Planning Steps
Step 1: Know Your ELLs and Their Context
- Describe your ELLs (e.g., home language literacy, English language proficiency levels).
- Describe their context (e.g., access to technology, responsibilities outside of school, possible barriers to engaging in distance learning).
Step 2: Analyze the Language Demands of the Distance Learning Lesson
ELL academic demands and challenges
- Word Level: Which key vocabulary will be unfamiliar and is essential to teach?
- Sentence Level: What support might ELLs need at the sentence level?
- Discourse Level: What support might ELLs need at the discourse level?
- Sociocultural Level: What other support might ELLs need in terms of background knowledge and cultural expectations?
Step 3: Plan the Lesson
- What scaffolds will you provide to ELLs of varying proficiency levels during distance learning?
- Refer to tool #5 and determine what materials, resources, instruction and student grouping you will use for beginner, intermediate and advanced ELLs.
- How will you incorporate scaffolds to be used with only some students?
- How will you model the scaffolds through distance learning?
Step 4: Select and Develop Appropriate Materials for Distance Learning
- Determine what materials and resources are already developed, need to be developed, or need to be adapted.
Step 5: Teach the Lesson, Adapting Scaffolding and Materials as Needed
- Plan for how you might collaborate, teach the lesson and revise your scaffolds for ELLs.
- Teach the lesson, using Tool #5 to collaborate, analyze and reflect on your lesson.