ELD Strategies
A Glossary of Instructional Strategies
Alpha/Beta a.k.a. Tell a Friend – This is any type of activity in which the students are asked to turn to a partner and complete a verbal task. There are many types of A/B activities for ELs, such as same/different pictures and stories, sentence and dialogue completion activities, and language games and puzzles. Student A and B are given different handouts and instructed NOT to share with their partner. The teacher explains the task and the two must negotiate the task by verbally sharing the information with each other.
Alphaboxes – (See the Alphaboxes sheet in the glossary appendix) After reading, students work in pairs or small groups to think of words that reflect important points in the story. They write the words they feel were important to the story in the appropriate box. The class can then create a compilation of the most interesting words generated by the groups. (Extension idea: Have the students create questions to go with the words and play a game of Jeopardy! For example: If the students generate RAGS as a word under R, the accompanying question might be “What did Cinderella dress in most of the time?”
Cloze - a “fill-in-the-blanks” activity where the learner uses clues from the context to supply words that have been deliberately removed from the text. A cloze can be used as a test of reading or listening comprehension.
Dice Game – This is a sentence patterning activity, similar to Masterpiece Sentences. Decide how many parts of a sentence you wish to practice and create a column for each part (subject-verb-adverb-prepositional phrase; subject-verb-object, etc.) Put six words in each of the columns. Give the students a different colored die representing each column. Students roll the dice and create sentences following the numbers rolled for each column. For example, if a red die represents the subject column, and the student rolls a red 4, they would use the fourth word on the list to be the subject. If green represents verbs, and the student rolls a 1, they would use the first word on the list as the verb. And it continues. Once the students have successfully put together a grammatically correct sentence, they add up the total number on the dice and record it as their score for that round. Other students must listen for the accuracy of the sentences. Play continues until the designated time has ended.
Follow My Directions – Students work in groups of 2-4. This is an excellent strategy for generating the precise and specific language of giving directions in a correct sequence. It is also a good listening activity for students to be able to follow directions accurately to complete a task. Student one gives precise, step-by-step directions to complete a task, including signal words such as first, next, then, finally. Other students listen carefully to the directions and follow the steps given to complete the task. The student giving the directions checks the work of those following directions and redirects or clarifies as appropriate. Repeat until everyone has a chance to be the direction giver.
Graphic Organizersa.k.a. Process Grids - Graphic organizers are charts, graphs, or diagrams, which encourage students to see information as a component of systems rather than isolated facts. Students may complete these as they read or view a presentation. There are a variety of ways to use graphic organizers, including the following: semantic word map, story chart, Venn diagram, spider map, network tree, word map, and KWL chart. Other examples of graphic organizers are listed below.
Comparison-Contrast Matrix-Students determine similarities and differences between two people, things, solutions, organisms, stories, ideas, or cultures.
Branching Diagrams -Organization charts, hierarchical relationships systems, family trees.
Interval Graphs-Chronological order, bar graphs, parallel events, number value.
Flowcharts - Sequential events, directions, decision making, writing reports, study skills.
Matrix Diagram-Schedules, statistics, problem solving, comparisons with multiple criteria.
Fishbone Diagram-Cause and effect, timeline.
Interview – Students work in pairs within groups of four. This is a good strategy to use for practicing how to formulate questions in general, and how to generate both informal and clarifying questions. It also challenges students to listen carefully, paraphrase, and generate answers that follow the structure modeled in the question. Following a teacher modeled pattern, the students formulate interview questions. Each takes a turn of asking a question of a partner while the partner answers in a complete sentence. Once the pair has completed the asking and answering of one question, the student who asked the question paraphrases the answer given by his partner to the rest of the group. Partners switch roles and repeat the process.
Line-up – Students form two lines facing each other. Students take turns with the person standing across from them, completing the task given (vocabulary practice, answering a question, interview, etc.). After a signal is given (bell, musical cue, chimes, light flash, etc.), students are asked to move one position to the left. The student at the end of the line that has no partner to the left moves to the other end of the line to meet with a new partner. The procedure continues.
Masterpiece Sentences a.k.a. Sentence Patterning Chart – Create a four column chart. In the header row, label each column: Adjectives (describe, tell about), Nouns (people, places, things, ideas), Verbs (do, actions), Prepositional phrases (where). Select a noun students are studying, such as reptile. Ask students to come up with words that describe reptile and write in adjectives column. Continue until each column (except noun) has several words. (Prepositional phrases can be substituted for adverbs) See how many sentences you can create from this chart. (Using the tune “The Farmer in the Dell,” the class can sing the sentences following this pattern: three adjectives, one noun, one verb and one prepositional phrase.)
Numbered Heads – This strategy works for whole class lessons with smaller teams working in groups of four. It is an appropriate strategy to use for brainstorming, predicting outcomes, review sessions, and general processing of information. The strategy fosters active listening and participation in the small group discussion, since students must be prepared to be called upon to share out to the whole class if their number is called it also allows for small group verbal interaction to practice language before sharing out with the larger group. Students number off in small teams, 1-4. The teacher asks a question, giving the group a set amount of time to discuss possible answers. Teacher calls a number 1-4, and all students with that number raise their hands, ready to respond. Teacher randomly calls on students with the specified number to answer on behalf of their team. Students are encouraged to acknowledge similarities and differences between their team’s response and that of other teams, using language structures such as: We predicted something different from____; Our reaction was similar to ____.
Picture Descriptions - Have one student choose a picture. That student has to describe the picture to the rest of the class. The Listeners have a blank sheet of paper and a set of crayons or colored pencils. They try to draw the picture based on the description they hear. Next they compare their drawings with a partner, then to the original picture. Be sure to let every student describe a picture - not necessarily on the same day!
Round-Robin Story Telling - Have one student choose a picture. That student has to provide the first sentence to the story. Each student in turn will add the next sentence until the story is complete. In the beginning, provide them with question prompts or sentence starters.
Scrambled Sentences – this is a partner or small group activity. Text used for the activity should have clear coherency links between sentences. The purpose of this strategy is to give students the opportunity to rebuild words in a sentence to make a coherent, meaningful sentence.
Choose a reading or a sentence frame with which students are already familiar. The teacher passes out mixed up sentences (either words on index cards or sentences on sentence strips) from a piece of text or from the sentence frames previously practiced. Students put the cards or sentence strips back into the correct order without referring to the reading or sentence frames. Students then take turns reading the complete sentences or paragraphs to their group.
Talking Chips – This is an effective strategy for ensuring that all students in a small group have an opportunity to contribute to class or group discussions. It allows students to connect to background knowledge, to elaborate on the ideas of their classmates, to articulate their own ideas, and to pose questions. Each student is given number of “chips.” As students participate orally in the partner/group/class activity, they give up a chip. Students speak until all chips are used.
Total Physical Response (TPR) – a method of introducing vocabulary and structures developed by James Asher, who believed that “Understanding should be developed through movements of the student’s body.” At a basic level, students are given the opportunity to respond to commands and demonstrate understanding non-verbally. (For example, the teacher commands, “Point to the chair” and the student demonstrates understanding of the vocabulary by making the appropriate action of pointing to the chair.