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EVERYTHING for the webinar is found under this link!  This is the same link that was e-mailed to all the participants.

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All things ESL! Not sure where to start, start here.

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Scroll through the document to find grade band,

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The ELP Standards provide a framework for English learners to acquire the content knowledge and English proficiency needed for school success. These standards correspond to states' college- and career-ready standards, and reflect a shift in focus from language possession to language use within the content areas.

Communication Over Correctness

While previous ELP standards focused on grammar and vocabulary attainment as the primary indicators of English language proficiency, ELPA21's standards focus on receptive, productive, and interpretive English language skills. These standards consider the correctness of grammar and spelling as secondary to the overall function of language.

Organization of the Ten ELP Standards

The ten ELP Standards are organized according to how language skills relate to English language arts, math, and science standards across six grade bands. The ELPA21 standards give teachers, curriculum developers, and states flexibility on how best to reach each standard and descriptor.

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The ELP Standards provide a framework for English learners to acquire the content knowledge and English proficiency needed for school success. These standards correspond to states' college- and career-ready standards, and reflect a shift in focus from language possession to language use within the content areas.

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Strategies - tons of strategies for scaffolding. Scroll through to find what works for your classroom

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Scroll through the document to find grade band.

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https://jamboard.google.com/d/1bCbfdNQYBWNNWZJYJyoOxVrnMIHGCI2YTEM_qWRihYQ/edit?usp=sharing

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Supporting English Learners in Your Classroom Workshop #1 - Google Jamboard

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Supporting English Learners in Your Classroom Workshop #1

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Use this PROFILE page for Grades K-5

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Elementary Profiles for WVDE and ICI webinar

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A tool for researching about culture, countries, and languages of your English Learners!

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It's hard to find clarity in a sea of over 7,000 languages.

With Ethnologue you can get the details right - and make wise decisions for your business, clients, or research.

We're the most authoritative resource on world languages, trusted by academics and Fortune 500 companies alike.

Built to help you navigate languages - quickly and easily.

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Every known living language.

7,139, to be exact. We list every recognized language that is still in use today. Other resources may use an old or incomplete list - or they may show one "language" in place of what we know are many separate languages. With Ethnologue, you're guaranteed to get the latest, fullest list.

Broader insights.

Need the big picture? Step back and study our statistics for a given country, region, or the world. Or plug the raw data into your own analysis tools to tease out exactly what you need.
More on our country information "

Easy to search.

We include every known name and dialect for a language, so you can find it no matter which term you use. You can also identify a specific language by its code, following the ISO 639-3 standard that Ethnologue pioneered.
More on language codes "

In Depth.

For a level of clarity you can't get anywhere else.

Rich data for each language.

Ethnologue brings together more data than any other resource of its kind. Quickly find what you need for any language - from populations to maps, dialects, usage, and more.
More on our language information "

See relationships and trends.

Is a language endangered? Thriving? What might they speak as a second language? How about its family or dialects? Our profiles are cross-linked to help you see connections, and you'll often find qualitative notes about attitudes, religion, and more.

Thought leadership.

Dig into our guides on language endangerment, the top 200 languages, how many languages there are, and more. Our team is also working to design new tools for understanding language, such as our forthcoming digital vitality index.
View our guides "

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Ethnologue is powered by SIL International, the leader in field linguistics. With over 80 years of history, 4,000 staff, and a network of partners, you won't find a more capable source.
More on the history of Ethnologue "

Rigorous standards.

Just as you'd expect from a leader in linguistic research. Learn more about our methodology for language identification, language status, maps, and references.

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More on our current edition "

Ready to get started?

Choose your plan to get access to 7,459 language profiles - plus our country profiles, maps, and more.
See Features and Pricing "

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It's hard to find clarity in a sea of over 7,000 languages. With Ethnologue you can get the details right - and make wise decisions for your business, clients, or research. We're the most authoritative resource on world languages, trusted by academics and Fortune 500 companies alike.

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Great Center full of resources for you to use! Keep checking here as the upcoming release of additional FREE TOOLS for all teachers coming this Fall 2021.

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Find Your State

Using the dropdown menu above, select your state to access instructional resources, assessment materials, and contact information for your state.

State Information Coming Soon

Contact Us for more Information:

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State Information Coming Soon Contact Us for more Information:

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Informative article with examples of scaffolding. Quick, informative read.

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This article on scaffolding learning for ELLs is Part 15 of WIDA's Essential Actions Series. Click here to read the first article in the series .

