Great Internet Sites for ELL Students

Annotated Technology Bibliography for Students, Teachers and Parents

1.     http://www.eslpod.com/website/show_podcast.php?issue_id=9356565

·       English café 262

·       For teachers and students (grades 5th to 12th)

This site offers a variety of updated podcasts on news subjects for all students but at a level that is accessible to ELL students. A description provides a short introduction with attached extras for teachers like quizzes.  Preview all podcasts to determine appropriateness for elementary and middle school students.  Each podcast is not rated for grade level.

2.     http://eflclassroom.ning.com

·       EFL Classroom 2.0

·       For teachers, students and tech-savvy parents (grades K-3^rd)

This site provides assistance for beginning readers by projecting illustrated stories utilizing select rhyming vocabulary.  Games are designed to incorporate vocabulary learned with the stories.  Site is divided into sections for teaching, learning and playing and includes an area for purchasing further resources.  Parents will need to have a good background for utilizing technology to access site.  However, downloadable resources are accessible to send home with students.

3.     http://www.mrsp.com/v1/mrsp.html

·       Mrs. P.’s Magic Library

·       For teachers, students and parents (grades K-9th)

This site is an exceptionally valuable tool for ELL students and teachers of emergent readers. Mrs. P. reads a story as students follow the words on the screen. Design a corner of the room for viewing Mrs. P reading the stories.  Have copies of stories for students to follow along or allow them to just follow along on the computer screen.  Her reading voice if phenomenal and truly brings the students into the book.

Be sure to share the web site at back-to-school night or on your teacher web page for parents and student) to access at home.

4.     http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids.htm

·       Learn English Kids

·       For teachers and students (grades 3^rd-12^th)

This British site provides teachers and students with an amazing amount of ELL activities.    The categories on the site include “Play a game,” “Print some activities to do,” “Listen to a song,” “Read a story,” “Practice your writing,” and “Find lots more activities.” Each category is differentiated and scaffolded and provides activity extensions for remediation and/or further participation

5.     http://www.rif.org/kids/leadingtoreading/en/leadingtoreading.htm

·       RIF Learning to Read

·       Teachers, students and parents (grades K-2^nd)

This interactive site from Reading is Fundamental shares activities for preschool and early childhood students.  Books are read aloud, audio songs and nursery rhymes with the words on screen and much more can be found on this site.  It is also available in Spanish by clicking on the top right of the site.  Many books are available with both English and Spanish on the screen.  Playing the books over and over for ELL students is a plus as well as using the site through a whiteboard to include all students in the reading process.

6.     http://www.pinkydinkydoo.com/index.html

·       Pinky Dinky Doo

·       Teachers, students and parents (grades K-2^nd)

Pinky Dinky Doo is a cartoon character who teaches children the storytelling and solving while introducing them to colorful vocabulary.  ELL teachers can use the retelling option for vocabulary development .Students watch a storytelling episode on the classroom computer and then retell it by using the site to create a comic strip of the story.

List this link on your class website so students and parents can access it at home.

7.     http://www.sightwordswithsamson.com/sw/sight_words.asp

·       Sight Words with Samson

·       Teachers, students and parents (grades 1^st-3^rd)

This is a great site that takes you into the world of Samson who helps students learns sight words from 28 different lists. There are four steps at this site:

• ·       Learn Words
• ·       Build Words
• ·       Identify Words
• ·       Quiz

This site allows ELL students to benefit from having the opportunity to practice their listening and spelling skills simultaneously.  The four steps allow for learning, practicing, and reinforcement for words that are difficult for English Language Learners. It is also useful in differentiating spelling lessons in a regular.  Provide the resource to parents via newsletter or website to encourage accessing at home.

