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ESL/ELL

ELL and Bilingual Resources for Remote Learning

by Andrew Roush
written by Andrew Roush

In the U.S. today, bilingual education and education for English language learners (ELLs) is in high demand. And while students with limited English proficiency (LEP) might face difficulties at school, institutions have also struggled to support and fund bilingual and ELL programs among a number of competing demands. 

The changes to education occurring because of the COVID-19 pandemic pose new challenges for all kinds of learners, and especially those with limited English proficiency. Organizations are responding to the need, however, and we’ve put together a curated collection of useful resources that can help educators deliver quality English language instruction while in a period of remote teaching and learning.

Resources for ELL Remote Education

  • The nonprofit New Jersey Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages/New Jersey Bilingual Educators shares an extensive list of teaching resources, from best practices to tools and templates.
  • Colorín Colorado, an  English language learning site from WETA Learning Media, has a comprehensive guide for remote ELL education, complete with sample schedules, activities, and more. 
  • For educators looking for Spanish-langauge resources, Colorín Colorado also offers a clearinghouse of bilingual education resources in Spanish.
  • Edutopia outlines ways to use video and learning apps to help engage ELLs.
  • Those searching for interactive learning websites should investigate the University of Wisconsin Libraries’ ESL/ELL Education: Interactive Websites for Learning research guide.
  • The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) has developed its own collection of resources for supporting effective instruction for ELLs, including sites, publications and guides, information from other professional organizations, and more. 
  • You can find webinars and tools in the list of resources available from TESOL, an international association of English language teaching professionals.
  • Common Sense Education shares not only existing resources for ELL education, but also helpful information to help educators independently find or develop resources. 
  • Region 18 Educational Consultant Maria Mata shares health guidelines, lessons, free resources, and more in her Bilingual/ESL/Title III remote teaching resources newsletter. 
  • The English Learner Support Division of the Texas Education Association (TEA) also shares a number of updates and helpful links, including the English Learner Web Portal. 

Share Your Ideas

Do you have resources you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments!

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

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fliphunt
Content AreasEducational TrendsESL/ELLGood Teaching

Adding Adventure to Instruction by Using a Fliphunt

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Regardless of what you teach, your students will most likely respond well to an adventure of some kind as opposed to worksheets or traditional whole-group learning. So a fliphunt is perfect for your classroom. But, you might be asking yourself, “What is a fliphunt?” Designed by Kathi Kersznowski (@kerszi), a fliphunt is a scavenger hunt using Flipgrid. It is a fun way of having your students get out of their seats, participate in the learning, and demonstrate their understanding and application.

Organizing Your Fliphunts

Start by creating a grid in Flipgrid to contain all your fliphunts. This will help keep them organized and in one place, a folder to contain them all. Next, create a new topic and give it the name of your fliphunt. Each fliphunt will be a new topic within this grid.

Creating Your First Fliphunt

Begin with your content standards or knowledge and skills you are wanting your students to learn. Identify multiple concepts they will need to demonstrate understanding of. Think of fun ways for them to demonstrate the concept or skill. For the sake of an example, I’ll pull from fourth grade math standards:

(6)  Geometry and measurement. The student applies mathematical process standards to analyze geometric attributes in order to develop generalizations about their properties. The student is expected to:

(A)  identify points, lines, line segments, rays, angles, and perpendicular and parallel lines;
(B)  identify and draw one or more lines of symmetry, if they exist, for a two-dimensional figure;
(C)  apply knowledge of right angles to identify acute, right, and obtuse triangles;…

In Google Docs or Microsoft Word, create a list of tasks (or even a choice board). I created a Google Doc (http://bit.ly/fliphunt4geo) with tasks for the fourth grade geometry lesson. It is up to you whether students complete them in order. In my example, students can go in any order. But, to get credit for each submission, they must name their entry using the task title. This will help students as they review other student work (and as I grade!). If you are creating a fliphunt for someone that is not in your district domain, be sure to edit the topic, select Add Topic Guests, and give them the permission to record videos to the topic; you’ll also need to share the topic guest address/code with them, which is different than the one used by your students or people within your district domain.

Fliphunt Template

Here is a template to guide you through the steps. Once you complete your fliphunt, be sure to share it with other educators by tweeting a link to it using #fliphunt and #flipgridfever. Before you know it, you’ll be making fliphunts for all your classes…and even start creating ones that are just for fun and for icebreakers. When coming up with the tasks, consider having your students submit ideas to be used!

Sample Fliphunt Docs

Getting to Know You Fliphunt

Earth Systems Fliphunt

 Parts of a Non-Fiction Book
Skeletal System Fliphunt

 Indian Hill Staff Fliphunt

 Geometry FlipHunt
To Kill a Mockingbird Fliphunt

 Meet and Greet Fliphunt

  

What Will You Create?

What content will you use to create your fliphunt? If you still need more ideas and details, check out #fliphunt on Twitter for lots of sharing. Also, be sure to add your ideas to the comments section. Don’t just make it an adventure; make it a fliphunt!

