Classroom Strategies and Activities for Bilingual Learners

By: Michelle BilottiBLE 504Week 2

Five strategies suitable for instructing bilingual learners in basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS)

1. Build background knowledge and connections to students' lives and prior knowledge to increase comprehension

2. Give students a break – allow time for technology or website learning on programs such as http://www.starfall.com

3. Keep pacing and grouping appropriate 4. Model expectations for students5. One-on-one communication

Five strategies for instructing bilingual learners in cognitive academic language proficiency skills (CALPS). 

1. Scaffold instruction2. Use hands on activities3. Introduce academic language4. Include content and language objectives for

students to monitor their learning and to follow their comprehension of the lesson

5. Apply higher-order questioning that incorporates critical thinking questions in lessons for students to respond to and interact

My Top 10 Strategies(#1 Being the Best)

10. Include content and language objectives 9. Keep pacing and grouping appropriate 8. One-on-one communication7. Use hands on activities6. Give students a break – allow time for technology5. Apply higher-order questioning that incorporates critical thinking questions 4. Introduce academic language3. Build background knowledge and connections2. Scaffold instruction1. Model expectations for students

Major characteristics of thematic instruction

According to www.funderstanding.com, "Thematic instruction is the organization of a curriculum around

macro "themes.“

• Thematic instruction integrates basic disciplines like reading, math, and science with the exploration of a broad subject, such as communities, rain forests,

river basins, the use of energy, and so on."

Major characteristics of thematic instruction continued…

• Thematic instructions involves making changes to the class schedule, or designing the instruction, by combining hours normally devoted to specific topics, organizing field trips, teaching in teams, bringing in outside experts, and so on.

• Thematic instruction is often project-oriented, it allows more creativity and freedom from students through presentations, art, and projects.

Ideas to share from articles• From Sheltered Instruction: Best Practices for ELLs in the Mainstream,

by Hansen-Thomas, Holly , the author states, “Classes such as science and math often are relatively more comprehensible for ELLs…By virtue of its motivating, interactive, hands-on nature, science is a course in

which ELLs are often successful. In many science classes, students work in pairs or small groups on interesting, motivating tasks that require students to engage in learning by doing--dissecting frogs, growing plants, and sorting potato chips--to understand anatomy, biology, and classification systems. Implementation of interesting

content, along with supports to scaffold student learning such as realia (for example, math manipulatives), investigations, and demonstrations

can help provide the assistance ELLs need to be successful (Chamot and O'Malley 1994).”

Ideas to share from articles continued…

• While not from an article, the video, ‘How to Get Started With English Language Learners’, gave great advice for all educators to keep in mind:

• “CARRIE O’DONNELL: But then also, let them have breaks where you put them at a listening center sometimes. Don’t expect them to go the whole day doing everything in English because it’s exhausting for them. So, by putting them at the listening center or the computer periodically, it just lets them relax.”

My ideas on teaching thematic units successfully to ELLs

Make sure the theme is

relevant to your student’s

lives

Allow for fun and creativityPlaying games, singing songs,

provide text rich stories and engaging in make believe

GENERATE AN ESSENTIAL QUESTION

ALIGN TO YOURCORE

STANDARDS

References

• Hansen-Thomas, H. (2008). Sheltered Instruction: Best practices for ELLs in the mainstream. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 44(4), 165-169.

• Roberts, D. (Director). (2007). How to get started with English language learners : Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

• So You Don't Like Standardized Tests-What's the Alternative?. (n.d.). Funderstanding Education Curriculum and Learning Resources. Retrieved June 27, 2014, from http://www.funderstanding.com