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This is the first of two articles offering strategies for teaching children in classrooms where a variety of home languages are spoken.

Matthew, a monolingual English speaker, and two assistants who speak Spanish and Tagalog, teach in a classroom with children who speak five different home languages. The classroom buzzes with new songs and phrases in English and sometimes words of comfort in each language. Carefully placed pictures and labels help children see and interact with key words and items from all their cultures. In one corner of the classroom, Matthew welcomes a new parent and arranges a family language and cultural background interview.

Are you one of the many teachers today with children in their classrooms who speak a number of different languages and are just beginning to learn English? Teaching in a classroom like this is a challenge! How in the world do you go about it?

You need concrete strategies you can use to support children's language development in both English and their home languages. Of course, it's ideal when teachers speak the children's languages. But in superdiverse classrooms, that's unlikely to be the case.

Here, we offer strategies from an approach we call personalized oral language learning (POLL). Teachers who have tried them find these strategies especially useful for supporting the learning and development of children in classrooms with a range of languages.

Personalized oral language learning

As centers and schools serve more and more children who speak little or no English at home-and as we recognize the many benefits of children retaining their home languages and cultures-teachers often ask us, "What are the specific strategies I should use to support my dual language learners?" POLL answers this question with three types of assistance: (1) family engagement, (2) environmental supports, and (3) conversation and interaction. In this issue of TYC, we address the first two strategies. In the February/March 2019 issue, we'll explore strategies for fostering conversations and interactions with children who are dual language learners.

Family engagement

Start by gathering information about each child's experience in the home language and in English. This is a critical step. We highly recommend that you meet with families in a personal, face-to-face interview to collect this information-along with information about the family's background and their shared interests and activities. (For a sample interview about family languages and interests, see below.) A personal meeting is much more effective than sending home a questionnaire or having an informal conversation. This is not the only time for the teaching team to meet with families, but it's the beginning of a relationship and dialogue focused on the importance of both home language and English language development.

Through this type of teacher-family collaboration, you can plan together how to weave linguistic and cultural information into activities at school and at home. For example, families can have conversations with their children in their home languages on the topics/themes and new words shared by the teachers each week. Interviews and ongoing communication also provide perfect opportunities for you to invite parents and other family members to volunteer in the classroom!

As the school year progresses, be sure to keep families involved in the classroom's storybooks, themes, and learning concepts. Communicate with them in the languages they are most comfortable speaking (you may need to use an interpreter). Try reaching out in different ways, such as frequently sending home two-way journals for families to read, write in, and return; having regular small-group coffee chats with parents before the school day; emailing, texting, and holding frequent casual conversations at pick up and drop-off; and scheduling oneon- one conversations. Your reminders will reinforce families' awareness of the importance and benefits of their using the home language in everyday activities, having rich conversations with their children, reading, telling stories, and playing.

The home languages of the children in Ding's family child care program include Spanish, English, and Vietnamese. Ding's home language is Vietnamese, and she speaks English fluently.

Ding knows that one child's family owns a food truck. She has invited the family to park the truck outside her home one morning to share food items with the children and show them steps the family takes in preparing and selling food. Ding plans vocabulary activities based on food prices and menus from each child's culture. She chooses related books in all three languages and prepares materials for the children to use in creating a food truck in the dramatic play area.

Environmental supports

When you create a warm, nurturing environment, one that welcomes children and families, you send the message that you value and respect them, their language, and their culture. When your classroom includes the home languages and cultural backgrounds of all the children and families, they see and feel that they are natural and important parts of classroom activities. You'll soon notice positive results: young dual language learners will develop confidence, communicate their thoughts and feelings more readily, concentrate better, and learn more.

Transform your classroom into a rich setting with areas for children to talk and play, and with spaces for both quiet and active learning and small group interactions.

Here are some supports to use:

Label in each of the home languages of the children, with one color for each language used consistently throughout the classroom for schedules and topic displays. (Use an online translation tool, like Google Translate, and ask parents to help with specific words.) ŸŸ

Place environmental print in all the children's home languages-everyday objects like magazines, food packaging, commercial products, etc.-throughout play areas and the classroom. ŸŸ

Display family photos, books, artifacts, and posters and other visuals from all the children's cultural backgrounds throughout the classroom at child's-eye level and in learning centers. Families are often eager to help supply the classroom with items from their home that represent family and cultural traditions, such as examples of artwork, empty food boxes, pictures, etc.

Teachers can work with librarians to select books in the children's languages that relate to curricular themes and can adapt puzzles to include writing in all the children's languages. Families can share songs, rhymes, and dichos (playful sayings) in all the languages of the children; they can also help stock the dramatic play area and art center with clothing and cultural artifacts from each child's background.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, fostering young dual language learners' development of English and also of their home languages is a major challenge. But if you use the strategies outlined in this article, you can partner with families and create a responsive environment that supports each child and encourages learning.

In the February/March 2019 issue of TYC, we'll share even more strategies for linguistically appropriate instruction.

Two Classroom Language Models

In schools across the United States, many teachers who try to help children become bilingual use one of these two language models. Both work well with our POLL strategies. This article elaborates on the second one.

The fifty-fifty dual language model

Teachers make sure children experience (hear, speak, see in print, etc.) both English and their home language in all content areas (literacy, math, outdoor play, etc.). With careful planning, teachers ensure that children experience equal exposure to both languages and also provide a clear structure for language separation.

This is a great model for supporting emergent bilingual children, but it is most feasible when all of the children speak the same home language (e.g., Spanish). Two different home languages can also be supported in this model through careful allocation of time and other instructional resources. (For an example of a classroom that embraces English, Spanish, and Arabic, see " Conversations with Children," by Janis Strasser.)

The English language development with home language support model

Teachers most often use this model when they are not proficient in the children's home languages. It gives them a clear and consistent plan for when and how to use English and when and how to use the children's languages. Children learn mainly in English during instructional time, but benefit from home language and multicultural supports that teachers intentionally interweave throughout the daily routine. For a description of specific supports to use, see the POLL strategies described in this article.

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Many Languages, One Classroom: Supporting Children in Superdiverse Settings

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This is the first of two articles offering strategies for teaching children in classrooms where a variety of home languages are spoken.

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"The number one way to succeed on the job is to use technology."

Dr. Michael Ryan (DyslexiaHelp's contributing expert)

Today's technological age has brought forth a number of very good computer programs and tools to help individuals with:

Listening & speaking

Reading & spelling

Writing & organization

We have found the following software programs and assistive devices successful in helping to address the areas that affect dyslexic individuals. These technologies cannot replace direct intervention, but they can augment a therapy program. Training from a professional may be required to get the best results. These technologies help:

Accommodate for challenges

Increase self-confidence at home, in the classroom, or on the job

We update this page as new technologies are developed, so visit often!

Listening & Notetaking

Phonics

Reading, Writing, and Study Support

School age and up
The iPad has several tools and features that can be helpful with learning, such as:

Touch-screen technology in either portrait or landscape

Built-in screen reader

iBook application for reading, listening to, and buying new books

Other Features

Note application for managing to-do lists

Calendar application

Ages 8 and up
Kurzweil 3000 allows struggling readers to learn the same content as their peers in different ways with this reading, writing and learning software solution. Kurzweil 3000 supports Universal Design for Learning, and offers:

Fluency

Vocabulary

Comprehension

Writing

Study skills

Test-taking support

Other Features

Text-to-speech capabilities for documents and web pages

Color highlighters

Notes and bookmarking

Text-to-Speech

School age and up
TalkButton is one of the few text-reading applications that not only works well in Microsoft Word, but allows the user to write, work and create right in the document. It reads text from all other major programs and is ultra-user-friendly, fast and responsive.

Writing & Spelling Software

School age and up
Draft:Builder 6 helps struggling writers produce their best possible work by breaking down the writing process into three simple steps:

Brainstorming ideas

Jotting down notes

Creating a first draft

School age and up
Ginger writer is the leading writing assistant and grammar checker. Rather than editing a piece of writing one word at a time, Ginger checks the entire sentence for clarity. Ginger is used to correct spelling and grammar mistakes so you can focus on the content your writing. Ginger's apps are available on Windows, Microsoft Outlook, Google Chrome, iPhone and Android.
Other Features

School age and up
Grammarly is an online grammar checking website that can scan essays, articles, and other documents to find mistakes in the text. The website's program looks for over 250 grammar mistakes encompassed in seven areas: grammar, punctuation, spelling, enhancement, style, sentence structure, and plagiarism.
Other Features

Grammar and punctuation corrector

Spell-checker

Error explanation

Outdated spelling

Online Tools

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"The number one way to succeed on the job is to use technology." Dr. Michael Ryan (DyslexiaHelp's contributing expert) Today's technological age has brought forth a number of very good computer programs and tools to help individuals with: Listening & speaking Reading & spelling Writing & organization We have found the following software programs and assistive devices successful in helping to address the areas that affect dyslexic individuals.

