Tag Archives: Newcomers

BAP117 Co-Creating Text to Support Grade-Level Content Learning

Want to support grade-level content learning for newcomers?  I’ve got you!  The school year may be winding down or over in many places but this is a great time to reflect on how you might use co-created text next year with your emergent bilingual students.  Or use it as part of an effective summer school routine.

This show follows Episode 115, where I explained how to use co-created text to teach literacy and accelerate language acquisition.  In that show, I promised to do a show about how to use it to support content area learning.  You can listen to this show in your favorite podcast app or right here:

Listen to “BAP117 CoCreating Text for Grade-Level Content Learning” on Spreaker.

What is LEA?

I often share about a practice called Language Experience Approach. I try to be clear that I don’t do it exactly as it was/is intended.  I am not an LEA purist because I adapt this technique based on the kids in front of me and the reason we are doing it.  But here is more on what LEA is:

Steps to Language Experience Approach (See photo for more detailed explanation)

  1. Students have a shared experience. (ex: we are looking at a poster with the water cycle)
  2. Students have a discussion about the experience. (ex: “I notice…”)
  3. Teacher writes key words and phrases on the board.
  4. Teacher writes sentences from the key words
  5. Teacher reads the constructed writing aloud.
  6. Students use the text in various ways.

The LEA [Language Experience Approach] is as diverse in practice as its practitioners. Nonetheless, some characteristics remain consistent (Hall, 1970): Materials are learner-generated. –All communication skills–reading, writing, listening, and speaking–are integrated. –Difficulty of vocabulary and grammar are determined by the learner’s own language use. –Learning and teaching are personalized, communicative, and creative.  – Can be found at https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED350887.pdf

I have written about this strategy in Ep 26 and Ep 115.  Again, I don’t carry out this technique exactly as it is explained by researchers and there are many folks who know more about it than I do.  But I DO know that some form of co-creating text *AFTER MY STUDENTS HAVE BEEN ENGAGED IN A CONVERSATION* has really helped accelerate language acquisition.

I am here today to tell you that it can also help you differentiate, it can help you be inclusive in content classrooms, and it can help all the students with grade-level learning.

Why Write?

I mention all the reasons we want writing in content areas for the average learner.  You can read about that at this post I wrote for Seidlitz Education’s blog:

Some of the research I mention on the show is from John Hattie’s Visible Learning work.  Writing can help us reflect and Hattie’s work suggests that Reflection and Evaluation have a strong effect on learning (.75 effect size).

I always mention Joseph Maurer when I talk about effective content teaching.  Joseph was a math teacher when I trained with him and he was also my own son’s Algebra teacher. We all marveled at what a skilled math teacher he was with newcomer and low socioeconomic students.  But he was also effective with gifted and grade-level learners.  In his trainings, Joseph explained that writing in Math (or any content area) is important for learners because it is basic to thinking, it promotes introspection and speculation, and it individualizes instruction (Fulwiler 1979, 1983).

I mention this math lesson where the teacher is using Seidlitz’s Seven Steps to a Language Rich, Interactive Classroom.  It shows what I mean by writing in Math being effective for thinking:

I also quote Tom Romano from his book Clearing the Way: Working with Teenage Writers.  He explains that we are not asking Math teachers to teach writing.  We are asking them to USE writing to teach Math.  That is key for effective math instruction.

Co-Creating Text Before, During, or After Instruction

This show offers ideas about co-creating text with students prior to teaching, during a lesson or after instruction.  Here are a few examples of what co-created content writing can look like:

Don’t forget to follow the incredible HS educators, Kim Thyberg (@KimberlyThyberg) for more secondary examples!

I also mentioned the amazing Aly Averitt (@AlyAveritt) as someone to follow.  She is a great Elementary teacher sharing a lot on co-creating text.

Here is the video of Ali I mentioned as a great activity we do at the end of each school year.

Here is how Gisele Belyea (@GiseleBelyea follow her too!) and her students improved on this idea using heritage language:

Also gave Alan November a shout out!  He wrote, “Who Owns the Learning.”  That is a great book that shaped how I partner with students.

