ELD Lessons: Watch the Language!

Everything should follow from the language objective, especially the language patterns you will be using in order for students to engage in a particular language function (purpose for using the language). They come in two varieties:

1. The language prompt
2. The language response

The language prompt

The language prompt is basically a question. Why a question? Because that is the best way to elicit a response from students! Of course, it has to be a prompt such that when students "fill in the blanks," they will also be using the topic vocabulary being introduced in the first part of the week- which is why it is just as important to introduce/practice topic vocabulary at the beginning, before teaching a new grammatical form, or language pattern.

So, returning to the language objective of "students will compare two objects using the grammatical form ______-er, " a reasonable prompt for a week's lesson on the topic of animals, could be "Which ________ is _________-er?"

The language response

It is easy to predict an appropriate language response here. Basically, a language response is what students will be producing. When they "fill in the blank(s)," the emphasis should be on the grammatical form, although they must use topical vocabulary to convey their idea. This is why the language response is the last in the sequence to be introduced after: topic vocabulary, grammatical form and language prompt.

An appropriate response frame here could be: The _________ is __________-er than the __________.

As the days progress, you can increase the level of rigor by doing any of the following variations:
- adding another animal: The ________ and _________ are __________-er than the ___________.
- inserting a negative: The ___________ is not __________-er than the ____________.
- etc.

This is useful as students internalize more basic forms. Just remember, it all goes back to the language students are producing. Make sure it is in line with your objective!

- W