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ESL/ELL Resources to Succeed in School | Accredited Schools Online

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English Language Learners (ELL) have a wealth of resources available to help them succeed in school. Find guidance for teachers, parents, and students here.

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Research Guides: ESL/ELL Education: Interactive Websites for Learning

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Research Guides: ESL/ELL Education: Interactive Websites for Learning

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Comparing First and Second Language Acquisition Theories

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Comparing First and Second Language Acquisition Theories

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WTEFLAC - The World TEFL Accrediting Commission

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A child first speaks / listens before it can read or write; consequently, basic oral and aural skills development is a good starting point for teaching English as a foreign language. What can you, as a novice EFL teacher, do to develop a student's aural and oral skills?

Aural skills teaching doesn't have the same strong theoretical background as does reading, writing, and speaking; nevertheless, there are strategies that can be used to develop the student's listening skills. One such strategy is based on breaking up a given listening exercise into three component parts: pre-listening, while-listening, and post- listening.

Prior to listening to the recording (the pre-listening stage), you should provide your students with the necessary background knowledge as well as any vocabulary or expressions that are relevant to the recording. For example, if the recording concerns a shipwreck, you should provide the students with any necessary expressions that might be useful to them: this doesn't mean that you have to provide them with only the vocabulary and expressions that will be heard on the recording.

In the while-listening stage, the students actually listen to the recording, and answer the set questions. In EFL exams, the listening recording is heard twice (Cambridge and Michigan); however, for classroom purposes, it can be heard up to three times - although examination classes should only be allowed to hear it twice.

After the listening has finished, the text and answers are analyzed in detail - this is the post- listening stage: you will be required to re-play the recording and simultaneously explain the reason for the given answers to the listening exercises.

Apart from the classroom strategy mentioned above, aural skills can be further developed by any one of the following activities: listening to the radio, watching (subtitled) films, and TV/internet programs.

In the case of oral skills, these can best be developed by interaction: question and answer situations, group work, role play, and small speeches all contribute to the development of the student's oral skills. You should try to construct scenarios where the students can use the vocabulary that they have learnt, and the interactions should be structured, i.e., the activities must be based on handouts or strict instructions, e.g., "Pair up and use the town map to ask each other for directions".

Finally, the use of video films is highly recommended because it simultaneously furthers the development of both aural and oral skills.

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A child first speaks / listens before it can read or write; consequently, basic oral and aural skills development is a good starting point for teaching English as a foreign language. What can you, as a novice EFL teacher, do to develop a student's aural and oral skills?

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Teaching in a Multilingual and Multicultural Classroom

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Teaching in a Multilingual and Multicultural Classroom

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Long hailed as a melting pot of cultures, America is home to millions of immigrants - whether their ancestors sailed across on the Mayflower or they moved to the country last week. Research by the National Center for Educational Statistics found that one-third of U.S. students are considered racial or ethnic minorities, a number that is set to increase to more than half by 2050. In this changing educational landscape, teachers are challenged with creating inclusive classrooms where students of all backgrounds feel represented and welcomed. The following guide explores how teachers can build inclusive multicultural learning environments.

Finding a Place for Culture in the Classroom

What is Culture?

Culture is a broad term, and one that is not easily summed up. In her book Culture Learning: The Fifth Dimension on the Language Classroom, author Louise Damen defined culture as the "learned and shared human patterns or models for living; day-to-day living patterns [that] pervade all aspects of human social interaction. Culture is mankind's primary adaptive mechanism." Individuals from varied nationalities, ethnicities, and races all bring cultural traditions to their interactions, and it's up to teachers to recognize, celebrate and share these different perspectives. The following graphic displays some of the many ways that culture affects learning, both inside and outside the classroom:
In the Classroom Outside of the Classroom
What is Multicultural Education?

Multicultural education is not a task to be done or even an end goal to be accomplished. Instead, it is an approach to education that aims to include all students, promote learning of other cultures, and teach healthy social skills in a multicultural setting. "It is the present and future of education," according to Shilpa Bhouraskar, who runs a business offering online courses to students worldwide. "Multicultural classrooms are a melting pot of learning," she says. "Rather than a passive, one-way flow of learning from teacher to student, there is a brainstorming of ideas, stories, and experiences that enrich the educational experience in ways that are impossible in monocultural classes."

