Help! I Have Newcomers...

I often get emails along the lines of: Help! I have students that don’t speak any English, what do I do? I've had 5 just this week! It can be scary, daunting, overwhelming even to encounter this scenario in your class, especially unprepared. So the first thing I do is tell them to breathe, it’s not the end of the world, and ensure them that I’ll be there to support them along the way. Then I start with my spiel.

1. Use lots of visuals, pictures, gestures, and quick sketches

If you only use words when talking to a newcomer they will likely become overwhelmed and frustrated by their lack of understanding, or bored because they don’t understand. Adding visuals of all kinds and gestures can help ELLs gain understanding of a topic, without knowing every word. I used to draw a lot on the board for my students, even with my limited art skills to emphasize that it isn’t about how well a picture is drawn, so that when students drew to show their understanding they would be less self-conscious.

2. Make use of Google: Images and Translate

There is power in being able to pull up images on the screen instantly of a variety of things. I might plan vocabulary words in advance, but my newcomer has questions about words I didn’t think even think of. I can instantly pull up many different things. Think about if I wanted to illustrate related words like the root “Tele” meaning far off, I might show a telescope, a telephone, telephoto, telegraph, and teleport. And then allow for some critical thinking about what the words have in common. Similarly Google Translate is not perfect, but there were many times in my classroom where a student and I needed to have a conversation beyond their understanding of English and we would sit back and forth with Google translate. Giving students a means to communicate and you showing a willingness to want to know what they are thinking and feeling, is powerful, especially with older students.

Another great resource is Read&Write for Google Chrome read more about it here!

3. Pair with a buddy

Preferably, pair a student with a buddy that speaks the same language as the student. Don’t be afraid of them speaking in their native languages if you don’t understand it. Be careful, having a student translate information is not a substitute for modifying instruction. If student A doesn’t understand it, and then translates that information to student B, now you have ever greater misunderstanding. Also, make sure the buddy is okay with being a buddy. Sometimes being a language buddy can feel like a burden to students, reward their extra work in class. I always say: Use them, don’t abuse them, or else you’ll lose them. Think about the power of letting your newcomer turn and talk about something in their native language before having to work with it in English. If a same language buddy isn’t available it’s okay, find a kind helpful English speaking student that you can ask to be their buddy.

4. Provide dual language dictionary

You newcomers may or may not have much literacy skills in their native language. If they can use a word to word dictionary, give them time to look up some unfamiliar words. Capitalize on the knowledge they already bring to the table.

5. Be aware of your own words

In English we use a lot of idioms. These can be very challenging for newcomers, even if they know what the words are they still might have trouble understanding what they mean. With newcomers, it might be best to avoid them, or if you find yourself using them, take a minute to explain what they mean.

Some common schools idioms are:

• Brainstorm
• Copycat
• hold your horses
• let the cat out of the bag
• Learn (something) by heart
• Pass with flying colors
• Put on your thinking cap
• draw a blank
• think outside the box
• go the extra mile
• take a stand
• see eye to eye
• speak your mind
• persevere in the face of adversity
• actions speak louder than words
• fill in the banks
• show of hands
• bookworm
• hit the books

...and many more

Also, try to use consistent vocabulary. Think about all the different ways you might say a simple direction in class like, turn in your papers. Pass in your papers, hand in your papers, bring your papers here, pass your papers to the left, etc. try and pick one way to say directions, and use it consistently. This way your newcomer can learn to easily understand your directions. After they master something, try to ass in something new. They are trying to learn a lot, twice as much as all of their peers, help them out a bit.

6. Speak slowly and clearly

As teachers we tend to feel constantly rushed, or at least I did, so much to cover, so little time. I couldn’t help but talk fast just to make sure everything got said. With newcomers, slow down, they are struggling with this language. When all your words are just jumbled together it is hard for them to make sense of any of it, even words they might know. Chunk information for students, in general there is a 10:2 rule. For every 10 minutes of you talking and giving information to the students, they need a break, 2 minutes to process the information and work with it. This doesn’t mean they are doing nothing. You could have student turn and share with a partner what they just heard, stop and draw what they understood, list the 3 main points you just talked about, etc.

