March Giveway Winner

March's giveaway winner is...mikel. 

Please email us at eldstrategies(at)yahoo(dot)com and send us your name and address for us to send the book to!!

Stay tuned for our April giveaway-it's even better than March's!!

Effective Vocabulary Instruction for English Learners

There's a lot of talk lately about teaching vocabulary and the necessity of teaching vocabulary for reading comprehension and academic development. While we are not refuting that all students need explicit vocabulary development, we have seen that vocabulary development has become such an isolated teaching skill in some cases that students won't have a deep understanding of the vocabulary words taught. 

Vocabulary instruction for English learners needs to be highly contextualized, meaning that it must be taught in the context of meaningful instruction. It defeats the purpose to have a "word of the day" that may be isolated from anything that students are learning. There is a really great book that we recommend by Robert Marzano, Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement: Research on What Works in Schools. In the book, Marzano outlines eight principles of academic vocabulary development:

1. Effective vocabulary instruction does not just consist of giving students a definition of the word, or having students look up the definition of a word in the dictionary. Students should be exposed to the word many times in the context of meaningful instruction and teachers should provide a study friendly definition of the word.
2. Students should be able to express their knowledge of the words through both "linguistic and nonlinguistic representations". This may include drawing, pictures, graphic organizers, acting the word out, etc.
3. Effective vocabulary instruction includes multiple exposures to certain words across a variety of contexts. In order for students to retain a word in long term memory and have an in-depth understanding of words, students must be exposed to words in books, writing, etc. It is not enough to discuss a word once or twice and assume that students will have completely understood the word.
4. Students need to be taught the morphology of the word, which includes prefixes, suffixes, and root words. An excellent resource for prefixes, suffixes and other words parts is the ESL Teacher's Book of Lists.
5. Different types of words need a different method of instruction. Some words require more direct instruction than others.
6. Students need to be given opportunities for students to discuss the words that they are learning. Project GLAD defines this as opportunities to have "comprehensible output"; many of Project GLAD's guided oral practice strategies offer multiple opportunities to use vocabulary in meaningful ways.
7. Students should play with words through games and other fun activities.
8. Students should be taught words that have a high chance of raising academic achievement. Marzano has put together essential lists of key vocabulary words per school subject that students need to learn. Another valuable resource for teachers is the ESL Teacher's Book of Lists and the Vocabulary Teacher's Book of Lists. 

What Does This Look Like in the Classroom?

Let's take a second grade example regarding important people in the community. We looked at the state standards, and looked through the Social Studies textbook that students were using for key academic vocabulary that we wanted to teach students. We wanted to make sure that students were exposed to the vocabulary in multiple ways, so we employed many strategies designed to provide multiple exposures to certain words. One strategy that we used was a cognitive content dictionary (a Project GLAD strategy). 

Next we read the textbook and other books with students in order to expose the vocabulary words to students. If our chosen vocabulary words were not in the given books, then we strategically used them with students in our discussions of the texts.

The next strategy that we employed was the use of songs, poems and chants to facilitate vocabulary development. We created a few poems with many of the same vocabulary words in each poem. After presenting the poems once to students, we then asked the students which words they thought were high-level words and we highlighted the words that they identified.

Here's another poem:

We also used a couple of other poems that can be found here. In addition to these strategies, there are many other strategies such as shared/modeled writing, pictorial input charts, that could have been employed as well.

In our next post, we will highlight a few more strategies that can be used with this heroes/important people unit in order that students retain the academic vocabulary in their long term memory.

We've got to go beyond the traditional pictures/drawings/realia that we often hear of when discussing the education of English learners. What are some other strategies that you use to teach vocabulary in context?

March Updates

I just wanted to keep everyone updated about some things that I've been busy working on. On March 31, 2009 we will have the raffle for the Project GLAD book, and I will post the winner here. I also have some great prizes planned for the upcoming months.

I haven't posted much because I have been working on a piece about vocabulary development that I will be posting soon. I wanted to discuss how we can teach vocabulary in context as opposed to isolated vocabulary drills, multiple exposure to vocabulary, etc. I've been taking a bit of time to complete the post because I was working on creating some poems, songs and chants with the vocabulary and taking pictures of the strategies. 

Thanks to those of you who have purchased some of the materials out of our store!! The proceeds will go back into getting some books that I would like to review here for readers. Have you ever bought a book for teaching and then either realized that it was too simple or you didn't like it? Well, I most definitely have and I want to assist teachers in purchasing books that are going to be useful to them.

March Giveaway: Bringing It All Together Book

Every month the ELD Strategies blog will have a monthly giveaway prize for readers. All you will have to do is write a comment in this section of the blog. If you are leaving an anonymous comment, please place your name or pseudonym in the comments section. On the last day of the month, we will compile all of the names, have a raffle and will place the name of the winner on the site. As soon as the prize has been claimed, we will mail it off to you!

We plan on raffling off some really fantastic prizes-all related to English language development, SDAIE, sheltered instruction and other topics pertinent to the education of English learners. We have some really exciting ideas planned!!

This month we will be raffling off the book "Bringing it All Together" by Marcia Brechtel, one of the creators of the Project GLAD instructional model of ELD. We have described the Project GLAD model for ELD in one of our previous posts, and this book further describes the various components and strategies of the instructional model.

As a reminder, please leave a comment in the comment section of this post if you would like to be in the raffle for this book. Good luck!!

