English Language Learning

To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world. – Chinese Proverb

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Monday Mash-up, January 11, 2021

January 11, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Reminders

January 11th, 3:30-5:00 ELL Book Club

January 18th, 3:30-5:00pm-Impactful Differentiation: We encourage teams of teachers from schools to work together to attend the sessions  (ELL support, LSS support and classroom teachers in both English and French Immersion) to develop strategies to diverse classrooms.

Schedule your file review meetings with Fanny and Michelle when you receive them back from the Welcome Centre.

Every Teacher is a Language Teacher

Instructional Conversations

Instructional Conversations is a technique to use student-centered conversations to provide more language opportunities for all students.

The teacher first introduces a topic or theme like space, for example, related to a reading. They relate it to students’ background knowledge. For instance, they could ask a question about what objects exist in space.

Then, the teacher will link it to students background knowledge. Using the previous example,  one could ask about movies they’ve seen set in space and what was real or not in the film.

Next, the teacher can preview the text and ask prediction questions. As the class moves into reading, the text can be chunked to create opportunities for maximum discussion by relating back to theme and the students’ background knowledge. The teacher also reinforces students supporting their comments with evidence from the text.

Combined with other scaffolds such as sentence stems and word walls, this approach can significantly increase students’ academic discourse.

 

December 14, 2020 Monday Mash Up

December 14, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Reminders:

For the month of December Burnaby Public Library will be hosting their Group Chat program on two different days, Saturday and Tuesday, during the winter break!

Group Chat is a program for newcomer youth who want to meet other youth and practice speaking English. We will play games, connect, and discuss an interesting topic in a fun and friendly online group setting. Please email teenservices@bpl.bc.ca for Zoom links.

Saturday, December 19, 3 – 4:00pm
Tuesday, December 22, 3 – 4:00pm

 

Monday, January 11th, 2021-ELL Bookclub -Zoom

 

Friday, December 18th, 3:00pm: Winter Break (in case anyone forgot) Agenda: rest, respite, and recover.

December 7, 2020

December 7, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Reminders:

For the month of December Burnaby Public Library will be hosting their Group Chat program on two different days, Saturday and Tuesday, during the winter break!

Group Chat is a program for newcomer youth who want to meet other youth and practice speaking English. We will play games, connect, and discuss an interesting topic in a fun and friendly online group setting. Please email teenservices@bpl.bc.ca for Zoom links.

Saturday, December 19, 3 – 4:00pm
Tuesday, December 22, 3 – 4:00pm

Every Teacher is A Language Teacher

Higher Order Thinking Skills

Teachers can improve student engagement by providing learning opportunities that promote higher order thinking skills at all language levels.

When creating questions/tasks with Bloom’s taxonomy, create sentence stems that can indicate task and appropriate academic language.

Move beyond just recall, by having students show the concept/skill, develop a plan or argument, and extend their thinking (design, synthesize, apply etc)

Higher Order Thinking Strategies

  1. Digital story telling: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYtxV-SNUxZA7W_EjT3NDoU4TQJ88lr5h
  2. SQP2RS: https://carla.umn.edu/cobaltt/modules/strategies/SQP2RS.pdf
  3. GIST: https://www.s2temsc.org/uploads/1/8/8/7/18873120/gist_summaries_strategy.pdf

November 30, 2020 Monday Mash-Up

November 30, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Reminders

Thursday, December 3, 2020, 3:30pm-SIOP Leads meeting on TEAMS

Every Teacher is a Language Teacher

Verbal Scaffolding

Teachers are always scaffolding learning for students to help them access and retain content material. For English learners there are some simple actions that teachers can use. This week, we will look at verbal scaffolding.

  1. Paraphrasing-teach they key vocabulary but then simplify for ELs
  2. Use “think alouds” to model the language needed for a task
  3. Reinforce definitions because no one learns a word from hearing or seeing words once
  4. Slow speech, increase pauses, and give wait time
  5. Elicit more language from student answers

November 23, 2020 Monday Mash-up

November 23, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Reminders:

Saturday, November 28th 3-4pm: Burnaby Public Library Group Chat  Group Chat is a program for newcomer youth who want to meet other youth and practice speaking English. We will play games, connect, and discuss an interesting topic in a fun and friendly online group setting. Encourage your students to email teenservices@bpl.bc.ca for the zoom link.

Every Teacher is a Language Teacher

Learning Strategies for ALL Learners

Learning strategies will help English Language Learners access  more content and grow their academic capabilities. They will do the same for every student. Practice them consistently and all students will improve and develop.

