ESOL strategies are good teaching practices to use for all students. There are so many effective ESOL strategies that it's hard to pick two!
I personally really like the ECHO reading strategy. This is a strategy that I often implement in my internship classroom. ECHO reading is when the teacher reads a sentence while the students follow along with their fingers. After the teacher reads, the students read the same sentence while still following with their fingers. This is an effective method for ESOL students because they are hearing the words while seeing them and saying them (after hearing them) while seeing them. It reinforces what they are learning. The students really seem to enjoy this strategy. After we ECHO read, we often "popcorn read" for extra practice.
I also think that cooperative learning is an effective strategy to use with ESOL students. More specifically, I think that the jigsaw method is a great one to implement in the classroom. In this method, the students are split into groups. Each member of the group is responsible for becoming an "expert" in one set of material. After they become an "expert", they teach that information to the rest of their group. This allows the students to learn from each other. In addition to learning from each other, they really get excited about being able to teach each other. I think that the jigsaw strategy is an excellent way to engage students in information that might be long and boring if it was all presented at once by only the teacher.
For more information on the jigsaw method, visit the following website:
http://www.jigsaw.org/
The website is wonderful. It gives background information on the method, tips for implementation, and 10 easy steps to conduct a jigsaw lesson.
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I also put cooperative learning as my strategy. Jigsaw lesson is VERY effective because the students can discuss the material and they are learning from each other for a change. The only hard thing about jigsaw is picking out the key points of the reading that the students should talk about, and not skip. So maybe giving an outline or asking students to highlight text would be a good strategy!
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