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What to look for when choosing quality bilingual books

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Early-Grades Bilingual Books: What Works and What Doesn't

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Bilingual books are great tools for teaching languages and changing attitudes about other cultures, but finding quality books can be challenging. Here's what to look for.

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Both English and Spanish within the same book.

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Books make wonderful memories - especially when you share them with someone you care about! Take a look at the young people in your life, then find a book to share - perhaps as a gift or reading aloud to (or along with) them this season and all year long. The memories will last long after the covers of the book are closed.

Some of the books on this list are bilingual, meaning that you will find both English and Spanish within the same book. Other titles are originally in English, and have a Spanish translation available. The links to Amazon.com provide more information about each book.

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Celebrate Reading in Two Languages: A Bilingual Booklist

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Books make wonderful memories - especially when you share them with someone you care about! Take a look at the young people in your life, then find a book to share - perhaps as a gift or reading aloud to (or along with) them this season and all year long.

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-Create language-rich environment
-Be aware of relationship between native language and English
-Simplify language without "dumbing it down"
-Support academic language development
-Provide students opportunities to work together, in pairs & small groups
-Implement effective correction/feedback
-Reach out to ELL/Bilingual colleagues, specialists

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If you are a mainstream teaching trying to figure out how to offer language support to ELLs, you are not alone! Many teachers around the country are working with ELLs for the first time, and they have a lot of questions.

Fortunately, there are a number of ways to support ELLs' language acquisition by adapting strategies already in use. These small things may make a big difference to ELLs. Here are some ideas to get you started. Don't miss the recommended links at the end of the article.

Create a language-rich environment.

English language learners will benefit from increased exposure to print and language. A print-rich environment will include access to books and reference materials, labels and posters, and student work on bulletin boards. Word walls are also a great support for ELLs, and may be organized around a number of concepts, including the alphabet and phonetic sounds, new vocabulary words, sight words, grammar rules, conversational phrases, and writing structures.

Related Resources

For more great ideas, see the following topics:

Be aware of the relationship between a student's native language and English.

A student's native language will most likely have a strong influence on the way that student learns English. Understanding how this language is similar to or different from English will help you focus on troublesome areas. This influence can provide extra support, such as the case of English and Spanish cognates (education and educación). The influence also may lead to some ongoing errors in English, which will become evident with time and repeated use by students who have the same native language.

Languages may differ in a number of aspects, such as phonetic sounds, pronunciation, grammar, word order, or sentence structure. For example, in Spanish, the adjective often follows the noun, so a student may write, "We are a family happy." In Somali, there is one sound for b and p - it is mixed. Somali students need to be taught this sound explicitly as two distinct sounds. Otherwise, they may ask for a can of pop and it sounds like "bob."

Native language may also influence students' vocabulary as they translate words or phrases from one language to another. Perhaps a vocabulary word has multiple meanings, a different meaning in each language, or the concept doesn't exist in one of the languages.

Even if you don't know a student's native language, being aware of native language influence will allow you to target your instruction. Help students by providing a model of how to use sounds, structures, and vocabulary correctly in English. In the case of a pronunciation difficulty such as the Somali example above, teachers can demonstrate how the mouth forms the sounds. Have students put their hand in front of their mouths to feel the air in "p" and their hands on their neck to feel the vibration of "b." This is also important as students work to sound out words while writing.

Simplify your language without "dumbing it down."

It may seem difficult to balance this at first, but here are some tips for communicating effectively with your students:

Avoid slang and idiomatic expressions.

Speak clearly and naturally, without going too quickly or slowly.

Encourage students to raise their hand if they don't understand a word.

Remember that ELLs may not understand instructions and key vocabulary words, and that reading something aloud doesn't always help comprehension. You can aid student comprehension by scaffolding language (providing extra supports such as realia, graphic organizers, visuals, etc.).

ELLs may not have the same background knowledge as their English-speaking peers, especially when it comes to references to American culture and geography, such as the Grand Canyon or Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech. Identify key concepts, vocabulary words, and references before the lesson, and give students as much time and practice with the new material as possible before starting the lesson.

If students are having trouble with an activity, try to identify whether a new concept, set of directions, vocabulary word, or other element is causing the difficulty. Identify some different ways that you can help students move beyond those obstacles. These might include providing a book about the topic in the student's native language or reviewing new vocabulary words together.

Support academic language development.

Academic language is the language that students need to succeed in school. It is different than social language, which many students acquire first. Often students are available to communicate effectively with teachers or peers in social settings, but struggle when it comes to textbooks, tests, assignments, or class presentations. There are a number of ways to support academic language development, such as previewing the text, teaching grammatical structures relevant to a particular content area ("greater than" and "less than" in math class), and showing how the targeted academic language is used in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

Learn more in the following resources from Colorín Colorado:

Discuss word families and how different forms of words are used.

ELLs may have a difficult time knowing which form of a word to use. Help students look for spelling and usage patterns, such as past tense verbs ending in "-ed." Since English has so many exceptions, this isn't always a foolproof strategy, but a basic knowledge of these patterns, rules, and spellings will help. Cognates can also help Spanish-speakers learn English and derive meaning from content. Teachers can explicitly point out cognates for Spanish-speaking students so they begin to realize that this is a useful way for them to increase their English vocabulary.

Help students understand when to use different kinds of language.

ELLs may speak different dialects or use "Spanglish," a combination of English and Spanish, in their classroom and with their friends and family. It's important to respect the language students use and realize that it is effective for them in certain settings. Rather than looking at certain dialects or slang as "good" or "bad," help students understand when different kinds of language are appropriate - and what the benefits of learning Standard Academic English will be for them in the long run.

Discuss the uses of Standard Academic English in college and career settings, as well as the importance of effective communication on applications and in interviews. One teacher I know calls this English the "green language" because it represents money the students can earn in the future with good English communication skills. Make it clear what kind of language you expect students to use in the classroom, and provide language models or structures when students have difficulty expressing themselves appropriately.

Provide students with frequent opportunities to work together, both in pairs and in small groups.

Cooperative learning activities promote peer interaction, which helps the development of language and the learning of concepts and content. Effective activities may include working on a worksheet together as problem-solver and coach (then switching roles), think-pair-share, and book groups. It is important to assign ELLs to different groups so that they can benefit from English language role models. ELLs learn to express themselves with greater confidence when working in small teams.

In addition to 'picking up' vocabulary, ELLs benefit from observing how their peers learn and solve problems. If you decide to assign each student in a team a role (such as reporter, recorder, time keeper, and materials manager), you might want to rotate roles each week or by activity. This prevents what typically happens if students select their own roles - the same students wind up performing the same tasks. By rotating, students develop the skills they most need to practice.

Implement an effective correction/feedback policy.

While it is difficult to know when to correct students, constructive and effective feedback is essential to student progress. It is possible for incorrect language production to become "fossilized" so that students continue to use the same incorrect structures into adulthood. This reduces their chances of being a clear communicator and ultimately limits them in professional settings. Nevertheless, it is important to balance between encouragement and error correction. One way to do this is to focus on one or two concepts at a time when listening to or reading student work. Let students know what you will be focusing on so that they in turn can focus on those particular concepts in the assignment.

Another strategy is to circle errors in writing assignments, and have students try to figure out what the mistakes were. As I always tell my students, "If I correct your English, I improve my English. If you correct your English, you improve yours." Most of the time students are able to correct their own writing errors once they focus on the circled area. If they are still stuck, I give them the answer and ask them to explain why it is correct. If they don't know the answer, I ask them to consult with a classmate. If no one else knows the answer, we review the structure as a group.

Reach out to your ELL/bilingual colleagues, reading specialists, special education teachers, and parents.

Educators and staff who work regularly with ELLs, as well as bilingual parents, may be a valuable source of information about language patterns or difficulties. While it may be difficult to find time to meet on a regular basis, increased collaboration among language teachers, content teachers, mainstream teachers, and support staff will most likely improve student support.

While teaching ELLs may be daunting, there are a number of ways you can support their language acquisition - and in the process get them on the road to academic success!

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Supporting ELLs in the Mainstream Classroom: Language Tips

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If you are a mainstream teaching trying to figure out how to offer language support to ELLs, you are not alone! Many teachers around the country are working with ELLs for the first time, and they have a lot of questions. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to support ELLs' language acquisition by adapting strategies already in use.

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How much do you know about the rights of English language learners?

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1. Failure to enroll a child who resides in the school's geographic boundaries due to the child's or parents' immigration status could be interpreted as a violation of federal law.

TRUE. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in public schools on the basis of race, color or national origin. The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled in Plyler v. Doe (1982) that such discrimination violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

2. Parents can "opt out" of having their child receive ELL services.

TRUE. Even if families opt out of ELL services, the student must still be assessed for proficiency annually. This refers to federal law; state laws may differ.

3. Schools do not have to screen ELL students for advanced programs, such as Gifted/Talented, Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate.

FALSE. Screenings must be inclusive and provide language accommodations.

4. ELL students can't be considered for eligibility in special education while they are receiving ELL services.

FALSE. A school cannot delay a special education evaluation because a student is receiving ELL instruction.

5. Once a student leaves an ELL program, they do not have to be monitored.

FALSE. All students must be monitored for two years after exiting an ELL program.

Here are words and acronyms you should know when working with English language learners.

Characterizing Students

English language learner (ELL): A student who is in the process of acquiring English language skills; also referred to as an English learner (EL). The U.S. Department of Education specifies ELL as the most appropriate term because it privileges accomplishments over deficits.

Limited English proficient (LEP): A federal term referring to a person whose primary language is other than English and who has limited English proficiency in one of the four domains of language proficiency-speaking, listening, reading and writing. This term is commonly used to describe non-English-speaking parents and families of students. Many social justice educators do not use this term because it characterizes students and their families based on a deficit rather than a strength.

Other Terms Commonly Used in Schools

Educators tell us that these are terms to pay attention to:

Culturally and linguistically diverse students: Often used to describe a base of students in a school or district who may or may not need ELL services; characterizes multilingualism as an asset.

Language-minority students: Describes students who speak a language other than the majority language at their school but is often used to refer to students who do not speak English, taking on a meaning that devalues multilingualism.

Students of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL): Predates and is commonly interchanged with ELL but is often used to "other" ELL students.

Students of English as a second language (ESL): Considered outdated, as it downplays the value of multilingualism.

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Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

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Resources:  My AP shared this and I thought it was helpful, concise and user-friendly.

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Resources:  My AP shared this and I thought it was helpful, concise and user-friendly.

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12 Ways to Support English Learners in the Mainstream Classroom

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Listen to this post as a podcast:
A note on terminology: The acronym ESL is used less often now in schools than it used to be, because we recognize that many students who are learning English already speak several other languages, so English would not be a "second" language. I use it several times in the post because schools sometimes refer to the teachers as ESL teachers, and the term is still widely used as a search term for this topic. My intent in using the acronym is to make this post easier to find online.

You have a new student, and he speaks no English. His family has just moved to your town from Japan, and though he receives English as a Second Language (ESL) support, he will also be sitting in your room every day to give him more exposure to his new language. How can you be a good teacher to someone who barely understands you?

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, an average of 9 percent of students in U.S. public schools are English Language Learners (ELLs); that number is closer to 14 percent in cities. Although many of these students start off in high-intensity, whole-day English programs, most are integrated into mainstream classrooms within a year, well before their English language skills would be considered proficient.

How prepared are you to teach these students? If you're like most classroom teachers, you have little to no training in the most effective methods for working with English language learners (Walker, Shafer, & Iiams, 2004). So that means we have a problem here: Lots of ELL kids in regular classrooms, and no teacher training to ensure the success of that placement.

Below, three ESL teachers tell us what they know about the things regular classroom teachers can do to improve instruction for ELL students. These 12 strategies are simple, they are not very time consuming, and best of all, they will help everyone in your class learn better:

1. Make it Visual

"Avoid giving instructions in the air," says Melissa Eddington, an Ohio-based ESL teacher. "ELL kids have a harder time processing spoken language." So instructions - even basic directions for classroom procedures - should be written on the board whenever possible. Challenging concepts should be diagrammed or supported with pictures. And modeling the steps of a process or showing students what a finished product should look like can go a long way toward helping students understand. "Sometimes showing our students what to do is all they need in order to do it," Eddington says. Not only will this kind of nonlinguistic representation improve comprehension for ELL students, it will help all of your students grasp concepts better.