Cognitive Learning Strategies
  • previewing text
  • establishing purpose
  • making connections between self, texts, and world
  • annotating text
  • taking notes
  • using graphic organizers
  • reading aloud for clarification
  • rereading for comprehension
  • identifying key vocabulary
Metacognitive Learning Strategies
  • predicting and inferring
  • generating questions and using them to guide comprehension
  • monitoring and clarifying (Do I understand?)
  • evaluating and deciding significance
  • summarizing and synthesizing
  • visualizing

 

 

November 16, 2020 Monday Mash-up

November 16, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Reminders:

Tuesday, November 17th, 1-3pm: Elementary ELL meeting: We will welcome speakers from the Burnaby Public Library. A zoom link has been emailed.

 

Saturday, November 28th 3-4pm: Burnaby Public Library Group Chat  Group Chat is a program for newcomer youth who want to meet other youth and practice speaking English. We will play games, connect, and discuss an interesting topic in a fun and friendly online group setting. Encourage your students to email teenservices@bpl.bc.ca for the zoom link.

Seidlitz Education Virtual SLIFE Conference

On November 12, Seidlitz Education held a virtual conference focusing on teaching students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE). They have posted the whole 7 hour conference on youtube. There are many useful models but if you have time for only a short clip watch Pamela Broussard from the 14 minute mark to 17 minutes.

Every Teacher is a Language Teacher

The Importance of Effective Instructions

I really bombed recently. I had six students in an online class do a writing assignment comparing a real life hero to a character in a book. I explained the assignment and asked them to show it to me next class. None of them did it correctly. They wrote about why they respected the real life hero or gave a biography but no one mentioned the novel’s character. The first one could be caused by an inattentive student…but all of them? The problem was my instructions were unclear. I orally told them what to do and assumed they got it. I apologized for my mistake and we went over the assignment again. This time, I wrote step by step instructions on a shared document. Then, we brainstormed characteristics with a group chosen hero. Then, I wrote/co-wrote a model using the hero and one of the characters. Finally, I let them get to work. All of them were successful the second time.

Teachers need to have clear, scaffolded instructions for students. Oral instructions are rarely enough.

Monday Mash Up November 9, 2020

November 9, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Reminders:

Monday, November 9th 9am: At Home ELL teacher meeting

Saturday, November 14th 3-4pm: Burnaby Public Library Group Chat  Group Chat is a program for newcomer youth who want to meet other youth and practice speaking English. We will play games, connect, and discuss an interesting topic in a fun and friendly online group setting. Encourage your students to email teenservices@bpl.bc.ca for the zoom link.

Tuesday, November 17th, 1-3pm: Elementary ELL meeting: We will welcome speakers from the Burnaby Public Library. Zoom link will be sent out closer to the date.

Saturday, November 28th 3-4pm: Burnaby Public Library Group Chat  Group Chat is a program for newcomer youth who want to meet other youth and practice speaking English. We will play games, connect, and discuss an interesting topic in a fun and friendly online group setting. Encourage your students to email teenservices@bpl.bc.ca for the zoom link.

 

Every Teacher is A Language Teacher

Helping Students Listen and Understand

Think about your students and their English abilities. If you were speaking to them individually, you probably automatically change your speech. You may slow your speed, use shorter sentences, or simpler vocabulary to make yourself understood. However, teachers often forget these adaptations when they are speaking to an entire class. If you have English learners in your class, these tips might help them understand more:

1) avoid idioms: these are complicated as they don’t always have concrete definitions.

 

2) repeat and paraphrase: all students benefit from this, but it is essential for ELs.

 

3) use “subject verb object” sentences: The most common English structure is the easiest one to understand.

Monday Mash-Up November 2, 2020

November 2, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Reminders

Monday, November 2nd, 3:30-5pm: ELL Book Club: Big Ideas for Expanding Minds by Jim Cummins and Margaret Early-Chapter 4.

Thursday, November 5th, 3:30-5 pm: SIOP Lead Meeting: TEAMs

Tuesday, November 17th, 1-3pm: Elementary ELL meeting: We will welcome speakers from the Burnaby Public Library. Zoom link will be sent out closer to the date.

Host Multi-lingual Parent-Teacher Interviews with Microsoft Translator

This is a real time translation program that can be used with text and also supports some voice translations. This is a quick video showing some features:

This website has instructions on how to use it for parent-teacher conferences:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/translator/education/microsoft-teams-multilingual-meeting/#:~:text=iOS%20or%20Android-,Download%20the%20free%20Microsoft%20Translator%20app%20from%20your%20device%27s%20app,the%20teacher%2C%20and%20select%20Join

 

Incredible Immersive Reader

Have you taught your students how to use O365 Immersive Reader with Word? It is  a game changer. Here are some of the features:

  1. Turn any document into an audio file.
  2. Built in picture dictionary.
  3. Built in translator for individual words or whole documents.
  4. Once a document is translated into one of several languages, it can also be read to the student.

Kamal Parbhakar at Burnaby Central made a great video for his students that you could use for yourself or others.

