ELL Classroom Activities

Presentation by: Lauren, Evan, Anna, Brendan, and Ashleigh

 Tell Me About Myself
Students introduce themselves by using visuals
Use numbers, dates, symbols and illustrations
Try to guess your partners characteristic
This is beneficial to ELL students because they can connect the visual to
a characteristic or trait of their classmate. Using a visual to tell about
yourself is a great way for ELL students to tell about themselves and
their backgrounds without even needing to speak. This is a good activity
to do at the beginning of the school year to get students acquainted with
one another.
 Mimes
Each students receives a card with an action on it written in a sentence
form (e.g You are jumping). Each student (mime) comes up and acts out
what is on their card. Then the other students have to guess what the
mime is doing by answering in sentence form (e.g. You are jumping.).
The mime has to answer with, Yes, that is what I am doing. or No, that
is not what I am doing.
This is beneficial because ELL students will be able to make correlations
between the action and the verb, and they will be able to say the answer
in a full sentence. This works well with other English-speaking students.
 Odd-One-Out
- The student is given a set amount
of pictures with words. There is
one picture that does not belong
with the other ones.The student
must decide which one is the odd
one out and explain.
- This is beneficial to ELL students
because it allows them to read the
word and visually see what it is.
They can understand similarities,
differences, and grouping through
this activity.
 Word Association
You can split the students up a number of ways, partners,
small groups, or whole class. Each group is given a topic and
the students go around in a circle and say words that
belong to the topic given. You continue for a given time or
until someone says a word that isnt associated with the
topic. Then a new topic is given and you can start over.
This is beneficial to ELL students because it allows them to
hear words and relate them to a topic. This would be a
great introductory activity to a topic.
 Story Building
Students will be separated into small groups (this could also be the whole
class if time permits or for higher difficulty). They will sit or stand in a
circle.
One student will start and will be given a prompt. For example I will give
them: once upon a time. The students will then have a designated start
person (whom I have selected) and they will go off the prompt by adding
to the story. They will go around the circle repeating what has been said
before along with what they add.
This is beneficial for ELL students because they are able to hear what is
being said along with actively getting to say it. This also works well for
practicing memorization skills for all students as well.
 Conclusion
According to the National Center for Education
Statistics, in 2013-14 school year, there was
approximately 4.5 million ELL students nationwide
in public schools.
There are currently approximately 170 ELL
students in the Aberdeen School District.
Some common languages of ELL students include:
Spanish, Karen, Somali, Filipino, Chinese, Arabic,
and Swahili.
Make these students feel welcome and accepted.
There is no language barrier when it comes to
smiling; it can go a long way!