1. Characteristics of ELLs Strategies for helping them succeed
We are All ESL Teachers
Characteristics of ELLs
Strategies for helping them succeed

2. Diversity within Diversity
ESL means languages from around the world
Different skill abilities and education levels
No more homogeneous than other student groups

3. “Learning English”
Conversational English (Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills) or BICS
Academic English (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) or CALP
BICS takes about 2 years to learn
CALP takes 7-10 years to learn
CALP = academic success

4. 3 basic groups of ELL students
Newly arrived with adequate schooling
Newly arrived with limited schooling
Little or no literacy in any language
Long term ELL could be…
Not new, but in and out of school
Not new, but still learning CALP and struggling to catch up academically
BICS conceals need for continued supports
Loss of literacy in native language

5. Language Proficiency Descriptors
WIDA standards (World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment)
ESL students tend to transition into regular classrooms around “Expanding” level
Still need help but they lose their support services
Many of our native speakers are also at “Developing” or “Expanding” levels

6. Stages of Language Acquisition
A fluid system…mixture of BICS and CALP
Pre-production
Early production
Speech emergence
Intermediate fluency
Early stages characterized by “silent period” and work on receptive communication

7. Anxiety = Silence
“Affective filter” means anxiety will cause speech to shut down
“Monitor” theory = the more you monitor your speech, the more the affective filter kicks in
“positioning theory” =if we position ELLs as uninvited or inferior, affective filter increases

8. What can teachers do?
Speak so we are understood (slower pace, repetition, multiple examples)
Provide visual and verbal context clues
Create a low anxiety learning environment to encourage verbal responses and interaction
Provide challenging and meaningful engagement with material

9. Because History is a language-rich curriculum…
We need to employ content reading strategies
We need to identify and teach academic language
We need to develop written expression
We need to encourage verbal expression

10. Academic Language The language of school
Unlikely to learn it anywhere but school
“Brick” words and “mortar” words
Brick: concrete vocabulary
Mortar: the “in between” words that provide meaning

11. Brick words in social studies might include…
Congress executive delta
Hippocampus assimilation representative
Deviance cerebellum caucus
Latitude tectonics plateau

12. Mortar Words We understand them, but we need to teach them:
Define, explain, contrast, categorize, evaluate, criticize…
Even harder to understand:
Entity, perspective, manifest, imperialism,
Federalism, nevertheless, consequently…
Without them, reading doesn’t make sense

13. Some common strategies
Concept cards/vocabulary cards
Vocabulary journals
Word walls
Illustrated Dictionary Entry
Cloze Activities with word bank
Modeled talk (show them circle, trace, underline)
Use them in conversation
Use hand gestures when possible

14. Content Reading Strategies
To increase comprehension before, during, and after reading
The best strategies help students
Read the text
Think about the text
Write about the text
Speak about the text

15. Pre-reading strategies include…
Frontloading with visual strategies
“Visual Discovery” strategy inspired by History Alive! Teachers’ Curriculum Institute
Engaging interest with prior knowledge/current events
Identifying and teaching academic language
Guided reading strategies: “guess the answer,” SQR3, etc.

16. Strategies during reading
Teaching and modeling note taking that works for students
Oral reading strategies for fluency practice: teacher “read aloud,” paired reading, choral reading or reader’s theatre
GIST strategies and variations
Visualizing or imaging strategies (picture what you are reading about)
Predicting what comes next

17. Post Reading Comprehension
Return to Visual Discovery for “act it outs”
“Found Poems” or “I Am Poems”
Concept Mapping/Relevance Wheel
Cause and Effect Charts
Timelines
Comic Strip Activities
Add a title, add captions, add thought bubbles, draw what comes next

18. Other strategies to increase comprehension and engagement
Quick writes/quick draws
Think pair share
Hold up cards (green and red)
Thumbs up/sideways/down
4 Corners
Human spectrum
“Explain it to your neighbor”

19. “Properly Channeled Empathy”
Improper empathy can cause us to enable and handicap our ESL students
Asking fewer questions, asking only lower order questions, allowing fluent students to answer, not allowing for wait time, not allowing for latency time for new learning, lowering our expectations, forgetting to provide challenging material.

20. Properly Channeled Empathy
“Properly channeled empathy can lead to creating classroom environments where students are free to take risks and where opportunities for developing higher levels of thinking have been heavily scaffolded.”
Himmele and Himmele, The Language Rich Classroom, p. 88

21. Some reminders for teaching ELLs
Lower the Affective Filter and make it safe for students to speak
Provide lots of scaffolds to help all students get where we want them to go
Consult WIDA charts to tell us how students can currently respond and what next level we can encourage

22. Sources
Bower, et al, Bring Learning Alive: The TCI Approach for Middle and High School Social Studies. Teachers’ Curriculum Institute, 2004
Himmele and Himmele, The Language Rich Classroom
Rothenberg and Fisher, Teaching English Language Learners: A Differentiated Approach. Pearson Education, Inc., 2007
WIDA website: