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To Teach Effective Writing, Model Effective Writing 

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To Teach Effective Writing, Model Effective Writing 

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

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Q & A Collections- Teaching English Language Learners

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Q & A Collections- Teaching English Language Learners

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Education Week - Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo

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I'll begin posting new questions and answers in late August, and during the summer will be sharing thematic posts bringing together responses on similar topics from the past five years. You can see all those collections from the first four years here.

Here are the ones I've posted so far:
This Year's Most Popular Q & A Posts! Classroom Management Advice Student Motivation & Social Emotional Learning
Today's theme is on teaching English Language Learners. You can see the list following this excerpt from one of them:

Wendi Pillars, Paul Boyd-Batstone, Ivannia Soto, Judie Haynes, Diane Mora, Eugenia Mora-Flores, and many readers offer suggestions on how to help English Language Learners develop good pronunciation skills.

Anabel Gonzalez, Katie Brown, Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, David Freeman and Yvonne Freeman, and readers, offer suggestions on how to handle error correction with English Language Learners.

Frank E. Vargo, Cindy Pirro Vargo, Donna DeTommaso - Kleinert, Susan Hillyard and a reader contribute their thoughts on how to support ELLs with special needs.

Maria Montalvo, Beverly Maxwell, Ann Wilson, Jennie Farnell share their suggestions on how to support English Language Learners with special needs.

Rusul Alrubail, Anna Bartosik, Jordan Lanfair, Anabel Gonzalez, Karen Nemeth, and Judie Haynes offer suggestions on how to engage with parents of English Language Learners.

Maria Grant, Diana Lapp, Judy Reinhartz, Lori Fulton, Brian Campbell and Laura Cabrera contribute their ideas on using the Next Generation of Science Standards with English Language Learners.

Alicia Johal, Maria Montalvo-Balbed, Donna Barrett-Williams, Caleb Cheung, Laura Prival , Claudio Vargas and Ariane Huddleston share their suggestions on using the NGSS with English Language Learners.

Mary Cappellini, Ekuwah Moses, Giselle Lundy-Ponce, Pamela Mesta, Olga Reber and Heather Wolpert-Gawron contribute their suggestions about teaching ELLs.

Wendi Pillars, Annie Huynh, Regie Routman, William Himmele, and Pérsida Himmele share their advice on teaching English Language Learners.

Educators Sonia Nieto, Alicia López, Diane Staehr Fenner, Sydney Snyder, Katie Brown, Judie Haynes, and Virginia Rojas share their suggestions on how we can encourage our colleagues to face the challenge of teaching ELLs "face-on."

Diane Mora, John Wolfe, Toby Karten, Armine Spoelstra, Kirke H. Olson and Rick Murry share there thoughts.

Educators Wendi Pillars, Virginia Rojas, Debbie Zacarian, and Maria Montalvo-Balbed contribute their responses.

* Supporting ELLs in The Common Core Era

Kathryn Haydon, Dr. Lindsey Moses, and Lori DiGisi contribute their thoughts. I've also included comments from readers.

This post includes suggestions from Katie Brown, Jane Fung, Marilee Sprenger and Karen Bromley.

This column highlights commentaries from Camille Blachowicz, Charlene Cobb, Katherine S. McKnight, Nicole Zuerblis and Susan Chenelle.

Laura Robb and Amy Benjamin share their thoughts, and I also include readers' comments.

This post shares responses from four experienced educators: Judie Haynes, Mary Ann Zehr, Bárbara C. Cruz and Stephen J. Thornton.

Margo Gottlieb, Maria Montalvo-Balbed, and Tracey Takuhama-Espinosa contribute their ideas. In addition, I've shared responses from readers.

Educators Bill Zahner, Ben Spielberg, Gladis Kersaint, Denisse R. Thompson, Maria Montalvo-Balbed, and Denise Huddlestun share their suggestions for how teachers can best handle this challenge.
* To Help ELLs, We Need to Understand 'How Language Learning Works'
Staff from Stanford's "Understanding Language," Mary Cappellini and Paul Boyd-Batstone share their thoughts in this post. I also include comments from readers.
* 'Respecting Assets That ELLs Bring To A School Community'
Four educators -- Karen Nemeth, Judie Haynes, David Deubelbeiss and Julie Goldman -- provide guest responses here.
* Many Ways To Help Students Develop Academic Vocabulary
Several educator/authors - Marilee Sprenger; Jane Hill and Kirsten Miller; and Maria Gonzalez - provide guest responses.
* Helping Long-Term ELL's & Evaluating ELL Teachers Fairly
Katie Hull Sypnieski, the best teacher I've ever seen in the classroom, and staff from the American Federation of Teachers researching teacher evaluation contribute their responses.
* Ways the "Next Generation" of Standardized Tests Should Treat ELL's
Representatives from the two groups of states preparing the new assessments, the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium, or SBAC, and The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers Consortium, or PARCC, contribute responses.

I hope you've found this summary useful and, again, keep those questions coming!

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Q & A Collections: Teaching English Language Learners

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I'll begin posting new questions and answers in late August, and during the summer will be sharing thematic posts bringing together responses on similar topics from the past five years. You can see all those collections from the first four years here. Here are the ones I've posted so far: This Year's Most Popular Q & A Posts!

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Why Do We Have a Deficit Mindset with ELL/ENL Students? 

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Why Do We Have a Deficit Mindset with ELL/ENL Students? 

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Education Week - Peter DeWitt's Finding Common Ground

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A long time ago when I was teaching first grade, a parent came to our parent-teacher conference to hear about the progress of her child. She was a Spanish professor at a local university and Spanish was her primary language, and the primary language of her child because he was not born in the US. At the end of the meeting she told me that other children were making unnecessary comments towards her son because he was eating snacks that were a part of his culture.

