When trying to teach Els one must keep in mind that we need to have an compassionate approach. There are many factors that we can incorporate in our teaching. Building a strong atmosphere offers a framework for learning, and once you've built the environment, with a few basic techniques, you can assist these students in their language development.
Pictures
In any language, an image is comprehensible. A picture can help convey context and foster comprehension for English learners who do not understand anything a teacher says. Whenever you introduce new vocabulary, couple a picture with each important word. For example, when I introduced the Holocaust to my sheltered class, I would give them vocabulary words and provide pictures to the students to help them understand the word more clearly. For ELs, long or dense texts might be daunting. Including photographs can improve understanding and endurance. Consider attaching photos to tests or other activity instructions are printed.
Check for comprehension
Els don't always tell you when they don't understand anything because they don't want their classmates to hear about their struggles. You can help to decide where more instruction is required by using quick formative evaluations. Turn and Talk is a valuable tactic because when asked to speak in front of the entire class, it decreases the discomfort that ELs sometimes experience. Turn and Talk is an oral language support strategy that provides students with scaffolded interactions to formulate ideas and share their thinking with another student. This strategy encourages a high level of pupil response and participation helps students sustain their focus. By offering a sentence starter, Turn and Talk can be changed for ELs or by asking them to write down their answer before sharing it with a friend. For assessing student comprehension, it is beneficial to observe students during a Turn and Talk session. Exit tickets are brief written tasks that are typically given to review student comprehension at the end of a lesson. A simple way of scaffolding learning for ELs is to provide a sentence starter or image help on an exit ticket. Repeated language practice for students who are still gaining English proficiency is provided by testing for understanding and offering clarification.
Chunking
Due to the complex academic vocabulary, complicated syntax, and density of text, reading academic texts is somewhat of a challenge for ELs. Chunking passages into short, manageable pieces is one technique. Choose two to three main vocabulary words for each passage and include images of those things. If they're unfamiliar with the vocabulary, encourage ELs to translate the words into their native language. Ask ELs to write a one-sentence description of the section for every chunk of text using the vocabulary words in their sentence. Then proceed to the next text segment.
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