Article - Eight Ways to Use Video With English-Language-Learners

LINK

"I like the way you use videos with us -- you get us moving, talking, writing and speaking. The problem is you make us think too much."  -- "John," one of our English-Language Learner students.\

Wouldn't we ALL like to have this problem as educators? "You make us think too much." HA! The above article does a fantastic job of laying out eight different ways to engage ELL students through the use of video.

2. Back to the Screen  

Back to the Screen is adapted from Zero Prep: Ready-to-Go Activities for the Language Classroom(8) by Laurel Pollard, Natalie Hess, and Jan Herron. The teacher picks a short engaging clip from a movie and then divides the class into pairs, with one group facing the TV and the other with their back to it. Then, after turning off the sound, the teacher begins playing the movie. The person who can see the screen tells the other person what is happening. Then, after a minute or a few minutes (depending upon the length of the video), the students switch places. Afterward, the pairs write a chronological sequence of what happened, which is shared with another group and discussed as a class. Finally, everyone watches the clip, with sound, together.

I will definitely be using this strategy in the near future with my groups. I wish I would have stumbled upon this for my Chemical Properties/Changes activities earlier in the year. 

With language being a barrier, visual learning becomes a strong tool in content comprehension. We can work on the literary part as the student progresses. However, getting them engaged and not feeling defeated at the start of a lesson is crucial!

Meet students where they are! And give them what they need to succeed :).