EL Folio
English Learner (EL) Tips: Folio #3 - EL Education Terms
The ALPHABET SOUP of EL Education
Now It's Practice Time
Social vs. Academic Language is Vitally Important to ELs in K-12 Education
Teacher2Teacher EL Tips
Physical Science teacher Arial Kavulich includes an excellent addition to the Engage step of her lessons. She truly engages learners in the concept by asking Context-to-Self questions with visuals!
Why is this important for all students including ELs, you ask? Brain researcher, David Sousa, in his book How the Brain Learns explains that our brains attend to sensory input if
relevant,
emotional, or
needed!
ELs of all levels need a " hook" or an "attention grabber" to not only learn the concepts, but the academic language surrounding the concepts. This may be the first time they saw or heard the academic words/phrases or first time in that context.
How did Ariel add an interactive, context-to-self engagement activity?
Ariel related the physical science concept of polar and nonpolar valents to an equal vs. unequal use of phone data, water, and electricity in a student's home. This "engaging hook" attracted students' brains to a concept being presented in the lesson. They were intrigued and involved from their personal life to this subject matter.
You may have heard of text -to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world from the reading realm of education. This context-to-self is similar, but keep in mind beginner ELs cannot read or make sense of the text at this stage. That is why visuals are important!
Thanks for the tip, Ariel!
CULTURAL CONNECTIONS
Collectivist vs. Individualist Cultures: Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategy of Engagement
You are learning a lot about individualist vs. collectivist societies and how they impact educational interactions here at CCA and around the world!
Another important aspect of collectivism is related to the Teacher2Teacher Tip today by Ariel!
Objects in school context vs. social context
What Mr. Leo learned later as the student worked on a writing assignment about hummingbirds, is that these same students did have facts, but the facts were interconnected to the social event. The same type of responses came when he asked students think about eggs and what they look like inside. Again the students talked about times they made eggs at home before talking about what they know about the inside of an egg.
Why? Because in collectivist societies objects hold meaning to their human experience more so than in individualist societies. We can separate them out in class, but most cultures interconnect objects with experiences in real life.
Source:
Bridging Cultures with Classroom Strategies
Carrie Rothstein-Fisch, Patricia M. Greenfield and Elise Trumbull
How to engage collectivist society learners?
Mr. Leo learned to ask for family stories in writing first, then created an interactive T-chart of points from the family stories that correlate to facts about tigers, lions, and bears - oh my! (Or whatever topic at hand). The class was more engaged so that learning could begin.
Give it a try - engage your students through context-to-self activities, especially ELs, in the topic of a lesson before starting instruction.
Thank you for taking the time to read and learn more about the assets our diverse school population brings to broaden our world as global citizens!
Want to learn more?
Send an email to Eugenia (Jeannie) Krimmel to set up a time to talk.
My cubicle is always open - literally!