That's so RANDOM! Why it's important to call on different students...

Step #3 in John Seidlitz's "Seven Steps to Building a Language Rich Interactive Classroom" is:

Randomize and rotate who is called on so students of all language levels can participate.

Why is this so hard for teachers to do?  I have coached teachers who think they do this but my observations of their classroom do not support that belief with evidence.  And, yes, my name is POT and I am calling the kettle black!  
When I conduct trainings with teachers, I spend hours ahead of time planning ways to ensure that all participants actually participate and are engaged.  Yet, when the training is actually happening, I can easily succumb to the constraints of time, the pressure of the serial-hand raisers, and the stares from the reluctant participators daring me to invade their personal space.
So, yes, it's hard!  But, I don't think that means we shouldn't keep trying to refine this important area that falls into the science and craft of excellent teachers.
Here are some of my favorite ways:

• Random Name Generator - Upload your class list to this website and use your computer or iPad to ask it to generate the next student to call on.  Really easy!

• Popsicle Sticks - It's an oldie but a goody!  It may seem old school but it is better than not doing anything at all.  Write each of your students' names on a popsicle stick and place them all in a can.  After asking a question, allow at least 10 seconds of wait time (you want everyone forming their answer) and then draw a stick or two to ask those students to share their answers with the class.  My theory is that you should put the sticks back in the can and just shake it well.  If you take the sticks out until they are all out, your students whose sticks are out of the can might begin to tune out.

• Note Cards - This is similar to the popsicle sticks but it adds another component.  Each student has a card with his/her name on it.  When you draw the student's card, you can also mark a code to indicate his response.  This can be helpful documentation for TELPAS rating (did they answer with one word, a short phrase or complete sentence), participation grades, and parent conferences.

I haven't tried this one yet but it looks interesting:

• Teacher Tools - Who's Next? app - Do the same one or two hands always pop up when you ask a question in your classroom? The Teacher Tools - Who's Next? app will shake things up for your class by allowing you to call on students randomly and even create randomized work groups! (description from iTunes)

Want to read more?  Here are some more articles about this topic:

• Are You Being Fair?

• Extending ELLs' Classroom Interactions Using the Response Protocol

According to the "Extending ELLs'..." article by Mohr and Mohr linked above, "many students new to U.S. culture and its educational system, and students who are timid or reluctant for any reason, often do not participate readily in class discussions and thereby assume a more passive role in classroom interactions."
We know that engagement promotes growth and we want our learners to grow.  As a result, we really need to hone our abilities to engage.  I would love to hear your tips for how you do this in your classroom!

Finding a Good Hook Book: Lucha Libre

This summer, I wrote a guest blog for Krista over at The Second Grade Superkids about the importance of native language instruction.  I wrote about a student named Jose and his journey towards biliteracy.

Last week, I was at my lovely new public library just bursting with shelves of BRAND NEW BILINGUAL books and I came across this book that reminded me of Jose.


As I was in the process of convincing Jose that he could and would learn to read, I was also trying to figure out what types of books he would want to read.  I needed some hook books!  The kind that he would find worthy of his perseverance and diligence.  The kind that would create that special magic where motivation plus emerging ability equates to an ability to read a book higher than his instructional reading level.

I questioned Jose to find his hook.  Dinosaurs?  Outer space?  Sports?  Nothing created the magic...until I overheard him at recess talking about watching WWF and Lucha Libre and noticed his RIP Eddie Guerrero t-shirt.

At the time, I couldn't find any books about wrestling in Spanish at our school library but I did find some info in Spanish online.  When I shared it with Jose and told him he could read it during self-selected reading time, he was thrilled.  It was way above his reading level but he sought out another student to read with him.  It was just the hook I needed!

So, when I saw Lucha libre: The Man in the Silver Mask, A Bilingual Cuento by Xavier Garza, it made me think that there might be some more Joses out there in your class that could use a hook to pull them further into the magic of reading.

What are your other favorite hook book topics?

Palabras de alta frecuencia/High Frequency Words

One of the best things about teaching literacy in Spanish is its lovely decodable-ness.  Okay, so maybe that's not a word but it is nice to work with a language that doesn't cause constant confusion with all of its exceptions.  

