What's a Pun | © Digital Theatre+
In 2021, federal data reported that English language learners accounted for 10.6% of all public school students in the US – and as this number continues to increase, it’s essential that your education resources reflect this need.
Here’s how Digital Theatre+ can support English language learners in your classroom…
Teach Basic Grammar and Vocabulary
It’s essential to give your students a solid foundation for English language learning – which means providing resources that teach basic grammar and vocabulary skills.
Why not start each lesson with a language-focused Class Starter video? This series aims to define, explore, and analyze a range of common literary devices through short, interactive, and age-appropriate videos, with episodes on personification, symbolism, and more.
Or, go one step further with ready-made lesson plans, such as ‘Analyzing How Language Contributes to Setting’ and ‘Identifying and Analyzing Repetition and Alliteration’.
These 50-minute lesson plans include an introduction, a warm-up, individual and group activities, and an ‘exit ticket’ task to reinforce the lesson objectives. These downloadable PDFs also integrate key Digital Theatre+ resources to provide a cohesive, engaging learning experience for the entire class.
Additional resources on Digital Theatre+ include:
- An Interactive Glossary of Key Writing Concepts and Literary Devices
- Spotlight On: Shakespeare’s Language
- Unlocked Worksheet: Adapting Speech to Contexts and Tasks
This is especially impactful for International Schools, where curricula has shifted to prioritize foundational language skills in the first years of high school. Find out more about how Digital Theatre+ can support your International School here.
Explore Shakespeare's language, from memorable quotes to iambic pentameter.
Aid Comprehension with Multimodal Resources
Multimodal resources encourage learning across four key areas: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and reading/writing, and this mix of styles has been shown to have a ‘positive effect on pupils’ literacy development and comprehension’.
With this in mind, the varied range of resource types available on Digital Theatre+ can support your English language learners, giving students a visual aid to support language comprehension and auditory reinforcement to support pronunciation.
For example, our Unlocked: Speaking and Listening e-learning series features bite-sized videos on topics like collaboration, rhetorical devices, and presenting to a group.
These 5-7 minute videos are a great way to help students build oral proficiency and communication skills – without overwhelming them.
Similarly, our Poetry in Action series lifts poetry off the page with powerful recitals and analysis videos. Each video includes key on-screen text to provide engaging visual support for students – and each recital is further accompanied by a written print-out, encouraging students to follow along and boost reading comprehension.
Jump into 'America' by Walt Whitman in this Poetry in Action series
Encourage self-directed learning with 24/7 access
Immersing yourself in a new language is one of the best ways to aid learning – and this is where Digital Theatre+ can help. An institution subscription includes 24/7 access not just for staff, but for students, too.
This means your English language learners can continue to reinforce their skills outside of the classroom – and do so in an engaging, indirect way with our library of 650+ theatre productions.
Starting with Shakespeare, our collection includes…
- Period productions: Get to grips with the world of Shakespeare with authentic language and theatre design, like the Globe’s Romeo and Juliet
- Modern retellings: Strengthen narrative understanding with Shakespearean English amid modern settings, like the National Youth Theatre’s Much Ado About Nothing
- Adapted stories: Engage students with new stories based on classic Shakespeare plays, like Toby Hulse’s This Island’s Mine
Captured live in 2021, Toby Hulse's play is set in the world of Shakespeare's The Tempest...
‘Digital Theatre+ exposes learners with English as a second language to a richness of vocabulary and a variety of accents. It is extremely useful in demonstrating the use of tone as a way of conveying intention, and the fact that students are learning within a drama context will help to develop their creative skills.’
– Roy Lewis, Headteacher, Lanna International School, Thailand
Book a demo to find out how Digital Theatre+ can support your English language learners.
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