Classroom Resources for Multicultural Education

Using different activities and games in multicultural classrooms is an excellent way to foster inclusivity and encourage students to share their heritage. It's also a beneficial way for teachers to involve students in different styles of study to immerse them in their learning. Sharing about oneself within the confines of an activity is often much easier than being asked open-ended questions and put "on the spot." These activities can then provide a safe space for dialogue and serve as an entryway into more in-depth interactions. The following section outlines some examples of activities and games appropriate for different age groups.

Classroom Activities

Elementary School

Secondary School

Digital Holiday Field Trip Grades 1-5 Take a virtual field trip to different students' places of origin, on days when their country or culture is celebrating a holiday unique to them.

Immigration Stories Middle or high school Use Ellis Island's interactive online tour to learn about different cultures that immigrated to America. Expand the activity by allowing students to share their unique families' immigration stories.

Support and Resources for Teachers

Educating the future generation is a challenging job on its own, but for educators committed to culturally responsive teaching, the task can feel overwhelming at times. Fortunately, they don't have to go it alone-there are numerous resources both within schools and online. Some of the top places that teachers can turn to for support include:
School Counselors
School counselors typically work one-on-one with students and gain a fuller understanding of a child's background and home life. They can help teachers understand challenges that your students are facing outside of the classroom that can be affecting their learning.
Principals
Principals can be the driving force to help teachers enact change, engage parents, and set up meetings or events to encourage inclusive behaviors. They can be key leaders to implement multicultural learning strategies school-wide.
The National Association for Multicultural Education
This professional association provides resources and hosts an annual conference for teachers striving for social justice and equity in their classrooms.
Center for Multilingual Multicultural Research
Operating at the University of Southern California, this group conducts research about best practices in multicultural teaching and shares its findings regularly.
Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence
CREDE offers research, curriculum development tips, videos, and resources for teachers of diverse classrooms.
Institute on Race and Poverty
An excellent resource for teachers who have students struggling against poverty.

Top 10 Books for Multicultural Learning

Reading aloud is an important teaching tool no matter the classroom, and books featuring children from different cultures can play a vital role in bringing all students together. Teachers can set the stage by reading aloud during class, or by having students take turns. For independent reading, students can be encouraged to choose books that allow them to step outside their culture. Below are some good examples of books that explore themes across varied cultures.

Teacher Resources for ESL Students & Families

ESL, an acronym for English as a Second Language, is a study program for students who are nonnative English speakers. Ideally, ESL teachers can use their students' cultural traditions and customs to help them learn about one another and find topics of conversation in English, although it will take creativity and forethought to effectively incorporate the experiences of students from many different cultural backgrounds. Some of the best resources for multicultural integration and ESL learning are given below.

For Parents & Guardians:
Strengthening Multicultural Education

Parents, guardians and other family members are a crucial component in educating the future generation. They serve as role models, advocates for their children, and links between their children and society as a whole. As active participants in their children's learning, they can help ease the tension, confusion, or frustration that may arise when children are trying to navigate cultural and language differences. The following section highlights some of the ways parents, guardians and other family members can help their children receive the best education possible.

Promoting Inclusion: Solutions to Common Challenges

A classroom attuned to the individual histories and backgrounds of its students is best positioned to be an inviting and stimulating space for all students. Unfortunately, there are still many that fail to embrace and educate students on the beauty of difference. Some of the most common problems of non-inclusive classroom environments along with their solutions are listed below.

Bullying presents an increased risk in classrooms where students aren't properly educated about different cultures.

Help students understand that classmates from other places aren't weird or bad, only different, to help remove motivations that lead to bullying.

Cliques often exclude students from other cultures, as students don't have the tools to interact with children who aren't like them.

Ensure classroom activities are inclusive and designed to engage students with each other, to build friendship and familiarity.

Refraining from talking about culture means students remain ignorant of how their classmates learn and interact with the world.

Make sure lesson plans focus on the cultures and histories of all students in the classroom, not only those from majority groups.

Teachers who don't take time to get to know their students' backgrounds often set a negative precedent for student engagement.

Commit to speaking to all students on a regular basis, to send the message that interacting and learning about one another is important.

When teachers fail to discourage behavior that stems from stereotypes or misconceptions, it can foster bias against students of certain cultural backgrounds.

Teachers should be aware of preconceived ideas about the students in the classroom to guard against biased talk on the part of other students.

