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Big Ideas

Four Big Ideas anchor the standards and are interwoven throughout the framework:

Equity of opportunity and access
This is essential for multilingual learners' preparation for college, career and civic lives.

Integration of content and language
Academic content is the context for language learning, and language is the means for learning academic content.

Collaboration among stakeholders
Stakeholders share responsibility for educating multilingual learners.

Functional approach to language development
This approach helps educators focus on the purposeful use of language.

These Big Ideas support the design of standards-based educational experiences that are student-centered, culturally and linguistically sustaining, and responsive to multilingual learners' strengths and needs.

To explore more about the Big Ideas, see pages 17-20 of the 2020 Edition.

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Set high expectations and ensure equity of opportunity for multilingual learnersThe WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards Framework provides a foundation for curriculum, instruction and assessment for multilingual learners in kindergarten through grade 12. The ELD Standards Framework is centered on equity and fosters the assets, contributions and potential of multilingual learners.Get the 2020 Edition, grade cluster editions, and supporting materials.

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Georgia Inspire - ESOL Standard Correlations to Georgia Standards

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Georgia Inspire - ESOL Standard Correlations to Georgia Standards

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Common Myths About ELL and Second Language Acquisition

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RAZ kids, Reading a to z, writing a to z, vocabulary a to z

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The Importance of ELL Strategies - Immersion (Moises in Math Class)

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Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to ELs in Elem. and Middle School 

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Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to ELs in Elem. and Middle School 

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Teaching Middle Schoolers Academic Vocabulary

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50 Simple Things You Can Do to Teach ELLs

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This 45-minute webcast is a thorough introduction to the challenges facing teachers of English language learners in middle and high school. Dr. Short will discuss how to teach content to late-entry English language learners and how to ensure reading comprehension for success in all content areas.

Dr. Short will also review effective instructional strategies and introduce why "newcomer schools" are effective in preparing English language learners for the challenges of grade-level academic content.

Recommended readings

The articles and books below were chosen by Reading Rockets to help you learn more about this issue.

Articles about instruction for middle and high school ELLs

The SIOP Model of Sheltered Instruction, (Center for Applied Linguistics)

A National Study of School Effectiveness for Language Minority Students' Long-Term Academic Achievement: Final Report Executive Summary, by Wayne P. Thomas and Virginia P. Collier (Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence)

The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol: A Tool for Teacher-Researcher Collaboration and Professional Development, by Deborah J. Short and Jana Echevarria (Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence)

Bilingual Books: Promoting Literacy and Biliteracy in the Second-Language and Mainstream Classroom, by Gisela Ernst-Slavit and Margaret Mulhern (Reading Online)

Responding to the Demographic Challenge: An Internet Classroom for Teachers of Language-Minority Students, by Jill Kerper Mora (Reading Online)

Literacy for all Children in the Increasingly Diverse Schools of the United States, by Claude Goldenberg (California State University, Long Beach)

Books and additional articles by our presenter

For a full listing of Deborah Short's publications with the Center for Applied Linguistics, see the CALStore.

Making Content Comprehensible to English Learners: The SIOP Model, by Jane Echevarria, MaryEllen Vogt, and Deborah Short (Pearson/Allyn & Bacon)

School Reform and Standards-based Education: How Do Teachers Help English Language Learners?(183K PDF)*, by Jane Echevarria, Deborah Short, and Kristen Powers (Center for Research on Education, Diveristy, and Excellence)

What Principals Should Know About Sheltered Instruction for English Language Learners, by Deborah Short (NASSP Bulletin)

A High Point: Success in Language, Literature, & Content, by Afredo Schifini, Deborah Short, and Josefina Tinajero (Hampton-Brown Co.)

Additional articles and books

Discussion questions

1. Review student demographic information for your school or school district. Does your ELL population reflect the trends described by Dr. Short? Specifically, what percentage of students is ELL this school year as compared to five years ago? What is the primary language spoken by ELLs at home?

2. The term "English language learner" is a broad term. Describe the diverse population that falls into this category.

3. Dr. Short described four challenges facing middle and high school teachers in terms of educating ELL students. Describe the ways your school is addressing those challenges. In addition, describe other challenges that you face as a faculty in educating your ELL students. Then, brainstorm some solutions to those challenges.

4. Consider the objectives for one content area you teach, and consider the key language features for that content. In what ways are you already incorporating some aspects of the SIOP model? Share those strategies with your colleagues. What did you learn from watching the 6th grade social studies lesson that you could incorporate into your classroom?

5. Describe the similarities and differences between the SIOP plan for teaching reading processes and what you know about effective strategy instruction for middle and high school students.

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English Language Learner Instruction in Middle and High School

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This 45-minute webcast is a thorough introduction to the challenges facing teachers of English language learners in middle and high school. Dr. Short will discuss how to teach content to late-entry English language learners and how to ensure reading comprehension for success in all content areas.

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There are a number of ways to support the language and literacy development of English language learners (ELLs) that also allow students to participate more fully in classroom activities and lessons. This section provides specific ideas and strategies, such as tips for planning lessons and the use of language objectives, as well as broader approaches such as using informal assessment and differentiation for varying language levels. You may already be doing some of these things without realizing it!

Each student comes to school not only with unique academic needs but also with unique background experiences, culture, language, personality, interests, and attitudes toward learning. Effective teachers recognize that all of these factors affect how students learn in the classroom, and they adjust, or differentiate, their instruction to meet students' needs.

Here are some strategies for differentiating instruction for your English language learners, as well as ideas for taking students' level of English language proficiency into account when planning instruction.

Need some help finding ways to help your English language learners? Read these inspirational stories about English language learners, teachers and paraprofessionals who have overcome obstacles standing to achieve success.

What's even better than a bright idea? A bright idea that works! Educators from across the country have discovered excellent ways to tackle some common classroom stumbling blocks. Below are their step-by-step suggestions on how to handle issues like the fourth-grade slump or the development of critical thinking skills.

Project-based learning (PBL) offers many benefits to English language learners (ELLs), including hands-on activities, peer interaction, rich language use, and a chance to explore personal interests.

ELLs may need some additional support or guidance in order to make the most of PBL, and the following resources share ideas on how to make it a successful experience for all students.

Learn how educators can support the success of their English language learners (ELLs). They will be useful for a wide range of audiences, including new and veteran teachers of ELLs, paraprofessionals, tutors, and administrators at the school and district level.
Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages

Designing instruction based on student strengths (what the student can do) provides an important foundation for success and offers opportunities to build upon those strengths in order to address areas where the student is struggling. Learn more about this approach from the following resources and videos.

Each student comes to school not only with unique academic needs but also with unique background experiences, culture, language, personality, interests, and attitudes toward learning. Effective teachers recognize that all of these factors affect how students learn in the classroom, and they adjust, or differentiate, their instruction to meet students' needs.

Here are some strategies for differentiating instruction for your English language learners, as well as ideas for taking students' level of English language proficiency into account when planning instruction.

Need some help finding ways to help your English language learners? Read these inspirational stories about English language learners, teachers and paraprofessionals who have overcome obstacles standing to achieve success.

What's even better than a bright idea? A bright idea that works! Educators from across the country have discovered excellent ways to tackle some common classroom stumbling blocks. Below are their step-by-step suggestions on how to handle issues like the fourth-grade slump or the development of critical thinking skills.

Project-based learning (PBL) offers many benefits to English language learners (ELLs), including hands-on activities, peer interaction, rich language use, and a chance to explore personal interests.

ELLs may need some additional support or guidance in order to make the most of PBL, and the following resources share ideas on how to make it a successful experience for all students.

Learn how educators can support the success of their English language learners (ELLs). They will be useful for a wide range of audiences, including new and veteran teachers of ELLs, paraprofessionals, tutors, and administrators at the school and district level.
Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages

Designing instruction based on student strengths (what the student can do) provides an important foundation for success and offers opportunities to build upon those strengths in order to address areas where the student is struggling. Learn more about this approach from the following resources and videos.

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There are a number of ways to support the language and literacy development of English language learners (ELLs) that also allow students to participate more fully in classroom activities and lessons. This section provides specific ideas and strategies, such as tips for planning lessons and the use of language objectives, as well as broader approaches such as using informal assessment and differentiation for varying language levels.

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English Language Learners (ELLs) can have a wide variety of needs in their reading and writing instruction. Some students may read and write fluently in their native language while others will enter the classroom with little or no prior literacy instruction. This resource section covers many topics, including grade-level strategies and ideas for teaching more advanced reading and writing skills such as those required by the Common Core State Standards. With the right supports and opportunities for engagement, ELLs can become successful, life-long readers as seen in this section.

What You'll Find in This Section

For English language learners (ELLs) in upper grades, reading needs may vary greatly. Some students will read fluently in their native language, while others may come in with very limited literacy skills and will require creative approaches for teachers and literacy coaches. These resources include ideas for creating a safe, comfortable setting where adolescent ELLs can begin to catch up and increase confidence over time. For additional ideas, visit our sister site about adolescent literacy, AdLit.org.

What does it take to help English language learners (ELLs) become successful writers? This section offers a number of ideas and resources from veteran educators and researchers for students of all ages and proficiency levels. For examples of student writing projects, see our Student Voices section.

For English language learners (ELLs) in upper grades, reading needs may vary greatly. Some students will read fluently in their native language, while others may come in with very limited literacy skills and will require creative approaches for teachers and literacy coaches. These resources include ideas for creating a safe, comfortable setting where adolescent ELLs can begin to catch up and increase confidence over time. For additional ideas, visit our sister site about adolescent literacy, AdLit.org.

What does it take to help English language learners (ELLs) become successful writers? This section offers a number of ideas and resources from veteran educators and researchers for students of all ages and proficiency levels. For examples of student writing projects, see our Student Voices section.