7. Respect the silent period

A silent period, where students are taking in a lot of language, but not producing it yet is normal. It can even last for many months. It is important to respect this silent period, and allow students ways to respond non-verbally. This way you can still monitor their understanding. Students can point, they can do matching, etc. Along these same lines, we want to give students opportunities to speak (where they aren’t on the spot in front of the class), and encourage them. Increase wait time, model words and correct grammar for them, respond positively to student attempts at speaking.

8. Don’t correct language errors

When a newcomer does make attempts to speak. Getting overly corrected, and told they are doing it wrong is not going to encourage them to continue speaking. Instead, praise the effort, respond positively, and model the correct language. If you ask a question like what did you do on Friday, and the student responds “me go store” a simple reply like “Ah! On Friday, you went to the store? Did you buy something?” (or some other follow-up that shows interest) can go a long way, not only in building confidence, but also in exposure to correct language usage and in building relationships.

9. Writing is a complex process, baby steps!

Remember you must crawl before you walk, and walk before you run. Writing is a challenge, especially if your newcomer comes from somewhere that used a different alphabet. Copying is writing, labelling is writing. Provide word banks and provide sentence stems when you want a written response. Start small with simple sentences.

10. Adjust workload to meet proficiency level

Take a look at the newcomers language proficiency levels to see what they can do. Adjust their learning goals accordingly. This does not mean water down their content. If an objective is to identify and describe something, the newcomer can match the word with a picture that is representative of it. They can label diagrams, and sort words and pictures into categories, there are many ways to allow a newcomer to work on grade level content, and for you to accurately assess their understanding. Newcomers in your classroom are responsible for your standards. We have to teach language and content together, it takes a bit of up front effort to determine exactly what you want to teach them and how you will assess it.

You can find grade appropriate Can-Do Descriptors from WIDA here.

11. Celebrate successes

Learning a new language is challenging and frustrating. For many newcomers, school is overwhelming. I have lost count over the years of the number of student who have come to me crying about the stress of school, or telling me stories about going home and crying every night. Take time to celebrate a newcomers successes, no matter how small. Tell them how proud you are of their effort.

12. Keep a positive attitude

Newcomers can read body language, and facial expressions even if they don’t understand all your words. People know whether they are accepted or not, whether you are genuinely supportive or not. Smile, don’t let having a newcomer overwhelm you. You can have a big impact on their educational trajectory.

Alternative Assessments: Othello Foldables

I recently had a lively discussion about alternative assessments with a group of middle and high school teachers. It is always a touchy topic because in education so often assessment is such a dirty word because of standardized testing, penalties for not meeting AYP, and all sorts of other initiatives aimed at monitoring student progress. It was a common sentiment in the group that they felt they spent more time testing than teaching. That's definitely understandable as testing season is in full swing. 

I shared some ways that I used alternative assessments in my own classroom. At first this was met with some skepticism, "The test isn't differentiated, it's not in an alternative format, how will that prepare them?" I've been asked this many times, the problem is, you see, the test was never my goal post. I decided I would teach my students to read and think critically, I didn't ignore the test, but it was not the end result.

Before you ask, yes, I taught a tested area. In fact it was their English test required for graduation. No joking matter, but also a low goal. I knew what objectives my students needed to master, the power objectives if you will, the ones that showed up over and over again. They were always on my mind. But I never felt like traditional assessments showed my English learners knowledge, or language growth. 

I grabbed a file folder, large manila envelope, some glue and some construction paper and I walked them through an assessment I could use with the unit I was sharing with them. I had taught this unit, or elements of it for years, and these are based on some of the things I had my students do in their interactive notebooks. We talked about all the skills the students would work on when creating their project, and the study tool they were creating, and how adaptable this was to different content.

The cover can be decorated to yours or their liking. Mine just includes the title and some important themes from the play. They could have drawn important symbols/themes/you name the skill you want to highlight. I did this pretty quickly, don't be too harsh on my art skills.

When you open it up, you can see it is very organized. The left hand side include places to summarize information from pre-reading lessons to build background for my students. The top one concerned Shakespeare's life, a brief history of the time period, and the theater. The bottom left is concerned with the history in the play. It has a map that shows Venice and Cyprus, but also the Ottoman Empire and Mauritania. It unfolds to leave room for students to summarize important information about these places.

Gluing the manila envelope down on only 3 sides creates a pocket in the middle. In there is housed a worksheet my students completed after a matching and sorting activity of basic drama terms. 

In the middle, on the front of the manila envelope is a place for students to summarize each act of the play to keep the events straight. You may have noticed we are hitting retelling and summarizing quite hard so far in this, and that is because it is a challenging and yet important skill to master. Being able to pick out important information and put it into your own words is challenging for ELLs. It is also something that can be scaffolded to support students no matter what level of language proficiency they are at. 

On the left hand side is a table for students to record all of the names other characters call Othello, and then make inferences about what they mean, and how they feel about Othello. They also have to decide the significance of it.

When you open the manila envelope, there is a place to record information about characters. There is also room for students to create a character web that tracks how characters are related to each other and how they interact with each other. 

When you open the manila envelope again, there is a place for students to record examples of the 4 primary themes that we follow throughout the play. There is also room for an analysis of the themes, what the message is about each one and why it is important. I did a writing assignment with my students that prompted them through answering these questions.

Then finally inside the half of the manila envelope that is not cut to make the book is a pocket for students to store important quotes from the play. I chose several from each Act and students had to record information about. Here students had to look at literary devices and determine things like purpose and tone.

I hope you enjoyed it!

Argumentative Writing

So often, my students would write essays and their lack of planning was evident in their lack of focus. They would struggle to get something on paper, so it was near blasphemy to suggest editing. Not that they knew what/how to edit anyways. Sound familiar? This was especially true of my English language learners' writing in the beginning, and worse if you are familiar with ELL writing, you know how difficult it can be to make sense of it sometimes. 

One of the things I always had to teach was the argumentative essay. My high schoolers were so good at arguing, how could their essays be so bad? Many of my students had trouble picking sides. They would run out of things to say for one side so they would start writing about the other.

Here is how I found to introduce argumentative writing, it made it clear and concise, and greatly improved their work, while reducing a lot of the strain on them.

I use 3 different colors of post-it notes, yellow, pink, and green. You can choose any colors, but I color code things in my classroom. Since I like making reading/writing connections, I grab a short picture book that is controversial. I like William's Doll by Charlotte Zolotow. It's about a little boy who wants and doll and his family and friends make fun of him, and don't want to give him a doll,  until his grandmother comes and gives him one and makes a very logical argument for it. 

My students always have various opinions on the topic of whether the boy should have the doll or not. 

Next, we brainstorm a T-chart of reasons for an against William having the doll. We started with the reasons given in the book, and then added more.

Next it's time to pick which side to represent. I have students star that side and circle the strongest 3 reasons they have for it, and the strongest 2 against it. This is where the colored post-its come into play. On the yellow post-it, students write their thesis. I believe in K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple students) for planning so I went with "Boys should be allowed to play with dolls." Then on the green post-its students write their 3 strongest supporting reasons, in complete sentences. And then the same for the opposing reasons on the pink.

You end up with something like this. And now we are ready for a hands-on practice for organizing essays. 

As a class we walk through each of these organizational patterns and the students manipulate their post-its to match the pattern. Notice the color coding?

This allows students to manipulate their structure without redoing anything. They can begin to see how different elements of the paper work together to plan better and can tweak to make necessary adjustments. As students pick a pattern they think will be appropriate they record it so that we can come back later and flesh out their reasons into paragraphs.

