in today's video I'm gonna be outlining 18 different strategies you could be
using in your classroom to make content more comprehensible for your English
language learners most teachers think well I speak slowly I use a lot of
pictures but they're about 18 and I'm just gonna be scratching the surface of
different ways you can help your students in your classrooms starting
tomorrow I'm your host dr. hem Phil and I'm so happy that you decide to join me
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the first accommodation that can be used in a classroom is the use of language
objectives teachers are very familiar with the use of content objectives which
is the what but language objectives tells us the how for example teacher can
be talking about parallelograms and wanting their students to identify
different types the how can be well a student can listen to a teacher's
description of different types of parallelograms in order to draw them and
that way the student is utilizing the language function of listening because
we always for every lesson that we teach we want to think about the listening the
speaking the reading and the writing second accommodation is simplifying
language oftentimes we like to use idioms and different types of jokes but
it goes way over English language learners have because remember they're
trying to understand basic social language but they're also trying to
understand academic language a third accommodation is to make sure
that you revisit any content that has been taught and different modalities in
different ways and this is not just for English language learners this is for
all our students because research shows that if a student is repeatedly seeing
the same thing or content or revisiting something that they have learned but in
different ways whether it's through the kinesthetic or if it's practicing it
through a game or working with a partner just additional opportunities for you to
reteach the content is going take you a long long way with your
English language bars fourth accommodation is working in small groups
know that many times when I have taught a lesson
if I then take a group of students and work with them in a smaller group to
focus in on one specific aspect of the larger picture it really helps them a
lot while the other students are doing something that is more independent maybe
on the computer or working with a partner but having that one-on-one time
or small group setting really helps them because they can really address and see
where is it that they need reteaching or to look at the lesson from a
different angle a fifth accommodation is allowing
students to work with another partner and providing opportunities for them to
do the peer tutoring or peer teaching if you pair that student your ll student
with a student who has a stronger language dominance with English or
whatever the target language is sometimes they just have a knack of
teaching it in a different way that we've never thought of that makes it
comprehensible so I would also make sure that you allow opportunities for that as
well a six accommodation is allowing the use of manipulatives of course it
depends on the language proficiency level of your English language learner
and you need to look at the can do descriptors to see where that's
appropriate but using manipulatives really helps conceptualize the content
in a way that sometimes just listening to the lesson or interacting with it in
different modalities just doesn't cut it for them a set of accommodation is very
very helpful for English language learners is the use of visual aids this
is so helpful because as they're trying to navigate the complexities of the
target language and there's so much information being thrown at them when
they compare it with anything that is visual or and it doesn't even have to be
when you're teaching it to them when they're actually doing the I do part of
the lesson and they're applying the knowledge just having a graphic
organizer or some type of visual aid that will help them to understand how to
get the task accomplished is extremely helpful that leads me to strategy number
eight which is graphic organizers there's so many different graphic
organizers you can find one for summarizing for comparing contrast for
listing different concepts but graphic organizers is an excellent tool that
allows English language learners to organize all of the content and to
really conceptualize the type of activity that you're doing if it's
compare and contrast they can clearly see in a Venn diagram on this left side
I'm comparing on the right side I'm contrasting in the middle what is
similar and it just helps to really make it more visual and more clear in their
mind a nice accommodation is the seating arrangement proximity to the teacher or
proximity sitting closer to a peer tutor in the classroom that way they are
understanding and they have access for that support immediately and allows them
not to get lost in all of the information that gets taught in the
classroom a tenth accommodation is having a student have a dictionary or
some sort of running file of all the vocabulary that they're learning so
whether it could be in an interactive notebook or just a personal notebook
that they just list all vocabulary and pictures and it can be organized by
content because they are receiving so much information that having it all
piled in one way and organized in a way that makes sense for them is so useful
because they can return to it time and time again a twelfth accommodation is
incorporating group work and cooperative learning in a classroom which is one of
my favorites and a lot of teachers think well you know I don't know if this is
going to work because they don't know the language yet and it is very limited
how much can they participate you will be amazed at how much input that they're
getting from their peers in terms of the academic language and social language
and giving each student a role so if an English language learner
is in the first year of learning a language they can be assigned as a
person who draws a piece of text or whatever it is that you are having them
do but giving them a role that is at their level will not only help them but
it will also help their peers realize while they can do something they are
able in their acute xiii accommodation is just providing them with prompts with
highlighted text with anything that has already prepared notes with graphics
also you can give them sentence sense by giving them something that is already
pre-done that they just have to then add their part to it and if you have not
watched my video on sentence frames i will link that above so that you can see
that this is such a helpful tool that I have seen in my experience gets
underutilized in the classroom the 14th accommodation is using the students
native language and I know this can be controversial some teachers do not
believe that students should be distracted by their native language when
they're learning a target language but if you use a word to word dictionary for
complex words they have that at their disposal
Google Translate has its uses I would not encourage that they translate
complete sentences just words at a time if necessary and also it allows them for
example if the target language is very similar in a structure and it has a lot
of cognates and it's transferable to their native language why not
because it just builds up the stronger their native languages the stronger
their and faster that they're going to learn the target language and if you
have not seen my videos on cognates i will link that above because i have
found that this has been stream leased wrongly helpful for me
accomodation 15 is to teach in chunks it's so important because if you're
giving too much information then their effective filter just goes up and it's
just too much information that you're letting in so if you chunk important
information bit by bit with giving ample breaks in between or teaching them in a
different day will really help the students and they it's better to go
deeper into the information then teaching all at once and losing them at
the end you'll notice that they'll be more attentive and more apt to stay with
you if you chunk the information accommodation 16 is providing
opportunities for frequent check-ins for comprehension whether it's a thumbs up
thumbs down or holding a green paper or red paper indicating whether they
understood or not will really help I do this a lot with my English language
learners and I have found many times where I fit that there with me and
they're not and a lot of times they'll say yes just to please you so letting
them know that it's okay for them not to know that you will reteach accommodation
17 is to provide students with rubrics this helps them to know what is expected
and what you're looking for and it gives them a clearer picture it's more
detailed and there's no questions about well how come I got this grade or how
can I do well or am i doing well and making them simplified and of course if
you want need to use a picture representation of a rubric for a student
who's in the first year of learning Elaine
then do so a rubric can look so many different ways if you would like me to
do a video on rubrics I'll be more than happy to do this I have we see some
questions on an accommodation number 18 drum roll is the use of simplified
instructions and direction you don't want to use very complicated this goes
back to the instruction in itself what I was explaining earlier is you want to
make sure that directions on paper is explained in a very simple way so that
students understand what you expect of them so there you have it those are the
18 accommodations as I mentioned before those aren't the only there are so many
others and if I have missed one that you use in your classroom please comment
below I would love to hear what other accommodations are listed not just to
hear how you're doing in your classroom but anybody else who's viewing this
video can also see what other accommodations have been successful in
other English language learners classrooms around the United States and
the world thank you so much for watching I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your
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see me next week for another video on this channel same same day and same time
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