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English Language Learners (ELLs) can have a wide variety of needs in their reading and writing instruction. Some students may read and write fluently in their native language while others will enter the classroom with little or no prior literacy instruction.

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The 6 principles for EXEMPLARY teaching of ELs

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The 6 principles for EXEMPLARY teaching of ELs

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Math.Practice.MP2

Common core State Standards

Math: Math

Practice: Mathematical Practice Standards

MP2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

Mathematically proficient students make sense of quantities and their relationships in problem situations. They bring two complementary abilities to bear on problems involving quantitative relationships: the ability todecontextualize--to abstract a given situation and represent it symbolically and manipulate the representing symbols as if they have a life of their own, without necessarily attending to their referents-and the ability tocontextualize, to pause as needed during the manipulation process in order to probe into the referents for the symbols involved. Quantitative reasoning entails habits of creating a coherent representation of the problem at hand; considering the units involved; attending to the meaning of quantities, not just how to compute them; and knowing and flexibly using different properties of operations and objects.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

|

Math.HSF-IF.C.9

Common core State Standards

Math: Math

HSF-IF: High School: Functions: Interpreting Functions

C: Analyze functions using different representations

9:
Compare properties of two functions each represented in a different way (algebraically, graphically, numerically in tables, or by verbal descriptions). For example, given a graph of one quadratic function and an algebraic expression for another, say which has the larger maximum.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. What are the benefits of allowing newcomer students to use their home language during math class?

2. How does Ms. Segura scaffold the instruction throughout the lesson?

3. What does Ms. Segura learn about the language demands of this lesson, and how does she use that knowledge to alter her instruction for the next class?

Teachers

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Supporting Language & Content Learning in Math

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Students in Patricia Segura's high school class use their home language of Spanish to work through collaborative math tasks. Since most of the students in the class are newcomers, students struggle with a math task that involves reading story cards in English.

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School districts have sought to create systemic plans for multilingual learners that move beyond compliance to insure coherence across their programs, policies and practices for their students and families. Understanding Language partners with districts to co-create, implement and refine their plans based on student evidence.

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Persuasion Across Time & Space: Unit Overview

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Here is an instructional approach that helps English Language Learners with the Common Core Standards in ELA. This scaffolding approach is shown using a middle school lesson, but could work at any grade level.

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Early childhood education can play an essential role in preparing young English language learners (ELLs) for later success in school. Children who have an opportunity to develop basic foundational skills in language and literacy in preschool enter kindergarten ready to learn to read and write (Ballantyne, Sanderman, & McLaughlin, 2008).

But how can early childhood educators know if their programs are providing children with the skills they need? This article will describe some of the methods and strategies that research has proven effective in preparing young ELLs for kindergarten.

Language Development for Preschool ELLs

Essential to any preschool program for ELLs is effective instruction in language development. Children need explicit instruction in English vocabulary, as well as opportunities to hear and speak the language throughout the day. Examples of strategies are listed below.

5 Classroom Strategies: Language

Provide explicit, systematic instruction in vocabulary.

Children require multiple exposures to words in order to develop a rich understanding of their meaning and use. Teachers should make a point of introducing interesting new words for children to learn into each classroom activity (Tabors, 2008).

Presenting vocabulary thematically helps children make associations between words and scaffolds students' learning (McGee & Richgels, 2003).

Read-alouds that include explanations of targeted vocabulary can support word learning (Brabham & Lynch-Brown, 2002; Coyne, Simmons, Kame'enui, & Stoolmiller, 2004), as can dramatic play organized around a carefully chosen theme (Barone & Xu, 2008; Tabors, 2008).

Ensure that ELLs have ample opportunities to talk with both adults and peers and provide ongoing feedback and encouragement.

English language learners need lots of opportunities to engage in social interactions with other children, but they also need support from adults as they develop the language skills they need to negotiate those interactions (Ballantyne et al., 2008). You can use the following strategies to foster social interaction:

For group activities, pair English language learners with children who have strong English language skills, and make sure that all the children who speak the same home language (L1) are not grouped together (Barone & Xu, 2008).

Provide opportunities for self-directed activities so that ELLs can choose activities that match both their interests and their language abilities (Bunce & Watkins, 1995).

Encourage child talk by providing prompts when children need help in expressing themselves (e.g., "Tell Bobby, 'May I have the red crayon now?'").

Use open questions, or questions that can have multiple answers, to help ELLs expand their own utterances (e.g., "Why do you like this doll best?" instead of "What is this doll's name?").

Expose ELLs to rich language input.

Exposure to rich language, whether through shared book reading or through teacher talk, has been shown to enhance children's oral language development (Aukrust, 2007; National Early Literacy Panel, 2008). One effective strategy is for the teacher to provide an ongoing commentary on activities that are taking place in the classroom in order to expose children to language associated with the immediate context (Bunce & Watkins, 1995; Tabors, 2008).

Structure the classroom space and routine to provide scaffolding for ELLs' language learning.

Arrange the classroom in a way that supports each type of instructional activity that will take place, and then keep changes to the physical environment to a minimum. Once ELLs learn which activities take place in various parts of the classroom (e.g., centers, circle), the physical environment will cue them as to what they are to do and how they are to behave in that area (Barone & Xu, 2008).

Predictable classroom routines can also provide scaffolding for English language learners by allowing them to anticipate what will happen each day, including the type of language they will need for each activity (Bunce & Watkins, 1995; Tabors, 2008).

Encourage continued L1 language development.

Strong L1 skills support both language and literacy learning in English:

Encourage parents to talk and read to their children in their home language as a way of strengthening children's L1 language skills.

Incorporate children's home language in the classroom when possible. Songs and videos can be used effectively for this purpose if teachers do not speak their students' language (Gillanders, 2007).

Literacy Development for Preschool ELLs

Research has shown that alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, and print awareness are early literacy skills that contribute significantly to later reading achievement (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008). English language learners can begin to develop these essential foundational skills in preschool, even before they have developed strong English language skills.

Early Literacy Skills

Alphabet knowledge

Skills appropriate to preschool include recognizing and naming upper and lower case letters and beginning to associate letters with the sounds they make.

Phonological awareness

Phonological awareness refers to the ability to manipulate the sounds that make up language, independent of meaning. In preschool, children benefit from:

learning to recognize rhyming words

listening for syllables within words

learning to recognize beginning sounds in words

matching those sounds to letters

Print awareness

Print awareness is an understanding of the features of books and print. Children should:

be taught to recognize the parts of a book (e.g., front and back covers, top and bottom)

learn that printed letters and words run from left to right and from top to bottom

learn that a book has a title, was written by an author, and has illustrations that were drawn by an illustrator

3 Classroom Strategies: Literacy

Design instruction that focuses on all of the foundational literacy skills.

Activities that promote early literacy skills in preschool include:

interactive storybook reading

"pretend" reading and writing

games and other activities to help children identify the letters of the alphabet

interactive experiences with language and print through poems, nursery rhymes and songs

The emphasis should be on code-based instruction, or instruction that helps children understand the relationship between spoken language and print (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008).

Recognize that many literacy skills can transfer across languages.

A child who has developed early literacy skills in his or her first language will find it easier to develop those same skills in English. Parents who are not proficient in English should be encouraged to help prepare their children for learning to read by using the home language to:

teach rhymes and songs

play word games

share storybooks

Teachers can support parent-child reading by sending home books in the child's home language. This makes L1 text available to parents, and it lets them know that the teacher considers reading to children in the home language to be important.

Accelerate English literacy development by helping ELLs make the connection between what they know in their first language and what they need to know in English.

Similarities between English and the child's home language can be used as a foundation for instruction (Helman, 2004). For example, if L1 has some of the same phonemes as English, start with those phonemes for rhyme or beginning sound activities because those are sounds the child is already familiar with.

Children usually have the most difficulty when they encounter sounds that are present in English but do not occur in their home language. For this reason, Spanish L1 speakers often have difficulty with the "short" or lax sounds of a, e, i, and u and with the consonants j, r, v, and z (Bear, Templeton, Helman, & Baren, 2003; Helman, 2004).

Preparing for the Future

Much attention has been given to the persistent achievement gap between English language learners and their English-speaking peers. Unfortunately, by the time children arrive in kindergarten, differences in foundational language and literacy skills have often already set the stage for this disparity in achievement (Miller & Garcia, 2008).

The good news, however, is that recent research has shown that high-quality early childhood education programs can have a significant impact on children's later academic achievement (Barnett, 2008). Programs that provide research-based, age-appropriate instruction in early language and literacy skills can ensure that English language learners enter school equipped with the tools they need to be successful learners in kindergarten and beyond (Ballantyne et al., 2008).

Aukrust, V. G. (2007). Young children acquiring second language vocabulary in preschool group time: Does amount, diversity, and discourse complexity of teacher talk matter? Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 22, 17-38.

Ballantyne, K. G., Sanderman, A. R., & McLaughlin, N. (2008). Dual language learners in the early years: Getting ready to succeed in school. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition.

Barnett, W. S. (2008). Preschool education and its lasting effects: Research and policy implications. Retrieved 6/3/2009, from http://nieer.org/resources/research/PreschoolLastingEffects.pdf

Barone, D., & Xu, S. H. (2008). Literacy instruction for English language learners Pre-K-2. New York: The Guilford Press.

Bear, D. R., Templeton, S., Helman, L. A., & Baren, T. (2003). Orthographic development and learning to read in two different languages. In G. G. GarcÃa (Ed.), English learners: Reaching the highest level of English literacy (pp. 71-95). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Brabham, E. G., & Lynch-Brown, C. (2002). Effects of teachers' reading-aloud styles on vocabulary acquisition and comprehension of students in the early elementary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 465-473.

