Digital Jumpstarts to support English Language Learners

In the past, English Language Learners were actually given time to acclimate themselves to their new school environment and fully participate in the classroom as they felt ready. Unfortunately, those days are gone and from day one, both teachers and ELLs are expected to be engaged in challenging academic content and language from day one. This article offers great ways in which teachers can better prepare students for their acquisition of academic language and vocabulary. Because this learning needs to be so rapid, the author suggests that "it is critical that we seek innovative and effective skill improvement approaches that increase the rapidity of content literacy development while simultaneously developing the four language skills of writing, reading, listening and speaking."

One of the ways to do this is by customizing digital story documentaries to scaffold reading in the content or academic areas. Because the teachers are the ones creating these documentaries, they have complete control of the images and other multimodal resources, these digital stories can be tailored not only to the content but to the needs of the student as well. The difference between "JumpStart" Digital Stories and a traditional Digital Story is that JumpStart activities activate prior knowledge, builds schema and background, introduces vocabulary and previews the content material that will appear in assigned readings for the student. Therefore, instead of using a Digital Story as a culminating feature or assignment, JumpStart activities support pre-reading strategies and knowledge for students and better prepare them for the readings/content that lieas ahead.