Shownotes
In this episode of Equipping ELLs, we're diving into "5 Must-Do Practices for Student Success" that you won't want to miss!
Host Beth Vaucher kicks things off by emphasizing the importance of letting your ELLs take the lead in their learning journey. Plus, she spills the beans on the power of incorporating games into your classroom! Quality literature, meaningful conversations, and turning your students into "word detectives" also make the list of must-do practices. These simple, yet effective strategies will help you create an engaging and successful learning environment for your ELLs this year. Tune in to discover how to boost motivation, language skills, and overall success in your ELL classroom!
Resources:
Transcripts
I'm going to be
sharing today things that you
should be doing more of this year that will absolutely help your
English language, learner, succeed. So there's a lot that happens
at the beginning. We get so overwhelmed with what's happening. We
kind of can lose sight quickly of what's important. So today I
just want to take us back. To those really simple but practical
things. That. Will 100% make a difference in how your ells engage
and how they show up with you this year. So let's dive in. There
are five different things that I want you to do more of. This
year? Are you ready.
All right, here we go. Here are things five things to do more of
this year when working with your El students, the first thing is
to let them take leave so often in school, we already have
everything set up, everything planned. How the classroom is
decorated. Where things go, standards. We have to hit assessments.
We need to teach, too. And we forget that our students are the
ones that matter. Our students are the one that we want them to be
engaged and motivated. And without that, learning is not going to
happen. So as you look into this next week or these next couple of
weeks, I want you to highlight ways that your students are going
to take charge on their learning, that they're going to take the
lead, that they're going to have choice, and that you're going to
give that to them that you're going to let them choose. Whether
it's down to. What reading passage they want to work on or what
topic they want to learn about. You're going to give them some
choices, because without that, if they're just coming to school
and playing this game of school and figuring out, okay, this is
how I have to survive in education here in the us. I need to sit
quietly, and I need to raise my hand, and I need to do xyz, but
they're not engaged. They're not excited. Then there is not going
to be that motivation to learn. And let me tell you, especially
when it comes to learning a language. If there is not a motivation
to learn. They could take years and years of language, but it's
not going to stick. And truly, that's what happened to me. I mean,
I took years of it and did not really care to learn that language.
I did it out of having to do that for the credit. And it wasn't
until I moved here. And really had a desire because I wanted to
speak to people that I was in contact with. I wanted to speak to
people here, that I was a relationship. I wanted to be able to
communicate myself and not have this language barrier. That's when
the language started to flow really easily, because. I had a
purpose. I had some motivation, of why I wanted to learn. So find
ways to let your students take lead. Whether it's bringing them.
Into the rules of the classroom? Does that mean that. You don't
have any say in that. No. You know how to kind of guide them
through that. But letting them have a voice. Is so important. Into
their engagement and into their motivation for learning. So
highlight over the next week or two different ways that you can
let them have choice and take the lead. Number two. Is to play
more games. And I want to put this out there because last week in
the Ecliping ll is one of our community trainings, one of our
members said, beth, you know what? I played some games this week,
and it was so much fun. We got to know I got to know my students
we were laughing together. I forgot how powerful games can be. And
I thought, you know what? That is something that I'm going to put
on this list because we know games are powerful. But sometimes we
think there's not that time in the school day or in the week to
incorporate games. But when we're trying to teach students new
language and it's scary and. There's anxiety involved. And
speaking in front of your peers is especially if you're working
with middle schoolers. Can probably be the most embarrassing thing
that they'll think of. Games are huge to do so that you're
removing all of those fears and you're making it a fun and
exciting opportunity to learn the language and you can be
purposeful in your games that you're choosing to play. Maybe it's
working on different grammar skills that they need support in or
different vocabulary. Or you could just be setting up that you
have a few go to games when you have an extra. Ten minutes or when
your students just really are having a hard time with a lesson and
maybe you're having a hard time teaching it. And you know what?
Let's restart tomorrow. Let's spend the last ten minutes getting
to know each other, laughing together, building that community,
working on language and play a game. So I've talked about games a
lot in here. I think we even have an episode about specific games,
if not with a blog post about it that we could find. But go to
Goodwill, go to the resale shop. Fine. There's so many language
games out there so you could have a specific game that you are
pulling out that you use with the different groups that you work
with. There's some higher level, harder games like. Taboo or
Tribon that are great for your intermediate als. It really helps
them to think. Outside the norms of what they're learning and
really apply through playing that game. So I want to give you
permission this year to play more games, whether it's as simple as
just doing bingo and memory more often. Or whether. You want to
just be on the lookout for some games that are available for
really cheap at the resale shops and start to incorporate those in
Maybe it's a fun Friday. Maybe. It's a whole class management
thing that if they get a certain number of points and they get to
have 20 minutes of game time, something like that make it an
incentive, but start to incorporate more games into your learning.
