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In one of the articles I read, though it wasn't really related to my inquiry question, it discussed how online learning should also involve Bloom's Taxonomy, like in-person learning should.

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As teachers and students from all over the world have been fast-tracked into virtual classrooms, educators need to take a closer look at our response to the anxiety and stress that learners are experiencing during this process. As teachers of English learners (ELs), we need to examine what we can do to support our students' social-emotional learning (SEL) in the virtual classroom. Here are six SEL practices for teachers who are teaching remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
1. Set up your teaching space to help students feel connected.
Technology use for remote learning can whittle away at the human connection that exists in brick-and-mortar classrooms. It is especially important with your ELs, who feel they have a connection to you. If possible, decorate your teaching space with familiar objects from your classroom. One of the problems I've been hearing from teachers since schools closed is that many of their students do not have access to WiFi. It is crucial for teachers to make contact with their students if at all possible, even if their students don't have Internet access. Larry Ferlazzo, a high school teacher in California, says that he reached some of these students by contacting their friends. Some school districts have purchased mobile hotspots so that all of their students can become connected.
2. Build a (new) connection to your students.
Treat the online classroom as if it were the first day of your school year so that your ELs can feel secure in the virtual learning environment. Address your students at the beginning of each session about how they are feeling. Give them time to meet your pet or introduce you to a sibling. Flexibility in scheduling is crucial. My daughter, Jen Clark, is a special education teacher in Connecticut. She's currently teaching her students live on a video conferencing platform. Her grouping of students is flexible. Some have direct instruction twice a week and others five times. Some students are taught in groups and others have 1:1 instruction, depending on their needs. Jen plans to hold social lunches where students can check in with her as needed. All of these strategies would work well with ELs.

Teachers also need to pay attention to the language they use in their virtual classrooms. Using asset-based language fosters your ELs' feeling of safety, where "trustworthiness, collaboration, empowerment, and acknowledgment of students' personal, social, cultural, and life experiences are present." For example, you may want to tell a student you feel proud of the good work she has been doing with her math homework ( Zacarian, Alvarez-Ortiz & Haynes, 2020).
3. Link SEL to academic topics.
Introduce flexible tasks, such as journaling, that allow ELs to work at their own English language development level. Entries can be written accounts, photos, or drawings. Journaling is a great way to have students keep a record of their lives during this momentous time in history. Teachers can also develop activities that help students detach themselves from their anxieties. Ask them what they would do to help someone who is really anxious about COVID-19. This gives the students an opportunity to distance themselves from their own anxiety and talk about emotions. Teachers could brainstorm ideas with a small group of ELs.
4. Develop positive self-talk.
I'm a big believer in helping students learn positive self-talk. Model your own self-talk and show how you flip negative thoughts by looking at the positives. An example would be to tell students, "I am nervous about teaching online. I haven't done this before, and I know I will make mistakes." Let students know that it's okay to make mistakes and that you'll all learn how to do this together. Express how excited your are to learn a new skill. Help ELs write their own positive script. Their narratives can be developed in English or in their first language.
5. Give your ELs brain breaks during your online sessions.
There are different types of brain breaks. They can be whole body movement, a group activity or game, or a mental challenge. Play music and have students get up and stretch or do jumping jacks. Be forewarned that you will need a strategy to get your virtual students back on task. I would suggest that ending the music can be their signal to stop. An elementary ESL teacher I know employs deep breathing to help students relax using a Hoberman sphere. Mental puzzles can also give your students a brain break.
6. Practice teacher self-care.
Five thousand teachers responded to a survey given by The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence at the beginning of March 2020. According to Marc Brackett in his recent blog, the top five emotions that teachers reported when they answered the survey are that they were feeling anxious, fearful, worried, overwhelmed, and sad. The reasons given for this response were two-fold. Many were worried about the COVID-19 virus and whether their friends or family would be affected. Others were anxious about the double stress of teaching online and taking care of their families. Many teachers have children who are learning remotely, and their time is stretched thin. Research shows that anxiety affects attention, memory, and learning. It affects relationship building and health. If a teacher feels anxious in the classroom, virtual or face-to-face, ELs may not feel safe enough to learn. Teachers need to take time every day for themselves to safeguard their own social-emotional health.

I realize that this is a huge task for teachers who are struggling to teach the curriculum to students who are also learning English and dealing with a new learning environment. Our ELs need us at this time, and investment into their social-emotional health is well worth our time.

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Supporting ELs' Social-Emotional Learning in a Virtual Classroom

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Anxiety and stress deeply affect learning outcomes. Here are six social-emotional learning practices for English language teachers who are teaching remotely.

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This article not only provides resources, but realistic and very helpful indicators and strategies when teaching ELLs online. Here are the main points provided:

1. Get to know your tools
Keeping the focus on how the tool is supporting your students instead of the tool itself!

2. Establish a Structured Learning Environment
When you're in a physical class, you have a structured environment so that students are not constantly trying to figure out routine and resources. The same applies to online learning.

3. Emphasize Language Production
Many ELLs will not have english language support at home, so find ways to build interaction with the language when online. Ex. Videos that they reply to.

4. Scaffold Supports
This entails differentiated instruction, and finding ways to give more visuals, small groups, native languages, simple english.

5. Get Creative Juices Flowing
Make things fun and personalized! It's an opportunity that you may not always get in class.

6. Look for Ways to Support Social-Emotional Learning
With a lack in personal meetings, finding ways to support your students emotional needs is also really important. The article give several resources on this.