8.     http://www.de.mingoville.com/content/view/13/29/lang,en/

·       Mingoville

·       Teachers, students and tech-savvy parents (grades 2^nd-8^th)

Mingoville is a Danish site that features survival "Mission" activities designed to help English learners build vocabulary, practice, and share short stories. Topics include clothes, the body, food, sports, etc.; Listening and reading occur simultaneously and there are extra activities, exercises, games, and songs for further extension. An online dictionary is also available.  Definitely a site that can be used at home but parents need some technology knowledge to navigate the site.

9.     http://acacia.pntic.mec.es/agip0002/auro/inicio.html

·       English Interactive

·       Teachers and students (Grades 2^nd-10^th)

This site is specifically for ESL students and includes topics such as, grammar, culture, and vocabulary at three levels for English learners.  It is an extremely helpful site for Hispanic teachers and learners in that many of the instructions are in English and Spanish. The activities are highly interactive and provide great feedback to the user. Clicking "P" on the left side of the interface provides printable reviews of many topics, especially grammar, all in English.

10.   http://www.openenglishworld.com/

·       Open English World

·       Teachers and Students (Grades 8^th-12^th)

This site should be marked as a favorite on your classroom computer for older students.  Assign ELL students to check it weekly for a new idiomatic expression. Newer ESL and ELL students may find the translation feature helpful. The site also provides foreign language options that could be useful for students who speak German, French, Spanish, or Chinese.  Definitely a great site for helping older ELL students learn the colloquial sayings of our language.

Week #7 - Blog #10

“Homework provides students with opportunities to practice, review, and apply knowledge.  Homework is an effective means of extending student learning beyond the school day”.  (Hill & Flynn, 2006)  

After much reading during this class I have come to the following conclusions:

1. Generally, ELLs come into our classrooms from a variety of countries with a diverse set of experiences. They face the daunting tasks of adjusting to a new home and cultural environment, learning a new language, making new friends, and making sense of the rules, appropriate behaviors, and mechanics of a new school. At the same time ELL students are experiencing many losses and trying to “fit in” with their new surroundings. This challenge is quite often overwhelming, resulting in well-known “culture shock” and an inability to do homework on top of struggling with all the other issues.  As teachers we need to help them overcome this "culture shock" and then slowly introduce them to homework.  Doing that in a reasonable time frame will help encourage homework success with ELL students.

2. Many ELLs come from backgrounds that virtually eliminate the possibility of homework because of family/economic obligations. For example, Spanish-speaking families often are large and close knit, and children are assigned duties at home (helping with younger siblings—eating, dressing them, babysitting, cooking, helping elderly grandparents), as well as numerous other chores that leave little or no time for homework. Additionally, migrant Spanish-speaking families often are at or below the poverty level, and children help with earning money for economic survival, often doing jobs that are physically exhausting (e.g., picking fruit or vegetables). ELLs of Asian heritage often work in family businesses (e.g., restaurants) at young ages and are expected to work until late in the evening and on weekends as well. This leaves little or no time for homework.  As Morrow indicates in her text Literacy Development in the Early Years, it is imperative to know the culture, background and family situation of our ELL students.  Accommodations in regards to homework may be necessary because of the above.
 

3.  Homework is generally an American tradition in education, which is questioned even by traditional English-speaking communities. Other cultures/countries do not have homework as a rule, heavily emphasizing social and family skills outside of school over continued schoolwork at home. This includes various ethnic, religious, or family obligations that take time from additional schoolwork.  Although we know homework is important for ELL students we also need to understand what some of the family expectations are in regards to homework and work with those expectations to keep a good rapport with family members.

4.  When assigning homework, educators often make the assumption that parents will be involved with their children. ELLs who have no one at home who speaks, reads, or writes English are at a distinct disadvantage when doing homework.  We need to provide homework that is understandable, independent and successful for our ELL students.


I believe in homework as a means to practice new knowledge for all students.  This class has certainly made me rethink my policy in regards to my ELL students.  I know that I need to be aware of the cultural and family background of my ELL students so that I can assign homework that will be beneficial to them and successful as well.

