Q1: Irlanda Jimenez discusses using visual supports for young DLLs in the classroom. 

<Irlanda Jimenez>

First of all, providing visuals for the child so that they are able to communicate non-verbally, if that’s where they’re at. If I’m doing a story and I’m going to be asking a question, what can I do as a teacher so that my DLL student can also participate? The more concrete you can make your examples, the better. If you’re developing a unit or a theme, make it something that is concrete, something that the child might have experience with. If they don’t have experience with it, giving them that background knowledge so that they are familiar with it. For example, if you’re doing something on firefighters, sometimes our culminating activity might be the field trip to the fire station. But with our DLLs, it’s more helpful for them in building that background knowledge to do the field trip at the beginning. When you’re saying, “fire truck,” they can actually see a real fire truck. We start talking about, “The firefighter slides down the pole.” Well, what does that mean? You kind of show it in a picture, and it may just look like someone on a pole, but are they seeing that sliding down the pole what you’re trying to convey? So I think definitely concrete examples and being able to touch it, being able to see it. If you can’t go there then with videos and so forth, giving kids a chance to see something or maybe even providing some of the materials in the native language, so that that way parents could also support what you’re teaching within the classroom. Within visual supports, they could be props that you use while you’re reading a story. If you’re talking about pumpkins, having a real pumpkin, having kids experience taking the seeds and the pulp, so when you’re saying “pulp,” when you’re saying “seeds,” when you’re saying “squishy,” they get a chance to see that.