Thank you for tuning in or for checking out the show notes on Ep 117.  I appreciate you so much!

Hope to see you over on Twitter (@DrCarolSalva) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/SalvaBlog).  I’d love to be connected!

Take good care,

Carol

PS:  If you missed this workshop, check out Upcoming Events to see what else we might be offering through Seidlitz Education. 

And please email me (Carol@SeidlitzEducation.com) if we can come to your district to help you develop a plan for serving Newcomers!  One day of consulting is making a huge difference for our clients!  Reach out if you’d like to hear!

 

 

BAP113 After a Traumatic Event ft. Kimberly Thyberg

Welcome to the Boosting Achievement ESL podcast. This show is about teaching your class after a traumatic event.  You can listen or watch the show in this post or find it wherever you get your podcasts.

Listen to “BAP113 After a Traumatic Event ft Kim Thyberg” on Spreaker.

In this episode, Kimberly Thyberg reached out to talk about returning to our classrooms after a traumatic event.  I highly recommend Newcomer teachers follow Kim because she is constantly sharing things that are working in her classroom.  Some of her tweets are below.

We recorded this show a while back so you’ll hear Kim and me talking about how we might create a sense of safety for our students following something difficult and frightening that we all experienced together.

I am proud to say that our company, Seidlitz Education, has now added two very important people to our Newcomer Division.

Elise Diaz & Dr. Marie Heath have extensive experience with newcomers and they bring deep backgrounds in trauma-informed teaching and social-emotional learning.  Dr. Michelle Yzquierdo was the first newcomer specialist at Seidlitz Education and I know what I know about newcomers because of her.  Please reach out ( carol@seidlitzeducation.com ) to learn more about how our Newcomer Division can support your work.

I have not had the same experience Kim’s class had gone through.  But I was able to tell her what we did when our community went through a natural disaster.  I wrote a blog post about teaching immigrants after that disaster back in 2017 and it was shared around the world. Classes in Canada reached out to my class because of that post.  It may be useful if you’re looking for ideas and resources along the lines of what Kim and I discussed.
In this show I mentioned the number of people displaced in the world and why Kim and I teach so many students who have limited formal education and have already lived through difficult circumstances.

Trauma Informed Educators Network

In our conversation, you’ll hear me tell Kim that I am subscribed to the Trauma Informed Educators Network Podcast.

At that link, you will find ways to follow them on Facebook and other opportunities to learn from TIENetwork. Their website explains that the TIENetwork is a social media network made up of 29,000+ practitioners in 100+ countries collaborating and connecting around being trauma-informed.

Teaching to Strengths Book

I also mention Teaching to Strengths: Supporting students living with trauma, violence, and chronic stress.  I have mentioned this book in other episodes, it is an important resource from Zacharian, Alvarez-Ortiz and Haynes.  You can find it here. 

211.org The United Way Help Line and Website.

Some of What Kim Did with her Students After Our Talk

You can find this printable at
We also talked about all the great things Kim shares.  She is constantly showing what is working with her newcomers.  She is a great follow!

Thank you again, Kim for taking time to talk with me about this difficult part of our job.  ALL of us have now gone through a pandemic and so we can all connect to some of the difficulties you were experiencing.  We appreciate your vulnerability and your willingness to come on the show. It helps all of us reflect and learn.

STRONG HUGS!! 🤗

OTHER THINGS I PROMISED in this show:

Nov 15th 4pm ET: Free webinar on Literacy for Emergent Bilinguals in Secondary: https://bit.ly/NAELPALiteracy

Our 3rd Quarter NAELPA/OELA/NCEL webinar on effective literacy (Elementary focus)

WEBINAR in REPLAY AND RESOURCES

 

Emily Francis’ PLC4Newcomers Meeting where I shared about Literacy for Secondary Newcomers

 

I hope these resources are helpful.  Thank you for checking them out and thank you for stopping by this podcast.  You are really extending my learning.

Take good care!

Carol

 

 

BAP103 Motivation and Engagement for SLIFE

Motivation is everything.  If we don’t have engagement, what do we really have?  We might have fake readers & students who are doing the bare minimum.  But how would their learning change if they were engaged and intrinsically motivated to learn even when they are not with you?

