TPR

Total Physical Response

I start each ELL lesson with a quick TPR activity and the students respond so well to it! For my newcomers, the commands are simple and I do the actions with them. Today, my newcomer group worked on commands such as:
-walk to the computer
-touch the mouse
-hop to the flag
-run (carefully!) to the door
-open the door
I also try to include commands that the students find silly such as "touch the ceiling," or "raise your nose." These catch them off guard and they realize they cannot do the action. 
For newcomers, these activities help them feel successful. If they are unsure of what to do, they simple watch me or a classmate. They have also picked up a good deal of vocabulary through these activities. 

For my higher level students, I often will link several commands together or use more detailed commands such as:
walk to the desk, choose a red pencil, hop to your seat and sit down

Also, TPR can be tied to other content. When working on adverbs, I gave the command to run slowly or color quickly. 

The link below is a great article about TPR and also has some great scripts for various TPR activities. I will definitely be adding it to my blog! 
http://www.springinstitute.org/Files/tpr4.pdf

I also found it interesting that Diaz-Rico and Weed (2010) suggested using TPR for reading. I never thought of doing that and it seems so obvious! Writing simple commands on the board and having students read and follow them helps to improve reading comprehension skills. TPR activities, whether used as a listening activity or a reading activity provide a great way to involve all students in a low anxiety environment. It is engaging and the students really seem to enjoy it.

Learning vocabulary is so important for ELLs, if they are ever to catch up with native speakers.  There are a variety of ways to improve the vocabulary skills of ELLs:

• Say the word clearly and show its spelling
• Provide a definition or examples
• Show or draw a picture
• Act it out, use gestures
• Give examples of the word in use
• Translate the word into L1
• Present the word through chants and songs.

This was all on page 79 of the Diaz-Rico and Weed book.