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1. Develop an understanding of the student's first language before trying to teach English- build connections between the student's understanding of the phonology and grammar of their home language and English.
2. Build relationships with students and their families! Opening that line of communication gives you insight into student learning preferences, readiness levels, and access to English and how those factors may influence their language acquisition.
3. Formal and informal assessments are essential for informing the lesson planning process. Informal assessments can be made fun- using games or engaging activities (like Guess Who) can help a teacher gain insight to where the student struggles, and can make the experience enjoyable and low-pressure for the student.

Question: Does student preference play into whether they receive push-in or pull-out support? In the video, the students really wanted pull-out time with ELL specialist, but I know that is not the case in my school.

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1. It is important to develop strong relationships with all students, but especially important for EL students to understand what their learning needs are and what the nuances of their primary language may be to guide instruction.
2. Partner with parents so they know how to better support their child's learning at home and so teachers know how to better support the student in school.
3. Make learning fun and engaging through the use of games. I really liked the example from one of the videos where the EL teacher used the game "Guess Who" as a way to support English language learning and add to the student's vocabulary.
Question: Would it be more appropriate to group EL students at the same level together or to group EL students at different levels together?

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1. Frequent assessment is important for ELL learners because it gets an accurate portrayal of where they are at. Then the teacher can make sure that they are in the right spot for their learning.
2. A teacher should get a good understanding of where the student is with their first language because that can predict how well they are going to be able to learn English.
3. Using visuals can be very helpful for ELL learners and it is an easy way for teachers to take down the barrier of understanding for some ELL students.

Can whole class intervention be a good option for ELL students? Or should teachers only consider student specific intervention?

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1. ELL learners must be approached with the knowledge of helping add to their language, not to be re-doing their language.
2. There are steps in which to take to best promote literacy engagement. Students will learn at different paces.
3. Assessments are key to providing proper information and instruction for students. Different assessments may show varying understanding of a topic.

How often should a student be assessed when it comes to reading, phonics, and other literacy areas?

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1. When approaching literacy with ells, it is important to discover methods that are individual guidance while at the same time full class work that can be done is being applied- everyone benefits from it
2. Proper assessment should be done in order to evaluate and configure a plan for each student so the teacher is able to plan around that set of information.
3.  Find the points of connections- using just verbal learning will not aquire desired results for an ell.

What is the first step? In my experience, ell students rarely want to make conversation or talk. What has to happen first before we dive into assessing them and helping them learn? How do we break through?

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1.  It's important to learn about EL student's backgrounds and cultures regarding language in order to help them learn English.

2. Students will vary in their developmental stages for reading/writing/spelling and we should appropriately accomodate instruction to meet their needs.

3. A combination of using assessments and learning about student's language backgrounds can help guide instruction.

What are some helpful strategies that can help with accommodating to every student's individual developmental stages of literacy?

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1) I learned that the sounds that students hear affect how they perceived words and they way words are spelled
2) Getting to know students and their home/ social lives will help guide instruction
3) Playing "Guess Who" is a fun way to have students practice describing people in English sentence structure

Question: Could I have my English proficient students learn basic Spanish or the language that the EL students are? Is that targeting the EL student or including them?

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1. Getting to know the families of our students is so important, building those relationships. With that, understanding our students first language and the language they speak primarily at home. This can help us as teacher have background knowledge on where our students are coming from or challenges they may be facing when learning english.
2. it is important to do frequent formative assessment of our students progress in their reading and writing. This can help us to develop a sequenced plan for teaching that specific student
3. There are many similarities between english and every other language. As teachers we may need to dig a little deeper and try to make those connections for our EL students, however this is a great for their learning, as well as understanding that what they know about their first language, can help us to teach them english.

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1. Looking into an EL learners first (primary) language will tell you as a teacher a lot about how their brain is processing between the two languages. This will help guide instruction.
2. Continental testing is important and will be showing of progress, every few months assess to see what areas need more instruction and where instruction has worked!
3. So many fun things can be great learning tools. Like the guess who game, they students have fun and feel like it is a brain break when they really are deepening and becoming comfortable in the English language, think outside the box on how to impact students and this goes for EL’s but will also be good for all other students as well!
Question : I have learned that EL strategy’s will he beneficial to all students but to what point would it be necessary to separate them and do direct instruction for the EL students so the gen students aren’t being meet too low?

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1. It is important to include the student’s first language into their learning in order to adequately learn their second language.
2. Guess Who is a great game to practice English sentence structure and word order, especially when asking a question.
3. Different reading/writing/spelling levels of EL’s are going to affect their developmental stage in the scope and sequence.

Question: Are students benefitting from EL service beyond elementary school? What resources and services are provided for them in middle & high school?

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1. Knowing that EL students’ L1 heavily influences their L2 acquisition is super important to know. Getting to know ELs’ linguistic background and knowing the phonology and grammar of their L1 can inform how an EL will learn English and how you can best teach them.
2. You should adjust your literacy assessment accordingly. This doesn’t necessarily mean lowering the standards or “bar” for them; however, giving them the appropriate accommodations and support during assessment in light of their unique and specific linguistic differences and needs is important to keep in mind.
3. Establishing good relations both with the EL student and their family can provide a good foundation for an EL’s education. This means communicating effectively and clearly to the family and student that you are there to support the student’s needs both academically, linguistically, and relationally.

How can you best differentiate in the general classroom when there is a good mixture of ELs and mainstream students?

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1- building relationships with our students AND their families is a vital part to meeting their learning needs. Finding ways to communicate shows we care and it gives a starting point for developing their academic growth.
2- push in is important. Pull out has its value too, but when students have a place in the gen Ed setting, while getting the support they need, it can be beneficial for the student.
3- we should be communicating with other departments in our schools. Speaking directly with EL teachers helps us to know what our students are doing when they are pulled out, which in turn can help us know how to continue to assist that student in our gen Ed setting, and it can provide us with tools for other students who may need additional support.

Question: how do you start with new EL students? What are the first steps? Relationship building is important but how do you begin this process if they are brand new to our country and have little to no English language knowledge?

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1. When teaching ELL students it’s important to remember not to dismiss the literacy they come with.

2. The ESOL teacher in the video used techniques that allowed the conversation to be natural which will help ELL students to speak more naturally.

3. When looking at placing ELL students into groups make sure you look at more than just the students assessments but connect to other things.

How can we more efficiently and realistically teach students that speaks other languages instead of just sending them to another teacher?

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1. EL students have varieties of backgrounds and cultures that come with their language that are important to recognize and connect with in order to learn English.
2. Differentiation is needed!! And will usually benefit the whole class.
3. Reading, spelling, and writing all work together as parts of learning language.

Question: How do you group multiple EL students who have different languages as their native language?

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1. It is so important to learn little pieces of a student's first language to be able to adequately help them
2. Relationships are incredibly important and powerful
3. Spelling, reading, and writing are learned in synchrony

Q: What parts of the languages that EL students speak do you recommend learning in order to help them best?

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1. Help students make connections from the first language to help with learning and remembering
2. There can be an ongoing cycle between assessment, differentiation, and development that guides instruction for English Learners
3. Always be respectful of a student's home language and make sure that we are not taking anything away, rather helping them grow and get better at both languages

Q. If I have ELs in my class, but have different first languages, can I still group them together if they are at the same levels or should students stay with students who also speak the same first language?

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1. When teaching students English, also have them practice the vocab words in their primary language
2. Assessment plays a huge role in figuring out where the student stands. Remember not to look at only one assessment, but look at multiple
3. Do not let the student let go of their primary language, encourage them to use both primary and English

Q. How can I connect with the family in order to help them feel comfortable with being a part of the classroom? Is there a right way to go about speaking with the family?

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1. Students at different levels of reading/writing/spelling have different needs and may need different levels of instruction and intervention
2. A students first language can give us important insight into how they will best learn English (cognates, similarities/differences in letter sounds or graphemes)
3. Assessment is an important step and part of a continual process to monitor student growth and areas of need. Being flexible and adjusting as needed is crucial.

Q: What if I don’t have students who fall into a level near anybody else as far as grouping goes? Obviously differentiation always, but it doesn’t seem right to just put the student in the nearest group if it is either far ahead or behind their assessed level.

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1) involving a students first language is always important
2) reading, writing, and spelling development all influence each other
3) differentiation is needed to ensure effective teaching

Q) what are some ways you can incorporate their first language but also make sure they understand the difference?