Side-By-Side Principles 2 and 3 and Framework Environments and Materials

Handout 3D

Side-by-Side Principles 2 and 3 and Framework Environments and Materials

Principle 2 / Principle 3 / Environments and Materials
Structure activities so that children can engage in telling stories or recounting events by expressing themselves through various means, such as speech, pantomime, pointing, and role-playing. / Promote and assist peer interactions to provide opportunities for English learners, including those with disabilities, to communicate with peers who are more fluent English speakers and can serve as language models. / Make use of computers to introduce and reinforce the content of activities.
Note that children from different cultural backgrounds may interpret
a single action by the teacher to have contrasting meanings. For example, a teacher may point to signal where she wants the children to go. But some children may think she is reprimanding them, singling them out for some reason, or saying she wants “one” of something (since she has one finger out). / Demonstrate how to make requests, how to initiate conversations, and how to “take the floor.” / Provide linguistically and culturally appropriate materials.
Vary wait time, the amount of time you allow children to respond. Children from certain cultural backgrounds find the pace of verbal interactions in U.S. schools very different from what they are accustomed to. / Present new vocabulary in a context that allows the children to determine the meaning rather than in isolation, as in lists of words. / Make clear signs and explicit picture cues for interest areas.
Accept silence or quiet observation as a proper way for some children to participate, especially when they first join your class. / Keep language a step beyond the child’s current development, but not too far. As the child’s language develops, adults should gradually increase the complexity of their language. / Provide space where teachers and other adults can interact individually and in small groups with children who are learning English.
Remember that children benefit from experiencing different types of interactions with adults and with peers, including cooperative and peer-oriented activities as well as more independent activities. / Use the sign or picture symbol of a word for children with disabilities. Also use a voice-output device with a prerecorded label in the child’s home language and in English. / Establish consistent classroom routines and procedures.
Be aware that ways of expressing feelings, such as excitement, anger, happiness, frustration, and sadness, differ in various cultures. For example, children may show excitement by shouting and jumping for joy, by smiling and offering a coy look, by showing no outward signs while inwardly experiencing anticipation, or by sharing with a friend or a trusted adult the fact that they are excited. / Introduce a vocabulary word by connecting it with related words in one or more of the children’s languages. If you are not bilingual, access the bilingual abilities of other colleagues or family members. For example, after reading a story about the circus, connect the word circus with el circo (in Spanish) or le cirque (in French) and also connect circus with the word circle in English. / Provide space in the classroom environment for children to interact in small groups and one-on-one.
Make sure that your classroom environment reflects the children’s cultures and languages in each learning center; on walls, windows, and bulletin boards; and in educational and play materials.