I’m working around the US and Canada training, coaching, and modeling.  I’m seeing some amazing things for new arrival students.  This podcast is in response to feedback I’m getting from newcomer teachers I support.  MANY are telling me:

“I’m struggling with engagement.”

Well, we have solutions!  You listen to this show right here or in your favorite podcast app:

Listen to “BAP103 Motivation & Engagement for SLIFE” on Spreaker.

You may prefer to watch this show on YouTube or right here:

And you can always just read through the notes below.

In this episode, I am standing on the shoulders of Dr. Lora Beth Escalante, who wrote “Motivating ELLs,” Researchers like Daniel Pink, and also the work of Larry Ferlazzo who is a practitioner, blogger, and author of many books on the subject. In fact, I’m following 4 things recommended by Larry Ferlazzo in this article.

Larry has shared this in more than one article.  Check out more of his articles, books, and posts here.  In the podcast, I mention the good news and the bad news about motivation.   The bad news is that we can’t MAKE students be motivated.  The great news is, just as Sir Ken Robinson tells us, we can create conditions where things should grow.

And we know what we need in our “garden” for optimal motivation conditions.

According to Ferlazzo, these are the 4 things that help students become intrinsically motivated:

  • Relatedness

  • Relevancy

  • Competence

  • Autonomy

In the show, I talk about each of these things and how we can foster them for multilingual learners.  While this applies to all students, I am always specifically speaking to the teacher of SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education).  Here are some of the things I mentioned for each:

Relatedness

Relationships!  Does my teacher respect me?  Do the other students respect me?  How do we get along?  How do I feel as a person?  Is my culture appreciated?

Here is a show on creating a social contract if you feel that your classroom needs a reboot on how we treat each other.

Also, don’t underestimate how volunteers can support a sense of relatedness.  Don’t have volunteers, ask your principal or PTA to send out this video to the community:

Relevancy

Ask yourself if students understand WHY you’re asking them to do _______.  Whatever you want them to do, do they see the relevance for them and their lives?  As an example, I want students’ eyes to go across text when things are read aloud to them.  I need to explain to them why that is.  For example:

If I am reading aloud to emergent readers, I want them to track the print with their fingers when they are first gaining the language.  I want them to understand that if they track the print with their eyes 👀, they will see high-frequency words over and over again.  This will support their decoding skills in a powerful way.  They need to understand that 1/2 of all print is high-frequency words and gaining them will impact their language and literacy development dramatically.  They need to read WITH me.  We can absolutely chunk the text and help them negotiate meaning and be analytical about the text.  But as emergent readers, they need to track the print to get more high-frequency words.  This is the WHY.

Here is another example of relevancy from Kim Thyberg on Twitter:

I love how Kim is teaching grade-level concepts (claims/evidence/reasoning) but also helping her students understand how quickly they can begin to decode text as they gain these high-frequency words.

Competence

If I have a sense of competence, it means that I feel myself getting better at this activity.  Before we think our kids lack grit and give up too easily, let’s remember that these same students will fail over and over again at video games.  Why?  Perhaps because they’ve had a little win at that level.  They feel that they can figure out the level.. that they can master it.  They don’t have mastery YET, but they are improving.

We can also think about ourselves and something we are trying to learn to do.  Perhaps you want to bake your grandmother’s cookie recipe.  The first time t

hey don’t look very good but they taste pretty close.  So you try again.  You try again because the small successes in your attempts give you a sense of competence.  You feel that you can master it because you had some small wins.

When we think of our students who are not engaged or motivated… let’s think back to the last time they had an academic win.

There are many ways to give SLIFE little wins.  Examples include:

Showing them growth every time we speak to them.  Using any book and asking them to identify words or sounds of letters and pointing out any growth.  I tried to do this every time I had them in a small group.

QSSSA is also a great strategy that gives your entire class an opportunity to have a win.  See Ep 26 for more on QSSSA.

