Teaching Science to ELLs

Cleaning out my computer, I jotted this excerpt down from a book I was flipping through in Waskaganish:

With over 80 percent of my science class English language learners, it is imperative that I allow the students ample time to talk. Oral language helps these students make sense of things and cement these ideas in their brains. The best way for the students to learn a new language is to have many opportunities to use the language they are learning. They need to work through the science and experiment with the language to make sense of their emerging understandings as well as the inquiry process. I had seen too many instances when students were excited to do the hands-on work, but then bound by not being able to record or share their discoveries. The county kits limit them to mere exploration, never really allowing them to make con centre conclusions about those hands-on experiences.