beclearlearning

✏️ Writing Workshop Wednesdays ✏️

Fostering young writers starts with building their confidence. Here are 3 ways to get elementary students excited about writing ✍️

Language is the key✨

Food for thought 💭

As teachers of multilingual students, we tend to focus on the 4 domains of language development:

👂Listening
🗣 Speaking
📚 Reading
📝 Writing

But what if I told you that there are other ways students express thinking and understanding?

Approaching our students in the assets-based mindset helps us to see the power of a variety of expressive modes:

📏 Spatial - the arrangement of elements in space i.e. organization & the relationship between objects, people, ideas

👍 Gestural - how movement is interpreted i.e. body language, facial expressions, etc.

👁 Visual - images & characters (symbols, etc.)

👂Aural - focused on sound (music, ambient, silence, tone, volume, emphasis & accent)

✏️ Linguistic - aka alphabetic, written or spoken words (word choice, delivery, organization of words, coherence, etc.)

By being aware of these modes of expression, we are better equipped to support our students as they develop proficiency in English and navigate all of the intricate nuances of language learning 🧠

Comment below EX & the mode that reflects your learning style 🤌

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Have you heard the term EMERGENT BILINGUAL?

For years, second language learners have been referred to as English language learners (ELL) or English learners (EL) but there's a term that's quickly replacing the two💡

Emergent bilingual refers to a student who is continuing to develop their home language while also learning an additional language 🗣

Rather than placing the emphasis on gaps and deficits, let's take an asset-based approach that focuses on what students know and can do in BOTH languages 💫

Comment below EM if you are already using this new language in your district or schools 💬

Writing can be one of the more difficult subjects to teach✏️

Especially for second language learners, who are learning English and content at the same time 💬

How can you laser focus your planning & instruction? 📚

✔️ Start with a language objective. What will students write (text type) and what grammatical structures and register is expected with that text type?

✔️ Identify the language features of the target genre: grammar, vocabulary, and organization.

✔️ Have students talk about their ideas and their writing throughout the writing process. This will support with clarifying and expanding ideas.

✔️ Model, model, model! Students not only need to see you attempt the same task, but they also need to hear how you navigate through the process.

✔️ Keep the rubric simple and student-friendly. A good rule of thumb? Go back to the language features you identified and include those items in a single point rubric. Either students have it, or they don't.

Which writing tips are you already doing and what would you like more information about? ✨

Celebrate Black History Month with these wonderful books, perfect for read-alouds 💫

Happy Black History Month!✊🏿

📚 Daddy and Me and the Rhyme to Be by Chris Bridges and Halcyon Person

📚 I Love My Beautiful Hair by Elissa Wentt

📚 Bessie the Motorcycle Queen by Charles R. Smith Jr.

📚 Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed

How do you celebrate Black History Month with your students? Let us know in the comments 💫

Food for thought 💭

I honestly thought that this figure would be greater 😲

But the movement is building nationwide for more bilingual and biliteracy programs 💫

Your reminder to take the first step in anything you've been avoiding to just get it started ✨

Celebrate and share the traditions of Lunar New Year with these wonderful books, perfect for read-alouds all next week 💫

Happy Lunar New Year 🧧

📚 Chinese New Year Colors by Richard Lo

📚 Lunar New Year (Celebrate the World) by Hannah Eliot

📚 Golden Blooms: Celebrating Tet-Vietnamese Lunar New Year by YT Tran

📚 A Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin

How do you celebrate Lunar New Year with your students? Let us know in the comments 💫

Food for thought 💭

Has your classroom seen an increase in multilingual learners?

Sign up for our newsletter for tips, strategies and best practices to support this special group of students 💫

R E G I S T E R

Content and language standards use this term a lot.

Academic register is integral in developing academic language for ALL students.

What exactly is academic register? 💬

The simplest explanation is that academic register is the specialized academic language used across content areas, consisting of language demands and vocabulary ✅

All content areas have a unique set of language demands, grammatical patterns and vocabulary📝

For English learners and multilingual learners to be considered "proficient" speakers and writers of English, they need to master academic register 📚

If you want to deepen your knowledge of academic register and academic language, sign up for our Teaching CLEAR Club 💫

Comment below what register means to you 💭