9 Ideas to Support ELL's Social Emotional Learning

 by Judie Haynes


Social-emotional learning is a process for acquiring life skills, including how to deal with others, build relationships, and work in an effective manner. ELs are thought to be at a higher risk than their general education peers for social-emotional and behavior problems. There are a number of factors that contribute to this:
ELs don’t yet have the English language and vocabulary skills to express their concerns and problems. They don’t have the language to initiate social interactions with teachers and peers and will often feel cut off from their peers.
ELs often perceive that their classmates are prejudiced against them. This may keep ELs from bonding with their classmates and becoming an integral part of the school community.
ELs may have low self-esteem because they haven’t made friends or are unable to participate in the academic learning of their class.
Here are nine ways that teachers of ELs can help their students develop social-emotional life skills.

1. Directly teach skills that allow ELs to manage stressful situations. It is important to provide a realistic context for these situations (classroom, hallway, playground, cafeteria).

2. If your ELs are exhibiting negative behavior, teach a lesson that includes scenarios that students can role-play. The use of role-play fosters social-emotional learning for ELs. Have students gain knowledge about how to observe their peers for models of correct behavior. This can be direct observation or video.

3. Promote social-emotional learning for ELs’ social skills by using children’s literature. Not only do children’s stories include common difficulties that ELs may have in school, but they include solutions to these problems. A series developed by Teaching Tolerance entitled “Perspectives of a Diverse America” addresses anti-bias and encourages the use of a multicultural curriculum.

4. Have students practice phrases to ease social interactions. For example, learning how to approach a teacher to ask a question or engage a classmate in a conversation can help ELs develop the social skills that they need to bond with their classmates and teachers.

5. Give ELs encouraging messages every day. Messages such as “I like the way you…”, and “I can see you are really trying” can encourage ELs as they are learning. Use gestures to accompany your positive message (thumbs up, pat on the shoulder. high five, smile) so that a child whose English is limited will understand that you are saying something positive.

6. Teach social skills that are valued by the ELs’ families. Involve parents in reinforcing these skills at home. For example, learning how to greet other children and adults in English can increase ELs’ confidence during social interactions. If parents emphasize the same skills in their home language, they will be more meaningful for students.

7. Help ELs acquire pride in their culture. In addition to your annual multicultural fair or food tasting, incorporate pride-building activities into your everyday instruction. Multicultural books are one way to develop this pride. You can also use video and other multimedia resources.

8. Help ELs develop self-esteem by supporting their academic progress. Scaffold
content information so that ELs feel successful in school. Classroom teachers need to learn what ELs should be able to do at different levels of language acquisition so that they are not putting too much pressure on them to reach academic goals that they don’t yet have the language to achieve.

9. ELs may have negative feelings about themselves in response to many situations that they experience at school. Teach ELs positive self-talk so that they can better mange their feelings. Have them write positive messages that they can use in either their home language or English to help build self-esteem.

Podcast

The students created a podcast where they recorded about a book they had read. This activity was differentiated as they read at their level and could successfully complete this assignment and chose parnters who had read the same book.
A "podcast" is a program (as of music or talk) made available in digital format for automatic download over the Internet.
Objective:

Three students created a podcast for a book they recently read. It’s a discussion on the book that was read. They talked about the book using guiding questions that were provided. They interviewed each other and talked about different parts of the book. 

This was a way to assess their speaking skills, and it was great to see their progress over the year.

WIDA LADDER

My awesome Ladder team!

Egypt Hands On Project

Working in pairs, students researched one of the following three topics and created a poster. Materials were provided, but students were free to bring in their own supplies. The poster included a lot of images and facts about their topic. This project was tailored to meet the needs of all learners and they were in groups and supported each other as they worked through the assignment.

Pyramids

• Why were the pyramids important/How pyramids were built /types of pyramids/features of the pyramid (inside and out)/What was inside the pyramid/pyramids around the world.

Mummies

• Religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians/Gods and Goddesses/How mummies were made/embalming process/The decorative coffins of Egyptian mummies /Famous Egyptian mummies/Mummies around the world

Legacies of Ancient Egypt

• famous inventions and achievements
• knowledge and learning

Here is the link to the project rubric

Out of Eden

The class had visitors to view their work on the neighborhood maps and the stories. An introduction was given to the project and our guests walked and read all the student work.