In education, scaffolding doesn't mean literally constructing planks and poles against the side of a building. It's a metaphor for providing students with temporary, supportive structures that, just like in constructing a structure, are "gradually removed as the building nears completion." (Riddett, 2015). When a student demonstrates proficient independence, the scaffold is no longer needed (Gibbons, 2002).

Our ELs' achievement is directly related to my ability to scaffold learning experiences.

Scaffolding is the focus of Action 12 in E ssential Actions: A Handbook for Implementing WIDA's Framework for English Language Development Standards (Gottlieb, 2013). Categorized under three groups - sensory, graphic, or interactive - scaffolding can be incorporated during the lesson cycle or within an assessment task. Without scaffolding, ELs often struggle needlessly to access grade-level content and are less able to perform well academically.

In this article, we'll examine three core kinds of scaffolding and explain how they're best applied.

Research Says

There's a significant body of research around the practice of using scaffolds to support instruction. Here are some key findings found in WIDA's Essential Actions :

Instructional supports empower ELs to achieve academically and access grade-level material (Gottlieb, 2013).

Using a range and variety of instructional support tools enables ELs to engage with grade-level objectives and content (Gottlieb, Katz, & Ernst-Slavit, 2009; Himmele & Himmele, 2009).

Instructional supports can also be built into assessments to empower ELs to express their understanding and demonstrate their skills (Gottlieb, 2006).

The research highlights the need to provide various forms of scaffolding to support instruction and performance on assessments. Learning new content that is often abstract is difficult enough; learning it in an unfamiliar language adds a level of difficulty that native speakers do not experience. Scaffolding provides ELs with greater access to content and facilitates the demonstration of their learning.

Sensory Scaffolding

Sensory scaffolds allow ELs to use their senses to understand abstract concepts or learn new ideas. For most students, using visuals and manipulatives are effective forms of sensory scaffolding because images and gestures contain meaning without a dependence on language. Additionally, for Entering ELs, it's the most effective kind of scaffolding in general because there are fewer language barriers to understanding.

For example, the tactile nature of conducting a science lab invites ELs to manipulate objects in order to construct the meaning of abstract concepts. Besides tactile scaffolds, educators can use visuals as another useful form of instructional aids. Humans are visual learners because, with our eyes, we can take a large amount of information in at once and use it to construct meaning. Like tactile scaffolds, visual aids help students understand abstract concepts easier than printed texts can.

When physical objects and visuals are combined together, they offer even more opportunities to access content. For example, Mr. A (a science teacher) wanted to teach his students the concept of food chains and food webs. He designed an activity where the students received strips of paper that each contained an animal. Students then moved the strips of paper around to reconstruct the food web.

The ELs benefited from physically moving the cards around to internalize how food chains and food webs work. These concepts would have remained abstract for many ELs had they simply read the descriptions.

Interactive Scaffolding

As much as human beings are visual learners, they're also social learners too. This is why in addition to sensory and tactile support, educators should integrate social interaction into the lesson design. For ELs, social scaffolding is an excellent opportunity to use language for meaningful purposes. ELs have to use language and content to discuss ideas, offer observations, and form opinions. In the process, they synthesize content knowledge and internalize language.

Interactive scaffolds are essentially a kind of learning through collaboration, and are best used with ELs who like socializing. My ELs collaborate in these three specific categories: synthesizing knowledge, planning actions, and creating products. There are many easy ways to design student interaction in the lesson cycle. This Edutopia article from Sarah Wike Loyola entitled " In language classrooms, students should be talking " explains why interactive scaffolds are effective and provides a list of five structures we can implement.

Another fantastic interactive scaffold is the jigsaw because it makes students internalize one aspect of the new content, learn to listen carefully when peers present their aspect, and work collaboratively to piece all the things they've learned to create new understanding.

Mr. J's 7th grade history class provides an perfect example of a jigsaw. Wanting students to learn the different parts of a river, he assigned each table group to study a specific part of the river (top, middle, end). Students researched their assigned parts (Researching phase). After a period of researching, he had them form a new groups. This new group had students who were experts from the top, middle, and end groups.

They then shared their research with each other (Presenting phase). Finally, students returned back to their original grouping, and they worked in their groups to formulate a thorough understanding of all the parts of the river (Co-constructing phase). Here is an image to help you visualize Mr. J's jigsaw.