Autonomy

Autonomy means choice.  We have seen many teachers sharing choice boards lately and as you can imagine, this leads to more engagement from learners.  All of us want some choice in what we do.  So perhaps we offer choices in how they participate in a task.  ie: with a buddy, on their own, with the teacher:

We can also offer choice in how they reflect on what they read:

But one of the most important places they need autonomy is in WHAT they read during free voluntary reading time.  We only had a few minutes a day to read for pleasure.  But I was always emphasizing that they needed to read on their own whenever they could.  For this to happen, they need LOTS of things to choose from.  If you chose to read something, because it is of interest to YOU, you’re less likely to fake read or abandon the text.  Stephen Krashen tells us that free voluntary reading is key to language acquisition.  And YES, our SLIFE can read… with support!

What can SLIFE, who have low to no literacy in their first language read? A lot!

There are many things they can choose from.  Examples include:

  • Re-reading things we wrote in class together for fluency. Explain why this will boost their ability to decode text.
  • A book they chose from the library or your classroom. We can show them how to negotiate meaning from any piece of text with technology (Google Images, Google Translate, Chrome Read Aloud Extensions)
  • Ergo-Hi-Lo Ebooks  These are high-interest, easy-to-read books that you can print or have e-versions.
  • If you have the budget, get a library of Saddleback Hi-Lo readers! Saddleback books are my favorite Hi-Low readers if you have the budget for materials.
  • A top tip is  www.newsinlevels.com.  I did a show about it here.  That free website is so important once the students understand how to level up within the same article.

Two Examples of Highly Engaging Activities that Boost Literacy & Language Acquisition

🌟NEWS IN LEVELS🌟

News in Levels offers so much choice.  This is not a little bit of choice… it is a TON of choice. It requires no login and they can choose from current or hundreds of prior articles.  Here is how it relates to what we are talking about today:

  • Relatedness:  I will conference with new students and show them how to use it. I have faith in them that they can quickly learn the skills to make this meaningful.  They can do it with a buddy or me or as a whole class for the first few times.  I want to know their interests so I ask about what they are choosing to read about… RELATIONSHIPS & HOW WE REGARD THEM.
  • Relevancy:  The link I am giving you explains to you and to the students HOW to use it and WHY it works for older emergent readers. I even made a quick 5 min video to show students how to use the site.  THIS OFFERS RELEVANCY for using this site and because they chose what they read about, and it is the actual news, it is by nature relevant to them.
  • Competence: If they follow my advice, they will go through all three levels of an article before they move on to a different new story.  They should be able to master level 1 with support (it is read aloud to them from YouTube, it includes images, they can use Google images & Google translate as well… they can even get support from others).  When they go to level 2 & level 3 it is just about exposure to more complex language.  They feel themselves getting better with word recognition the more they do of this.  It offers an opportunity to level up, small wins, A SENSE OF COMPETENCE.
  • Autonomy:  As I mentioned above… this site offers a great deal of choice.  The students need to have the autonomy to choose what they read and this site offers hundreds of articles.

CHOICE PROJECTS 

I follow Noa Daniel and her Building Outside the Blocks philosophy has made a huge difference in my classroom.

  • Relatedness:  I model a choice project presentation.  Students learn about me and get the message that I want to learn about them.  All students learn about each other and throughout the year we are learning about each other and reinforcing appreciation for our diversity.  Choice projects offer voice. RELATIONSHIPS
  • Relevancy:  Students choose what to present about. They are RELEVANT by nature.
  • Competence: They practice, practice, practice what they will say.  They read & re-read & re-read their scripts for their presentation and what they turn in.  We can point out their progress in identifying and recognizing English words and sounds. This leads to a SENSE OF COMPETENCE.
  • Autonomy:  Students choose what they want to present about and they choose a day during the grading period that they want to present. There are many opportunities for autonomy.

Here is a video of a newcomer presenting her Personal Playlist project.  More projects with resources can be found here also check out Noa’s site.

I hope this has been helpful.  Shout out to all the teachers who are collaborating with me this year. I love all I learn with them!

Please take good care!

❤️, Carol

PS:  Here are resources including a free chapter download for DIYpd4MLs book:

Other resources I used for this show:

 

 

BAP052 Aging Out & What We Do Every Day

Here are some answers to FAQ’s on working with SLIFE!  

