Supporting ELLs in Secondary Social Studies Classrooms

Jose Melendez, Ph.D.

Greg Bailey, C.G.

Welcome!

(Cool Guy)

About us

José

​

​

​

​

​

Greg

Objectives Activity*

List 3 objectives that you would want to meet in a lesson that you develop for that topic

Find a partner (preferably) someone you don’t know.

Choose a topic in history or a key idea in the Social Studies framework that interests you.

Identify 2 materials and 2 activities you would use to teach the objective(s)

Be prepared to share with the group today!

(*You can choose to do this activity with materials and you already have created for your curriculum.)

• Identify challenges and opportunities for teaching ELLs in Social Studies

​

• Understand the language acquisition process as it relates to NYS SS Framework

​

• Outline and address multiple NYS SS Framework-focused scaffolds for helping ELLs

​

• Apply strategies and scaffolds to SS curriculum and lessons

Session Objectives

Accessing Today’s Presentation

www.hudsonvalleyrbern.org

• Workshop Presentations
• Toolkit for Supporting ELLs in Secondary Social Studies
• Presentations

Access the resource here!

Language Acquisition

8

Entering

Pre-production

“Silent Period”

0-6 months

360 min /wk ENL (K-8)

540 min /wk ENL (9-12)

Emerging

Early Production

6 months - 1 year

​

360 min /wk ENL

Transitioning

Speech Emergence

1-3 years

​

180 min/wk ENL

Expanding

Intermediate

Fluency

3-5 years

​

180 min/wk ENL

Commanding Advanced

Fluency

5-7 years

​

90 min/wk ENL for 2 years

Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills

(BICS) 2-3 years

Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP)

5-7 years

Academic language must be a focus from the beginning!

NYS ELL Proficiency Levels and Stages of Language Acquisition

Key Components of the Framework

​

Integrates the longstanding NYS Learning Standards for Social Studies

​

The Unifying Themes themes serve to unify ideas and concepts across all grade levels

​

The Common Core Literacy Skills and Social Studies Practices include the skills and habits of mind that should be developed and fostered, using the content for each grade

​

Incorporates Key Ideas and Conceptual Understandings for each grade level with supporting Content Specifications

​

The College, Career and Civic Life Framework (C3), notably the Inquiry Arc, is referenced as a curriculum development resource

​

12

https://www.nextgenscience.org/sites/default/files/PolicyNGSSforDiversityandEquity.pdf

Discourse

Text (complex text)

Explanation

Argumentation

Text structures

Sentence structures

Vocabulary

Grammar

​

… require a deep understanding and effective use of language.

New Paradigm for All Content Areas

“Readers should have knowledge of 90% of the words in the reading passage in order to have a high level of reading comprehension.”

H. Dickens, Rachel & Meisinger, Elizabeth. (2015). Examining the Effects of Skill Level and Reading Modality on Reading Comprehension. Reading Psychology. 37. 1-20. 10.1080/02702711.2015.1055869.

How many of these 22 words do you understand?

Paresthesia may be caused by selective lacunar infarcts in the diencephalic and mesencephalic regions or in the diaschisis in the parietal cortex.

REMIX!!!!!

How many words do you understand?

​

Numbness may be caused by dead cells in the center of the brain.

​

​

​

You start here, then slowly increase the difficulty of the words as you teach academic vocabulary.

Writing & Readings Scaffolds

• Cognates*
• Cause and Effect
• Cloze Activities
• Understanding Vocabulary*
• Clarifying Bookmarks
• Double Entry Journals
• Analyzing Bias
• Enduring Issues Writing Supports

​

*Addresses all modalities

​

​

Take time at the beginning of the school year to teach the language of social sciences.

Find this and many other resources here!

KNOW YOUR COGNATES!

​

KNOW YOUR STUDENTS!

Cognates are words that look similar in both languages and mean the same thing (be careful of false cognates)

Cognates only work if students have had exposure to their equivalents and related concepts via schooling in their home countries. Plus, cognates have to be taught explicitly.

Cognate Dictionary in Spanish

​

Cognate List

​

Cognates in Subject Areas

Cause and Effect

\

Cause and Effect

​

​

Natives had resistance to North American bacteria and viruses only.

Natives didn’t have access to gunpowder

Natives believed the Earth belonged to no one

Natives used bartering for economic exchange

Supporting cause and effect in writing

Supporting cause and effect in writing

Supporting cause and effect in writing

Supporting cause and effect in writing

KNOWING Words

You KNOW a word when you can:

• Define it
• Know when and how to use it
• Know it’s multiple meanings
• Decode and spell it

Rate your level of word knowledge:

​

equanimity

substrate

jingoism

philistine

heuristic

​

1. I have never seen or heard the word.

2. I have heard it but I am not sure what it means.

3. I have an idea of what it means and can vaguely explain it or

connect it to a concept.

4. I know the word well and can define and use the word correctly.

Definitions

​

• equanimity - steadiness of mind under stress
• substrate - an underlying substance or layer
• jingoism - an extreme form of patriotism that often calls for violence towards foreigners and foreign countries
• philistine - a person who is uninterested in intellectual pursuits
• heuristic - simple rule that’s used in making judgements and decisions

​

What are the benefits of an activity like this for all students? for ELLs?

Click here to access this resource.

​

Consider using throughout unit and include dates.

Frayer Model

All Write Round Robin - How it works

​

Have students write a word from the content in the middle circle. Check with tablemates that each person has selected a different word.

​

On the signal, pass your paper to the right.

​

Each person fills in one section of the Frayer Model.

​

On signal, papers get passed to the right.

​

Each person completes an unfinished section.

​

Repeat until all sections are filled in.

​

The last rotation is the Checking for Accuracy rotation. This person reads each section and questions the group if they are not sure that a section(s) are accurate.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Word Scrolls

Scaffolding vocabulary understanding for students.

Vocabulary Notebook

*Picture: What this word makes me feel, see in my mind and/or think about when I see it in this sentence or in this part of the selection. Also: use this idea and/or picture in your responses to the “in my own words” prompt in column #3.

​

https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/uploads/004/739/NYU_PTE_Science_Module_For_ELLS_Oct_8_2009.pdf

Reading Scaffolds

Clarifying

Bookmarks

As students take turns reading to one another, they close their remarks by asking, “What do you think?”

Find the Spanish version here.

Reading Scaffolds

Double Entry Journals

Focus Question(s)

Evidence

Explicitly teach students to be able to analyze sources (Newseum) to recognize bias.

Recognizing Bias

Create a norm for students to be able to analyze sources.

Analyzing Sources

Analyzing Sources and Recognizing Bias

Integrating Reading and Writing to Analyze Enduring Issues

Break Time

Take a Stretch

40

Thinking and Inquiry Scaffolds

Modifying Questions

KUD Charts

Inquiry and the QFT

Activating Background Knowledge

​

Ask yes or no questions:

Is the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC?

​

Short answer, build the answer into the question:

What are the three branches of government?

​

​

Ask questions that require a physical response:

Show me the country of Egypt on the map.

Point to the lowest point of the graph.

​

​

​

​

​

Prompt with starters:

You figured it out by…

It is a democracy because...

You knew this was a treaty because...

Scaffold “Explain how you did this” by asking for steps in sequence:

First, I _____. Second, I _____. Last, I _____.

Modifying Questions

Know, Understand, Do (for lesson development)

The Constructivist Classroom and Activating Background Knowledge

The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) - Rachael

“One simple shift can help our students become better thinkers and problem-solvers.” - Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana, Authors of Make Just One Change

​

• Years of research by the authors led to a simple protocol that engages students in higher-order thinking
• The QFT “makes it possible for anyone, no matter their level of … education, to learn how to produce and improve their own questions and then strategize on how to use them”
• The protocol can be used by any age group, in classroom or other settings

​

​

From Educational Leadership, October 2014 | Volume 72 | Number 2

Instruction That Sticks | The Right Questions

​

rightquestion.org

​

The QFT - Let’s Practice

Step 1: Teacher Designs a Question Focus

• Industrial Revolution

​

Step 2: Students Produce Questions

• Ask as many questions as you can.
• Do not stop to discuss, judge, edit or answer any question.
• Write down every question exactly as it was asked.
• Change any statements into questions.

The QFT - Let’s Practice

Step 3: Categorize Your Questions - Open or Closed

• Closed-Ended (can be answered with “yes”, “no”)
• Example - Is the sky blue?
• Open-Ended (need more explanation)
• Example - Why is the sky blue?

​

​

The QFT - Let’s Practice

Step 4: Prioritize Questions

​

• Decide which three questions are the most important to ask

​

​

1. What are they doing?
2. When and where is this happening?
3. Where are their parents?

​

The QFT - Let’s Practice

Step 5: Teacher and students plan their next steps for utilizing the questions

• What will you use the research for?
• Projects, Informative Writing, Opinion Writing, Inquiry Lessons

​

Step 6: Students reflect

• What did you learn from this process?
• How did you learn that?

​

​

How can this activity be successful with ELLs?

Click here to access!

​

Use Google Docs

to translate!

Click here to access!

​

Use Google Docs

to translate!

Oral Argument (Speaking) Scaffolds

Language of social science

Norming

​

IDM & Argument

How can we facilitate argument for ELLs?

