Student discourse is imperative to students developing their academic language and supporting their comprehension. During virtual or concurrent hybrid instruction, it has become more important than ever to find ways for students to take part in discourse. Participating in discourse helps students feel a sense of belonging and keeps them engaged in the lesson and it also serves as a formative assessment opportunity for teachers to check for understanding. Below are four strategies that provide opportunities for student discourse in all content areas. Talk Moves are five types of prompts and response starters that encourage students to think about their response, share their thinking, and listen to the reasoning of others. Talk Moves are meant to be used teacher with students, students with teacher, and students with students. Talk Moves provide equity of voice because the question, the answer, the justification, and additional thoughts are equally valued.
Think-Pair-Share is a an effective way for each student to think, practice, rehearse, and share their responses in a safe environment because they are working with a partner. During face to face instruction there is probably not enough time for each student or pair to share out with the whole group or there is only sufficient time for each pair to take part in one conversation. Using edtech tools such as Padlet and Flipgrid. With both tools teachers can pose a prompt to students. Students can respond by recording audio or video. Then, their partners can respond to their post. SWiRL is an acronym that stands for speaking, writing, interacting, reading, and listening. When planning for instruction it's important to remember to plan for consistent SWiRL opportunities. Jamboard is a white board allows for SWiRLing to take place because students can draw, record, or write their response. Both the teacher and students are able to see all of the jams (student) pages. After students create the jam, they can use them as a reference and discussion point with their partner or group during academic conversations. Whiteboard.chat is an interactive whiteboard that has multiple writing, audio, video, and multiple other tools. The teacher is able to see student work in real time. This interactive whiteboard allows students work collaborative and dig into the content they are learning. QSSSA is a structured conversation strategy shared by Seidlitz Education. This strategy provides the needed scaffolds and supports that will guide students participate in discourse. QSSSA cam be implemented with students face to face, using break out rooms, or Flipgrid. Below is a mathematics example of QSSSA.
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Recently I read the book Math for ELLs: As Easy as Uno, Dos, Tres. One of the biggest take-aways for me was the need to reframe the definition of a "ELL". In general ELLs, seemed to be seen through a deficit lens. It's about what students cannot do right now & what students still need to learn. This book provides background information and strategies to view students from an asset based perspective. One way to move this forward is to refer to ELLs as EBs. The term English Language Learner has the connotation that our students are missing something and that they are trying to gain something better. The term Emergent Bilingual (EB) sends the message that students' first language (L1) is beneficial and is something that should be maintained. The term Emergent Bilingual (EB) also shows that the goal for our students is not to replace their L1 with English (L2), but to have two languages that they can use to support their learning.
Scaffolds are temporary supports that students practice using to support their learning & understanding. Scaffolds are meant to be temporary and students should internalize the strategy they have practiced to such a degree it becomes a permanent fixture of their toolkit.
As a district specialist it is always a challenge to support teachers at various stages of their professional learning journey. It is also not possible to meet with all of the elementary bilingual teachers across the district for professional development. With that in mind, I created the Google Site: 8 Ways to Support K-4 English Learners & Bilingual Students in the Mathematics Classroom www.tinyurl.com/8Waysin2018! Each month I have emailed out a link to a new 2-7 minute video that shares different strategies to support student learning in the mathematics classroom. While this doesn't mean every teacher has viewed or the videos, I do think it has provided a larger opportunity for teachers to to have access to professional learning session on their own time line and campus instructional coaches have a resource that they can use for turn around conversations at their campus.
One of the most beneficial things we can do for our English Learners is to let them SPEAK! Providing students multiple opportunities affords them the time to practice using the vocabulary that has been taught and to listen to how the language should sound. Flipgrid is an easy to use tool that students can use to record themselves. A teacher creates a grid and poses a prompt for students. Students join the grid and click the + symbol to record themselves using the camera from a computer or mobile device. Students are able to rerecord until they are satisfied with the response. Their is a Flipgrid app that can be downloaded onto mobile device and it also is web based. The web based option does not require anything to be downloaded. What a powerful tool!
Check out this video that I found on YouTube that let's you see Flipgrid from the students perspective: Check out this screencast that I recorded that show you how to set up a class grid: Region 13's website The Teacher Toolkit contains more than 60 short videos that shows tools to support student learning in the classroom. Some of the tools shared in the videos include:
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