Spotlight: Advice for Teaching English Abroad

According to a recent report on international education, the number of international schools has risen by 153 percent in the last 12 years, with more than 529,000 qualified teachers expected to be employed overseas by 2022. Teachers who want to be truly immersed in multicultural classrooms are drawn to these positions, which often pay similar salaries as positions in America. Some of the top tips for succeeding in an international school system include:
Do's DO dress appropriately
Appropriate attire varies dramatically across cultures, and dressing too informally could be a sign of disrespect or show a lack of awareness about how teachers should present themselves.
DO learn how to manage your classroom early on
Different cultures manage classroom behavior in different ways, so observe native teachers and learn about their practices of discipline.
DO understand the country's learning style
School children in America are taught to be engaged, energetic students, but other cultures train students to be quiet listeners. Just because all students aren't raising their hands doesn't mean they aren't learning
Don'ts DON'T single a student out
Whether for praise or discipline, this is a decidedly American teaching habit and should be avoided in most international classrooms. Instead, encourage inclusive behaviors.
DON'T neglect to monitor student progress
New teachers may feel like they are struggling, so it's important to track how your students are doing to help remind you that they-and you-are making progress.
DON'T forget to make inclusive learning fun
While it's important to make sure students feel represented and known, it's also important to make sure there are fun activities that help students naturally engage with each other without feeling like it's an assignment.

Q & A: Advice from a Multiculturalism Expert

Additional Resources for Teachers

Association for Multicultural Science Education
AMSE promotes science education within culturally diverse classrooms. The group provides a newsletter and hosts an annual conference.

International Multicultural Institute
More than 50,000 people have attended the IMCI's annual conferences and workshops in recent years to work on developing inclusive educational institutions.

National Association on Bilingual Education
NABE advocates for teachers in bilingual education, and also offers an annual conference and series of publications.

National Education Association
The NEA devotes a section of its website to sharing resources for handling diversity and multicultural issues within classrooms.

New York Collective of Radical Educators
NYCoRE organizes multicultural events and conferences to encourage inclusivity even after the school bell rings.

The Importance of Multicultural Education
This academic paper by Geneva Gay makes the case for the critical role multicultural awareness and education plays in academic success and inclusivity.

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Multicultural classroom culture is a melting pot of learning. Learn about tips for teaching multicultural students here.

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Strategies for Reading and Writing Development

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Strategies for Reading and Writing Development

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Literacy is a foundational part of our personal and professional lives. Adult educators have internalized much of the reading and writing process. But these tasks often feel nebulous to students. Why is this the case? Unlike solving a math problem, we can't always break down reading and writing into clear steps.

Teachers may struggle to find strategies to help students improve at literacy. So, they end up reading and writing, instead of reading and writing.

Learning to understand a poem or structure an argumentative essay is a challenge. That said, there are principles that teachers can apply to their instruction. These principles can help to maximize the effectiveness of their literacy instruction.

The ideas that follow are not a quick fix. They are a menu of options that teachers can include, when appropriate, to make the best of their lessons.

Reading Strategies:
Think Aloud
Teachers often forget all that goes into understanding a text. Developing readers don't know the mental work required to turn the words on the page into meaning. This opens up an opportunity for teachers to model their thinking process for the class in a "Think Aloud." This is when the teacher reads a text aloud, pausing to explain her thoughts. It might sound something like this:
Here, at the beginning of the novel, I noticed that the main character is reflecting on her experience from high school, even though she is now thirty years old. This makes me wonder why the author has chosen to have the older version of the narrator tell the story, and why this time from teenage years is important to this now older woman.
Thinking aloud requires practice, and it's alright if it doesn't succeed the first time. In fact, it's good for students to see teachers struggle. This shows students that everyone can struggle with comprehension.
Set a Purpose
This point refers to teaching whole class texts, whether that is an article, a novel, a poem, a play, or other. Students are more engaged in their reading if the teacher sets a purpose for reading. This can include a specific question or prompt. An alternative is to ask students to make a mark where something in the text is surprising or interesting. It does not need to be complex, only focused.
Write to Learn
Reading and writing recursive processes. They lead into and complement each other. Often, students will process a text better if they write about the text after reading it. One way to do this is quick write prompts. This is when students respond to a specific quote or question for a short period of time (two minutes, for example). Another option is to ask students to explain how some part of the text relates to or differs from their lives.

