Sept. 3, 2024 Teaching Science to Multilingual Learners: Strategy of the Week

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Each week we share one strategy that you can use to meet the needs of your diverse multilingual learners in secondary content classes. This week’s strategy is specifically for secondary science teachers but could be adapted for use in many content areas.

Instructional Strategy: Framed Outlines

Language Objective: I can listen to a lesson and record key information about the topic.

Framed Outline: How-To

Before the Activity

1. Prepare a lesson and identify key pieces of information (vocabulary, key concepts, etc.).
2. Create an outline or graphic organizer of the lesson. Take out the key information.
3. Include a word bank or display a word wall with important vocabulary for the lesson.

During the Activity

1. Preview the lesson with students and teach vocabulary.
2. Deliver instruction (mini-lecture, video clip, lesson activity, etc.).
3. As students listen, they fill in the outline provided. Explicitly state when a term or concept should be added to the outline. This provides students with a focus and a structure to organize their thoughts and supports them with the academic language load.
4. Allow time for students to process the information at the end of the lesson.

Extra Support for MLs

• Use visuals or video clips to help students understand the vocabulary terms.
• Fill in more of the outline for students at lower levels of proficiency.
• Pause periodically to allow students to check their notes with a peer.
• Model note taking strategies.

Example: Chemistry

LT: I can use mathematical thinking to explain how the concept of half-life is used in dating artifacts. Provide students with guided notes as they learn about calculating half-lives. Notes may contain fill-in-the-blank sentences with key vocabulary terms at the top, graphs or charts that students can fill in, and practice problems that they can work on in pairs and individually.

Helpful Links to Learn More

• Comprehesive Guide to Guided Notes from The Modern Classroom Project (research, instructions, and templates) 
• Research Study on Guided Notes in High School Physics