Mr. J could have taken the traditional route to deliver the content, but instead he empowered his students to collaboratively learn content while developing communication and interpersonal skills. I recommend using jigsaw when a unit has a lot of content. This way, the content can be segmented and reinforces learning through inquiry. If you'd like to learn more about the practice, I encourage going directly to Jigsaw Classroom , t h e o r g a n i z a t i o n r e s p o n s i b l e f o r creating the jigsaw itself.

Of all the interactive scaffolds that I use, I prefer Think-Pair-Share (TPS) the most because of how easy it is to implement. To foster comprehensible input , ELs often need to pause during instruction and synthesize the content that was just presented before learning new content. This is when TPS is an effective tool. During Visible Reading , I might ask, "What did you learn from reading the last few paragraphs? Let's do a TPS to synthesize what we learned". I let them think for about a minute. Then they turn to a partner, whom I assign, and share their thinking.

TPS is like a verbal Quick Write . Students are given a prompt, given time to think about it, and then orally share their understanding of it. Their responses are not graded, but they do provide a wealth of formative data on their understanding.

Jennifer Gonzalez, a highly-regarded education blogger, wrote an extensive article about TPS on her blog, Cult of Pedagogy . She consistently produces valuable content that can be easily implemented by the busy teacher.

The most important principle that I want to share about interactive scaffolds is that if something is important for students to internalize, use an interactive scaffold (mainly TPS) to have them verbalize it. If they can correctly articulate it, they've owned it.

Graphic Scaffolding

Scaffolding using graphic supports means teaching through charts, tables, and graphic organizers that morph numbers and data into visual representations. Graphic scaffolds are particularly effective when teachers want to communicate highly abstract concepts or show the relationships between things in a phenomenon.

Because graphic supports are texts with visuals, they should be treated as texts. It's vital that teachers demonstrate close reading skills when explaining charts, graphs, tables, and timelines because it usually takes multiple readings for a student to fully comprehend the graphic's ideas.

Since graphic supports usually lack the storytelling element inherent in visuals, we need to provide more guided support in reading them. The title is often the most important place to start when reading graphs, tables, and charts because it provides the main purpose of the graphic. For example, the table below from a scaffolded science lab report contains a title that orients ELs to the table.

When reading graphs, remind your students to pay careful attention to the "X" and "Y" axis on a graph or read the individual slices of a pie chart. Moreover, because they are highly abstract, I prefer to reserve using them only with ELs who have highly developed cognitive abilities.

Interactive tables - where the teacher designs a table with items the students are to fill in - are the most frequently used form of graphic support employed by content teachers. While charts, graphs, and timelines scaffold ELs' understanding of content knowledge, interactive tables empower ELs to communicate it.

Because tables are a form of writing, they should be treated like an act of reading. Educators have to directly teach ELs how to interact with a table and how to fill the empty spaces. Make sure that students must not be overwhelmed by a number of things the table is asking them to produce. Keep it simple.

The following table was co-created with Mr. Arno to help ELs produce a lab report. Notice how it helps ELs provide the necessary information for the "Materials" section and only asks for two things at a time.

Takeaways

Scaffolding is used to erect stunning buildings. Though we're not in the construction business, we are trying to impart knowledge, skills, and mindsets will serve students long after they've left our classrooms.

Scaffolding helps students develop the skills that they can later call on and build upon in their future endeavors.

Gottlieb, M. (2006). Assessing English language learners: Bridges from language proficiency to academic achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Gottlieb, M., Katz, A., & Ernst-Slavit, G. (2009). Paper to practice: Using the English language proficiency standards in PreK-12 classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.

Gottlieb, M. (2013). Essential Actions: A Handbook for Implementing WIDA's Framework for English Language Development Standards . Madison: Board of Regents of the U of Wisconsin System.

Himmele, P., & Himmele, W. (2009). The language-rich classroom: A research-based framework for teaching English language learners. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Riddett, C. (2015, April 2). The teaching learning cycle. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/teaching-learning-cycle-christopher-riddett

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#34. Three Types of Scaffolding: There's a Scaffold for That - ELL Strategies | TanKHuynh

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How three types of scaffolding instruction (sensory, graphic, interactive) can empower ELLs to access content and develop academic language skills.

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View video to see ways you can use Padlet with your students.

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Use the PROFILE page for Grades 6-12

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Secondary Profiles for WVDE & ICI Webinar

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US Dept. of State | Countries Information

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US Dept. of State | Countries Information

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Country-specific information including education systems, languages, religion, and the US relationship with that country.

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Leading America's foreign policy to advance the interests and security of the American people.

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More Infographics by @ValentinaESL here:
https://elementaryenglishlanguagelearners.weebly.com/infographics.html

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Here is a list of ideas with resources on how to use Jamboard with your students.

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Ed Tech

Whiteboards and chalkboards have been a fixture in classrooms for ages. They're great for gathering ideas and making thinking visible.

But there are drawbacks ...

Having to write "DON'T ERASE!" next to important stuff

Taking pictures of the whiteboard with your cell phone

Markers drying up or running out of ink

Having only so much whiteboard space in your classroom

If you can sympathize, you've got to check out Google's Jamboard app. Jamboard ( jamboard.google.com) is a physical device -- an interactive touchscreen display/monitor, and it's pricey. But thankfully, the app that runs on those interactive displays is a teacher's favorite price -- FREE!

The Jamboard app is a fantastic tool for learning in face to face environments and for virtual/remote learning. The features are simple and intuitive. It's really easy to collaborate. Plus, it's very visual.

What is Google Jamboard?

You can find Jamboard by going to jamboard.google.com. You can also find it by clicking the "New" button in your Google Drive and hovering over "More".

Don't have touchscreens? That's OK. You can use a mouse or touchpad on a laptop or Chromebook. Or you can download the Jamboard app for Android or iOS (Apple) mobile devices.

When you open Jamboard, you'll see all of the recent jams you've opened. You can click the + button in the bottom right to create a new jam.

1. Draw: Use a pen, marker, highlighter or brush. You can draw from pre-determined colors.

2. Eraser: Erase something you've drawn.

3. Select: Choose and adjust a shape, sticky note, image, text box.

4. Sticky note: Add a sticky note with text. You can choose from several colors.

5. Image: Add an image from your device, image search, Google Drive or Photos.

6. Shapes: Add a circle, square, triangle, diamond, rounded rectangle, half circle, bar or arrow. Choose border color and fill color from the menu bar at the top of the jam.

7. Text box: Add a box where you can type and format text.

8. Laser: Use a pointer to emphasize and highlight certain items on the screen when presenting ideas to others.

9. Background: Choose from dots, lines, graph, or dark colors.

10. Clear frame: Wipe everything off your frame with one click. (Undo if it was a mistake!)

11. Frame bar: See all of your frames in one place. Add new frames, duplicate or delete.

12. Menu: From here, you can rename your jam, download it as a PDF, save a frame as an image, remove, or make a copy your jam.

13. Zoom: Zoom in, zoom out, or fit to window.

14. Undo and redo: I'll bet you know all about this one already.

Note: If you watch videos or read documentation about Jamboard, you might get excited about some features that you can't access by just using the free app. Integrating Google Meet, adding files from Drive, and some other features only work when you purchase the interactive display. When in doubt, try it out on the app first.

Student collaboration with Jamboard

Jamboard is made for collaboration! You can also share your jams just like you'd share a document or slide presentation. Click the "Share" button and share with individuals and groups or create a shareable link.

Students can interact in jams in lots of ways:

Students can brainstorm and create in small groups face to face on one device.

Share an "everyone can edit" link with students in Google Classroom for whole-class collaboration.

In remote or online settings, students can work together in small groups in the same jam.

In lots of the ideas below, you can add a layer of collaboration by giving students an "anyone can edit" link.

Note: Jamboard does not have a version history. This does remove an element of accountability that encourages students not to abuse the activity, writes Wes Fryer in his Speed of Creativity blog. You know your students, so you may well know whether they'll abuse this situation or not. I could see using it with small groups more readily than a whole group because the one who acts out is usually trying to perform for a large audience. You can always use Jamboard to display your own ideas and make them viewable later.

The Do More with Google Jamboard Online Course!

This course will introduce you to Jamboard features you might not know. It will give you dozens of ideas for using it in the classroom.

Plus, it provides you with:
- A collection of more than 100 templates.
- 40 activity ideas you can use immediately
- Tutorial slide s to use as a quick visual review.
- I nteractive infographics you can give your students
- Video playlists, posts, and extra resources.

20 ideas for using Jamboard in class (+ FREE templates!)

So ... what could this look like in class? I'm glad you asked! Here are several ideas for using it with your students. If you like the ideas, then click the "Get this template!" button and make a copy of a template you can use right away with students!

9. Screen record to describe thinking

How do we know what students are thinking when they create with Jamboard? Let's give them a way to tell us! Have students do screen recordings of their jams with a tool like Screencastify. They can describe what they've done, show us how they do it, and tell us why.

