Online Student Instruction
The online component of the WLS program provides remediation for students who need more help with the strategies taught in class and supplemental instruction on two additional strategies that are useful for English Language Learners. These two strategies include the use of cognates (for Spanish speaking ELLs) and recognizing and dealing with idioms (for all ELLs).
The remediation will provide 24 additional lessons on working with the Word Parts, Context, Dictionary, and Combined Strategies. Students begin by choosing a lesson from the WLS Control Center screen. Each lesson has three parts: Strategy Steps (where the strategy is explained), Strategy Training (where students practice using the strategy with short stories), and Strategy Power (where students test their skills and knowledge in a game-like setting). Their objective is to help one of the animated superheroes gain enough power to overcome a problem.
Animations add interest to the activities.
In the online Cognates Unit, Spanish-speaking ELLs will learn the following strategy:
- Decide if the unknown word might have a Spanish cognate.
- Think about the meaning of the Spanish word.
- Try the meaning in the sentence to see if it makes sense.
Upon completion of the lessons, students will be able to:
- define the term cognate
- recognize a cognate, in isolation and in a text passage
- apply the Cognate Strategy when encountering an unknown word in text
- know that not all words that look alike are necessarily cognates
In the online Idioms Unit, ELLs will learn the following strategy:
- Decide if you have found an idiom.
- Ask a native speaker what it means.
- Try the meaning in the sentence to see if it makes sense.
Upon completion of the lessons, students will be able to:
- define the term idiom
- recognize an idiom, in isolation and in a text passage
- apply the Idiom Strategy when encountering an idiom in text