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Teaching online is like traveling to a new country. You're not really sure where anything is, you are afraid to try new things because you might be embarrassed, and you miss the ease of your old daily life and the ability to connect seamlessly with others.

On the other hand, it can be very exciting to see student learning in new and different ways, you can take pride in the growth you experience while learning new instructional strategies, and you will make connections that sometimes can be even more meaningful because you have the opportunity for one-on-one interactions.

This article will give you some ideas on how to navigate this journey as you plan instruction for your English language learners (ELLs) through distance learning.

Needs Assessment

It's important to start your planning by looking more closely at the factors that will impact the success of your students' experiences with distance learning. You can use this downloadable needs assessment for planning ELLs' distance learning, which includes considerations for both offline and online learning.

The tools covers multiple topics; you may wish to read through them all to see which are most relevant to your work or complete the tool as part of a team. The questions can be used by individuals or teams. I also recommend ELL teachers work with grade level and/or content area teams to review these questions so all educators are on the same page when considering how to deliver instruction and what supports should be in place for students and families.

Once the team has reviewed tool, they can determine their priorities and where to put their energy for planning instruction.

District planning examples

Here are some ELL district planning documents that we have used in Roseville, MN:

Distance Learning Strategies

Survey: Distance Learning & ELLs

What does distance learning look like for ELLs in your district? Tell us in this brief survey.

Note: This section refers to some specific platforms by name, although your district may use other approved platforms. It's critical to understand online security risks for children and take measures to protect students' privacy as part of your planning.

1. Get to know your tools.

Take a look at our needs assessment and the section on tools for instruction. Depending on what Learning Management System (LMS) your district uses, there may be tutorials to help you learn how to use these instructional tools.

Keep in mind that:

the focus should be on how the tools can best support teaching and learning goals rather than on the tools themselves

it's best not to introduce too many new tools - otherwise students will spend their time learning the tools rather than learning the content

your district may have a list of approved and vetted platforms for distance learning.

See more in 4 Buckets Manage ALL Our Virtual School Tech by Tan Huynh.

2. Establish a structured learning environment.

This is a lot like arranging your classroom at the beginning of the year - without the inspiring posters! Decide what tools you want students to use regularly (only pick a few) and set up the dashboard or learning activity page. For example, you may want to have a calendar with assignments, announcements, discussion board, and a chat room. Students will know what to do every week because the lesson structure repeats with different content.

For example:

open with a video greeting that you have recorded

do two readings

comment on the discussion board

connect with a partner

write or record (audio or video) a short discussion of your take-aways from the learning, etc.

See more ideas in Five Structures for Virtual School from Tan Huynh's Empowering ELLs blog.

3. Emphasize language production.

Remember to keep the focus on academic learning and to avoid providing only skills-based activities, even if your primary activity is content review. If students are isolated in their homes, they are not likely to have much English language exposure. While this is a valuable time for students to deepen their native language skills with family members, it is critical that teachers build in activities that require students to share their thinking in English.

Look for ways to build interaction, even if you aren't using video. For example, students can post messages via writing, audio, and video and respond to each other. Recordings should be short - three to five minutes in general. If you want to try out sharing your own tips on distance learning for ELs, post to this Flipgrid!

Another strategy is to create videos that students can watch at their convenience and review multiple times for practice. (Some teachers have noted that their ELLs are struggling to keep up with "live" instruction and would benefit from videos they can review multiple times.) You may wish to share greetings, lessons, and important information this way.

See additional ideas in these posts:

4. Scaffold supports.

Differentiate instruction and activities to accommodate different English language proficiency levels. This may mean that you have different sections and tasks for identified students. If you have mainstream students performing closer to grade level, they may interact with the content tasks with minimal support.

For beginning level English learners, however, you will need to analyze the instruction, readings, and activities to provide accommodations such as:

native language or simple English explanations through video

more visuals

native language or leveled English text

an activity completed in a small group rather than independently.

Pairs and groups can be assigned in online learning platforms and it can be helpful for students to collaborate on learning just like in the classroom. Online learning doesn't mean everything has to be done in isolation - many young people are used to connecting with each other through electronic platforms and this is no different.

5. Get those creative juices flowing. (We all have them!)

Many teachers are not going to love online teaching and may grieve the lack of daily interaction with students. It is important to keep a sense of fun and personalization in the online environment. This is an opportunity to reconnect with the creative juices that might be dormant!

Students like it when teachers share little personal stories or pictures. They will also enjoy doing more creative projects and sharing them online. This could be a VoiceThread or Adobe Spark presentation, which allows students to create a slideshow and explain each slide verbally. Their classmates can respond on each slide with a text or verbal response. It's also a good opportunity for a project presentation video or graphic design/artwork assignment.

Give students choices of how to demonstrate their learning - they may surprise you with the creative work they share. My son had a talent for creating music playlists and he created a themed playlist for an assignment explaining how each song related to his insights in a novel. He also dressed up as Arthur Dent for a creative book review and I could not figure out for four months where my ratty green bathrobe had gone...until we cleaned his locker at the end of the year!

6. Look for ways to support social-emotional learning.

Many teachers have shared that their ELLs are valuing the chance to connect with them and their peers as well as continue their education through distance learning. Look for ways to help provide positive encouragement, continue building relationships, and offer support during a time of anxiety and stress. This is especially important for students who may have experienced trauma and a lot of upheaval, like refugees or students with interrupted education - particularly given the abrupt nature of many of the national school shutdowns.