Google Jamboard tips and tricks:

Control D to duplicate. For many items on Jamboard, you can choose duplicate out of a menu. But using the keyboard shortcut (Control D) can save lots of time.

Voice typing. Jamboard doesn't offer voice typing for those that struggle with using a traditional keyboard. But students can always open a Google Doc and use voice typing out of the Tools menu. Copy and paste the text into Jamboard.

Make jams available to students. Grab a share link to any jam you use to teach students. Put that link somewhere in Google Classroom or a class website so students can access it later. (Adding the link to the description of an assignment connected to that jam streamlines things!)

Make jams into templates you can copy. Want to make templates that you force the user to copy -- like I did in this post? Click the "Share" button and change the link to "Anyone with the link can view". Copy the link. Then, when you paste the link, change the end of it, deleting the word "edit" and everything after it ... then typing the word "copy" in its place. That link will force the user to make a copy of your file.

More Google Jamboard resources:

Have you used Jamboard? What are your best tips, tricks and ideas? Please share them in a comment below!

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How to use Jamboard in the classroom: 20+ tips and ideas

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Jamboard is a collaborative online whiteboard. It gives students lots of creative work space. How do you use Google Jamboard in the classroom? Check out

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Webinar 2, Next Steps

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The 6 Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners

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The 6 Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners

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Six guidelines to teaching English Learners. Great place to start for gaining info on how to teach ELs/

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https://jamboard.google.com/
https://estimation180.com/day-1/

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6 Ways to Accommodate Instruction for ELs

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6 Ways to Accommodate Instruction for ELs

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Some ideas to get you started when you think about working with your ELs
more at:
https://www.valentinaesl.com/infographics.html

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12 Ways to Support English Learners in the Mainstream Classroom

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12 Ways to Support English Learners in the Mainstream Classroom

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Straightforward blog post. Easy to read with practical ways to scaffold. Quick read.

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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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Enter names, spin wheel to pick a random winner. Customize look and feel, save and share wheels.

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ESOL Teacher Strategies Distance Learning Infographic

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The spinner activity can display up to four spinners. These can be used as random number generators in lessons. With the built in activities you can practice BODMAS, algebraic substitution or challenge students to find the rule to produce a result using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Controlling the virtual manipulative

Click the spin button to spin the sliders. You can change the number of spinners shown by clicking the number selector in the top right hand corner. Initially six sided hexagon spinners are shown which are useful to simulate dice. To change the number of sides for the spinners make sure you have selected settings mode and then drag the sliders to new values. The slider max value is 12, but if you click on the number you can enter your own manually, although in practice 50 is about the maximum number that visually fit on the spinner.

Edit mode

In edit mode, you can use the probability spinner however you want. For example to generate random numbers, or probability experiments. In this mode the controls to change the number of sides on each spinner are visible.

The game modes use the spinner values, this means that they really require at least two spinners and the challenges are hardest with four spinners. In the game modes your can change the time limit to reflect the difficulty. There is also an option to not allow negative numbers occuring in the calculation, click the control to toggle negatives on or off.

Finding the rule game

The rule guess game is not too dissimilar to the countdown game shown on British TV. First select 'find rule' from the select control and press the spin button. When the spinners have stopped you will see a target number in the bottom right of the screen. The aim of the game is to use the operators Ã—,+,- to reach the number using each spinner value once and once only. Note the number is always attainable and obviously there might be more than one way to get the result. You can see the way the computer calculated the result by clicking the expression above the target number. To view the calculation in algebraic notation click algebraic expression. The first spinner is letter a, second letter b, third c and fourth d.

Calculate Mode

First select 'calculate' from the select control followed by spin. When the spinners have stopped a calculation is revealed using their values. The students can work out the answer. To show the answer click the answer

Substitution Mode

This mode works in a way similar to the calculate mode, but an algebraic expression is shown. The students need to substitute the letters using the spinner values. The completed substitution can be clicked to reveal it, followed by the answer. This is a great way to slowly introduce some algebra with just two spinners, but slowly build up over time to use the four spinner, which can produce more complex expressions.

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Probability spinner, adjustable classroom random number spinners

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Random spinners can be used to generate random numbers, display one to four spinners and adjust the numbers. Contains classroom game find a number using 4 rules or by substituting into an algebraic expression.

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Quick Look at scaffolding language for Emerging and Progressing ELs.

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AnswerGarden is a new minimalistic brainstorm tool for online brainstorming, real time audience participation and classroom feedback.