First graders will make fun of things they don't understand, and I knew that and wanted to do something about it. Later on in that week he came in with grape leaves for a snack and I had already worked out with his mom that she would send in an extra one for me. It definitely beat my carrots and Ranch dressing.

" This is awesome!" " I've never had one of these." " Thanks for introducing me to something I've never eaten before." I tried my best to support his snack that was unfamiliar to his peers. Truth be told, I had never had grape leaves so I was not lying.

When I ate one I said how great it tasted and how lucky he was to be able to have these foods that were a part of his culture. I remarked about how unique the snack was, and how important it is for all of us to try new foods. The students in the class stopped saying mean things about his food, because as first graders they didn't initially realize how hurtful the comments could be, and they saw their teacher respecting his choice of snack rather than make fun of it.

What bothered me the most about the parent-teacher conference that led up to the snack moment was that the parent told me that they only speak Spanish at home, and she seemed worried I would make a judgment. I told her how fortunate her son was to be bilingual, and she remarked that the teacher from the year before had told her speaking Spanish at home was a mistake, because it would confuse the child.
That was the first moment that I saw a deficit model in place for ELL/ENL students.
A Deficit Model
I understand that it's a complicated issue. We have ELL/ENL students who may have moved to our country because they wanted to, and sometimes we have students who come as refugees who didn't want to leave their home country but lacked very little choice. Additionally, we have indigenous populations of students who have been minoritized by those around them, even though they have always lived here.
What all of these populations have in common is that we often treat them with a deficit mindset.
Very often when teachers and leaders talk about ELL/ENL and indigenous students, it seems to come from a deficit model, which only leads to the idea that these groups are minoritized by their peers living in the majority. They focus on what the students cannot do, instead of what they can do. Additionally, they seem to provide these populations with less status than their English speaking peers. We should all brush up on our reading so we can have more of a growth mindset.

Russell Bishop, Merre Berryman, and Janice Wearmouth wrote Te Kotahitanga: Towards Effective Education Reform for Indigenous and Other Minoritized Students (Nzcer Press, 2014), which is also a program used by schools across Australia, New Zealand and Canada to help connect with their indigenous populations. When it comes to the deficit model, Bishop et al focus on the work of Valencia (1997) when they write,

"In effect, if we think that other people have deficiencies, then our actions will tend to follow our thinking and the relationships we develop and the interactions we have with these people will tend to be negative and unproductive."

If you have not read Te Kotahitanga, please get a copy. The book and program focuses on celebrating the diversity we have in our schools, and provides ways in which to best do that. Regardless of whether we are working with ELL/ENL or indigenous populations, we can learn many lessons from the book.

The Possibilities
Recently I visited a school in Melbourne, Australia where around 90% of the student population comes from another country because they have accepted a lot of refugees into their country. Yes, those students have to learn English to get along in school, but the school also highlighted and celebrated the primary language of each student as well. There were many examples of the strengths the students brought from their home country hanging around each and every classroom.

Imagine how scary it is to enter a country and not be able to fully understand the language? Imagine what it's like to have always lived here and be treated as though you are an unwelcomed guest?

When students come to our country we seem to expect them to speak our language and they lack a sense of status until they do. That is flawed and harmful thinking. Our ELL/ENL students will at some point be bilingual, and many of our indigenous students already are, while most of us continue to be monolingual.

When a First Grader Schooled Me
Juyeon entered our first grade classroom in a relatively impoverished city school knowing no English at all. She cried, and sat in her chair hugging the back of it, as if she never wanted to let go. I imagined how scary the moment was for her, and how frightening I must have been, so I called the students to the floor and found a very funny picture book to read.
Juyeon stayed put in her chair. Nothing was moving her from it. It was her new found safety zone.
As I went from page to page, the students laughed at the pictures and content. They laughed at the way I read the book. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Juyeon slowly let go of the chair. Another page with another load of laughter, and Juyeon slowly made her way to the floor with very little fan fair. One more page and Juyeon was laughing with the rest of the class.
Everything changed after that. For her...and for me.
Within a few months she learned English but I saw her strengths through the way she drew in her journal. I will never forget looking over her shoulder and notcing that she drew movement into her characters. That was merely the beginning of what she had to offer.

On the 100 th day she made a long chain of 100 paper cranes of many diverse colors attached together, and I still have it at my home. Her classmates were in awe and supportive. It was one moment that I was proudest of the students.

After school ended her mother invited me to their apartment for dinner and Juyeon played the violin and then the piano. She was gifted. Not a child prodigy but she was gifted. I left dinner absolutely amazed by some of these hidden strengths that I did not see surface through the year. I focused on reading, writing and math, and she excelled, but that didn't scratch the surface of what else she could do.

Typical of all ELL/ENL or indigenous students? Maybe not. But they all have strengths that may be hidden from our view because we only see what we want to see.

In the End
I understand the issue of one student not mastering their primary language before taking on English, and I understand that there is an achievement gap with our indigenous populations, but I worry that we contribute to that gap more than we try to close it.

We shouldn't treat ELL/ENL students as if they are somehow less than their English speaking peers. We put them at a disadvantage by doing that. There are many schools that do a good job at this but other schools treat it as though they are in crisis mode rather than looking at it is an opportunity.
Connect with Peter DeWitt on Twitter.

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Why Do We Have a Deficit Mindset With ELL/ENL Students?

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A long time ago when I was teaching first grade, a parent came to our parent-teacher conference to hear about the progress of her child. She was a Spanish professor at a local university and Spanish was her primary language, and the primary language of her child because he was not born in the US.

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Best Websites for Teaching English Language Learners 

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Best Websites for Teaching English Language Learners 

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I've created a ton of "The Best..." lists so far - nearly 170 over the past thirteen months, in fact. Based on a number of requests I've received from teachers, I've decided to review all of them and come-up with a new series of lists including "The Best Sites For K-12 Beginning English Language Learners"; "The Best Sites For K-12 Intermediate English Language Learners"; "The Best Sites For Older Beginning & Early Intermediate English Language Learners"; and "The Best Sites For Older Intermediate English Language Learners."

I thought that lists like these might make it a little easier for teachers, particularly newer ones - newer to teaching or newer to using technology in their teaching. Then, at their leisure, they can explore all the other more specialized lists, including the ones on Web 2.0 applications.

Of course, links to all the sites on these lists can also be found on my website, along with thousands of others.

I'm starting off with one focusing on K-12 English Language Learners. In compiling this list, I tried to really focus on highlighting sites that would be easy-to-use and engaging to both a younger Beginning English Language Learner and to someone who was new to computers. They all have audio support for text and, with only one exception, they also have visual support. Only a couple require registration (though the top-ranked site lets you do so if you want to keep track of what exercises you've done (and registration takes seconds). Of course, they all are free-of-charge.

Here are my ranked picks for The Best Sites For K-12 Beginning English Language Learners:

Number fourteen is from Houghton-Mifflin and is called WordBuilder. It has a zillion vocabulary exercises and helps students learn both spelling and pronunciation simply in context.

Number thirteen is BBC Bitesize Literacy. It has a number of great activities and games related to basic literacy.

Number twelve is Spoken Skills. It provides good, clear, listening practice, and also provides users the ability to easily record what they hear and play it back for comparison.

The original number eleven site has gone out of business.

Number ten is WordBuilder from I Know That. I think it's the best site out there for phonics practice. And, yes, it has the same name as another "WordBuilder" site on this list. Like with all I Know That activities, when you click on it, an annoying pop-up asking you to register shows-up. Just click on "Maybe Later" and you'll automatically proceed to the exercise. I'm also including the Social Studies page at I Know That. It has tons of different kinds of map games that are informative and fun.

Number nine is Kiz Club, a Korean site that has a ton of talking stories on a wide variety of topics.

Number eight is Literactive. It has hundreds of talking stories and other interactive activities. It's free, though you have to register (it only takes a minute to do so). My students really enjoy this site.

Number seven is a text-to-speech tool, which my students have found very helpful in learning pronunciation. There are a bunch out there, though I personally prefer AT&T Labs.

Number six is an easy translation site. There are many on the Web. These translating tools all work in a similar way - they let you copy and paste words or sentences, and then pick the language you want it translated into. The translation then appears on the screen. Some also let you translate entire webpages. Jeffrey Hill at the English Blog rates Google's tool as the best among the ones he has tried- by far. I trust his judgment, which is why I'm choosing Google Language Tools.

Number five is The Language Guide, clearly the best dictionary on the web for Beginning ELL's. It's easy to navigate, and has excellent images, audio, and text.

Number four is Mingoville. It's an exceptional site from Denmark designed to teach Beginning English Language Learners. There are many interactive exercises and games, it's very colorful, and there are both listening and speaking activities, including a voice recording feature. You can experiment with it as a guest for a few minutes, but then you have to register. It's completely free, and registration takes about twenty seconds.

Number three is is Starfall, the established site that is rivaled by no other in providing accessible literacy activities to Beginning English Language Learners.

Number two is Henny Jellema's Online TPR Exercises. You've got to see this site to believe it. I can't imagine the amount of work that went into creating the exercises. However, as he cautions, it's critical to combine using his online activities with real-life Total Physical Response lessons.

And now, for my choice as the number one pick for K-12 Beginning English Language Learners is... U.S.A Learns. It's an incredible website to help users learn English. Even though it's primarily designed for older learners, it seems very accessible to all but the very youngest ELL's. It's free to use. Students can register if they want to save their work and evaluate their progress. It's a joint effort of the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE), Internet and Media Services Department and the Project IDEAL Support Center at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. I know they've been working on this for quite awhile, and it shows.

Here are some new sites for this list:

Strivney is a free new site for beginning readers (it has a special section for English Language Learners) with 1,000 interactive exercises and games. You need to register for most beyond the sample exercises, but it's super easy to do so. The site also has printables you can use to reinforce the online activities.

ESOL Course s has a good, basic introduction to English.

Brainpop ESL has some decent activities. I wouldn't included it on this list if you had to pay for it but, for now at least, it's free.

English Central, of course, is an incredible place to practice reading, speaking, and listening.

I know others might feel differently about the sites I've placed on this list, and their ranking. Feel free to offer feedback and make other suggestions. I'm all ears!

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous "The Best..." lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

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The Best Basic Sites For K-12 Beginning English Language Learners

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I've created a ton of "The Best..." lists so far - nearly 170 over the past thirteen months, in fact.

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Two Writing Teachers Blog Series- Starting with What Matters Most in Writing Workshop

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Two Writing Teachers Blog Series- Starting with What Matters Most in Writing Workshop

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New Blog Series: Starting with What Matters Most in Writing Workshop

It was only days until the close of the school year. I stood in the back of the classroom and watched as Dennis worked with purpose and independence. During the first semester of the year, Dennis and I shared several conferences discussing how writers get ideas. Each time as I walked away, I hoped this would be the time Dennis would generate a topic and begin writing.

Now, as I watched Dennis and the other students, I couldn't help but feel pride as the students chose tools, collaborated with peers, and worked true to their process as writers. I noticed similarities in the steps the writers took, but it was evident Dennis and the other students were true to who they were as writers and each one had developed an identity as a writer.

*****

Over the next eight days, my friends and I here at Two Writing Teachers will share what goes into developing writers who work with agency, purpose, and independence in our blog series, Starting With What Matters Most. Set a reminder or mark your calendars, you won't want to miss a day of these timely posts.

Later today, in a separate post, I will share how my class and I work to find our writing audience.