While we don't have to worry about SIGHT WORDS in Spanish, we can help young learners become fluent readers more quickly by teaching high-frequency words in Spanish.  

Here is my list of 100 high frequency words in Spanish based on several research-based lists.  You can download it for free here.

Last week, I was in a Kindergarten classroom in Stephenville and saw this teacher's great way of keeping track of the high frequency words that students are learning.  Each week, the teacher gives the students a card with the new word(s) of the week and those are kept on a ring.  Students can practice reading their words and refer to them during writing.

 I snapped the picture below in a first grade classroom in Mesquite.  The teacher had made his own version of this game and was using it as one of his center activities.  The students would walk around the room to the other students and ask them to read the word they were wearing.  They were so quiet and loved it!

Here is another fun and simple activity to practice with students in small groups so they can later play on their own in pairs.

Flashcards Activity-My Pile, Your Pile in Spanish from Mesquite ISD on Vimeo.

While it is important for students to be able to read the words in isolation, the real purpose of studying these words is to be able to read them in context.  Even students that don't know all of their letters and sounds can begin to read simple, repetitive texts.  

Hubbard's Cupboard has quite a few printable books in Spanish with high frequency words (scroll down and look for "Black and White Student Booklets" in Spanish).

The Rigby Colección PM Básicos readers are perfect for practicing words in context.  

What are your favorite ways for helping your students practice high frequency Spanish words in isolation and in context?  I love hearing your ideas!

Unzipping Their Lips

While in my car the other day with my daughters, my oldest said she wanted to tell me a story.  “You have to be really quiet and listen, Mama.  Are you listening?  Close your mouth.  Zip your lips?  Did you lock them?  Okay, now throw away the key!  Once upon a time….”

Hearing my daughter tell me to “zip my lips” reminded me of that phrase I used to hear frequently in my childhood.  I am not exactly sure where she first heard that phrase (she’s not in school yet) but I am pretty sure it was uttered by a well-meaning older teacher at church who was just trying to get her restless young students to be quiet for a few brief moments so she could teach the lesson.

I don’t hear this phrase very often as I coach in different schools.  Even though it has a bit of rhyme and sounds like a cute analogy, I think most of today’s educators know that telling students to “lock [their] lips and throw away the key” is probably not best teaching practice, especially with bilingual learners. 

However, while we don’t explicitly tell them to be silent, we often communicate that desire in more subtle ways:

• ·     We tell them that we only have a few minutes to get our lesson in (because that’s true!) and there’s no time for talking or questions.  We barrel through the lesson to get it “done”.  We know that teaching does not necessarily equate to learning but we have a scope and sequence to stick to and there are just too many other constraints on our day.  Taking time to allow a child to slowly process their thinking in verbal form seems like a luxury rather than a necessity.
• ·     We just plain get carried away with our own fabulous explanations and demonstrations.  I mean, seriously, WE are the ones with a college degree, right?  Of all people in the room, shouldn't we be the ones receiving the most air time?  We are the ones that spent the weekend planning the lesson and search Pinterest for the best anchor chart.  The students will inevitably talk once we send them back to their seats.  Is there really a need to interrupt our lessons to allow them to talk?
• ·     We allow time for talk but fail to provide the appropriate scaffolds to make it productive.  Perhaps we have been trained and converted from the two bullet points above.  We are believers in the importance of talk but making it happen feels clumsy and unsuccessful.  We post prepackaged language frames on our walls but we forget to incorporate them and they quickly become wallpaper to the students.  While students are talking during the lesson, their talk is not necessarily focused, academic, and productive.

Talking helps us process our thinking and internalize our understanding.  Allowing time for students to talk is an investment.  Sometimes, we don’t see an immediate return on our investments.  And, as with anything we are invested in, we know we should plan carefully ahead of time. 

So, here's my question, how do you make space for your students' academic conversations in your classroom?  How do you remind yourself mid-lesson to make it happen?  Please share your ideas!

