As the school year progresses I get to know my students' personalities as well as their academic strengths and weaknesses. This year, I am tutoring a small group of my English Language Learners to help fill in some language gaps that get in the way of their reading comprehension. My goal was to have this morning tutoring session be fun and move beyond doing traditional worksheets. I really wanted to empower them with games and activities that will encourage, engage and motivate them. Here are my favorite ideas to keep English language interventions fun and stimulating.
Playing this Plural Words Matching Game was definitely a crowdpleaser. Plural verbs can be difficult for my English Language Learners to master in both writing and speaking, especially if they are irregular verbs. First, I had the students work in pairs to find the matches. They then alternated using the plural and singular word in a sentence. This verbal practice of seeing, saying and constructing a verbal sentence was not only engaging, but meaningful to make connections and practice tricky language rules. They wanted to play this game over and over again. I highly recommend it!
The next center used the Homophone Dry Erase Cards Set and was just as fun as the first. Some of my English Language Learners get hung up on homophones, so even if they can read the word it can confuse them when used in context. These cards were great because the student saw each homophone used in a sentence. They had to fill in the blanks for which homophone belonged where and got to see the differences in spelling and use. The students loved writing with white board markers on these cute pirate beards.
I know that if this same activity would have been printed out in worksheet form, some of the students would have checked out during this center. They would have been intimidated by all the print on the page, and their level of anxiety would have increased. However, these Homophone Dry Erase Cards were non-threatening and the students didn't hesitate at all when completing this activity.
Another common struggle for my language learners is vocabulary. Using these Context Clue Puzzles helped the students connect the definition of the word at hand to its use in the context of a sentence. I loved that there were pictures on the cards to help the students who needed a little more support.
Working with the Context Clue Puzzles in a small group was really powerful. I had them explain their reasoning for matching the definition and word, with the sentence and picture. I also extended the activity by having them use the vocabulary word on the card to create their own sentence on a whiteboard. Each student chose one word they wanted to identify the part of speech for, based on the sentence. They enjoyed checking their part of speech assumptions using the Grammar Flip Books.
To help track along with my intervention group's reading comprehension, we have been rereading different passages from our class read aloud and using these fantastic Story Elements Pocket Dice Card Set to dig a little deeper into story elements like setting, character traits, making connections, asking questions and making inferences.
Instead of putting these cards in the pocket dice, I wanted to control the story elements that were being asked to better target the areas of need that the students showed. Doing these closer reads during our reading block has really helped them gain confidence and deepen their comprehension of the novel. These items have really helped during my morning intervention group. My students are engaged while tackling skills that they struggle with. They are supported and are having fun at the same time, so it really is a win-win for everyone.
