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Content Type: 1
Title: Supporting English Language Learners through Five Stages of Acquisition
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From http://languagemagazine.com/?page_id=124487
Teacher trainer and researcher Virginia “Jenny” Williams writes, “Academic language is a necessity to convey mastery of academic content for all students, but it is especially important that students with language differences in English be allowed to “practice” their language skills in the context of the classroom. For students who are English language learners (ELLs), learning English has many levels, and academic language is one that emerges quite late. ELLs will often learn the social contexts of English long before they master the elements that they need for learning and conveying their knowledge of academic content. Academic language can take five to seven years to acquire at levels that are needed for a typical classroom in the U.S. Alfred and Nino (2011) write in their text Leading Academic Achievement for English Language Learners, that “it is important for faculty members to understand that linguistic differences are another dimension of student diversity,” and that diversity can call for differentiated assessment and instruction. They suggest that ELLs require scaffold instruction to gain confidence and skills in academic language.
“This is no easy task. What is it that teachers need to do to scaffolded instruction for students who are learning English? To answer this question, we first need to think about the various levels of English learners.
1. Preproduction (also known as the silent period)
2. Early Production
3. Speech Emergence
4. Intermediate Fluency
5. Advanced Fluency
“Each of these stages has distinct skill characteristics and therefore call for different instructional strategies. Interim assessments such as NWEA’s Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) and progress-monitoring tools such as Skills Navigator can help teachers identify the stage of student functioning, and the strategies that students need for support and chart their growth over time.”
Read the full article at http://languagemagazine.com/?page_id=124487
Source: Language Magazine
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Content Type: 1
Title: Viralelt: Listening Resource
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Viralelt is a website with viral videos for students to watch, with follow-up activities. Access the website here: https://viralelt.wordpress.com/. Suggestions for using the site are here: https://viralelt.wordpress.com/how-to-use/
Source: Viralelt
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Content Type: 1
Title: Correcting Students’ Errors: Does It Work?
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Does correcting student’s production errors make a difference? Here is one teacher’s interpretation of some of the research: http://frenchteachernet.blogspot.com/2015/10/correcting-students-errors.html
Source: frenchteacher
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Content Type: 1
Title: Blog Series: Using YouTube in Your Classroom
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Why should you use YouTube videos in your classroom? How can you use them? Where can you find good ones? Get some ideas in this recent 5-part series of blog posts from the Creative Language Class: http://www.creativelanguageclass.com/technology/youtube-why-it-should-be-part-of-every-lesson/
Source: Creative Language Class
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Content Type: 1
Title: Quick Activity Idea: Building the Story
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From http://www.teachthemenglish.com/
Here is a low-prep activity that gets students interacting with each other creatively to describe a picture: http://www.teachthemenglish.com/2015/09/super-quick-motivating-activities-building-the-story/
Source: Teach them English
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Content Type: 1
Title: Novice IPA Based on Interviews with Expert Speakers
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From http://www.pblinthetl.com/
Blogger and teacher “Sra. Spanglish” interviewed some children while she was traveling abroad, and now she’s created an Integrated Performance Assessment for novice learners based on her authentic resources. See how she does it and how you can create your own similar authentic resource and adapt it to your classroom at http://www.pblinthetl.com/2015/09/estudiantes-de-peru-novice-ipa.html
Source: PBL in the TL
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Title: Béisbol, Baseball: Emphasizing Cognates for All Students
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From https://mrpeto.wordpress.com
Cognates and borrowings between languages may be easy for some people to pick up on, while others, especially those who are struggling to process the rest of the input in a new language, may struggle to pick up on and understand them. Here is one way that you can make cognates and their meanings apparent to everyone in your class: https://mrpeto.wordpress.com/2015/09/30/beisbol-baseball/
Teachers of languages other than Spanish will want to find an appropriate pair of words in the target language and the students’ other language.