Causation

Underlying

Encouraged

Tinderbox

Aggravated

Exacerbated

Facilitated

Triggered

http://sehartsmith.blogspot.com/2019/02/how-to-write-and-speak-like-historian.html

Important

Essential

Considerable

Crucial

Fundamental

Vital

Significant

Substantial

Unimportant

Superficial

Indirectly

Marginal

Inadvertently

Negligible

Insignificant

Trivial

Adding a point

Furthermore

Likewise

Additionally

In addition

Moreover

Similarly

Also

Adding evidence

Highlighted by

Mirrored by

Illustrated by

Exemplified by

Indicated by

Demonstrated by

Underlined by

Contradicting

Nonetheless

Nevertheless

However

Although

Conversely

Paradoxically

Alternatively

Consequence

As a result

This meant that

Consequently

Thus

Subsequently

This led to

Therefore

Judgment

Overall

To a certain degree

Ultimately

Partially

To some extent

Somewhat

Fundamentally

Avoiding 1^st person

It could be suggested

It is clear that

The evidence indicates

It is apparent that

It is evident that

All points considered

Critics have suggested

Suggest

Implies

Forms

Represents

Constructs

Stresses

Emphasizes

Underlines

65

Provide students with scaffolds.

Use various questions to help students clarify:

​

• What evidence do you have?
• Why do you agree or disagree? What are your reasons? What is your evidence?
• What could be some other possible claims? Do you have evidence?
• Do you agree with the points being made? Why? Who has a different opinion?
• Why are you using your evidence as proof and not other evidence? How would your claim change if you used all the data?
• How is that idea related to what was previous discussed? What reasons do you have for saying that?

Getting Students to “Argument” Through NORMING

Determining the Academic Language Demands of a Social Studies Lesson

• Are there tricky words and/or definitions that might need to be discussed or recast in more accessible ways?

​

• Are there grammatical forms that might be challenging to readers, such as the conditional tense: What might happen if an aqueduct is built a large city?�
• Are there long, complex sentences that might need to be broken down into shorter sentences for the students?

​

• Are there transition words used (unless, although, finally, because, consequently, therefore) and will students need to learn what they indicate?

​

• Are there idiomatic phrases that may be unfamiliar? Are there captions in the materials that students might need to pay particular attention to? [e.g…. added fuel to the fire OR Europe was a powder keg]

Take out the objectives, activities, and materials that you wrote this morning.

68

Language Objectives

Are about what students have to do with language in order to

• Understand content
• express their knowledge of it

​

Content Objectives

• Are drawn from subject area standards
• What students need to know about specific content

​

Verbs for Writing Content and Language Objectives based on Bloom’s Taxonomy and the 4 Domains of Language

Verbs for Content Objectives

Knowledge – list, identify, locate, memorize, review, label, describe, define, name, match

Comprehension – recall, reproduce, summarize, directions explain, demonstrate, translate, rephrase

Application – predict, compare, contrast,

solve, classify, categorize, show, apply, make, build a replica

Synthesis – build a model, combine, compile, compose, construct, create, design, elaborate, test, infer, predict, hypothesize, invent, design

Evaluation – choose, decide, recommend, select, justify, defend, support

​

​

Verbs for Language Objectives

Listening – tell, role play, point, label show, follow

Speaking – name, discuss, rephrase, ask, answer, predict, say steps in a process, pronounce, repeat, respond, state, summarize, explain orally, tell, use

Reading – preview, read aloud, find specific information, identify, skim, explore

Writing – list, summarize, ask and

answer questions, create sentences, explain in writing, state and justify opinions, write, contrast, classify, record

Vocabulary Development – define isolated words, define words in context, find words and construct meaning

​

​

71

Making Content Comprehensible for ELLs: The SIOP® Model by Jana Echevarria, MaryEllen Vogt and Deborah J. Short.

​

Adjust your content and language objectives.

​

Include differentiation in the proficiency level for your language objectives:

• Entering and Emerging
• Transitioning
• Expanding and Commanding

​

Share at your table.

Use previous slides for a model.

Lunch

​

Afternoon Agenda

Share out

Tech Tools for Social Studies

Create your own lesson

Mini Tech Toolkit for Supporting ELLs in Social Studies

​

Rewordify- Website

http://www.Rewordify.com is powerful, free, online software that improves reading, learning, and teaching.

​

Intelligently simplify difficult English, for faster comprehension

Effectively teach words, for building a better vocabulary

Help teachers save time and produce engaging lessons

Help improve learning outcomes

​

Let’s have a look!

Find a video, add questions and assign it to your class. Watch as students progress and hold them accountable on their learning journey.

​

Let's have a look:

https://edpuzzle.com/

​

​

Edpuzzle - website

ToonTastic 3D - App

Have students practice storytelling events in history by using a cartoon!

79

Geoguessr and Spacehopper - websites

www.geoguessr.com and www.spacehopper.io allow you to view somewhere on Earth and use your geography/science skills to find out where you’re located!

Using what you learned today, expand on your content and language objectives to create or adjust a lesson.

​

Feel free to use the organizer to help guide your thinking.

Lesson Creation

What meaningful contributions could ELLs make in this lesson you developed?

​

​

Thank you!!

gbailey@swboces.org

jmelendez@swboces.org

​

www.hudsonvalleyrbern.org

Any questions?