Weekly ELD Strategy #1

As the Middle School ELD Coach for Framingham Public Schools, I have started the practice of sending out an ELD strategy to all of the staff each week. These are brief strategies teachers can try, in order to support ELs more in the content and curriculum.

Week 1: September 6, 2018

Strategy 1: Set the expectation that all questions be answered in complete sentences.

All too often this happens in classrooms:

Teacher: What strategy did you use to solve this problem?

Student: Pictures.

And then the teacher moves on to the next question.

However, if we set the expectation that every question be answered in a complete sentence, we can really amp up all of our students’ linguistic complexity. One-word answers turn into nine-word answers. This then leads to stronger academic conversations, discourse, and improved scores on the ACCESS test.

Example:

Teacher: What strategy did you use to solve this problem?

Student: The strategy I used was to draw a picture.

We could really improve the scores this year, if we make it a goal that students always respond to questions in complete sentences. And restating a simple question is something a student at any WIDA level can do. For more information, please see the WIDA Speaking Rubric (p.4)

**As always, all of the ELD Weekly Strategies can be found here, for your reference. If you have any questions about this ELD strategy or any other strategy, please let me know.