Activity 2: Learning Strategies for Students with Limited English Proficiency

1. Point out new vocabulary in context. Practice using the words as much
as possible.

Provide students with Blackline Master Ecology 2.3: Vocabulary Practice.
Have students work in pairs to complete this sheet.

2. Provide students with Blackline Master Ecology 2.1: A Food Chain.
Have them cut the diagrams apart and rearrange them to form a food chain.
Ask the students to label the food chain using words in their first language
and corresponding words in English.

3. Have the students work in pairs. Provide them with 20 (or more) index cards.
Ask them to cut the cards in half. Have them write all the new vocabulary words on one half of a card. Tell them to write the definition of each word on the other half of the card. Explain that they will now play a game of “Go Fish” with the deck of cards. Shuffle the cards and deal each player 5 cards. One player begins by asking another player if they have the definition of “food chain,” for example. If the second player has the card, he or she passes it to the first player. The first player lays the pair face down on the table. If the second player does not have
the definition, he or she replies, “go fish.” The student then picks up a card from the remaining cards.

Continue to build on the deck of cards as new vocabulary is introduced.