peer interaction?
Pair work, think-write-pair-share, cooperative learning, peer editing, shared writing, shared reading, dialogue journals, choral response, etc.

20. Increase Thinking Skills
Think Alouds
How do you know that? Why do you think that?
Graphic Organizers to show relationships
Use of Cognitive Strategies (imagery, summarization, making inferences, transfer, deduction, classification, grouping, note-taking, elaboration

21. Increasing Thinking Skills
Did I provide students with adequate exposure to & practice with higher order thinking skills & learning strategies?
Think alouds, explicit instruction, graphic organizers, summarizing, making inferences, analyzing, evaluating, comparing, contrasting, responding to how & why questions, etc.