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ChromebooksESL/ELLGood TeachingGoogle Tips and Tricks

Timelines Made Easy

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Why not introduce students to the concept of creating timelines to document their adventures? Consider guiding them through crafting timelines of their recent experiences. Demonstrating how to illustrate events with pictures and videos can be a powerful learning experience at any time of the year.

Timelines are critical components to teach. Students stuck in paper-and-pencil classrooms struggle to make them. I know I did when I was an elementary student. Sequencing and comprehension go together, per Reading Rockets:

The ability to sequence events in a text is a key comprehension strategy, especially for narrative texts. Sequencing is also an important component of problem-solving across subjects.

Sequencing in a timeline aids comprehension for English Language Learners (ELL) students:

Sequencing [in a timeline]…provides comprehension support to English language learners (ELLs), helping them make connections and recognize patterns in a series or process. Because numerical markers such as hours, years, days or months are placed apart with plenty of space in between, timelines can appear visually less complex than pure text, helping ELLs more easily relate events to their corresponding times (Source).

Knowing how to make timelines is an important job skill. Don’t think of it as arranging pictures and dates in chronological order alone. Rather, think of it as an unfolding story about what happened, who did what, where, and when. In this blog entry, we’ll explore a free tool for creating timelines with Google Sheets.

Why Are Timelines Important?

“The project timeline is the beating heart of every project,” says Angela Bunner. “It captures the essence of what the project will accomplish and how it will be done.” As a technology director, project management always involved crafting a timeline. Bunner says that all timelines share common elements. Those elements include:

  • Tasks: A list of what must be done
  • Dates: A list of when tasks will achieve completion status
  • Duration: How long each task will take
  • Prerequisites: The order in which tasks must be done

For timelines that look to the past, there are more expectations. Jen Giambrone (History Associates) recommends you review this infographic. In “A quick guide to Timelines,” they ask a series of questions:

  • Is a timeline the best way to tell my organization’s story?
  • How do I pick a platform for an online timeline?
  • Who is your key audience for the timeline?
  • What are the project goals?
  • What are some of the important milestones?
  • Do you have a style guide?
  • How many entries will you have in your timeline?
  • What kinds of media will you include, and where will that media come from?

For classroom timelines, it may be easy enough to create a Google Doc with tables or a template like this one. Some may prefer to use a Google Sheet, inserting images, titles, and quick pictures. And you may want to see how to make timelines with Google Slides or PowerPoint. But another nifty tool is available. Care to take a look?

Introducing Timeline JS

Finding top-notch timeline making solutions (web or software) can be challenging. Often, they cost money, and who wants to pay for a timeline creation solution they may only use a few times?

Northwestern University’s Knight Lab’s TimelineJS offers a free, open-source tool. You can use TimelineJS to build an interactive timeline with rich visuals and add all sorts of media to your timeline, such as:

  • Twitter
  • Flickr
  • YouTube, Vimeo, Vine
  • Dailymotion
  • Google Maps
  • Wikipedia
  • SoundCloud
  • Document Cloud and more

Take a moment to watch their two-minute video introduction and how-to. It walks you through the process starting with a Google Sheet template that Knight Lab’s provides. In no time, you will have a timeline you can embed.

Timeline Making Tips

Some of the tips the Knight Lab folks offer appear below:

  1. Keep it short, no more than twenty slides
  2. Select stories that have a strong chronology
  3. Embed each event in a story that encompasses all events
  4. Be sure to blend in small events that lead to something bigger

You can see some of the timelines created. Find them online.

timelines

Making timelines means crafting a compelling story that arises from insignificant or significant events. These events, taken alone, may be inconsequential. When combined, they show what happened in a way that can have a profound impact. Use TimelineJS in your school, office, or classroom for timelines made easy.

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AndroidChromebooksContent AreasESL/ELL

Reciprocal Teaching with Popular Reading Apps

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Few would disagree that reading plays a crucial role in life. Scaffolding student cognition during reading can enhance student achievement. One of the techniques I employed as a young teacher included Reciprocal Teaching. In this blog entry, you will see a few amazing reading apps you can try reciprocal teaching on.

Google Rivet Transitions to Google’s Kids Space 

This blog entry previously featured Google Rivet, which Google shelved on October 16, 2020. The Rivet content (3500 books) found its way into Google’s new Kids Space. Per the Google Kids Space website, you can get to it via select Android tablets. Children are able to access apps, books, and videos. These are age-appropriate and targeted by age. One neat feature is that multiple children can use the same tablet. This is because children’s accounts are kept separate. Children’s education and media specialists have all reviewed apps and books included.

Effect Size of Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal Teaching (Palinscar & Brown, 1984) has strong support among researchers. Consider that John Hattie’s meta-analyses results include reciprocal teaching as a high-impact strategy. Its effect size of .79 means that it can advance student achievement almost two years growth for one year of school. (You can learn more about Hattie’s research in these blogs or join TCEA’s empowerED program and receive inexpensive professional development on his strategies.)

rivet

 

What Is Reciprocal Teaching?