 

Week #6 - Blog #9

We began a unit on South America and the issues regarding the Brazilian Rainforest.  To introduce the unit I used two texts, The Great Kapok Tree  by Lynne Cherry and Planet Earth:  Amazing Animals of the Rainforest by Tracey West.  Both are excellent resources for gathering information about the rainforest.  Definitely, because they are both in a picture book format, they are very visual for my ELL students.


Students worked in groups of four.  Using a copy of each of the texts the groups created a Tree Map for each text, utilizing the map to gather information about the five layers of the rainforest:  water, forest floor, understory, canopy, and emergent.  Each branch of the tree map was used to capture their thinking about the plants, animals, insects, etc. that are found in each layers.  An example of a blank Tree Map is shown below:

 

As I walked around the room I listened in on conversations in the groups about the books they were using to help them create the Tree Map.  Amazingly, the things I was worried about in regards to the West text were actually positives for the ELL students in the groups.  The text is divided up into smaller text boxes with short concise sentences.  Each box has a visual connected to it.  Some of the vocabulary is a little difficult but the book has a glossary in the back that is written in fairly elementary terms.

In the Cherry fiction story the text is fairly intensive for a picture book.  With support from their peers, the ELL students were able to glean information from this text as well but not to the extent that they were able to do so with the West nonfiction text.  Because it is a fiction text with facts it was a little more difficult to find the information they wanted.

I had also provided copies of pictures from both books that the students were allowed to cut up and paste on their Tree Maps.  This particular Thinking Map is an excellent graphic organizer to use with ELL students because it uses words and pictures and is very linear in its classification.  These Tree Maps provided a means to create a mental image of the layers of the rainforest that certainly helps all students elaborate on their new knowledge. (Hill & Flynn, 2006)  Words and pictures can help all levels of ELL students in acquiring information about the rainforest.  Even more importantly, this type of graphic organizer will also encourage all levels of ELL students to get involved in the collaborative activity.

Week #5 - Blog #8

I was unable to access the video link that we were given so I researched the Internet for a site with alternative videos.  I found the Center for Applied Linguistics and downloaded a video on a 6th grade humanities lesson on the English Founding America.  Robin Liten-Tejada's class is from Gunston Middle School in Virginia.

The narrator's introduction of the lesson indicated that the class consisted of  advanced beginning ELL students.  The site also provided a copy of the SIOP lesson plan (website) which was an added bonus and helped me follow what was going on in the lesson.

I particularly liked the introduction of the lesson where Ms. Liten-Tejada specifically stated the content and language objectives to the students.  She chunked each objective into understandable sections and clarified any vocabulary that was difficult for them.  Questions were addressed to solidify understanding of the content and language objectives.

The instructor moved onto the motivation section of the lesson by dividing the class into groups of three.  Each group was given a piece of newsprint and markers and asked to brainstorm reasons why people immigrate to the United States in modern times.  To connect to their own backgrounds she asked them to think about why their families had moved here or why friends they knew had moved here.  After creating their own lists the groups shared their ideas while the teacher compiled them on a class poster.  As each idea was added groups crossed them off their own lists.  When the class list was completed each student came up to the new chart and put a colored sticker next to the main reason their own family had come to America.  This helped the students buy into the list and own the class' brainstorming.  In their journals they then completed the following statement "I predict the most common reason our families came....  They saved the chart and their journaling for comparisons later in the lesson.

Robin then moved to the presentation  section of the lesson to connect what they just did, modern reasons for coming to America, to their current unit of student about colonization of America by England and Spain.  On a chart next to the previous class chart the teacher had the students compile a list of why the Pilgrims and the Spanish came to America.  She used a map that showed where the English and the Spanish settled in the eastern section of America.

The instructor then moved onto the practice section to preview the chapter of their text on why the English came to America.  Using clues from pictures, captions, bolded lettering, etc. the small groups came up with people and places from the chapter preview.  The groups then came back together to make a third chart using sentence strips the teacher had previously created with people and places from these text chapter.  The students put the strips in the correct column on a chart marked people and places.  They then copied the new vocabulary from the sentence strips in their journals.

