So... What's an ELD Lesson Look Like?

Okay. So I got the conceptual understanding of an ELD lesson. Helping our English Learners acquire the grammatical structures to be able to use them in academic settings (And beyond).

So what does an ELD lesson look like? What's supposed to take place during ELD instruction? Let's break it down...

Introducing the target language form

The most effective ELD lesson remembers one thing: organize your language objective around a purpose to using the grammatical form. In my example below, children will be comparing two animals using the comparative form.

This is the time to model. Model being a competent speaker of English. Model using a specific grammatical form. Taking on from our example from yesterday, let's model the comparative form __________ -er.

But wait!!! Isn't it so very rote, dry and boring to simply plaster a wall or fill a pocket chart with such constructions. Well of course, but being such a wonderfully competent teacher you already realize that. So it is best to introduce all of this in a context of an interesting, engaging, and age-appropriate topic. Yes, we don't want to berate our 5th grade English learners with topics that would be way more engaging to first graders, such as zoo animals. So, choose a topic wisely!

So, back to this 5ish minute mini-lesson:
1. Introduce the target form
2. Introduce an appropriate language prompt that will elicit the grammatical form you want the students to internalize. For example, showing a picture of a giraffe and a horse, I can ask, by using a sentence strip or having the following written on the board: "Which animal is ____________-er?" I would answer by introducing the language frame (response) The ______________ is ____________-er than the ________."

The Guided Practice

Besides modeling ALL students require good modeling in order to learn. But that's only a third of the story. The next third is appropriate, respectful feedback for students as they practice the newly taught language response and associated grammatical form with you. You can start by asking students the language prompt as a whole group, working your way to a couple of student volunteers who can respond and eventually an appropriate way for students to practice with one another as you monitor, for example by using the much loved "think-pair-share" strategy. This is a good time to go back and model if you notice that students are not quite yet internalizing the grammatical form. Oh and depending on your students, this is probably about a 10 to 12 minute segment.

The Independent but Structured Practice

Yes, the final third to a successful ELD lesson is student practice in order to have the opportunity to produce the desired grammatical form in a structured way. What does this mean? For starters, students should be used to some type of instructional routine that involves specialized grouping activities such that everyone will get a turn to practice both the language prompt and the language response, using the necessary target grammatical form(s) in the process. For example, in groups of three, two students can each hold the picture of an animal taking turns asking the other student the language prompt. The student can then respond by stating that "The _________ (animal) is shorter/faster/lighter/etc ( __________-er_ than the _________ ).

This of course, should form the rest of (and therefore the bulk) of the ELD block. Depending on where you teach, the time allocated to ELD may vary. In California however, state guidelines call for a minimum of 30 minutes to be allocated for ELD instruction. Many school districts have adopted this standard for kindergarten and a 45 minute block for 1st - 5th (or 6th grade if it's a K-6 elementary district).

Why is this sequence and elements to an ELD lesson important?

Because our English Learners need explicit practice with the myriad grammatical forms of the English language. However, they also need to use these in a wide variety of contexts, demonstrating flexibility with them by applying them in other content areas (most importantly the English Language Arts- more on this tomorrow) with confidence and for a range of purposes. For instance, we want them to be able not just to compare animals, but apply this grammatical form to other areas, like comparing two historical events.

Once students master a certain form, increase the level of rigor. Another good topic to follow up on a different day.

An ELD Lesson in Action

For an example of an effective ELD lesson, check out this video:





Happy viewing and learning! There is much to glean from this video to inform our own practice.

Hope your first days are full of smiles and may you continue to feel a sense of fulfillment at the end of it all!

- W