This tried-and-true technique works especially well with second language learners. Under the tutelage of Mark Gabehart (Round Rock ISD CTO), I discovered this first-hand working with bilingual/ESL students in urban school settings. Reciprocal teaching includes a cycle of predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing. The video below illustrates the reciprocal teaching cycle:

Through the use of statement stems, students are able to learn critical processes. For example, for Predictor, students think about what they have read. Then they predict what will happen next. Assisting students in understanding how to predict is key. For questioning, students can use sentence stems such as “I wonder…” or the five Ws to unearth ideas and information.  You can see some sentence stems via this reciprocal teaching Pinterest board. Explore the Wakelet embedded below:

rivet

View Wakelet on Reciprocal Teaching

Why Is Reciprocal Teaching Needed?

If your students face any or all of the following obstacles (adapted from ASCD Publication: Lori D. Oczkus’ Reciprocal Teaching At Work),  reciprocal teaching may be what’s needed.

  • Students don’t remember what they read, even when they can decode text
  • Little to no engagement with reading material
  • Students read at two or more years below grade level
  • Informational text (non-fiction) is difficult to understand
  • Challenging words are difficult to decipher
  • Students may be unable to describe the difference between main idea and supporting details

As a result of reciprocal teaching technique’s effectiveness for over thirty years, it is worth adopting. The National Behaviour Support Service offers this visual which may assist you:

Reciprocal Teaching Outside the Classroom

We imagine that RT may be for classroom use only, but that’s not true. We can encourage its use outside of the classroom by helping students to become teachers. “The act of teaching activates more regions of the brain,” says Dr. Lou Whitaker. Another approach could involve students modeling the RT cycle. They use this high impact reading strategy with Flipgrid, as you can see below.

Another may involve recording a video and then using EdPuzzle.com to empower students. These students create a video with questions interspersed throughout.

How could students use this with new reading apps, such as Google’s Kid Space and other amazing reading apps?

:video

Exploring Five, Incredible Reading Apps

One of the challenges students face is access to common text. Now, with these reading apps, students can access common content and can apply reciprocal teaching strategies to that text. Having apps you can share with students that feature common content is a win for both teachers and students.

While most educators may rely on Epic! books as their common text, don’t forget about other great sources of reading material online. You can find a comprehensive list in this TCEA TechNotes blog entry, Digital Stories for Remote Learners.

This blog entry was updated on 6/29/2021 with new content.

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Google Translate
Content AreasESL/ELLGood TeachingGoogle Tips and Tricks

Using Google Translate in Sheets to Differentiate

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

Many teachers may have students in their classrooms that have a different home language than English. While this can be an advantage to the student in many ways, it can also provide some challenges. One challenge that can happen is the lack of parental support that may be given. Also, if the student speaks little English but is fluent in another language, it may be hard for you to build on prior knowledge, especially if you do not know the academic vocabulary in the target language of the student. This is a perfect time to use the Google Translate function in Google Sheets!

I originally came across this Google sheet online while reading through various forums. The initial sheet allows you to enter your vocabulary words in the first column (far left). The words will be translated into the other languages using the function: GOOGLETRANSLATE(text, [source_language, target_language]). You can obtain and modify the original page at http://bit.ly/2EBD9p0.

Create Your Own Translation Spreadsheet

If we tweak the spreadsheet some, though, we can make it into a great tool to help us differentiate vocabulary words for students. Follow along with me as I make the alterations to the file so that we can have a nicely tailored list of vocabulary words that can be shared, printed, or saved as a PDF. If you want to access the finished file that you can copy and alter, then go to http://bit.ly/2Ev13lY and make a copy. You can use the drop down cell (cell B2) to select any of the languages to which Google can translate. For this sample, we will be creating a seventh grade science vocabulary list.

  1. Name the blank sheet VocabularyList.
  2. Put a title in A1. A title is helpful if you plan to print this page or save it as a PDF.
  3. Select A1 and B1 and click the Merge Cells icon so that the title can span over both columns that we will use.
  4. Enter “Vocabulary Words” in cell A2.
  5. The cells below A2 will be used for vocabulary words. Enter as many as needed. As mentioned above, our list happens to have science vocabulary for seventh grade listed.
  6. Insert a New Sheet (SHIFT + F11 or INSERT→New Sheet). This sheet will contain the languages which you want to make available to your users.
  7. Name this new blank sheet LanguageCodes.
  8. Go to http://bit.ly/2Ev7zZP and transfer the languages into column A on the new sheet and the codes into column B. You are now ready to create the magic!
  9. Go back to the VocabularyList tab.
  10. Click in cell B2 and click DATA→Data Validation.
  11. For the criteria, “List from a range” should be selected. To select the area, click the “select data range” icon and then click on the LanguagesCode tab and click/drag to select column A cells that have languages identified. Your dialog box should look like the image below.
  12. In cell B3 enter the following formula: =GOOGLETRANSLATE(A3, “en”, VLOOKUP($B$2,LanguageCodes!$A$1:$B$64,2))
    A3 refers to the vocabulary word in column A to the  left of B3 where we currently are
    “en” identifies that our starting language is in English
    VLOOKUP is the function that will look up the contents of a given cell based on the criteria
    $B$2 is language that we will be looking for in the formula
    LanguageCodes!$A$1:$B$64 is the range of cells on the tab named LanguageCodes where the information is that we need
    2 identifies that what we are looking for is in the second column and adjacent to the language as identified in $B$2
  13. You may now copy/paste the formula you entered in B3 to the remaining cells in the column where a translation is needed.
  14. If you want, change the color of the drop down cell so it is easier to see which cell to adjust.
  15. Your vocabulary list is ready to be played with. Select a different language in the drop down cell and watch the translations update. You may see a brief error message while the function is looking up the language code in the other tab and translating each word; this is normal. Your final sheet should look something like the image below.