I found doing this really helped my students from bifurcating and sounding like they can't make a decision. I know it's a big word, but my students always found it funny and would snicker, but they would remember it. 

This activity can be used with upper and lower grades, so I hope it helps!

Review: Quill Writer

Writing is meant to be a social process, we write to communicate. This is something I firmly believe and incorporated into my classroom often.

Today I will look at a website I found over at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation site: Quill Writer, a cooperative writing game, that allows students to work in partners to create a piece of writing given a starter, and target vocabulary words. It's still in beta, but there is a lot of potential here. I tried to incorporate a lot of technology into my classroom because we live in a digital world that is ever evolving, and I noticed great variety in tech savviness with my students. Some could work a smart phone but when asked to save a document, looked at me like I was speaking Greek. 

The real beauty of this tool is the ability to create your own activities, which means activities using your vocabulary, your definitions, and on the skill level of your students.

I thought about a non-fiction piece I used with my advanced ELLs. It was about the Alamo, because I love anything I can do cross-curricular. In different years I did different skills with the article, fact and opinion, sequencing, main idea, summarizing, even persuasive writing. 

I settle on a main skill of summarizing and sequencing, and a supporting language goal of using sequence signal words, i.e. transitional phrases, in their summary to organize the information.

The whole process of creating the activity is super easy and I love the amount of customization. At the end of creating the activity it asks for a target number of words for students to use in the writing, I chose 10, and when the activity created it says 6, the default, so I was a bit disappointed with that, but it is nothing I couldn't tell my students. Anyways you end up with something like this:

My lovely colleague and I practiced with a default story to test features. I really liked being able to mouse over words and get a definition. I also liked that it tracked my usage of the words in any form, and bolded them in the story. ELLs can really struggle with suffixes and changing word forms, so this is excellent practice. 

I also loved another feature that asks students to review the other student's sentence.

This one activity hits so many different standards! I am not about using technology to say that I used technology, but this is an activity with some real value. Could it be done without this website? Sure, the same thing could be done on pencil and paper if you lack technology, or on a single computer, or in Google docs. But, the ease of use and quality of activity make it definitely worth mentioning.

My Top 9 Favorite Websites for Simplifying texts

As class sizes grow and the complexity of standards increase, the need for differentiation rises, and the time to be able to do it drops. So, I always try to find resources to help adapt the same materials for different reading levels so that all students can be successful with the same content.

Here are 9 of my favorite websites and tools for simplifying texts. I will highlight some pros and cons of each as I’ve encountered in my own classroom.

1. Rewordify

Rewordify will simplify complex vocabulary to make a difficult text easily to understand. You can customize the amount that is simplified and the way it looks – As an English teacher, I like the side-by-side text option. There are also various pre-made activities cloze reading etc using the original vocabulary that might help with supporting vocabulary development. Why this is at the top of the list – you choose the text to simplify

2. Books That Grow

Offers a selection of fiction and non-fiction texts at various reading levels that can be sent out to students on any device. Why I like this one – my district went BYOD so there is a lot of technology available, and it includes many of the texts in a secondary ELA curriculum, it is not just elementary.

All of the 4 following are very similar and allow for teachers to access a variety of non-fiction and news articles in a variety of levels. Each has slightly different functionality and I have ranked them in order of my favorites.

3. News in Levels – not only has the different levels but has videos to match the levels and questions after that encourage students to write and speak.

4. Newsela – has the many nice features, like quizzes afterwards, but there is a fee for creating the virtual classrooms and tracking student progress

5. For The Teachers – I used to print these out as anchor activities, for extension and further independent practice with skills.

6. Breaking News English

The next 2 create summaries of text on webpages, or that you can copy and paste.

7. Text Compactor – copy and paste, works pretty well sometimes summaries are not perfect

8. TLDR – works with websites, works pretty well sometimes summaries are not perfect

9. Finally, there is a feature in Read&Write, it increases white space, and reduces the number of sentences. Works pretty well, but as all of these tools, it is not perfect

I've added this to my collection of Technology Tools for English language learners