Teaching ELD Learners

At my school, every student receives English Language Development instruction because frankly, every student needs to improve their oral and written grammar.   Classes meet for ELD instruction three times a week for 50 minutes.   Our grade level has chosen to "split" the kids based on English Proficiency Level.  We use this exam to make our classes.  Lately, we have begun to use ELD instructional time to help prepare students for their upcoming writing assessments.  We continue to work on listening and speaking but focus the lessons on grammar used in relation to the writing prompt.

I teach the lowest level of ELD speakers.  The students are a mix of native English speakers and non-native English speakers.  They are also some of the most fragile learners at our grade level.  Many of these students are frequently in trouble, have home issues, and are struggling in their classes academically.  They are a high need group who is yearning for attention.  I must admit, that at times, we had our moments but overall, I enjoyed these kids.  I also admit, I have a lot of admiration for their teachers.  Boy, they are a handful!

Here is a glimpse of our learning during ELD.

We made rainbows, watched raisins dance, made oobleck; all in the name of science.  The kids kept asking to watch something explode.  I kept saying no for fear that they might try it at home. 

Translation: #1 spicy, #2 candy, #3 coffee, #4 chocolate, #5 Mrs. Parker for perfume

We discovered our senses.  Students had a blast rotating through our senses centers.  Great vocabulary building activity.  

 This led to our learning of adjectives using a familiar story.  

We wrote our own version of the story.

Lastly, we used all our knowledge about describing people, places and things to become superheroes. Students had to read their writing using Superhero voices.  

This was my favorite picture of the day! It is from a little boy who when he discovered he was going to be in my ELD class, the first thing he asked was would we make police hats. I had made them with my kinder ELD class the previous year and he wanted one. Well, no police hat is in sight but we did manage to come up with something better.

Happy Teaching and Learning!