The final activity, review, was completed using a map of the original thirteen colonies where the students, in their small groups, marked the places they will be studying in this unit.  The teacher talked through each of the places they marked on the maps and then allowed them to color each place a separate color.  They then glued the map into their journals for future reference.  

Ms. Liten-Tejada seemed to have a good handle on the structure of a SIOP lesson plan as explained in Hill and Flynn's text, Classroom Instruction That Works With English Language Learners.  She had visuals available for the class and ad constructed short, simple sentences on the strips the class used.  Her introductory section relied heavily on prior content and the students made great connections to current reasons families come to America to historical reasons the English came to America.  She made great eye contact with the class and was extremely articulate in her explanation of the assignment.  Her facial

Week #4 - Blog #7

This activity was one of those activities that you wish you didn't have to do, especially when you have almost no training or experience with Running Records.  Before my school bag and computer were stolen I had a running record for two kindergartens at Goddard.  I had to improvise after the theft.  At my school I sponsor an after school homework club and asked a couple of our ELL families if I could do a Running Record with two of our students' siblings.  Anthony W. is a Hispanic third grader and brother to Dominick.  Julie E. is a Thai female and sister to Jaimie.  I borrowed a DRA text from a friend who teaches at the elementary level.  I could not attach the test form to this but e-mailed a copy to my professor for her perusal.  Not being an expert at this type of testing I will try to make some educated recommendations for the two students.

Anthony completed the text with a minimal amount of errors.  He operated at an independent level on this particular text.  The DRA level was a 12 on the story, The Great Pumpkin.  His significant error was in regards to contractions, a syntax error.  He read both as though they were not a contraction, indicating that he understands what they are.  From my limited Spanish background, I do know that contractions are not used and thus Anthony does not have a lot of practice in using them in his native tongue.  It would be good to go over contractions with him, their purpose, their construction and their usage.  Some short independent practice on contractions and then a reassessment should be sufficient.

Julie completed the same text also with a minimal amount of errors.  She operated at an independent level on this particular text.  Her significant error had to do with vocabulary, mistaking great for giant and struggling twice with the word cradle, prompting intervention from the teacher.  Helping to refresh Julie's word attack skills would help her make sense of the words she struggled with on this particular reading selection.

Morrow, in her text Literacy Development in the Early Years:  Helping Children Read and Write, recommends Running Records be given once a month to track students' progress with reading.  Certainly, they could be a valuable tool in judging the progress made by ELL students as they work at acquiring reading skills.  It is recommended, however, that another tool or method be utilized to assess fluency as Running Records really have no section that does that.

Week #3 - Blog #6

Week #2 - Blog #5

The Story of the Easter Bunny--How the Easter bunny came to have his job is told with child-like wonder in The Story of the Easter Bunny by Katherine Tegen, illus. by Sally Anne Lambert. When a "round old couple" who diligently worked year after year painting eggs, weaving baskets and making chocolates can no longer do the work, their pet rabbit takes on the task himself. Muted watercolors of an endearingly antiquated town and the couple's cozy home add to the sweetness of the story. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

The Easter Egg--Jan Brett's finely detailed watercolor and gouache art is a showstopper, spotlighting lifelike—though nattily clad—rabbits decorating eggs in hopes of winning the role of the Easter Rabbit's helper. Hoppi is awed by bunnies' creations, which include an ornate chocolate egg and a “whirling, twirling mechanical egg.” But when an egg tumbles out of a robin's nest, he keeps it safe until the baby bird hatches. Borders of twigs, pussy willows, daffodils, and ferns add greatly to the warm, visually sumptuous setting of this gentle spring story. 

For traditional Hispanic people, Easter has a very Catholic origin, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The concept of the Easter bunny and the Easter egg is not a part of that tradition.  When I talked with Giovanni and Dominick about these two books they did have a little background knowledge about the Easter bunny and Easter eggs because they have been in the United States for a while and have actually participated in an Easter egg hunt at a friend's home for Easter.  

