Teaching Middle School ELA
Welcome to the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast, where we are dedicated to helping English Language Arts teachers create dynamic and engaging lessons for their students, while also managing the day-to-day responsibilities that come with being a Middle School ELA teacher.
As educators ourselves, we understand the challenges of finding a work-life balance that allows us to pursue our passion for teaching while also enjoying our personal lives. That's why each Tuesday, hosts Caitlin Mitchell and Jessica Cannata share practical and innovative solutions for managing your workload and staying inspired in your teaching practice.
Whether you are looking for fresh ideas to inspire your students, strategies for improving your writing instruction, or tips for managing your time more effectively, this podcast is designed to provide you with the tools you need to thrive as a Middle School ELA teacher.
Join us each week for curriculum and lesson ideas, classroom stories, and interviews with fellow educators who are experts in the field. We believe that with the right support and resources, you can create a classroom environment that encourages students to become strong and passionate learners.
If you teach reading and writing to middle schoolers and want to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in ELA education, then this is the podcast for you! Tune in every week and let us help you make a difference in the lives of your students and in your own teaching career.
Teaching Middle School ELA
Episode 310: How to Write a Lesson with ELL Students in Mind
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In this episode of The Teaching Middle School ELA Podcast, Caitlin, Jessica, and Megan explore how to plan lessons with English language learners in mind. You'll take away practical strategies for the beginning, middle, and end of your lessons, with tips that can benefit every student in your classroom. Whether you have one ELL student or many, these strategies will help you create lessons that are accessible and effective.
Tune in to discover easy ways to adapt your lesson planning for the benefit of all your students!
If you are wondering how you can write your lesson plans with your ELL students in mind, this episode of the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast, we are breaking down how to plan a lesson that gives your English language learners the support that they need, but without overwhelming your planning process. So on this episode, you're going to hear simple, practical strategies for the beginning, middle and end of your lessons, with tips that can beginning, middle and end of your lessons, with tips that can benefit, quite frankly, all of your students. So if you are looking to better support your ELL students while also improving the learning experience for your entire class, this episode is a must listen. Hi there, ela teachers.
Speaker 1:Caitlin here, ceo and co-founder of EB Academics, I'm so excited you're choosing to tune into the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast. Our mission here is simple to help middle school ELA teachers take back their time outside of the classroom by providing them with engaging lessons, planning frameworks and genuine support so that they can become the best version of themselves both inside and outside of the classroom. And we do this every single day inside the EB Teachers ELA portal. This is a special place we've developed uniquely for ELA teachers to access every single piece of our engaging, fun and rigorous curriculum, so that they have everything they need to batch plan their lessons using our EB Teacher Digital Planner that's built right into the app. Over the years, we've watched as thousands of teachers from around the world have found success in and out of the classroom after using EB Academics programs, and we're determined to help thousands more. If you're interested in learning more, simply click the link in the podcast description and in the meantime, we look forward to serving you right here on the podcast every single week.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody and welcome back to the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast. I'm Jessica and I'm here with Megan. Hey, megan. Hello everybody, megan was just talking about all the work she's doing. Megan, do you want to share for like two seconds what you have going on in life? I feel like teachers will relate.
Speaker 3:I hope so. So I, of course, I'm still working for EB and in our schools department, but I'm also teaching music part-time this year. And then I'm also working on my master's in educational leadership, which is almost completed. So I'm getting ready to go into my thesis course, which my thesis is on differentiation strategies in the classroom, and we're using a specific technology tool for that, and so I'm getting that set up in several middle school classrooms. So it's very exciting, but it's also a lot of things.
Speaker 2:Yes, so Megan is busy, busy, busy, but I'm so glad you're here with us right now. We're chatting about some really cool topics today. We you guys might know this, but we batch record our podcast. So Megan and I get to hang out for the next hour or so and talk about different things and then you'll hear them each week. But it's pretty cool to do this Super fun, it is right. So today we're covering a super important topic and that's how to write a unit or a lesson with our ELL students in mind. So basically, what we're going to do is share a few ideas from the beginning, the middle and the end of a lesson or a unit to help you give your English language learners the support they need, and I really think you know this applies honestly for all students. It's going to help so many, not just those that are learning English in your classroom.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And then of course, this comes with a few considerations. So I'm sure our listeners know that so much goes into supporting ELL students, and teachers are kind of constantly learning and refining their own teaching methods for this area. So the ideas that we're sharing today are just a few of many that you could be using and there are so many out there and then we're also going to offer just some practical questions to kind of guide your planning. But do remember, don't try everything at once. That's super overwhelming and usually doesn't work very well. So use these as thoughtful additions to your own lesson planning.
