Adopting and Adapting

English Language Arts

Vocabulary

Many classrooms with ELLs increase visual input by creating a Word Wall, or a section of the wall that includes key content vocabulary and/or concepts. Word Walls can be used in different ways; they might be used to demonstrate relationships between word forms (hero, heroine, heroism, heroic) or between characters and character traits in a novel. They can also be used to demonstrate connections among and between cultures.

As is common in other content areas, English Language Arts employs vocabulary that has multiple meanings in various contexts, and even across disciplines, like article, body, character, novel, play, and problem (Calderón, 2007). Some cognates to indicate for ELLs in teaching language arts include:

English-Spanish Cognates

Oral Language in Language Arts

In creating a learner-centered classroom, students have more opportunities to practice speaking and listening. As a result, they are more engaged while also being accountable. A popular strategy is literature circles, in which students become “experts” on the target work by assuming different roles. Knowing and understanding their culture will allow roles to fit within, such as a relative figure, or the name of a shopkeeper as someone who would keep time. Think about how you can replace typical role names, with those familiar to them as they represent their cultures. For example, in a group of four, one student might focus on summarizing, another on vocabulary from the chapter, another on theme, and another on notable quotes. Students interact with each other to fill in the other three focused areas, a type of reciprocal teaching which provides opportunities for ELLs to clarify meaning if necessary.

Reader’s Theater is an effective method to work on students’ oral language development. For example, as part of a unit on folktales, a teacher might select a script that reflects the cultural background of students. Scripts are rife with opportunities to work on reading aloud—for example, stage directions (which consist of emotional adverbs to inform vocal inflection)—and to notice genre-specific features (character roles on the left and absence of quotation marks).

Accessing the Literature

A frequent problem with mainstream resources for ELLs is that they often marginalize the students by not depicting their lives or culture. When teachers use materials that mirror the populations they serve, students can connect with the texts in a meaningful way, and reflect on their own lives in relation to the reading. Also, teachers can encourage students to choose what they read, since that increases student motivation. However, to insure that the reading level of the text is appropriate, the teacher should coach the students to read one page and if there are more than five words they don’t know, they should choose another reading to avoid frustration.

For ELLs to access the novels, poems, or plays being used in class, they need graphic organizers or other types of anticipation guides with key vocabulary or reading strategies before they read the authentic text. A timeline of events in a chapter of a novel, for example, can provide the key points to the students before they wrestle with the actual text. They also should be taught the skills of good readers, such as predicting, re-reading, questioning, and summarizing. Teachers can teach students to use post-it notes in their textbooks, allowing them to react to the text by using a key of symbols for students to use in reacting to the text.

A Venn Diagram can be used to represent characters’ similarities and differences or used as a way to brainstorm ideas before writing a compare-contrast essay. Another possibility is a listening guide or concept map with key concepts from the class lecture to be listed in a chart, which can be filled out to the appropriate level of instructional support for the student, and leaves gaps for the students to fill in as they listen.

Writing in Language Arts

Wordless books, which cover a range of topics appropriate for all ages, allow ELL students to integrate writing and reading skills within a cultural context. A student can access the text visually and learn about plot structure, focus on details, or work on predicting to reconcile the new with the known - these are all documented traits of good readers. If the students have literacy skills in their home languages, they can write the text to the wordless book, and as they progress add the English translation. Also, many students have difficulty with visualizing a story, so an activity that asks students to draw the main character can help cultivate imagination.

For students who have little or no literacy in either their first or second language, teachers can use the Language Experience Approach, in which students narrate a shared experience (i.e., field trip) they have had while the teacher writes down the story, modeling conventions of writing. For more advanced students, many teachers use journals or online blogs to have students respond to literature, thus integrating reading and writing skills, a constant practice in school. 

To Learn More about Teaching Language Arts to ELLs Web Resources

Aaron Shephard’s Web site includes Reader’s Theater scripts from a wide range of cultures, including Forty Fortunes. http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/RTE.html#24

Carroll, P.S. & Hasson, D.J. (2004). Helping ELLs look at stories through literary lenses. Voices from the Middle, 11(4). Retrieved May 5, 2008 from  http://elearning.ncte.org/section/content/Default.asp?WCI=pgDisplay&WCU=CRSCNT&ENTRY_ID=3F245A2714164520B2F9F65428CEDEC7.