Bunce, B. H., & Watkins, R. V. (1995). Language intervention in a preschool classroom: Implementing a language-focused curriculum. In M. L. Rice & K. A. Wilcox (Eds.), Building a language-focused curriculum for the preschool classroom: Vol. I. A foundation for lifelong communication (pp. 39-71). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Coyne, M. D., Simmons, D. C., Kame'enui, E. J., & Stoolmiller, M. (2004). Teaching vocabulary during shared storybook readings: An examination of differential effects. Exceptionality, 12(3), 145-162.

Gillanders, C. (2007). An English-speaking prekindergarten teacher for young Latino children: Implications for the teacher-child relationship on second language learning. Early Childhood Education Journal, 35, 47-54.

Helman, L. A. (2004). Building on the sound system of Spanish: Insights from the alphabetic spellings of English-language learners. The Reading Teacher, 57(5), 452-460.

McGee, L. M., & Richgels, D. J. (2003). Designing early literacy programs: Strategies for at-risk preschool and kindergarten children. New York: The Guilford Press.

Miller, L. S., & Garcia, E. E. (2008). A reading-focused early childhood education research and strategy development agenda for African Americans and Hispanics at all social class levels who are English speakers or English language learners. Phoenix: Arizona State University, Office of the Vice President for Education Partnerships.

National Early Literacy Panel. (2008). Developing early literacy: A scientific synthesis of early literacy development and implications for intervention. Washington, DC: National Institute for Literacy.

Tabors, P. O. (2008). One child, two languages: A guide for early childhood educators of children learning English as a second language (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

You are welcome to print copies or republish materials for non-commercial use as long as credit is given to Colorín Colorado and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact info@colorincolorado.org.

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8 Strategies for Preschool ELLs' Language and Literacy Development

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Early childhood education can play an essential role in preparing young English language learners (ELLs) for later success in school. Children who have an opportunity to develop basic foundational skills in language and literacy in preschool enter kindergarten ready to learn to read and write (Ballantyne, Sanderman, & McLaughlin, 2008).

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English Language Learners (ELLs) face the double challenge of learning academic content as well as the language in which it is presented. Teachers have traditionally treated language learning as a process of imparting words and structures or rules to students, separate from the process of teaching content knowledge. This approach has left ELLs especially unprepared to work with the complex texts and the academic types of language that are required to engage in content area practices, such as solving word problems in Mathematics, or deconstructing an author's reasoning and evidence in English Language Arts. ELLs need to be given frequent, extended opportunities to speak about content material and work through complex texts in English with small groups of classmates.

The new, widely-adopted Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards also call for all students, including ELLs, to master an array of academic language practices that are critical to achievement in content areas. Examples of these academic language practices include: argument from evidence, analysis of complex texts, and developing and using models. At Stanford's Understanding Language, we have found that ELLs benefit from instructional approaches that treat language and content in an integrated way that is designed to help them build the language skills that they need to succeed in content classrooms, college and careers.

Working closely with Denver Public Schools teachers Ms. Emily Park-Friend (Bruce Randolph School) and Ms. Katie Langlois (Morey Middle School), we're glad we can show through this video series ways that these 7th grade ELA teachers prepare their learners by activating prior knowledge, scaffolding meaning making with complex texts, and developing ELLs' discipline and academic language practices in ELA classrooms.

The set of six video clipsbegin with this short overview by Understanding Language ELA work group members George Bunch (University of California, Santa Cruz) and Aída Walqui (WestEd). This overview video discusses the key shifts found in the Common Core for ELLs and the opportunities for ELLs to grow their disciplinary knowledge and English language skills in heterogeneous classrooms. Through the classroom videos, we see several key strategies for encouraging English Language Development:

Scaffolding Understanding

The classroom video series highlight how ELA teachers can take account of the language demands that ELLs face in content classrooms andhelp ELLs meet these demands with increasing autonomyover time. As discussed in this video, this means providing ELLs with strategic types of scaffolding, such as graphic organizers, visual aids, peer help, or home language help, and removing these supports as students' skills develop. This way, ELLs can be given the opportunity and the necessary support to meet rigorous academic standards.

Purposeful Grouping

Also, as this videoexplains, ELLs learn best when they are in heterogeneous classrooms. ELLs need to be given ample opportunities to have extended interaction (such as doing 'jigsaw'-type activities) with peers of varying English proficiency levels, who can provide ELLs with a range of models for how to use English words or structures appropriately, as well as abundant, personalized feedback on ELLs' own developing English use. It is best for ELLs if, within their classrooms, teachers sometimes group students heterogeneously according to English proficiency, and sometimes homogeneously, depending on the purpose of the task at hand.

Background Knowledge

Another teaching technique (demonstrated here) that is beneficial for ELLs, is to provide them with relevant background knowledge about a topic to be discussed in class, or activate their existing knowledge of a topic. Besides increasing student interest, this allows students to focus more fully on the instructional goals, rather than being overwhelmed with too much new information at once. It also allows ELLs to bridge new knowledge to old knowledge, increasing understanding, and it helps some ELLs fill in contextual information (such as American political history or cultural details) that they may not have due to coming from different cultural backgrounds.

Extended Discussion

Though teachers have generally attempted to teach ELLs difficult vocabulary before having them read texts, ELLs learn new vocabulary best through extended discussionwith their classmates afterreading or betweenmultiple readings, as this video explains.

Valuing Linguistic Differences

Schools and teachers can help ELLs greatly by learning about ELLs' home cultures and languages, treating cultural and linguistic differences as resources rather than obstacles, and reaching out to students' homes and communities to build learning opportunities together.

Here are more resources for teachers and administrators who are seeking to better support ELLs:

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English Language Learners (ELLs) face the double challenge of learning academic content as well as the language in which it is presented. Teachers have traditionally treated language learning as a process of imparting words and structures or rules to students, separate from the process of teaching content knowledge.

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As an edtech company, Edmentum certainly believes in the promise of online solutions to improve student outcomes and empower teachers with additional tools to provide effective, individualized instruction. However, educational technology is an incredibly young field, and everyone - educators, developers, and students alike - is still learning how best to use these tools. A lot of brain power is being dedicated to answering these complex questions. One such effort comes from the Marzano Research Laboratory (MRL), whose experts conducted A Study of Best Practices in Edmentum Online Solutions, looking at Edmentum's online solutions in various settings to evaluate the relationship between student learning and effective pedagogical practices with respect to the use of online instruction.

The MRL study considered Edmentum solutions being used in three instructional settings - purely virtual, a blended learning model, and to supplement instruction in a classroom - for the purpose of either original credit, credit recovery, intervention, or Advanced Placement® instruction. The study identified 13 best practices across three dimensions of teacher behaviors and strategies which are correlated to significantly higher levels of student achievement in an online learning environment. Adopting these practices can help teachers effectively engage with their students in an online or blended environment, and get the most out of online tools. Here, we will take a close look at all 13 best practices identified in the study, along with insights into how each can be implemented and common challenges associated with them.
Marzano Dimension One: Strategies involving routine events 1. Communicating course/assignment rules and procedures
Clarifying your expectations is key to a smooth-running classroom, whether it's traditional or virtual. Think about it: if you didn't know to file your income tax return on April 15, wouldn't you be late every time? The concept is even more applicable to children. If they don't know what the rules are, they probably won't follow them.

Mastery of classroom procedures is an academic skill like any other - and it's necessary for student success throughout the school year. Ambiguity can lead to confusion amongst students as to what is expected of them, which in turns makes it that much more difficult for them to actually meet those expectations. Additionally, if students do willfully break guidelines, it is in your best interest to be able to easily prove they were aware of the expectations in place. The same need for clarification also exists for specific exercises and assignments. How can you expect work that meets your standards if your students don't know what is being expected of them? Setting out well-defined expectations and making sure that all of your students are aware of them is a key step to seeing your students achieve the grades they are capable of.

Implementation Tips: Many teachers dedicate the entire first week of school to instructing students in how they want the classroom to operate-including everything from procedures for sharpening pencils to turning in assignments. This same kind of investment of time needs to be made before any exercise or project is given to students as well. Spend an amount of time proportionate to the size of the assignment reviewing expectations. For large or multipart exercises, break up the expectations into manageable chunks and processes based on your students' ages and level of comprehension.

As always, when laying out expectations for the classroom or an assignment, be sure to use best practices in teaching by discussing all learning modalities. If you're covering a pencil-sharpening procedure, actually have the children perform the action. Make written explanations that can both go home to parents and be referenced by the students in their notebooks or folders. Finally, plaster your walls with every rule and procedure that you deem necessary for the success of the class. In an online or virtual environment, make sure you are taking advantage of all the teacher-student communication tools at your disposal. Most of these systems have messaging functionality, individual assignment directions and description features, and places for students to take notes for reference. Covering all of these bases should eliminate "I didn't know that" from your classroom vocabulary.
2. Providing students with all materials needed to complete an assignment
Defining clear classroom and assignment expectations and procedures is only half the battle in ensuring your students have the tools they need to be successful in the classroom. It is just as important to provide your students with the actual materials they need to accomplish the goals you set out. For all classroom activities and assignments, make sure the necessary materials are readily available and easy to access. Think of it this way: you buy a kit to build a wooden picnic table in your backyard. All of the wood is pre-cut, and it even comes with the nails, bolts, and nuts that you will need. However, you don't have access to a hammer or a wrench. You're not going to get very far in building your picnic table.

Implementation Tips: There are many ways to make sure materials are accessible to your students. The best strategies to use in your classroom can largely be determined based on how extensively you use technology. If you are relying on paper for most of your classroom activities, keep a bank of file folders in an organizational rack that are clearly labeled by assignment. As students work through an assignment, all they have to do is go to the correct folder to access what they need. This method also makes it easier for students who missed a class or two to get their make-up work without needing to interrupt class.

If your class relies more on technology, there are plenty of free tools you can use to distribute materials. Consider creating a classroom website where things can be posted and downloaded - try Weebly for Education for free and easy-to-use templates. Another option is to start a folder system, similar to the physical method discussed above, on Google Drive. Or, you can write a post on your classroom blog for each assignment that provides directions and links to any materials for downloading.

Biggest Challenges: Timing can be an issue if you implement physical or web-based systems like the ones discussed above to distribute assignment materials. If you release everything at the beginning of a unit or assignment, there's nothing stopping your high-performing students from working ahead and then becoming bored when they finish. However, if you release materials on a certain schedule, you will likely frustrate students whose timetable doesn't match up with yours. The best solution is to release materials on a schedule, but work to align your timetable to the pace the majority of your class is working at. Be sure to also set aside some time for individualized work with those students who are struggling or in need of enrichment.

Another common problem in implementing this best practice is related to paper-based classroom, and is as old as education itself: the dreaded words, "I lost it." There will always be students for whom organization is a challenge. You can't make unlimited copies of materials without going over budget, and you don't have unlimited time to dedicate to these students. So, make a point of providing instruction on organizational skills early in the year (during the time dedicated to reviewing expectations from tip #1), and then continue to touch on those ideas throughout the school year.
3. Clearly presenting the goal/objective for each assignment
Although there's always room for creativity and experimentation in education, a lesson should never be delivered with an overall "let's see where this goes" approach. Every instructional day, each task should have a clear goal associated with it. The clarity of these goals is key to this tip. Not only do you need to understand the goal each task is working toward, but so do your students. Just like if you were on a field trip, you wouldn't want to leave with a bus full of students and not know where your destination will be.

Implementation Tips: Many schools and districts mandate that teachers post the day's learning goals and objectives somewhere on their classroom whiteboard. However, they often don't say anything about teachers having to use age-appropriate language in those goals or even having to discuss them with their students. This approach is structurally flawed because it doesn't take the students into account.

Instead, each day should start with a frank and age-appropriate discussion of what you hope your students will take away from the day's lesson, what successful completion of the lesson looks like, and what students can expect if they are struggling. When you transition to a new task, even if it's under the same goal, remind your students of why they're doing the work. This is not to say that you shouldn't use your board to post goals; visuals can serve as a great reminder throughout the lesson. Simply be sure to write the goals in language that can be easily understood by all of your students.

Biggest Challenges: It will come as no surprise to any teacher to hear that learners can have short attention spans. If you are in the middle of a multi-day lesson with the same goal or objective, students can feel as if they aren't making any progress, or they may simply lose sight of the goal and become disengaged. If you find yourself in this position, try to break up your overall goal into smaller parts that are easy to follow. Take time to explain the overall goal, but focus most of your attention on covering how the smaller goals fit into the larger objective. This practice will help your students feel invested in what's going on in the classroom every day.
4. Offering encouragement and positive feedback to students
Positive reinforcement is key to instilling a sense of confidence, self-worth, and motivation in children, but for some students those kind of interactions are hard to come by in their lives outside of school. This fact makes it that much more critical that the classroom always be a safe and encouraging environment for students. Without any encouraging words, a learner is likely to shut down from their entire educational experience. By using positive feedback, teachers can be the oasis in the desert for their students. This is not to say expectations should be lowered simply to ensure students will be successful. Instead, maintain high standards for your students and challenge them to achieve difficult goals, but encourage them the whole way. When a student meets a standard or goal, celebrate the accomplishment with them and share it with their parents or caregivers. On the other hand, when a student is struggling with an objective, focus on those aspects where they are making progress to encourage them to persevere.

Implementation Tips: The best thing about working to offer encouragement and positive feedback to your students is that it does not need to take a lot of class time. Be effusive with your verbal praise. The goal should be five positive comments for every piece of negative feedback for each learner. Offering feedback through quick notes on assignments can also go a long way. Although it is more time-consuming, don't be afraid to direct your positive feedback somewhere other than the student, such as to their parents or guardians. Not only will an encouraging call or email home help to build a better relationship with your student's caregivers, but you are also likely to be surprised by how much the student appreciates it.

Also keep in mind that there is no bad time to offer encouragement and positive feedback. It will likely be most impactful immediately after a student experiences a success, but if you miss the exact moment, acknowledging their success at a later time will still be appreciated. You can even set aside dedicated class time to recognize learners who made big progress or breakthroughs during the day's lesson. However, it's important to remember that some students can be shy about receiving praise in front of others; consider whether or not each student will appreciate being singled out before doing so.

Biggest Challenges: Teaching is a demanding job, and on days when your classroom is particularly challenging, remembering to be positive at a 5:1 ratio can be difficult. Just remember that for as much good as some positive feedback can do for your students, it can also help lift your own mood and pull you through a hard day.
5. Allowing students to keep track of their learning progress
Ownership of learning is key to student achievement. Students need to feel invested in their progress in order to thrive academically. All students should know where they stand in your class and with the curriculum at all times. They should be able to see the scoreboard so they know when to feel proud about keeping up or when to step it up to avoid falling behind.

Implementation Tips: Remember the old days when the only way to know where you stood in your bank account was to actually reconcile the checkbook? If you weren't diligent about balancing, you had no idea how much money you had. Now, it's as simple as logging in to your bank's website. Not allowing students constant access to their progress data has the same effect. They have no idea where they stand, so they can't take the appropriate steps for the desired outcome. When should students have insight into their progress?-24/7.

Thankfully, most schools and districts employ an online learning management system (LMS) where students can log in to keep track of their grades. If your school does not have a system like this, make it a point to update students by paper as often as possible. Another option is regular, quick conferences with your students to talk about their progress. Not only does this practice keep them informed, but it also gives you an opportunity to provide the positive feedback recommended in tip #4.

Biggest Challenges: The accuracy of classroom data often comes down to one factor: the speed at which the teacher can grade incoming work. If you're falling behind in grading, students cannot be kept up to date on their progress. Every teacher will get a little behind from time to time, but there are things you can do to help stay caught up. One tip is to use as much automation in your classroom as possible, either with online assignments or through "clicker" programs. Another practice is to employ lots of rubrics. They make grading easier and set clear goals for learner success.
6. Accessibility to students via electronic communication as well as face-to-face
The days of teachers simply lecturing at the front of the classroom are gone. Teachers and students need to collaborate in many different ways in order to advance their common goals. Oftentimes, that collaboration doesn't end with the last bell of the school day. In today's connected world, the key is to find a balance between being easily accessible to your students to answer their questions and provide help without smothering your own productivity and free time.

Implementation Tips: First, any communication between you and your students must be recorded in some manner that is easily accessible and shareable for accountability purposes. Unfortunately, we live in a time where some educators have abused their authority in a variety of ways. You want to be able to easily prove that all of your interactions are above board. That being said, most electronic communication provides a record like this, even texting with a service like Google Voice. To be most helpful to your students, it's also important to make yourself available in a manner that they will be most likely to take advantage of, which may mean via text or on social networks. Be sure to implement any initiative like this in a manner that aligns with your district's policies.

No matter what communication strategy you choose, it's important to stick to a consistent schedule. Make sure your schedule allows time for your personal life outside of school. To encourage face-to-face communication with your students, let them know what time you arrive at and leave school, and invite them to visit before or after the school day. Then, depending on your own needs and your students', consider making yourself available electronically at a certain time (preferably during homework time) every night. You can still watch TV or participate in any other off-duty pursuit-just have your phone or computer handy. Also, remember that you are the one who gets to decide whether something is urgent or can wait until tomorrow. For some students, everything feels urgent. Set appropriate boundaries, and give yourself permission to give important personal matters priority.

Biggest Challenges: The dedication teachers have to their students is what makes them great at their jobs, but it can also be taken too far. Be sure to set aside time for yourself, when you are not available to communicate with your students. Not only does this decrease burnout, but it also helps ensure that appropriate boundaries between you and your students are maintained. There's nothing wrong with building rapport and personal relationships with your students, but it's important to model appropriate communication and save those discussions for suitable times in the classroom.
Marzano Dimension Two: Strategies enacted on the spot 7. Monitoring student work
Without an accurate view of student progress, effective classroom decision making is very challenging. Are your learners ready to move to the next unit? Who is need of remediation? Who would benefit from enrichment activities? Assessments, both formative and summative, are one good way of monitoring your students' development. The goal of monitoring student work is to find out how much progress your students have made in relation to the initial goals you set. Organizing that progress into a four- or five-point scale can help you and your students see the headway that has been made.

Implementation Tips: There are many ways to assess learning without adding to your grading pile. Informal assessment needs to occur regularly during every lesson. Although this type of monitoring usually comes in the form of discussion and circulating the room while your students are working, there are plenty of other informal strategies, like exit tickets and short quizzes, that you can leverage. Familiarize yourself with these strategies, make regular use of them in your classroom, and watch the status of your class become increasingly clear.

Empowering your learners to keep portfolios of completed work and projects also helps engage them in their own progress. This strategy gives your students a broad and tangible overview of their progress throughout the year, which can serve as a powerful motivator. It also gives you evidence of their learning to share during parent conferences and evaluations. In addition, most schools use some sort of online LMS to share grades with students and parents virtually. Try to keep your online gradebook as up to date as possible and leave comments where you can to offer additional insight. Most online curriculum, whether used for enrichment, remediation, or assessment, will have significant reporting capabilities as well.

Biggest Challenges: Teachers tend to put a lot of pressure on themselves when it comes to grading, thinking that it's the only way to get an accurate assessment of student progress. If the grading pile is too high, some teachers forego activities that could be helpful in informing instruction. Keep in mind that effective progress monitoring need not involve much grading-or any at all.
8. Knowing every student by name and being able to recognize them outside of the online environment
Learning your students' names might seem like common sense, but you won't believe how many teachers are unable to call students by name a month, two months, or even several months after the first day of school. There are various reasons for this, but the bottom line is that your ability to form a connection with those students whose names you don't know is severely inhibited. Especially for students with difficult home lives, forming this connection can be critical to their academic success.