Source: My generation of polyglots
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Content Type: 1
Title: Quick Activity Idea: Quiz Quiz Trade
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From https://balancingmodes.wordpress.com/
Here is a quick and easy large-group activity that you can use for introducing vocabulary, reviewing anything, or to structure interaction among your students: https://balancingmodes.wordpress.com/2015/09/23/students-speaking-moving-with-quiz-quiz-trade/
Source: Balancing the Modes
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Content Type: 3
Title: Play and Literacy
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Play has long been lauded as a powerful learning mechanism. As we explore L2 literacy, we thought it would be interesting to synthesize some ways in which play could be utilized as a powerful tool for literacy development. This week we highlight five of our favorites, some which are long standing traditions and others which rely on emergent tools.
- Move, Move, Move: Use physical movement to build literacy skills by having learners write high frequency words, a set of words grouped by topic, and/or a set of their selected words on scraps of paper or index cards. Then, depending on the age of the learner, spread the cards on the floor of a room, a gym, or a field. Then, call out words and, in groups of 4-5, have learners race to each of the words. Expansion ideas: (a) Have learners themselves take turns calling the words. (b) Have learners write something meaningful with the group of words you are working with.
- Doing Digital: Integrate a game targeted at storytelling and reading skills and have learners play with one another. One of our new favorites for the K-6 level as well as older learners at the novice learners is Safari Tales by Kuato Studios (http://www.safaritalesgame.com/). Expansion ideas: Ask learners to write a story about one of their characters or rewrite a level using the tone, audience, and level of the text in the game. They can also be asked to expand the narrative. This week's Activity of the Week exemplifies this idea.
- Post-A-Day: Ask learners to expand their repertoire of what they can read and write by having them guess which platform posts, language, and hashtags come from. In teams, the instructor reads a passage and posts in on the board/projector. The first team to come up with the genre, platform, and justification gets a point. The team with the most points at the end of a certain number of questions wins. Expansion idea: After the game, prepare learners to write a piece of their own and then have other groups guess the posts of the alternate team.
- Mix-&-Match: Divide a story into reasonable sections and have learners progress through a series of scavenger hunt stations where they, for example, put the story in order, interpret meaning, highlight various components of the text, and highlight key structures or words. Expansion ideas: (a) Ask learners to create their own station about the story they worked with. (b) Have learners create new stations based on a new text related to the same topic.
- Word Games: Encourage as many as you can, often, and in as many contexts as possible. This can include paper-pencil games, card games, and digital apps. There are lots out there, so pick some that look fun and let learners choose. One of our favorites includes Bugs and Buttons (1&2) (http://www.littlebitstudio.com/bugsandbuttons.html). Expansion idea: Ask learners to find one game that would be useful for building their reading skills in the target language and share that with the class.
While the application of these ideas will vary across levels and contexts, the use of play can be a very powerful tool for building literacy skills and we encourage all to explore the possibility with their own learners.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Content Type: 4
Title: Playing a Story
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This activity aims at developing literacy skills through the use of a digital game designed to get kids reading and working with different parts of speech. The activity can be used independently in a station, as an extension activity, or in groups during class time to initiate additional conversation around a common story.
Mode(s): Interpretive reading, presentational writing, interpersonal speaking
Objectives:
- Students will follow instructions to build a story around an animal character
- Students will create a digital story about their character
- Students will write a descriptive narrative about their in-game animal
Resources:
- Safari Tales (http://www.safaritalesgame.com/) or similar game as available in one’s educational context
- Playing a Story Resource Sheet
Procedure:
- Students are asked to brainstorm three activities an animal might do in a safari and make predictions about their own animal character.
- Students play the game for 15-20 minutes (enough time to play one level and create one story in the game).
- Students are then introduced to the writing template and asked to expand their own story to include a description of their favorite animal and extension of their in-game character.
- Students read one another’s stories and comment on similarities and differences.
Adaptations: This activity is easily adaptable to different proficiency levels given choice of vocabulary, choice of game to build a story, and reading genres. The game can also be played as a class and projected, depending on the availability of devices and access to the game itself.
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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