2. Build in more group work.

"Kids aren't just empty glasses that we pour stuff into and then at the end of the day they dump it back onto a test," says Kim, an ESL teacher who was the subject of my very first podcast interview. "If you really want the kids to learn, they've got to be engaged." That means less teacher-led, whole-class instruction, and more small groups, where students can practice language with their peers in a more personal, lower-risk setting. And if ELL students attend your class with a resource teacher, make use of that person: In most cases the resource teacher doesn't have to work exclusively with the ESL students; they can work with smaller groups that happen to contain these students, helping to improve the teacher-student ratio and give kids more time to practice.

3. Communicate with the ESL teacher.

Mary Yurkosky, a former ESL teacher in Massachusetts, credits much of her students' success to the strong relationship she had with the regular classroom teachers. "The classroom teachers were always talking to me about what they were doing in their classes," she says. "They made it so easy for me to support them: If a teacher was going to be doing a unit on plants, I could make sure we used some of that same vocabulary in the ESL class."

Ideally, this could be systematized, where ESL teachers could regularly get copies of lesson plans or collaborate with regular classroom teachers to build solid back-and-forth support, but "it doesn't have to be that much work," Yurkosky insists. "Just talk to each other. Talk about what's going on in your classrooms, invite each other to special presentations, share what your students are learning, and the words will naturally find their way into the ESL class."

4. Honor the "silent period."

Many new language learners go through a silent period, during which they will speak very little, if at all. "Don't force them to talk if they don't want to," says Eddington, "A lot of students who come from cultures outside of America want to be perfect when they speak, so they will not share until they feel they are at a point where they're perfect." Just knowing that this is a normal stage in second language acquisition should help relieve any pressure you feel to move them toward talking too quickly.

5. Allow some scaffolding with the native language.

Although it has been a hotly debated topic in the language-learning community, allowing students some use of their first language (L1) in second-language (L2) classrooms is gaining acceptance. When a student is still very new to a language, it's okay to pair him with other students who speak his native language. "Some students are afraid to open their mouths at all for fear of sounding stupid or just not knowing the words to use," Yurkosky says. "Letting them explain things or ask questions in their first language gets them to relax and feel like a part of the class."

And this doesn't only apply to spoken language. If you give students a written assignment, but the ELL student doesn't yet have the proficiency to handle writing his response in English, "Don't make them just sit there and do nothing," Eddington says. "Allow them to write in their first language if they're able. This allows them to still participate in journal writing or a math extended response, even if you can't read what they write." There has even been some evidence that allowing second-language learners to pre-write and brainstorm in L1 results in higher-quality writing in L2 in later stages of the writing process (Yigzaw, 2012).

6. Look out for culturally unique vocabulary.

"For most of these kids, their background knowledge is lacking, especially with things that are unique to American or westernized culture," says Eddington. It's important to directly teach certain vocabulary words: "Show them videos of what it looks like to toss pizza dough, show pictures of a juke box or a clothing rack - things that are not common in their own language."

One way to differentiate for ELL students is to consider the whole list of terms you're going to teach for a unit, and if you think an ELL student may be overwhelmed by such a long list, omit those that are not essential to understanding the larger topic at hand.

7. Use sentence frames to give students practice with academic language.

All students, not just English language learners, need practice with academic conversations. Sentence frames - partially completed sentences like "I disagree with what _________ said because..." - show students how to structure language in a formal way. Keep these posted in a highly visible spot in your classroom and require students to refer to them during discussions and while they write.

For this kind of language to really sink in, though, Kim says it has to become a regular part of class. "They won't do it if it's not the norm in the class, because they'll be embarrassed to use it among their peers," she says. "But if they can put it off on the teacher and say, Oh, well, you know, Miss Kim makes me talk like this, then they don't look as hoity-toity as they would otherwise."

8. Pre-teach whenever possible.

If you're going to be reading a certain article next week, give ESL students a copy of it now. If you plan to show a YouTube video tomorrow, send a link to your ESL students today. Any chance you can give these students to preview material will increase the odds that they'll understand it on the day you present it to everyone else. "That kind of thing is wonderful," Yurkosky says. "The kids feel so empowered if they've had a chance to look at the material ahead of time."

