• Repeat the child’s response. The teacher takes the two-word response offered by Laura and repeats it as: You said that your brother is terrified of looking down. • Elaborate on the child’s ideas. The teacher then elaborates on the response by adding: Your brother might be unwilling to look down from a high place. • Restate the idea. The teacher further explains that people who are afraid of heights don’t like to look down from a high place, such as from the window of a building or from the top of a ladder. Partner Talk Partner talk gives children an opportunity to practice speaking English in the context of purposeful communication. Instead of directing questions to children as a whole group and soliciting responses from a few individuals, ask ELs to talk with a partner. For example, say: Turn to your partner. Talk about a time in which something terrified you. What made you terrified? Children talk with their partners for a few minutes. Then they are called on to share their responses. However, in order to make sure that the children listen carefully to each other, they are asked to report on what their partner told them.
expert on his or her experience. Thus, their attempts to produce language will not be loaded with the stress that might be associated with needing to come up with the correct response. Conclusion In order to ensure that all young ELs develop the skills and competencies they need to read, speak, write, and understand English, we need to provide them with systematic and intensive exposure to high-quality language and literature. Scaffolded read-alouds provide an excellent source of rich language input for young ELs.
Experiential Questions Another strategy that promotes language
More to Explore Reinforcing home language is also important. Consider running bilingual storytimes by offering oral translations of the books in your Storytime packs or adding in rhymes and stories from children’s home languages. Seek out community volunteers, if needed, to help make this happen. See also the specific EL tips for each theme.
production is to include experiential questions in addition to questions that require recall of details or inference. Experiential questions help children establish connections to the text. They also help children activate prior knowledge and experiences that are relevant to the text. However, the utility of questions for fostering production lies in the fact that each child is the
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