I have been working with schools with very high percentages of English Learners. Classes were being taught in English and then retaught in Spanish. Were the English Learners using any English? No, they sat and waited for the Spanish translations.
When I started my rounds of K to 12 Explicit Direct Instruction demo lessons, I decided that all students would speak English. I had some strategies. I started with kindergarten.
I passed out the whiteboards with the large green and red dots. During the lesson, students would show me green for “yes.“ and red for “no” as we identified letter sounds. A sea of red, green, or mixed dots would provide me with immediate feedback while I was teaching.
I don’t know much Spanish, but I could start the transition to English. I held up the whiteboard and started pointing, flipping, and chanting.
Estudiantes, Verde, rojo. Verde, rojo. Sí, no. Sí, no.
The students started chanting with me.
While still pointing, the students joined in as I switched to Green, red. Green, red. Yes, no. Yes, no.
I held up a whiteboard and touched the green circle. “Yes,” the students yelled.
I touched the green again, “Yes.” I touched red giving a loud, “No.”
I cued the students to get their whiteboards. I said, “Yes.” Up went the green dots aimed at me…except for a few students who showed the green dot to themselves, instead of me. I corrected them.
I called out, “No,” and 20 excited students showed me the red dot.
Pre-read and Chunk English Sentences
Beginning English Learners may not have enough English to give long explanations in English, but they can read and speak the key academic information from the lesson. Let’s start with a Learning Objective.
I point to each word on the screen as we read.
Students, look at these words. I am going to read them, and you will read them after me. Today, we will… Your turn, ‘Today we will…’
identify…’identify’
the T sound…’the T sound.’
Let’s do it again. Read after me.
Today, we will… ‘Today we will…’
identify…’identify’’
the T sound…’the T sound.’
I repeat two more times, once for the left pair-share partner to tell the right partner, and again for the right partner to tell the left partner. Then I call on non-volunteers to read the Objective. The first two students say it correctly. I use more chunked reading to support the third student.
Read after me.
Today, we will… ‘Today we will…’
identify…’identify’’
the T sound…’the T sound.’
The observing teachers and administrator were pleasantly surprised by how well the students could use English during the lesson. Some students who were considered to be Spanish only, could speak much better English than anyone thought they could.
Throughout this lesson, I reached my goal (actually the district’s goal) of all students speaking English in class. Now I had 7 more classes to teach, including middle school and high school. Would everyone speak English? Stay tuned for more blogs.
The Student Engagement strategies I used are the foundation of effective lesson delivery. All students participate, all students use language, and all students are supported.
John Hollingsworth, coauthor, Explicit Direct Instruction.