ELPS: The WHY of Documentation

On Wednesday, I shared my analogy for thinking about the ELPS and how they have the potential to be a resource rather than an annoyance.  After thinking about it some more, I want to write a little bit more; specifically about the word that causes audible sighs in a room full of teachers:  DOCUMENTATION.

I know that many districts require teachers to document the ELPS somewhere in the lesson plans and I don't disagree with the policy.  However, I live with a two-year-old and a four-year-old and the question WHY? is one that is voiced every few seconds in our house.  So, the question rolling around in my head right now is "WHY is it important to document the ELPS in our lesson plans?"

Going back to the mountain analogy from Wednesday, let's think of that hiking guide.  Would simply writing down the equipment that the hikers need be of any actual help on the hike?  No!  Yet, if the hiking guide were to consider the proficiency level of the hikers and the equipment necessary for them to make the hike successfully WHILE he was planning the hike, then having that documentation would be helpful and purposeful.

Okay, so let's come down the mountain and into the classroom.  If you are just documenting the ELPS solely to adhere to policy, they will be of no practical help to you and yes, it would definitely be sigh-worthy!!!  On the other hand, if you can consider your students' language proficiency levels and the ELPS that would help them WHILE planning the content of your lesson, then you would be investing your time well.  It is the kind of time investment that pays off once you are in the middle of teaching the lesson and you realize that you have thought ahead to provide exactly the right scaffolds that your bilingual learners need to successfully attain the content for the day.

So, that is my conclusion about DOCUMENTATION.  While I am not suggesting that you go against the policies of your district, I also hate to see people grudgingly do things without understanding WHY they are doing them.  Sometimes, thinking like a two-year-old and four-year-old is not such a bad thing! :)  I would love to hear your thoughts!

ELPS: Resource or Really Annoying?

If you are a Texas teacher, you know about the ELPS (English Language Proficiency Standards).  Well, at the very least, you have heard the acronym and you have probably attended a training or two with ELPS in the title.  

The question is, "What can the ELPS do for you and your students?"  Believe it or not, I really don't think the ELPS were created to add one more thing to the already long list that teachers have to do!  

Here is a little analogy that I like to use for explaining how the ELPS help me teach my bilingual students:

Think of your TEKS (content standards) as a mountain that you must hike with your students.  Your goal is to get all of your students to the top of that mountain.  The problem is that your hikers all show up with varying degrees of gear and equipment.  Some are new to hiking while others have many experiences on this type of terrain.  Some show up completely decked out in REI or Patagonia gear while others arrive in flip flops.

In the context of a classroom with English language learners, the ELPS represent the equipment that native language speakers "should" already possess as they being their hike towards the content.  With those students, a teacher might not need to spend as much time accessing prior knowledge, building background, and developing vocabulary.  She can set her sights on the summit and move forward, pausing occasionally to help her hikers adjust to the uniqueness of this particular climb.

The English learners, however, may not bring all of the equipment that those native speakers bring to the trailhead.  Remember, it is highly likely that THEY DO HAVE hiking equipment.  It might not be from REI.  It might look different.  They may not even realize that some of the items in their home could be used for hiking (hello? biliteracy transfer? :)).  It is the role the guide/teacher to ready her hikers before beginning the hike so that the hike goes as smoothly as possible and all of the hikers make it to the top.

The ELPS really can help us ready our students for our content lessons (reading, math, science, P.E., etc.).  As you plan your lessons, think about what "equipment" a native speaker would bring to that lesson (background knowledge about a topic, a variety of descriptive words, ability to speak in the past tense, etc.).  Then, consider how you might provide a scaffold to your English learners so that they too could access the same content.

Graphic organizer?  Sharing in cooperative groups?  Using prior experiences to build meaning?  Language frames?  The ELPS are like an equipment catalog for teachers.  When you know your students' language proficiency levels, you can identify which of the standards you will need to use for supporting your students.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), you cannot plan a scope and sequence for using the ELPS like you can with your content standards.  Which ELPS (equipment) you use on a given day for a lesson will depend upon the specific objective (mountain) and your students' current language levels (how much equipment they currently have or lack).