Listen to “BAP052 – Aging Out & What We Do Every Day” on Spreaker.

You can read the short responses below or listen to this show with more explanation right here.  Actually, as of the publication of this post, the podcast is available in all podcast apps.  Hope you will subscribe!

THANK YOU Metro Nashville Public Schools and Beaufort County School District for offering the Boosting Achievement Book Study to your teachers.  Megan Trcka in Nashville, Alisa Rhodes and Bethanne Barner in South Carolina supported some amazing teachers who were collaborating on their own time to find more learning about working with students who have interrupted or minimal education.

If you’d like to see one of these video chats, you are welcome to watch the Q&A and the positive outcomes shared by McMurray Middle School.

Here are a few of the questions I didn’t answer in my last few video chats:

  1. In the last section of Boosting Achievement, I noticed the emphasis placed on independent reading time in the classroom.  I also noticed the suggestion to slowly build up to 60 minutes. I understand how beneficial this is, but do you have any ideas or suggestions to show that this is beneficial enough to take away from other possibly worthy activities in order to allow for this extended amount of time? 
    • My Answer: This all depends on how much time you have and what your role is for the child.  So if you are the reading teacher, and you have 60 minutes with students, I would absolutely build stamina for sustained silent reading (SSR) of up to 60 minutes.  For example, when I was teaching middle school, I was the SLIFE teacher and I had 4 hours with the students every day.  Reading for 60 minutes was not something I would do every class period, but we did have SSR every day to settle down and from time to time we went longer periods of time.  On occasion, we did read for 45-60 minutes.  More recently, in high school, I did not have the luxury of that much class time.  We STILL had SSR when we first came into class and we worked up to at least 20 minutes. I also counseled students to realize how important it was to read for 60 minutes a day (for several reasons) and I made sure they had resources to do that at home. They can read with newsinlevels.com, they can read what we wrote together, they can read in their native language, they need to be reading, reading, reading.  As the year goes on we encourage more and more English reading during SSR and we show students how many English sight words they gain and other benefits of reading for longer periods of time.
    • To the part of your question about other worthy activities, Shared Reading, Shared Writing and Oral Language Practice (Language Experience Approach is an example of how you can do all three) are those worthy activities that I feel have to happen in every class.  I feel these MUST happen with students so we can’t spend all of our time in free voluntary reading.  But we partner with these older learners to realize they must do the SSR on their own to help close their gaps.
  2. If you only have 30 minutes twice a week, what is the one that you absolutely must do with those students?
    • As mentioned above, I advocate for Shared Reading, Shared Writing and Oral Language Practice every time I meet with students.  You can do it in less than 30 minutes, your shared writing pieces just happen over more than one class.  See LEA episode to see how to do it and just break it up over your different meeting times.
    • Even if you only have 30 minutes twice a week, I would have students settle down with a choice book.  You might only read for the first 5 minutes but it gives you so much benefit.  Students can share why they liked the book, you can connect to grade level standards like genre, authors craft, and it gives you a chance to remind your students of why they need to be reading ANYTHING for several minutes a day.

