Supporting English Language Learners’ literacy and writing skills through technology By Gillian Zapata 1

The achievement gap Are you feeling the pressure of helping English Language Learners meet grade level expectations? Do you feel frustrated because you can’t easily communicate with all of your students and their families? Do you feel uncertain of what else you can do to help bridge the achievement gap between native English speakers and ELLs in your classroom? Turn and talk to a neighbor about these issues in your classroom. 2

Classroom teacher: the role is changing As classroom teachers, our roles are changing. We are no longer just first grade teachers or middle school math teachers, we all have so many different roles to play. Take a minute and fill out a web. Write the word teacher in the middle and write all of the roles you play in your classroom around it. Next, write a sentence using your descriptors, with no more than 15 total words. Share. 3

Everyday I’m juggling... My biggest concern in my classroom is juggling the needs of my diverse learners. Especially the ELLs. The number of ELLs in today’s classrooms is on the rise: According to the National Center for Educational Statistics (2010), the number of school-aged children who spoke a language other than English at home more than doubled from 3.8 million to 10.9 million between the years of 1979 and Enter: technology- a great place to find ways to differentiate and support learning for all learners. 4

These are a few of my favorite things: Creating digital stories to practice writing, reading, and fluency E-books and on-line skills based supports Multimedia supports for comprehension 5

What is Digital Storytelling? Digital storytelling (DS) is a way to create narrative or expository texts using multiple kinds of media such as voice, music, video, transitions, time, and movement. DS can be used across grade levels and content areas There are many ways to scaffold basic literacy skills through DS. Studies have shown that digital storytelling can improve ELLs research, writing, and speaking skills (Hur & Suh, 2012). 6

Examples: Digital Storytelling in action in a third grade class: Finished digital stories from Georgetown, Kentucky: ing/studentstories.html ing/studentstories.html An elementary science example: 7

Digital Storytelling is flexible and can be used across the curriculum 8

More ideas: Social Studies *Historical event * Groups of students tell their version of what happened * Authentic stories Compare and contrast current events to historical events * Meet our community * Looking at our town, how have we changed * Important people that have shaped our community * Create a commercial and sell your region to the visitors bureau * Mr. Mayor you should know this * Science Inventions * Explain how inventions and discoveries are important to others * Simple machines, how have they changed the world * Animals * Language Arts * Authentic student writing * Students write stories and then illustrate or act out Family tree stories (think about point of view of someone else) * Take a character to court, students are judge and jury * Compare and contrast fairy tales from various regions * Change an ending to a favorite tales Bring a set of characters to life and act out the story * Math Take a geometry walk and show and tell what you found * Explain to others a concept like adding fractions using real life examples * Act out math problems using various strategies * Health How do we stay healthy * Public service announcement about the importance of sleep, tell from the point of view of a sleepy driver, crabby sleepover breakfast, student in school * PE History of a sport * Sell the PE teacher on something new * Art There are artists everywhere, meet some of our local artists * Meet the masters * Art has changed the world because * 9

How could you use digital storytelling in your classrooms? Take a minute: Complete this quick minute reflection on the half-sheet of paper on your table: how could you use digital story- telling in your classroom? Keep the needs of your English Language Learners in mind. Prepare to share out your ideas with the group. 10

i-movie and movie-maker tutorials iMovie tutorial: Windows Live Movie Maker tutorial:

Using digital storytelling technology to support comprehension Teacher composed digital “jumpstarts” can be created to pre-teach challenging vocabulary and concepts. This is especially helpful for ELLs who may not have the same background knowledge as native English speakers. Here is an example on a middle/high school level: 12

Supporting comprehension with e- books E-books provide support for ELLs when reading independently. Most programs and websites with language support are not free, but here is an example of a free version to show you the potential benefits:

Support comprehension with multimedia The Generative Theory of Multimedia Learning (Mayer, 1997, 2001) states that it is more effective to explain new information with both visuals and words, than just words alone. Studies has shown that exposure to multimedia support of texts (whether in audio or video form) increases comprehensible input for ELLs and allows readers to correct misunderstandings and reinforce understandings, as well as reduce the gap between ELLs and non-ELLs in vocabulary knowledge (Whiting and Granoff, 2010 & Silverman and Hines 2009). 14

Multimedia resources Resources like and enable us to quickly search for related IWB resources or videos to support our classwork. Even activities as simple as watching a short video of a story can support understanding for ELLs enough to make the difference between comprehending and not

HOMEWORK? The lesson study cycle: 1.Setting goals 2.Planning 3.Observing 4.Debriefing and revising 5.Repeat steps 3 & 4 (optional) 6.Reflecting 7.Sharing is-a-Lesson-Study 16