¡Vamos! Let’s Go! Engage ELL Students in Speaking and Writing

Use photos to quickly generate English language vocabulary and begin writing. Download the attached activity to record ELL or ESL students’ oral language and use technology to support their developing writing skills.

Begin with labeling a photo -- the picture induction model.

A screenshot of a photo and call outs with the directions label this photo.
A photo to label and begin to generate words and vocabulary to speak and write.

See Think Wonder

Record students voices responding to the questions: What do you see? What do you think? What do you wonder? The project attached includes audio examples.

 

A photo with responses to the what do you see; what do you think; what do you wonder questions.
A photo of a soccer player and buttons to listen to examples of responses.

Dictate a story -- Voice to Text

Enable dictation on your ipad or Mac.

From the Edit menu, select Start Dictation to record a student as they describe a photo or tell a story about what they see.

 

a mural of a soccer player and his ball
A mural of a soccer player in his jersey with his ball.

Resource - Try it on your own

Use the template attached. Add your own photos. Record an example and go! The lesson begins with the picture induction model, moves to answering see, think, and wonder questions and finally to generate written text through dictation (or voice to text) in response to a photo.

Pedagogy

Encouraging ELL, Emerging Bilingual, and Multilingual students to talk creates a speech rich classroom that enables students to move from speech to print. Students want to talk about their passions and personal experiences. A passion topic, such as fútbol may encourage students to practice translanguaging, bringing their first language into the classroom.


Attachments

Attachments

1 reply

July 19, 2024

Super creative and engaging way to teach language! The topic can be personalized and connected to a learner’s interest. Using photos to elicit inquiry via See Think Wonder and bringing in the visual as well as the auditory is wonderful! Thanks Meredith!

This post contains content from YouTube.

If you choose to view this content, YouTube may collect and process certain personal data. You can view YouTube’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/t/privacy" target="_blank">privacy policy here<span class="a11y">(opens in new window)</span>.</a>

This post contains content from YouTube.

You have rejected content from YouTube. If you want to change your consent, press the button below.