Collaborative Teaching and Planning

These are screen shots of our co-planning document.
The first shot is of our dashboard where we add all the documents that are necessary for our grade level. The EAL accomodations are also on this document. This makes it easy for us to make references to it whenever the need arises.
The second  two shots  are of our planning meetings where are have worked on it together and decide projects, assignments, asessments, due dates, and lessons. 
We have regular co-planning time to make sure that our instruction is focused on the program of studies for our content. We are also very fluid in our planning times as the three of us check with each other regularly and work on to improve upon next lesson. Victoria and Rob take the lead on content, while I take the lead with strategies, materials, and extra resources.
We both teach content in our respective classes and use the co-teaching models.
We are a great team!!!

Neighborhood Map-Out of Eden

The grade 6 students are working on a project this semester called Out of Eden Learn. This was created by project zero at Harvard University following the footsteps of Paul Salopeck. Every 100 miles, Paul stops and records a narrative and takes a picture of the sky, ground, and the sound at that location. As part of the project the students go through six footsteps.At this point they are on footstep two, and the following is an explaination for the acitivity they currently worked on.
The aim of this activity is to have students think about where they live and to know more of their neighborhood.
They sketched a map of their neighborhood or local area, as they see it. They drew this map on paper and took photographs it to upload to the site. Some also used an oline drawing program to create their maps.
The then, wrote a story about their map some of whom described a typical day in their life around their neighborhood, a memorable moment they have had in their home, or a story they have heard from someone else.

Here are some examples of their work along with their story.

~Miyu~

1. I live in Injambakkam on about half year. My house is next to the Futa’s house. And near the VGP and sea.
2. Near the my house, bloom the pink’s flower.
3. This place is construction.

     E.  There are palm trees in a someone’s house.

Hi, my name is Yoobin and I am 13 years old. I have lived in Chennai for a bit more than two years but I still don’t know my neighborhood really well.. To me who lived in South Korea for 11 years, India was quite new to me. Everything was new, such as loads, buildings, and people. When I first moved to India, I never even knew where I would live or where my school would be located. But as time went on and on, two years just flew by quickly.
There are many buildings in my neighborhood. There are huge hotels and apartments around my apartments. One of the hotels in my town is ‘OOOOO Palace’. Sometimes, my mom and I go to the bakery there and buy some macarons for a snack. There is a ‘Subway’ though I never went inside. Sometimes I go to the apartment near my house where my friend lives. Over time, my neighborhood has changed a bit. I feel like the pigeons that disrupt my sleep every morning have increased, but the homeless dogs around my apartment have decreased. I will always remember the smell of my neighborhood which is pleasant all the time.

Classroom environment

              
An important aspect of effective teaching that I learned during the past year relates to creating a supportive classroom environment. A warm, safe, and caring environment allows students to take take risks in learning. Seating is flexible and organized to facilitate collobaration and discussion among the students. The classroom is a safe place for them to understand their strengths and difficulties and be able to ask questions and work together to succeed.The students are given feedback to both inviduals and to the whole class and are encouraged to take pride in their work. Student work work in displayed in the classroom.

Infographic

"A picture is worth a thousand words" refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image. Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information,data or knowledge to present elaborate information quickly and clearly.

The students researched and found information on various aspects of Mesopotamia and created an infographic. They worked in small groups and here are some examples of their work.

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/3823221-religion-yumisigne-amalija

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/3823198-government-miyu-alice-l#.VNRBslmqlqU.gmail

Plot Structure

A plot is the sequence of events that make up a story. Aristotle stated in his book The Poetics that plot structure had "a beginning, a middle and an end". It is much more than the telling of events one after another. A plot needs a motivating purpose to drive the story to its resolution, and a connection between these events.

Elements of plot structure

Gustav Freytag (1816 - 1895) was a German dramatist and novelist. He came up with the structure for the way stories are told in ancient Greek and Shakespearean drama. This analysis is known as Freytag's analysis. His analysis consisted of dividing a play into FIVE parts:

1. exposition

2. rising action

3. climax

4. falling action

5. resolution/denouement

These five elements of plot structure can differ slightly, but for the most part you will see the gradual build-up of events, the climax, followed by a resolution. Here's some information on each element and some student examples. The students used the plot structure and explained the elements using their own book.

Conflict

STUDENT OBJECTIVES

• Identify elements of setting development within multiple texts.
• Recognize picture books as model texts that exemplify multiple literary elements.
• Identify four types of conflict in literature (character vs. character, character vs. self, character vs. nature, and character vs. society).
• Apply the elements of plot development and conflict resolution to revisions of their own writing.