Yet, they truly didn't feel as if they understood how the bunny and the egg have become part of a truly religious holiday for them.  We read through each of the texts together and then talked about the stories behind these two traditions.  I also pulled out information from the internet regarding the genesis of the Easter bunny and the Easter egg and how they have been integrated into the religious background of Easter here in the United States.  

Being Catholic I think that I have a grasp of where Giovanni and Dominick are coming from in regards to Easter. As Morrow suggests, I feel that I understand the cultural aspects and diversity these two boys bring to their understanding of Easter.  Hopefully while working through these two picture books I was able to extend their understanding of traditions that have become a part of America's celebration of Easter.  To help solidify these two culturally oriented aspects of Easter we decided to make a double-bubble thinking map (have already used these in class) about Easter in America and Easter in Mexico.  Using the texts and their background info about Easter in Mexico and Easter in America I was able to supplement information while they created their thinking map.  They did an excellent job and created a thorough and colorful double-bubble map about Easter.  Our ELL resource teacher is going to let them present their map to her one sixth grade which consists mainly of Hispanic ELL students.

Week #2 - Blog #4

I love reading Stephen King and had access to a copy of Cujo  in Spanish.  Needless to say my assumption that I would be able to translate the text because I knew the story was definitely in error. I was truly frustrated at how powerless I felt while staring at the text that made no sense to me.

I decided to scale back to a smaller portion of the text and apply the reading strategies to that small section.  The first thing I attempted to do was to apply my background knowledge to the portion of the text I chose.  Using my previous knowledge of English and French as well as my previous knowledge of the plot of the text (from viewing the movie) I was able to locate and decode words that I was able to translate.  However, in isolation, they were not really a key to understanding the text.  But, initially I felt some sense of accomplishment for having decoded the previously unknown words.


The text did not have any pictures that I could refer to that would provide me with some visual clues for decoding.  I therefore moved to sounding out the words.  Because I am more than proficient in my native language I was able to accurately articulate some of the text, but being able to do so did not provide me with meaning for the words I was able to say.  

My frustration level was extremely high at the moment so I walked away from the text for a few moments.  In doing so I had this incredible moment of clarity as I realized the feelings that I was experiencing were very much like the ones an ELL student feels when tackling a text in English.  Certainly because they are proficient in their native tongue does not mean that they will be able to translate a text given in English in the classroom.  Keeping that in mind I returned to the text.


While continuing to work with the small section of the text I had chosen I decided to try and ask questions about what I was trying to read in Spanish.  I wrote down a couple I had and tried to go through the text and answer the questions I had written down.  Picking out key words that I could translate easily I answered one of the questions but not the other.  I finally decided to get a Spanish/English dictionary to help with the process and was able to make some meaning.  However, even though the section I had chosen made sense and I was able to retell and summarize, the process was extremely time consuming.  How can I make the process easier for my students?  If I felt this frustrated with reading a text that I had some background knowledge about, how do my students feel when attacking a new text in class?


Definitely, I need to front load the reading by providing vocabulary and tools that will help them when they get stuck (i.e., dictionaries, thesaurus, etc.)  I also need to provide pictures to help with vocabulary and texts that are at an appropriate level for my ELLS that provides the information they need at a level they can comprehend.


THIS WAS HARD!!!

Week #1 - Blog #3

Armbruster and Lehr, in their text Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read, have noted that oral language development is crucial to literacy development.  "It is a key indicator of children's reading ability."  

Reflecting on all our reading has shown me that as the diversity of the United States increases so does the need for oral language experiences in our classroom increase.  We must provide print rich environments, appropriate and accessible materials, and carefully planned literacy activities that will immerse our students in language in both the oral and written forms.  Thus children begin to make a transition from oral language to written language so that they can read.  But how does this happen?