9. Learn about the cultural background of your students...

Our second-language populations grow more diverse every year. Taking the time to learn the basics of where a child comes from - exactly, not 'somewhere in the Middle East/South America/Asia/Africa' - tells the student that you respect her enough to bother. Kim remembers one time when she had to set the record straight about the diverse South American population at her school: "I was listening to the teachers talking about the 'Mexican' kids in our building," she says, "and I was like, 'We don't have any Mexicans.'" Not taking the time to at least correctly identify a child's country of origin, much like not bothering to pronounce their name correctly, is a kind of microaggression, a small, subtle insult that communicates hostility toward people of color. Make a commitment to be someone who bothers to get it right.

Once you have the country straight, take things up a notch by learning about students' religious and cultural practices. If he is a practicing Muslim, he should be told if one of the pizzas you ordered for the class party has sausage on it. If she comes from a culture where eye contact with adults is viewed as disrespectful, you'll know not to force her to look you in the eye when she's talking.

10. ...but don't make a child speak for his entire culture.

In her podcast interview, Kim shared a story about watching a teacher ask a new Iraqi student how he felt about the war in his country, right in the middle of class. "That's not cultural inclusiveness," she explains. "I've seen teachers do this and then pat themselves on the back. The students' English is limited so they can't express themselves very well, and they don't want to 'represent'; they just want to be there." If you anticipate a theme coming up in your class that's going to be relevant to one of your students, have a conversation with them in advance, or check with your ESL teacher to see if they think it's appropriate for in-class discussion.

11. Show them how to take themselves less seriously...

By modeling the risk-taking that's required to learn a new language, you help students develop the courage to take their own risks, and to have a sense of humor about it. "I tried to say the word 'paint' ( pinta) in Portuguese and instead I said the word for 'penis' ( pinto). They all roared with laughter while I stood there with a What?? look on my face," Yurkosky says. "When they explained what I'd said, I laughed so hard! I told them that laughing was fine because sometimes mistakes are really funny, but ridicule is never okay."

12. ...but always take them seriously.

One of Kim's pet peeves about how teachers interact with English language learners is the way they often see students' efforts as 'cute,' missing the whole point of what the student is trying to say. "A student will be desperate to communicate, and the teacher will get distracted by the delivery and miss the message," she says. "That's painful for me to watch." It bothers her when teachers mistake a lack of language for a lack of intelligence or maturity. When a child can't express themselves as well as they would in their native language, it's far too easy to assume the concepts just aren't in their heads.

"It breaks my heart when I hear teachers say (ELL kids) don't know anything," says Eddington. "These are brilliant kids and they know a lot. They just can't tell us in English yet." Make a conscious effort to see past the accent and the mispronunciations and treat every interaction - every student - with the respect they deserve.

"They're doing twice the job of everybody else in the class," Kim adds, "even though the result looks like half as much." ♦

Further Reading

The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide is one of the highest-rated books on teaching English-language learners available. In addition to offering an overview of the research on second-language learners and best practices in teaching ESL, it also includes a whole section on teaching ESL in the content areas and another specifically geared toward teaching ELL students in mainstream classrooms.
References:
Walker, A., Shafer, J., & Iiams, M. (2004). "Not in my classroom": Teacher attitudes towards English language learners in the mainstream classroom. NABE Journal of Research and Practice, 2(1), 130-160.

Yigzaw, A. (2012). Impact of L1 use in L2 English writing classes. Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences, 8(1), 11-27.

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12 Ways to Support English Learners in the Mainstream Classroom

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Advice from three ESL teachers on the things regular classroom teachers can do to help English language learners thrive in mainstream classrooms.

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Resources: Achieve the Core has a resource page called 5 Ways to Support Your English Language Learners

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Resources: Achieve the Core has a resource page called 5 Ways to Support Your English Language Learners

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achievethecore.org's digital tools and resources for teachers have been made possible by contributions from teachers across the country as well as through generous support from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and the GE Foundation.

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ELL students take more time to process and answer questions.  We as teachers need to be cognizant of this and give them more wait time.

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-ELL students have a language barrier, not a disability
- give them lower English leveled texts, so they can learn English
-they can use home language texts to learn a skill such as retelling a story
-tests

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-Get to know your students
-Invite them to share about their culture, family, clothing, traditions