For some great ideas, take a look at:

You can also look for ways to connect content to students' experiences and cultures through culturally relevant instruction.

Online Activities for ELLs

Here are some examples of activities for ELLs, with a focus on oral language development and content development.

1. Students can upload videos of themselves reading their favorite books.

2. Students can write and draw responses to a prompt (for example, "What is one way you can be helpful to your family at home?") and then students can leave questions or comments for each other.

3. Students can film themselves solving a math problem or record themselves explaining how they solved the problem, and the teacher can provide feedback.

4. Students can interview someone in their family that is important to them and create a presentation to share. They can present in both English and native language and include photos or short videos with quotes from their important person. Other students can leave written or verbal comments on slides in English or the students native language.

5. Teacher can create a presentation with slides and voice narration on a platform like VoiceThread. Students can respond orally or in writing to questions posed in the VoiceThread.

6. Teacher can provide a slideshow with visuals on a content topic and resource links for students to learn about the topic. Different students are assigned a few slides to narrate for their classmates to learn about the topic. A variation of this is for students to each get a different topic related to the unit (after learning about it from the teacher) and have them create a group presentation on that topic to share with the class.

Activity: Pass the Paper

Post a short text or image as a prompt to start the discussion.

Round 1: Everyone posts a word, phrase, or short comment about the prompt (depending on age/proficiency levels) via written response, audio, or video.

Round 2: Everyone adds a question related to a classmate's round 1 post.

Round 3: Everyone adds an answer to a classmate's question from round 2.

Round 4: Students review all questions and answers on the grid and use the information to help them write (or record) a reflection that they send to the teacher.

Planning Instruction

Once you have a sense of your goals and what tools you will use for distance learning, you can focus on developing a unit of lessons. A weekly plan as part of a learning unit can help you maintain the same structure and learning activities each week. If students get used to the structure of the online learning course or the materials they receive weekly, they can use their mental energy on language and content learning.

An example of a weekly online instructional schedule might look like this for secondary English learners:

Lesson Launch:

Introduce topic w/ video and essential question

Students interact on a discussion board and share one take-away and one question regarding each reading.

Assign group project to students related to the learning objective. (Students work in Google docs or Padlet) to create a visual to upload and share with the class.

1/2 page written reflection is submitted.

Written reflections are evaluated and feedback comments are shared in writing.

Assign two readings.

Assign 1/2 page written reflection on the essential question using evidence from text to support claims. Due Thursday.

Teacher shares link to recorded video mini-lecture on the topic.

Teacher meets with the students to have a class / small group discussion on the essential question. Teacher can share sentence stems.

Teacher shares snippets of quality written responses to the essential question through messages or class discussions and discusses what makes the response a quality example.

An example online instruction schedule might look like this for elementary English learners:

Lesson Launch:

Introduce topic w/ video and essential question

Students read aloud from books that have been sent home or available online via Epic (free to school closure) or RAZ Kids (fee based).

Assign two independent student learning activities related to the learning objective.

1/2 page written reflection is submitted by returning a packet or taking a photo of response and submitting it.

Written reflections are evaluated and feedback comments are shared in writing.

Assign two student learning activities such as a game or learning app.

Teacher introduces by video the academic language structures needed to share their thinking about essential video.

Students write 1/2 page response to the essential question using sentence frames. For beginning ELs, provide scaffolded support such as a graphic organizer with pictures and key vocabulary.

Teacher meets with the students to have a class / small group discussion on the essential question. Teacher can share sentence stems.

Teacher shares snippets of quality written responses to the essential question through messages or class discussions and discusses what makes the response a quality example.

Sample lesson: An online lesson for ELLs

An online lesson plan takes into account the asynchronous (not in real time) learning environment and need for active learning in different ways. It is unlikely that a teacher and students will be able to meet live every day at the same time, so the lesson will be prepared and shared online for students and families to work with according to their own schedule and access to a device or Wi-Fi. The lesson, which is part of a larger unit, will include certain elements such as student engagement, language production, demonstrating content learning, critical thinking tasks, scaffolded supports and an assessment.

Here is a sample lesson plan for a 3rd grade EL level 2 student group. The lesson will be delivered with SeeSaw. Here is the EL Distance Learning Lesson Plan fillable template.

Standard: 4-ESS2-1

Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.

Content Objective:

I can observe the impact of erosion.

I can give evidence to support my explanation of my observation.

Language Objective:

I can explain the impact of erosion using observation evidence in a sentence frame, "I observed that when ________ then ___________."

Introduction:

"Today we will learn about erosion. Erosion is when earth or rocks are worn away by water or wind. You will do a home experiment to learn about erosion and explain your observation on SeeSaw."

Modeling:

Show students how to set up the experiment using the materials listed in the lesson. Introduce the sentence frame and any key vocabulary by stating an example sentence for the students. "I observed that erosion happened when I poured a lot of water on the dirt."

Activity/assignment:

For your experiment you will put dirt in a small tub and put the tub at an angle or slope. Make some holes in an empty pop bottle then fill it with water and hold it over the dirt. What happens if you try different things?
1. If the dirt tub is at a higher slope?
2. If the dirt tub is flat?
3. If you have a little water come out?
4. If you have a lot of water come out?

Reflection: After students have seen each other's video explanations of the experiment, they will write an exit ticket on Padlet to state one thing they know about erosion and one thing they liked from the activity.

Teacher reflection: From the exit tickets, I can see that the students understand that more erosion happens when the slope is higher and there is more water. Next time I will think of alternatives to certain materials since not all students had dirt for the experiment.