Writing Strategies:
Teaching Pre-Writing
Have you heard of "blank page syndrome?" This is when students stare at a blank screen or paper. The cursor blinks, the pen twiddles, without a word appearing on the page. Writing with fluency and volume is not natural for most people. Teaching pre-writing helps students to get started, so they build momentum. Some examples of prewriting strategies:

Listing questions the writer has about an expository topic

Listing opinions from many perspectives for an argumentative piece

Using a plot diagram to outline a narrative

Sentence Combining
Grammar instruction overwhelms teachers as much as grammar overwhelms students. One simple entry point is teaching students explicit techniques for combining sentences. Teachers can present students sophisticated sentences structures, which lead to more sophisticated thoughts. The teacher can include terms and rules into these lessons because there is context for them.
Studying Mentor Texts
Students learn to write by watching good writers and copying them. Are students into writing editorials? Then the whole class can study editorials from popular news sites. In the follow-up, students can read a variety of editorials on their own. They can make lists of the structural and stylistic techniques that writers of the genre use. Further, teachers can ask students to copy the style of good sentences from mentor texts. This leads into writing full pieces in the style of mentor texts that the class has studied.

Effective reading and writing instruction is hard to plan. With so many needs in a single classroom, a teacher needs a whole toolkit of strategies. There are no magic tricks for improving literacy, but there are guiding principles.

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6 Strategies for Effective Writing & Reading Instruction

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Literacy is a foundational part of our personal and professional lives. Adult educators have internalized much of the reading and writing process. But these tasks often feel nebulous to students. Why is this the case? Unlike solving a math problem, we can't always break down reading and writing into clear steps.

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Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension

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Comprehension strategies are conscious plans — sets of steps that good readers use to make sense of text. Comprehension strategy instruction helps students become purposeful, active readers who are in control of their own reading comprehension. These seven strategies have research-based evidence for…

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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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10 Ways to Get Students Using Academic Language

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District specialist Valentina Gonzalez says English learners need "massive opportunities" to use academic language in class. She shares 10 teaching techniques.

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Better ways to ask "Does that makes sense?"

What is formative assessment?

Formative assessment is assessment for learning as opposed to end of the unit assessment of learning (summative assessment). Assessment is formative when:

Evidence is gathered about student achievement or understanding.

This information allows the teacher or learner to alter future instructional steps.

It's done in order to improve learning outcomes (Black & William, 2009).

This information serves as feedback to the teacher about how a student is doing in order to plan next steps (e.g., for teaching) and may also be for students so that they are aware of their own understanding (e.g., for learning). It's easier to understand what formative assessment is by comparing it to summative assessment and noting the differences seen below.

A key point to note is that formative assessment is used to understand whether an activity or lesson worked and to use this feedback to make adjustments. It serves no purpose to find out students are confused and move on anyway.

An often-used quote that helps illustrate the difference between these is:

"When the cook tastes the soup, that's formative. When the guests taste the soup, that's summative."
Robert E. Stake

Why do I need it?

There are several reasons to assess student understanding before a lesson has concluded.

Barriers: Often concepts build off of each other. If students did not understand the initial foundational concepts you are teaching, there is no point in moving on to subsequent topics as students will be unable to make meaning out of them.

Efficiency: If you spend too much time teaching something students already understand, or not enough time on topics they find difficult, you will be using your limited time inefficiently. The only way to determine this is to assess student understanding during lessons.

Feedback: In order for feedback to be effective it must be timely. If the only feedback students receive is after the lesson is over (exams, homework assignments) then students will have moved on to the next task. It's not only unhelpful to receive feedback when that information can no longer be applied, it will also be a waste of your time writing it.

Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)

There are several resources for formative assessment activities. One of the most popular sets of formative assessment activities are called Classroom Assessment Techniques by Angelo and Cross (1993).

Name

Description

What to do with the data

Time requirement

Minute paper
During the last few minutes of the class period, ask students to answer on a half-sheet of paper: "What is the most important point you learned today?"; and, "What point remains least clear to you?" The purpose is to elicit data about students' comprehension of a particular class session.

Review responses and note any useful comments. During the following class periods emphasize the issues illuminated by your students' comments.

Prep: Low
In class: Low
Analysis: Low

Chain notes
Students pass around an envelope on which the teacher has written one question about the class. When the envelope reaches a student he/she spends a moment to respond to the question and then places the response in the envelope.

Go through the student responses and determine the best criteria for categorizing the data with the goal of detecting response patterns. Discussing the patterns of responses with students can lead to better teaching and learning.