Finding Already-Created Vocabulary Lists

Dolch Word Lists – This set of words is the most commonly used set of sight words in the English language.

Fry Word List – This is the most commonly accepted list of 1,000 words that students will encounter in reading and writing. The main list is broken down into sets of 100 words and identified as to the grade level at which they are typically encountered.

Vocabulary Spelling City – Here you will find lists of words categorized by grade level or content area.  Within the content area, words are then grouped by category (specific subject area).

Words by Theme – This site has over 100 lists identified, each with its own list of related words.

Comprehensive English Vocabulary Word Lists – This site has tons of lists that you can use and is great for expanding vocabulary beyond typical grade level words.

Inserting into Google Sites

If you want to make your word wall more available to your students when they are not in your classroom, consider inserting the spreadsheet in a Google Site. This will allow students the ability to access the words (and translations) anywhere they have Internet access.

Because the drop down box does not work when the spreadsheet is set to view only and embedded in a Google Site, you’ll need to decide how you want to tweak the spreadsheet and make it available. You have several options:

  • Create a single Google Sheet document with each sheet having its own language. Be sure to name the associated tab with the language that is the target language.
  • Create a single worksheet in which each column is a different targeted language. Students won’t have to go to a particular tab since all the translations will be on the single sheet.

Once you’ve decided how to best make your spreadsheet, it is time to insert it into Google Sites. Be sure that you set your share settings on the Google sheet so that anyone with the link can view. Then, you are ready to follow the steps below to insert your vocabulary translation spreadsheet:

  1. Create a new page in the Google Site for the vocabulary spreadsheet.
  2. On the right-hand side of the Site editor, click on INSERT→From Drive.
  3. Locate your vocabulary spreadsheet and click Insert (or double-click the file).
  4. If your spreadsheet has more than one tab, click on the gear icon that appears just above the inserted sheet (when it is selected) and select the desired sheet from the drop down list.
  5. If needed, you can extend the “window” of your spreadsheet by dragging the bottom handle down.
  6. Voila! You are done. Now all you need to do is publish your site.

NOTE: The user can click on the various tabs that are visible, so you may want to hide the tab with the language codes since it is irrelevant to the user. Also, remember that the drop down list does not work when set to view only and is inserted in Google Site. To make the drop down list work, it is recommended that you set the sharing to be able to edit and then users will need to have the sheet pop open in a new window to change the language choice.

So how will you use the Google Translate feature? This is just one way that you can use it to support students of different languages and students in foreign language classes. If you create your own translatable page, let us know and share it in the comments below!

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ESL/ELLGood TeachingMicrosoftReadingSpecial NeedsWriting

Supporting Bilingual Students with Reading and Writing

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

In the United States, over thirteen million children speak a language other than English at home. After English, Spanish is the most common language spoken (Source: Data Center). In 2016, there were 456,000 Texas students who had difficulty speaking English. What are some of the ways that schools can use technology to assist students who are learning English? In this blog entry, let’s review research, approaches, and tools for teaching reading and writing to English language learners.

Enhancing Reading

Microsoft’s Learning Tools and other digital text tools can enhance reading. Students’ experiences with digital texts include pictionaries, read alouds, and parts of speech. Each can help extend students’ vocabulary and support them in learning more about sentences structure.

One incredible Office 365 tool is the Immersive Reader. It offers various features such as:

  • Adjustable font size, text spacing, and background color
  • Splitting up words into syllables
  • Line focus
  • Highlighting verbs, nouns, adjectives, and sub-clauses
  • Choosing between several fonts optimized to help with reading
  • Reading text aloud with adjustable speed
  • Optical Character Recognition (OCR) from print and pictures

These tools can help English Language Learners as they learn to break down words and phrases and improve their English literacy. Enhanced reading can also lead to enhanced writing, as my own story can attest.

