Two Effective ESOL Strategies

A strategy that I have become very familiar with this semester that I believe works very well with ELL students is the Jigsaw lesson. The Jigsaw is similar to collaborative grouping whereas students are placed in heterogeneous groups and they are meant to work together to learn the information. With a Jigsaw lesson students are broken down into from their home group into expert groups by numbers. Each student is given a section of a book or a certain topic that they will become an expert on. The students are expected to learn about the topic they are given thoroughly so they can in turn teach the other members of their home group. The most important aspect of the Jigsaw lesson is to make students realize they are to be "experts" on their sections. It is a fun lesson to do with students that in Elementary levels because they get very excited that they will be the teacher for the lesson. After students have become experts and have then taught the other members of their home groups about their sections it is important to review the lesson with students so all details are presented. It is also recommended to use some type of assessment at the end of the lesson so students understand that a Jigsaw lesson may be fun, but that they must be learning as well because they will be held accountable for the information. For more information on this strategy please visit The Jigsaw Classroom.


Another wonderful strategy for ELL students is one called Dictogloss which is where students work in groups to recreate a text that has been read aloud to the class. The purpose of the lesson is to introduce finding key words in literature, to focus on finding meaning when listening to text and to develop proof reading and editing strategies. To implement the strategy pick a grade appropriate book that is short. Divide students into groups, read the story to students, have students pick out key words from the story while you are reading. This may require reading the story more than once. Then have students use the key words in their cooperative groups to recreate the text. Groups must proof read and edit their text before presenting it to the class. This strategy is great for ELL students because it places them in a social interaction with others students while using not only social language, but academic language as well. Students are encouraged to talk about the story, brainstorm ideas together, create their own story, and then share with their classmates. A great way to end the lesson is to display students stories on the classroom bulletin board or in your classroom library so all students can read all of the stories. For more information on this strategy visit Teaching Strategies.