So that is my little analogy.  At this point, you may be telling me to "go take a hike"!  My hope is that you would find the ELPS to be a resource for you rather than one more annoyance of being an educator.  I would love to hear your thoughts!

Where there's a need, there's a will...PART 2

Last week, I posted about my daughter and the role of motivation.  I have since come across another example of motivation at work for inspiring new learning and growth. 

My daughter turned four in April.  She has known her letters and sounds since she was two.  I had thought that sometime in the past year, she would just automatically start leaving me notes around the house and drafting some of the stories she orally fabricates with her nonstop talking (anybody else live with a 4-year-old?). 

I knew that she knew how to stretch her words orally to hear some of the sounds but, unless I really pushed her to do it (which just didn't feel right), she was not initiating any writing on her own.

Until last week...

We started doing a Morning Message at breakfast.  Each morning, I sit at the table and write a simple message to my girls and include something about our plans for the coming day.  Every other day, after reading through the message together, I introduce a new sight word (I, is, and, etc.) that I embed within the message and Amity circles all of the words she knows.

Yesterday before dinner, Amity was coloring.  She yelled into the kitchen to tell me that she was making a card for her friend Maren's birthday.  I asked her if she wanted me to tell her how to spell her friend's name and she replied by saying, "No!  I already did!" 

I came in from the kitchen to see the scene below.  DR  MN  (Dear Maren)

















It's a tiny start but it made my teacher heart so happy!  Did she hear all of the sounds in the words?  No.  Do I care?  Not at this point!  I am just so excited that she has taken this step as a writer. 

What caused her to take that step?  Two things:  the MOTIVATION to do it and a MODEL to imitate.

When we are hoping for our bilingual learners to take the next step, we need to make sure that those two elements are in place. 

1.  Do they have the MOTIVATION to do it?  Have they been given an authentic purpose that inspires them to pursue the task?

2.  Have they had the opportunity to consistently observe a good MODEL?  Have they seen the process and procedures to create the type of product they are motivated to create?

As you look at your standards and proficiency levels, is there something that you know your students are capable of doing but you haven't seen them try it yet?  Maybe you can create the need and show the way, and the WILL will come!

Where there's a need, there's a will...PART 1

Don't worry!  I know this is my teaching blog and not my family blog BUT sometimes I just can't separate the two.  There are just too many parallels between the learning going on with a two-year-old and a four-year-old and the learning that I see in the classrooms of bilingual learners.

Today, I want to talk about the four-year-old pictured above.  While she can have her silly moments (as shown above), telling her she is "silly" is not really a compliment to her.  She prefers to be "right"!

From a VERY young age, we have known that this girl deeply wants to be independent, figure out things on her own, and not make mistakes.  Some would say she takes after her mother! :)

All of these desires combine to cause the same little girl (and possibly her mother) to be very cautious when trying new things.  If she (we) are not going to do it well, is it even worth trying?

For example, as a bilingual teacher, I had always envisioned raising bilingual children.  When my oldest was a baby, my Motherese was rooted in my native English.  As she got older, I began to try working with her in Spanish.  Even at her young age, she was quick to resist.  Why was her mom purposefully speaking to her in a way that she could not understand when there was clearly an easier way to communicate?

So...fast-forward several years and I have one very monolingual four-year-old who has shown no interest in learning a second language...

until the past few weeks...

when she began spending one day a week at a friend's house who has a Spanish-speaking babysitter.  Her little friend, also a native English speaker, has been with this babysitter since she was one-year-old.  My daughter has been observing her friend and caregiver interact with one another in Spanish.

Guess who asked me to teach her Spanish last night at dinner?  Yep!  My sweet little Miss I-don't-want-to-try-it-if-I-can't-do-it-right-the-first-time has found a reason to make an exception to her personality!

Okay, so how does this apply to your classroom?  I am guessing that you have at least one student with a similar personality to my daughter's (and mine).  Some possible indicators:

• Does he score Advanced on a reading proficiency test but is still rated as a Beginning English speaker?
• Does she only use the minimum social language required to communicate for fear of making mistakes with the academic language?
• Does he comfortably speak in his second language in one-to-one conversations with other students but won't speak in L2 in front of the entire class?
• Will she only check out library books in her first language?
• Does he only want to create Writing Workshop pieces in his first language?

