The process of choosing good teaching materials for teaching English Language Learners needs to be student-centered. That may seem obvious, but there is a lot of pressure to just choose Common Core content and drill it home. Yes, we need to make sure they get the content, but that is probably going to require something beyond repetition and rote memory. It needs to be relevant to them and delivered in a manner they can absorb. We, the teachers, need to find alternative ways to deliver the content that builds on the English Language Learner's background knowledge.
Sometimes. when we hear the words background knowledge, our minds go waaaaayyyy back to the student's cultural and linguistic roots. Yes, those are important things to build on, but sometimes the background knowledge is just what you have helped the students acquire in the last few days or weeks in your class (Fisher, Ross & Grant, 2010). Pay attention to their production. They probably know more than you are giving them credit for. It may also be something you have discovered about the student's learning style.
In my Masters Degree class this week, we had to choose a book that was related to a lesson plan we had started to develop. My lesson plan was for teaching Common Core US History. I was focusing on the difficult language of some quotes from the Framers of The Constitution that can be found on the New York State Standardized Regents Exams. The State provides some glossaries to help ENL students, but those don't help to contextualize the vocabulary. The teacher can place those glossaries into the content by pulling out the specific vocabulary from the glossaries and making more limited lists for each page or chapter of content. You may also be able to find materials that do this for you. I found a great graphic adaptation of the history of the United States Constitution that is detailed and highlights important vocabulary. Since many learners learn visually at least to some extent, graphic novels can be a good alternative to black letters on white pages.
- Dan
Sometimes. when we hear the words background knowledge, our minds go waaaaayyyy back to the student's cultural and linguistic roots. Yes, those are important things to build on, but sometimes the background knowledge is just what you have helped the students acquire in the last few days or weeks in your class (Fisher, Ross & Grant, 2010). Pay attention to their production. They probably know more than you are giving them credit for. It may also be something you have discovered about the student's learning style.
In my Masters Degree class this week, we had to choose a book that was related to a lesson plan we had started to develop. My lesson plan was for teaching Common Core US History. I was focusing on the difficult language of some quotes from the Framers of The Constitution that can be found on the New York State Standardized Regents Exams. The State provides some glossaries to help ENL students, but those don't help to contextualize the vocabulary. The teacher can place those glossaries into the content by pulling out the specific vocabulary from the glossaries and making more limited lists for each page or chapter of content. You may also be able to find materials that do this for you. I found a great graphic adaptation of the history of the United States Constitution that is detailed and highlights important vocabulary. Since many learners learn visually at least to some extent, graphic novels can be a good alternative to black letters on white pages.- Dan
Reference
Fisher, D., Ross, D., & Grant, M. (2010). Building background knowledge. The Science Teacher, 77(1), 23-26.
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