Helping ELLs and ALL Children: Age-Appropriate Comprehensible Input

How can we help our ELLs and even our young children who may not have the background knowledge to understand the contents of a book we are reading? We can use gestures, pictures, objects, and even videos to help children understand the content of a book or even our directions. 

We find that gestures are so important. Here are a few examples of helpful actions:

• Want children to listen? Be sure to cup your hand over your ear. 
• Want children to be quieter? Put your finger over your lips.
• Want children to think or wonder about something? Point to your head.

As you can imagine, it is also helpful to include appropriate facial expressions with these gestures. Look puzzled or happy. These facial expressions can align with a book character's feelings, too. They are helpful in so many ways.

If you are reading a book about a dog, be sure to show pictures. If you are reading about someone running, you can act this out or even have children do this. Talking about rain? Use a rain stick to get children involved. Want children to look closer at something? Wear BIG glasses! It's fun, too! 

Gestures, facial expressions, body language, pictures, objects...all of these are helpful examples of comprehensible input that help all of the children in our class to understand the language of school. 

Stay tuned next week for more on comprehensible input.

Standards Alignment:
NAEYC - 2.D.01 & 03.
Head Start - VIII.A. & B.

In Like A Lion - Out Like A Lamb

March: In like a lion – out like a lamb?

Your bulletin board might show these two animals as you welcome spring into your classroom. But you can use this traditional saying to teach important concepts. Let’s start with science.  How does a lion act?  Does a lion hunt? What does a sheep do? How does a sheep get its food? You can contrast these two animals.

Have a grand conversation about lions and sheep. Children can help develop background knowledge of others in the class by acting out what a sheep does and what a lion does. This is helpful comprehensible input for your ELLs. They can put together what they already know with what is shown them by their peers. Repeat key vocabulary/phrases like lion, sheep, grass, other animals, etc.

If the background knowledge in your class is limited about these animals, look for appropriate videos for your children. We are not suggesting any, as we know there are many helpful videos in “Internet World.” But only you know what is just right for your class.

Next give children two half sheets of paper. Ask them to draw a picture to answer one of the questions about the actions and food gathering habits of a lion. Have them use the other paper to show the characteristics of a sheep. Continue with the conversation as children show their pictures and use speaking and listening skills as they tell about their drawings.

Put the lion pictures together by either tacking them on a bulletin board or gluing them to a large sheet of paper. Do the same with the sheep pictures. Add the conversation of these pictures to your calendar time. Talk about how a windy, cold day might be like a lion or a warm, sunny day makes you feel like a cuddly sheep.  This can help your ELLs as you constantly refer to their drawings throughout the month and they hear key vocabulary repeated.

This also connects with a later language skill – similes. You can guide children who would benefit from this extension by sharing other examples of similes.

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC – 2. D. 01 & 07; 2.G.07.

Head Start - VIII. A & B; XI. B1.

In honor of the birthday of Dr. Seuss, take a visit to our Green Eggs and Ham reading. 

Affricate Poem

In a previous post, we discussed affricates, a common phonological error made by young children. We have even seen 6th graders make these kinds of mistakes. That's why it is important to correct the confusion that often results from the letters/letter combinations: j, tr, dr, and ch. You can read more about these ideas by clicking Affricate Instruction. 

As part of any phonics instruction, we like to have children go on word hunts to see if they can find examples of words containing the target letters. Using poetry is always a help in this. Even if children cannot read all of the words, they can identify the letters. This helps with concept of word, developing visual skills, and is the first step in reading high-frequency words. Children can underline, circle, or use our favorite, highlighter tape, to find words containing affricates or other phonics features. 

After we posted our original discussion of affricates, several teachers pointed out to us that it was difficult to find poems that contained this feature.  So...we decided to write our own silly poem. Read this little ditty to your children several times. Then have them circle the words that start with j, tr, dr, and ch. This heightens awareness of affricates. 

Jill's Word Trick! 

A silly word game sat on the tray,

“Come on let’s match words,” said the boy, Jay.

A card from the pile you will draw,

Put words together like a jigsaw.

So Jay and his friends, Jack, Jill, and Joy,

Started to play to win a fun toy.

They all picked words to make a train,

The words were alike, to make a looping chain.

Jill drew the word, jeep, and then looked around.

She found the word trip, without the same sound.

That doesn’t work, you must put trip back.

“Play fair or stop with this game,” said Jack.

“Oh Jack,” said the friends, “this is fine, don’t quit,

Words with these sounds are an affricate!” 

By Kathy Hart  

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC - 2.E.06

Head Start - VII. B & C.

One Game - Many Objectives

We love games that help children practice their math skills along with giving them important opportunities in speaking and listening skills. This is a game that we have found holds the attention of everyone, from preschoolers to adults.

Begin by cutting out the following shapes: large triangles, circles, and squares in 4 different colors. We have used red, blue, green, and yellow paper as shown below. 