If the child doesn't seem to have the WILL to take the next step, we must create an authentic NEED that will give them a reason to make some exceptions.  One of the best ways to create a need is to provide an environment the student will want to be a part of and where the L2 must be used.  

I have found a few ways to do this in my own classroom.  Pairing up with a monolingual classroom at another grade level gave my students a reason to select library books in their L2 to share with those students.  Writing a thank-you letter to our monolingual PE teacher to thank her for a fun field day gave my students a reason to write in English.  Asking students to think, pair, and share during English lessons gave students the opportunity to practice their L2 with just one person before being asked to speak in front of the class.

I would love to know ways that you create authentic needs for your students to want to communicate in a second language!  And, I will keep you posted on our slow process of becoming a more bilingual family!

Importance of Environmental Print in Spanish & English

Many years ago, when I was attending a district training on Balanced Literacy, I first heard about incorporating the use of Environmental Print.  It made so much sense to me to use what students already know as a foundation for building new literacy understanding.  As I began to read more, I discovered a lesson from one of my favorite sites at the time, www.readwritethink.org.  I loved the ideas for involving emergent readers in all sorts of higher order thinking activities using labels and logos that are familiar to them.  Students can sort the print according to its purpose, whether they like it or don't like it, whether it is something they use in the home or not, etc.  Of course, they can do lots of word study and sort according to initial letter, number of syllables, and much more.

Many environmental print compilations can be found online in English so I put together some in Spanish to supplement those sets.  Find them here for free! There are seven pages to print and I will try to add more as I think of them.  Feel free to add your suggestions!

You can find links below to several of the English sets as well as more research about using environmental print with our bilingual and dual language students.

• Very interesting research article about the impact of environmental print in Spanish and English on Mexican immigrants growing up as emergent biliterates in the US
• More explanation from Colorin Colorado about using ways to incorporate environmental print at home and at school
• This school district has put together a thorough parent handout about environmental print with multiple activities with directions in Spanish and English.
• Mrs. Hubbard's Cupboard has many more PDF files to print for English environmental print that our bilingual kids are sure to know (Walmart, McDonald's, etc).  She also shows lots of ways to use environmental print in early literacy centers.
• Lessons from ReadWriteThink.org -  Bingo: Using Environmental Print to Practice Reading and Stop Signs, McDonalds, and Cheerios: Writing with Environmental Print, 
• Sharon MacDonald provides suggestions for incorporating environmental print in all subjects!

I would love to know how you have incorporated environmental print! 

Activating Prior Knowledge: Alphaboxes/Cuadros del alfabeto

According to Stra-tiques (which you still have a chance to win TODAY), "Alphaboxes is an activity that expands vocabulary and supports critical thinking on a given topic."  Similar to using the familiar K-W-L chart, Alphaboxes invite students to brainstorm words related to the topic of which they are about to read and study.

What preparation do you need?  Just a big ol' sheet of chart paper (I think chart paper is always the most expensive line item in my class budget...that AND sticky notes!) and markers.  Draw a 5x6 grid and write one letter of the alphabet in the top corner each of the squares.  You'll only actually use 26 of those 30 squares so don't stress if you find yourself with a few leftovers!

With younger students, I recommend having the class meet together on the floor to brainstorm aloud as you think through words related to the topic one letter at a time.  Be warned that this can take a LOONNNGGG time the first few times that you do it.  Learning to quickly activate one's own schema is a skill.  You may receive lengthy pauses as little minds try to skim through their mental file folders and locate relevant information.  Students, even the young ones, will get better and faster at doing this the more you give them the opportunity.  If needed, brainstorm part of the alphabet one day and come back to it the second day.  While it may feel like you are losing instructional time, you will definitely see the benefit in the long run of teaching your unit.

With older students that have experience doing Alphaboxes, let them work in small groups on their own charts.  After allowing them a set time, have them post their charts around the room and then have the students move in carousel format around the room from chart to chart.  They can read and discuss words on the chart as well as add in even more words to their classmates' charts.