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Dyslexia Writing & Reading Assistive Technology | Ghotit Dyslexia

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GHOTIT CAN HELP KIDS WITH DYSLEXIA, DYSGRAPHIA SPELLING
Dyslexia Spelling = Phonetic Spelling + Creative Spelling
What is Phonetic Spelling?

When you're dictating a word and tell your son or daughter that he should write what he hears, your child will attempt to map the sounds in the words to the sounds of the letters.

However, English is not a phonetic language. There are a very large number of English words where there is a gap between how the word sounds and how the word is actually spelled. Not to mention, there are many times multiple correct phonetic options to a given sound (for example: k , c, ck, and qu - all sound about the same)...

What is creative spelling?

Given that English spelling is not phonetic, and each sound may have several spelling options, a lot of correct English spelling is dependent on the visual memory of a written word. If you have good visual memory of words, you will be able to spell a word correctly simply by writing it down, and from memory deciding if this is the correct spelling.

But kids with dyslexia and dysgraphia have very poor and inconsistent visual memory of spelled words, and therefore, can hardly rely on their visual memory of words.... Not to mention that children with dyslexia or dysgraphia sometimes confuse the direction of letters, and though they meant to write the letter "b" actually end up writing the letter "d"...

A child's Creative Spelling refers to the spelling of a child that has no idea of how to spell correctly certain syllables of a word, and therefore, creatively makes them up as he writes. And each time he/she "creates" a word's spelling, it usually ends up as a different spelling creation.

Can a regular spell checker correct dyslexia spelling?

I put my foot dawn in froow the door. I was cold but my foot was licker it was summer. it was so I stept in. I sore butterflies in the grader I did not under stand it was winter at home bet it was sumer at the fared.I notest it was time for school. So I ran awte. So that I wood not be late wen I got to school I told my friends abate the garden. At the end fo school I went and shode them it thaye were ameramasd at it so very day we plaid there. We went fishing, we plad tennis and bamigton.

Dyslexia Spelling of a nine-year old corrected by Ghotit

English is not a phonetic language, and therefore the "creative spelling" of a child with dyslexia or dysgraphia must be taken into account in order for a spell checker to provide value for a dyslexic child. However the "creative" spelling of such a child is basically "noise" and therefore any computerized program, such as a regular spell checker, that tries to correct a single word at a time (and not based on the context of the sentence) is doomed to fail... That is why Microsoft spell checker many times simply fails to correct a heavily misspelled word written by a dyslexic... and the reason why dyslexic children require...

GHOTIT - A WRITING ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY THAT UNDERSTANDS YOUR CHILD

Word Prediction

The Word-Prediction service is a great productivity tool that assists people who type slowly. Ghotit Word-Prediction offers user predictions inline when the user is typing, allowing the user to select predicted words, and thereby, reducing the amount of typing required by the user. The Word-Prediction service takes into account grammar considerations. Additionally, the Word-Prediction service offers predictions based on words with similar phonetics.

In order to assist the user in selecting the correct Word-Prediction, an integrated dictionary displays the meaning of each predicted word (including an example sentence with the predicted word). The predicted words can then be read out loud - for the user to hear the predicted word before selecting it.

Self-learning algorithms are applied, so that Ghotit learns better the prevalent vocabulary of each user. A personalized word bank is managed for each user. This is leveraged to optimize the word prediction service for each user.

Proofreading

When you finish writing any text, it is recommended to proofread it. Ghotit solutions can help you proofread your text by reading your text out loud sentence after sentence. When a word is read, dual highlighting is performed on the text. Both the sentence and the current word are highlighted and colored - to ensure easy proofreading tracking.

Reading

Ghotit reading services is a vital tool for those who struggle with reading.

Ghotit solutions can help you read any text by reading the text out loud sentence after sentence. When a word is read, dual highlighting is performed on the text. Both the sentence and the current word are highlighted and colored - to ensure easy tracking.

Ghotit reading services can read text from any text editor application, Internet browser.

Ghotit Usability

The Ghotit services can be accessed using different devices and applications.

Ghotit services can be accessed directly from any desktop/laptop text application. This includes Word, Excel, Outlook, Pages, Google Docs, etc.

Mobile apps can share text with the Ghotit application, transferring written text for review and correction. Once corrected, the Ghotit application can share the corrected text with other applications.

Ghotit standalone, a simple to use text editor is included. Ghotit standalone editor is available for both desktop, laptop and mobile devices.

Ghotit's diverse modes of operation support users with different working methods. Some users will want to correct their text directly from an application; while other users will prefer to use a dedicated, user-friendly text editor. Ghotit supports all modes of work, in order to maximize productivity and text quality for a wide range of users.

Ghotit for Children with Dyslexia was last modified: by

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Dyslexia Spelling = Phonetic Spelling + Creative Spelling When you're dictating a word and tell your son or daughter that he should write what he hears, your child will attempt to map the sounds in the words to the sounds of the letters. However, English is not a phonetic language.

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1 Multiple studies: Collins, 1990; Elkind, 1993; Elkind, Black & Murray, 1996; Higgins & Raskind, 1995; Higgins & Raskind, 1997; MacArthur, 1993, 1998; MacArthur, Schwartz, & Graham, 1991; McNaughton, Hughes & Clark, 1997; Priumus, 1990; Raskind & Higgins, 1995; Raskind, Higgins & Herman, 1997.

2 Higgins, E. L. & Raskind, M. H. (2000). Speaking to Read: The Effects of Continuous vs. Discrete Speech Recognition Systems on the Reading and Spelling of Children With Learning Disabilities. Journal of Special Education Technology, 15 (1), 19-30.

3 Raskind, M. H. & Higgins, E. L. (1999). Speaking to Read: The Effects of Speech Recognition Technology on the Reading and Spelling Performance of Children With Learning Disabilities. Annals of Dyslexia, 49, 251-281.

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Assistive Technology for Kids with Learning Disabilities: An Overview

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If your child has a learning disability, he or she may benefit from assistive technology tools that play to their strengths and work around their challenges.

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Seeing growth and improvement can be a huge motivator for ELL students.

But you can't see growth if you don't measure it.

That's why no great class is complete without some way of assessing students.

Not only is it a fantastic way for both you and your students to see what they've learned, but you can also use the results to help you plan future lessons.

However, don't rely solely on tests to assess your students!

They're not always an accurate way to measure their skill levels. Instead, I have five alternative ways you can assess your ELL students, and examples of what each might look like. But first, let's take a closer look at the issue with tests.

Contents

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Why Tests Aren't an Accurate Way to Measure Performance

One of the most common reasons why teachers shouldn't only use tests is because students may have test anxiety. What tends to happen is that students are so nervous when presented with a test that they don't do as well. You then aren't able to see what the student is really capable of. For ELL students, they can be extra nervous because not only do they have to recall information they've learned, but they may have to decipher what the test question is asking in the first place.

Also, tests really only measure what students can memorize or recall, not necessarily what work they can produce. For example, if you give a multiple choice test about vocabulary they learned, it really only tests if they understand one meaning of the word, and not necessarily whether they understand how to apply the same word in different contexts.

Another example would be oral skills. If students understand certain phrases you've taught them, they may not understand if another person outside the classroom says it, especially if that person has an accent.

If an ELL student is a little slower to read or decipher material (especially if they've had lots of support in their class), a time constraint on a test won't give them sufficient time to complete the test. Just because a student didn't finish a test, doesn't mean they don't understand the material. You then are left guessing as to whether or not your student actually understood what you were testing them on.

So how can you start assessing English language learners without tests?

5 Alternative Ways to Assess English Language Learners

1. Rubrics and Performance Criteria

Using rubrics and performance criteria is a great way to assess a variety of student work. It's usually based on language proficiency and academic progression through work such as presentations, written assignments and reading activities. You can not only use these to grade your students, but to chart their growth over a set period of time.

Both tools feature a list of criteria or standards that students know you're assessing. Rubrics show what is considered below level, at level and above level. A performance criteria can simply be a checklist of what to assess for each student. With either of these assessment tools, it's important to develop your own, as assessments are based on the teacher's judgment.

A tool like RubiStar is helpful, as it can show you sample rubrics other teachers have developed, and anyone can modify them for their own use.

When creating rubrics or performance criteria, make sure that what you're assessing is clear and fair from the beginning. As well, don't assess too much at once, as it'll not only overwhelm you but your students as well. If it helps, ask other teachers how they created their rubrics, or simply have someone look over yours to see if it looks okay.

You can even take it a step further by bringing FluentU into the classroom.

Using authentic content in the target language is a great way to let your students see the language used in context-and FluentU has a wide array of videos to choose from. From music videos and movie trailers to interesting talks, you can use these videos in your English lessons to help immerse your students in the language. You can even assign homework for your students to complete outside of the classroom and monitor their progress.

2. Oral Presentations or Performances

Many students who have test anxiety might get nervous because their reading or writing skills aren't very good. That doesn't mean, however, that they aren't proficient in oral skills.

Assessing oral presentations or performances typically include role-plays, interviews, oral reports and summarizing/paraphrasing pieces of text. When used on an ongoing basis, it's a great way to monitor a student's comprehension through a longer period of time.

Here are some ideas to incorporate oral presentations or performances as part of your assessments:

Role-plays: Role-plays can be used to assess students individually or as a group. Some ideas include having students write a play and performing it or even having the students teach the teacher as part of a review class.

Interviews: This type of assessment is very helpful if you have students that are early English learners. To help test students on content knowledge, try to use a lot of visual cues. For example, have students pick from a pile of pictures, and ask questions to elicit responses from them. You can assess the student based on vocabulary used or comparing concepts.

Describing/explaining/retelling/paraphrasing/summarizing texts: Instead of a written book report or summary of a piece of text, you can have your students retell the plot in front of the class or just to you. Other ideas can include asking the students to pick a character in the book and tell a story from their point of view, or even to describe their favorite part of the text.

When assessing oral work, it's helpful to use a checklist of things to look for, such as pronunciation, volume, pace and content. Use the same checklist for the same types of oral presentations to see the progression over time.

3. Non-verbal Assessments

For students who are shy or aren't as proficient in English, using non-verbal assessments is a great way to see a student's academic progress. What you're looking for in this type of assessment is their understanding of vocabulary.

Examples include:

Charades: Give a student vocabulary words you've taught, and have them act it out to see if they understand what the word or concept is. You could even have them summarize a text by miming it.

Pictures: You can ask students to draw or collect pictures to show their knowledge on a topic. For example, if you're assessing a student on their knowledge of nouns, ask students to pick out pictures of nouns in a magazine. Pictures can also be used to assess reading comprehension. Students can read a paragraph and then draw a picture to show their understanding of the text. If the picture is mostly accurate except for a few details, it could be a vocabulary issue.

4. Written Assessments

Written assessments are a nice way to see how students can apply their knowledge of English over a wide variety of concepts. For example, you can use assignments to see just how well they understand a text, or even different forms of writing.

Some different ways to incorporate written assessments in your class include:

Creative and structured writing assignments: Ask students to write a creative story, or even give them a writing prompt-where students read the beginning of a story and are asked to write the ending.

Editing writing: Give students a piece of text with grammatical mistakes and ask them to correct it, to test their knowledge of grammar.

Reading response logs: Give students a list of questions, such as how do they know a character is evil, or how would they change the ending of a story. When students are finished reading a book or article, have them write down the answers to these questions. Make sure to only assess for content, and not spelling or grammar, unless you specify to your students that you're doing so.

Content logs: Have students write down facts they learned about a text. You can also have them write what parts they didn't understand. This is helpful for you to see if there are concepts you may need to reteach or review, particularly if a lot of students are confused about similar parts of the same text.

With writing, don't assess too much at once. For a writing piece, you could assess just spelling, complete sentences or unity in paragraphs. Build it up to assess more than a few criteria once you see that your students have mastered what you have taught them.

5. Portfolios

Portfolios are powerful assessments and are used to gather various samples of student work to track their development over a period of time. In order to maximize the potential of using a portfolio as an assessment tool, you should regularly curate student work to include in them, and have scheduled conferences with students about their work.

You should also have a checklist of qualities that are important to showcase student achievement. Not only do you critique and assess the work, but so should the students. That way, they're responsible for their learning and take more ownership of making sure they improve.

Material you can include in a portfolio can include the following:

performance criteria or rubrics

recording of oral presentations

tests

writing samples, drafts and final copies

book reports

interview checklists

In order to best assess a student, you should include more than one kind of student work in the portfolio. The work does not have to be the best work they've done, rather a wide variety is best. Based on your judgment, you can even ask students for their opinion as to what types of work they should include.

In a portfolio, you are looking for any type of improvement in their work. For example, if you keep a couple of a student's writing pieces, look to see if their sentence or paragraph structure gets better. When looking at tests, see if their spelling tests, for example, have gotten higher scores over time. If you notice that they continually lack in certain skills, this would be the time to address it. You can either give the student extra support in class or find ways for them to practice with extra work at home.

Tests aren't bad, but they're not the only way to assess student achievement.

If you use a wide variety of assessments, you'll be able to portray an accurate picture of your student's English abilities.

In turn, you, your students and their parents will be able to see their progress, which can greatly motivate students!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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Measuring Growth: 5 Ways to Start Assessing English Language Learners Without Tests | FluentU English Educator Blog

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Assessing English language learners with a range of assessments will help demonstrate your students' abilities. From written assessments and portfolios to speaking assessments and activities, there are so many options available! Click here to see 5 simple alternatives to tests for assessing English language learners!

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Signature Page Revised Fieldwork Log of Hours and Activities SP 2020

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Native Americans for Kids: Cherokee, Apache, Navajo, Iroquois and Sioux | Kids Academy

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Wordless picture books are told entirely through their illustrations. Sharing wordless books with a child provides an opportunity for literacy-rich conversations. Check out these tips for sharing wordless picture books with a child.

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Three middle-school-aged boys draw pictures in chalk on a blackboard on a bright Saturday afternoon. "Write the word below the drawing," I say. The word apple goes under the apple, tree under the tree. Afterward, they practice with vocabulary flashcards for a half hour. At a bathroom break, all three bolt down the hall in search of a soccer ball, teasing each other in Arabic.

They might be eager to learn English, too-but I feel I've lost them already.

The three are recent arrivals from war-torn Syria, and have been in the country for only a year. Though the civil war has raged since 2011 with more than 400,000 casualties and millions of refugees, these boys bear little obvious impact of the traumas they've been through and the elaborate screening process it took to get here-and we don't ask. In many ways, they seem like average tweens, enthusiastic and eager to learn.

As a teacher of high school English, I've decided to volunteer at an English as a second language (ESL) Saturday tutoring session, a program established in response to the growing community of refugees here in Jersey City. Despite my years of experience in the classroom, I'm finding out what ESL teachers everywhere know: that teaching English as a second language to students with varying levels of preparedness is a complex, and often stressful, endeavor. Good intentions aren't enough.

America's Future Classrooms

Newcomer English language learners (ELLs) with interrupted educations have distinct challenges-among them jumping into an upper grade with few formal school skills, living in households with unstable incomes, or coping with buried traumas-but in many ways, they mirror the future of classrooms in America.

The impact on the U.S. school system has been vast. From coast to coast, in both large cities like Los Angeles and smaller towns like Troy, Michigan, and Lewiston, Maine (population 36,000), there has been an influx of ELL students and families who speak a bewilderingly wide range of languages- from Creole to Tagalog and Urdu.

Understandably, schools are struggling to comprehend the scope of the issue and provide timely solutions. For teachers on the front lines like me, answers aren't coming fast enough. Research on the topic is limited, and many of the recommended pedagogies for teaching in a classroom with a wide range of languages and proficiency levels are new and untested. And the added pressure of helping students, especially older ELLs, meet grade-level content standards can feel like salt in the wound.

There are some promising efforts in the works, though. A few districts have created separate schools solely for ELLs, while others have opted to offer bilingual instruction as early as preschool. Many have responded by hiring more ESL teachers and adding full immersion classes where ELLs learn alongside native English speakers. And in a handful of states, including New York, Arizona, and California, every teacher is now required to have coursework or professional development in teaching English as a second language.

But I'm thinking back to my kids-the third grader who hadn't learned to grasp a pencil and the outwardly confident ninth grader who was hesitant to expose his difficulty reading aloud. I started teaching English as a second language with very little to go on, just optimism in the sponge-like minds of the students and simple, seemingly obvious tips like "speak slowly" and "use visuals."

There must be a better way. So I set out to find what experts and other schools suggested for teaching ELLs.

Set High Expectations, San Francisco

The experts I talked with agree that it's critical to keep expectations high for ELLs-even if at first they seem unattainable.

"What traditionally has happened for ELLs in many systems is that they are not afforded or invited to participate," explained Maria Santos, a director at the research group WestEd and co-chair of the Understanding Language project at Stanford University. "There are some systems that say once they get enough English, then they can enter core academic courses. We are saying, 'No, they have to be involved from day one.'"

What traditionally has happened for ELLs in many systems is that they are not afforded or invited to participate.

At San Francisco International High School, all students are non-native English speakers and take regular high school classes that use teaching techniques specifically geared toward ELLs. The school is dedicated solely to newcomers, but is just one of many options for students who are still learning English in the highly diverse, 56,000-student San Francisco district-a "multiple pathways" approach representative of the options available to ELLs throughout other states.
Courtesy of Marble Hill High
While experts such as Santos recommend that ELLs be integrated with native English speakers in regular classrooms, San Francisco International High School teachers say that for many older newcomers, a school devoted solely to ELLs provides students the support they need to build confidence as they continue to learn both English and academic content.

Critical to the mission of San Francisco International is the notion that every teacher is a "teacher of language" who embeds English language learning within a traditional high school curriculum, rather than separately, says the principal, Julia Kessler. "Our students don't have time to learn English and then do high school."

And, just as importantly, when a student struggles, teachers still give them assignments that keep them challenged.

"If the student doesn't have the language to read the New York Times article the rest of the class is reading, that doesn't mean give them a children's book," Kessler says.

Meet Students Halfway, New York City

When those high expectations meet with tailored instruction, new English learners can pick up both content and language skills with surprising speed. In a recent session of Christopher Benson's AP U.S. History class at Marble Hill High School for International Studies, a public school in the Bronx set high above the Harlem River, students reviewed for an upcoming test by going over sample AP questions.

At one table, I observe four girls discussing a text by George Washington warning against the rise of political parties. "What does sectionalism mean?" one girl asked. "It's like dividing," another answered. When the whole class reconvened, students discussed a historian's interpretation of Columbus-deciding to agree with an answer from a student who did not speak English just three years ago.

Half of all students at Marble Hill High School are English language learners and 90 percent are low-income, yet 93 percent graduate within four years. Last year, the school was highlighted by Stanford University's Understanding Language group as one of six "schools to learn from."

The teachers go all the way to make sure you understand things.

At Marble Hill, all teachers receive training in strategies for ELLs. Staff members regularly review data together to catch any students in need of extra support and help ensure students grasp concepts by focusing lessons on grade-level skills and then modifying content to address any language gaps.

In an inclusion ninth-grade biology class for ELL and native English speakers, for example, a teacher helped students write up a lab report by providing a worksheet with prompts suggesting an appropriate verb or chemical substance, much like in Mad Libs. In a history class, the teacher used T-charts and sentence stems to help students develop a strong thesis for an essay about the French Revolution.

The teachers and the community building at Marble High are key reasons students say they select and stick with it.

A junior named Luis, who arrived from the Dominican Republic as a freshman and spoke no English, said the first school he tried in the district was "like a jail," and he didn't learn much. "At Marble Hill High, several teachers stay after school to work with students," he says.

"The teachers go all the way to make sure you understand things," adds Mohamadou, a senior.

In my Saturday class, Arabic is the lingua franca, although a few students only speak Tigrinya, a language spoken in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Students begin at varying levels and then come and go depending on the week. We never know how many might show up. To keep them returning, we offer rides and try online sign-ups and text message reminders.

But we've also had to consider what newcomers might want from an English language class, which could be as something as simple as talking to them about things they know and care about, say educators like Darren Chase, an ELL teacher with New Design High School in New York City.