Check it out here:

Every Teacher is a Language Teacher

Three Ways to Teach More Culturally Responsively TODAY

1) Learn to pronounce students’ names

When I ask students why they use English nicknames, the most common response is that “Canadian” people can’t say their names. To paraphrase Uzo Aduba, if someone can learn to say “Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky,” they can learn to say Ting-ye, Marianya, and Do-hyun.

@nathanwpyle

 

2) Respect heritage languages

When I first started teaching, I used to have an “English only classroom”. This told my students that English was more important than their heritage language and I was responsible for perpetuating language imperialism. Also, I was taking away the BEST support students have for accessing another language. Learn from my mistakes and create an inclusive multilingual classroom.

 

 

3) Use examples from a range of cultures 

When was the first printing press created? I’ll give you a hint. It wasn’t in 1450 by someone with the initials J.G. Teaching about fermentation? Ogi, iru, and gari are three fermented foods that were created thousands of years ago but still exist in Zimbabwe today. Want to delve into the idea of fate? Instead of Romeo and Juliet, how about reading Nicola Yoon’s “The Sun is Also a Star”. By opening themselves up to new ideas from other cultures, teachers are modelling being life-long learners as well as letting students see their identities reflected in their education.

Monday Mash-Up-October 26, 2020

October 26, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Reminders

Wednesday, October 28th, 3-5pm: New ELL Teacher Check-in: Contact Michelle for Teams Invite

Monday, November 2nd, 3:30-5pm: ELL Book Club: Big Ideas for Expanding Minds by Jim Cummins and Margaret Early-Chapter 4.

Tuesday, November 17th, 1-3pm: Elementary ELL meeting: We will welcome speakers from the Burnaby Public Library. Zoom link will be sent out closer to the date.

PSA-Day Recaps

Say It Like A Scholar!  Techniques and Tools to Flex Academic Language Muscles in the ELL Classroom and Providing Actionable Feedback to Advance ELL Oral Language Proficiency 

Dr. Kate Kinsella and Associates 
BCTESOL Annual Conference 

Treating our English Language Learners as scholars will elevate the language of our EL learners.  This includes effective and thoughtful usage of academic language in our interactions with students and in our planning for instruction.  Dr. Kinsella shared strategies and reference materials she had developed over her career as an ELL teacher and researcher.  During, her presentation, Dr. Kinsella demonstrated how common teaching practices such as “think, pair, share” and writing frames need to include more scaffolding and academic vocabulary in order to promote more engagement and growth in EL learners. A video of the two sessions will be posted and she shared that her new book Scholarly Interactions: Tools and Techniques to Engage Academic Learners, K-12 (ISBN:978-1-5443-2546-0) will be available in August 2021. 

 

Teacher Collaboration for All Seasons

Tan Huyhn with Caroline Davidson, and Sherry Liptak

If you’ve ever experienced Tan through his blog, podcast, or social media, you know how engaging he is and Friday was no exception. The big takeaway I had was that co-planning IS co-teaching. 

While Tan gave some templates to co-teach, most of the day was focused on co-planning. In this world, time is a valuable commodity. We can use it more effectively with co-planning strategies. The metaphor Tan used was of a vase. Inside the vase, you need to put a big rock, smaller pebbles, and sand. How will you get them all in? First, you should add the rock, which is the big idea of the lesson or unit. Then, add the pebbles, they are the methods and language needed. Finally, you add the sand which is the smaller details. If teachers did the big idea synchronously each unit, they could plan the others asynchronously in their own time constraints. As Tan said,  “One co-planning session can set you up for a month”. 

Every Teacher is a Language Teacher

Incorporating All Areas of Language into a Lesson

One attainable goal for lesson planning is to have students speak, listen, read, and write in English every class. This increases language opportunities but also student engagement.  Here is an example outline for how a class/group could do this daily in any subject or content area.

 

COLO: First, at the beginning of the lesson, read the content and language objectives for the group so they can hear your pronunciation and intonation. Then, as a group, co-read them. I like to annotate them as I go to explicitly teach the academic tier II vocabulary. This is usefully for all students but especially rewarding for students who are working on increasing their English literacy skills.

Big idea: Have one question on the board that you want students to be able to answer by the end of the lesson with a sentence starter (or differentiated ones) that students will write at the end of class.

 

 

QSSSA: Use QSSSA, (Question, Signal, Stem, Share, Assess). This method is excellent for getting students to talk to each other by lowering the affective filter or the stress of speaking a language. Check out Carol Salva’s video demonstration if you’ve never used this in your classes. I promise you it will change your classroom’s whole dynamic: https://youtu.be/boYaz_TFSyU

 

Exit Ticket: Have students answer your question from the beginning of the lesson in writing. You can also extend this into a class brainstorm and a writing lesson. 

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