Adapting Teacher-Prepared Notes to the Stages of Language Acquisition
Figure 3 in Adapting Other Note-Taking Formats to the Stages of Language Acquisition, shows an example of teacher-prepared notes for main stream students. Follow the suggestions below to use these notes with all stages of ELLs.
Preproduction
Students can participate in a whole-class discussion on teacher notes when a student completes the graphic part of the chart. You can ask these students to respond nonverbally with “Show me ...” or “Point to ....” For practice, these students can use the teacher-prepared notes and select words they know and do not know. You can also provide students with ways to keep track of their new words (e.g., three-ring binder, spiral notebook, or note cards).
Early Production
Students can also participate in a whole-class discussion when someone completes the graphic part of the notes. Ask yes/no questions or questions requiring one- or two-word responses, such as “Do ants have antennae?” These students can also practice familiar and unfamiliar vocabulary words.
Speech Emergence
Students can answer why, how, when, or where questions using the teacher-prepared written notes and graphics.
Intermediate Fluency
Students can respond to teacher questions that start with “Why do you think . . ..”
Advanced Fluency
Students can write questions (see the third column of Figure 1 in Preproduction). While you are engaging early- to mid-level ELLs in answering questions, English-dominant students and Advanced Fluency students are writing questions.
