Reading Rockets gives directions on the following activities before, during, and after reading.

Best Practices for Vocabulary

• Failure Free Online 
• PAVE Procedure

 

 

ELL VOCABULARY

As Kinsella (2005) tells us, many English learners (ELs) lack sufficient academic language to complete complex academic tasks in both their home language and English. Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2008) have taught us to think about the words we select for rich instruction and how we can explain their meanings in powerful ways. Furthermore, English-language development (ELD) lessons must be based on structured language practice that matches students’ English-language proficiency levels (Sonoma County Office of Education, 2006). Backward planning (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) is the first step in successfully infusing ELD instruction into core curricula. Analyze the lesson, including questions and tasks in sidebars and assessments, to determine the concepts students are expected to learn based on state standards and the necessary comprehension strategies. Our students won’t learn academic vocabulary solely by listening to us; they must practice using it themselves (Kinsella, 2005). Structured language practice provides opportunities for students to orally practice using academic language to express language functions (see Sonoma County Office of Education, 2006, for more details).

 

Sentence Frames

Consider language function. Students must think, talk, and write about key concepts. Understanding information requires description, cause/effect, persuasion, inference, and judgment. Write sentences that express the goal language function (e.g., compare/contrast) and replace target vocabulary with blanks to create sentence frames. Last, make a word bank or list the words removed from the sentences. A word bank and sentence frames with fill-in slots for different language levels result. Frames are more sophisticated than lower-level structures. Group students of similar language levels in pairs, provide frames on sentence strips and provide a target vocabulary word bank to construct sentence frames. Help pupils choose vocabulary, insert it, and read frames aloud. Tell students to listen to me repeat the line, then say it with me, then to me, and finally to your partner. After numerous explanations, have students practice together. Although designed for oral practice, the activity can also be used for written work.

ELLs are expected to use simple sentences to express the target language function of compare/contrast (e.g., two separate sentences: Oranges are sweet. Lemons are sour.). Level 3 language learners are expected to use more complex sentence structures (e.g., Oranges and lemons are both fruits, but oranges are sweet and lemons are sour.). Finally, level 4 language learners are expected to use the most complex structures (e.g., The main difference between oranges and lemons is oranges are sweet while lemons are sour). Note that students of all three language levels express the compare/contrast function; the difference is the level of complexity. Students should work with more complex language structures as they progress in their language learning.

For more on teaching ELLs, please visit my RETELL page.