Just as you would with a K-W-L chart, an Alphaboxes chart definitely becomes an anchor chart for your unit of study that you will continue to revisit throughout the entire study.  Words may eventually be crossed out if they are determined to be irrelevant and new words should definitely be added.  You might even choose to assess students' individual growth at the end of the unit by having them complete their own mini-Alphaboxes chart.

You can see below other ways that teachers have used Alphaboxes:

• Martin Luther King, Jr. Alphaboxes completed with computer clip art by 4th and 5th graders
• Lori @ Conversations in Literacy explains how she uses Alphaboxes charts with small groups in K-5th grades to boost vocabulary and comprehension.

Have you tried using Alphaboxes in your own classroom?  If so, please leave a comment here with any tips or ideas you may have.  Have a post about Alphaboxes?  Leave a link here too!

Stra-tiques Giveaway/Activating Prior Knowledge

Last week, I wrote a post about the importance of activating prior knowledge.  While it is necessary to assess students' prior knowledge at the beginning of each and every lesson and unit, it is especially crucial at the beginning of the school year as you begin to mine the gems of knowledge that lie in the minds of your students.  

This week, I will be sharing a few of my favorite ways to do this and I'm hoping you will share your ideas with us.  In turn, you will have the chance to receive a copy of this resource with even more ideas.

To enter, please follow the directions below.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So, here's my Activating Prior Knowledge tip for today!

I love using this Vocabulary Knowledge Rating sheet with grades second and up.  Even if students can't read, the ScreenBeans explain themselves.  You can provide a list of vocabulary words and phrases and have students copy the words into the column that best fits their knowledge of the term.


As students are writing and reflecting, walk around the room and take note of which words commonly end up on the left side of the sheet and which end up on the right.  This can really help you know how to focus your time!


Throughout the lesson or unit, ask students to revisit their rating sheets and have them draw arrows from the word to the column that currently represents their level of understanding.  Yes, these sheets do get ugly and that's okay.  Meta-cognition can be messy!

If you want to try this with younger students, you can use the same pictures and post them in the four corners of your room.  Display a word or phrase and read it aloud.  Ask students to move to the corner that best fits their knowledge of that term.

What if students lie misrepresent their understanding?  Don't stress about it!  The goal is to get students to begin thinking about their own thinking.  It is a gradual process but a worthwhile one!

Conocimiento previo/Prior knowledge: Just how important is it?

Earlier this week, I walked into my girls' room to find the scene pictured above.  Before you presume that they were reenacting a story from 48 Hours Mystery, let me provide some additional information.  You see, both of my girls are and have always been tummy sleepers (since they were capable of rolling over as infants).  So, when they are playing with dolls and it is time for them to go bed, of course they will sleep on their tummies too!

There is something about this picture that just makes me laugh every time I see it!  Of course, I am always amazed by how what I saw for years in the classroom is now reflected by my own little ones and I get to witness it up close every day.

What does this picture tell me?
We all make sense of our world by the experiences we have had up to the present time.  

So, as educators, no matter how awesome our standards are (Common Core, TEKS, whatever), if we don't understand the prior knowledge our kids bring to the classroom, we will be making lots of incorrect assumptions and our teaching will inevitably come up short.

Next week, I will be featuring several strategies for accessing students' prior knowledge from a resource called Stra-tiques that is produced by EL Saber Enterprises.  Of course, I don't want to just tell you about the resource without giving one away so stay tuned on Monday, July 30th for how you can win your very own copy of Stra-tiques to use with your students.

In the meantime, be thinking about the strategies you enjoy using to find out what your students already know.  I can't wait to learn more ideas from you!

Instead of "I don't know"

Okay, before you read any further, please go read this article over at ReadingRockets.org.  

If you read the article (PLEASE tell me you did!), you read this important paragraph:

Essentially, teachers can elicit more from the less proficient or reticent students if they consider various response options and then enlarge their response repertoires in order to encourage students' participation and help develop their language proficiencies.

