I have been working with high schools with high percentages of English Learners. In many classrooms, lessons were being taught in English and then retaught in Spanish. The English Learners did not participate in the English lesson as they waited for the Spanish version, and they ended up using any English while in class.
I was scheduled to teach Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) demonstration lessons to these students. I had been discussing this with the district administrators and decided that I would have all students speaking English during my lessons.
I would use several of the EDI Student Engagement Norms to get all students involved and to support English Learners.
The lesson would be taught in English. I use extensive pair-share during lessons, so I strategically paired beginning English learners with student partners who could provide some translation support during pair-shares. This works because I include a lot of pair-shares during my Checking for Understanding questions which provide for structured translation time.
I started the lesson with the Learning Objective. I wanted everyone to be able to pronounce and read the words in the Objective. I started with pronunciation.
I point at the screen, ”Students, look at this word. This word is quadratic,
Say quadratic…quadratic. One more time, quadratic…quadratic.
“This next word is function. Say function…function.”
“So these words are quadratic function. Say quadratic function to your partner twice.
The students turn and say, “quadratic function, quadratic function.”
OK, everyone has said quadratic function several times. Since I have been pointing to the words, they have also read these words.
Now for reading the entire Objective.
“Students, I am going to read the Learning Objective first, and then you are going to read it after me.” I point to each word and read slowly in chunks “
“We will identify… Students, your turn, We will identify…”
“key points…key points
from quadratic function…from quadratic function
graphs…graphs”
“Left partner read the Object to your partner. And then right partner read. Help your partner if they need help reading the words.”
The students read the Objective to each other.
I then call on 3 non-volunteers to read the Objective. When one of the English Learners hesitates, I start the echo reading, and she repeats after me:
“We will…we will”
“identify…identify”
“key points…key points”
“from quadratic function…from quadratic function”
“graphs…graphs.”
The pronunciation, choral readings, pair-shares, and students reading of the Learning Objective provide important Language Objectives for English Learners as they hear, say, and read the words multiple times.
Just the presentation of the Learning Objective met my goal of All Students Speak English. There will be a lot more during the rest of the lesson. Stay tuned.
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.
