Teaching Strategies
Along with my considerations regarding the theory of language acquisition and textual content, I knew I wanted to create something that utilized the basic methodologies of teaching ESL. While many programs rely heavily on the use of translation and computers to convey meaning of grade-level texts to students, I see them as a tool which can often become a crutch if overused. If students never learn to negotiate meaning in the second language, they will have a difficult time increasing proficiency. Thus, all of the strategies listed below are designed to allow access to content presented in English, with some L1 support where appropriate.
Visual Supports
The literature incorporated in the unit will appear in English and include a strategy vital to any teacher of English Language Learners: visual support. While the picture books, by Common Core Standards, are not considered middle school level texts, the students will have the opportunity for exposure in this unit in the form of the unabridged version of the Chinese Exclusion Act as well as other primary source texts. However, the so dubbed father of language acquisition, Stephen Krashen29 states that students require comprehensible input in order to increase their language proficiency. This means that information presented in a lesson needs to be i + 1, or just slightly above their ability to comprehend at their present proficiency level. Thus, the text will ultimately accessible through the use of accompanying visual aids, video clips, audio, etc. The images will be hand-selected by the teacher using Google to support student comprehension of the main ideas of the text at various points.
Chunking
Given the length and rigor of the some of the primary source texts in this unit, they will be presented in manageable chunks rather than as a whole. Separating reading materials into smaller sections is a proven method to increasing comprehension, especially for students who are still mastering fluency or lack the vocabulary necessary for comprehension.30 In some cases, the texts will be limited to certain excerpts which have been selected to focus on key vocabulary words and main ideas which will help students to more easily access the learning objectives. In addition to presenting students with chunked text, they will also utilize pre-reading strategies of identifying and defining unfamiliar words, using graphic organizers, and creating pictures to demonstrate comprehension.
Reading Apprenticeship
The Reading Apprenticeship program is an instructional method created by non-profit organization WestEd31 that supports the socio-emotional and cognitive needs of students as a means of helping the students to build background and use prior knowledge in order to engage with and think critically about texts across content areas. Reading Apprenticeship is comprised of several different instructional routines which allow students to interact with text using metacognitive skills.
One of the routines that will be applied throughout this curriculum unit is “Talking to the Text”. “Talking to the Text” is a version of annotation in which students first notice and record their own “inner conversation” as annotations in the margins while reading the text for the first time. Then, the students share their metacognitive process by discussing their annotations in groups. Finally, the class discusses their annotations as a whole group while the teacher acts as a resource rather than the center of instruction. Using the “Talking to the Text” routine is a way of simultaneously activating English Learner Students’ higher order thinking skills while also involving use of their language skills to comprehend the text.
Lingt
Hockly & Dudeney32 propose three questions to evaluate whether the use of technology is effective for vocabulary instruction with English Language Learners: “Are we increasing their motivation and engagement?”, “Are we allowing them to practise and produce language in useful ways in class?” and lastly, “Are we giving them the opportunity to take their language learning out of the classroom and have extra exposure to English?” My content will meet all three of these criteria by providing students with a way to interact meaningfully with language in a way that closely mirrors the ways in which they use it in real life through the use of Lingt.33 Lingt is a speaking practice platform that allows students to make short recordings of themselves speaking, which are then posted to a forum within the application that only the students and myself can access. This tool is perfect for English Language Learners because it has a very simple and user-friendly interface for recording, and includes a feature that allows the teacher to post specific prompts, images, or videos for the students to respond to. Completed responses and privatized. This lowers the affective filter by keeping students’ expressions to short bursts, as well as removing the anxiety of asking students to present their ideas in the traditional whole group presentation.
Total Physical Response
Total Physical Response (TPR) is a pedagogical methodology developed by Asher.34 This strategy teaches new vocabulary by requiring students to respond physically with gestures, props, etc. to input that they hear in the second language. Asher purports that students are more likely to process and internalize language when they involve a simultaneous response from the central nervous system. Total Physical Response can be as simple as one gesture to indicate the meaning of a verb, or a whole series of commands students must follow to pantomime the actions of characters in a text.
Authentic Listening
The development of strong listening comprehension skills is crucial to the success of ELs in classes with native English-speaking teachers. As students spend nearly double the amount of time listening as they do speaking and three times as much time as they do reading or writing, their ability to understand a non-sympathetic native speaker of English determines their academic success almost as much as their level of literacy.35 Self-paced listening to authentic source materials is an ideal means of strengthening listening skills. Authentic materials are those featuring native or native-like speakers of the target language created for real-world purposes. For example, a podcast, a YouTube video, an interview on a talk show, etc. By exposing students to authentic listening tasks with the proper scaffolding, we can slowly improve their understanding. In this unit, several authentic materials including a PBS documentary will be utilized.
A wonderful tool to use for this purpose is a program called Edpuzzle,36 which allows teachers to assign listening content that includes questions and notes inserted at various points to support comprehension. Teachers can upload a YouTube video, screencast of their own creation, or copy of an assignment made by another teacher on the site. From there the video can be cropped to include only relevant parts, as well as modified to include closed captioning, multiple choice or open-ended questions of the teacher’s design, or inserted notes to clarify content. Videos that include questions can be automatically or self-graded to measure student comprehension. Students can also rewatch (but not skip) sections of the assigned video to review before answering a question.
Gallery Walk
One of the simplest strategies utilized in this unit is called a gallery walk.37 Bowman refers to this strategy as, “One of the most versatile learner-centered activities” The students simply circulate through some type of content provided by the teacher, which could be anything from writing, to pictures, to the work of other students. After they have the input, students can interact with it in a variety of ways, for example, completing a graphic organizer (as they will do in my unit), having a class or partner discussion, or adding something to the content of their own creation. Gallery walks encourage students to think critically about the topics being presented to them. They also give English Learners the opportunity to process input receptively before having to respond to it, as they might in other types of strategies such as a Socratic seminar. In addition, a gallery walk can be used to introduce new topics as well as review what has been previously learned.
Comments: