Planning for English Language Learners

In my role as a teacher, it is quite possible that, at one point, I would have to have students analyze a book they have read for its characters. Let's, for example, use Ender's Game as the book of choice for a high school class. In this book, we would discover the archetypes of the characters and their roles in the larger narrative.

While there are multiple different version of language standards proficiency, depending on your state, there is a well known order of language acquisition, and I will be using the list provided here as my basis for student fluency in regards to how I would accommodate them.

1) Early Production.
At this point, producing language would be difficult for the student, and they would only have simple answers to most questions. When talking about characters (having given them plenty of time to read the section beforehand or at home) I would ask them to describe the characters simply. Boy, girl, hero (or good), villain (or bad), and ask them yes/no questions to make sure they did their reading. If possible, I would also pair them with a more proficient English language speaker to see if the two of them could come to a more complex solution without badgering the student or stressing them. If the class was primarily at this level, I would use a simpler book, or give the whole year to one book rather than multiples if, for some reason, I couldn't use a more simple text.

2) Speech Emergent
For students in this area, I would ask them to actually give simple answers based on ideas and vocabulary that I had presented previously in the class. I would also give a fill-in-the-blank sheet of characters they have run into in the book so far and what roles they might have played in a word bank, while more advanced students would have a similar sheet without the answers provided in a word bank.

3) Beginning Fluency
Students in this area would be asked to read aloud in the class, with patience knowing they may take a little bit of extra time. I would also consider giving an oral test on what characters were doing or how they were portrayed, making sure to have given the definitions of important words before, and possibly having a word bank or hint system to give them reminders if they get stuck not on not knowing something, but not knowing the word for it. Written tests wouldn't be quite so complex, but I would start feeling confident in the student's abilities around here.

4) Intermediate Fluency
Students at this level would start getting questions about opinions, or more deeper questions of themes such as why certain characters acted certain ways, or what order of events caused certain things to happen. I would still have understanding for when the problem is vocabulary and not their knowledge on the topic, but written tests would begin to reach the same level of complexity as verbal testing. I'd give them a little extra time on tests. I would also be very confident in putting them in a group for discussions at this point, as they could likely add as much as any other student to the conversation.