The Brick Wall of ESL

At a recent ESL training led by Katie Brooks & Susan Adams from Butler University, we practiced an activity called Barriers or Bridges. We tweaked it a little for use in our classroom. I wanted to take some time one of these odd three days before Thanksgiving Break to remind students of the purpose of ESL, no matter what teacher is guiding them. We wrote down any and everything that came to mind of things that we've done in the ESL room that have helped us connect to our mainstream classrooms. We put the completed wall in the hallway outside our room. Check it out!

We have some 5th graders coming in today to draw three things--on one side of the wall, we'll have some pics/graphics that represent ESL; going across the top of the wall will be footprints; and on the other side, we'll have some pics/graphics that represent our regular classrooms. Genius, eh? But really, I hope even moreso that they'll remember that ESL is not just a bunch of fun random activities where we read cool articles and meet new people, but that what we do in that classroom is actually beneficial in making them successful students...no matter the environment. (*sigh* It's hard to talk about this like it's over, but for me, it almost is. :( )

Content-Area Word Walls

Found these gems in some 5th grade classrooms. Look what these teachers are giving ALL students!
 

Writing teacher, Linda Moore, includes verbal (provided by her) and pictorial
(provided by the students) descriptions of each of the five steps in the writing process.



Math teacher, Sarah Ashton, displays examples of essential math components.

Word Walls Update

3rd-6th graders have added to these walls,

through our whole group lessons and our guided reading lessons.

Social Studies Word Wall

from a variety of social studies...studies :)

Writing Word Wall

parts of speech and writing techniques

Writing Word Wall

punctuation and mechanics

Reading Word Wall

different types of connections

Reading Word Wall

book parts & reading strategies

Math Word Wall

shapes

Math Word Wall

computation

Caught'ya Vocab Wall

3rd grade

Caught'ya Vocab Wall

4th grade

Caught'ya Vocab Wall

6th grade

Our ESL Classroom

Click here for a video tour of this year's classroom setup.