As the main ELL teacher for around two dozen students, Chase says he tries to get his students talking about anything he can-breakfast, the weather, sports-so they keep practicing their language skills.

It's so easy for an English learner to hide in the margins and get home and realize they spoke no English that day at school.

"It comes naturally to a teacher to want to talk and explain, but it's important to turn around that dynamic for ELLs," says Kessler. "It's so easy for an English learner to hide in the margins and get home and realize they spoke no English that day at school."

So in a recent Saturday class, my colleagues and I put aside the flashcards and coursebooks, and instead give the students sample dialogues to help them write their own conversation scripts on a topic of choice.

One boy writes about shopping for soccer gear with his favorite professional player, who suggests buying goalie gloves as well as cleats. I ask questions about the details, while helping fill in words when he struggles to finish a sentence. In between, we talk about an Egyptian fish restaurant around the corner. He and his friends tell me it's good, but not like food from Syria.

The oldest boy in the class chimes in, explaining that the Egyptians in Jersey City must have had to leave their country because they "did bad things," he says, as he searches for the precise words to explain power, discrimination, flight, and exile.

It strikes me then that one day this student could become a politician, a lawyer, or anything he wants-once he learns his new language, he'll have the words to describe his own history, and a better chance to plot the course of his own future.

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Teaching English Language Learners: A Complex Endeavor

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A teacher seeks out the best approaches to teaching English to non-native speakers, the fastest growing student population in the U.S.

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"The consequence of this approach, coupled with a preference by many schools for multiple-choice assessments, turns out students who are disillusioned with social studies-and creates an environment where "accumulating knowledge and memorizing information is emphasized because that's what counts on standardized tests," writes Franz.

In his book Why Learn History (When It's Already on Your Phone), author Sam Wineburg, a professor at Stanford's Graduate School of Education, examines how historians approach resources and argues that this is how teachers should be rigorously vetting-and teaching students to vet-social studies materials for the classroom.

Wineburg first describes how an AP US History student analyzes a New York Times article from 1892 about the creation of Discovery Day, later renamed Columbus Day. The student criticizes the article for celebrating Columbus as a noble hero when, in fact, he "captured and tortured Indians." However, when real-life historians examine the same article, Wineburg notes that their approach is "wildly different."

"When historians encounter this resource, their first move is to source it and put it in context, not to engage with the content," writes Franz. "This article, to them, isn't really about Columbus at all. It's about President Harrison, who was responsible for the proclamation, and the immigration politics of the 1890s."

The skills demonstrated by the historians are the same skills that should form the core of effective social studies education, according to Franz:

Assessing the point of view of an author and source

Placing arguments in context

Validating the veracity of a claim

It is critical that teachers model this process for students: "Vetting social studies resources is important not just because we want to ensure students are learning from accurate, verifiable materials. It's important also because the ability to ask questions about sources, bias, and context are at the heart of social studies education and are essential skills for thriving in the modern world."

Much like historians, professional fact-checkers verify digital resources by using lateral reading. As opposed to vertical reading, where a reader might stay within a single website to evaluate a factual claim, fact-checkers scan a resource briefly, then open up new browser tabs to read more widely about the original site and verify its credibility via outside sources. This process mirrors how historians vet primary sources.

Teachers may also, of course, choose to rely on vetted social studies resources and lessons published by reputable sources-Franz recommends Newsela, Newseum, The National Archives, and the Stanford History Education Group.

Encouraging students to seek out knowledge and ideas, and then to deeply explore the reliability of their sources by considering their context, perspective, and accuracy should be the core skill of any rigorous social studies curriculum.

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Preparing Social Studies Students to Think Critically in the Modern World

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"The consequence of this approach, coupled with a preference by many schools for multiple-choice assessments, turns out students who are disillusioned with social studies-and creates an environment where "accumulating knowledge and memorizing information is emphasized because that's what counts on standardized tests," writes Franz.

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Earlychildhood NEWS - Article Reading Center

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Earlychildhood NEWS is the online resource for teachers and parents of young children, infants to age 8. You will find articles about developmentally appropriate practice, child health, safety and behavior as well as links to teacher resources and networking opportunities.

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Kahoot! | Learning games | Make learning awesome!

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Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that brings engagement and fun to 1+ billion players every year at school, at work, and at home.