ELL - How does it look? (Elementary)

Your GOAL is to provide context so that EB learners can make sense of what is being taught and to build self-confidence to become interactive in the classroom.

DID YOU KNOW?

Vocabulary is critical to a child's success!

Vocabulary It is directly related to school achievement.

The size of a child's vocabulary in kindergarten predicts the ability to learn to read.

Ensuring Academic Success

👇 How does it look in the Elementary Classroom? 👇

Academic Language and Vocabulary

Pre-teaching vocabulary:
Introduce key terms before reading or discussion, using visuals, definitions, and real-life examples.

Explicit instruction:
Clearly explain the meaning of new vocabulary words, using visuals, real-life examples, and student-friendly definitions.
Scaffolding:
Provide support through sentence starters, prompts, graphic organizers, and visual cues to help students formulate complex ideas.
Frequent repetition:
Reinforce new vocabulary through repeated exposure in different contexts.
Connect to prior knowledge:
Make connections between new concepts and students' existing understanding.
Differentiation and accommodations:
Adapt assignments and materials to suit individual student needs, including providing translated texts or allowing for bilingual responses

Background/Prior Knowledge

Visual aids:
Utilize pictures, videos, and real-life objects to support understanding, especially for students with limited language skills.
Cultural sensitivity:
Be mindful of potential cultural differences and avoid assumptions about students' prior knowledge.
Open-ended questions:
Ask questions that encourage students to share their experiences and perspectives to build upon their existing knowledge

Examples of activating background knowledge in an EB elementary classroom:

- Food: Before learning about fruits and vegetables, asking students to name foods they eat at home to connect with new vocabulary like "apple," "banana," or "carrot." Showing pictures of traditional dishes from different cultures to discuss familiar ingredients and mealtimes.
- Animals: Asking students to share pets they have at home before learning about different animal types to build on their existing knowledge. Showing pictures of animals from their home country to discuss similarities and differences with animals in the classroom context.
- Weather: Discussing the different types of weather they experience in their home region before learning about English weather vocabulary like "rain," "snow," and "sunshine." Using visuals to show how weather might look different in different climates.
- Family: Asking students to share about their family members and roles within their family before learning family vocabulary like "mother," "father," and "sibling." Using pictures or diagrams to show different family structures.
- Colors and Shapes: Having students identify familiar objects in the classroom based on their colors and shapes to reinforce basic concepts
- Playing games that involve matching colors and shapes to everyday objects

Make it Visual

Anchor Charts

Teaching new concepts:
During a mini lesson, introduce a new topic by collaboratively building an anchor chart with students, adding key points, definitions, and examples as the lesson progresses.
Visualizing complex ideas:
Use pictures, diagrams, or symbols to break down complicated concepts into manageable parts, making them easier for students to understand.
Building vocabulary:
Write new vocabulary words on the chart, including definitions and visual representations to help students remember and use them effectively.
Practicing writing skills:
Create anchor charts with sentence structures, grammar rules, or writing prompts to guide students during independent writing activities.
Reviewing key points:
Regularly refer back to the anchor chart during the lesson to reinforce learning and provide a visual reminder of important information.
Student-led contributions:
Encourage students to actively participate by adding their own ideas, examples, or drawings to the chart, promoting ownership and engagement.
Differentiation:
Use anchor charts to cater to different learning styles by incorporating visual aids, color coding, and varied examples.
Updating and revising:
As students' progress, add new information or modify existing parts of the anchor chart to reflect their growing understanding.

Graphic Organizers

KWL chart: "Know, Want to Know, Learned" - Great for activating prior knowledge, setting learning goals, and reflecting on new information.
Spider map (or web): Useful for brainstorming ideas related to a central topic, showing connections between concepts.
T-chart: A simple two-column organizer for comparing and contrasting information.
Sequence chart: Helps students organize events in chronological order.
Five W's chart: For recording key details about an event, including who, what, when, where, and why.

