In today’s episode, we continue our coaching session from last week and discuss reading, writing, and phonics with ELs. For teaching literature, like Romeo and Juliet, it can be helpful to let students read in their native language first to let them access the content. You can also pre-teach vocabulary, or summarize chunks of the story and focus on key parts of the story, the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet, for example.
We also discuss using novel studies to keep kids interested and engaged. I share a few of my favorite novels to teach this way. Remember that even when students are from the same country and speak the same language, their personal interests can be very different. You will never find a book that perfectly suits every students’ interest, but if even 50 percent of your class is engaged, you’ve won half the battle.
One of my favorite ways to keep kids engaged is through short stories and short films. I share some lesson resources I have for teaching literary elements with short stories and short films.
Next in the coaching session, we talk about writing. It can be tough to find good resources to teach writing to older EL students, so many teachers often end up finding resources from teacher pay teachers. I also recommend mini lessons in grammar and phonics lessons like consonant vowel consonant or silent e. There is also a phonics program from Saddleback that I use. It was too hard for beginners, but is great for level 2 and 3 students. Ultimately, the only way to improve writing is to write, so Incorporate writing into every unit in some form, even if it is journaling.
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