Another favorite paragraph from the article says this:

An important distinction made by Cazden (2001) is that teachers are responsible for both the affective and academic aspects of effective classrooms and classroom talk. Teachers can direct classroom discourse so that both these goals are targeted and supported. For example, teachers can accept, deny, recast, expand, or encourage elaboration of students' responses. "Success for students in culturally diverse classrooms depends on the degree to which there are strategies that encourage all students to talk and work together" (DeVillar & Faltis, 1991). 

As we think of starting a new school year, I think one of the best supports we can provide students is a way to communicate if they need help or more support.  If you are a Texas teacher rating students with the TELPAS, you know that one of the criteria to move up listening proficiency levels is the ability to ask the speaker to repeat, slow down, rephrase, or clarify.  

Some time during the first week of school, ask your students to brainstorm with you a list of ways to request help.  Post the charts at their eye level at your meeting rug so they can be referred to as needed.  Role play their use together so that even non-readers will be able to use them when they need to.  

As the article states, we as teachers often let the "silent period" last too long.  When we do that, we begin to unintentionally communicate to the silent ones that we think they really have nothing worthy saying.  The very beginning of the school year is the perfect time to establish a classroom culture of valuing each student's voice!

I would love to see the posters you brainstorm with your students!  Feel free to leave a link in the comments below so that we can get more ideas from you!

Literacy Lesson: Spanish Poems for Visualization

In the Exploring Nonfiction Teacher Resource Notebook that came with my Time for Kids Exploring Nonfiction kit, I read these words: 

Experienced educators recognize the truth in the old adage, "A picture is worth a thousand words."  Visualization -- seeing the words of a text as mental images in the mind -- is a significant factor setting apart proficient readers from low-achieving ones.  Studies have shown that the ability to generate vivid images while reading strongly correlates with a person's comprehension of text.  However, research has also revealed that 20 percent of all children do not visualize or experience sensory images when reading.  These children are automatically handicapped in their ability to comprehend text, and they are usually the students who avoid and dislike reading because they never connect to text in a personal, meaningful way.




Wow!  I read those words ten years ago and have since kept them in my big binder of reading strategies.  That 20% statistic just stuck with me.  It just makes me so sad to think of those kids that do not enjoy reading because they have never experienced the ability to create their own mental images of the text they read.

Enter Shel Silverstein and his awesome poems for visualization.  They are perfect for helping elementary students create mental images!  You can see these poems below that I used on English days to model my own visualization and then the students practiced with the Spanish poems from Silverstein's book Batacazos and Donde el camino se corta.  We had so much fun!  Of course, I forgot to take pictures of their work but you can download the poems here for free!  I would love to see what your students come up with!

 

 

 

 

Frame It! Lightening the Linguistic Load!

My husband and I are promoters.  When we find a business or restaurant we like, we tell everyone about it!  We want everyone else to love our new favorite thing as much as we do.

That is how I feel about language frames.

I love them!  I believe in them!  I have seen them work over and over!

On Saturday, I spent the day with some fantastic teachers from Lufkin ISD and Nacogdoches ISD.  I led a session on using language frames to build academic language.  Because I always need an analogy, I titled the training, "It Just Needs a Little Salt:  Using Language Frames to Preserve and Flavor Your Content Lessons."

I believe that language frames are one of the simplest and most effective language acquisition strategies available to us.  Like salt, language frames are a small, CHEAP thing that can go a long way in preserving and flavoring the academic language of your lessons.


Ever since I first learned about language frames, I find a way to work one in to every lesson that I have planned.  I think they are especially important in the bilingual and dual-language classroom.  Teachers are often concerned that students are not using the target language when doing group work.  I believe that it is fine for students to process in their dominant language as long as they can ultimately produce the product in the target language.

The video above is from a small group math tutoring session where I had just introduced the game Multiplication Rio.  As you can hear, the students' natural tendency would be to just use Spanish but I gave them the frame #  multiplied by # is equal to #.  BAM!  This little math game is now doubly effective as these girls practice math while getting in a little English Language Development at the same time!

Want to read more about using language frames in the classroom?

