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#Post#: 105--------------------------------------------------
Strategies for ELL Learners
DIR By: Susie
Date: July 19, 2011, 7:35 pm
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The videos were interesting, especially because so many of the
strategies discussed also apply to non-ELL learners. The
emphasis on building vocabulary, background knowledge, using
cognates or roots...all of these apply across the board. I
especially liked the discussion about checking for understanding
and not assuming that understanding is there just because the
students don't ask questions. While I think it is more
diffiuclt for non-native speakers to frame questions, I think
that native speakers sometimes have problems designing a
question to ask for clarification or to clear up a
misconception. I also recently read an article which
articulated the reminder to use wait time to give students time
to process. Although I tend to be impatient and to want to jump
in, I want to work on developing that wait time. I know that
it's also common courtesy, but a sadly neglected one--at least
for me. Although these were clearly professional people
knowledgeable in their fields, I was floored by the name
mistake! It can happen to anyone, but it just served to
emphasize the spontaneous nature of the interviews.
#Post#: 106--------------------------------------------------
Re: Strategies for ELL Learners
DIR By: Susie
Date: July 19, 2011, 8:00 pm
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The Uncommon Schools videos were nice snapshots of strategic use
of self-interruption, acknowledgement, praise, cold calling, and
building suspense. Interesting--wish they had chosen to include
any high school teachers.
#Post#: 107--------------------------------------------------
Re: Strategies for ELL Learners
DIR By: Julie
Date: July 20, 2011, 3:27 pm
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The video clips were a nice break from the reading. I like to
watch teachers in action, unless it is me that I am watching!
Did you notice in the first ELL video clip that the students
raised their hands and the teacher called on just one. Opps! We
know better than that! I really liked the discussion on social
language proficiency versus academic language proficiency. That
was a good reminder. Susie is right, that pertains to other
students and not just our ELL students. The one instructor
commented on the use of graphic organizers to aid in learning.
I need to use those more. It seems that when I do it takes so
long to teach the organizer that then I don't have time to teach
the lesson. I am sure that the payoff is worth the time, so I
will keep on trying. I have a funny story about the use of
cognates. When we were living in Spain, we had gone camping.
The tent's support system was broken and so we needed some rope
to tie it to a tree. I went to a nearby camp site and asked the
family if they had any ropa. I thought that since many words in
spanish are like ours with an a or o added to the end that they
would understand. Well they did not understand since ropa is
the word for clothes. What ensued was a comedy routine with
neither one of us understanding the misunderstanding for quite
some time. Cognates are great when the meaning is similiar in
both languages.
#Post#: 108--------------------------------------------------
Re: Strategies for ELL Learners
DIR By: Anne
Date: July 21, 2011, 9:53 am
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I enjoyed the videos. The how tos were interesting to
me--especially the interrupting student--just squaring your
shoulders and being quiet--and then repeating the phrase again
when she caught his eye again. I couldn't quite see what kind of
look she gave him but it seemed to work quite well. The one
about making a difference was a tear-jerker.
The ELL question and answer video made me think about what
challenges I am facing this year and feel pretty worried because
I could see it would be handy to be bi-lingual myself to help
the students make the connections to be literate in both
languages but I don't have the language skills other than my 4th
grade level spanish to do much in the bi-lingual department. I
will think a lot about the sentence starters that help students
phrase their thoughts back. I really believe those helps are for
more than just ELL as you all have pointed out.
I loved your cognates story Julie.
I tried the same thing with sopa for soap and later found out it
meant soup. Oh well, couldn't we just wash our hands with soup?
#Post#: 110--------------------------------------------------
Re: Strategies for ELL Learners
DIR By: Pam
Date: July 22, 2011, 5:15 am
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Your comments are wonderful about the ELL clips. I found
it very interesting that Dr. Hagen (I think that was her name)
was concerned about our ELL students learning and understanding
academic language. It sounded a lot like Feldman's comments
about our regular education students and their needs in
voacabulary. I so appreciate Stephanie's help in coming up with
visuals to help with some of the challenges in teaching the
meaning of words to our students. I believe that this also
relates to Quantum Learning which says to "Experience before
labeling." It was amazing how comprehension improved when Judi
brought figs to school. In our little decodable books we had
several stories about figs. Not very many of us had ever had
much to do with figs. I wish that teaching the concepts of
summarizing or time was that easy.
#Post#: 111--------------------------------------------------
Re: Strategies for ELL Learners
DIR By: Susie
Date: July 22, 2011, 7:16 am
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I just realized that I inadvertently typed an extra 'L' in the
title. Sorry about that! :-[
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