Growing Up Bilingual

“How’s that book report coming along?” asked my dad. It was nearly noon on a Saturday. Balled up pages of handwritten text covered a corner of the hexagonal kitchen table. I smiled at him. “I’m on my fifth draft of a page-and-a-half book report.” The sheer exhilaration of putting words where I wanted to kept me wrestling with the ideas. Each time, I changed a sentence, I got an insight into the idea I was fishing for. I’d come a long way from my big fat “F” in reading and writing in second grade.

Research says a lot about children like me who grew up speaking and writing in two languages. Growing up bilingual? Some research says the following:

  • You may learn English words and grammar at a slower pace than monolinguals,
  • You tend to be better at multitasking than monolinguals.
  • You can pick out relevant speech sounds and ignore others in noisy environments. (So, my mom was right. I did have selective hearing as a teenager!)
  • Your verbal skills in each language are weaker than those of monolingual speakers.

Growing up bilingual, my dual language background enriched my writing style.

Improving Writing

From book reports to essays and then more book reports, I learned to write in sixth grade. Constant writing allowed me to refine my use of two languages. Some of the techniques that I rely on as a bilingual writer are as follows:

  1. Create graphic organizers, semantic webs, and concept maps.
  2. Summarize research and explain what another has said or written in your own words.
  3. Chunk writing in blocks with headers.
  4. Start with dialogue or a story.

Want to help your English language learners and bilingual/ESL students improve their writing? You can use these same techniques with the help of tech tools.

Blending Technology into Writing

Ready to blend technology into the four techniques I mention above? Today, we have access to a wide range of tools and resources. Here is a roundup of tools:

1. Create graphic organizers

Have a touchscreen device like an iPad, Windows 10 tablet, or Chromebook with a stylus? Use convenient apps to organize your nonfiction or fiction writing. These apps do well for note-taking. Find them available for iOS, Windows 10, Chromebook. Many types of graphic organizers exist online. Use them as a model to organize your work and model it for students. I grew up drawing concept maps for lecture notes and grabbing key ideas from texts. Until I internalized the process, I used them to organize my writing.

2. Summarize research in your own words

Summarizing is the process of keeping what’s relevant and discarding the rest. For bilingual brains, this is one strength to develop. As a child, I was assigned research papers. I had limited access to encyclopedias. If I wanted access to information at home, I had to take notes on what I read. I kept what was relevant to what I hoped to write. One way to encourage students involves focusing on the main ideas and supporting details. Get them to write, revise the information, and focus on the relevant. One tool that I use often is Hemingway Editor. It helps cut unnecessary words and shorten ideas.

3. Chunk writing with headers

Chunking splits information into small pieces. This makes reading and understanding faster and easier. Students may see a piece of writing as one long narrative. Teach them to write longer pieces. Each piece is assembled in short chunks. Students can apply chunking strategies with these methods:

  • Craft short paragraphs.
  • Keep sentences short.
  • Use bullet or numbered lists.
  • Create a visual hierarchy with varying styles of headings and subheadings (Source)

One easy way to model this for students is to write blog entries. Your students can write about anything. Practice chunking it. Begin with short pieces first. Craft longer pieces in time. A fun way to approach this could be to have students chunk an existing piece of writing, explaining why as they do it.

4. Start with dialogue or story

“When do you use quotation marks?” asked my son. I had shared my Dad’s approach to selecting books to read. He was wont to say, “I crack the book open. If it has a lot of dialogue, I get it. If it doesn’t, I leave it on the shelf.” This made my son want to create writing worth buying. “You use quotes around things people say,” I said to him.

“Quotes move a piece of writing forward,” I added after a moment’s thought.

Want students to use dialogue well? Have them create comics. Every speech or thought bubble is a snippet of dialogue, spoken or imagined. Using tools like Book Creator, students can make comics. They can highlight nonfiction or fiction information and ideas. Each exchange forces students to break concepts into smaller pieces. They use their own words, striving for natural speech.

Reading and Writing to New Heights

Writers can be like rock climbers. The cliff climber pits herself against the physicality of the rock. A writer clings to ideas, dangling from a precipice. Embrace strategies and technologies for reading and writing with your bilingual students, especially as they work to perfect their English. Give them the skills they need to express themselves in English as well as they can in their mother tongue.

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Content AreasESL/ELLGood Teaching

Visual Storytelling: Portraits of Learning

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“If you can write what people will read by choice, the world is yours,” says Vicki Spandel.  If your writing fails to engage, no one reads it. As human beings, we write our passions, one way or another. Many of us have a deep desire to be heard and recognized. Yet if what you write doesn’t sparkle, you will lack for readers. Fortunately, visual storytelling empowers young writers to rely on a photo or image to support their writing.

Empower Children

Tell a child what to write and you wrest away their voice and choice. A student’s nimble fingers can text an entire piece of writing via their mobile device with the audience a worldwide network of interested readers. For students, the pay is in the joy of publication.  Gretchen Bernabei, speaking to a teacher audience participating at a writing academy she facilitated, said:

If students leave the writing workshop feeling famous, then I have done my job right. Sharing your writing, being enlarged by others’ writing, is what makes you feel famous.