Gestures

- Math: Showing "more" by spreading hands apart, "less" by bringing hands closer; using fingers to represent numbers; drawing a circle with hands to represent numbers; drawing a circle with hands to represent a whole
- Science: Mimicking a plant growing upwards to represent growth; making a "wave" motion to demonstrate water movement; using hands to show the shape of a molecule.
- Reading: Pointing to different characters in a story; mimicking the actions of characters to enhance engagement; showing "big" and "small" with hand size to illustrate relative size
- Classroom management: thumbs up for "yes" or "I understand"; thumbs down for "no" or "I don't understand"; "quiet" hand signal with a finger over the mouth

Document Camara

Student work display: Quickly project student papers, drawings, or math problems to the class for whole-group discussion and feedback.
Interactive writing: Write on a whiteboard or piece of paper while the camera captures the process in real-time for students to see.
Read-aloud time: Display storybooks page-by-page for the whole class to follow along.
Math manipulatives demonstration: Show how to use manipulatives like blocks or counters to solve math problems.
Science experiments: Project close-up views of experiments in progress, allowing students to observe key details.
Show-and-tell: Allow students to share small items with the class by placing them under the document camera

Sentence Stems

Choose appropriate stems:
Select sentence stems that align with the current learning objective and vocabulary level of your students.
Model and explain:
Clearly demonstrate how to use the sentence stems by thinking aloud and providing examples.
Display visibly:
Write the sentence stems on the board or use a poster for students to reference during discussions and activities.
Practice in pairs or small groups:
Have students practice using the sentence stems with a partner, taking turns completing the sentences.
Incorporate into different activities:
Use sentence stems in various activities like class discussions, summarizing texts, answering questions, and writing assignments.

Picture Cards

- Vocabulary Introduction: Show a picture card and say the word clearly, repeating several times while encouraging students to repeat after you. Use gestures and context clues to help with understanding. Ask students to point to specific pictures when you say the word.
- Matching Games: Print corresponding word cards and have students match the words to the pictures. Play "Memory" by flipping over pairs of cards to find matches.
- Sorting Activities: Categorize picture cards based on themes like animals, food, colors, or actions. Have students sort cards into different groups based on given criteria.

Advanced Uses:

- Storytelling: Lay out picture cards in sequence and have students create a story based on the pictures. Encourage students to add details like characters, setting, and plot.
- Questioning: Use picture cards to ask open-ended questions about the image, prompting students to use descriptive language. Ask "wh" questions (who, what, where, when, why) to encourage critical thinking.
- Sentence Building: Provide students with picture cards and word cards to build simple sentences.
- Centers and Small Group Activities: Set up a picture card matching center where students can work independently or in pairs. Use picture cards for "I Spy" activities where students have to identify specific pictures on a card.

Hands On Activities

- Relatable:
  1. Object labeling: Label everyday objects in the classroom with sticky notes and have students identify them in English.
  2. "Show and Tell": Students bring in personal items from home to describe in English.
  3. "What's missing?": Hide an object from a set and have students use English to describe what is missing.
- Art and craft activities:
  1. Drawing vocabulary: Students draw pictures to represent new vocabulary words.
  2. Collages: Create collages depicting a story or theme using pictures from magazines.
  3. Puppet show: Make puppets and act out a story using new vocabulary.
- Movement and role-play activities:
  1. Charades: Act out actions or concepts for classmates to guess.
  2. "Simon Says": Follow instructions using action verbs.
  3. "Follow the leader": Mimic actions and say the corresponding English words.
- Games and simulations:
  1. "I Spy": Describe an object in the classroom using descriptive language for others to guess.
  2. "Memory Match": Match pairs of vocabulary cards with pictures.
  3. "Bingo": Create bingo cards with vocabulary words and call out definitions.
- Building and construction activities:
  1. Lego builds: Create models based on a story or theme using Lego bricks.
  2. Block play: Construct scenes related to vocabulary words.
  3. Papercraft: Build 3D objects using paper templates

Picture Cards

Vocabulary building:

Flashcard drills: Quickly show a picture card and ask students to say the word.
Matching games: Students match picture cards to corresponding written words.
Categorization activities: Sort picture cards into different categories based on attributes like color, shape, or function.

Storytelling:

- - Sequencing: Arrange picture cards in the correct order to tell a story.
  - Retelling: Students use picture cards to retell a story they have read.
  - Creating stories: Students select picture cards to create their own stories

Concept development:

Math: Use picture cards to represent numbers, quantities, or shapes.
Science: Illustrate life cycles, different types of animals, or weather patterns with picture cards
Social Studies: Depict historical events, different cultures, or geographical locations with picture cards