Helping ELL's

Teachers should ensure that all their students including English Language Learners understand the language of science, construct new science concepts and at the same time develop their acade... See More

Teachers should ensure that all their students including English Language Learners understand the language of science, construct new science concepts and at the same time develop their academic abilities in English. This article describes how teachers can use some common instruction methods. A good and precise speaking technique by the teacher and hands-on activities that teach concepts through manipulation of objects, are all helpful to ELL students. Knowing the ELL learner’s language developmental level is helpful in asking the kinds of questions these students can answer. This article provides lots of examples. A ‘Vocabulary Word Map’, graphic organizer is included in this article and is designed to be used by a pair of students.

Strategies for ELL & ALL Students

All students will benefit from instructional strategies sometimes identified specifically for helping ELLs. This article shares some of those strategies. For example, hands-on activities t... See More

All students will benefit from instructional strategies sometimes identified specifically for helping ELLs. This article shares some of those strategies. For example, hands-on activities that demonstrate concepts to make them easier to visualize are particularly helpful to ELLs. Most science teachers will agree that this strategy also is more engaging for ALL students in their classrooms. The article includes some less obvious teaching strategies like playing “Rally Table” and using a vocabulary word map template. I found the ideas mentioned in this article useful and plan to incorporate many of them in order to help all of my students become more successful in the classroom.