The students read Red Riding Hood and identified the different types of conflict in the reading.

Here are some student examples:-

Blabberize

                                                

Objective:

In this lesson, the students were given the opportunity to be imaginative and expressive through the writing of a monologue or dialogue for a book they were reading or have recently read. The objective is to promote a book they are reading using Blabberize, a program that allows people to animate photos and add audio to bring them to life. This project was used to assess their understanding of the book being read, as well as a way to promote the book.

Directions:-

Using an image of the main character from the book or the author, you will create: 1) a brief video ‘diary’ about how the character feels about an event or events from the story (no spoilers), or 2) a video from the point of view of the author thinking as he/she wrote the book.

Rubric

Here are some examples:-

Rin and Miyu

Woon Ji

Support English-Language Learners with Scannable Technology

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/support-ells-with-scannable-technology-monica-burns?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20EdutopiaNewContent%20%28Edutopia%29

8 Strategies for Teaching Academic Language

Understanding Academic Language

"Change your language and you change your thoughts." -- Karl Albrecht

Clay Activity

Sumerians are believed to have the oldest written langauge where the writing is mainly in pictographs. The earliest forms of Mesopotamian script dates back as early as 8000 BCE where cuneiform tablets were used for some kind of record keeping.
The Mesopotamian boys started as young as 12 when they became scribes. They were trained to write cuneiform and record many of the languages spoken in Mesopotamia. The students watched a video on how to write on the tablets. While the ancient Mesopotamians used a stylus to scribe, our students used clay and a chopstick to inscribe their wiritng on the tablets.

Character and Key Details

As we teach traits the students are taught to understand the difference between character traits and feelings. They were taught to use words to describe the qualities of characters in the book they have read.
The author may tell us these traits directly, but mostly they will show us these traits in action. The job as readers is to draw a conclusion about the character's traits (to infer them) from what the character says, thinks, and does.
An inference could be made from something a character does only once, or conclusions might be drawn from a series of things the character says and does.
The students worked on a activity which furthered their understanding of identifying character traits.

The students learned about character traits and used them to explain their character. After reading their book, they went through a process of listing the traits on a graphic organizer followed by creating a poster. On this they wrote the physical and personality traits. Here is an example of the of the students' work.

Vocabulary Charts

Through the use of vocabulary charts English Language Learners can be helped in acquiring academic language. Displays on the wall can help them access the words more easily.

Through the use of word charts you can help English language learners with one

of the most critical factors in their academic success – the acquisition of academic

vocabulary.

Through the use of word charts you can help English language learners with one

of the most critical factors in their academic success – the acquisition of academic

vocabulary.

A  visual chart is placed in the classroom and the words are written in all langauges to help all students. This technique is beneficial to all learners as it reinforces the content words as it they see it everyday which imrpoves their understanding.

Through the use of word charts you can help English language learners with one

of the most critical factors in their academic success – the acquisition of academic

vocabulary.

Lascaux Cave Art

Lascaux is famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings which is estimated to be about 20,000 years old found in South Eastern France. he caves were discovered by  teenagers who stumbled upon the ruins.
The paintings are mainly pictures of animals and symbols, and possibly one human figure.
The students were invloved in this hands on project where they did cave art after taking a virtual tour around the caves.
As they did the tour, they noted down the characteristics of the caves and used them to create their piece of art work. They worked in partners and used butcher paper with color pastels (keeing in mind the only colors used during that time period were red, black, orange, and brown).
This project was targeted for all learners and they enjoyed working on it.

As students read, they are required to write a book review. They will use the rubric and the sentence starters to write the summary and about the characters.
The review is posted on our book blog which will be updated everything they post a new one. This is an example of of the beginner EAL student and her first attempt in writing a book review. Here is a story stem activity:

The Weather Drum
by Rosalind Kerven

This story is time immemorial. This village had thunder and lightning and rain. Everyone ‘’Please stop the storm’’ they shouted to the sky.There was a man called ‘’Big Raven’’. He have magic coat and he changed into a big black bird. He came to a village in the sky world. There was a terrible storm here too. He went into the tent. He saw an old man and an old woman. The woman was his wife, rain woman. Two people helped to stop the thunder and lightning.

Posted by Miyu

Early Humans Mini -project

Students choose the three advancements of early humans that they felt had the most impact on mankind. They researched and then created an A4 sized poster including three images and three descriptions of why this advancement was important. The students had a choice to either present it through techonolgy or on a poster. Here is an example along with a decsription of the project and the rubric.