The Communicative Approach: Helpful for ELLs and ALL Students

Two weeks ago we discussed a few instructional approaches that benefit our English Language Learners (ELLs) and all children. That is often the beauty of thinking about how best to teach our ELLs as these practices are often the best ones for ALL children. Today we discuss another instructional strategy, the Communicative Approach. 

When we give children the opportunity and need to communicate, we are using this approach. It is really quite simple: We need to intentionally plan situations where children need and want to communicate with others. When our young children "work" at play stations or centers, we are providing situations to practice and communicate.

Imagine a post office center where preschoolers have access to envelopes, stickers that look like stamps, ink pads and stamps, pens, pencils, mail collection bins, old mail, etc. They can communicate with one another about the processes of the post office. You can become a partner in this by supplying key words or English-speaking children can give key vocabulary. Other centers like housekeeping, stores, or even a mini-zoo made with stuffed animals are important opportunities for communication. Children can talk and play. Listen for authentic vocabulary during this important time. 

We often think about these times of our day as play times, but they offer the best opportunities for the development of oral language. We need to plan these activities, group our children, and interject ourselves and other adults into these "play" times in meaningful ways. As we mentioned, the best practices make appropriate and intentional opportunities for teaching ALL of our students. We imagine that if you look around your classroom, you will see many of these in action.


Please note: 
It is important to remember that when our ELLs are in the silent period, we should not force speaking. For example, requiring children to say, "Good morning," is even counterproductive to helping children in this stage. We should merely set up activities and let our children play. Who knows, maybe English speakers will learn a few words in another language, too? This is always a benefit! 


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

Crossing the Midline

Touch your right hand to your left elbow. Brush your teeth with your opposite hand. What do these two activities have in common? The answer is a simple, yet important one. They encourage our young children to cross the midline.

What does crossing the midline mean? Think of the body as having a line down the middle, right where the bellybutton is located! Imagine then a right side of this line and a left side of the line. When a child can easily cross their midline, it means he or she can reach over from one side to perform a task on the other side of the body. Here is an example: a child is sitting “criss cross applesauce” on the floor, doing Legos and reaches with his or her right hand to place a Lego in a place that is nearer to the left side of the body. This child is able to cross the midline. A child who cannot do this, might put the Lego in the opposite hand or could move his or her body to perform the task.

It sounds so simple, right? But this seemingly easy task can be difficult. It is important because children who can easily and readily cross the midline are often better readers, have more writing fluency (can hold a pencil longer and with more efficiency), and often feel less frustrated. Research tells us that crossing the midline is a necessary skill.

Activities to help children cross the midline are often a part of our preschool day. We just need to be intentional and clear in our minds about these activities. We all sing with fun motions to enhance a song. When these motions involve using a hand or arm and crossing to the other side of the body, we are developing a child’s ability to cross the midline. When we give children beads to thread or streamers to swirl, we are offering valuable age-appropriate activities to develop crossing the midline.  Playing on the sand table offers important opportunities to scoop sand with one hand and then dump it into a pail on the other side of the body.

Be sure to share the reasoning behind your daily activities with families. They need to know that what you are doing is not just a ‘cute’ activity but is helping to develop an important skill for future school success.  

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC – 2.C.04

Head Start – I.C

Teaching Strategies For ELLs

This week we continue discussing teaching strategies to help our English Language Learners. Keep in mind that these strategies are a help to ALL children and are good ways to assist children who may not have background knowledge and school skills.  These two strategies are different and may be used depending on your class and the topics you are presenting. They are Total Physical Response and The Silent Way.

Total Physical Response  

Children can learn language when they listen to and follow along with an adult’s speech. The key is that the adult must use many gestures and facial expressions to talk with children. Children can merely watch and participate using their bodies, without any oral responses. This helps children feel less pressure to speak. They can respond in a physical way, which is so appropriate for preschoolers. An example of this might be to talk about elephants by using your arm as a trunk, your hands as ears, making an elephant sound, and showing pictures of foods elephants eat. Children can then pretend to be elephants, without any pressure to describe an elephant.

The Silent Way

When we give children a train of unifix cubes in a pattern, with a tub of cubes to continue this pattern, we can think of this as being an example of The Silent Way. Adults should give as little direction as possible and let children explore and discover new concepts on their own. Adults might use gestures and gestures, but little language is used. Children can experiment, without the need to process teacher direction. This helps children develop important concepts and encourages self-reliance.  

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

Comprehensible Input for Preschoolers: A Video

Last week we talked about the benefits of comprehensible input - the idea that you pair known gestures, expressions, and actions with vocabulary to help both English Language Learners and those who may not have the background knowledge to understand a concept or book. As promised, today we share a video of comprehensible input in action. Watch carefully as we also demonstrate our favorite way to avoid b/d reversals! 

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

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.