ExcELLence Strategies

Total Physical Response (TPR)

Use total physical response to enhance understanding and make content meaningful.

• Teachers model the movement and indicate what it represents.
• Students should join in on the movement with the teacher to practice it.
• Teachers use repetition to increase student comprehension.
• After learning the movement, students will add the word(s) to the movement.

Repetition

Use repetition to model and expose students to academic language and complex content.

Evidence indicates that students need 10-12 meaningful exposures to own the word.Repetition can be used in many ways:

• Through exposure in presentation
• Through verbal interactions
• Explicitly taught prior to lessons

Visuals

83% of what is learned comes from the sense of sight.Immediate recall of words is higher when visuals are present.

Some ways that visuals can be incorporated into the classroom:

• Providing sound walls and word walls to increase fluency
• Planning for student activities with visuals, such as diagrams, timelines, and other graphics
• Using visuals during math problems to break the problems into workable steps

Chunking

Plan to instruct in manageable chunks to maximize understanding

Chunking is taking tasks that are in the "can't do" and moving them into the "Zone of Proximal Development". Some examples of chunking are:

• Breaking down a 2-3 page texts to present only 1-2 paragraphs at a time to a student.
• Giving an anchor chart or visual for a multistep math problem showing each step individually.
• Ask students lower level questions for smaller chunks of material before giving the entire thing. This checks for understanding and builds confidence in students.

Routines

Set routines for listening, speaking, reading, and writing tasks.

Structures and routines that contribute to the success of ELLs in the classroom are:

• Set high expectations of ALL students
• Communicate clear directions for tasks

• Set up routines for listening, speaking, reading, and writing tasks like QSSSA and the 7 Step Vocabulary Routine