Wondering how to combine pictures and words in powerful ways? One approach sure to captivate involves visual storytelling. You can combine visual storytelling with existing approaches such as the portrait photo essay.

Visual Storytelling

While publishing student writing online fundamentally hooks students as writers, as teachers we can take advantage of available tools to make our jobs easier. Just as our students have new digital tools, so do we as their teachers.

A visual narrative (also visual storytelling) is a story told primarily through the use of visual media. The story may be told using still photography, illustration, or video, and can be enhanced with graphics, music, and voice and other audio. (Source)

Today, you often have only about eight seconds to tell a story. Here are some tips for creating short content:

In Instagram (which enjoys over 600 million viewers), write a short tale that describes a student’s photo with more than three sentences. You have a 2,200 character limit before Instagram switches to ellipses. Here is one powerful example:

Ideas to Begin With

Place pictures in Instagram, Google Docs, Google Sites, or Facebook or give Padlet a try.

Ready to engage? Create short stories in 120 characters or less that link to longer, more in-depth stories. One example for students to emulate is Humans of New York. How could you do a Humans of [YOUR LOCATION]? Some ideas suggested or adapted via 15 Brilliant Examples of Visual Storytelling on Instagram include:

  • Combine words and images to tell a compelling story about a historical event
  • Ask your students and/or community to share compelling pictures that provide insight (e.g. academic achievement, sports tale, a digital book jacket retelling a story in students’ own words)
  • How your students/staff have helped others at school, at work, or in the community
  • A visual story of an upcoming or current event from a student perspective
  • A collection of images that captures different perspectives of the same situation

Create an Instagram Wall

“That’s where a physical Instagram display comes in. The idea is to create a display with images from your Instagram rotated out periodically. If you include your Instagram handle in the display, it promotes your account and encourages students to follow,” says Diana Rendina (@DianaLRendina),  library media specialist. She goes on to say, “Once you set up the display initially, it’s easy to change out the images as you add new photos to your Instagram account. I refresh mine every week or so. It makes a nice evergreen display that keeps your students up to date about what’s happening in the library.” You can take Diana’s idea and give it a visual storytelling twist.

Learn more about Diana’s Physical Instagram Display

Each of these ideas can be adapted for classroom use. And, probably, these ideas already have been. What makes them different is that the technology students use has changed. How are you using these technologies in the classroom? How about to share about your organization?

 

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ESL/ELLGood TeachingGoogle Tips and TricksiOS Tips and TricksMicrosoft

Tablet Trek: Tablets in the ELL Classroom

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“Beam me up, Scotty,” said Captain Kirk from the surface of the M class planet he stood upon. He fiddled with his communicator. That was strange. No signal. Turning to one of the students, he asked, “Lend me your iPad, will you?” If you’re ready to join Captain Kirk and other Star Fleet officers, come along on this voyage of discovery featuring tablets in the English Language Learners’ (ELL) classroom.

To Boldly Go

In this blog entry, we will explore various approaches to blending technology into the language learning classroom. Our focus is on how to strategically empower language learners to make their thinking visible. Tips on how to save, collect, and share work using key apps will also be discussed in the context of a project-based learning activity.

Key Area 1 – Mapping Your Learning

Mapping digital representations of learning can be one significant way to make thinking visible. Some ways to accomplish that include:

  • Narrated slideshows
  • Enhanced ePubs/ebooks

The benefits of creating these types of items in your classroom is that they allow for a combination of audio/video and text in an engaging way. What are some of the ways student-created ebooks are used in your classroom?

Tools and Apps

Key Area 2 – Flipping Your Learning

Ready to flip learning in your classroom? You will want to watch this short video shared by Navasota ISD’s Todd Nesloney. It features an end-of-year interview with fifth graders.

tablet trek

Tools and Apps:

Key Area 3 – Creating Non-Linguistic Representations

Greater than fifty percent of learners are non-linguistic. This involves students generating a representation of new information that does NOT rely on language. Robert Marzano says “the average effect [of using non-linguistic representation] includes a seventeen percentile point gain in student achievement.” Wow.

For language learners, consider that “when students make concept maps, idea webs, dramatizations, and other types of nonlinguistic representation, they are actively creating a model of their thinking.” Building virtual worlds in Minecraft: Education Edition can “encourage exploration and experimentation by allowing learners to manipulate their learning experience and visualize results. When students then explain their models, they are putting their thinking into words” (Source).

Tools and Apps:

    1. Padlet.com or the Padlet app
    2. Popplet Lite app
    3. Chatterpix
    4. Graphic Organizers
    5. Infographic Tools:
      1. Thinglink
      2. Canva
      3. Easel.ly

Key Area 4 – Making Interactive Print-Outs and Pictures

You can make interactive print-outs and pictures using augmented reality (AR). You are able to augment real artifacts and objects that may be around with images, audio, and text. Add QR codes to augment real objects, adding voice or video links.

