Have you ever thought to yourself, I wish I knew how to reach my English Learners (ELs)? No matter what I do, they don’t seem to understand anything. If you have ever been in that position, it is not uncommon. I ask myself this or a similar question almost daily. But as an educator I can’t stop there so i need to plan better. One of my jobs as an EL teacher is to teach students academic language to be successful.
When planning lessons for ELs the learning experiences should try to include as many language modalities as possible. Below is a guide from Lincoln Public Schools in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Asking those three questions above helps provide an outline of the lesson which will help plan for the academic language used in the lesson and the activities that will be used to help create engaging learning experiences.
“The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” Ludwig Wittgenstein
We are the bridge to support our ELs academic language learning. If specific focus is not given to the language that is used in all content areas, ELs will not reach their full potential.
In a blog post by Doug Lemov (author of teach like a champion) he highlights how a teacher has students replace general words used to describe a scene from Othello with more academic vocabulary just by having it written on the board and having the students refer to to it for their verbal responses.
How simple is that. It probably only took thirty seconds to write on the board, but think of the impact it will have on their learning. The students are already analyzing a complex story so why make it more difficult by having the students refer back to their memories those words. They are in the process learning those words. Learning is messy. If you aren’t making mistakes, you aren’t learning fast enough.
- Plan for that academic vocabulary and concepts that cross content areas.
- Organize the learning experiences.
- Use as many language modalities as possible.
Lincoln Public Schools ELL Instructional Strategies
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