Student Framing - English Learners

If you counted the instructional minutes during a period or block of instruction and sorted them by who is talking, are the minutes that the students are talking the majority on your list?

Are you, the teacher, talking more than your students? 

At The English Learner Group, we support teachers in closing the English Learner achievement gap. One of the most critical elements for teachers in that work is understanding who is talking in the classroom. Think about getting your students to talk more… but not just any talk.

When the students are talking, what are they saying? 

Are they using the academic vocabulary you would like them to be using?

If they wrote like they talk, would you be satisfied with their writing?

So, start watching your students. Who is really doing the talking and what are they saying?

A few suggestions to get your students to use academic language…

1. Give the student a sentence frame. The frame will have the kind of words you want them to say and use.

2. Ask them to summarize with required vocabulary. Give them a list of 3-4 words that must be used in their summary.

3. Consider the student’s English proficiency level, and role play a real-life situation with the appropriate sentence structure of his/her proficiency level in their role.

Let me know what you think!

Sam Nofziger, Ed. D