ELD Strategies Web Resources: Project Connect

One great web resource for ELD is the Project Connect website developed by the Orange County Office of Education. The site has a matrix of the ELD standards, with corresponding strategies and activities that are appropriate for the different English proficiency levels and language development strands. In addition to the matrix, there is an additional page of various strategies that pertain to English language development and sheltered instruction. The list of strategies includes a mini-introduction with links for additional information. A few of the strategies have links to quicktime mini-video clips that demonstrate some of the strategies. We just wanted to share this web resource with you and hope that you find it useful in some way!!

Thanks for joining us!! 

Effective ELD Instruction: Project GLAD

Project GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) is an effective instructional model for teaching English Language Development (ELD). The Project GLAD model is based on the extensive research-base of second language acquisition, brain research, and effective literacy practices for English learners. GLAD is a standards-based ELD instructional model that promotes high levels of academic language and academic achievement for students at all levels of English proficiency.

The Project GLAD training is an intensive seven-day training. The first two days consist of an overview of the instructional model, including the research base and the backwards planning process of creating a Science or Social Studies ELD literacy unit. During the two day training, teachers also learn about the components of the Project GLAD ELD model as well as multiple effective strategies within each component. Project GLAD is organized into four components:

• Focus and Motivation
• Input
• Guided Oral Practice
• Reading/Writing

The focus and motivation component of the GLAD ELD instructional model consists primary of strategies designed to build background knowledge, motivate students, activate prior knowledge, and enhance academic language. The input component consists of various comprehensible input strategies that enable teachers to provide core content instruction to students at all proficiency levels in a comprehensible and understandable way. The guided oral practice component provides multiple comprehensible output strategies designed to promote the development of academic language. The reading and writing component highlights effective reading and writing strategies that can be taught whole group through teacher modeling, small group cooperative team opportunities, small group teacher instruction, and independent activities. 

After the two-day training, the GLAD model consists of an additional five days of demonstration lessons. Participants are able to observe one of the Project GLAD presenters teaching a GLAD unit to a class of English learners, while another Project GLAD presenter is coaching participants. Teachers view the classroom demonstration each morning, and the afternoon sessions are designed for debriefing, reflecting on the morning classroom demonstration, and planning of a Project GLAD unit.

Project GLAD is one of the most powerful and academically challenging ELD instructional models out there. It provides intensive professional development to teachers of English learners, and one of the best things about the training is that teachers will be able to see the strategies being taught in action! When teachers are able to see the strategies being demonstrated with students, it makes all the more sense to them.

We'll be blogging more about Project GLAD in upcoming posts. For those of you who have been Project GLAD trained or who have had exposure to the instructional model, what are some of your experiences? If you have any questions about the Project GLAD model or about this blog in general, please feel to comment or email us your questions because we would like to make this blog as interactive and useful to teachers as possible.

Thanks for visiting us!!!

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Frequently Asked Questions About ELD and Teaching English Learners

What are some of the frequently asked questions that you have about English Language Development (ELD), second language acquisition, or other issues pertinent to the education of English learners? Feel free to leave your questions in the comment section or email them to us at eldstrategies@yahoo.com. We would like to make this blog as interactive as possible so that teachers will find it useful, so we are planning to take one or two of readers' frequently asked questions per week and blog about them.

Being that we want to tailor this blog to the needs of teachers, we greatly encourage your comments, suggestions, ideas, and feedback through the comments section or email!

Coming soon...effective practices highlights. 

What is English Language Development (ELD)?

English Language Development (ELD) is an instructional model designed to systematically develop the English language proficiency of English learners (i.e., students who speak English as a second language). ELD instruction emphasizes the development of all four language domains: listening, speaking, reading and writing. 

During the ELD instructional block, instruction is differentiated in order to meet the needs of students who are at various levels of English language development. There are five different English proficiency levels within the second language development continuum: 1) Beginning proficiency level; 2) Early Intermediate proficiency level; 3) Intermediate proficiency level; 4) Early Advanced proficiency level; and, 5) Advanced proficiency level. Instructional techniques and language development expectations will vary depending upon each student's particular needs as well as their respective English proficiency levels. 

NCLB accountability requirements for English learners stipulate that students should master one English proficiency level per year. This requirement is consistent with the second language acquisition research-base which demonstrates that students typically need five to seven years in order to achieve academic fluency in English. 

ELD standards have been adopted by the California Department of Education, as well as other states.  A sample of the California ELD standards can be found here. The ELD standards are aligned with the state-adopted English Language Arts (ELA) standards and consist of the following strands of English language development:

• Listening and Speaking
• Reading Word Analysis
• Reading Fluency and Systematic Vocabulary Development
• Reading Comprehension
• Literary Response and Analysis
• Writing Strategies and Applications
• Writing Conventions

The state-adopted ELD standards range in spans from grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. The ELD standards are designed as differentiated performance expectations for students as they develop their proficiency in English and works towards mastery of the grade-level English Language Arts (ELA) standards. The ELD standards are differentiated expectations of the English Language Arts standards for students at each of the five levels of English language proficiency.  

The Wested organization has created a teacher-friendly alignment of the English Language Arts (ELA) grade-level content standards and the ELD standards. Wested's Map of Standards delineates the connections between English Language Arts and English Language Development standards in an easy to use format. The Map of Standards is organized in a "side-by-side" format, with the English Language Arts and English Language Development standards placed on the same page in order to visually view the connection between the standards. You can view a sample reading comprehension page from the grades 3-5 Map of Standards here. 

We recommend that teachers take advantage of this valuable resource because it can be a tool utilized for planning effective ELD lessons. The K-5 Map of ELD Standards can be purchased here for a minimal price:

The Map of ELD Standards is also available in a 6-12 format: