Bohannon's Turkey Foot Bulletin: Tips for Differentiating Instruction for ELLs

When working with ELLs, it is important that we differentiate instruction and not simply give students grades for participating. At first, this can seem tedious, but as you learn more about your students and their abilities, you will become more comfortable with planning instruction at different levels and to meet their different needs.

1. Know their WIDA levels and the corresponding Can Do Descriptors.

Can Do Descriptors for grades 6-8
DO NOT ASSUME A STUDENT'S WIDA LEVEL!

Some students are excellent speakers and listeners of English, but are not excellent readers and writers and require much more intervention than the teacher believes. Likewise, some students are excellent readers, but struggle with speaking.

Use the students WIDA level even if you disagree with it. Scaffold as needed, but this is the student's English proficiency level as determined by a yearly proficiency exam. Again, sometimes student's needs are different than what they appear.

2. Give students work based on their WIDA level.

If you have a class with 5-6 ELLs, it is likely that they are all on different levels. Giving them all the same work would be a disservice to them.

3. Demonstrate everything.

If you want students to fill out index cards with definitions, actually do an example with the students.
If students are supposed to make a poster, either make your own poster or show examples,

It is helpful to show both good and bad examples of posters so students have a reference point.

If students are supposed to make a list and then sort words/items into the list, draw a chart on the board and demonstrate your thinking process for one or two words/items.

4. Modify assignments and assessments to meet students needs.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN MARKING OUT ANSWERS ON A MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST.
General modifications

Sentence Starters
Fewer answer choices provided on a different test than the rest of the class
Word banks
Graphic organizers
Give a choice of assignments
Dictionaries/tablet/computer for spelling
Simplify the language

Ex. Rather than saying "Daniel Boone was a pioneer," say "Daniel Boone was a person who went to new places"

Use pictures or gestures
Use realia

Give students different assignments than the other students. Giving them the same paper and then telling them to only complete one or two problems is very confusing for them.