Speaker 2:I love that reminder because, yes, we're about to like, share a bunch of information, so just soak it in, see what resonates with you, right? Yeah, some of these ideas they might be new, some of them you're like, oh yeah, I definitely remember learning that, or I already do that in the classroom, and that's okay. Like, maybe you're going to get a fresh perspective or get some new ideas to walk away with, and, of course, we really want you to think about how these will work in your unique classroom. We know that all students are different, right? Well, so are all of our classrooms, right?
Speaker 2:You may have a school with a lot of ELL students who come from the same country and speak the same language, or maybe those students come from the same country but different regions. Or you have a lot of ELL students but they're from different parts of the world. Or you may even just have one ELL student whom you're supporting, so we get it right. You're in lots of different situations and, on top of that, your students' understanding of spoken and written English is going to vary, right, which means the level of support they need will vary too. So, that said, no matter what your situation, I'm sure you're going to walk away with some ideas today that you can use or adapt in your classroom right away, and that's the goal, yeah, so let's get started at EB.
Speaker 3:We set up our units, of course, and even some of our bigger lessons, in the into, through and beyond format or framework, and so that basically just means that the beginning into lesson or activity hooks students and prepares them for their learning.
Speaker 3:The through lesson or activity helps them develop the skills or knowledge we want them to learn, and the final project or product in the beyond lesson helps them to use and apply all these new knowledge or skills. So before you get started with the into or the beginning part of your unit or lesson, we recommend just thinking about your ELL students and what they bring to your class and your lessons. You could ask yourself how can my students' culture and experiences be an asset in this lesson or unit and how can I connect my students' cultural experiences with what they are learning? Because the diverse experiences that ELL students really bring are a gift to the classroom and you'll just kind of want to think about how you can tap into those gifts that they're giving for the benefit of everyone really. So when you help ELL students connect with their personal experiences before a lesson, you help build their confidence and then also kind of bridge that gap between their prior knowledge and what you want them to learn, which is a really powerful thing in the classroom. And also you help your students just to broaden their own perspectives, also help them learn new information and just think about things in new ways, and of course, you'll want to do this respectfully and with sensitivity. So we'll just give an example here we have an EB lesson that teaches students how to consider audience and purpose by analyzing and writing birthday cards meant for different types of recipients.
Speaker 3:I love this one. It's so fun.
Speaker 2:Me too, it's such a good lesson.
Speaker 3:At the beginning of that lesson, students reflect on these questions that I'm about to give you and then talk about them. So the first one is how do your family and or friends celebrate birthdays? Are there any special traditions you have? Are there any years that are specially celebrated in your family and or your friend group? And this is a great way to just help students make personal connections with the topic and then also teach and learn from their peers. So next you can ask yourself what background knowledge will my students need in order to understand this particular lesson or unit that I'm teaching? So in episode 300, we actually shared some ideas that you could consider when deciding what kind of background information students need. So you can go back and kind of listen to that episode if you want some more information there. But with ELL students you'll want to be extra careful because some knowledge that will be obvious to your other students in the classroom may not be obvious to them just because of their different life experiences.
Speaker 3:So when in doubt, you can do a quick pre-assessment with some simple questions about topics that might come up in your unit. And of course, ai tools are great when you're generating any of these types of quick questions. So let's say, for example, your unit includes a book that will take place during the Great Depression in the United States. So a few questions like the following ones can be helpful what do you think of when you hear the term Great Depression? What was the Great Depression? What were some challenges that families faced during the Great Depression? What were some challenges that families faced during the Great Depression? What is the Dust Bowl and how did it affect people? For students who might need extra support, then, you can ask questions in the form of like multiple choice or fill in the blank or include sentence stems, of course, to get them started. And you just want to make it clear to students that the pre-assessment is not going to be graded right. It's just for information. It's just to show you what kind of information to include in your lesson and kind of on that same note, another good question you might ask yourself is are there any images or videos that would help my students picture what they will be encountering in the lesson or unit?
Speaker 3:And, for example, images of families during the Great Depression where they're standing in bread lines or where their farms are affected by the Dust Bowl could really help kids get a picture of the struggles of the time. So just a simple brief video on why the Great Depression happened could also fill in those gaps From there. Another important question to ask is what key vocabulary will my students need in order to understand this lesson or unit? And this includes words from the text they'll be reading and words that will be included in any directions or the rubric that you'll be providing them. So review these words with students. Offer visuals where you can. Those are also really powerful to help students kind of understand things. And then, if it's a short story or novel unit, you can always start your unit with a fun vocabulary preview activity like the one we share in episode 301. So go back and listen to that one for some ideas too.