• This document has organized sample language frames according to the language function (cause and effect, compare and contrast, summarizing, etc.) and has them color-coded according to language proficiency level.
• This site explains how one primary teacher uses language frames to build vocabulary.
• This upper grade science teacher shares how sentence frames make for richer discussions.
• Some of my very favorite researchers/authors Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey write here about the importance of using sentence frames to lighten the linguistic load so that students can focus on the content.

Do you use language frames in your classroom?  How have they made a difference with your students?

Literacy Lesson: Kicking off Reading Strategy Study with an Online Game

Don't forget to enter to win a Spanish/English Vocabulary program focused on word roots. Go here for more information!  The giveaway ends Friday at noon.

In searching Pinterest for bilingual/dual goodies, I saw that Susan Orozco had posted a link to http://www.rtve.es/infantil/ which is the children's site of the Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española.  There are all sorts of online games available through the site.  Some do not seem educational at all (Bob Esponja? UGH!) but there are quite a few really good games that would make great computer centers or excellent whole class SMARTBoard activities to kick off the study of a new reading strategy. 

For example, this game is called Las 7 Diferencias.  It displays two elaborate pictures and you have to click on seven things that are different between the two pictures.  What a perfect way to begin talking with your little guys about semejanzas y diferencias? 

Maybe you are working on describing words or characterization.  Have you ever played the Guess Who? Board Game?   ¿Quién es quién? is an online version of that game and it is so much fun!  I may have just wasted invested the past half-hour playing it myself.  In order to guess the person that your partner has chosen, you pick from a long list of questions to guess who they are "thinking" of.  Based on your computer partner's answer, you must go through your grid of pictures and eliminate all of the people that do not match that criteria.  Awesome critical thinking opportunities for our little guys!
 

I used to always "anchor" my reading strategy studies with a favorite picture book.  I would call my students to practice a strategy by reminding them of the book that we had read when we first learned about how to use that strategy.  I still believe in the power of mentor/anchor texts but why not anchor with a game as well?  Seriously, so fun!  Okay, I think I'm going to go back and play ¿Quién es quién? one more time!  :) 

My big fat (WRITING) secret!

I have a secret.  It's the secret to getting your kids to write better and more.  

What's the secret?  Before they write, you absolutely MUST let them TALK!  

Very few kids (or adults) like to revise or edit.  When they write their first draft, it is usually the best they know to do at the time.  Because of that, we don't ever use the term "sloppy copy"!

If there was something you as the teacher could do to improve that first draft, would you want to do it?  I'm telling you.  Let them TALK before the write!!!

One of my favorite ways to do this is with Inside-Outside Circles.  I split my class into two groups.  Sometimes those groups are random but usually I secretly group them according to language level or writing ability to make it even more productive.  Half of the students make the inside circle (facing outwards) and the other half form an outside circle facing an inside circle partner.  

I stand in the very middle of the circle (mushpot anyone?) so I can easily listen in on the different conversations.  The inside partner shares what he/she is going to write about (a verbal rough draft).  The outside circle partner listens as an active listener so he/she can TAG at the end.

After about 2-3 minutes of sharing and TAGging, I call for partners to switch roles and repeat the process.  Then (this is VERY IMPORTANT), I have the outside circle move clockwise so that everyone has a new partner.  Each student needs at least a second or third opportunity to verbally revise their draft.  Some may need to abandon their first idea and try out a new one.  They also need the chance to interact with different partners that will provide examples of quality drafts as well as constructive feedback.

Once students have shared their writing with at least 2-3 other partners, I send them to their tables to begin writing.  It is amazing the difference that talking makes!  Their juices are just flowing!  You know those students that are typically slow-starters when it comes to writing?  They get up to sharpen their pencils, they go to the restroom, they try to distract other students.  Why?  They don't know what they want to say!  But, if they have talked and listened to others' ideas, they are so much more likely to get right to work.  

I have tried this with students in grades Kindergarten through sixth grade and with adults.  The time that you invest in talking will pay off dividends in higher quality writing.

Okay, so my secret is out or maybe you already knew.  Have you tried talking before writing?  Did it make a difference with your students?