Mary Ellen Dakin’s "Hamlet" for English Language Learners: The photo-performance project.  http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/educators/performance/casestudy1.html

National Council of Teachers of English (n.d.). Pathways for teaching and learning with English language learners. Online professional development course (fee required) available at  http://www.ncte.org/edpolicy/ell/resources/126760.htm

Nilsen, A.P & Nilsen, D.L.F. (2004). Working under lucky stars: Language lessons for multilingual classrooms. Voices from the Middle, 11(4). Retrieved May 5, 2008 from  http://elearning.ncte.org/section/content/Default.asp?WCI=pgDisplay&WCU=CRSCNT

&ENTRY_ID=29ACA1F9703143A7BDAFB4A841E9E4E8.

Ms. Vogel’s Guide to Blogging. http://www.arlingtoncareercenter.com/msvogel

A number of Web sites maintain bibliographies of culturally appropriate texts for children and adolescents:

The Barahona Center for the study of books in Spanish for Children and http://csbs.csusm.edu/csbs/www.book_eng.book_home?lang=SP¡Colorín Colorado!. http://www.colorincolorado.org/read

Get Caught Reading’s New List of Recommended Titles Promote Literacy among Nation’s Hispanic and Latino Community.  http://www.getcaughtreading.org/pressreleases/dia_pr.htm#reading%20list

The Lexile Framework for Reading rates books according to grade level, and teachers can search a database for books at a certain level. http://www.lexile.com/EntrancePageHtml.aspx?1

Print Resource

Cassady, J.K. (1998). Wordless books: No-risk tools for inclusive middle-grade classrooms.

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 41(6) 428-432.

Social Studies

Standards for teachers of social studies are maintained by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS, 2000). These standards do not explicitly reference English language learners, but they do charge social studies teachers with a responsibility to diverse learners:

Vocabulary

Since Social Studies involves a lot of reading and writing, teachers should pay particular attention to pre-teaching vocabulary words with ELLs in mind. The selected words should be a combination of content words (the words typically bolded in a textbook) and other “access” words essential to grasping the meaning. For example, Calderón (2007) describes a lesson on trading and bartering skits in which the following vocabulary is pre-taught:

Accessing Content

Teachers can provide a pre-reading handout with key words, events, and dates that are extracted from the textbook. At right is an example timeline on the life of the Mexican American activist and leader of the United Farm Workers, César Chávez.

Often, the Internet is a resource for integrated graphic organizers, multi-media and content. For an example with animated maps, see the multimedia tutorial “European Voyages of Exploration” from the Applied History Group in the resources section that follows.

Another strategy that is particularly helpful for students with diverse cultural and education backgrounds is the Know-Want to Know-Learn (K-W-L) chart. This allows

teachers to informally assess what background knowledge students have on a particular topic, and then adapt their instruction to fill in the gaps. The following is an example that could be used in conjunction with studying César Chávez:

Once the students have completed the pre-reading activities, they need instruction in the metacognitive skills of reading. To teach these, the teacher can do a think-aloud to model asking questions, making judgments, and noting new words while reading.

Inquiry-based Projects

Another option besides scaffolding the text is to lead an inquiry-based project in which students act as historians or social scientists. If ELLs are literate in their native languages, they can complete Internet research in those languages. To encourage active participation, students should be able to choose their own topics within a common category. Choice enables students to draw on their own background knowledge and sociocultural identity, and familiarity with common themes or information will assist in understanding the material in English. In this way, ELLs are viewed as cultural resources that enrich the classroom experience for other students.

To learn more about teaching Social Studies to ELLs: Web Resources

Anstrom, K. (August 1998). Preparing secondary education teachers to work with English language learners: Social Studies). NCBE Resource Collection Series, 10. Retrieved December 17, 2007 from http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/resource/ells/language.htm

Irvin, J. (2002). Reading strategies for the social studies classroom. Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Retrieved December 30, 2007 from  http://go.hrw.com/hrw.nd/gohrw_rls1/pKeywordResults?ST2Strategies

National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition. (2002). In the classroom: A toolkit for effective instruction of English language learners. Retrieved May 5, 2008 from  http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/practice/itc/lessons/sinquiryss.html

The Applied History Research Group. (1997). The European Voyages of Exploration. Retrieved May 7, 2008 from http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/vasco.html

The César E. Chávez Foundation. (2008). American Hero. Retrieved May 13, 2008 from  http://www.chavezfoundation.org/_page.php?code=001001000000000&page_ttl=Americ  an+Hero&kind=1

Science

Vocabulary

Both fluent English speakers and English language learners will encounter new and unfamiliar vocabulary as they move through their science education. Unlike their English speaking peers, however, English learners are also constantly learning vocabulary in all of their school subjects as well as in their daily lives.

