ELLRefresher

Cognates Definition: Words that are the same (or similar in appearance) in both the new and learned language Purposes: To support vocabulary development To develop familiarity between academic language and student’s home language To support home language appreciation and development Cognates are a tricky method of helping support vocabulary development. The gravest issue is that this method assumes that the student is familiar with the term in their home language. Without that background knowledge, the use of cognates can result some confusion; however, such situations can result in teaching the student new vocabulary in their home language. Spanish and French will have a lot of crossover. Chinese will have very few. Korean and Japanese will have many loan words, like “computer”, which are “ keompyuteo ” and “ konpyūtā ” respectively. Below is an excerpt from a document found on the “Color in Colorado” website, which lists English and Spanish cognates.

Gallery Walk Definition: An activity in which the students walk around the room and respond to questions or topics that are posted at each station. Often the students will stop at a poster, whiteboard, or similar piece of paper to discuss a specific question. Then the students will be asked to respond by writing on the poster/whiteboard, individually and/or as a group. Purposes: To facilitate discussion To introduce questions about a topic or concept To activate prior knowledge To encourage multiple responses To record preconceived or learned responses to a topic  Example A: Before a reading on cell reproduction, you might have four posters around the room asking the following questions: How do you think cells reproduce? What organelles may play a role in cell reproduction? How might viruses differ from other cells when reproducing? How often do you think your cells reproduce? The students will spend 5-10 minutes talking about and responding to each question.

Key Sentence Frames Definition: An example sentence in which specific details are left out in order for students to practice using the most appropriate language in certain situations. Purposes: To model the language of a genre or profession To encourage academic language skills To scaffold written and oral communication To provide the opportunity to use commonly expected language Key sentence frames are highly valuable tools for helping lower level learners grasp the concepts and the language of the concepts at the same time. The repetitive nature may seem dull to many; however, if used sparingly, the drill-and-kill nature can be subverted in favor of a practice-makes-permanent attitude. Consider the language used in reports, assignments, and professional writing when developing or designing sentence frames. Examples: In lessons teaching longitude and latitude, you might provide the students with (City) is located at # degrees longitud

PALS: Prediction Relay Definition: An activity in which a student “player” reads, summarizes, and predicts information from texts while a student “coach” reviews the responses and encourages improvements if the response is not correct. Purposes: To give all students an opportunity to participate To encourage social interactions To improve literacy skills To encourage monitoring strategies Example: Note--This activity can be done in conjunction with any readings; however, it is best with narratives (fictional or non-fictional). Step 1. The students are paired and assigned as either the “player” or the “coach”. Step 2. The player will read the page aloud, with the coach following along. Step 3. At end of each paragraph, the player will: Identify the focus of the paragraph Identify the main idea Basically, we want to separate the main idea as both a concept (or thing) and a purpose. Step 4. The coach will confirm and support