Transcript
1 turns · 23 minTeaching ELL students is a privilege and a joy. Is it easy? No way. But with the right support, you can feel empowered to tackle each day with ease and confidence. I'm your host, Beth Beauches, founder of Inspiring Young Learners. With over 10 years of teaching both nationally and internationally, I know what it takes to ensure that your ELL students have what they need to thrive today, tomorrow, and for life. I'm on a mission to empower you to equip your English language learners. Welcome to Equipping ELLs. Let's get to today's episode. Hey there, and welcome back to another episode of the Equipping ELs podcast. I'm your host, Beth Foshay. And as always, I'm so glad you are joining me today. Last week, we talked about ESL speaking activities, the structured protocols that actually get EL students using academic language in your classroom every single day. And if you have not listened to that episode yet, go back and grab it. It sets up what we are talking about today perfectly. Because today we are going deep on the one tool that makes almost every single one of those speaking activities work. Sentence frames. Now I know you have heard about sentence frames. Most ELL teachers have. You probably already use them in some form. But here is what I want to offer today. There is a big difference between having sentence frames in your classroom and using sentence frames strategically. And that difference between having them and really knowing how to write them, differentiate them, and phase them out intentionally is the difference between a scaffold that moves students forward and a scaffold that just gets them through the activity. By the end of today, you are going to have a completely different relationship with sentence frames. All right, let's get into it. Let me start at the beginning because I think there's a lot of confusion about what a sentence frame actually is and what it is not. A sentence frame is a partially completed sentence that provides the grammatical structure and key academic language while leaving the content for the student to fill in. Things like, I think blank because blank, or the evidence shows that blank. Or one difference between blank and blank is blank. Or this is important because blank. That is a sentence frame. The student brings the idea, the frame brings the language. A sentence starter is different. It gives the beginning of the sentence and leaves the rest entirely open. Those are useful too, but they require more linguistic independence than a full frame. And a word bank is different again. It gives vocabulary without sentence structure. All three have their place, but today we are focusing on sentence frames specifically because they are the most powerful scaffold for EL students who have ideas, but not yet the language fluency to express them in academic English. The frame removes the language barrier between the student's thinking and their ability to express it. And when that barrier comes down, even temporarily with support, acquisition begins. Also, sentence frames are no prep, so easy to use. So this is like 101 on the scaffolds we want to make sure are being used in all classrooms with multilingual
Episode notes
In Episode 213 of the Equipping ELLs podcast, Beth Vaucher goes deep on the one scaffold that makes almost every speaking and writing activity she has ever shared actually work: sentence frames. Most ELL teachers use them in some form, but there is a significant gap between having frames in a classroom and using them intentionally — knowing how to write them, how to differentiate them by level, and how to phase them out so they produce real language acquisition rather than just getting students through an activity.
Beth opens by clarifying something most teachers have never had clearly defined for them: the difference between a sentence frame, a sentence starter, and a word bank. A sentence frame provides grammatical structure and key academic language with the content left for the student to fill in. A sentence starter gives only the opening. A word bank gives vocabulary without structure. All three have their place — but sentence frames are the most powerful scaffold for students who have ideas but not yet the language to express them in academic English. They are also, Beth notes, no-prep — one of the most immediately deployable tools in any ELL teacher's toolkit.
The research connection is direct and well-grounded. Krashen's i-plus-one principle — comprehensible output just one step beyond the student's current level — is exactly what a well-designed sentence frame