Scaffolded support for different language proficiencies: (click all that apply in the lesson)

Adapted from Generation Genius: Weathering and Erosion - grades 3 - 5 lesson plan

Online learning tools

Here are three platforms that your district may be using. This is not an endorsement of any one product, but rather a quick guide to some resources teachers have used successfully with ELLs.

You can learn more about the privacy ratings of these and other platforms from the Common Sense Privacy Evaluation program. Please ask for guidance on the most secure ways to use any platform, including those listed below, with a particular eye on protecting personally identifiable information (PII) for ELLs and immigrant students.

Note: Some districts do not permit the use of video or images of students for security reasons. To learn more about protecting student privacy for ELLs and immigrant students, see our related resource section. Keep in mind that some free platforms may sell data to third-party vendors. In addition, Zoom is facing increased scrutiny for security problems.

Seesaw article: Remote Learning for Teachers

Privacy evaluation: Seesaw (Common Sense Media)

Strengths:

1. Focus on oral language production
2. Family connection
3. Ease of use
4. Visual platform
5. Free

Tool: Flipgrid

Flipgrid article: Remote Learning with Flipgrid

Privacy evaluation: Flipgrid (Common Sense Media)

Strengths:
1. Focus on oral language production
2. Student-to-Student connection
3. Ease of use - multiple classes
4. Visual platform
5. Free

Tool: VoiceThread

Website resources: Digital Database of Successful VoiceThread Projects

Privacy evaluation: VoiceThread (Common Sense Media)

1. Content presentation with oral and written language production
2. Student-to-Student connection
3. Ease of use - project based and collaborative
4. Visual platform
5. Free

Assessment and Feedback

Using rubrics

Students need feedback in order to learn. Whatever platform you use, you will need to determine how you will give feedback on their learning. If it is online, students can use rubrics for assignments and receive comments verbally or in writing. Comments can be encouraging and individualized to help them learn how to apply the feedback. In a non-digital system, teachers will need to try other approaches, such as phone calls, to students to review their work and questions.

A clear rubric for content and language production is helpful to guide the students' work. Allow students to revise work because it is about learning, not perfection. It's also highly likely that students will not fully understand what is expected in a task due to the new learning format. Use "second attempts" as an opportunity for them to apply your feedback and demonstrate learning.

The importance of regular feedback

The best feedback will happen frequently in multiple areas of the digital space. It could be on the discussion board, individual assignments or larger projects. Since students can't see you, they need to know you are there through your interaction and encouraging feedback. You may be nervous in this new platform and they are equally (if not more) nervous because they want to do well and they need to hear from you daily so they know they are on the right track.

Remember they do not have the advantage of asking questions in a classroom and getting your feedback as they work, so give them additional opportunities in the digital platform. We are asking learners who rely on a lot of classroom scaffolded supports to be successful to become independent learners overnight. The chart below shows the intersection between language skills and learning - how a student's language abilities impact their independent learning level.
Continuum of Language and Learning

DEPENDENT

INDEPENDENT

READING/ WRITING

Marisa

Tomas

LISTENING/

Tomas

SPEAKING

Marisa

Grading

Keep a grade book online so students know what is due, what grades they received (if grades are being used) and the feedback for assignments. If beginning-level students are attempting assignments in an online platform, teachers may want to advocate for a Pass/No Pass grading system because they will be working very hard in a language they don't fully understand to demonstrate their learning. (Some districts are using Pass/No Pass more broadly.)

Tips for Collaboration

Just as planning instruction for distance learning will take intentional thought and planning, so will collaboration. The good news is that there may be new kinds of opportunities for collaborating as it becomes an even more critical piece of the puzzle during this time of school closures, especially for ELLs. There also may be new kinds of instruction happening, such as project-based learning or more content-specific lessons, that will lend themselves well to collaboration among content-area teachers and EL educators.

Other teachers are also great resources for instructional problem-solving; collaboration between general education and ELL teachers will make lessons engaging and accessible for ELLs.

Here are some ideas on how to collaborate on behalf of ELs at a distance, which can be used among individuals or larger groups. These strategies can also be used for colleagues who have an established partnership, as well as those who are new to collaborating. And remember that it may be much easier to start small - choose just one strategy that fits your schedule and workload, and think about how to use it strategically!

Check in with a colleague to see whether they are in touch with ELLs and their families and if they need suggestions on how to make contact.

Check in with a colleague on whether they need some ideas on how to support EL instruction.

Invite a colleague to co-plan and/or co-teach a lesson.

Ask a colleague to share a question or challenge they would like to address.

Share examples of how you are collaborating more broadly with colleagues (and ask the people who are already partnering with you to do the same).

Send a note to colleagues whom you haven't worked with before introducing yourself, briefly explaining your role, and sharing ideas on how you might work together.

Share examples of student work, successful student activities, or strategies for distance learning/family engagement that seem to working well for ELs in your school or district.

Partner with a team on behalf of a specific student, group of students, or family.

Consider sending out a strategy or resource idea on a regular basis to colleagues.

Final Thoughts

It's okay to feel a range of emotions as you begin this new distance learning adventure. Remember you are making history! Also remember that you are not alone and it's important to develop your own professional learning community around this work. Since the whole world is going through an online teaching revolution due to school closings, there are a myriad (almost too many) of resources available to help with online learning.

To keep from being overwhelmed:

Don't get lost in the weeds of all the choices.

Keep your focus clearly on what you want students to learn.

Think of a creative project.

