Browse our top 10 posts since January 1. Topics include fair grading, dyslexia, teaching ELLs academic vocabulary, connecting with students, teacher buy-in, and SEL for MS’ers. Plus, practical tips on quick-writes, class starters, and “helping students remember stuff.”
Short animated videos are excellent for supporting literacy skills while making learning fun. For English learners they can serve as a scaffold when studying story elements. Valentina Gonzalez shares a multi-day video plan and lots of films, including some award winners.
Teacher Emily Francis shares her immigrant journey from a childhood in Guatemala to a North Carolina classroom in an effort to help fellow teachers gain insights about their own Newcomer students “who need, from day one, sociocultural support that reaches their heart.”
Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Sypnieski often ask their ELL students to make short oral presentations to a group or a partner “because it is more practical, time efficient, and energizing for students.” The four ideas shared here are easily adapted to any class or subject.
Reader’s theatre helps EL students feel more confident “playing” with English and learning to use fixed expressions, intonation, and gesture, writes teacher-author Alice Savage. Explore her 10 ideas for extending the content or language of a script into engaging lessons.
English learners are relying on teachers to help them quickly advance in language proficiency, says specialist Valentina Gonzalez, and writing is a life skill that can deepen learning in every curriculum. She shares 7 ways to build the writing competencies of ELLs now.
How can something as simple as Wait Time have such an incredible impact? It’s the difference between a student, especially an ELL, fully being engaged and participating, and a student becoming frustrated and checking out, writes teaching specialist Valentina Gonzalez.
To create classrooms where vocabulary learning thrives, Valentina Gonzalez recommends an interactive word wall – a large graphic organizer displaying critical vocabulary with related ideas and visuals added by students. Great across subjects, for ELLs and everyone else!
Middle grades English language learners and especially new immigrants can feel vulnerable in the classroom. How can teachers build relationships with our ELLs to help them feel safe and more open to learning? ELL specialist Valentina Gonzalez shares five proven techniques.
Practical teachers concerned with helping kids move forward as readers know that giving them access to engaging texts at their approximate level is an important strategy, says school librarian Rita Platt. Read her arguments for avoiding an either-or approach to leveling.