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How do you create a science lesson that fits the needs of English language learners? Many concepts of science are difficult, so how do you create an environment in the science class that allows for the English language learners to understand the new concepts?

[color=#575655][size=2][font='Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif]This is a difficult thing to prepare teachers for and I think you learn the most just through experience. I am an ELL teacher, but I also have a biology degree. One year, I taught some biology classes and had as many of the ELL students placed in my class as possible. Even as an ELL teacher, I think I still have a lot to learn. [/font][/size][/color] [color=#575655][size=2][font='Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif]First off, the strategies you implement depend greatly on the student's proficiency level. I currently support a brand new student (who only knows a few words in english) with his biology class. For him, resources in his native language are critical. I talk to the teacher about how he is doing, and how we can help him. We discuss which objectives are reasonable for him because learning english and biology simultaneously doesn't allow enough time for him to meet all of the biology objectives. He gets his content through visuals during lectures, a spanish biology textbook, and internet resources. If you have an ELL specialist in your district, I'd recommend frequent contact with him/her if possible, at least until you feel more comfortable.[/font][/size][/color] [color=#575655][font=Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif][size=2]The vast majority of my students have been using English for years, so support looks much different for them. When I taught biology, one of my biggest priorities was making everything as visual as possible. When I presented information through lecture and handouts, I included many pictures, videos, and diagrams. I also spent more time than my colleagues on vocabulary. Students saw vocab multiple times, usually in the form of quick and simple formative assessment. Everything important was written down somewhere so that students didn't have to rely solely on auditory language skills (content, due dates, expectations...). I only provided spanish resources for one student (who had only been in the US for 1.5 years). Most of my students do not utilize resources in their native language, but several will so I always offer it, if available. For my students with lower proficiency, I offered modified versions of tests and occasionally assignments.  (We use a 6.0 scale, so to me, lower proficiency means 3 or lower.) If I felt that they still had trouble accessing the content as well as a native speaker, I would eliminate one of the choices on multiple choice tests, provide a work bank for fill in the blank, and/or break up matching sections so there weren't so many words to choose from. For reading assignments I would help them locate the information by giving them page numbers or noting which paragraphs to look in, because reading took a lot more time for them. Occasionally I would try to identify words I thought they might not know (not biology-specific vocab, but academic language used across all subjects) and provide a short definition. Sometimes I would underline parts of a reading assignment to modify the amount of reading they had to do. For writing assignments I would provide organizers and skeletons to fill in, things like sentence starters or skeletons to guide them through writing a sentence or paragraph. I also tried to provide lots of opportunities for group work, often I assigned the groups, so they could learn from each other. This was really helpful for my student with the lowest proficiency, since a classmate was able to help him by using english and spanish. [/size][/font][/color] [color=#575655][font=Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif][size=2]Sorry for such a long reply! I'd love to try to address specific challenges you may be thinking about, if you have any. :)[/size][/font][/color]

I agree with what Kira said in that the student's background with English and science is really going to mold how you teach them science. I know that science can be difficult for even native English speakers, so when the material is new to all students, including ELLs, I think it's sometimes easier to present. If all of the students are starting at zero, then the only difference is the language barrier. Because the vocabulary and specific terminology of science is essentially a language in and of itself, native English speakers and ELLs are in a similar boat trying to decipher the new words. The difficulties come along when the native English speakers have a lot more background knowledge than your ELLs, because then you're playing catch up with both language and content.