Use one or two "go to" apps that work for you and your students to adjust to this new learning environment.

Think of e-learning as Emergency Learning - and you are a learner.

Don't forget to take care of yourself.

When the Apollo 13 crew was in danger, great minds got together and solved the seemingly impossible problem of placing a square vent in a round hole. This is our opportunity to bring our great minds together and do what seems impossible - teach all students through distance learning. With creativity, a good team and some extra pots of coffee, you will succeed!

Recommended Resources

For additional resources, see:

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Distance Learning for ELLs: Planning Instruction

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Teaching online is like traveling to a new country. You're not really sure where anything is, you are afraid to try new things because you might be embarrassed, and you miss the ease of your old daily life and the ability to connect seamlessly with others.

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This article details ways first and foremost that ELLs learn  through the use of technology. While we knew this, and implement these strategies in class, these resources are shown to work in online teaching as well.

The most important point therefore that I learned from this resource, is that ELLs benefit from videos, engaging online resources, and certain learning apps, so why would these stop being useful when all the teaching is online?

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Whether you're having school remotely or in person, online learning is a powerful tool teachers can leverage to support English language learners (ELLs). Research shows that ELLs' learning is enhanced by interactive visual aids and access to lessons they can follow at their own pace.

There are many free or inexpensive digital resources that teachers can use to create these learning experiences. Lessons can be recorded as they are conducted online in real time so that students can later access the content without a teacher present. Teachers can also incorporate audio, images, or videos into their lessons. These resources can support ELLs with fun, engaging tools that help them review and build vocabulary and literacy skills.

In a classroom, ELLs can benefit from online learning at a station that the teacher sets up as part of a lesson in which students rotate through centers or stations. A study published in the journal Language Learning & Technology concluded that "tablet computers, as well as other mobile technologies, are ideal tools to foster learner autonomy." Supplemental virtual lessons can help differentiate instruction to meet the needs of ELLs (as well as other students with diverse learning needs) who may be at different language proficiency levels or need additional practice with discrete skills.

I've collected a list of additional approaches and resources I've found especially helpful in my own English as a second language classroom. All of the resources below are helpful for all students, not just ELLs.

Using Videos to Support ELLs

Many computers allow users to record what is happening on the screen in real time, and also have the option to simultaneously record the user's voice. Your recording will be saved as a video file, which you can share with students or upload to your online learning platform. You might also ask students to do this themselves and share their recordings with you. Teachers can use narrated screen recordings for many activities: modeling read-alouds, conducting mini-lessons, editing essays, and showing students how to do effective online research. This Digital Trends article has information on different ways to record your screen.

YouTube Education, which is free and has no ads, curates YouTube's content for educational purposes and allows teachers to create a playlist that can be shared with students. Some of my favorite playlists are Essential Literature, which gives clear and concise summaries of popular texts, and National Geographic, which has videos of varying lengths about topics ranging from plants and animals to geography and history. Both of these playlists allow you to turn on closed captions so that students can read the text as they watch the video, which is particularly helpful for ELLs.

ELL Learning Apps and Websites

Kahoot! is a tool to create interactive audiovisual learning games, reviews, and assessments. Students can compete in games against each other in real time, from any device, by using a simple code. The premium subscription-based distance learning tools are currently free to support distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Quizlet is a digital flash card program that many students find useful for studying vocabulary. Teachers can use, and customize, premade study sets or make their own. The free version has ads; a paid subscription provides access to the ad-free platform.

Newsela has high-interest current events articles, with corresponding images and questions, that are offered in up to five different Lexile levels. To support distance learning during Covid-19, the entire site is currently free-usually most of the content is available only with a paid subscription.

CommonLit is a free site that has over 2,000 fiction and nonfiction reading passages searchable by title, genre, grade level, literary device, and Lexile level. It also has a growing library of content in Spanish. Texts have guiding questions and assessments, and many are organized into units of study.

Duolingo is a helpful free language learning app that offers English as a second language courses in more than 20 first languages. Its adaptive software is designed to resemble a game and can allow students to compete against themselves-or their friends.

BBC Teach has an extensive collection of free teaching resources in over 30 subjects, including English learning for adults. It also has interactive lessons with rich videos and graphics.

The British Council is the United Kingdom's international organization for sharing British culture and language. Its website has a variety of useful links and mobile apps with activities, games, and audiovisual lessons.

These resources are all available on any computer or mobile device. While some of the video-rich resources require significant bandwidth, many of these resources automatically adapt to slower internet speeds, making them more accessible to all students. In classrooms, it could be helpful to set up a station with a few devices that leverage these digital resources.

For students at home, many internet service providers, including Spectrum Broadband, Mint Mobile, Comcast, Altice and Cox, are currently offering free internet access and mobile data packages to support distance learning-be sure to read the fine print because some providers will automatically charge people after the free period is over.

For students who don't have access to an internet-enabled device, tablets can cost as little as $35. Chromebooks, simple internet-enabled laptops, start at $75.

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Helpful Online Resources for Teaching ELLs

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Websites and teacher-created videos make content more accessible for English language learners-whether they're in the classroom or at home.

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In my initial research I found this blog post, and while it is not an academic article per-say, I think that it raises some very good basic strategies to implement and think about when trying to teach online with ELLs.

If you follow the link I attached, you'll find an article that details the following:
-Making work accessible
-Letting students guide the learning
-Using online tools
-Not overwhelming your students
-Being flexible

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(This is the fourth post in a multipart series. You can see Part One here, Part Two here, and Part Three here.)
The new question of the week is:
How can we best support students when we teach online?
In Part One, David Sherrin, Lorie Barber, Janelle Henderson, and Cathleen Beachboard contributed their experiences.

In Part Three, Matthew Johnson, Joseph Jones, T.J. Vari, Deb Blaz, and Cindi Rigsbee offered their ideas.

In today's post, we'll be exploring answers to an even more focused question:
What works-and what doesn't work-when teaching English-language learners online during school closures?
In response, Nick Fotopoulos, Helen Vassiliou, Cornelia Okraski, and Sam Olbes talk about what they're doing with their ELL classes.
Top 10 ways to handle ELL E-Learning Nick Fotopoulos is the lead EL teacher at Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park, Ill. He has taught at Sandburg for the past eight years:
Over the course of the last week, we have embarked on the E-learning journey. Much like many of you, it has been a week of twists, turns, questions, and uncertainness. However, our school community has come together and supplied valuable learning opportunities for our students. In a school of over 3,000 kids, our EL population consists of 120 students in which we service 60 students daily in our fully sheltered EL program. Our students mostly speak Arabic and Spanish and have similar cultural backgrounds. In our classes, their English abilities range from level 0 to fully proficient. This can be both challenging and awesome at the same time. We are extremely lucky to have students who are driven and want to master the English language. The use of technology is nothing new and is a vital part to our successes as teachers and for our students. With that being said, I wanted to give you a "Top 10" list of items that I have found beneficial in our EL E-learning journey. Take a look!

Top 10 ways we are handling EL E-learning:

1. Use your team - I am lucky to be surrounded by such great teachers and teacher aides. We constantly text, email, call, and video chat to discuss the best way to meet our students' needs. It's so important to stay connected.

2. Use online tools to help assist students and their language needs - YouTube videos, recordings of you explaining directions, videos of you teaching a difficult math problem, using various online resources to help teach material. Translations are essential in all languages-directions for sure! All are so important in keeping students engaged.

3. Making work easily accessible - We use the online course-management software Canvas as a district. It has been awesome in posting resources, lectures, notes, readings, quizzes, etc., for students to access. We also use Skyward to get information to students. Google Classroom is free for districts that do not have something in place.

4. Let the students guide the instruction - Have them record, video, explain, and teach a vocab word, a topic, a story, etc. By letting students have a voice in their learning (especially in a time when it truly is on them), it allows them to still feel connected to class and their classmates.

5. Don't overwhelm your students - Remember, in a typical high school day, they have 5-7 different classes. Remember, English-learners are still learning the language, and sometimes these "new" systems will impact them in a negative way.

6. Be patient - In the educational field, we want things to move at our pace. I have learned over the course of the last few days that less is more. I was trying to build these great engaging lessons all while online, but in reality, I needed to give short, pointed assignments that clearly taught the concept at hand. This is so important for English-learners.

7. Be flexible - Just like in the EL classroom, you need to be flexible in the online space. Make sure the students have what they need to succeed. You may even have to reach out to them personally to make sure they know what to do!

8. Use your aides - Our EL aides are the best. They have been available via Google Hangouts (chat and video) to help our students with translations, questions, and clarifications. They have been so important!

9. Try something new - Maybe there is something that you wanted to do but didn't have the chance. Online learning is a perfect way to do this! Maybe create a Quizlet, Flipgrid, Kahoot, Discussion post, Tik-Tok, Twitter Account, Instagram, etc. Once you get back to the classroom, these will be great tools to use as you continue on with your semester.

10. Breathe, have fun, and don't worry about getting to a certain spot. It's OK to put yourself out there. We are all going through the same thing, and kids need to know that. At this point, school should be an escape from what is going on around us. Allow your kids to have a solid educational experience and have some fun!

Teaching ELLs in the time of corona closure Helen Vassiliou is an immigrant herself and ESL specialist in West Chester, Ohio, currently serving the most fantastic elementary students and families at Adena Elementary:
It has always been integral to provide ELs with the same educational opportunities as their peers, if not more. I have made it my goal to demonstrate how ELs in Ohio can benefit from personalized learning using tech tools and online platforms. I have pushed the asset-based mindset "YES THEY CAN" so that our ELs are viewed as creators and innovators and not just consumers of information. As their biggest advocate I have implemented new building procedures that give all students access to learning content and English with technology. My students have created videos using WEvideo, they have created New Family Welcome Guides using GoogleDocs, and they have demonstrated that they can use the tools effectively if they have the experience, exposure, and opportunities to do so at school. My ELs are change agents.

Last week, after hearing about the school closures and the need for remote learning, I began to panic. How will my students learn without me? How will they engage in content if they do not have access to technology or Wi-Fi at home? In the lists of distance education resources we are frantically creating and sharing as teachers, I need to address the fact that 83 percent of Ohio's ELs are economically disadvantaged and may have limited access to reliable internet-connected devices during this school closure. Knowing this, I had to get creative. The first step was using Flipgrid to record a video of myself outside, telling kids to go play outdoors and observe nature and its beauty, to let them see me and know that it's going to be OK. I sent the video to families using the Talking Points App, which I often use. After students and their families responded back to my video, I knew I had one platform I could use to communicate with kids and parents. Many of my students do not have technology at home. Their apartment complex has a clubhouse with a few to use, but due to the social distancing, they cannot use them at all.

Next week, I will be returning to work virtually. I have only taught online college classes to adults. I'm not so sure how I am going to navigate this new challenge that faces me. I am expected to use the Canvas platform to instruct 3rd-6th grade students during the day. Canvas is a great and all-encompassing tool for remote learning. I can upload videos, give assessments, and upload documents. I am privileged to have it as a district resource available to me, but it may not be the solution for all of my students. Knowing that many of our ELs will not have access to Canvas or technology at all, I decided to make lessons using Nearpod. I make interesting and fun interactive lessons and share the codes with parents via text or Talking Points. I have created two lessons during my break this week, one about bats and one about Anne Frank, and pushed them out as a trial.

What has happened in the last two days is that the parents are learning alongside their children. I can collect data and check for understanding. Students are engaged in learning, even if they have to use a Smartphone or an X-Box instead of a tablet or computer. The uneasy feeling of inequity still exists. Will this kind of learning be enough? No, it will not. Will it be comparable to what their peers receive? No, but this is a plan that I have to try and build and improve, keeping in mind that access to anything is better than no access at all.

I will continue to push out videos using Flipgrid. My students need to see me. We are much more than just a class, we are more like a family. I need to see them, too. When they respond to videos or send messages, I know that they are still thinking about school. I haven't lost them to fear of the unknown.

Our district is currently working on a plan to get technology and connectivity to each and every student to use and continue to learn from home. District leaders are working on solutions to include all students, including ELs and homeless students in using Canvas as a learning platform. Until those issues get resolved, I will continue to make my daily videos of what I am cooking, the measurements I need for ingredients, quick stories about family traditions and share those with my students. I am thankful for all of the open educational resources I have access to and the free versions that have now become available to use with students and families. As I build the Canvas course to maintain student learning of all language domains, I will make sure that these students have opportunities to create, write books, visit museums, conduct research, collaborate, make up their own songs, and most importantly grow as learners of English. Because I taught them how to use technology for learning, they now will have to use it to continue to learn with me, but not next to me. We may fail, we may prevail, but we will be together again accessing learning.

This is teaching ELs in the time of corona closure.

Personal communication Cornelia Okraski is an English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teacher at a high school in South Carolina. She is currently a doctoral candidate in curriculum & instruction at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who writes about edTPA and the seal of biliteracy:
Exactly one week ago, I finished a busy school day at my South Carolina high school, doing exactly what I do every day. I taught ESL to a class of newcomers; I provided support to dozens of English-learners (ELs) who needed help with assignments, quizzes, and tests before co-teaching biology during the last period of the day. I spent time interacting with my mostly Latino students during two lunch periods, as I usually do. Over the weekend, the governor of the state of South Carolina announced that, as of Monday, March 16, all schools would be closed for two weeks.

On Monday morning, teachers came to school to plan for at least two weeks of online teaching and/or learning. Our school uses Google Classroom, but teachers are not required to use it. My English-language support is typically very personalized and differentiated, not something that lends itself well to Google Classroom.

The school had planned to survey students on Monday about their access to computers, tablets, smartphones, and the internet during a possible school closure. However, since there was no school on Monday, this survey was sent out via email to parents. Asking about internet access via email may sound a bit odd, but there were no other ways to find out this information! If parents responded that there was no or little internet access, teachers were asked to prepare a "paper packet" for pickup later in the week. One EL student wrote in an email from her phone, "did i need yo pick up my class work for all my classes at school o I have to do it all in online for the work for ESL i have to do it in online." After reading her email, I imagined that others had similar concerns.

On Day 1 of the school closure, I made my very first Google Classroom site. I posted a welcome message, inviting students to join. I recorded an online presentation, mimicking my usual morning routine of conversation and speaking practice. Thanks to Twitter friends and several Facebook groups of ESL teachers, I spent hours perusing websites with free listening and reading activities for English-learners. The creative process would have been more enjoyable if I had not been so pressed for time. I experienced an urgency to create content online in order to have two weeks' worth of activities ready for students by the end of the day.

The school recommended providing a no-tech option, a choice board of activities for ESL students. I immediately created writing activities ranging from "write 10 questions that your ESL teacher should ask you to learn more about you" to "write about five new things that you have learned in 2020," and "write a list of five things that you miss about being in school."

I am expected to spend six hours per school day actively involved in school-related tasks: two hours of planning, two hours of grading, and two office hours (when I must be available via Google Meet and/or email). To be honest, I have been at my computer for much more than six hours per day. One EL student emailed me asking for help with comprehension of a video that a teacher recorded. The student wrote in an email that this particular teacher "is giving us so many videos that we have to watch and complete some work and I can't understand basically nothing of [the] videos." The student's accommodations require English subtitles and guided notes; I was able to provide both after obtaining access to the teacher's recordings, watching the videos, and sharing my notes with all the EL students who are in this particular class.

If there had been one day to prepare for all of this, I would have shown students how to use my Google Classroom. I would have explained how the listening or reading activities work and how to adjust the levels of difficulty when necessary. I would have signed up the entire class for English-learner apps for smartphones and I would have practiced these apps with them.

My students are not a homogenous Latino group; they come from a variety of Central and South American countries and have very different educational and socioeconomic backgrounds. Until now, I did not realize how the extent of differentiation impacts the way I teach every day. My knowledge of students, their English proficiency, and their preferred way of learning are what determine my particular form of differentiation for each student. Teaching online is teaching for and to the average kid in your class, without focusing on what I feel is the most important part of teaching ESL: personalized instruction. In my experience, there really is no "average" English-learner student.