Your students will thank you for it. Number three is to use
quality literature. And literature, if you've been listening here
or if you've been just a part of this for a while, you know how
much. I absolutely love literature and using good books to guide
language learning. I think it's a simple thing to do as teachers.
And I think it's a powerful way to develop language skills, but
also to build connections to our students. And so I want to
encourage you this year to really be mindful of the text that you
are using. I think. It's so important that you use books. There
are so many amazing books right now that are hitting on the
stories that our students have experienced or just hitting on the
cultural identity of the students that are in our classroom. So go
and look for stories like that. Be mindful if it's appropriate for
the grade level you're working with. But go and take a look. For
those really diverse literature stories that you can bring into
your classroom and let your students see themselves. But then also
bring in some quality literature of just. Some more classics,
literature as well. There's so many ways that they can build their
language skills through doing a chapter book, read aloud where
make you're not even doing a lot of teaching during it. But you're
just letting them develop. Some really beautiful literature skills
by listening. By listening to some different vocabulary that they
might not hear in their everyday literature activities, just
building some of those storylines that they're able to connect
then to other things that are happening. There's such a richness
about some classic literature pieces, and so finding ways to
incorporate that into your weeks. Is really a really helpful thing
for your students. Now. I know, especially if you're working with
older students. And maybe you have to do some of these classic
literatures. I'm thinking like romeo and juliet or those types of
ones. And you might think this is so hard to have my level two
student try to understand. This book. So find ways get creative do
some. Chunking the chapters. You don't have to read everything.
Word for word. Maybe it's more of giving them the gist. Also, you
might want to check out. I saw recently. On the name is going to
slow to you right now. On saddleback books. They have a whole
series tons of different classic literature that have been
simplified for ells, and so it's really helping them to still get
the beautiful storylines, to get the different themes and just the
different plots and working on different story elements with those
classic literature pieces, but not having. The weight of having to
read the full chapter book so that might be something if you're
teaching older grades, check those out. Even just getting one for
yourself that you could do as a read aloud with younger students.
There is a lot of power behind using diverse reads and also really
rich literature in your classroom. And there's not a lot of extra
prep time, so use good literature. All right, let's move on to
number. Four this year. I want you to do more. Of providing your
students with opportunities to talk. I want you to really reflect
after you teach a lesson and say. How many minutes of that lesson
was me talking and how many minutes of it. Was given to my
students to have them talk because I think when we start to
reflect, this could even come down to you videotaping yourself,
because I think we think. Oh, I'm not talking that fast or. I
remember having a video record myself. For teaching. And I
thought, wow, I called on the same three kids most of that whole
lesson. Wow. I talked 80% of that lesson and my students sat and
listened for that 80% and. It was very eye opening because I
didn't think that I thought I'm doing a lot of cooperative
learning strategies. My students are talking all the time. And I
realized three important things that I was talking too fast, that
I was really kind of calling on the same students. I wasn't giving
my kids think time, actually four things. I wasn't giving my kids
think time. And. I was talking way too much. And so seeing myself
and having that outside perspective really helped me to figure out
ways to cut down on my talk time or break it up with doing
cooperative learning strategies or just adding in more thin care
shares or letting them get up and move and talk in that way. But
make this a priority this year. I promise you, if they are just
taking it in and they are not speaking. They will not advance as
quickly as they could if you are giving them though time every
single day where they are speaking with their peers. In
conversation, applying what they've been learning in a way. That's
natural. That's not on the spot. They're not having to do it in
front of everybody, but doing a lot of cooperative learning
strategies that I'm going to have an upcoming episode specifically
about cooperative learning strategies to use that will promote
conversation. So if you're like, I don't know which ones do. Don't
worry that this will be coming soon. But let them talk. That is
the best way that they are going to be able to apply what they've
been hearing, what they've been learning, applying new vocabulary,
using those words in context with peers. That is where they are
going to expand and to grow. So really reflect on your teaching
and see. What's the ratio of you talking to them talking and how
can you break that up? Yes. Maybe at the beginning of the week, if
you're doing more front Loading and you're doing some pre teaching
that's understandable you might be talking more today, but how can
you then break up the week where there's other days, where you're