Implementation Tips: Students hate seating charts, especially on the first day of school. However, a great way to learn names is to arrange your students in alphabetical order-by first name. Taking attendance every day at the beginning of the school year also gives you added practice in name and face recognition. Don't move students from those seats until you have everyone memorized! Additionally, make sure your school takes advantage of any of the tricks your LMS has to offer, like showing the previous year's school pictures of your students. Print them out and quiz yourself if you have to. In some systems, you can even arrange seating charts using student pictures.

When it comes to name recognition, teachers tend to have the bulk of the responsibility, but it's also important for other personnel in the school to be acquainted with as many students as possible. This can be a challenge, since principals, media and technology staff, and other support staff will be exposed to more students at the school than teachers but will spend significantly less time with them. However, hearing something positive from a principal in the hall can make a student's day-especially if he or she is at-risk.

Biggest Challenges: Learning names is not an easy task. As a teacher, you might have as many as 150-200 students. Other staff might see more than a thousand. Adding to the sometimes impersonal approach of certain blended learning strategies, screen time seems to be increasing the amount of time it takes to learn names. However, learning your students' names might be the most important part of your job in the first couple of weeks of the school year. It lays the groundwork for the rapport you hope to build as you move through the early part of the year.
9. Allowing students to progress through assignments at their own pace
We all know what it feels like to fall behind in a task or project. We also know what it's like to be faster or more accomplished at something than our peers. In both cases, the feeling can be awkward and distracting. Now, think about how students, who are just starting to find themselves and get to know their talents, feel in one of those situations. Allowing students to progress through curriculum at their own pace helps them get to know their own strength and weaknesses, which builds their sense of confidence as well as a willingness to persevere.

Implementation Tips: Small group instruction is a go-to strategy to differentiate pace. This either means grouping students of similar abilities or creating groups of mixed-ability levels so that high-achieving students can help struggling learners move along in the curriculum. In many situations, small group instruction like this can be very effective. Another strategy to consider is using online or computer-based curriculum to supplement instruction. With an adaptive platform, each student can receive instruction in the appropriate areas and at the appropriate speed for their skill level. However, limited resources and availability of class time can be barriers to utilizing online solutions.

It's also important to not give students too much freedom over their own instruction and pace of learning; it's simply too disruptive to the curriculum. However, accommodating self-paced learning over the course of single assignments or class periods can help students take ownership of their learning. Just be sure to have a plan in place to keep fast-working students busy while the rest of the class finishes the activity.

Formative assessment is also key to effectively using self-paced methods. Out of all the assessment practices, formative assessment has the greatest effect on student learning outcomes. It needs to be timely and reflective. You always want to know when a student has fallen too far back or is working too far ahead. Formative need not mean formal. Informal assessment is often the best practice here.

Biggest Challenges: Pacing guides are becoming more prevalent as class time is further compressed by testing and other mandates. Teachers simply need to make sure that everything in their curriculum is covered. This can make differentiation of pace a challenge, but it should still be facilitated whenever possible.

Additionally, the challenge of keeping fast-working students engaged will always be an issue. Spend a great deal of time brainstorming enrichment activities to give to these students before embarking on a self-paced assignment.
10. Providing help to understand and practice new knowledge
This is why teachers teach-to help students acquire and master new knowledge. It's perhaps the most fundamental part of the job. That being said, it might also be the most complicated. Who do you help? When do you help them? How? Even veteran teachers struggle with these questions. And there is no shortage of pedagogies to try to make sense of these practices.

Implementation Tips: Most teachers prefer some sort of gradual release model, variations on "I do, we do, you do." These kind of models are where pacing and formative assessment take precedence. There is, of course, the process of delivering a lecture to present new knowledge and then using homework to help students practice. However, most forward-thinking teachers want to get away from that. There are also approaches that are completely different, like flipped learning. In a flipped classroom, students acquire new knowledge at home using videos and content available online or made by the teacher. Then, they come to class in order to practice those skills and receive help from the teacher. The theory is that class time is used for what's important-practice-rather than rote memorization.

In theory, if curriculum is paced correctly and mastery has been achieved by all students in your class before moving on, no one should need help with the next topic. Of course, that's rarely the case. And that's why it's important to perform some sort of formative assessment or pretest before each major topic or unit, with more informal assessments coming at the beginning and end of each lesson. You should also keep the pulse of your class during a lesson. It may sound like a lot of work, but a deep understanding of informal formative assessment strategies is essential to helping students grasp new material.

Biggest Challenges: The first barrier to effective teaching of new knowledge is simply time. Benchmarks have to be met. Tests have to be prepared for. A lot of administrative minutiae cut into class time. Many times, the students who are struggling the most need to be moved along for the sake of the rest of the class. The other barrier to this practice is a question of differentiation. How do you know where everyone is? Who needs more time? Who's working ahead, and how far? In many classrooms, small groups, formative assessment, and online learning tools can solve these challenges.wledge. It's perhaps the most fundamental part of the job. That being said, it might also be the most complicated. Who do you help? When do you help them? How? Even veteran teachers struggle with these questions. And there is no shortage of pedagogies to try to make sense of these practices.
11. Allowing students to ask questions during online courses/assignments
A teacher's dream class is full of bright, inquisitive minds eager to explore all of the knowledge this world has to offer. Hands always go up. Questions are always thoughtful and on point. The natural conclusion to draw from this is that all teachers would be more than happy to take any question at any time during a lesson in an effort to generate that sort of atmosphere in their classroom. However, in an effort to stay on schedule and maintain hard-won order in the classroom, it's typically not the case. The problem with this reality is that a classroom where questions are discouraged is one where young learners will struggle to stay engage. So, to hold and deepen students' interest in all the topics you cover, make sure that your classroom is one where all questions are consistently encouraged and embraced.

Implementation Tips: There are a variety of ways to encourage students to develop questions that will help the whole class progress through the lesson without completely overtaking class time. First, make your expectations clear. State that questions are welcome at almost any time during the class, but ask that no one interrupt while someone else is speaking and that questions only address the topic at hand. Make sure that these policies are available and easily visible as a reminder to your learners. Second, you should act as a model for your students of best practices for asking questions throughout the year. When your students are speaking, ask questions that drive the conversation forward. Always wait for them to finish a thought before launching in with your questions. And, gently correct bad questioning technique whenever you see it.

Remember that many students are shy about asking questions or speaking in class. Instead of forcefully calling on them, introduce some randomness into the procedure by drawing cards or Popsicle sticks with each student's name on them. You can also use Post-it notes and a poster to let students leave a question or comment about the day's lesson anonymously as they exit the room. Another idea that makes use of technology is the idea of backchanneling. Backchanneling is similar to a discussion board, but it happens online in real time. In the classroom, students can engage in a backchannel chat with their devices while a passive activity, like a lecture or video, is taking place. Students love an opportunity to use their devices, and this mode of communication can feel less intimidating to your more reserved learners.

Biggest Challenges: In addition to the reluctance of some students to speak in class, you can also encounter the opposite side of the spectrum-those students who are all too enthusiastic for any chance to make their voice heard, whether or not it relates to the topic at hand. Again, this is a situation where modeling and timely correction can be effective. And just because you encourage questions doesn't mean you need to receive any and all that your students pose. On the other hand, if you are struggling to get your students to ask any questions at all, quick, informal assessments can help you figure out if it is because the content is too easy for your learners to stay engaged, or because it's over their heads.
12. Treating all students equally
This practice may sound completely obvious, but in truth, it might be the most difficult of all to fully and successfully implement because it goes against basic human nature. Even the most patient and kind teacher may take a sigh of relief when certain students are absent. Others find it difficult to call on everyone in the class equally, skipping some students for a variety of reasons. And some teachers tend to give extra opportunities to the same students repeatedly because they have demonstrated that they can handle them.

Habits like this are incredibly easy to fall into - and all teachers do to some extent at some point or another. They just seem to make days go more smoothly. But for the betterment of every student, you need to be conscious of them, and catch yourself when you feel that you are slipping into such habits.

Implementation Tips: There are a variety of strategies to make sure that all of your students receive equal attention in class. Most have to do with methods to randomly select students, whether by drawing names out of a hat, using popsicle sticks, or some other creative strategy. It's important to establish this precedent early in the school year so that everyone knows they can't hide from your attention. Another tactic is to make a point of having short conferences with each of your students periodically throughout the school year. This is a good way to reconnect with students who perhaps haven't received as much attention recently.

In a blended learning environment, it's actually easier to connect with every student because of the differentiation capabilities of online programs and the fact that there are fewer whole-group exercises. More small-group and individual work means more time for teachers to circulate the room (just make sure you circulate the entire room!). It's also easier to monitor your students' work, which means there are more opportunities to notice something worth bringing up.

Biggest Challenges: Some students thrive on attention-usually with negative consequences. The natural tendency is to reduce negative behaviors by denying them that attention, so these students may rarely be called on in discussions. While this can make for a quieter classroom, these students, who are probably masking social and emotional difficulties, are denied opportunities to progress. Other students may be overlooked simply because they are extremely reserved; they work hard to avoid attention, and when surrounded by a room full of louder, more outgoing students, they succeed. Overcome these challenges by taking time to engage one-on-one with all of your students, to get to know them on a personal level and understand the ways that they tend to interact.
Marzano Dimension: Strategies addressing content
13. Adding external resources to assignments aligned to local objectives

There is no doubt that the scope of education has expanded in the past decade or so. In decades past, curriculum was centered on a textbook, and little thought was given to providing students with real-world experiences. Now, the focus has shifted to immersive educational experiences that better reflect what students will see once they leave school. Part of this shift involves encouraging students to take advantage of the vast amount of information now at their fingertips thanks to the internet. Teachers must embrace their students' ability to extend their own learning, and actively make it a part of their curriculum by having students find and utilize external resources.

