Pictures on a graphic organizer help ELL students learn to make connections. Making connections is an important reading comprehension strategy. For ELL students it is important to be able to participate in and learn this necessary reading skill. One key accommodation for ELL students is to include pictures to cue them to what task they are supposed to complete. I have made a graphic organizer and some supplementary materials that include the key graphics.
How to use the Graphic Organizer
This organizer can be used with your whole class to provide a scaffold for students who are learning how to make quality connections. Use this at the beginning of your unit as part of your modelled and shared lessons. This organizer has three parts: “The text says”, “This is similar to…”, “This connection helps me understand the text”. The organizer can also be scaffolded further by having students only complete the first two sections with pictures.
Additional Materials: Choose your own Connection
This expands on the graphic organizer. It allows students choose their own type of connection based on what they read independently. After the students are familiar with the graphic organizer above it, its time for independent work. After students finish their independent reading activity they choose the appropriate connection cards (there is space for 2 connections per page). They fill out each card and then glue it on to the template to hand in. In this package there is also an anchor chart with exemplar answers and some connection bookmarks; and therefore each connection card page can also be use independently to focus on one type of connection at a time.
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