doing a lot less talking and they're doing a lot more group. Work
and activities like that where you're letting them. Really. Apply
what they're learning and also creating that atmosphere and that
expectation that talking is a part of this class, and that's what
they're going to expect when they come in your class. If you set
that standard from the beginning. Even with your newcomers, so
make a fun, but let them have opportunities to talk. And then. The
last tip of things to do more of this year, and this is kind of
actually. A due less of this and do more of this. Okay, so this is
more on you, but I want you to do less of thinking that your
students need to be taught every new vocabulary award that it's
all dependent on you, of them learning vocabulary, and instead. I
want you to really think about your students as becoming these
word detectives. Okay. As I have been thinking about some of these
upcoming podcasts, we're going to be talking about vocabulary. And
just thinking. How we do put that pressure on ourselves many times
as teachers, that it is up to us. To make sure that we're front
Loading all the vocabulary that we're giving them the definitions
that we're connecting them to cognates that. We are doing all this
work and. There is, yes, a time and a place for that. And those
are things that are good that we should be doing. But more I don't
want you to put the pressure on yourself, that it's all up to you
to be the one that helps them to learn all the new words. I think
this year, if you can look at your students and really create an
atmospheric and environment where learning. Language is like being
a Detective where you're really focusing instead of just on these
specific front Loading vocabulary words that they're going to hear
one time and then probably not use it very often in conversation.
Or there's really no connection to anything else. It's not going
to be a word that they see very often. Instead of pinpointing
those words, let's focus on pinpointing words that they are able
to then use in multiple settings. So focusing on things like. Root
words, prefixes, suffixes, cognizance. All those types of things.
As they then start to get and build this love. For learning new
words because they start to see how, oh, this word that has this
prefix. Look at I see another word that has that same prefix. And
now let me be a word, Detective, and start to figure this out. And
this kind of goes actually, too, with, like, playing games. As you
introduce that prefix, put a poster summer upper in the room and
be detectives to see how many words. That week can you hear? Can
you read? Can you find where they're using that prefix and create
a list. Do it together as a class. Become explorers of words
together. And a lot of times that happens if you are excited about
learning words and if you're learning maybe you have your
students. You have them teach you some words in their native
language. So they're just seeing that naturally happen from you
that you're excited about language learning about vocabulary
learning because you're interested in their native language. Or
maybe. You everyday set up. There's a podcast about a new word a
day, or there's tons of sites like that. You could pull it up and
together you can do some deep dive into vocabulary and start to
see making connections to other words that they are aware of, or
maybe even their native language. Or just going into the nouns and
verbs, talking about the word itself. And what does this mean? How
can you use it in a sentence, all of these things. Really you want
to create that type of environment. Where you are not the one
that's solely responsible for them to be understanding new
vocabulary work. But you want to unlock that excitement in them to
become word detectives so that it is going to pour over into other
classes that they're in. They're going to see words that they're
going to be able to make connections when they're in their science
class. And they see, oh, bio. I learned what this means. And now
I'm going to apply it to this class. It makes sense. We want to be
forming those connectors. We don't want them to be relying on us
to be the one that has the key to unlock new. Vocabulary
development. So take that pressure off of you. Keep doing those
things. Those are important. But remember, we want to keep passing
the responsibility onto our students as well, so that they take
responsibility that they don't see us as. The sole person who's
going to scaffold everything for them and provide all of that
information for them. But they actually have the opportunity to
explore language themselves and to grow in their vocabulary. So
I'm Super excited for those episodes that will be coming up soon.
But just to recap today's episode. Things to do more of this year
for your els to have success. One. Let them take lead. Two. Play
more games. Three. Use quality literature. Four provide more
opportunities for them to talk. And Five create an atmosphere
where your students are becoming word detectives and excited about
exploring and developing vocabulary on their own. All right,
that's it. Let me know what's your big takeaway is. Let me know
which one you're going to try this week and again. Don't forget, I
want to feature you. On our upcoming 100th episode of the
equipping. Ells Podcast, so click in the show notes. And record. A
quick voice message letting us know how this podcast has helped
you and. If we put your recording on that 100th episode, you will
win a free month to equipping als and then one lucky person will
win a whole year subscription.
All right, everybody, that's it for today. I will see you next
week as we go. Into a deep dive into scaffolds. Stay tuned.