Tomorrow, Kathleen will share how she works to help writers create a writing identity.

On Wednesday, Lisa will share the importance of notebooks in a writing workshop.

On Thursday, Melanie will talk about the tools to develop independence and repertoire in writing.

On Friday, Stacey will share ideas on how to make writing a priority in your schedule.

On Saturday, Beth will post on the effect of play in our minds and joy in our hearts in a writing workshop.

On Sunday, Betsy will share the power of talk in writing.

On Monday, Dana will post the on the value of work habits in writing workshop. In addition, we'll host a "Starting with What Matters Most" Twitter Chat on Monday evening at 8:30 p.m. EDT/5:30 p.m. PDT.

Last, but not least, on Tuesday, Dana will wrap up the series with an In Case You Missed It post (ICYMI) where you can revisit and highlight the tips you want to take into your workshop this year!

Wait!
There's more! We have shared a few links to past posts. We chose each one specifically to help get you ready for the new school year.

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New Blog Series: Starting with What Matters Most in Writing Workshop

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Over the next eight days, my friends and I at Two Writing Teachers will share what goes into developing writers who work with agency, purpose, and independence in our Blog Series: Starting With What Matters Most. Set a reminder or mark your calendars, you won't want to miss a day of these timely posts.

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Larry Ferlazzo Website of the Day- Best Movies/ TV Shows for ENL Students 

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Larry Ferlazzo Website of the Day- Best Movies/ TV Shows for ENL Students 

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You might want to see our book excerpt, Eight Ways to Use Video With English Language Learners I've written a guest post for Edutopia titled 5-Minute Film Festival: 8 Videos for ELL Classrooms. Check Out my related New York Times post The Best Fun Videos For English Language Learners In 2015 - So Far
Movies and television shows can be an effective tool for teaching and learning English (or, for that matter, any academic subject) if used strategically and not as a "babysitting" device.

I thought it might be useful to prepare a "The Best..." list resources that teachers might find useful related to using video in the ESL/EFL classroom. I've appreciated the suggestions that readers have offered and, even if they didn't make my list, I've the titles that they have recommended near the end of post.

Before I list specific movies or shows, I'll begin by some ideas, and sites, where you can get more recommendations on how to use video in the classroom.

I've hardly ever shown a video clip for more than ten minutes during one class period. There are many ways to use them, but I've primarily done so in two ways. One is just to show a clip connected to the theme we might be studying at the time, and then have students write what happened chronologically.

The other is a technique called "Back To The Screen" that I adapted from Zero Prep: Ready To Go Activities For The Language Classroom by Laurel Pollard and Natalie Hess. I pick a clip from a movie (the highway chase scene from one of the Matrix movies, for example. I then divide the class into pairs with one group facing the TV and the other with their back to it. Then, after turning off the sound, I begin playing the movie. The person who can see the screen tells the other person what is happening. Then, after awhile, I switch the groups around. Afterwards, the pairs need to write a chronological sequence of what happened, which we in class. Finally, everyone watches the clip, with sound, together. Students really enjoy activity.

Two excellent sites that offer countless other ideas about how to use videos in teaching and learning English are Ressources pour le College and The English Learner Movie Guide. The resources they offer are just too numerous to list here. In addition to teaching activities, you can get suggestions for which movies might work best for specific purposes.

You might also be interested in The Best Movie Scenes To Use For English-Language Development.

Now I'll list what I believe to be The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL (by the way, links usually are connected to Amazon). I'm doing ranking a bit differently from my past lists. All the ones I list I think are comparable in terms of usefulness in the classroom. However, there are two that I think are stand-outs. I'll save them for the end.

Here are my picks:

I like Brum , a little talking car that has all sorts of adventures. Younger and older students find it entertaining.

Animated Tales Of The World from HBO is an excellent series of folktales from throughout the world. I've used them to teach geography, history, and writing.

The Pink Panther series of movies have been great, specifically the parts where Peter Sellers fights his man-servant Cato. These hilarious slapstick scenes are wonderful times to teach vocabulary related to home. However, I offer recommendation with some hesitancy, since some could view it as perpetuating stereotypes and find it offensive. I'd be interested in hearing opinions on issue. Certainly, none of my students, who are mostly Asian, have felt that way. I've engaged students in kind of discussion everytime I've shown the movies.

Father Of The Bride with Steve Martin (and its sequel) provides some hilarious and teachable scenes about family, food, and home.

David Deubelbeiss, from EFL Classroom 2.0, and I agree that the movie Big is a great one. In fact, David is going to upload a bunch of classroom activities related to the movie on his site.

The Bear provides a lot of opportunities to discuss serious topics. It doesn't have a whole lot of dialogue, so it's very accessible to Beginning English Language Learners.

Globe Trekker has a ton of excellent travel videos. I've used them in all of my English, Geography, and History classes, and they're very accessible.

I'm ranking two collections of TV shows as the Top Two videos for teaching and learning ESL/EFL.

Number two is America's Funniest Home Videos. It has so many editions - family, pets, sports, animals - that you can find something to teach just about anything. They're already divided into short clips. My only caveat, though, is that a few of them seem cruel and/or disgusting to me. So I screen them before I use a clip in class.

My absolute favorite show to use is Mr. Bean - The Whole Bean. Mr. Bean is very accessible to even Beginning English Language Learners, and he is involved in so many situations that you can find a clip that will support whatever unit you're teaching. And he's so funny!

Readers made a number of other suggestions. I didn't include some of them in my list just because I haven't seen the shows.

Sebastian recommends Seinfield and Joey, specifically the episode called Joey and the ESL. I definitely want to see that - how often is an ESL class shown in a TV situation comedy?

EFL Geek recommends several movies, including An Inconvenient Truth, Almost Famous, and Stand By Me. For TV, he likes Lost, Corner Gas, Prison Break and Smallville. I did a quick and informal poll of my students, and they agreed that Smallville helped them with their English a lot.

I regularly use Connect With English, was video series that's designed to help students learn English and be engaging. It was one of the better ones of its type out there, but it's off-line now. I still thought readers might be interested in one page worksheet that we sometimes use, instead. Students have to make predictions based on the title of the episode, explain if their predictions were correct, write several questions about the episode that they ask a partner afterwards (who then writes the answers).

The Internet History Sourcebook Project is an extraordinary collection of history resources. I'm particularly impressed with their Modern History in the Movies, Ancient History in the Movies, and Medieval Movies. In those three collections, movies are categorized by era and described. It's a gold mine for any Social Studies teacher, and especially for those of us who teach English Language Learners. I use very short clips of movies, following by a writing/thinking prompt, all the time.

American History Film Resources also offers a good listing of film resources for different periods of American history.

Movieclips has thousands of short video clips from movies and they're not blocked by our content filter! And they're available without registering - except for clips that have "mature" content.

David Deubelbeiss at EFL Classroom 2.0 has given us all a gift by compiling his Top 100 Youtube videos for EFL. You might find The Best Ways To Access Educational YouTube Videos At School helpful to use with his list.

Using film and moving image to enrich ESOL teaching and learning is a very nice listing of different ways to use film with English Language Learners. It was written by Cormac Conway and Michaela Salmon.

David Deubelbeiss some nice resources and ideas in his post, Using Silent Video in the EFL Classroom.

I've always asked students to watch English movies or television programs as part of their weekly homework, but David Deubelbeiss writes much more thoughtfully about the idea in post on what he calls Extensive Watching.

WingClips has organized a huge number of short clips from movies thematically - perseverance, responsibility - and then lets you show them from the site or embed them elsewhere. Important caveats to keep in mind before checking it out are that it clearly comes from a religious, and Christian, perspective, so a number of the themes - adultery, for example, you probably just want to skip. In addition, it appears to have an exceptionally large number of war-related movie clips ("Machine Gun Preacher"?), but that might be a false impression. As in any website, you just have to pick and choose what's useful.

Inspire My Kids has short video clips and descriptions of people that are designed to inspire students.

Check out Twitter Chat summary from #ELTchat on using movies and videos in and out of class

A Neat Way To Use A Video In Class
Very Helpful Research On Using Photos & Videos In Lessons
I learned about the Miniscule video series from the great site, The Kid Should See . Here is how they described it:
A French-made collection of short stories, Minuscule is about the private lives of ants, snails, bees, caterpillars, wasps, spiders and other tiny creatures, all told without any speaking at all.
In some ways, they're like an animated Mr. Bean short - perfect for ELL's. They're engaging, brief, and provide plenty of opportunities for students to describe what they saw in writing and orally. You can find a bunch of them on YouTube. Here's one of them:

Of course, English Central may be the very best place on the Web for videos and ELL's.

In video, Dan Meyer demonstrates how the movie search engine Subzin could be very useful for teachers. I would strongly recommend you read his short, but elegant, post describing how he used it to create video. Subzin is a search engine for quotes in movies and series. For example, here's a page of results after I searched "asking questions" and I see some good candidates for The Best Videos Showing The Importance Of Asking Good Questions list. ESL/ELL teachers could find very handy when they're looking for clips to support thematic units like food, or specific grammar functions. Now, sit back and enjoy Dan's work (though, again, be sure to read his post about it, too):

David Deubelbeiss has come up some very useful student sheets to use with ELLs when showing videos

Lessons On Movies is a new site created by the incomparable Sean Banville. It's the latest addition to Sean's "empire" of free and helpful websites for English language learners and their teachers.

Learning English through a TV series is a helpful blog post.

Video In The Classroom is by David Deubelbeiss.

I think the old silent movies of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton are great for English Language Learners.

I remember when I first played a scene from a Chaplin film years ago, all the Hmong refugees in my class started yelling, "Charlie! Charlie!" His silent films were played a lot in refugee camps.

As with practically all videos, I never play a full one - just a scene, and typically one that ties into the thematic unit that we're studying at the time - home, work, etc., or if we're learning about history I can tie something into it. Since both Keaton and Chaplin made so many movies, there's usually a funny or action-packed scene that I can connect to anything I'm teaching.

Open Culture has a list of links to free online videos of both Chaplin and Keaton movies, though many are missing from their lists. You can just search YouTube, too.

I've embedded one Chaplin films that I use - is Gold Rush, which I've used when we're learning about history. If you have some favorites that you use, let me know what that are!

Also, just an aside, I usually show one of Chaplin's movies to my non-ELL classes during the year, too, just so they know about him. I have never had a student in my mainstream classes say they knew who he was prior to watching a clip I show.

Using Video in the Classroom is from ELT Experiences.

Vicki Hollet has published the 35th ELT Blog Carnival (formerly known as the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival) and it's a great one focusing on Teaching and Learning with Video.
"Simon's Cat" Videos Are Perfect For English Language Learners The New "Connect With English" Site Has Got To Be One Of This Year's Best New Sites For ELLs "What Is This Animal Thinking or Saying (If It Could Talk)?" Is A Fun Language Development Exercise An ESL Teacher's Good Friend -"America's Funniest Home Videos" - Turns 25
How to use film creatively in class: teaching tips and ideas is a chat (you can read the transcript at the bottom) at The Guardian.

How can film help you teach or learn English? is from The British Council.

Advantages of using film via @kierandonaghy #imageconf pic.twitter.com/2kKOsYnoIz

- paul braddock (@bcnpaul1) November 22, 2014

"Values.com" Has Some Very Good SEL-Related Video Clips
Kieran Donaghy has a great new blog called Film in Action.
"La Linea" Are Great Video Animations For English Language Learners
Video For All has a ton of resources about using video in language-teaching.

Using video content effectively in your EFL classroom is from the English Language Teaching Global Blog.

Using Silent Video In The ELT Classroom is from EFL Classroom 2.0.

Your 10 favourite dance scenes is a great video collection from The BBC. Students could watch and describe what they see.

Using Video In The Classroom - A Teacher's Handbook is from David Deubelbeiss.

Video For All is a European-funded site filled to the brim with ideas on how to use video in language-teaching.

It looks like an amazing resource.

Even better, Russell Stannard, who is the person who wrote about the site in his great email newsletter, has created a series of videos describing how to best use Video For All.
"Journeys In Film" Looks Like A Great Teaching Resource
Video for the English classroom is by James Keddie at the British Council.

How can film help you teach or learn English? is by Kieran Donaghy at the British Council.

Commercials in the classroom is from David Deubelbeiss

Download my video response sheet and some suggestions for post video activities. https://t.co/gALXU5rD3r

- David Deubelbeiss (@ddeubel) February 11, 2016

The Seven Best Film and Video Resource Sites is by Kieran Donaghy.

David Duebelbeiss has written two good posts: "Best" Videos for ELT Player and Video Lessons.

The Seven Best Short Films for ELT Students is from Kieran Donaghy.

The Seven Best Silent Short Films for Language Teaching is from Kieran Donaghy.

A Video Lesson Template is by TEFL Geek.

10 Creative Ways to Use Popular Movies in Fun ESL Lessons is from Fluent U.

The Seven Best Short Animated Films for the Language Classroom is from Kieran Donaghy.

How to get film-based lessons right is from The British Council.

David Deubelbeiss has made two hundred videos, along with accompanying hand-outs for ELLs, available for free.

Watch-Think-Write' and Other Proven Strategies for Using Video in the Classroom is from KQED.

The On The Same Page blog has a simple lesson to use with this great video. It's called Guess what is being advertised:

Learning English Voice Of America has seemed to up its video game recently. For years, their videos seemed to be designed by people who seemed to be competing to see who could make the process of learning English seem the most boring. However, they now have much more professionally produced videos.

Let's Learn English, I think, is the most intriguing feature in their new collection. It's an online video course with a story line and interactive quizzes for ELLs. It reminds me of Annenberg's Connect With English,

Five tips for using authentic video in the classroom is from The British Council and is pretty interesting.

8 Ways to Help Students Watch Video Critically (Instead of Zoning Out) is from We Are Teachers.

The Literacy Shed has lots of nice non-YouTube videos (so, unlikely to be blocked by school content filters) accessible to ELLs.

Here's a simple way to boost your learning from videos: "Prequestion" is from BPS Digest. Daniel Willingham writes about the same study.

Closed Captioning Gives Literacy a Boost is from Ed Week.

Teaching English With Authentic Video is from English Attack.

Viral Videos for Higher Level ELT has good videos and accompanying lessons.

VIDEOGLOSS: CHOCOLATE ROULADE provides an excellent lesson idea. It's from Svetlana Kandybovich.

WORDLESS VIDEOS FOR ELT is from Svetlana Kandybovich.

Download a free copy of "The image in English Language Teaching" from @TeachingEnglish website https://t.co/pZP1ZblBNQ @EFLMb #ImageInELT

- Kieran Donaghy (@kierandonaghy) October 29, 2017

"Let's Learn English" From VOA Looks Like A Nice Online Video Resource
I've used this video with my Beginning ELLs to teach both family and food. I use it with the strategy called "Back to the Screen":

THE YEAR'S BEST ACTORS IN A SERIES OF SHORT FRIGHTENING FILMS is from The New York Times.

Using Videos to 'Enhance Learning Experiences for Students' is the headline of one of my Education Week Teacher column. It shares useful ideas.

12 Ideas for Using Video in Class is from ELT Connect.

The British Council has what appears to be a relatively new feature called the Video Zone. It has videos and, importantly, accompanying interactive games.

Feel free to offer reactions and other suggestions in the comments sections.

If you've found post helpful, you might want to consider subscribing to blog for free.

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The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL (& How To Use Them)

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You might want to see our book excerpt, Eight Ways to Use Video With English Language Learners I've written a guest post for Edutopia titled 5-Minute Film Festival: 8 Videos for ELL Classrooms. Check Out my related New York Times post The Best Fun Videos For English Language Learners In 2015 - So Far Movies and television shows can be an effective tool for teaching and learning English (or, for that matter, any academic subject) if used strategically and not as a "babysitting" device.

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How closely do your students read their writing? What are the implications for those who do and those who don't?

During her work in classrooms, literacy coach Paula Bourque noticed that students who read their own writing closely are engaged in their work, write fluently, are able to produce lengthy drafts, and incorporate teaching points from mini-lessons into the day's writing.

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How closely do your students read their writing? What are the implications for those who do and those who don't?During her work in classrooms, literacy coach Paula Bourque noticed that students who read their own writing closely are engaged in their work, write fluently, are able to produce lengthy drafts, and incorporate teaching points from mini-lessons into the day's writing.

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Teacher, presenter, author, and writing studio owner Angela Stockman reimagines traditional pedagogy, combining writing and maker space strategies to create the revolutionary Make Writing system.

In this new Hack Learning Series book, you learn how to

1. Approach writing as a physical and collaborative endeavor

2. Design with making in mind

3. Teach students to play through the process

4. Connect writers to authentic audiences

5. Make Writing while teaching the Common Core

Make Writing will make you better-no matter what grade or subject you teach.
Click here to purchase on Amazon Click here to purchase on Barnes and Noble
Don't miss Angela Stockman's follow-up: Hacking the Writing Workshop

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Make Writing: 5 Teaching Strategies That Turn Writers Workshop Into a Maker Space - Hack Learning

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Teacher, presenter, author, and writing studio owner Angela Stockman reimagines traditional pedagogy, combining writing and maker space strategies to create the revolutionary Make Writing system.

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Where Do You Find Mentor Texts for Writing Workshop? 

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Where Do You Find Mentor Texts for Writing Workshop? 

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Best Books of 2016 so far... Donalyn Miller 

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Best Books of 2016 so far... Donalyn Miller 

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Best Books of 2016 (so far) March 2016 by Donalyn Miller

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This presentation includes my top picks for early 2016 children's and young adult literature titles. I will update this presentation throughout the year as I r...

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Fabulous resource for building classroom communities around literacy.

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Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts 

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Craft Moves: Lesson Sets for Teaching Writing with Mentor Texts 

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Stacey Shubitz will be hosting a Facebook Book Club to read and discuss this professional text, starting on August 8th. https://www.facebook.com/groups/craftmoves/

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Stacey Shubitz Foreword by Lester Laminack

How do you choose mentor texts for your students? How do you mine them for the craft lessons you want your students to learn?

In Craft Moves, Stacey Shubitz, cofounder of the Two Writing Teachers website, does the heavy lifting for you: using twenty recently published picture books, she creates more than 180 lessons to teach various craft moves that will help your students become better writers.

You can create a quote by adding products to your cart and selecting Quote in checkout.

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How do you choose mentor texts for your students?

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Kathleen Sokolowski's Parent University Presentation (Fall 2015)

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Kathleen Sokolowski's Parent University Presentation (Fall 2015)

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Parent University Parent's Guide to Writing Workshop

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The Parent's Guide to Writing Workshop Grades 3-5 By Mrs. Kathleen Sokolowski Saltzman East Memorial Parent University 2015

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Writing Workshop is Hard Work

In the book, The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts (And They're All Hard Parts), Katie Wood Ray (with Lester Laminack) shares much wisdom, but one of my favorite quotes is this: "...Having a writing workshop is such complex, hard work that the best writing teachers I know sometimes spend their whole careers never feeling like they've got quite a handle on it- feeling like it's just slightly out of their control...I think that may be how it's supposed to feel." What a relief to know that even Katie Wood Ray thinks that writing workshop can sometimes leave a teacher with more questions than answers.

Last Thursday, I endeavored to explain writing workshop to parents at my district's Parent University. I slightly modified The Parent's Guide to Writing Workshop that I shared here in early September. My goals included inviting parents to write, reflect on the process, and introduce them to the philosophy and terminology of writing workshop. I prepared notebooks for them, inspired by Dana's post on Family Literacy Night. I also included a QR code to the presentation on the notebooks and the slide presentation. After a brief introduction, I read an excerpt from What a Writer Needs, by Ralph Fletcher. The story I read was the one Ralph shared about his first grade teacher, Mrs. Damon, and how she branded him as having a sloppy personality because of his penmanship. I invited the parents to write about an early experience they had with writing, modeled after a lesson frequently shared at the Long Island Writing Project's Summer Invitational. Part of the lesson involves reflecting on your process- what did you think and do from the moment you knew you had to write? I shared with them that knowing and understanding the process that writers go through is so crucial, and teachers and parents who write, too, will have a better sense of what the students are experiencing.

This part of the presentation went well, as parents were game for the writing and even shared their pieces. I had 40 minutes for the entire presentation, and I spent the rest of the time trying to explain the philosophy behind creating a community of writers, how a workshop looks and runs, the words and phrases you might hear (minilesson, mentor text, writer's notebook, etc.) When I got to spelling and conventions, this was where I felt it went awry. I could tell that the parents were looking for more concrete ways to help their child to be a better speller while drafting, or to help their student write a more effective thesis sentence, or how to help their child to write a better paragraph. I didn't deliver that, partly because it wasn't what I had planned for the session and partly because I'm not sure I have those answers. I drove home from Parent University feeling unsettled- like despite my best efforts, I struck out. There had been a gap in what the parents expected and what I delivered, and I felt badly that I let them down.

What's a teacher to do when she feels unsure and needs feedback? For me, it's my PLN to the rescue. I shared my experiences and my feelings with my literacy Voxer friends and the TWT Learning from Classmates Voxer book club. I also shared with my friends at the Long Island Writing Project. Everyone was so encouraging and reassuring but also gave me great ideas for ways I could make the experience more practical and concrete for parents next time. Here are some of the ideas:

Bring samples of student writing from different genres so parents can see what these pieces look like, across the different stages of the writing process.

Provide a checklist of what is expected for a specific genre of writing.

Emphasize that we are teaching the writer and not the specific piece of writing- process over product.

Deconstruct a piece of writing so parents can see the components.

Bring copies of the interactive spelling dictionary that students can use as a resource and personalize for words they need to learn.

Actually teach a minilesson so they can see how it looks.

Share anchor charts with parents so they understand the strategies being taught.

Have students keep a running list of minilessons taught in their notebook as a reference and then share that with the parents.

Ask parents at the start of the workshop what they are hoping to get out of the experience.

Parent University took place in the evening, but earlier that day, I had one of my best writing workshop moments of the year. Teaching about repeating lines after reading Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, I did a quick, on the fly model in front of the class, using a repeating line.

As I was conferring with a student, another student came up to me with her paper. Scanning her words, my heart leapt with joy! She tried the repeating line and hit it out of the ballpark. In our Voxer book club for Learning from Classmates, the conversations are around using student work as mentor text. This was the perfect moment to share how a student took the minilesson and made it her own, forever owning the craft move of repeating line. A few days later, another student used a repeating line in her blog post, crediting the other student for the idea. (A writing teacher's dream come true.)

If there had been more time before Parent University, I would have shared this example via SeeSaw to show the power of models, mentors, choice, expectations, and independence. Maybe the parents would have felt more confident with the writing process if they had seen this example of writer's workshop in action.

