Science ESOL Strategies

Strategy 1 : Predictable Routines and Signals: Reducing Anxiety (Problems and Solutions Chart)

Grade: 2

SC.2.P.10.1 Discuss that people use electricity or other forms of energy to cook their food, cool or warm their homes, and power their cars.

ELD.K12.ELL.SC.1 English Language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Science.

This strategy is important because it helps students' to explore and construct knowledge in specific curricular subjects. In order for this strategy to be successful teachers need to know: set up their room according to their activity, establish routines for student's to easily pick up on, model routines, contextualize directions and be consistent, evaluate the use of routines to identify areas to be improved and assess to determine appropriate follow-up instruction. This strategy is good for science because it helps the students' to organize their information reguarding charts and data. It also helps them to create a routine when expirimenting and dealing with different objects and materials.

This specfic standard matches up with the strategy by helping the students to predict what the normal or average use of electricity people use. They can determine different forms of energy such as to cook their food, power their cars and power their homes. This can be done with a simple chart.

Source: Herrell, A., & Jordan, M. (2012). Predictable Routines and Signals: Reducing Anxiety. In 50 strategies for teaching English language learners (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Strategy 2: Checking for Understanding: Using Questioning Strategies to Differentiate Instruction (Show-me cards)

Grade: 2

SC.2.P.8.2 Identify objects and materials as solid, liquid, or gas.

ELD.K12.ELL.SC.1 English Language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Science.

This strategy helps teacher's quickly identify an answer of all the students quickly and at once. It is a quick way to check understand. The teacher asks a question and then all the student's respond by raising one of the two cards. Typically one card is red and one is green. The cards can either mean true or false or something referencing to the lesson. The cards can be made to encourage all the studnets to respond quickly for understanding questions. When teaching solids, liquids, and gas the students can have three different cards: one for solids, one for liquids and one for gas. The teacher can call out an object and students can raise their cards for which applies.

Source: Herrell, A., & Jordan, M. (2012). Checking for Understanding. In 50 strategies for teaching English language learners (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Strategy 3: Cooperative Learning: Group Interactions to Accomplish Goals

Grade: 2

SC.2.L.17.2 Recognize and explain that living things are found all over Earth, but each is only able to live in habitats that meet its basic needs.

ELD.K12.ELL.SC.1 English Language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Science.

Cooperative learning is an important and useful strategy in science. Cooperative learning can be done through groups and building a team, students having specific roles, brainstorming, assembly lines and much more. For example in second grade life science students in group can create basic needs that living things need to survive. As a group they can create pictures of water, food, shelter, oxygen, etc.. They will work together to accomplish one goal. The end product for this specific lesson should look something like the picture below.

Source: Herrell, A., & Jordan, M. (2012). Cooperative Learning: Group Interactions to Accomplish Goals. In 50 strategies for teaching English language learners (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Strategy 4:

SC.2.E.7.5 State the importance of preparing for severe weather, lightning, and other weather related events.

ELD.K12.ELL.SC.1 English Language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Science.

Relia Strategies: Connecting Language Acquisition to the Real World

This strategy uses real, concrete objects to build background knowledge and vocabulary. Students will be able to use 5 senses. They are able to hear, see, feel, and smell objects. For example, hear the sounds the weather makes, see the rain falling, feel the snow or rain, and smeel the scent of the rain.

Source: Herrell, A., & Jordan, M. (2012). Relia Strategies: Connecting Language Acquisition to the Real World. In 50 strategies for teaching English language learners (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Strategy 5:

SC.2.L.14.1 Distinguish human body parts (brain, heart, lungs, stomach, muscles, and skeleton) and their basic functions.

ELD.K12.ELL.SC.1 English Language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Science.

Reporting Back: Verbal Practice in Curriculum Connections

This is bridging the gap between spoken and written language. Can be used as a follow-up hands-on activity. Students write a reporting-back summary of the assigment or expiriment presented in class.

Source: Herrell, A., & Jordan, M. (2012). Reporting Back: Verbal Practice in Curriculum Connections. In 50 strategies for teaching English language learners (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Strategy 6:

SC.2.L.16.1 Observe and describe major stages in the life cycles of plants and animals, including beans and butterflies.

ELD.K12.ELL.SC.1 English Language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Science.

Advance Organizers: Getting the Mind in Gear for Instruction.

Advance Organizers can be used to help the students organize and visualize the new information better. The organizers are helpful to the students because it puts all of the new information in one place and catagorizes by importance. Students can also draw pictures or use key words in their advance organizers.

Source: Herrell, A., & Jordan, M. (2012). Advance Organizers: Getting the Mind in Gear for Instruction. In 50 strategies for teaching English language learners (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Strategy 7:

SC.2.N.1.3 Ask "how do you know?" in appropriate situations and attempt reasonable answers when asked the same question by others.

ELD.K12.ELL.SC.1 English Language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Science.

Guided Reading: Providing Indiviual support within a Group Setting

Guided reading provides students with the opportunity to read with a little bit of help. Students are guided by their teacher or peer to complete a specific alotted amount of reading. Guided reading helps the students to hear others and receive quick help and feedback.

Source: Herrell, A., & Jordan, M. (2012). Guided Reading: Providing Indiviual support within a Group Setting. In 50 strategies for teaching English language learners (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Strategy 8:

SC.2.P.13.4 Demonstrate that the greater the force (push or pull) applied to an object, the greater the change in motion of the object.

ELD.K12.ELL.SC.1 English Language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Science.

Microselection: Finding Key Words and Main Ideas.

Microselction is also along the same lines as using graphic organizers. It teaches the students how to quickly locate key words or main ideas in the text. Students will become quick to find important information and cross out useless information in the text.

Source: Herrell, A., & Jordan, M. (2012). Microselection: Finding Key Words and Main Ideas. In 50 strategies for teaching English language learners (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Strategy 9:

SC.2.P.8.2 Identify objects and materials as solid, liquid, or gas.

ELD.K12.ELL.SC.1 English Language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Science.

Attribute Charting: Organizing Information to Support Understanding.

For this activity students will have to locate and organize solids, liquids, and gases into an attribute chart. This helps the students visualize the information given by the teacher. It supports ESOL students becuase it makes the information clear and illustrates the main idea of the topic. This strategy makes it easier for students to compare and contrast.

Source: Herrell, A., & Jordan, M. (2012).Attribute Charting: Organizing Information to Support Understanding. In 50 strategies for teaching English language learners (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Strategy 10:

SC.2.N.1.1 Raise questions about the natural world, investigate them in teams through free exploration and systematic observations, and generate appropriate explanations based on those explorations.

ELD.K12.ELL.SC.1 English Language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Science.

GIST: Exploring Through Text

This strategy is important for comprehending text. After a section is read students will work in grups to some up with one summarizing sentence about the topic. The teacher only facilitates and provides support for this strategy. This helps ESOL students because they are able to discuss and clarify any information among their group members.

Source: Herrell, A., & Jordan, M. (2012).GIST: Exploring Through Text . In 50 strategies for teaching English language learners (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.