Previously, I have written about using visuals and technology as support in the EL classroom. In this post, I will be exploring how teachers can create questions to check for reading comprehension for various English proficiency levels.
In an immersion classroom, ideally English language learners and native speakers of English should be working on the same differentiated task. However, often ELLs are asked to work alone on below-grade assignments, such as familiarizing themselves with letters (Cho, Wang & Christ, 2019). It is important to remember that ELLs have the same cognitive abilities as non-ELLs, thus they can work on the same classroom activities as their peers with support in the language domain.
Differentiation is an essential skill of a capable teacher. Generally, we can distinguish between three types of differentiation – differentiation by outcome, differentiation by support, and differentiation by questioning. In this post, I would like to illustrate how teachers can create simple questions for English language learners with different proficiency levels. The questions can easily be differentiated to help students respond to what they’ve read and to develop language at their individualized proficiency levels. To include examples under each type of question, I used the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
Differentiated Questions
- Yes/No Questions
- Examples: Did the wolf eat the Grandma? (Yes, she did.)
- These questions are ideal for ELLs with lower English proficiency levels. By answering yes/no questions, students can demonstrate what they understood from the text.
- Either/or Questions
- Example: Did the wolf eat Grandma or the woodsman? (The wolf ate the Grandma.)
- Students who are more proficient in English can be asked to answer either/or questions. These questions are ideal for students who can produce longer answers, but they still need support with coming up with the answer.
- Open-ended Questions
- Example: What lesson did the Little Red Riding Hood learn? (She learned not to speak to strangers.)
- Open-ended questions allow students to produce their own answers with minimal help.
Social-Emotional Learning in the EL classroom 