Chapter 8 - How do I help students build learning strategies?

In this chapter, Cary describes a teacher who used her passion to encourage students to learn. In order to make students independent learners, she introduced several different learning strategies to them. "She worried about the plateau kids, students who reached an intermediate fluency stage and stayed there, spinning their learning wheels, never rising to native-level English proficiency, never achieving full academic competence." Some strategies she used were:
~Use a content-to-strategy approach. Instead of targeting a certain skill and finding ways to teach that, use what you are teaching to target skills to make learning more authentic in the process.
~Name learning strategies. This helps make them explicit and memorable.
~Post the names of the strategies in the front of the room for easy reference.
Ultimately, use subjects you are passionate about and that interest the students. "With relevant topics in place," you can "decide on how best to make the topics workable for English learners...but, again, the beginning point [is] content, not skills, not strategies."

Here are some resources for learning strategies:
http://www.studygs.net/

Chapter 7 - How do I teach grade-level content to English beginners?

This was my favorite chapter so far! The teacher is teaching history to her students and she creates an archaeological dig for them to uncover artifacts. Once the students uncovered their artifact, the students then researched to find out what the object was and how it fit into their study of American history. By being able to put their hands on an object instead of just reading about it in a book, the teacher has made history real.
Cary lists some tips for teaching content to English beginners:
~Use small, collaborative work groups
~When available, use bilingual peer bridges
~Use objects, drawings, maps, and graphs
~Use video clips to build background knowledge
~Use graphic organizers to record notes and reduce text note-taking
~Use authentic texts supported by multi-reading-level resource material
~Use show and tell modeling
When modeling, be sure to use show and tell modeling and not just tell. When listening to an unfamiliar language, it is much more understandable when gestures are involved.

Chapter 6 - How do I help students improve their English writing?

The main idea from this chapter is that teachers need to give students a reason to write. For example, when a person learns to dance, they don't spend an hour learning what the left foot does, then an hour on the right foot. Students should learn to write in the context of content areas, or something that is important to them.

For example, in this chapter, the teacher used an issue of traffic around the school. The students felt so strongly that something should be done about traffic that they wrote a letter to the mayor. For the letter, the students talked about ideas and the teacher wrote them on the board. He then guided them through the process of writing a letter while modeling it himself.

When the mayor responded saying she would pass their request on to another committee, the students wrote letters to to members of that committee. The teacher let each student write in a way that was appropriate for his amount of English proficiency. Some drew pictures with labels while others wrote professional letters.

So when helping students with writing, model first! Then, allow students writing to look different at different stages. Finally, have students write about something relevant whether it is some issue close to the students or concerning the content they are learning. Make it relevant.

Chapter 5 - How do I make a difficult textbook more readable?

A textbook can be a daunting aspect of a classroom for an English Language Learner as well as for native English speakers.
According to Cary, the most important strategy for helping students with difficult texts is modeling. Modeling the way you would "attack" a difficult text will show your student, one, that he or she is not the only one that struggles with content reading, and, two, ways to make it easier.
Providing students with graphic organizers while reading will help students keep track of what they have read.
One strategy that might not be glaringly obvious, is to make room for laughter and jokes. When a classroom is free for these experiences, it translates to the freedom to take risks with language.

Here is a resource for graphic organizers:
http://www.thinkport.org/technology/template.tp

Chapter 4 - How do I get my reluctant speakers to speak English?

According to Cary, there are two essentials for increasing language:

~Time to Talk - Arrange your classroom in a way that encourages conversation. A constructivist classroom provides many opportunities to speak and to listen.

~Reason to Talk - Cary says that a reason to talk means choosing and structuring activities in ways that make talk meaningful, activities where students feel a need to talk, can't help but talk. This in turn requires curriculum content that engages kids and reflects personal interests.

Find out what students enjoy, what they're passionate about. Sometimes this will bring them out of their shell. Other times, finding an activity they like, such as drama or music, will encourage more conversation.

Chapter 3 - How do I make my spoken language more understandable?

To begin let me introduce some general guidelines for classroom read alouds. These are great for any classroom, but will also benefit ELLs. First of all, let students get comfortable. If a student is sitting straight up in her desk, she more than likely will not concentrate on the text. Second, I like to let students doodle if they want. Many kids concentrate better when they're doodling. Finally, students are not allowed to make noise!

Now, with those in mind, the teacher in this chapter displayed some great strategies to help ELLs with read alouds.

