Making Center Learning Meaningful for
ELL/ESL Students
Tobey
Bassoff
I have received quite a few inquiries this month about how to
meaningfully incorporate ESL students during literacy centers.
The following How-to Article will focus on creating effective
centers for limited English speaking students.
For those of you not familiar with the centers concept, please
visit: http://ncacasi.org/jsi/2001v2i1/literacy. It is a
comprehensive site that defines and explains centers. It also
offers links for further research.
For the purpose of this article, I will define a literacy center
as "a physical area designed for specific learning purposes
(Betsy Van Deusen-MacLeod, Journal of School Improvement (2001). " A classroom utilizing centers usually has four or five
defined learning areas that are differentiated to meet student
needs. Each center may focus on discrete literacy skills, or it
may integrate literacy with other content areas, like science or
math. Centers, by design, are meant to be independent work
stations where teacher involvement is not required. (Teachers
are often meeting with small guided reading groups during this
time.)
Creating centers that are accessible and meaningful to students
with little or no English is challenging because ESL students
often don't have the ability to read directions, or the schema
to help them decode unfamiliar vocabulary words. The other
roadblock is that many ESL students are coming from countries
where centers instruction does not exist, or may look different
from your classroom.
Now that we've framed the problem, let's discuss some solutions:
The following is a time line of ways to make centers meaningful
to your new ESL arrival.
Week 1: Buddy Mentor: The first week that your ESL
student arrives, it is important to make her feel welcome and
like a part of the community. Therefore, assigning her a buddy
mentor to engage in the first round of centers is key. I have
found that it is more important to establish a sense of
belonging and security in that first week than it is to have
ability-appropriate lessons. You need to assess your ESL
students’ literacy skills first. Do not assume that your new
arrival knows no English. I have learned that many students
acquire at least some English before they step foot in my
classroom.
Week 2: Practice Centers: Now that you've had time to
assess your students’ basic literacy skills in English, it is
important to establish routines and practice them. Find time
during the day to practice the center that your ESL student will
attend during your literacy hour. If your literacy block begins
first thing in the morning, then practice the center the day
before. When you practice, take nothing for granted. Go through
all the expectations that you have of any student participating
during a center. (If other teachers in your school use centers,
then arrange a tour of those classrooms and acquaint them with
different "pictures" of the same concept. This may seem
confusing at first, but I have found that the more exposure my
ESL students have to what is a "normal” part of the day, the
more comfortable they feel when the centers change down the
road.
Week 3: Designing Meaningful Centers: Core Value
#1- all students want to succeed. Core Value #2 - all students
want to feel like a part of the overall community. Bearing these
two core values in mind, design centers with success as the
goal. Sheltered Content Instruction by Jana Echevarria and
Anne Graves (Allyn and Bacon 1998) is a wonderful resource
if you're trying to understand where your student falls in the
scope of academic English acquisition. The second Core Value is
also key when you are selecting activities. Many of you have
expressed concern about making the ESL student's center
activities too "childish" compared to the work of the rest of
the class. You have a right to be concerned. You must strive not
to alienate your new ESL student while attempting to design
meaningful center work. The way I do this in my own class is to
design my literacy centers around a common theme. Everyone has
work related to that theme. This month, our theme is "In the
Wild." All students are studying concepts related to wildlife
preservation, endangered or threatened species, and habitats and
ecosystems. My latest newcomer from Mexico has activities at
each station that allow her to feel like a member of the
community, while she is learning English and strategies to be a
successful student.
No matter where you are in the design process of centers,
remember to keep your Core Values in mind. All students want to
feel accepted and they want to be successful. Good Luck! If you
need an idea for a center, or if you had an idea that worked, please email me.
Center Ideas for ESL Students
1. Blends - Have students match blends (th, ch, st, etc...) to
picture word cards. Then, they can look through books for
additional words to match blends and they can design their own
picture word cards.
2. Listening Center - Make a cassette recorder and books on
tapes available for ESL students. Have them recreate the story
through pictures and whatever words they learned using a
tri-fold "beginning, middle, and end" story sheet. Fold a 8 1/2
by 11 sheet of paper horizontally. Cut 1/2 into thirds. Write
beginning, middle, and end on the flaps and have the student
draw the pictures. For an added challenge, have them create the
flip chart with visual instructions.
3. Patterning - Make patterns on cards and have the students
match the patterns to a board.
4. Visual Vocabulary Dictionary - Students begin their own
dictionary of vocabulary words in English by looking through
magazines and cutting out pictures of words they learn by
reading a high interest book in English. Students record the
spelling of the word in the book, and they keep the book with
them. If your class has a theme like "Space," then this center
could be used in conjunction with the class study. Select
pictures and words that the rest of the class was also learning.
5. Labeling - Take a book with a picture of vocabulary words
that you hope your students have already mastered. Have them
label as many of the pictures as they can identify using
English. (Post-It notes work well for this type of activity.)
6. Draw and Write - Arrange a folder containing pictures of
objects and writing paper. Have students draw their own picture
of an object in the folder, and then have them write sentences
about the picture. Again, if the class is studying a theme, like
"space," then have the pictures relate to the theme. The
students’ vocabulary will grow when they can connect it to other
things in their life. |