- Early Beginner: Identify two or three essential ideas for students to learn and several background words that would be helpful for students. For example, if you are teaching a unit on the properties of fluids, these new students might be able to learn words such as: water, solid, fluids, liquid, and so on.
- High Beginner / Intermediate: Identify several essential ideas for students to learn and a concentrated list of core vocabulary. These ESL students would benefit from a shortened list of the vocabulary that you’ve identified as important for this unit.
- Advanced/Long-Term: These ESL students should be expected to learn the majority or all of the content that you teach to regular education students. However, they may need more time to complete assignments, demonstrate their knowledge, and more support and structure during lessons and assignments.
Allow the ESL student to demonstrate their knowledge in a completely different format. Generally, for beginning students with limited proficiency in English, pictures, drawing, and short verbal explanations work best. At this stage, the student is generally only graded on content, and not on spelling, grammar, or stylistics.
- Label a picture or diagram
- Draw a picture that demonstrates a key idea
- Explain an idea orally
- Answer a few questions orally
- Draw lines between vocabulary terms and pictures
- Allow students to submit a project in lieu of an in-class test. The project might take a week or more for the student to complete.
Use the same test that you’ve prepared for regular education students, but shorten it and focus on essential ideas and core vocabulary.
- Cross out half the questions
- Require students to complete only certain portions of the test
- Provide a word bank (write it on the test)
- Allow students to choose to answer 5 of 10 questions
- Provide multiple choice answers for questions that would normally require students to create an answer
- Turn short answer into multiple choice or a math problem
- Shorten the length of the required answer
- For multiple choice, cross out one or two of the incorrect answers
- Matching with a limited number of choices
- Early Beginner: Try to write out as many simplified directions for them as you can. Provide graphic organizers to them. Pre-copy the class notes and give students the notes before the lesson. Use highlighters and sticky notes to identify the material you expect them to focus on.
- High Beginner / Intermediate: Identify several essential ideas for students to learn and a concentrated list of core vocabulary. These ESL students would benefit from a shortened list of the vocabulary that you’ve identified as important for this unit.
- Advanced/Long-Term: These ESL students should be expected to learn the majority or all of the content that you teach to regular education students. However, they may need more time to complete assignments, demonstrate their knowledge, and need more support and structure during lessons and assignments. Because these students have strong social language skills, it is easy to assume that they understand much more than they do and/or that they have the background knowledge needed to make good progress.
Resource: http://www.bethlehemschools.org/academics/departments/esl/