You think you are all set and planned for the school year, but then you find out you have English Language Learners (ELLs) in your classroom. Knowing how to help and accommodate them can be stressful, especially if you don’t have help. After working as an English as a New Language teacher for a few years, I picked up some valuable tools and strategies I would love to share! From graphic organizers, visuals, and small groups, you can make many easy tweaks to help you and your ELLS survive and thrive this school year.
8 Simple Ways to Help the English Language Learners in Your Classroom
1- Visuals
Sometimes, you don’t realize that your presentations or worksheets lack visuals that could benefit all of your students, especially your English Language Learners. When you make your slide decks, be sure to include as many visuals as possible to help cue your students as to what the topic is.
We love using Canva because it has tons of images you can use and is so simple to use. These visual aids can also help the students with their English language development as they begin to see patterns in vocabulary.
We incorporate visuals in our life skills worksheets, such as the Kitchen Safety Crime Scene and the Child Safety Crime Scene. They can easily circle images that appear to be the “crime” and use technology tools to help them write about their findings.
2- Word Wall and Vocabulary Words
Classroom decor is often more than just an aesthetically pleasing space. Posting vocabulary around the room is a great visual cue for English learners and students with other special needs. Even better, have a picture of the vocabulary word and a very brief definition.
You can also create a rotating word wall, where you post about five vocabulary words with their definition and a picture and rotate them monthly. Referring to the words frequently and incorporating them into your bell work can be a great way to build academic language for all students. Here is an example of our culinary arts vocabulary posters that have been a big help for our students. We also made a matching activity for the complete set.
3- Small Group Work
Creating activities that involve small groups is helpful for ELL students because it gives them the additional support of their peers in a more comfortable situation than a whole class setting. Our favorite types of small group work include think-pair-share and small group research activities. Allow the ESL student to research in their first language to contribute to the group and then have them use ChatGPT or Google Translate to translate the work.
Any chance you can allow them to work in their home language shows them that you value their strengths and accept their differences. Depending on their proficiency, this can be an asset to the group because their work may be stronger in their home language.
4- Use AI Such as ChatGPT
AI is a game changer for teachers, and it can help students learn a second language immensely. Here are some ways to use ChatGPT in the classroom to help your English language learners. If you make a worksheet, copy and paste it into ChatGPT or your favorite AI program and ask it to:
Make a graphic organizer to help them organize their learning.
- Lower the reading level for an ELL.
- Translate it if their proficiency is low and they are a newcomer.
- Include a vocabulary matching activity for the reading that has students matching the English and native language vocabulary words.
- Introduce the reading briefly in their native language to give them some prior knowledge of what they will learn.
- Make comprehension questions in their native language and English.
5- Videos
Videos can help reinforce instruction and gives more visual aids for students. A few that we like to use are:
- Edpuzzle– these free video clips are uploaded by teachers and include little quizzes to check for understanding. You can find lower level videos that meet your students needs.
- BrainPop ELL– BrainPop has ESL videos to help with English Language Learning and they have content videos. Most are geared toward younger students but your ESL students may not mind dealing with some younger content to help build background knowledge.
- Youtube– Obviously, YouTube has millions of videos on every topic imaginable. Use ChatGPT to create some questions to go along with shorter videos on topics you teach and have students use them as an alternative assignment or as homework.
Offering additional support for instruction with videos and visuals can go a long way and is a great way to reinforce subject areas.
6- Hands-On Activities
Using their hands and manipulating learning is a strength for many students and project-based learning is a type of strategy that can benefit all students. Here are a few teaching strategies that involve hands-on learning:
- Vocabulary matching game– give students index cards and have them make their own flash cards with the vocabulary word on some of the cards and the definition on the other cards. Have them play a matching game with their peers which can help initiate small group discussion and a more positive personal experience for English language learners.
- Visual recipes—If you teach culinary arts, life skills, or family consumer science, having students cook and work with recipes to create dishes is an excellent way to incorporate active learning strategies. The images are visual cues and the checklist helps to stay organized. You can even translate the recipe quickly into their primary language if needed and give them both copies. Here are a few visual recipes to get you started!
- Taste-testing– for culinary, CTE and FACS classes, have students taste different herbs and spices and record their findings in a chart. You can even do blind tasting and have them guess which herb or spice it is.
- Student-Created Lessons– Pair your ELLS with traditional students and have them research one specific piece of content and create a presentation to present to the class. This is a great way to increase peer interaction, and you can even allow your ELL to present some of the information in the students’ native languages to show the class the different backgrounds of students and to bring a multicultural aspect to the classroom.
- Cooking Challenges– These are a fun way to introduce a type of food, have students read about it, answer questions, brainstorm ways to make the dish their own and cook! Check out our culinary food lab challenges!
- Research foods from the ELLS native country. Or allow the ELL to present on their countries’ foods. This can be a great way to show acceptance and to show that their different backgrounds can be a valuable resource.
7- Graphic Organizers
Have these graphic organizers for ELLS on hand to pull out during any unit! These support students in a lot of ways and can be great for them to pull out to refer to before an assessment. Here are a few examples that you can print in bulk and have on hand to use for any and all students.
- KWL charts– these also make a great anticipatory chart. Before the lesson, have students write down what they already Know about the content. Have them also write down what they Want to know. At the end of the lesson, have them take the chart back out and write down what they Learned. You can use this as a formative assessment and collect it at the end of the period or just walk around the room gathering information about what students know and what they learned.
- Concept Map—Have your ELLs write the main content goal in the center of a piece of paper. Have them draw arrows and write down information that they learned about the content. They can draw pictures and make it colorful if they want—anything to organize their learning. This can be great for students with limited English language proficiency.
- Vocabulary 4-Square– I love this one because English language learners can be working on this when the others are doing something that may be to language-advanced for them. Students write the vocabulary word in the center of the chart and then complete the rest of the information around the word on the sheet, such as the definition, a picture representation, using it in a sentence, and writing a synonym. You can even take it further and add a square for them to write it in their native language. This makes great independent work for students that need extra help understanding the concepts.
8- Use Formative Assessments and Offer Feedback:
Frequent, low-stakes assessments help monitor ELL students’ progress and provide them with the feedback they need to improve. Using things like tickets out the door is a great way to check what they are understanding and give them feedback.
If you have a clear objective for each class, you can make the ticket out the door basically a question about the aim. For example: Objective: Students will be able to identify 5 kitchen tools and their functions. Exit Ticket: List 5 kitchen tools and a brief description of their function. Here is a free exit ticket download!
If students need to use Google Translate to help them answer questions, let them! It is better to give them the tools they need to answer questions and show their knowledge than to have them sit in silence and avoid participation.
This video is a great representation of how an ELL can feel during the school day. It really makes you realize the challenges they face when immersed in a second language classroom.
