If you are a secondary content area teacher or teach content in an elementary school, you know how important it is to emphasize the foundational aspects of the content you teach. I also know that there is never enough time. In this post, I want to share a few concrete ideas for increasing comprehensible input in your classroom.
What is comprehensible input?
Creating many different types of extra-linguistic support. That is implementing supports outside of spoken languages such as body language or gestures, displaying pictures and graphic representations, role plays, and showing actual items (realia).
Here are some ways for you to make your input (content) comprehensible:
using short sentences, repetition, and rephrasing
enunciating clearly
using more high-frequency works and defining keywords ( in home languages or in simple language)
speak in short phrases with pauses
point to words on board or projection as you say them
In Core Practices for Teaching Multilingual Students, authors Peercy, Tigert and Fredricks, share some specific classroom activities they have observed that illustrate comprehensible input (p. 45).
Example 1: Andrew demonstrated the concept of beginning, middle, and end of the story the class had read by pointing several times to his shoulder to indicate beginning, his elbow for middle, and his wrist for end.
Example 2: Erica encouraged William, an elementary newcomer student, to push his chair under his desk when he got up by having another student model what to do after she said, “Push your chair in.” Then, she gave the same prompt to William, who then understood.
Example 3: Chris acted out basic verbs like “run”, “jump”, and “eat” so that a secondary Multiligual Learners could preview activies in the book she would be listening to.
Example 4: TC showed a close-captioned video about photosynthesis to her secondary ML science students to introduce the process and main vocabulary related to it. Link to video.
Example 5: Melissa taught Romeo and Juliet by having her secondary MLs read and watch a modern version of the play alongside the Shakespearean.
These are just a few practices to spark your own creativity. Infusing your classroom practices with contextualization will increase engagement for all students.
What are some other ways you know to connect content to beginning MLs?
How can you create comprehensible input without spending too much time?
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