  1. How do you deal with an 18-year old that enters and has to take the end of course exam, has 6th-grade education, will age out before he can complete school? What do you focus on?  AND
  2. How do you overcome the difficulty meeting grade level expectations for growth and proficiency with your lowest level and SIFE students?
    • I’m addressing question 3 & 4 together.  If I’m the Newcomer English Language Development teacher, see above.  I’m doing the same things I do for all children.  I make sure we empower kids with the awareness of how quickly their language and literacy can come.  It is CRITICAL that we don’t feel that the child is expected to do this all on their own.  *WE* need to change and offer more comprehensible input and use more sheltered strategies.  But we do make sure the student knows how to advance their language and literacy when they are not with us.
    • Please make sure the student understands that the standardized assessments are not the finish line.  Also, make sure they realize that when they age out.. that isn’t the finish line either.  Find out what their long term goals are and help them see how, with community partners, we can help them get to those goals.  Our building is one step closer to their goals.
    • For content teachers:  PLEASE teach them as much of your content as possible.  Don’t feel that they need to gain proficiency in English or literacy before they can comprehend your content and interact with it.  YOU are the only one that will teach that child biology or social studies or math.  They need to learn as much of your content as possible so they can continue to move forward, even if they fail your class and age out.  Please make sure you or someone is collaborating with that child to realize that they can continue to gain math skills and eventually master the content.  Their language and literacy will also come along if they dont’ give up.  We all need to look at the long game and help that child move forward toward a better life.
  3. Do you ever have bad days in your classroom too? It always seems so nice!
    • Bitmoji ImageMANY bad days.  It’s real life over here.  But I’m grateful for more nice days than bad days.  If you watch that Language Experience Approach video you’ll see a big fail.  A child falls asleep in front of me! And I have had plenty of days where I brought my bad mood to the class or things were not on track.  We take those in stride and just keep trying to improve.

Bitmoji ImageBut having a social contract made ALL the difference in the world for our classroom climate. Here is a post on that.  Thanks for that question.  🙂

THANK YOU so much for reading and or listening!  This show and notes are an important place for me to reflect. You’re helping my journey of learning and for that I am grateful.

HUGS,

Carol

 

WHERE CAN WE MEET UP??

Summer 2019

I’m the keynote speaker for #MABEMI19 coming up in May. 

Featured Speaker at the Sanibel Leadership Conference in Florida on June 20th

FALL of 2019 – Stay tuned for dates & links:

Coming to Colorado as a featured speaker for COTESOL

I’ll be in Missouri for the MELL Conference in October

I’ll be the keynote speaker for BCTESOL in British Colombia in the fall.

 

 

Why You Should Present at #MADPD

You’ve never presented before? That is perfect! This is your chance to do something brave.  If you present all the time, you should be there as well.  We will have a great day of sharing with and learning from a global network of educators.

Emily Francis, Derek Rhodenizer and Peter Cameron join me this week on the podcast to answer all you want to know about the event. You can listen to that show right here:

I feel strongly that we should ALL be presenting at this conference!  If you are apprehensive, just take the leap! This is our chance to practice what we are preaching to our students or the teachers that we support.  We ask them to take risks every day.  Let’s put ourselves out there too.  Let’s take a risk and share something that Makes a Difference in education.

Truth be told, it’s not even very much of a risk.  YouTube Live is the platform and it is just a matter of watching a short “How To” video if you don’t know how to launch a Live broadcast.  And the founders have you covered!  They have short videos for us!

So in this podcast, Emily helps me interview Derek and Peter, who are the founders of #MADPD.  The three of those folks are excellent members of any PLN, by the way,  so be sure to follow them.

Here is the link so you can go ahead and submit that proposal!   Basically, #MADPD is an all day, online education conference that is happening May 6th.  It is the 2nd annual conference and should be bigger and better than ever.  The first #MADPD had over 60 presenters from around the world and those videos are still being played on demand and will continue to be out there for people to use.   Isn’t it amazing that we can be sharing with the world??

I appreciate Emily Francis helping me interview the guys  because she is a great teacher to represent the ESL community.  If you have listened to my show, you know that I mention Emily all the time. She has her own immigration story that will inspire you and your students.  Emily has some great questions and then gives us her take on why teachers of ELs should be presenting at this innovative conference.  One of my favorite reasons she mentions is that we all need to be advocating for our English learners.  If you have an idea that will help other teachers that work with English learners, you are advocating for those students and for the teachers that teach them.

The founders impress upon us that they are looking for teachers who are new to presenting.  This is the type of opportunity that will offer value to all of us.  We all have something that is making a difference.  You may think that something you are doing is known by everyone, but that just isn’t the case.

Derek makes some great points about why this is especially cool for presenters.  One example is that everything is YouTube based on our own channels so presenters retain the rights to the videos.

I love this effort because it is purely to help each other become better educators.  We all have a wonderful opportunity to learn so much from this event.  I know I’ll be trying to get better at a YouTube live chat this time around and that is just one benefit.  There will be so many presentations and I’m thrilled to have access to them all.

