Tips to Teach English Language Arts

Your child’s reading comprehension skills are drastically improved with the help of their English language arts teacher. Teachers play vital roles inside and outside the classroom. Many people decide to become teachers because they can change and have a great impact in students’ lives. In learning, all subjects are important, but today I’ll highlight one that is English-related and incredibly helpful for students looking to learn and improve their English skills: English language arts (ELA).

What is ELA?

ELA stands for English language arts, and it focuses on reading comprehension, writing, speaking, and listening. It’s important to emphasize that ELA is not the same as ESL. In ELA, the emphasis is more on literature; thus, texts, poems, and a variety of books are examined and discussed. With this, students are expected to learn grammar concepts and rules, too. In short, the main focus of ELA is to develop critical thinking skills by means of debates, solving-problem exercises, reading comprehension activities, and writing. The integration of these will improve your young learner’s communication and thinking skills. 

Additionally, ELA allows students to learn more about the English language and culture differently from the traditional way of reading grammar books or listening to recordings. The experience is more interactive because students tackle different areas at once using varying resources in order to master the language. All this might sound overwhelming, but it isn’t. 

Through English language arts,learners improve analytical and comprehension skills by exploring ideas, opinions, and feelings relating to various texts. They interact and respond to questions critically. Also, students select and interpret ancient and contemporary writings.

Tips on How to Teach English Language Arts

Reading 

Literature is not only an art form; it is a way of expressing one’s feelings and thoughts. In this area, you need to have a variety of written pieces ready: non-fiction, poetry, fiction, or drama, according to the student’s level. Learners will start to develop comprehension skills as they read extended and complex literary works. Always ask warm-up questions about the author or the story’s main idea. 

Students can compare and contrast the different texts, authors, and writing styles. Questions are useful to encourage students to reflect on the author’s point of view, too. If you want your young learner to compare or contrast their opinions, a Venn diagram can help them organize ideas or concepts based on their similarities and differences. Also, support students by asking them to analyze what they read. This type of critical review can greatly assist to measure the understanding of a text.

To make this process less complicated, discuss the different types of sentences and words used in a paragraph or chapter. Before starting the ELA class, you can create a brief presentation explaining the different types of sentences to help familiarize students with independent and dependent clauses. As for vocabulary, create a system to learn a certain amount of words each day and how to apply them correctly in sentences. Explain the word using your own examples and ask students to represent the word with a symbol or drawing. 

Writing

According to Visualcapitalist, English is the most used language on the Internet. Thousands of people surf the web to read news articles, blog posts, and magazines daily. The English language connects people and businesses all over the world. Therefore, it’s necessary to note its importance in terms of writing–a skill that requires more time to master.

In an ELA classroom, the instructor has to make writing a priority, which means that students should write every day. It is said that in order to improve writing skills, one should read more. After your group finishes reading a text or chapter of a book, ask them to summarize it based on an outline that you provide or write their opinion in a couple of sentences. If you think that students need another approach, create a list of questions or prompts for learners to answer. The purpose of this is to encourage them to write. 

Plus, teaching the different ways of writing helps make the process simpler. Here are three basic steps when writing: brainstorming, drafting, and editing. Brainstorming is thinking about the ideas that will be presented in the paper. A topic is generated, then students gather and organize their ideas. The second step is drafting. Students start to write the first ideas that come to mind. This can be done without great emphasis on punctuation or grammatical mistakes because the main purpose is to put their thoughts on paper. Last, but not least, is the editing process, where students correct and improve your texts. This is the part where writers become readers. Punctuation, capitalization, and spelling mistakes are cleaned up to make the text more understandable. One way to improve one’s editing skills is by asking students to form groups and do peer editing.

Speaking

Communication is one of the most important skills to improve because it allows people to interact with others. Whether the register is formal or informal, it performs the role of transmitting a message to a recipient. An ELA class offers freedom to practice the skills in different ways to animate students to speak  openly and confidently. As an instructor, you can  role play to act out a book chapter or recite a poem.

Students can take on the role of an important person from the past or a crucial event in history. Reading is closely related to speaking. Students can create an impromptu story and narrate it to the class, so they will tackle two issues at one time. Similarly, reciting a poem will help students become aware of verse rhythm and prepare them for future acting performances. 

Listening

Listening requires concentration to decode a message and its main idea. The purpose of listening in an ELA class is to create more active listeners who reflect on unfamiliar information. Along with developing active listeners, reading aloud in front of students about a particular topic will introduce them to literature and create an environment similar to the setting of the story.

Another element to introduce to the ELA listening class is audiobooks. Choose a random title and play it while students listen for the setting or character attributes. At the end of the story, ask your learners open-ended questions to enhance their critical thinking.

Takeaway

English Language Arts is vital for learners looking to boost their vocabulary, reading comprehension, and analytical skills. ELA may be tough in the beginning for students, but with practice, they can become great speakers of English. As a teacher, you may consider providing feedback and incentives to students who do not speak English as their first language. It’s true that some skills will require more time to master than others, but by using the strategies referenced in this article, you and your students will see results.