Helping Beginner English Language Learners learn World History

August 31, 2016 4:03 PM

This year I will be co-teaching a class of English Language Learners world history (from roughly 15th century China through the Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment, French Revolution, Imperialism, Industrial Revolution, 20th century etc.) The majority of our class will have some proficiency in English, but we recently learned that a small group will be beginner ELLs with almost no knowledge of English. How can we best help these newcomers learn English and acclimate them to their new home, teach them some world history, and also support the majority of our students with different needs?

The class is 10th-grade (Common Core based) Global History and Geography in a New York public school. One of them only speaks Wolof (which neither of us understand), another a different unfamiliar language, and another speaks Spanish but has a limited vocabulary in his/her native language as well.

The rest of the class will be a mix of regular ELLs who have some foundation in English and a few non-ELLs with strong English skills. All the ELLs will need differentiated instruction and considerable support to expand their skills, but they'll be preparing for the same State test and overall objectives as the English speakers. We've determined the beginner group will need a completely separate program with different objectives.

For now, my co-teacher and I think it makes the most sense for her to present a lesson/work related to the lesson I am presenting to the rest of the class, but much more simplified and with an emphasis on skills and strategies that work for low ELLs (such as visuals that help introduce them to new vocabulary, native-language glossaries of English terms, connections between historical events and their own lives/experiences etc.). We would provide them with work they can do together or independently so she/I can also support the other students.

If this proves unfeasible we'll have to rethink our approach. To try to avoid having to make a ton of separate material for them only, we are looking for resources, including textbooks, to use with our beginner ELLs. Nothing seems to fit the bill. We considered using elementary World History textbooks but those don't quite work (Typical U.S.-born 3rd-graders speak quite a bit of English, certainly don't need to know about the Reign of Terror or what happened to Ann Boleyn, and cannot think as abstractly as our students).

Is it foolhardy to think we can teach the newcomers a basic version of the history the rest of the class is learning (so they can ideally have many opportunities to engage with the whole class)? Any suggestions for approaches, textbooks, resources, anecdotes would be appreciated. The school has a limited budget for new material but we do have access to computers, iPads etc.

posted by callistus to Education (2 answers total)

I have taught two newcomers in a class of regular to advanced 6th grade students. Both were fluent in English by the end of the year. The bad news is that there really aren't great programs that are pre-packaged.

However, here are a few things that really helped my students:

--using materials that could be accessed digitally and put into Google Translate. So I used Crash Course a lot, and you can find the transcripts for all of them. The transcripts can be copied and pasted into Translate, and then they can listen to the English video and follow along in their own language (or as close as possible). This doesn't work for Wolof, but it will for Spanish.

--allowing them to dictate instead of type (Google Docs does this), and then putting that through Google Translate. It didn't always work, but it took some of the anxiety out of it. By having it all in Google Docs, they could also take it home and get help from someone with same-language support. I found that to be helpful for one of my newcomers especially, as she had several siblings learning English and parents who were bilingual.

--lots of maps and graphic organisers. I made most of my own, but something I did often was take a graphic from Crash Course (or from the internet) and have students add to it. So take a picture of the topographical map of a region, and have students add mountains and rivers and label them. That's something that students could find in other languages easily. It's also WAY more useful than learning the reasons the Shang Dynasty was so successful. Geography and learning geographical terms is more helpful and reasonable.

--Have them create storybooks or videos about the content. Google Slides can be changed so it's portrait instead of landscape, and that looks just like a kids' book. Huge area for picture, small area to type. I also love having kids make their own puppets and have dialogue videos with the puppets. They could even "translate" for the puppet. It lets kids play a bit, and is fun enough that it lowers the affective filter.

--Explicitly teach vocabulary. Keep it to academic vocabulary where possible. Have them create books (the Google Slides portrait slides work well for this too) where they use the word, illustrate it, and show examples from the text.

--Lots of videos. There is a ton of stuff on YouTube, but even just videos showing the place you're studying would help. I love Simon's Cat but it would work well for you because there is very little dialogue. It's more of a stretch to apply to History (I teach both History and English) but it's pretty good for reinforcing concepts. I ask kids to summarise the action using SWBST (somebody wanted but so then). When they've done that several times a day for about two weeks, we move on to making metaphors/similes, or finding conflict, or describing character, etc. You could have them use their vocabulary words to explain what's going on. And it's fun.

--Don't forget to let them have fun. Think how stressful it's got to be to be them. It's okay to just have fun.

I'm certainly willing to pass my materials on, though I did Ancient History the last two years. Now I'm doing Fall of Rome to Enlightenment, so if you asked a year from now I'd have more to share.

Good luck. It's a really tough task!
posted by guster4lovers at 5:28 PM on August 31, 2016 [2 favorites]

The World That Trade Created might be a good text for your class because the chapters are only 2-3 pages long. Each chapter covers the history of a thing like money, food, and natural resources. It lends itself to exercises that engage various learning styles. I like it because it is not at all Euro-centric in focus.

I used it in college courses, but it is also assigned in high schools. The prose style is almost conversational. It is not at all dense like a standard-issue textbook. The vocabulary would be just about right for the age and goals of your class.

The instructor's handbook of a college World History textbook will contain suggestions for ancillary materials like films and websites. I like the textbooks by Robert Tignor et. al. and Jerry Bentley. Neither is Eurocentric and both contain lots of interesting maps.

If you contact the rep for your region, they will send you a sample/desk copy.

You might also consult the websites of the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian. They have first-rate interactive features.

Feel free to memail me if you'd like to see a few chapters from The World That Trade Created. I will see if I have my instructor's manuals for the textbooks.
posted by CtrlAltD at 10:06 PM on August 31, 2016