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Hi Charlotte,
There are some excellent journal articles in Science and Children with strategies to help ELLs be successful in science. One discusses the research of Waxman and Tellez (2002), where they identified four specific strategies to help ELL students increase language and content knowledge. They are:
using instructional conversations
emphasizing students’ cultural concerns
fostering students’ cognitive monitoring
providing students with technology-enriched instruction
To read more about this go to the article by Suzanne Keenan in October 2004 issue - Methods and Strategies:Reaching English Language Learners.

I also really like this article titled, Science as a Second Language: Integrating science and vocabulary instruction for English language learners By Stephanie Wessels, also in Science and Children, September 2013.
If you have a chance to read them, let me know what you thought.

Best wishes for a successful school year!
Carolyn

Hello Charlotte,

As a prospect general education teacher, I oftentimes ask myself the same thing. However, I believe that the integration for multiple opportunities for meaningful and purposeful social interactions between students is the key to an English language learner's success. English language learners’ proficiency levels are closely aligned to their abilities to efficiently and effectively converse with others. Furthermore, in order for students to be successful in a language, they must be given occasions to communicate information and ideas. For instance, ELLs can be supported through project-based learning, which should incorporate academic conversations in order to build science vocabulary. Also, the use of sentence frames is essential in allowing students to focus on the content knowledge rather than the formation of the sentences.

-Social interactions between the students -Project based learning -Allow them to use their language in the classroom -Encourage the use of their language in the classroom -Provide them with vocabulary and ask them to write it in their language -Sentence stems ( gets rid of the worry of coming up with a sentence/discussion/reply and allows them to focus on the content) -Provide bilingual books or books in their language -if you don't have too many different languages, try to learn a bit of it

Visuals are always the best way to support ELLs in their learning. I think hands on activities are also extremely helpful because if they do not understand what you are saying, they can still learn from the activities or experiments. I have watched a video of a science class with ELLs, and they sat next to people who spoke the same native language as them for support but were still required to write in English so they were learning to explain the lesson in two different languages.

? Hi Here's a research result with techniques. Applying Cognitive Science Principles to Improve Retention of Science Vocabulary 7th grade Shore, Rebecca; Ray, Jenna; Gooklasian, Paula Learning Environments Research, v18 n2 p233-248 *Jul 2015* http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10984-015-9178-1 We investigated whether three student-centered strategies influenced retention of science vocabulary words among 7th grade students. *Two of the strategies (drawing pictures and talking about the definition of the terms) were developed to involve the students in more constructive and interactive exercises when compared to the technique that was in common use (copying definitions from the back of the textbook).* Vocabulary from three science units was used in the study and reading level was considered as a potential moderator variable. Results showed some differences among the strategies when retention was measured but, more importantly, the effectiveness of the learning strategies varied with reading level and time of testing.