I wish I knew all the answers for how to help each student grow as a writer. The truth is, being a student IS hard work, being a teacher IS hard work and writing workshop IS hard work, too. There are no easy answers, quick fixes, silver bullets or magical formulas to make a person a strong writer. There are, however, better ways to deconstruct the process for parents and provide more detailed examples and resources. I am truly grateful to all the wise and encouraging teachers and coaches who helped me process my presentation to the parents. If I have the opportunity to do it again, thanks to their help, I know I'll do better.

Please join the conversation! What would you be sure to include in a presentation to parents on writing workshop?

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Last Thursday, I endeavored to explain writing workshop to parents in my district at Parent University. As I drove home after the presentation, I felt unsettled, like there had been a gap in what the parents were hoping to learn and what I delivered. What would you be sure to include in a presentation to...

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5 Ideas to Create a Classroom of Writers by Stacey Shubitz

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5 Ideas to Create a Classroom of Writers by Stacey Shubitz

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5 Ideas to Create a Classroom of Writers

Paige Vitulli's tweets recently caught my eye. She posted students responses to I Am An Artist by Pat Lowery Collins and Robin Brickman. Here's an example of some of the students' sticky note responses:

This made me think of the way we help students develop their writing identities during the first months of school. Some kids come to us knowing they are writers because they've been in writing workshops. However, some students have never been in writing workshops. Others are ELLs who are hesitant about writing in their new language, while others come to us as reluctant writers. Therefore, teachers have to shape students' identities as writers.

1. Address students as writers.

When the TCRWP's lessons spread across the NYC Public Schools in the mid 2000's, many people balked at the idea of starting minilessons with the word "writers" to get students' attention. As a result, I resisted too. But then I heard Lucy Calkins speak for the first time and I thought, I should try this. The next day I called my students writers. It felt silly at first, but the more I did it, the more it became second-nature. And you know what, the kids began to think of themselves and call themselves writers too.

Another way you can reinforce this is by saying, "Writers, may I have your eyes?" when you want everyone's attention for a midworkshop interruption. Make sure you wait for every set of eyes in the room so that every student knows that you're waiting for them as a writer. (Again, something else I learned from Lucy.)

2. Let them pick their tools.

I've long been from the school of thought that students should have some say over the type of notebook they're going to use and the kind of writing implement with which they're going to write. (I would be unhappy if you forced me to write with a marble notebook and a ballpoint pen since I like spiral spine notebooks and roller ball pens since they help me write faster.)

There are two predictable problems with having students pick their own tools.

Problem - Students will pick tiny notebooks that don't have enough space in them or will want to write with in neon green pen.

Solution - Set boundaries so students have choice within limits. You can specify a minimum number of pages notebooks must have or a measurement they must be. Further, you can state you only allow students to write in blue or black ink.)

Problem - Your students cannot afford to purchase their own writer's notebooks and special pens.

Solution - See if your school can allocate funds for you to purchase two or three kinds of notebooks and pens from which your students can choose. If that's not possible, write a mini-grant proposal on DonorsChoose, which is how I received funding for Moleskine and Blueline notebooks, as well as a variety of pens for my classroom.

3. Establish a writing community in your classroom.

Begin by creating a set of expectations for writing workshop with your students ( Ayres and Shubitz, 2010, 10). Hold regular share sessions at the end of every writing workshop period and make sure all students share something since this reinforces the idea that everyone has something to teach about writing. Celebrate students' writing during midworkshop interruptions, share sessions, and at publishing parties.

4. Read books to build students' identities as writers.

Every year, during the first weeks of September, I would read books that related to writing and goal-setting. You know, books like Courage, I'm in Charge of Celebrations, Ish, and Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street. However, I knew that list wasn't expansive enough. So, I polled the TWT Team to get more titles you can use for this purpose during the first month of school. Here's what we came up with:

5. Create an "I am a Writer" board.

Use Paige Vitulli 's examples (See her tweets from August 26th, 2014.) to get students thinking about when they feel they are writers. Or - use this idea as a jumping off point to create something that celebrates the writers in your classroom.

Betsy shared an online tool with the TWT team yesterday. I wanted to tinker with it so I summarized this post using the application. Click on the logo, below, if you'd like to view a summary of this blog post as an emaze presentation.

How do you help your students see themselves as writers? Please share what you do below.

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5 Ideas to Create a Classroom of Writers

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Paige Vitulli's tweets recently caught my eye. She posted students responses to I Am An Artist by Pat Lowery Collins and Robin Brickman. Here's an example of some of the students' sticky note responses: This made me think of the way we help students develop their writing identities during the first months of school.

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Learning From Classmates: Using Students' Writing as Mentor Texts by Lisa Eickholdt

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Learning From Classmates: Using Students' Writing as Mentor Texts by Lisa Eickholdt

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"When we value kids' writing enough to use it to teach other kids, all kids grow into stronger writers. Thanks, Lisa, for writing this important book.

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A PROFESSIONAL HOME FOR LONG ISLAND TEACHERS, GRADES K THROUGH COLLEGE, WHO BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF COLLABORATION & VALUE THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF WRITING.

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The Long Island Writing Project (LIWP) is an official site of the National Writing Project, part of a federally-funded network of 200 sites nationwide and eight sites in New York State. Through our...

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"A Meeting Place for a World of Reflective Writers"
From the website:
TWO WRITING TEACHERS is a place:

For teachers to be fueled with a passion for teaching, writing, and living.

For teachers to see the latest in research and ways to apply it in their classrooms.

For us to “practice what we preach” by sharing our own writing.

To bring writing teachers together to share ideas and stretch each other’s thinking.

To reflect on our teaching — celebrating when it goes well and working it out when it doesn’t.

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A meeting place for a world of reflective writers.