Tools and Apps:

Key Area 5 – Blending Products with App Smashing

App-smashing is when you give students a specific assignment that can best be solved using more than one app.

Tools and Apps:

Key Area 6 – Classroom Tablet Management

The final key area involves relying on tools like NearPod and Seesaw to quickly share lessons and assess students, as well as gather student work on devices. NearPod and Seesaw empower teachers (and students) to create assessments and turn in their work via tablets like the iPad, as well as other devices (e.g. Chromebook, MS Surface Pro). Using Seesaw, students can turn in their work. Teachers review and approve the work for sharing in the class blog (see example).

Want to Know More?

If you are interested in learning more about these tablet trek away missions, fill out a workshop request form to have it facilitated at your school, district, or education service center. You will take on the role of one of Star Trek’s famous captains and explore the various tools and apps embedded in a Star Trek away mission.

 

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summer reading
English Language Arts Reading (ELAR)ESL/ELLLibraries

Help Students Enjoy Summer Reading

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

I enjoyed reading Susan Barber’s post on Building Choice Into Your Students’ Reading. In it, she shared several great ideas for teachers to use during the school year to promote a culture of literacy. As a followup to her article, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss resources that you can use and share with your students to promote a culture of literacy over the summer months. Yes, even now as schools are wrapping up the year, many educators are already starting to plan how they can motivate students to interact with meaningful text and, hopefully, build a deeper sense of enjoyment in reading. Below are some resources I picked especially for you for summer reading fun.

Free Books Online

books online imageMost free books are in the public domain, but that doesn’t mean that they are not relevant for our students. But that’s not the only place to find free books. Some parents and students may benefit from signing up for a free month with a particular service even if they don’t plan to extend their usage beyond the complimentary time.

  • Children’s Storybooks Online – This site offers web-based books for young children, older children, and young adult readers. A few have audio provided as well.
  • SYNC – Sync is a free summer audio book program for teens 13 and up. It begins on April 27, 2017, and goes through the summer. Each week, two complete audio book downloads are made available.
  • Open eBooks – Students from low-income families can benefit from these free ebooks, but the school needs to sign up first. Then educators from that school can request access codes to share with students. Each student can check out up to 10 ebooks at a time. The Open eBooks app works on iOS and Android devices.
  • Library of Congress Archive – With more than 150,000 books online, you will definitely want to use the search features to narrow down by topic, collection, creator (author), and/or language.
  • Reading Resource Project – This program that runs throughout the year provides free books (only shipping is required). Many of the sets include 100 books that can be shipped to you for $88.
  • Free Kids Books – Choose to read the books either online or download as a PDF to read offline.
  • Kindle’s Top 100 Free Books – Download and read via the Kindle app or online. Lots of selection choices.
  • Barnes & Noble’s Popular Free eBooks – Access Barnes & Noble’s list of ebooks that you can download and read on the NOOK app. Be sure to use the sidebar options to narrow search results by subject and age of reader.
  • TCEA members are also encouraged to join the iPad in the Classroom Community group where daily announcements are made about free books by Amazon as well as great apps that are available free for a limited time.

Text-to-Speech Readers

text to speech imageMany text-to-speech readers are available that can assist with ebooks. Your device and platform may determine which works best for you.

  • Acrobat Reader – Activate Acrobat’s reader to have your PDF ebook read to you. Voices are limited, but you can adjust the pitch and speed.
  • NaturalReader – You can download NaturalReader to listen to PDF, DOCX, Richtext, and ePub formatted ebooks.
  • Aloud! – This free text-to-speech app works on iOS and accepts plain text, PDF, DOCX, ePub, RTF, and HTML formats.
  • @Voice Aloud Reader – Designed for Android users, you’ll enjoy the extensive list of formats this free app can read aloud (TXT, PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF, OpenOffice document files, EPUB, MOBI, PRC, AZW and FB2 ebooks, and more).

Summer Reading Lists

summer reading list iconHot off the press, these updated lists can give you and your students some direction of what author to check out, the next series to explore, and possibly a new genre to try out.

  • Summer Reading for ELL and ESL Students – Lots of lists curated and shared by Colorin Colorado for ELL and ESL students. Great resources for teachers and parents.
  • Reading List for New Students at UC Berkeley – Before saying goodbye to your high school seniors, you may want to share with them this list of books for incoming students to Berkeley.
  • Houston ISD Summer Reading List – Enjoy the curated lists provided by the Houston Area Independent School Library Network. Each list is a PDF, making it easy to download, share, and/or print as needed.
  • B&N Summer Reading – Take advantage of Barnes & Noble’s list for summer reading. Keep a journal (provided on website for download) of at least eight titles you read and you can get a free book!
  • NYPL Summer Reading List – The New York Public Library has nicely formatted lists for babies-PreK, grades K-5, teens, and adults.
  • The Ultimate Summer Reading List for 9- to 12-Year-Olds – Melissa Taylor has pulled together a great list of books that will be popular with all upper elementary and middle school kids.