Then cut out small triangles, circles, and squares in the same 4 different colors. 

Hide one of the shapes. Children are to guess this hidden shape by asking yes or no questions. For example, a child may ask, “Is it red?” You reply with a yes or no.

Keep track of how many questions are asked by tallying them.

When children think they know the hidden shape, someone may ask, “Is it a large, red triangle?”

Celebrate when the shape is guessed correctly.

We like to divide the class into two “teams.” Keep track of which team guesses the hidden shape using the fewest number of questions. This means team members must listen carefully to one another.

You can easily spot all of the integrated objectives of this game: listening skills, thinking critically about questions, formulating questions, understanding adjective order, asking complete questions, recalling responses, understanding and counting tally marks, identifying shapes, and identifying colors. You can differentiate for members of your class in many ways by using this simple game.

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC – 2.D.01 & 2.F.06.

Head Start – VIII.A. & B.; X.C.

High-Frequency Words For All Learners

High-frequency words, Dolch words, Fry list, sight words…many terms for the words our young children need to learn to recognize. We have previously explained the five components of reading here.  Under the reading umbrella, one of these components is vocabulary. When children are emerging readers and writers, vocabulary means recognizing sight words. Later, vocabulary focuses on words that students may be able to decode (sound out) but cannot understand. Then teachers focus on using context clues, Greek and Latin roots, etc.

As teachers of young children, we focus on teaching sight vocabulary. We want our children to recognize words like this:

it

Many of these words DO follow phonics patterns. The word it is an example.  Let’s take a look at the pre-primer list of Dolch words. Many of these words can be taught using phonics principles. This is helpful for children who are auditory learners.  Below we have listed words from this list that follow the early short vowel rules and the common long vowel pattern, vCe.  We have listed 18 out of the 40 pre-primer words. Many of the remainder words like play do follow higher-level phonics rules but because they are further along the phonics continuum, we have not included them here.

and

big

can

go

help

I

in

is

it

jump

make

me

my

not

red

run

up

we

Look for more posts on teaching both visual and auditory learners as you focus on high-frequency words.

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC – 2.E.06 & 2.E.09.

Head Start - VII. B & D.

Dental Health Month - Art Fun!

What better way to celebrate Dental Health Month than with a meaningful art activity! Begin by asking children to examine their mouths while looking in a mirror. Have them describe what they see. Children can practice math concepts by counting teeth.

Give children a small paper plate as shown above. You will see that we like to keep things tidy by doing art projects within the confines of a cookie sheet. This keeps the mess contained and allows children to organize materials.

Children can color or paint the paper plate pink.

Then have them use red to make a tongue.

Let them glue miniature marshmallows in their paper plate mouth to represent the number of teeth they have on that day!

Finally, ask children to fold their plate to make their creation look like a mouth!

Of course, you will want to finish by talking about the kinds of foods that are not healthy for teeth - like marshmallows!

Think about all of the skills you are encouraging: observation, fine motor (coloring, painting, and use of a glue bottle), one-to-one correspondence in math, along with verbal skills as children discuss their teeth.

Standards Alignment:
NAEYC - 2.C.03, 2.F.02, 2.J.05, 2.K.01&02.
Head Start - I.A, B, & D; III.C; VIII.B; X.A.

Welcoming Newcomers!

Many of our youngest children may not follow the different stages of assimilation. They are young children for whom life is an adventure. But, a child may be impacted by his or her family’s reactions to living in a new country. Many of our children are from families who have recently made the United States their home. By understanding the stages of assimilation, we can provide support and understanding to families and better deal with children’s emotions in our classrooms and daycares.

Like many stage theories, people do not always move from one stage to another in a fluid sequence. We present these four stages below merely as a guide to help you understand your families. We use names for these stages that begin with an H, as they seem easier to remember.

When people first arrive in a new country, they go through what we might consider the Honeymoon Period. Everything is new and exciting. Families might explore, delight in the easy access to goods and services. They may enjoy thinking about all that is different and inviting.

After the initial excitement wear down, people move into a period that can be termed the Hostility Period. Newcomers to a country are realizing they can’t enjoy the foods they once did. They may be experiencing frustration with the language. At this point, people may want to surround themselves with people from their former country. They miss their homes along with family and friends they left behind. If families are in this phase, those that work with them can be extra understanding.

As people move into the Humor Period, they begin to negotiate their new culture with their former culture. They see the good in both. Families may make friends with other parents in the classroom. They may be more willing to try out their new language and even laugh at themselves when mistakes are made. This stage can last a long time. Some people never leave this period.

Finally, people move into the Home Period. They have accepted their new country and culture as their own. Families may speak of the new country as home. The new language is spoken fluently and both old and new cultures are valued.


Standards Alignment:
NAEYC – 2.A.04. & 2.D.01.
Head Start – IX. A., B., & C.