At UT, we don't have specific program for newcomers or ELs (yet!). Someday, we would like to have sheltered classes for ELs, or have a co-teaching model for classes with ELs similar to what we have for special education. However, until that day comes, our ELs take content-area classes along with the general population. It’s very challenging to teach content to ELs in English when they have a low proficiency level, but there are things you can do to make it easier. First, here are some general tips that you can use:
· Connect content to ELs’ background knowledge
· Use visuals and graphic organizers
· Include hands-on activities
· Use cooperative learning
· Teach vocabulary explicitly
· Include language in your lessons—model the language you want them to use with writing, and provide sentence starters/sentence frames
· Be clear about the big idea or two of the lesson
· Simplify text—either yourself or using one of the online resources I’ve sent you. Even shortening sentences and paragraphs can be extremely helpful!
· Use pre- and post-reading questions. Pre-reading questions let students know what to look for in a reading assignment, and post-reading questions are great for review and ensuring that students read/understand the most important parts.
· Make content applicable to students’ lives. For example, when learning about the causes of World War I, discuss the question, “What’s worth fighting for?” Then relate the answers back to WWI.
· Give instructions both orally and in writing. It helps if there are clear steps.
· Test for content knowledge, NOT language proficiency. Give more time if needed.
· Recognize the “silent period”—many students, when they first come to the US, don’t speak much or at all in English. Don’t force them to talk, but encourage them when they start to try!
· Let students use their native tongue. Put ELs who speak the same language together, or allow students to respond in speech/writing in their native language first, then in English.
· Something else that really helps is building relationships with your students. We all know how important it is to make connections with your students, but with ELs, it can be more difficult. Many of them are shy and very quiet, and won’t initiate conversations with their teachers. They often avoid asking for help, sharing personal information, or even asking to go to the bathroom! That’s why it’s so important for teachers to try to reach out to students and make that connection. Of course, don’t force them to talk, but even saying hi, asking how they’re doing, asking about their family or home country can be a big help.
One teacher here (I won’t call her out and embarrass her) is a great example of this. We have a student who speaks almost no English and rarely says anything in any language. She doesn’t even have him as a student, but over the course of about a week (yes, it took like 5 times!) she taught him how to say “Good, how are you?” when she asked how he was. Now he smiles and responds to her easily every time he sees her. That connection is invaluable!
· If you’re struggling with ANYTHING, please feel free to ask me for help. If a student is failing or appears to not be trying, if there are problems with ELs and other students, if you’re not sure how to reach a student or modify a lesson for ELs, I am more than willing to help you. I am far from an expert but I do know most of the ELs very well and will do everything I can to help.
· Finally, a mantra in ESL is “Good teaching is good teaching.” Some of you may have noticed that a lot of the strategies I’ve mentioned are ones you already use or may have heard of. Don’t stress yourself out about modifying every single lesson—if you have well-designed, engaging lessons for native English speakers, they will be good for ELs as well. I know we all have a lot on our plates—IEPs and 504s, students with behavior issues, large class sizes, incorporating Kagan and SMART Board strategies, students with hearing loss or physical disabilities, etc.—but anything you do is better than nothing.
Below are a bunch of links to helpful articles and resources for different subject areas. In addition, I have a few Spanish-English content area dictionaries in my room—science, math, and social studies. I also have a bunch of general bilingual dictionaries in a bunch of different languages. Let me know if you want any!
General, for all content areas
Teaching Informational Text to ELLs – CCSS, choosing texts, scaffolding, using first languages
Challenges for ELLs in Content Area Learning – includes reading, math, science, and social studies
Multilingual glossary of academic English vocabulary – English/Spanish/Hmong (I don’t believe we have any Hmong students). Link to a Google Doc.
Articles in both English and Spanish – more
Bilingual glossaries in MANY languages – US History, Government, Global History, general Math, Algebra, Trigonometry, Geometry, Integrated Algebra, Physical Science, Earth Science, Chemistry, Living Environment, Physics
More bilingual glossaries for many content areas
Spanish employment, education, health care, and civil rights resources
Math
Math – another – articles about teaching math to ELs
Multilingual math glossary – another - another
Multilingual app with step-by-step math problems
Social Studies
Social Studies – another – articles about teaching social studies to ELs
Multilingual summaries of chapters about US History – click on the era of history, then the chapter you want to read, then links for summaries are at the bottom
Multilingual summaries of Geography – follow the same steps as above
Multilingual summaries of Government and Civics – same
Multilingual summaries of World History – same
Science
Science – another – articles about teaching science to ELs
Bilingual science glossaries: Earth science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics
Language Arts
Language Arts – another – articles about teaching language arts to ELs (good for English teachers with exited students/students who have refused ESL services!)
The Arts – music and art
The Arts – another – articles about teaching the arts to ELs
A lot of these resources are in other languages, and if you don’t speak the language, it’s hard to know which video/article is what you’re looking for! For that reason, I suggest using Google Chrome as your browser. It has an automatic translator built in that will use Google Translate to change the language to English. It won’t be perfect, but hopefully it’s good enough to help. If you don’t use Google Chrome, you can copy and paste any URL into translate.google.com. Feel free to use Google Translate to change any documents into the student's native language (when possible). Will it be perfect? NO. Will it be a lot better than giving a student a document just in English? Yes!
One thing you can do that will help your students immensely is to preview any topic that you're going to cover in their native language. The way you can accomplish this varies based on what the native language is; obviously there are the most materials in Spanish, and then the other languages vary. I just learned about an awesome site called 2lingual that performs dual searches in English and another language! Check it out.
Other great resources are native language Wikipedia (like Spanish, French, Arabic, Thai, or Bengali), Khan Academy (lots of different languages!), Yahoo Espanol (lots of videos on different topics), US History chapter summaries in a variety of languages, and the same for Geography, Government/Civics, and World History.And for those lesser-known languages, I featured lots of translation sources here last year.
Finally, I want to share a Google Sheets translation tool that I came across last year. It's super cool--you just type in a word or phrase in English, and it simultaneously Google Translates into multiple languages! You can also add any language that's on Google Translate. You can make a copy of it and use it however you'd like! I found it useful when I was reading a paragraph on the SMART Board with my ESL 1 students who speak a variety of languages. I was able to type in a word once, and have it translate for most of them at once! If you need another language added, let me know and I'll get on it.