There are a number of ways in which teachers can make the massive vocabulary-learning process required of English learners easier.

• Use classroom routines to present vocabulary. You might spend two or three minutes at the beginning of a class highlighting scientific vocabulary that students will need in the class. Use the same type of language each time—for instance “Here are some key words.” By making the presentation of vocabulary a routine event, students are not faced with the extra task of working out what kind of instruction is going on.
• Exploit cognates. Cognates are words which sound similar across languages because they have common origins. Much of the scientific vocabulary of English comes from words with Latin origins (like experiment, observe, precipitation); these words are likely to have cognates in languages descended from Latin (including Spanish, French, and Portuguese).

Talking Science

Communication is a vital part of the scientific discovery process. Students working in small hands-on groups in the science classroom use back-and-forth communication to make meaning out of their observations and discoveries. Teachers should ensure that English language learners are not excluded from this crucial learning experience.

• Make sure that instructions are clear to everyone in the group, perhaps by providing them in written as well as oral form, so that ELLs have time to digest the content.
• Allow speakers of the same language to work together and to discuss scientific concepts in their native language before they communicate them in English.
• If groups are multilingual, teachers can assign roles to each member of the group, and construct roles with more or greater linguistic demands to suit their diverse students. For instance, a student with limited English might be assigned to connect key concepts to new vocabulary; a more proficient student might be responsible for taking observation notes.
• When calling on students, give them a moment or two to jot down ideas before they speak in front of the class. This allows students to harness their thoughts and gives them time to think about the language that they will need to express their ideas. 

Writing Science

English language learners may understand the concepts of science very well, but unless they have the tools to communicate their understanding, teachers have no way of assessing their comprehension (and may underestimate it). Teachers can help ELLs by providing varying degrees of scaffolding. Of particular use to ELLs are partial “sentence chunks” that scaffold the types of sentences students should use to communicate their scientific knowledge. Sentence chunks allow students to express their scientific learning without being hindered by lack of language skills—they also model the types of scientific language students can use in the future. As students become more proficient, less scaffolding is required.

Example of a laboratory report with partial sentence chunks.

Instructional Congruence

Instructional congruence refers to “the process of merging academic disciplines with students’ linguistic and cultural experiences to make the academic content accessible, meaningful, and relevant for all students” (Lee, 2004, p. 72). Instructional congruence can refer to both ways of talking and thinking about scientific inquiry as well as ways of presenting scientific topics.

Students from diverse cultural backgrounds may have ways of approaching inquiry that differ from Western norms. They may come from cultures where it is considered inappropriate to question authorities such as teachers and textbooks. Students from different cultural backgrounds may also differ in terms of their comfort levels with working collaboratively or individually. The presentation of topics in traditional science lessons may also miss chances to connect to students’ background knowledge.

Teachers can modify instruction so that it values students’ cultural norms while simultaneously facilitating scientific inquiry. In designing a unit on weather for a multi-year professional development program, a research team built elements into the unit designed to be convergent with students’ learning. In this case, the students were mostly Hispanic students from the Caribbean and Central and South America.

The unit:

• used both metric and traditional units of measure;
• incorporated weather conditions familiar to students, such as hurricanes and other tropical weather patterns;
• used inexpensive household supplies for hands-on activities so that students could replicate the activities at home with their families;
• allowed students to work collaboratively or individually depending on their comfort level with these patterns;
• integrated science standards with both TESOL and English language arts standards to encourage English language development in social settings, in the academic content, and in socially and culturally appropriate ways.