Implementation Tips: It is to both your own and your students' benefit for some filtering to occur when students are seeking outside resources for assignments and projects. If possible, provide instruction not only in the curriculum but also in information gathering relative to the subject area your students are working on. Provide acceptable online options for students to consult in the course of their work by using a class website, blog, or other link-sharing system. This isn't censorship; it's a way to optimize the information-gathering process for your students and teach them about appropriate online research methods.

Students, particularly those in online learning settings, also need opportunities to unplug. Pointing out the local real-world resources available - like museums and libraries - to further their studies is a great way to get students to venture out into the community. Consider offering extra credit or extra time to complete assignments in order to motivate your students to engage with the offline world. This also teaches students how to effectively research and use resources outside of the structured environment of the classroom, which is a highly valuable "real world" skill.

Biggest Challenges: Some resources, particularly online ones, simply aren't reliable enough to be consulted in an academic situation. A good use of time early in the school year might be to instruct students on how to discern reliable information and resources for particular subject areas from subpar ones to avoid students forming poor research habits.

Interested in hearing more about the Marzano Research Lab's findings regarding online teaching best practices? Read a full analysis of the study here! Interested in learning more about Edmentum's online solutions for courseware, assessment, intervention, and foundational learning? Check out this brochure on how we're Moving Education Forward!

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The Marzano Research Lab conducted A Study of Best Practices in Edmentum Online Solutions, looking at Edmentum's online solutions in various settings to evaluate the relationship between student learning and effective pedagogical practices with respect to the use of online instruction.

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50,000 words by high school graduation.
That's the challenge English Language Learners (ELLs) face if they want to catch up to their native English-speaking classmates. That's almost 4,000 new words a year if a student begins school as a kindergartner!

But what about the English Language Learners who don't enroll until middle school or high school? For these students, the vocabulary challenge is even more demanding. To meet it, teachers must learn and use the most effective strategies. Over the years, I've tried many different approaches and techniques and compiled the following list of my top five favorite vocabulary strategies for ELLs.

Previewing Unfamiliar Vocabulary

In preparation for my lessons, I scan the chapters we'll be reading together as a class to identify words that might slow down student comprehension of the text. I limit myself to no more than five words per chapter since research has shown that students acquire new vocabulary faster if teachers focus in on five to ten words a week instead of overwhelming students with lengthy lists. Before adding a word to my list, I ask myself how important the word is to the overall comprehension of the chapter and whether it will be difficult for the students to figure out the meaning of the word using context clues. Then, before we read each chapter in class I preview the new vocabulary words I've selected and discuss their meanings and uses.

In Preparing Students to Read: Word and Inference Walls, Cathy Farrell previews words that are essential for students to make meaning from the story they're reading. She adds a visual element by posting important words on a word wall and extends student comprehension by creating an inference wall of images, artifacts, and evidence to help them make predictions based on prior knowledge and context.

[video_embed src=" https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/prep-students-for-new-text/embed.js" width="480"]

Using Visuals

Remember the old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, for English Language Learners this expression is especially true. Visual Cues in the classroom can be an important tool for language development. In my classroom, visuals play two important roles in helping ELLs comprehend and internalize new vocabulary.

First, I use visuals when introducing new terms to the class. These visuals help to clarify the meaning of new vocabulary if the written definition for the word is confusing or contains unfamiliar words. For example, we recently discussed the following definition for the word "hand" -- "a person who engages in manual labor." Since I knew some of my students might be unfamiliar with the term "manual labor," I included a picture of a man working in a field to help explain the meaning.

So how do I find visuals to use in the classroom? The internet provides educators with access to dozens of free, searchable databases of images. Pixabay, Morguefile, Flickr, Classroom Clipart, and Openclipart are some of my favorites for locating great visuals.

In addition to the visuals, I also require students to draw their own picture to help them remember the meaning of new words. Since ELLs sometimes have difficulty expressing their thoughts in words, drawing a picture is an alternative that allows them to demonstrate their understanding and apply their knowledge of the new vocabulary. For a fun twist, students can even trade pictures with a classmate to see whether or not they can identify the vocabulary term they have drawn.

Providing Student-Friendly, Fill-in-the-Blank Definitions

Instead of asking students to look up vocabulary words in the dictionary, I provide them with fill-in-the-blank definitions to ensure they all have accurate and comprehensible information for new terms. I do this because in the past, students were in such a hurry to complete their assignments they wrote down the first definition they came across. And since many words have multiple meanings, they would often write down the incorrect variation of the word when asked to look it up on their own. For example, if students were asked to look up the word "table" in the dictionary, they would find many different meanings for the word, including a piece of furniture, a type of chart, and to put off discussing something until a later time.

Not all online dictionaries have been designed with the student learner in mind and contain definitions filled with college-level academic vocabulary that are inaccessible to the younger learner. In order to avoid this problem, I use Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary as my primary resource for locating student-friendly definitions. It contains simple, clear definitions specially written for K-12 students.

I've also found that it's equally important to use the fill-in-the-blank format rather than requiring my students to copy down the entire definition I provide them. This format is especially beneficial for English Language Learners for a couple of reasons.

First, the fill-in-the-blank format allows my students to listen and think about the new vocabulary as we discuss it in class, without being sidetracked by trying to quickly copy down every word.

Second, it allows me to call attention to keywords in the definitions that will help them to remember the meanings. I intentionally leave a couple of the most important keywords as blanks so the students will pay careful attention to them as we're discussing the definitions. Below is an example of a recent vocabulary word we discussed.

Highlighting Vocabulary Words in Context

It's not only important to preview unfamiliar vocabulary before reading a text, but also to draw students' attention to the vocabulary as the text is read aloud or discussed in class. Whenever I come across a vocabulary word that's being used in a textbook, article, novel, or short story we're reading, I pause, point out the word to students, and ask them to recall its meaning. If possible, I also encourage them to mark it with a highlighter. It's critical for ELLs to see multiple examples of how new words are used in context -- rather than just studying them in isolation -- to be able to commit the words to long-term memory and add them to their working vocabularies. The more repeated exposures students have to new words, the more likely they will be to define them, comprehend them, and remember them.

As a teacher, you can even turn finding words in context into a game by challenging your students to find examples of their vocabulary words on their own in other books they're reading, internet articles, advertisements, etc. You can reward students for every example they locate, turn it into a class competition, or even set a class goal.

Practicing With Graphic Organizers

In addition to having repeated exposures to new words, English learners must also be given the opportunity to organize information and ideas about the new vocabulary. Graphic organizers are a tool that allow students to visualize and make connections with new material.

One of the my favorite graphic organizers for vocabulary instruction is called the KIM Strategy. KIM is an acronym that represents the three columns of the graphic organizer.

"K" stands for key idea or the vocabulary word the students are studying.

"I" stands for information or the student explanation of what the vocabulary words means.

"M" stands for memory clue or the drawing or example of the word that will help the student remember the meaning.

I used the KIM Strategy as inspiration for the graphic organizer I created to better fit the needs of my students. I added a page number reference for the vocabulary word so that students can see it in context while working through the meaning. I also added a fill-in-the-blank definition of the word to ensure they had access to an accurate and student-friendly definition. Below is an example of the graphic organizer I made for my students:

Nichole Niebur uses a similar strategy in Learning Difficult Vocabulary, in which she asks students to restate or paraphrase the definition of a vocabulary term and connects the vocabulary to students' everyday lives.

[video_embed src=" https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-hard-vocabulary-words/em..." width="480"]

Although I've listed my top five favorite vocabulary strategies for English learners, there are many other excellent approaches out there that work equally well. The internet gives educators the ability to connect with other teachers from all over the world and share strategies, especially when we start to feel like we've run out of fresh ideas. Teaching Channel has a number of useful strategies for teaching vocabulary. Check out Sarah Brown Wessling's Vocabulary Paint Chips.

[video_embed src=" https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/build-student-vocabulary/embed.js" width="480"]

In this video, students use paint chips as a fun and interesting medium to help them explore new vocabulary and relationships between words. How might you adapt or modify this strategy for your ELLs?

When it comes to vocabulary, don't be afraid to try something new. You may discover an approach that's just the right fit for the students in your classroom.

What strategies do you use with English Language Learners? Share them in the comments below.
Erica Hilliker is a middle school EL teacher at Forest Hills Public Schools in Grand Rapids, Michigan and also serves as the Vice President of the Michigan Association for Bilingual Education. She holds a Masters of Education in Literacy Studies with an emphasis in TESOL from Grand Valley State University. She is certified to teach English and Spanish at the secondary level. During her career, Erica has worked with English learners at all grade levels, from kindergarten to adult. Additionally, she is a certified SIOP trainer and has led professional development for teachers throughout the West Michigan area. Connect with Erica through her website: Mrs. Hilliker's EL and SIOP Toolbox or on Twitter: .

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Top Five Vocabulary Strategies for English Language Learners

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50,000 words by high school graduation. That's the challenge English Language Learners (ELLs) face if they want to catch up to their native English-speaking classmates. That's almost 4,000 new words a year if a student begins school as a kindergartner! But what about the English Language Learners who don't enroll until middle school or high school?

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Jobs, Worksheets, and Flashcards for the ESL and TEFL Teacher.

Find Science Worksheets and Teaching Resources at www.science-teachers.com

Halloween Flashcards

Amounts and Containers
Superhero Flashcards

The continents and oceans card game. Good content-based ESL for practising present perfect and simple past as well as geography terms.
Clothes Flashcards History Worksheets and Teaching Resources at www.littlehistorians.com.

Site Search

Glossary of ESL terms

Snowflakes are beautiful!

Phonics Resources

CVC Words

Consonant Digraphs

Long Vowels

Introduction: Young Learner Worksheets:

Basic ESL worksheets for K7 young learners . This section has been much expanded with over one hundred units of young learners' teaching materials.