I hope you have a chance to listen to the show. Thanks to Peter, Derek and Emily for helping us break this down for teachers of ELs.

One final note!

We don’t just have a moral imperative to share. We have a moral imperative to GET GOOD at sharing! – Dave Burgess on the Ed Podcast 

I am thinking that Dave is on to something here.  So hurry and get your proposals in.  You are guaranteed to get it accepted.

See you on May 6th!

Carol

PS: Would you like more support?  I’d love to come work with you and your staff! Simply reach out to me or Kathy Belanger:  kathy@johnseidlitz.com

In the near future I will be presenting at the NABE conference,  as well as the ISTE conference and I’m a proud spotlight speaker at the Abydos writing conference. 
I’m attending SXSW as well so please reach out if you’ll be at any of these!

You can also join me for two upcoming workshops in Texas.  The information for those is below.  We’d love to see you!

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Translanguaging Before a Study Trip

You’d like to use theories of translanguaging in your classroom but it seems like too much work?   One click on a web page and many of your students have a native-language resource.

In Google Chrome it was just a right-click to bring up this dialog box.  (More on Chrome Translating) Pick a language and the translation may not be perfect (often is not) but it is a great support.  I have some international students and volunteers working with SIFE (under-schooled) students.  Offering the help of this resources is often very effective for helping build background.

google-translate-webpage-arabic2                    google-translate-webpage-arabic

 

So yes!  We are taking a trip to a plantation!  If I give all of my students a bit of background on the site, the English tour and English class discussions will be so much more comprehensible for everyone.  (Native English students will benefit from this, of course.)  I want to have the students work in groups to discuss the major events that happened at this location so I will provide sentence frames for that.  But to make sure they understand the events, I’ve cut & pasted some of the events from the website to this WORD document.  I’d like them to do a quick illustration with an English sentence for each event.  I’ve highlighted 10 events in all, so we will likely jigsaw this activity or do it on posters for a gallery walk:

hogg-planation

What I used to worry about:   Recent immigrants lack the background knowledge of our country when trying to learn about U.S. History.  Something I try to keep in mind now is that they have an abundance of background knowledge in other areas!  This adds to the depth of everyone’s learning.

History is a wonderful opportunity to look at over-arching concepts that can be applied and aligned to local history, world history and even current events.

Several of my newcomers had intimate knowledge of what it is like to be in a time of war.  Their perspective is incredibly powerful for our learning about things like push/pull factors, establishment of governments, conflict, etc.

We are all fortunate to have history all around us.  What places in your area can be visited to deepen the classroom conversation and learning across content areas?

At this point in the year (December) we have very few beginners for listening comprehension that started the year with us.  Everyone can understand basic English with support of visuals, gestures and other supports.  But we have new arrivals all the time.  I used to be perplexed at how to help my newest newcomers connect with what the class is doing.

I’m grateful research and findings in the area of Translanguaging.  There is now evidence that using the native language is  a powerful and effective way of deepening learning and helping ELs acquire both content and language learning in their second language. More by CUNY-NYSIEB, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York here:  http://www.nysieb.ws.gc.cuny.edu/files/2012/06/FINAL-Translanguaging-Guide-With-Cover-1.pdf

Consider taking a trip to a historic site and look for a place that offers historical events that tie to historic events they will need to learn in other content areas.  (Bonus!  Archeology is a fantastic tie to science, technology and math – be sure to look for any connections or areas of interest your students show you.)

Happy language learning!

 

Carol

 

 

 

 

 

Bring on the Volunteers!

“We have people in the community who want to help but are not sure that they are qualified or what it would look like.”  That sentence from our PTA president blew me away.  I was so busy with my classes that I hadn’t thought about this.  My lack of volunteer support was not from a lack of desire!

So I made this quick, unpolished video to help our community see that they can have a tremendous impact on our newest students.  It is not a PD for ELL teachers.  It is meant to be a user-friendly introduction how a lay-person can help me when they work with our kiddos after school or any time they are helping them without an explicit assignment.

Please offer feedback.  And use and share!

Off to grade papers…