Children love to be read to and in turn to talk about that reading.  Sharing books with young children allows for the opportunity to develop vocabulary, conduct think alouds, and then enter into the "grand conversations" about reading that Gibbons talks about in Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning. We take these opportunities to encourage the oral language piece and partner them with reading instruction as children make the connections they need to enter a lifelong pursuit of reading.  

Oral language is truly a key indicator of reading ability and the more we provide opportunities for its practice in, application of, and connections to within the reading framework, the more we encourage our students to utilize it to become proficient readers and hopefully proficient writers.

Week #1 - Blog #2

Having learned at an early age how to write I experienced the positive encouragement of parents who were excited to see me write.  I was thrilled to find that same sense of excitement and fun about writing in school.  I therefore came to school with a love for writing and that love continued as long as I was allowed to write.  

But the transition was difficult as I moved from a home environment that allowed me to produce good writing and therefore learn the mechanics of the writing process to a school environment that offered the traditional writing classroom.  We were taught lessons about how to produce a good piece of writing, wrote in our desks, completed a first draft by ourselves, edited by ourselves, and turned in the final draft to our teacher.  Analysis of the final paper usually ended with a red scrawled "great work", "good job", "needs work", or the dreaded "see me".  We knew exactly where we failed in the writing process, but we were islands unto ourselves.  We didn't work with the teacher or wit each other while we were writing.  Our only sharing of writing occurred at that dreaded moment when the teacher called your name after the final drafts were passed back.  Those papers garbed in the red "great work" were shared.

I believe that I came out of that process still loving writing because I usually had the "great work" stamp of approval.  Besides I was a ham and loved to get up and share the work I had written.  I learned the clearly defined structures of writing and performed well on typical tests of writing.  David and Yvonne Freeman perfectly described my classroom in their text, Essential Linguistics:  What You Need to Know to Teach Reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics and Grammar, when they said "In a traditional classroom...students are given the topics for writing, and they are expected to complete the writing in a fairly short time".

I experienced the acquisition view as a young writer at home and truly feel that I now apply that same view in my classroom.  Utilizing Writer's Workshop certainly allows my students to "produce good writing and acquire knowledge of the writing process" (p. 29) as they engage in authentic writing tasks.

Week #1 - Blog #1

Sylvia Ashton-Warner, quoted by  Lesley Mandel Morrow in her text Literacy Development in the Early Years:  Helping Children Read and Write, has said "What a dangerous activity reading is:  teaching is.  All this plastering of foreign stuff.  Why plaster on at all when there's so much inside already?  So much locked in?  If only I could draw it out and use it as working material.  If I had a light enough touch, it would just come out under its own volcanic power."   With this in mind I decided to have a conversation with a teacher in my building about teaching literacy and the light touch we need to draw it out of our students.   

I had a great conversation with Lauren West, our Language Arts department coordinator.  She completed her Master's in Reading last year through the University of Colorado, Denver.  Below are the highlighted musts for her in regards to teaching literacy:

 

*We must have high expectations for all literacy learners and provide lessons to meet all learning levels. 

 *Teachers must be enthusiastic about literacy to motivate and deeply engage students.

*Teachers must model fluent reading to students daily to promote successful reading and a greater awareness of what fluent reading is like.

*Reading growth is fostered when learners are engaged in literacy instruction that involves real, authentic reading activities. This would include: newspapers, magazines, advertisements, travel brochures, the World Wide Web, etc. Authentic materials motivate students at all levels because it gives them a sense that they really are able to use the language.

*Students should develop a reading habit. This involves learners being promoted to read independently daily. 

*Lighted, comfortable, and literacy rich environments are essential to welcome students to read and write.

*Reading should be connected to writing.

*Texts should tap into students' interests.

I definitely felt a connection to her must haves for teaching literacy in the classroom.  Certainly many of the above resonated within me as imperative for my classroom as well, a classroom designed to teach literacy to all my students!!!  The above certainly speaks of things we can do to help draw literacy out of our students on their road to becoming proficient, engaged readers and writers.