Seasonal Links:

Fall Worksheets

Teach autumn vocabulary with these fall worksheets and activities. Also, check out the fall teaching resources for young learners, the fall bingo, and fall super quiz game.

Halloween Worksheets

There are a number of Halloween worksheets and activities including Halloween bingo, Halloween flashcards, Halloween videos, and the Halloween super quiz game. There is also a Halloween young learners unit.

new! Super Quiz Game

Generate quiz games for your class with the new Super Quiz Game generators.

Get your students ready to interact with coworkers in the worplace with these Workplace Interactions
workplace listening, reading, and vocabulary selections.

new! Listening Selections

Practise listening with beginner, intermediate, and advanced listening dialogues.

new! Vocabulary Video Presentations

There are a number of vocabulary video presentations on topics such as the season, cooking verbs, and places in a city.

Content Questions

Board Game

An excellent communicative activity with extensive support materials for teaching kids. In the Content Questions Board Game game kids answer content questions like What do seeds need to grow?

Word Skills Game

Rhyming Riddles

This section contains rhyming riddle worksheets that can be used as fun vocabulary review and rhyme awareness exercises. Now there are also anagram riddles, homophone riddles, and word morph riddles as well.
Proverbs Communication Activity I need a Ticket to Osaka, Japan? Frog Life Cycle Worksheets Can I Bug You for a Sec?
A solving a puzzle. A good classroom English role-play as students use language to talk role-play where students ask for help about words.
Reporting Changes Can I take a message? Telephone English
Students practice taking and leaving message with this telephone English role-play . There is also a business English version .
Giving Directions
A role-play to practice asking someone out to dinner and giving directions to the restaurant. Also, Giving directions II: directions by subway or bus route . And finally, giving directions III: directions by roadmap and suggesting somewhere to go .
Movie Lessons!
Two great activities with worksheets, role-plays, and activities for teaching ESL for movies.
I'm Calling about the Apartment? Little Letter Tracing Worksheets: A Visit to the Doctor Role-play How Much Is It? Short Conversation Resources Teaching Effective Communication Through Graded Reading Materials TEFL Grapevine Grammar Soccer: Reported Speech: Traveling Among Monsters Language Enrichment:
The Biggleborians: This worksheet combines anthropology and ESL. Useful for teaching the present progressive and the past.
Irregular Past Tense Verbs Food Chain Worksheets:

Word Skills Cloze Activties

This section contains worksheet generators for reviewing word skills such as synonyms, antonyms, categories, past tense, and naming.

Large Flashcards

We've collected all of our large flashcard sets into one section.

Job Fair: A Role-play
Easy ESL Crosswords
A collection of ESL crosswords put together by Lanternfish ESL:

English Vocabulary Games
A collection of games and vocabulary activities on a variety of themes put together by Lanternfish ESL for advanced beginner to intermediate students:

Teaching Relative Clauses with Massive Comprehensible Input
This section contains 20 crosswords made using a database of clues in the form of relative clauses. There is also a new collection with word skills crosswords.
Describing and Captioning Pictures
A great activity for sentence level speaking and writing. Students describe a picture in as many sentences as they can. There is also a section for young learners now. And now there is a spot the difference section and story questions worksheets.
Initial Sounds and Final Sounds Phonics Worksheets
Over 30 new worksheets that cover the initial sounds of words . There are also some newly added Final Sounds Worksheets . Also check out the phonics monsters .
Alphabet Worksheets
A collection of alphabet worksheets including alphabet mazes , alphabet trains , and big letter coloring worksheets and small letter tracing sheets .
Reading Puzzle Packets Juicy Baek: ESL Surveys: Telephone Language: Superlatives Communication Activity The ESL Science Center:
A with science articles geared towards monthly web magazine ESL learners. This month: Reptiles, Amphibians, Science, Scientists, and Anthropology.

Writers Workshop:

T he workshop has moved. Lessons on Weighing an Argument, Building an Argument, and Refuting an Argument.
Preposition Cards:
G hosts, trolls, and aliens are in the house.Check out the Preposition Flashcards.
Hypothetically Speaking Game: Web Guide Other Resources?
T he Dolch Sight Words teaching materials are new. As well as the Phrasal Verb Crosswords . The Harry Potter Worksheets .
ESL Business Activities: ESL Game Boards:
Dozens of Printable Game boards for communicative classes.
Holiday Worksheets Information Gap Exercises Conversation Question Prompts
Learn forest animal names and the conjunction 'and' with this Bingo Game . Now, there are many new bingo games with bingo card generators with topics such as birds, animals, kitchen objects, shapes and colors .
City Worksheets:
Activities and worksheets with a city theme .

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ESL Teacher Resources, Job Boards, and Worksheets

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Worksheets, jobs, flashcards, lesson plans, and activities for teaching ESL and EFL

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Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab - English Listening

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Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab helps ESL and EFL learners improve their English listening comprehension skills through conversations.

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ESL Lesson Plans, Printables, Games, Materials for Teaching English | ESL Lounge

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Printable ESL Lesson Plans and ESL Materials for TEFL/TESOL teachers. Grammar worksheets.Reading comprehension. Board games. Pronunciation. Flashcards

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Aims to help students and children to memorize English (US) vocabulary in an easy and efficient way by using images, pronunciation and games. Free and Fun!

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A bilingual site for educators and families of English language learners

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http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/elementary_sites_ells_71638.php

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Starfall: Learn to Read with Phonics, Learn Mathematics

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Starfall has been teaching children to read with phonics for well over a decade. Our systematic approach, in conjunction with audiovisual interactivity, is perfect for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, special education, homeschool, and English language development (ELD, ELL, ESL). Starfall is an educational alternative to other entertainment choices for children.

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Reading Is Fundamental is a 501(c)(3) non-profit

Join RIF to disrupt the literacy crisis

Reading Is Fundamental and our partners work to change the trajectory of the alarming U.S. literacy crisis, which creates barriers between our nation's children and their opportunities.

children in the U.S. cannot read proficiently.

of U.S. children living at or below the poverty line have no books at home.

of 4th graders read below grade level, setting them up for difficulty in school and beyond.

RIF in action

Since 1966, we've partnered with educators, families, and literacy advocates to change the trajectory of the literacy crisis. Check out the latest from RIF.

Designed by research, powered by joy

Our research-backed solutions, resources, and programs are created by literacy experts to ensure that kids develop a foundation for discovery, growth, and learning. In 2022 alone, we reached more than 34 million children with nearly 6 million books and reading resources-both in person and online.

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Read on for thoughts from RIF staff and special guests on a variety of timely reading topics.

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Press and articles

Check out RIF's programs, events, and campaigns making news.

Blog

Read on for thoughts from RIF staff and special guests on a variety of timely reading topics.

Podcasts

Hear from RIF leadership on the literacy landscape and the impact we're making.

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This ELL website was established by the National Institute of Environmental Health Services (NIH) in an effort to combine learning with informative information about health, ecology, the environment, science and other important issues.

NIH Kids’ Pages has a lot of excellent ELL content you and your students can benefit from. The material is perfect for students from grades 5 to 8. It conveys relatable issues and information in a way that’s easy to understand.

You can draw exceptional ideas from this website and incorporate them into a lesson or browse the website together with your students. The Discover & Explore page, for example, offers a handful of topics your students can dive into in a fun and interactive way.

NIH Kids’ Pages gives access to videos, key vocabulary, readings and many more interactive and enticing resources to help students learn.

The site also has a Lesson Plans & Activities page with an assortment of printable material perfect for any ELL classroom. The printable content covers booklets, fact sheets, interviews, flyers, lesson plans, presentations and a whole lot more.

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Kids Environment Kids Health - National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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A valuable resource for Parents and Teachers to find fun and educational materials related to Health, Science and the Environment we live in today.

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UsingEnglish.com: English Language (ESL) Learning Online

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Master the English language with UsingEnglish.com! Discover ESL resources, improve your vocabulary, and join a thriving community of learners and teachers.

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ESL-Kids - Flashcards, Worksheets, Games and Songs

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Free ESL resources for kids including flashcards, handwriting worksheets, classroom games and children's song lyrics.

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ELL Coordinator and SIOP Trainer, Erica Hilliker has complied a wealth of teacher resources to assist with the instruction of ELL students in the classroom.

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ESL Fast - A huge free online English learning resource

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A huge free online English learning resource, thousands of conversations, short stories, and essays with audio and exercises for listening, speaking, reading, and writing, for in-class and after-class use.

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Learning English Language. Vocabulary Lists/Quizzes, Grammar Quizzes, Spelling Tests, Reading Help and other activities for English learners

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Three Videos (upper elementary/middle school, primary school and High school)

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Fostering Active Comprehension: Asking and Answering Questions

Shadia encourages her first-grade students to engage in authentic inquiry before reading a text. By asking questions about the topic, students' reading focus is linked to finding answers to their questions. Shadia's students stay engaged by working in pairs.
Submitted by Shadia Salem, a first grade Transitional Arabic Bilingual Teacher at Dorn Elementary in Hickory Hills, IL.
ENL (English as a New Language) High School Students: Encouraging Communication in a New Language

Mindy develops a grade-level, standards-based unit and provides her ninth graders with clear modeling and guided practice using game-type activities for Romeo and Juliet. Mindy also demonstrates working with colleagues to help raise awareness of scaffolding lessons so all learners can be engaged.
Submitted by Mindy Lewis-Hitch, the 9th grade English as a New Language Department Lead Teacher at Ben Davis 9th Grade Center in Wayne Township, IN.

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Learn from real classroom examplesWIDA sponsors video contests for educators of multilingual learners to showcase innovative instruction that promotes language development and content learning.Watch how teachers around the consortium create learning opportunities for students to develop language within academic contexts.

