What can you do for ELs in your classroom right now?

10 things mainstream teachers can do today to help ELLs succeed

From Colorin Colorado, sometimes a slight change in teaching style or classroom organization can make a big difference for an ELL student. And of course, what's good for ELLs is often good for all students! This list provides ten tips that teachers can implement in the classroom to help reach all learners.

1. Enunciate clearly, but do not raise your voice. Add gestures, point directly to objects, or draw pictures when appropriate.

2. Write clearly, legibly, and in print-many ELL students have difficulty reading cursive.

3. Develop and maintain routines. Use clear and consistent signals for classroom instructions.

4. Repeat information and review frequently. If a student doesn't understand, try rephrasing or paraphrasing in shorter sentences and simpler syntax. Check often for understanding, but don't ask, "Do you understand?" Instead, have students demonstrate their learning in order to show comprehension.

5. Try to avoid idioms and slang words.

6. Present new information in the context of known information.

7. Announce the lesson's objectives and activities, and list instructions step by step.

8. Present information in a variety of ways.

9. Provide frequent summations of the salient points of a lesson, and always emphasize key vocabulary words.

10. Recognize student success overtly and frequently. But, also be aware that in some cultures, overt individual praise is considered inappropriate and can therefore be embarrassing or confusing to the student.

ELL Strategy Library - Colorin Colorado

You can search the Colorin Colorado database by keyword, academic language feature, language domain, language development level, or tags for strategies. They also have them grouped by type. Each strategy gives an overview, instructions on how to use it, and examples.

Examples:

• Cognates are words in two languages that share a similar meaning, spelling, and pronunciation, such as the English-Spanish cognate inspiration / inspiración. 

• The Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM) is a strategy to teach students sentence structure and content simultaneously.

My English as a New Language (ENL) Page

Laura Stevens is an ENL teacher from New York with a LOT of resources to share!

Accommodations for English Language Learners (ELLs) in the Classroom

This article provides several highly effective accommodations, include free resources, for EL students.