After Reading Activities

after reading activities imageMaking a book more enjoyable can easily be done by including some after-reading activities. Here are  few to get you started. These are great to share with parents as well!

Please share with us your school’s reading list for the summer, your favorite book you read as a kid, or possibly a one that you anticipate reading this summer for fun. We’d love to hear from you!

 

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slide
ESL/ELLGood Teaching

Prevent Summer Slide with Technology

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“We need ways to stop summer slide in its tracks,” Jon said. The conversation would start the same way, “If only we had…[this or that].” Unfortunately, Jon would raise the topic in April, much too late for curriculum specialists to do anything with current projects. “Why don’t you bring this up in September?” I asked one day in mid-April. The next year, he did and added a new request. The request asked the technology department to research solutions to summer slide. Let’s take a look at some possible new solutions.

What Is Summer Slide?

Summer slide may be defined as “the tendency for students to lose some of the achievement gains they made during the previous school year.” Often, summer break serves as a prolonged break in classroom learning. This interruption has a negative impact on children’s retention and development of skills (source). Their test math scores can be one month lower when they return to school in August than in the previous May. While all children lose skills in math, summer setbacks in reading depend on the student’s socioeconomic level. Summer vacation has an even worse effect on low to middle income students. For those students, a three-month vacation results in an equivalent gap in reading scores (source). Summer gaps accumulate over the years.

How Do You Stop Summer Slide?

Mitigating summer slide remains a high priority for growth-focused schools. One of the best ways to accomplish this is keeping all students engaged in math and, for low to middle income students, in reading.  While there are various traditional approaches available (e.g. summer library reading programs, school-based interventions, home school approaches, etc.), technology can offer another alternative.

Here are several technology-based tips for mitigating the effects of summer slide:

Tip #1 – Teach measurement with Minecraft

Young learners are already engaged with Minecraft. But did you know that you can teach measurement with it? A Minecraft block has set dimensions. With that in mind, you can have students build a real structure inside its virtual world, figuring out how a real life measurement adapts to virtual block measurement in Minecraft. For more ideas, you may want to read this introductory activity. Then move up to teaching perimeter and area. If you are in a school-based program designed to halt summer slide, then consider getting Minecraft: Education Edition. Otherwise, the Windows 10 version or Pocket Edition of Minecraft will suffice.

Tip #2 – Cooking with Video

Cooking can be an excellent way to introduce students to math concepts at home (or school). Dina O’Brien, math specialist and instructional coach, suggests several approaches, one of which is shown below:

Imagine cooking dinner and having to redo the menu for five more guests and then discussing the recipe and how to double it. You can have your child sketch out the seating arrangement for dinner as well.

One approach you can take involves having your child make their thinking visible as they prepare a meal. Then publish the video online via YouTube. Use an app like Toontastic, Shadow Puppet Edu, or YouTube Capture to create the video, whether as a story or a straight recording. Another possibility involves having students refresh and “upgrade” recipe cards using the Canva app.

Tip #3 – Finding Shapes in the World

While you can find shapes in the world around us, it might also be fun to take a look at images of objects and wide open spaces. For example, NASA recently made its entire media library available to the public. Students can also measure objects using a regular ruler or iOS app like i-Ruler (free).

summer slide

Tip #4 – Stalling the Summer Slide for Reading

Stalling summer slide can involve any variety of techniques. While the tips above involved math applications, you can access a variety of reading apps featuring free content (e.g. OpeneBooks), whether audio books (e.g. Tales2Go) or text. And, eReaders are inexpensive and available (e.g. BiblioTech), depending on your locale. Check out these blog entries focused on reading and ebooks:

Tip #5 – Listening Yields Same Results as Reading

“Listeners and readers retain about equal understanding of the passages they’ve consumed,” says Melissa Dahl, citing research in this New York Magazine article, which is another key point for listening to audio books as well as reading them. Listening to audio books has benefits for students that go beyond simply reading text on the printed page. Combining the two experiences yields dividends, but don’t sell audio books short. Here are some research-based benefits of audio over text reading:

  • Fiction (which is great for second language learners) read aloud encourages your brain to picture the scenes.
  • Listening to audio books enhances listening skills as ears strain for the next word.
  • Audio book “reading” can be done on the go, which may match the needs of certain busy people in our lives.

Not convinced about the impact of listening to audio books over reading print? You may want to check out this 2016 research study as well as a newer 2019 study:

Two notable findings are that students using Tales2go attained 58% of the annual expected gain in reading achievement in just 10 weeks, putting them three months ahead of control students. Plus, the study group outperformed the control group across all measures, by three times in reading comprehension, nearly seven times in second-grade vocabulary, and nearly four times in reading motivation. These increases came after students listened for twenty minutes three times per week in the afternoon program at school, and an additional two twenty-minute sessions at home.

Don’t let summer slide hamper your children’s growth and forward movement. Take advantage of technology to close the summer achievement gap.

This blog entry has been updated with new information as of 8/29/2019 supporting the benefits of audiobooks as equivalent to those of reading.

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