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Strengthening Your ESL Students’ Skills : Practical Strategies That Work. ESL Students Need…. Time Cognitively Demanding Work Comprehensible Input Multiple Evaluations Modified Lessons Variety of “Reinforcing” Activities. It Takes Eight Years to Learn a Language!!.
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Strengthening Your ESL Students’ Skills :Practical Strategies That Work
ESL Students Need… • Time • Cognitively Demanding Work • Comprehensible Input • Multiple Evaluations • Modified Lessons • Variety of “Reinforcing” Activities
It Takes Eight Years to Learn a Language!! • Every lesson needs to be introduced, reinforced and mastered. • Break skills into micro steps and repeat them many times. • Do not expect mastery for a long time. • “It takes as long as it takes.”
ESL Students Need Cognitively Demanding Work • Input should be slightly higher than their independent level. • It should be context embedded (lots of pictures, visual clues, facial expressions and gestures.)
ESL Students Need Comprehensible Input • Use preview and review method. • Give strong warm-ups for each lesson. • Demonstrate lessons, assign students partners. • Emphasize vocabulary development.
ESL Students Need Several Different Evaluations • Ask students to show understanding • Pointing - Can you point to …? • Drawing - Can you draw a picture showing …? • Oral directions - Can you pick up the pencil? • Ask students to give opinions and defend them. • Invite applications and analyses of cause and effect.
A Modified Science Lesson • Warm-up • Start by backing up • Give students opportunities to work with pictures or real objects. • During the Lesson- • Present new vocabulary with vivid illustrations (comprehensible)
After the lesson: • Have pairs of students retell the lesson together. • Have students redraw the lesson in six pictures. • Have students label or create phrases for each picture. • Have students play “concentration” matching game with pictures and words.
Games, Songs, Choral Readings and “Blab” Sessions are all tools.