10 Best ELL Practices - Teaching English Learners.mov

Teaching English Learners can be a complex process. This video provides 10 ideas for teachers as they work with ELL's in their content teachers. Provided by www.TeachingEnglishLearners.com

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Hello, my name is Ron Roheck.

I'm an educational consultant that
specializes in the field of sheltered

instruction.

That is, I provide tactics and strategies
for teachers to use when ELL students

are present in their content areas,
like math and science and social studies.

These strategies are based on
English learner best practices.

These best practices are based
on research, such as

the Sheltered Instruction Observation
Protocol, or SIOP, a professional

development model, developed by
the Center for Applied Linguistics,

as well as years of classroom testing
in schools across the country.

From this research and class testing,
my colleagues at Course Crafters and

I have created a list of best
practices that reflect their research.

Number 1, make your language and
content comprehensible.

Cuz my question is whether or

not the liquids are gonna be the same or
different.

You see these two balls, golf balls, okay?

These guys look the same, don't they?

>> Yes.

>> Right, these two guys look the same?

>> Yeah.

But these two guys look different,
all right?

Same, different, okay?

So now my question.

Do you think these liquids are the same?

>> No.
>> Or are the liquids are different?

>> The same.

>> So you think they're the same?

Number 2, provide hands-on activities.

For me, this is the engine
that drives the classroom.

Our third idea is to include
interactive instruction.

>> Interactive lesson planning
promotes active participation and

promotes multiple pathways for discussion.

Teacher to student, student to teacher,
student to student.

Whiteboards and cooperative structures,

like Numbered Heads Together and
Think-Pair-Share, maximize student output.

Number 4 is to make sure that you include
a language objective with every lesson.

Language objectives for

content specialists don't
necessarily have to be profound.

But we do have to pay attention to
language development every day.

Number 5, use scaffolding strategies to
meet the needs of all EL students in your

classroom.

And tell me something about the bear,
Vanessa,

a word that would tell me
something about the bear.

He is?

>> Brown.

>> Brown, and he is?

Number 6, encourage collaborative or
cooperative learning.

Students put their heads together
to solve complex problems.

Number 7, try to draw from
student experiences and culture.

Look for
resources that reflect student background.

They need to see themselves
in the material.

Number 8, develop students'
higher order thinking skills.

Graphic organizers and sophisticated
questions help students to think deeper.

Our ninth idea to try to activate and
evaluate students' background knowledge.

Use this kind of tool to determine what
students know prior to an activity.

Revisit it to see what they've learned.

And finally,

our tenth idea is to try to build in some
ongoing performance based assessment.

Compiling performance based assessments
can be a remarkable set of tools for

measuring students' performance.

Make sure the rubrics that you
use in design are clear and fair.

Of course, these aren't the only things to
consider as you're planning your lessons,

but keep these ten in mind and your
student performance is bound to go up.

Good luck.

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