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Considering Deep Culture:Understanding Cultural Difference in Student Behavior

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Considering Deep Culture:Understanding Cultural Difference in Student Behavior

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Key Ideas Relates to Equitable Education

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Key Ideas Relates to Equitable Education

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EXCELLENT for middle and high school math

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

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

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

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

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

1. Make it Visual

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

2. Build in more group work.

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

3. Communicate with the ESL teacher.

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

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

4. Honor the "silent period."

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

5. Allow some scaffolding with the native language.

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

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

6. Look out for culturally unique vocabulary.

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

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

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

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

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

8. Pre-teach whenever possible.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

12. ...but always take them seriously.

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

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

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

Further Reading

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

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

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12 Ways to Support English Learners in the Mainstream Classroom

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

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Resources for English Learner Teachers

Whether you are new to teaching English learners or have years of experience, we have something for you. This page collects the best of the wisdom and classroom-ready resources that we have to offer from our deep experience working with schools and districts in the Northwest and beyond. Follow us on social media, and feel free to post our resources on Pinterest!

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Whether you are new to teaching English learners or have years of experience, we have something for you. This page collects the best of the wisdom and classroom-ready resources that we have to offer from our deep experience working with schools and districts in the Northwest and beyond.

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parental consent

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Score reports provide proficiency level scores in seven categories: the four domains (Listening, Reading, Speaking, Writing) and three composite areas (Oral Language, Literacy, Overall). Composite scores are created from two or more domain scores.

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Can Do Descriptors Key Uses Edition Grades 9-12 

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Can Do Descriptors Key Uses Edition Grades 9-12 

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It is resolution season! In January we reflect on past joys and concerns from the previous year, and take the opportunity to make a resolution that will improve our lives in the New Year. Of course, we all know that resolutions are hard to keep and can often be unrealistic. The expert advice I've received on resolutions (mostly advice from women's magazines) states that you are more likely to be successful if your goal is specific and measurable. So, instead of saying, "I want to save more money" you might say, "I want to save enough money each month so that I can buy a new computer in August."

Teachers are always looking for ways to improve in the classroom; to assist with any of your New Year's resolutions that relate to instruction, I will recommend five specific and measurable actions you can implement to assist ELL learning in 2009. To increase the likelihood of success and continuity, I suggest teachers pick one item and stick to it for the rest of the year. It is better to do one thing consistently and do it well than to try to do all five and possibly lose focus and motivation, becoming a Jack of all trades and master of none. I also suggest teachers employ the "support group" method to ensure success and use the chosen strategy as a topic for a professional learning community. Sharing successes and challenges with colleagues will help you all grow professionally, and more students will benefit academically.

All of the following strategies have been featured on the Colorín Colorado website, and the Resource section has links to helpful articles and websites for further support. When choosing an instructional strategy, frame it as a specific and measurable goal and display it next to your desk to remind you of what you want to accomplish.

2. Explicitly teach English language vocabulary and structures.
Specific and measurable resolution: I will identify, teach, and post key academic vocabulary and structures for one content lesson each day.
In, "What Teachers Need to Know about Language" by Lily Wong Fillmore and Catherine Snow, the authors state that:

Teachers play a critical role in supporting language development. Beyond teaching children to read and write in school, they need to help children learn and use aspects of language associated with the academic discourse of the various school subjects. They need to help them become more aware of how language functions in various modes of communication across the curriculum. They need to understand how language works well enough to select materials that will help expand their students' linguistic horizons and to plan instructional activities that give students opportunities to use the new forms and modes of expression to which they are being exposed. Teachers need to understand how to design the classroom language environment so as to optimize language and literacy learning and to avoid linguistic obstacles to content area learning (Wong Fillmore & Snow, p. 7).

The need to understand English language structures and language acquisition theory is increasingly important as the number of ELLs increases in classrooms. However, very few teachers have had the formal training required to be prepared to identify and teach the English vocabulary and structures found in specific content areas. When I first started teaching ESL, my students knew way more about grammar than I did. I joked with them, "I don't know English; I just speak it."

Content teachers can begin by reviewing a content area lesson and identifying not just the vocabulary that every student needs to know, but other vocabulary words and grammar structures that ELL students may not be familiar with. See the Hotlinks section for resources on how to provide explicit instruction on English vocabulary and structures.

I hope that this list of "Five Things" will be helpful as you set academic goals for the rest of the year. You may find, of course, that if you create your own they will be more meaningful, and you're more likely to stick with your plan. I hope you will be able to pick at least one thing and give it a try. The other thing I have learned from the resolution experts at women's magazines is that baby steps are better than no steps at all. So give it a try and go easy on yourself if it doesn't go as well as planned or if you get busy and don't keep up as well as you'd like. The most important thing is that you explore an instructional area that you know will improve the academic achievement of ELLs, and commit yourself to continued improvement in 2009. Happy Teaching in the New Year!

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Five Things Teachers Can Do to Improve Learning for ELLs in the New Year

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It is resolution season! In January we reflect on past joys and concerns from the previous year, and take the opportunity to make a resolution that will improve our lives in the New Year. Of course, we all know that resolutions are hard to keep and can often be unrealistic.

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Reading is a process of getting meaning from print. Early reading includes the direct teaching of words and sounds. Children must be able to distinguish between different sounds of oral language for the purposes of achieving understanding. They also need basic knowledge about the written alphabet, sound-symbol relationships, and concepts of print because these are the basis for decoding and reading comprehension skills.

How reading relates to ELLs

For English language learners (ELLs), learning to read in their primary language is easier because it builds on the words and sound structures of the language they know best. However, children at the kindergarten level are little sponges who learn what they are taught. If they are taught to read in two languages simultaneously, they will learn. If they are taught to read in English only, they will learn. The key to learning to read (and preventing reading difficulties in one or two languages) is excellent instruction.

It is also important to remember that the basic skills that serve as the base for reading, such as phonetic recognition, transfer from one language to another. If a student who is learning English has already acquired these skills in their first language, it is not necessary to learn them again in English. It is always a good idea to find out if the child knows these skills in their first language before beginning to teach them in English.

Excellent instruction for pre-reading skills consists of:

vocabulary development

phonemic awareness

knowledge of the alphabet

letter-sound correlation

concepts of print

listening comprehension

decoding

comprehension skills

Classroom strategies: Pre-reading and reading

Oral language activities

Before doing an activity or reading a story in class, teach pre-selected vocabulary words. This is always helpful, especially for ELLs. This will give them the chance to identify the word, place it in context, and remember it. You can pre-teach vocabulary by playing with words and using English as a second language (ESL) methods such as:

Role playing or pantomiming

Using gestures

Showing real objects

Pointing to pictures

Doing quick drawings on the board

Using the Spanish equivalent and then asking students to say the word in English

Phonemic awareness

Phonemic awareness is the ability to understand that spoken words are composed of smaller units of sound. Phonemic awareness helps children begin to understand how the English and/or Spanish alphabets work. You can teach phonemic awareness through activities such as:

Finding objects in the classroom whose names begin or end with the same sound, such as desk, door, and dog.

Doing clapping activities to identify the syllables in words

Learning poetry and songs that have the same beginning sounds or end in rhyme

Analyzing each other's names to make discoveries about letters and sounds such as Whose name starts with B? Whose name has an "a"? Whose name has an "r"? Show me where you found it.

Making charts about letter/sound discoveries (For example: "Here are three new letters. Let's write some words under each letter.")

Alphabet knowledge

Once students have learned the sounds, they can begin to learn the names of the letters. For ELLs, it is easier to hear the sounds first and then label each letter. You can teach the alphabet through songs accompanied with movements that outline each letter (For example: "A is for alligator. Make your arms open and shut like the mouth of an alligator. B is for bat...") There are books and tapes in most bookstores with alphabet songs and motions.

Concepts of print

"Big books" are ideal for showing children how books work. After reading a big book, you can point out concepts of print such as:

The book's front and back covers, title, and author

The left-to-right direction of print

What a word looks like – and what the space between words looks like

The fact that you are reading the words

How inflection and intonation are used to connect content and structure of the text

The differences between question marks, exclamation marks, and periods

Listening comprehension

Reading out loud to your students is a way to teach vocabulary while modeling reading. As you read aloud:

Introduce the characteristics/elements of the story (characters, setting, problem, solution, plot)

Explain words, topics, or concepts that ELLs may not be familiar with

Model how a reader self-corrects when making a mistake

Think aloud about what you are reading

Provide opportunities for children to retell the story they heard through dramatic retellings; or use picture cards to put the story's events in sequence

Decoding and comprehension

During the second half of the year, ELLs in kindergarten benefit when they are introduced to reading through sequenced decodable books. Simple decodable books allow ELLs to read engaging and interesting stories even though they may only know a few letter sounds. These books may include some sight words they can memorize such as the words "was" or "happy" as the stories build on previously learned letters, sounds, and words.

First, conduct guided reading so that students follow along in their books while you model fluency. You can help student comprehension by clarifying concepts, teaching unknown words, asking questions about the story, and letting children connect these stories to their own experiences.

After the guided reading, have students reread their decodable books with a partner. They can take turns reading by alternating sentences. This helps them focus on what they are reading. Reading with a partner also creates a safety zone where they can feel comfortable reading aloud.

Other ideas

Here are some other things you can do:

Use chants, short poems, or songs as transition markers from one activity to another, or when children line up for recess or lunch.

Use thematic units, such as "plants." This helps children learn vocabulary faster because they hear the same words (all about plants) in the stories the teacher reads, in what they read, and in their learning centers and other activities.

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Reading is a process of getting meaning from print. Early reading includes the direct teaching of words and sounds. Children must be able to distinguish between different sounds of oral language for the purposes of achieving understanding. They also need basic knowledge about the written alphabet, sound-symbol relationships, and concepts of print because these are the basis for decoding and reading comprehension skills.

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GRADES 1–12