To Learn More About Teaching Science to English Language Learners Web Resources

Anstrom, K. (1998). Preparing secondary education teachers to work with English language learners: Science. NCBE Resource Collection Series, No. 11. Available from  http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/resource/ells/science.htm

Dobb, F. (2004). Essential elements of effective science instruction for English learners. Los Angeles, CA: California Science Project. Available from  http://csmp.ucop.edu/downloads/csp/essential_elements_2.pdf

Gomez, K. & Madda, C. (1995). Vocabulary Instruction for ELL Latino Students in the Middle School Science Classroom. Voices from the Middle, 13(1), 42-47. Available from  http://elearning.ncte.org/section/content/Default.asp?WCI=pgDisplay&WCU=CRSCNT

&ENTRY_ID=B1585EDDA5D74E0381945A054587AC58

Jarrett, D. (1999). The inclusive classroom: Teaching mathematics and science to English language learners. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. Available from http://www.nwrel.org/msec/images/resources/justgood/11.99.pdf

Print Resources

Carr, J., Sexton, U., & Lagunoff, R. (2006). Making Science Accessible to English Learners: A Guidebook for Teachers. San Francisco, CA: WestEd.

Fathman, A.K. & Crowther, D.T. (2006). Science for English language learners: K–12 classroom strategies. Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers’ Association Press.

The weather unit described above is taken from Lee, O. (2004). Teacher change in beliefs and practices in science and literacy instruction with English language learners. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 41(1), 65-93.

Mathematics 

Math Vocabulary

Words which have different meanings in different contexts can be stumbling blocks for ELLs. Math vocabulary often uses words with everyday meanings which have very specific meanings in mathematics—words like product, root, function or right, as in right angle. Teachers can help students by pointing out that some words have specific meanings in mathematics, and when possible, trying to show how their mathematical meaning connects with their everyday meaning.

One way to give students a boost in their math vocabulary is to be aware of cognates—words which sound the same across languages because they have a common origin.

English-Spanish Cognates

Beware! Not all similar-sounding words have similar meanings. Sometimes the meaning of a word in another language may not be a perfect match for its English cognate. The Spanish la figura, for example, means “figure” in the sense of a table or graph, but does not refer to a numeral (as in a figure 8).

Sentence Structure in Math

 Even simple word problems in mathematics can be difficult for English language learners because they require students to use language to understand the relationships between mathematical operators and numbers. There may be several ways to express a mathematical operation in a word problem. For instance, a problem involving subtraction might use “minus” or “less than”; one involving division may use the terms “divided by”, “into,” or “over.”

Furthermore, choosing a particular word changes the relationships between the other words in the sentence. A problem that uses the word “minus” tells readers or listeners that they should take the first number and subtract the second number. In a “minus” problem, the order of the words in the sentence is the same as the order of the terms in the operation:

A problem that uses the expression “less than” is more complicated:

Because a “less than” sentence is more complex, students may require explicit instruction and practice with this kind of sentence. Although this subtraction example is relatively simple, good math teachers are alert for similar patterns in more complex word problems. Particularly in assessments, unfamiliar word pattern problems may end up testing students’ language ability, not what they know and can do in mathematics.

Context

Although the specifics of vocabulary and sentence structure are important, they are not the end goal of mathematics education. Rather, they are a communicative toolkit which give students the ability to think in mathematical ways and to communicate to others their mathematical thinking.

Skilled math teachers know that it is easier to encourage mathematical thinking when math in the classroom is connected to real-world situations. Math teachers who are working in multicultural classrooms need to consider whether their “real-world” problems reflect the real worlds of their students. In what real-world situations will students need to use their mathematics knowledge?

• In Alaska, the Math in a Cultural Context curriculum contains a unit entitled Drying Salmon. In Drying Salmon, students combine indigenous knowledge of fishing practices with skills measuring, estimating, proportional thinking and algebra as part of a thematic math unit.

• “Mrs. Diamante” teaches a ninth-grade geometry class in an ethnically diverse school. About one third of her students are English language learners. Her lessons about functions and slope connect mathematical ideas to the needs of her students’ communities. Students in Mrs. Diamante’s class have used their math skills to design wheelchair ramps, skate ramps, and sloped roofs for bus shelters.

Although actual examples of ways that other teachers have adapted lessons to fit the cultural contexts of their students can be illuminating and inspiring, teachers cannot and should not take an example from one context and expect it to work in another. Every math classroom is situated within its own specific community, and each community is unique. Good math teachers will look for examples which fit their own contexts, and will work with their pedagogical content knowledge tools to adapt lessons to fit their own unique classrooms.