Read on to find out tips for how to use different question types for English as a Second Language Teachers, examples of educator-approved sites you can embed into your formatives, and inspiring examples of formatives you can clone!
Here are some of our favorite question types to use in ELL classes!
Using different questions and content
Here are some of our favorite question types to use with ELLs.
🌟 Drawing
Students can draw, type, underline, circle, and even upload images in a Drawing question. Teachers can likewise draw, type, and upload images to the background! Here are some of our favorite uses for teaching the English language:
Upload a diagram or flowchart for students to complete.
2. Give your students directions and have them color/draw on top.
🌟 Enhance a PDF/Doc/GoogleDoc
With Enhance a PDF/Doc/GoogleDoc you can upload any document you already have (worksheets, quizzes, images, etc.) and add questions on top.
Tip: both "Drawing" and "Enhance a PDF/Doc/GoogleDoc" are great question types for having students label images or complete diagrams. The main difference is that "Enhance a PDF/Doc/GoogleDoc" allows you to set an answer key for easy-breezy grading!
🌟 Audio
With our Audio feature, you can create your own material for listening activities. Record yourself narrating a story and have your students listen for comprehension.
🌟 Audio Response (Paid Teacher / School & District feature)
Audio Response is a great way to have your students practice their speaking skills, especially pronunciation. There is no pressure since students can re-record as many times as they want!
🌟 Matching
Use the Matching question type to have students match images to words, number pairs, and more!
🌟 Multiple Choice
Classic multiple choice questions are great to guide student learning in any subject, especially when students are learning a new concept. Make sure you have an answer key!
🌟 Learning Tools - Student Translator (Balanced Assessment Suite feature)
The Translator tool is exclusively available to organizations licensed with our Balanced Assessment Suite plan. When this tool is enabled, students will have the ability to translate *most content of the assignment into other languages, as they are defined on individual students' Translations Accommodation (the translator support more than 30 languages!).
***Note:
Translator, when enabled, will only be available when using Student accounts. Translator is not intended to work when using teacher accounts (i.e. the Preview environment)
The Translator is not supported on feedback messages between students and teachers
The Translator will affect the following items:
Website's native buttons/headings
Text content typed into text fields by the teacher (i.e. questions, answer choices, text / paired passages, etc.)
The Translator does not support content items such as PDF, Images, Audio, Video, or embedded content.
Enable/Disable the Translator on a specific activity
Select a class to assign the activity to
Click the carat next to the class name to open the assign settings window
Toggle on "Learning Tools"
Select the desired translation language from the dropdown
Note: A Translations Accommodation MUST be set for individual students to gain access to the Translator tool. Please refer to this help article for step-by-step instructions.
The student view:
When this setting is selected, the Translator option will appear on the right-side bar when students open the activity . Students will select the Translator icon and proceed to click on the 'Translate to [language]' button. The activity will be immediately translated. To return back to the original language of the activity, students will click on the 'Return to [language]' button (appearing in the translated language).
The Translator will be disabled when students exit the activity. Students will need to re-activate the translation when re-accessing the activity.
📌 Useful ELL sites that you can embed into your Formatives
You can embed websites anywhere in a formative as a content item. Paid Teacher plan subscribers and School & District licensed members can embed within a specific question. Check out our Embed article for instructions.
Great ELL Websites:
🌟 ABCya (Grades K- 6+)
🌟 All ESL.com (Grades 3-12)
🌟 English 4 Kids (Grades K- 6)
🌟 SoftSchools.com (Grades K-8)
🌟 Translate.com - Translate.com translates English into over 100 different languages!
📌 Great examples of ELL Formatives
🌟 Listening Formative - Great for intermediate/advanced ELL students to practice their listening skills
🌟 Reading Formative - Great for advanced ELL students to practice their reading skills
🌟 Speaking Formative - Great for beginner/intermediate ELL students to practice their speaking skills
🌟 Writing Formative - Great for intermediate/advanced ELL students to practice their writing skills
🌟 Family Vocabulary - great for beginner ELL students
🌟 Household Vocabulary - great for beginner ELL students
🌟 Plural Nouns - great for beginner/intermediate ELL students
🌟 Comparatives/ Superlatives - great for intermediate/advanced ELL students
Check out our Public Library for more ELL Formatives!
Additional Resources
Tags: ELL, English Language Learners, ELs, tips, examples, ESL, English as a Second Language