Speaker 2:Okay, I love these ideas and just as I'm listening to you, I'm thinking like, of course, these are beneficial for all your students, right, whether or not you have an ELL population in your classroom. So there's such a great way to get started with your lesson planning. And, megan, I really love the one you shared about showing a video. Right, a quick video, if we can find one on YouTube, for our students is so helpful. And it made me think of the Great Depression example, when I used to teach Bud, not Buddy with my students and I would show them just images from the 1930s, from the Great Depression, to give them an idea of the time period. And it made our discussions at the start of the novel so much stronger because they had some context for, like, where was this story even taking place? Right, I just love that. It's so simple. Okay, so that's for the into part of the lesson.
Speaker 2:Now we're going to move into what our EB teachers call the through part of our lesson, and this is really where your students are developing. They're practicing the skills and the standards that you're focusing on for this particular unit or this particular lesson. So, if you are reading a novel, yes, reading the novel or reading chapters. That's part of the through lesson and that's perfectly acceptable. I feel like sometimes teachers are like wait, does that count? Yes, absolutely Right, you're discussing it. That's the meat of your unit. So here are some helpful questions to guide you as you're planning this part of your unit. And keep in mind, this is like the longest part of your unit. If you're doing a three-week unit, this is probably two weeks, two and a half weeks of it.
Speaker 2:So first question how do I want my students to read the text as a whole class, with a partner or group, individually or a mix? So if it's a short text, for example, maybe you can read it as a whole class. Right, and really practice your fluency. Have the text displayed on the screen, pause periodically, you can summarize it as you go and they can talk about it as they read. And then for other texts, you can sometimes break that reading into paired reading, where students read together, they pause to talk about the text, they support each other, they ask questions and with paired reading you might want to pair an ELL student with a more fluent reader. Next question how can I make the reading more manageable? Well, one option is to use graphic novel adaptations or films to provide visual context. So again, like we said earlier, even just sharing images or short clips to the class can be so helpful here and help students have deeper conversations and ask more critical thinking questions. For shorter texts, you can also have students highlight key vocabulary before they do the reading right Front load them with that vocabulary. It's going to make the reading that much easier.
Speaker 2:Next question how can I include graphic organizers? I feel like as teachers, we love our graphic organizers right, and there's a reason for that. They're hugely helpful. They reduce the language load, they provide visual support, they simplify tasks that students are working on. So really consider which type of graphic organizer might be helpful or most beneficial for this particular lesson that you're teaching and then use it with your students.
Speaker 2:Another question for three lessons Are there any sentence stems or other supports that will help my ELL students when they write? So consider using sentence starters or even paragraph frames for your students where they're just filling in the blanks. We love to do this at EB. We have it for our guided notes with lots of the videos we provide, because we think it makes it so much easier for students to have that visual. They're listening, they're filling in the blanks, and then another strategy you can use here is that word banks. These are really useful to include for your students so that they have words they can go to and to include in their short responses. It helps them formulate their thoughts better. Right, they're using more academic language and you're providing it for them, so they're not taking that time to think like, okay, what do I want to say here? They still have to do that a little bit, but at least they have the guidance now with some words that you want to use for them or want them to use.
Speaker 2:Next question you can ask yourself how can I help my ELL students to discuss with their peers? Think about how much discussion you do in your ELA class. Right, it's huge. It's every single day, I'm guessing. It's such an important part of language arts Now when you can group your ELL students with supportive peers and offer sentence starters for their discussions, it makes it so much easier.
Speaker 2:It takes off some of the pressure for them. Starters for their discussions. It makes it so much easier. It takes off some of the pressure for them. You might also want to consider providing time before they go into discussion for them to write down their thoughts, even if it's just bullet points, so they kind of know. This is what I want to focus on. These are my main points that I want to share, and if more than one student in your class speaks the same home language, you can try allowing them to discuss in their native language at times whatever questions you give them, and then they can share later on with the rest of the class in English. Okay, that was the through lesson.
Speaker 2:Now we're going to move on to the beyond portion of your unit. This is where your students share like a final product, so it could be an end of unit test, it could be an essay, that they write a story, they create a video, they make any kind of product to wrap up your lesson and allow students to show what they learned. So I want to share some questions that can help you make sure that, again, you're supporting your students right up to the end of your unit. First question are there any places where I can shorten the assignment? I think of this so often, like where did we come up with the five paragraph essay? It's like we all teach it right. I mean, I definitely assigned it to my students, but maybe not every time. Is it necessary? Could it become a three paragraph essay? If students are taking a test, are there any questions that I really just don't need? Maybe they address a skill that I've already covered earlier in the test. Maybe I can cut it so that my students can spend more time really thinking about their answers to the questions they do have in front of them. If they're making a video, could my requirement be to make it a shorter video so that they can put more effort into writing their script and making sure it sounds good and that they've used strong vocabulary all the things we want. They're not spending so much time making the actual video. So I just really want you to consider, like, how can you give your students less to produce with whatever task you're giving them, so that they can work more thoughtfully instead of rushing, instead of feeling so overwhelmed?