~First, prior to starting the book, he introduced the concept of what the book is about. Stone Fox is about dog sledding so the teacher took students outside for a demonstration.

~With this background knowledge, he then introduced vocabulary. He picked words that would not be familiar to ELLs and showed pictures on the overhead to give the students a visual of what the word means.

~Next, for students just beginning to learn English, the teacher showed a video of what they would read the next day. Seeing the video allowed students with very limited English to imagine the action even without understanding most of what is read.

~For students who have reading skills in their first language, the teacher provided copies of the book in that language so that students could read ahead and have an idea of the story before reading in class.

With each of these strategies, the teacher built prior knowledge and made the text more accessible for his ELLs.

Some places to look for videos of books:

United Streaming - http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/

YouTube - www.youtube.com

Chapter 2 - How do I find useful information on a student's cultural background?

Finding out more about your students' cultures will give you a bridge to reach that student. Even though you more than likely will not be fluent in the language, knowing about where the student comes from will make him or her feel like you really care about them. Some questions to ask yourself:
~What is the history between this culture and American mainstream culture?
~What specific aspects of and American school might the student and his family find puzzling or troublesome?
~How does the language compare to English? What do the two have in common and what might the student find difficult?

Another suggestion would be to pair the new student with a peer buddy. It would be great if this buddy speaks the same language, but more than likely, this will not be possible. Simply find a responsible student who you know would take the time to explain instructions and assignments when you are not able to speak to the student individually.

Another great idea, though it might be difficult depending on which culture you're looking for, would be to find books, tapes, etc. in the students first language. Not only will this make the student feel more comfortable, but it will introduce new cultures to your native English speakers as well.

Finally, knowing the intricacies and social "rules" of the student's culture will help when you encounter behaviors like lack of eye contact. This may simply happen because the student was not allowed to make eye contact with adults in his home country.

Chapter 1 - How do I assess a students' English?

Some of the answers to this question will depend on what state you are teaching in and what that state's assessment policy is. When to use formal assessments and which assessments you use will more than likely be decided by your state or school district. Many times these assessments don't show exactly the information teachers would like to have to make judgments about instruction. They might measure specific vocabulary as opposed to overall language. However, they do provide some helpful information. For example, these tests may show specific skills which the student has mastered or is having trouble with. According to Cary, "real talking makes for real talk; testing makes for test talk." In addition to not assessing what the teacher wants to know, a student might be apprehensive about taking a test in a language he is not familiar with.

So what can a teacher do to relieve tension about formal testing?

First of all, since there is no way around formal testing, a teacher should make the experience as comfortable as possible for the student. If there is time, allow the student to visit the person who will administer the test beforehand. This way there is a comfort level built between the two. Give the student some time interacting with his classmates so that school is a more comfortable place before assessing with formal tests. At the bottom of this post, there is a link to a website that has information a parent can use at home to help relieve stress about testing. Having a parent or peer talk to the child in their native language is another way to relieve stress.

And what can a teacher do to assess ELLs informally in the classroom?

A teacher should understand that assessing an ELL should be seen as a big picture. This includes formal assessments, informal assessments, and conversations with the student and parents. One example of informal assessment that Cary uses is a Four Box Assessment. On the page, the teacher creates four boxes that make up one big square. Each box represents either Listening, Speaking, Reading, or Writing. Within each box there is a scale from 1 (beginning) to 5 (advanced). The teacher records encounters she has with the student and ranks their level for each facet of the square. These records are taken multiple times throughout the week or month so that the teacher can see areas of growth and areas where the student needs additional support.

Another way to informally assess a student is to have conversations with her through content activities. Cary gives the example of a teacher gaining insight about a student while they were discussing a science project. The student was engaged in the assignment and therefore more relaxed and willing to speak and write. Using this strategy will help a teacher see a student's academic language and not just the language she uses to interact with her friends. There is a link at the bottom of this post with more strategies for informal assessment in the classroom.

In conclusion, even though there is no easy answer to this question, there are several steps a teacher can take to alleviate pressure about formal assessments and many strategies to use in the classroom as informal assessments.

Information for parents in English or Spanish about formal testing - http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/23154

Using informal assessments for ELLs - http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/assessment/informal

so what's this all about?

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be reading the book Working with English Language Learners: Answers to Teachers' Top Ten Questions by Stephen Cary. I'm going to blog after each chapter with a summary and practical strategies you can use in the classroom.
I'm looking forward to reading about ways to help this group of students!

While you're waiting for me to read the first chapter, here's a video I found...Enjoy!