Cooperative

Learning for ELL

Students
Kelsey Halverson
ELL Teacher, West Lincoln Elementary

About English Language Learners

In Lincoln Public Schools, we serve 2200 English Language

Learners in our K-12 program. Our students and their

families represent 64 different countries and 56 different
languages.
ELL Levels range from 1-5.

Service Time
In Kindergarten and First Grade, we serve students 50

minutes to 1 hour in levels 1-4. Level 5 students are in the

classroom all day, with documentation done by classroom
teachers.
In 2nd-5th grades, we serve students based on a continuum.
Hours range from 1 hour to all day service! All students

receive math instruction in the regular classroom.

In secondary schools, service time ranges from 1 period to

4 periods of ELL.

Why Cooperative Learning?

Language Learners need maximum amounts of time to

communicate. The only way to learn is by practice! In the

regular classroom, an ELL student may never have the courage
to raise their hand.

I saw a huge increase in confidence among ELL students to talk

with teammates and classmates.

The smaller the setting, the more comfortable the student

feels. I always sit students with all levels to help support each
other.

Speaking and listening is an area that we must grade in ELL. It

can be difficult in a traditional setting to allow for time for

everyone to speak in order to make a judgment of their skills.
Kagan Structures changed this for me.

Cooperative Learning Works!

I was very apprehensive to try Kagan structures. With 5 level 1

students learning English I was hesitant to believe I could get

any communication from them, especially in front of peers
without teacher support.

I also wondered if it would be a lot of work a head of time. While

it does take some thought during my planning, the benefits and

student engagement outweigh that. It only takes a few minutes
to write terms or examples on index cards.

We spend a lot of time talking about feedback and making

mistakes. Now we have a supportive, talkative, community of

learners in room 166. RallyCoach was perfect for practicing
what good feedback was.

How is it possible?
Model, model, model!
Practice, practice, practice!
Provide support and structure for your language learners.

You can easily do this by writing language stems on the

board for them to practice and follow.

Language Stems
I know that ___________ because ____________.
That answer is __________.
Great Job! I liked ______. (Pass-N-Praise)
Nice try. Do you think you could try ______ instead?

(RallyCoach)
Do you see why __________ is the right answer?

(RallyCoach)

Structures Ive Used

Mix-Pair-Share
Quiz-Quiz-Trade
Poems (or ______) for Two Voices

Rally Coach... (Great for Level 1 and 2s!)

RoundRobin, RallyRobin, RallyTable, RoundTable
StandUp-HandUp-PairUp
Fan and Pick
Find Someone Who (challenging!)

Mix-Pair-Share for Writers Workshop

Quiz-Quiz-Trade for Identifying Leads

Level 1 and 2 students

Synonyms and Antonyms

QQT

Using Signals

StandUp-HandUp-PairUp
(Timed Pair Share if time is an issue)

Multiple grades can work together!

How Students Support Each Other

Questions?
If you have any questions, you can always contact me.

Kelsey Halverson
West Lincoln Elementary
khalver@lps.org