Speaker 2:Another question to consider for beyond lessons what are my students' specific goals and how can I zero in on that? So let's say, you've been practicing topic sentences and that's been your focus lately, and now students are writing some kind of story or essay, whatever the case may be. Maybe when you go to grade, you're really just grading those topic sentences. You're setting aside other skills you've worked on. For the moment, they're still important, but you're only assessing the topic sentences. So that's where students' focus goes as well.
Speaker 2:You might also want to have your students highlight the items in their rubric that they're going to be focusing on. So if I was focusing on topic sentences, that's what I would have my students highlight in their rubric before they go do their writing. So they know. Okay, this is where my energy is going and I actually really love this strategy. Our middle son, davey he's in third grade, his teacher is awesome, he loves her so much and she does this with all the students, and Davey will come home with rubrics with assignments with keywords highlighted, and I know it helps him. I see him using that strategy and then when I check his work I actually find myself going back to the rubric and like honing in on those highlighted words, just naturally Right. And so I think it's so effective, it's so simple and it helps students kind of be accountable for what they need to focus on. And then it makes it easier for you as the teacher too, because you know there's only one area, right? Did you do that, megan?
Speaker 3:I'm curious. Oh my goodness, yes, we did, and especially when I was grading essays. I wouldn't always, because I was teaching eighth graders, I wouldn't always let them know exactly what I was pinpointing, but I would kind of clue them in. But to help with grading, I would focus on like the one thing I was assessing, and then that would cut down on my grading too. And so, yeah, I think it's a really good strategy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it works for everybody, right? Not just the students, but obviously for the teachers. One last consideration when you're doing a beyond lesson, that final project, ask yourself would collaboration work well here? I love, love, love this one. So often we just expect our students to do so much of their work independently write that essay, take that test, whatever the case may be it's not always the case with projects, I feel like, but definitely with writing and testing Well, what if you said, hmm, could I allow my ELL students to work with a partner or a group to help them get that frequent support that they need and turn in one product? It lessens your grading once again, right, and it allows that collaborative aspect. So we're actually going to talk more about this on next week's episode, because I just think there's so much room for this in the classroom and it's often a strategy that's overlooked. So I'm really excited to share more about that one.
Speaker 3:For sure. Yeah, and it's just as we're going through this. My brain is in differentiation strategies and that's what these are, you know, and so I'm sure a lot of our teachers are like oh, of course, of course, because they do work for every student, which is so great. So, before we go, I know we haven't mentioned translations much in this episode and this is kind of a hot topic, so there are many schools of thought on when and how much students should really use translation dictionaries or apps in the classroom, so we weren't really able to fit that into this particular episode.
Speaker 3:But a kind of final guiding question that you might ask yourself is where might translation be helpful in your classroom?
Speaker 3:So, of course, you don't want your students using a translating dictionary or Google Translator for every single word they read or use, but we do believe that translations can have a place in your classroom.
Speaker 3:So, for example, providing a translation of directions is very helpful for students who are new to English, and allowing students to write their vocab words in both English and their home language can also help really support their learning.
Speaker 3:On top of that, then, allowing students to look up words in challenging texts or find words to express their thoughts can also be appropriate at times.
Speaker 3:So we just recommend looking into your schools and your district's policies and just having conversations with colleagues as you kind of determine how you want to approach translation with students and then also kind of going back, you want to approach translation with students and then also kind of going back to guiding questions. Please remember that these are just to help you be as mindful as you can as you're preparing your lessons and just pick out a few of these strategies to use next time you're planning a lesson or a unit, just to help give your ELL students a leg up on their learning and, as we mentioned, really all of your students a leg up on their learning. So, like all of your students, every single ELL student is going to be different, so what they need is really going to depend on their proficiency in language arts, their other skill levels and really their personalities too. So let these just be a starting point as you start to think about what will be most helpful in your classroom.
Speaker 2:All right, that about wraps up this week's episode. As always, we really appreciate you joining us. It means a lot to us that you're choosing to spend part of your week listening, learning, being inspired, and so if you found it helpful, let us know. We really do appreciate your feedback as we come up with topics to discuss on the podcast. And again, make sure you join us next week where we talk about collaborative writing, how you can bring it into your classroom, and if you're like I don't even know what the heck that is, don't worry, we've got you covered. I think you're really going to like that episode. So have a fabulous week everyone. Bye, everybody.