Communicating with students every day is important during school closures, whether that is via email, Google Classroom, video recording, or phone. Teachers of ELs may choose one over the other, depending on their students' needs. Google Classroom and recorded lessons may not be ideal for smartphones. Instead, personal communication may be the best way to offer students English language and emotional support during school closures.

Steps for online instruction Sam Olbes supports students, parents, and educators to communicate better as she teaches newcomer ELLs in English and math at Manassas Park High School in Manassas Park, Va.
Distance learning may be new as we navigate our ever-changing normal. During my first week with continued, online learning, I made adjustments to my teaching every day to best accommodate my learners. After reflecting and polling my students, I offer you my experience about what works and doesn't work for my newcomer, high school ELL students.
WHAT WORKS Personal Connection
One of the most important things with ELLs is to maintain the high level of personal connection. Every morning, I send out a daily message to the students in my class with a greeting and their agenda for the day. I make a point to personally message two students each day to check in with them, be it a written or video message.

Office Hours. I offer office hours, an hour in the morning and one in the afternoon, to answer questions. We interact through Canvas, my district's learning-management system. At Manassas Park City schools, we are a 1:1 district, meaning that each student in grades 8-12 has a laptop and K-7, a Chromebook. On Canvas, students can send me a message or request an online conference to video chat. I can also set up a conference meeting for whole-group discussions.

Many of my students message me daily to check in or to say they've completed each assignment. I also encourage them to contact their classmates to engender social fortitude. I want them to know that I am here for them, and we are still a community.
Model, Model, Model
When working with ELLs, remember to "model, model, model." When you think you're done, model it again. Give them multiple ways to learn the same thing. A couple of days before our school closure, we practiced our distance learning together.

Videos & Visuals. This evolved into me making videos for them using WeVideo or Screencastify. I posted my videos to my district YouTube channel with closed captions and subtitles in English. In Canvas, each day has an agenda page. I make a video that captures my movement on my computer screen as I explain what they will do and share their content and language objectives.

For my assignments, I made lecture videos to introduce the material and demonstration videos to explain how I want them to complete their assignments. I often use visuals to help solidify concepts. I found success with these as I checked my students' comprehension with their work.

Transitions. Another thing that supports my students' comprehension is the use of transitions to alert them to what's coming. At the end of a lecture video, I put a slide up to signal them to return to Canvas to do a practice assignment on the topic we just covered.

Formatting. I also found success in keeping the same formatting as before. With their increased anxiety about our current situation, I didn't want to change too many things. This gives my ELLs a sense of normalcy when they see their routines built into their online learning. When I finish teaching a specific topic ("chunking"), I put up a slide that says, "Ask me a question." This gives them time to process the information and ask questions.

Be User-Friendly. Additionally, I aim to make things user-friendly. I give them options to access the same material-a link that opens up an extra tab, a link for them to copy and paste, an embedded video or picture, an embedded document, etc. I utilize bullet points and indentations to organize my material. If there are extra steps involved, they may not have success.

Repetition. My students shared that this was critical to their success. Our students are learning in a different environment. There could be many distractions at home, so constantly hearing or seeing concepts can assist with them mastering skills.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK
Vague vs. Too Much Instruction. When you aren't specific, things don't get done or they get done incorrectly. ELLs can feel overwhelmed when given too much free range; however, this doesn't mean overloading them with text as that can produce the same feeling. This means be purposeful in the words you use. Be specific and take out the fluff.

Inconsistency. Moving classes completely online involved a learning curve. I know that I was inconsistent with what I published to Canvas and I felt that each day got better. Because my students told me that Canvas can be difficult to follow or understand, I focused on being consistent with my formatting and transitions. I'll ask them again next week for feedback.

While information is constantly changing as we practice social distancing, I work hard to offer my ELLs the best that I have from afar. That involves self-reflection and continuing to learn so I can do what is correct for them.

Thanks to Cornelia, Nick, Helen, and Sam for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And if you missed any of the highlights from the first eight years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. The list doesn't include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the "answers" category found in the sidebar. Look for Part Five in a day or two ...

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Ten Strategies for Teaching English-Language Learners Online (Opinion)

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(This is the fourth post in a multipart series. You can see Part One here, Part Two here, and Part Three here.) The new question of the week is: How can we best support students when we teach online? In Part One, David Sherrin, Lorie Barber, Janelle Henderson, and Cathleen Beachboard contributed their experiences.

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I did learn a lot from the policy documents, ELL resources, and board websites that we explored throughout this learning block, however a common theme from my inquiry questions persists. That theme is an online element/point of view.

While I better understand how everything supports ELLs, this pandemic has encouraged me to think of and examine how we can support or work with ELLs in an online environment, as you never know how technology will have to be implemented.

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In respect to ELLs and online learning, how can we ensure that not only our ethical standards are maintained in a virtually uncontrollable atmosphere, but also that technologies are being used in a way that they are fully supporting ELLs and their families in online learning?

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From previous research and experience, it's clear that technology is a very good resource when working with ELLs in a classroom or small group environment. There are a lot of different technologies and apps that can help in understanding and learning.

Ex. Google Translate
In my experience, this has been used in app form on tablets or iPads to help students with no english proficiency to speak to teachers and other students. They can speak in their L1 and the app translates to English, and vice-versa.

Ex. Read&Write
This is an app that I have seen used in French Immersion classrooms, but that is 100% beneficial to ELLs once it is explained to them. It is mainly a text-to-speech app for Chrome, that greatly improves accessibility to anything online. Students can also use it to find definitions, explanations, highlight unknown words, etc.