Tech Tools for ELLs

    Technology can be a wonderful tool to use for ELLs to drive engagement, teach culture, social skills, and accelerate the four domains of reading, writing, speaking and listening. Two tech tools that  I use regularly with my students that I find extremely beneficial are Empatico and The Seesaw Learning Journal. Both of these resources are ones that my students LOVE and are also completely FREE! :)

    Seesaw is a powerful tool that can be used to engage students in the four domains; reading, writing, speaking and listening. Seesaw is a student-driven digital portfolio that is easy to use and captures learning throughout the year. Teachers can empower students to create, reflect, share, and collaborate. Students improve communication skills by “showing what they know” using photos, videos, voice recordings, drawings, text, PDFs, and links. What I love most about Seesaw is that it is basically a social media platform (like Facebook) but for the classroom. Each student has their own page and everything is kept completely private. Teachers can choose to let other students in the classroom view their peers pages, but it’s completely up to them. The platform also incorporates parent involvement and parents are notified when a student shares a post to their learning journal. Students, teachers and parents can “like” and comment on their child’s posts. In my classroom, we love using Seesaw for our Eureka Math exit tickets. I share a digital copy of the exit ticket with all students and they complete their exit ticket on the Seesaw Learning Journal Platform. Students are then able to view other students exit tickets and use math talk sentence stems to comment and ask questions, disagree, extend their thinking and more. Teachers are as well able to incorporate voice recordings to activities shared by reading the directions. Students can then play the directions as many times as they would like to receive clarification for exactly what they are expected to do for a various assignment. Additionally, students can also incorporate voice recordings to their posts to explain their thinking and the steps taken to solve a various math problem. It’s simple to get student work in one place and share with families, and nothing is shared without teacher approval. 

    Empatico is a tool that connects classrooms around the world, empowering teachers and students to explore the world through experiences that spark curiosity, kindness, and empathy. Empatico incorporates live video and language activities designed to foster meaningful interactions and conversations among students ages 7-11. Your students may not have the opportunity to travel the world and learn about different cultures, but Empatico can be used to connect your classroom with the world. What I love most about Empatico is all of their activities are research based and directly support the WIDA standards. Whenever we do an activity with our partner classroom, my students love to discuss the similarities and differences between our two classrooms. It’s a great opportunity for students to practice critical thinking and respectful communication. So much research suggests that teaching social skills is just as important as teaching academic standards. 

*** TEACHING TIP- When creating an Empatico account, you can choose teachers that you would like to be matched with from different countries. I like to try to be matched with classrooms who are from my students home countries. We currently just chatted with a classroom from Mexico and many of my ESL students faces lit up with so much joy! They loved getting to talk to students that are from where they are from as well and it also helps to lower the affective filter. You can have as many classroom chats as you want throughout the school year and classrooms are encouraged to keep connections already established so students can continue to build relationships throughout the year with their partner classroom.

    If you try implementing Seesaw or Empatico in your classroom, please share your experience! 

LET’S CONNECT!

Instagram-
https://www.instagram.com/enlighteningells/
Twitter-
https://twitter.com/enlightenells
Teachers Pay Teachers Store-
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Enlightening-Ells

Podcast-
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/enlightening-english-language-learners/id1463975813?uo=4
Email-
meganlsyed@gmail.com