 When I think of English Language Learners in my class, …

Presenter: Beth Lee

 How do I determine appropriate strategies to help ELs?  How do I create lessons that accommodate ELs without creating more work for myself?  If a student speaks English, why isn’t the student proficient in reading and writing?

 Strive to make instruction more comprehensible to all learners.  Create interactive lessons for students.  Develop lessons that foster academic achievement for ALL students  Facilitate language learning in the content area

 The knowledge of stored information about the meanings and pronunciations of words necessary for communication is referred to as vocabulary development. The development of vocabulary is essential for beginning reading because the process of sounding out a word is also linked to determining if the word makes sense. Without knowing the meaning of a word, it is nearly impossible to no if the word makes sense in a sentence or if it belongs based on context clues. Reading comprehension is heavily impacted by the development of vocabulary as the reader cannot understand the content unless there is an understanding of the majority of the words a text contains. Vocabulary instruction should be incorporated into daily lessons in an effort to assist ELs in developing comprehension skills beyond basic phonetic skills.  Scientific research on vocabulary development demonstrates that children learn the majority of their vocabulary indirectly in the following three ways:  Through conversations, mostly with adults;  Listening to adults read to them; and  Reading extensively on their own (Antunez, 2002).

 Many ELLs are from families where parents and other adults in their lives do not fluently speak the English language. Because of this, it is critical that educators of ELLs strategically and directly incorporate the ways that students learn vocabulary. This may include explicitly teaching vocabulary words before students read a text, how to use dictionaries, how to use prefixes and suffixes to decipher word meanings, and how to use context clues (Antunez, 2002). Vocabulary Acquisition Strategies :  Before Reading  During Reading  After Reading

 Identify key content vocabulary and words that may be difficult for ELs – specifically phrasal verbs and prepositional phrases.  Many languages do no utilize these language forms; therefore, this tends to be one of the last language forms acquired by ELs. It is also imperative to identify difficult idioms, homonyms, and slang phrases. Pre-teach essential vocabulary words and phrases. Word walls Frayer models which permit illustrations Bilingual and ELL dictionaries

 Identify focus vocabulary terms.  Implement multi-modal activities to introduce these terms.  Connect the images to the vocabulary words.  Access Google Images and search the focus vocabulary terms.  Use class discussions to address conceptual terms. This is more effective than simply naming the object.  When available, bring in manipulatives to give meaning to focus vocabulary terms.  Physically demonstrate verb phrases  Ask students to role-play.  Use relevant film-clips to illustrate vocabulary

 Go to  When creating or editing flashcards, you will notice a paperclip icon within the ‘Term’ portion of your flashcard. Scrolling over it will display icons for adding image or audio clips no larger than 10MB.  This is an excellent resource for ELs who need to hear the pronunciation or associate an image with a focus vocabulary term.  Create an account in order to complete this activity.  You will create vocabulary flash cards for three focus vocabulary terms from your first unit of study during the upcoming school term.  For example: simile, verb, character  Log in to your StudyBlue account and you will be brought to your main Backpack page. At the top you will find three options including ‘Join class’, ‘Make flashcards’, and ‘Upload files’. Select the ‘Make flashcards’ option and you will be on your way towards creating a new deck.  These vocabulary flash cards can be accessed from any computer by any student. Students can print the vocabulary terms and store them in their class folders or the teacher can use them for introducing the terms during class discussions.

 As educators who work with ELs, it is critical to support students' meta-cognition around vocabulary. Meta-cognition is an important aspect of learning as it forms the foundation in which students become independent readers and writers. As students are reading, it is important to have the students identify confusing or unknown words. Utilizing context clues is a complex skill that can be used in this process. In order to utilize context clues, students may need to rely on a peer. Discussing possible meanings with partners and keeping vocabulary journals of newly acquired words are simple ways to increase vocabulary acquisition. These strategies will ultimately have a positive impact on improving reading comprehension skills as students become familiar with a variety of vocabulary terms.

 Required:  Optional: Word Definition Part of Speech Sample Sentence Family of Words Picture Pronunciation Usage notes

 Utilizing reading journals is another asset that can assist students in improving reading comprehension through vocabulary acquisition.  Offering scaffolded tasks in the reading journals will allow each journal entry to build upon the next as students incorporate newly acquired vocabulary in the written compositions.  As students consistently read and write these unfamiliar terms, they will develop their recognition of the terms while developing confidence with the second language (English).  The primary reason of incorporating this particular teaching strategy is to provide the ELs with a useful tool for future reference.  Supports the development of reading comprehension through building vocabulary, improving oral reading and developing writing skills as students strive to learn the English language  Reinforces skills that have already been learned  Documents a variety of topics/responses including telling the teacher about what is read, the reaction to the text, summarize specific components or what is most important to the reader, or document unfamiliar words and/or phrases

 Complete the StudyBlue Vocabulary Activity  Complete the table: Key Strategies for Teachers of English-Language Learners  Complete the Evaluation of the Workshop  Schedule an Observation with Beth Lee for feedback on your role as a teacher of ELLs  This is merely an opportunity to receive feedback on how you are serving our students. This will not in any way reflect your administrative observations. These observations are confidential.