Many ELL students go through a silent period in the classroom. This can be a difficult time for teachers when they are trying to assess the students formal language skills. Many of our ELLs are very nervous of sounding silly or of being made fun of because they may say the wrong thing so instead they say nothing. However they will often talk to people one on one. They may talk to the classroom teacher, the ELL specialist teacher or peers. Use the person or people that they do talk to help them with this activity. Here is an activity to use in a regular classroom to help these students complete presentations, and have their voice heard without speaking in front of the class.
What you need:
A computer
A presentation program (PowerPoint, or Prezi will work)
Audacity Software http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Windows Movie Maker
What you do:
Have the student work on the computer to create their oral presentation on the presentation software. This can be a task that all of your class completes. For the ELL the student can complete the task in their first language and include lots of pictures to help them explain their ideas. When the slides are complete they then record their voice using Audacity. With your help or the help of a peer they can record some ideas in English. Each recording should match a slide. Now put these together in Movie maker and voila you have a oral presentation that you can show to the class.
Now you can Hear the Silent Speak!!
How do you get your silent ELLs to speak? Share your ideas and leave a comment!!