Students fill in cells of a two-dimensional diagram for which the instructor has provided labels. For example, in a music course, labels might consist of periods (Baroque, Classical) by countries (Germany, France, Britain); students enter composers in cells to demonstrate their ability to remember and classify key concepts.

Tally the numbers of correct and incorrect responses in each cell. Analyze differences both between and among the cells. Look for patterns among the incorrect responses and decide what might be the cause(s).

Directed paraphrasing
Ask students to write a layman's "translation" of something they have just learned-geared to a specified individual or audience-to assess their ability to comprehend and transfer concepts.

Categorize student responses according to characteristics you feel are important. Analyze the responses both within and across categories, noting ways you could address student needs.

Prep: Low
In class: Med
Analysis: Med

One-sentence summary
Students summarize knowledge of a topic by constructing a single sentence that answers the questions "Who does what to whom, when, where, how, and why?" The purpose is to require students to select only the defining features of an idea.

Evaluate the quality of each summary quickly and holistically. Note whether students have identified the essential concepts of the class topic and their interrelationships. Share your observations with your students.

Student-generated test questions
Allow students to write test questions and model answers for specified topics, in a format consistent with course exams. This will give students the opportunity to evaluate the course topics, reflect on what they understand, and what are good test items.

Make a rough tally of the questions your students propose and the topics that they cover. Evaluate the questions and use the goods ones as prompts for discussion. You may also want to revise the questions and use them on the upcoming exam.

Prep: Med
In class: High
Analysis: High
(May be homework)

Educative assessment

Another way of describing or thinking about formative assessment is by Wiggins (1998) as well as Fink (2013) called educative assessment. Fink recommends four steps for creating quality educative assessments.

Forward looking. Change the focus of your assessment to forward-looking. Backward assessment looks at what's been covered and asks students "Did you get it?" Forward-looking assessment looks ahead to what you might want students to do with that content. It asks the question "Can you do this with what you've learned?" This means giving students authentic forward looking tasks (i.e., using the information as it would be used in the real world).

Identify appropriate criteria or standards. In order for students to do something well they need to understand what components of the task are being assessed and the criteria for quality for those components. One way to do this is to create rubrics that are shared with the students at the start of the task to make clear what is expected of them (see Rubrics). Two added bonuses are that rubrics make grading more focused and fair and when students score poorly there is an objective agreed upon measure to point to for why this has happened.

Give many opportunities for self-assessment. In order for students to learn from their mistakes as well as their successes they need plenty of opportunities to practice and receive feedback. Building in activities throughout the individual units of instruction can help students self-assess earlier while they still have time to ask questions and adjust what they are doing.

Provide FIDeLity feedback. Feedback is both not part of a student's grade and is in dialogue with them. It needs to be:
Feedback is only helpful if they have many opportunities, the topic is still fresh (and ongoing), it's clear what they did wrong and how they might do better, and it's delivered in a safe and constructive way.
This is in contrast to "auditive" assessment (i.e., summative, Wiggins 1998), such as grading, which is backwards-looking. To be clear, auditive is not a bad way of assessing, but a good mix of all types of assessment is needed.

Best practices for feedback

There are also best practices and educational theory bolstering the need for formative assessment. First, educational research has shown that in order for students to learn teachers must engage their previous understanding, support the development of a conceptual framework of ideas (i.e. students learn nothing if they only collect unconnected facts) and support metacognition in order for students to monitor their own learning (Bransford et al., 2000). All three of these principals require the feedback necessitated by formative assessment.

In order for feedback to be successful, formative assessment must:

Clarify and share learning goals and success criteria.

Create effective classroom discussions and other tasks which demonstrate evidence of student understanding.

Provide feedback that can and will be acted upon.

Allow students to become instructional resources for one another.

Stimulate students to become owners of their own learning (Wiliam & Thompson, 2008).

Evidence for formative assessment

Previous studies, and large meta-analyses gathering together the finding from these studies have shown large effect sizes of .4 to .7 in learning gains (an equivalent of 1 to 2 letter grades) for students when teachers use formative assessment (Black & Wiliam, 1998; 2006). Gains are also shown to affect special education students including those with low attaining students and those with disabilities (Fuchs et al., 1997) leading formative assessment to be considered the 3rd most powerful teaching practice (d = .90; Hattie, 2008).

There have been several challenges to the accuracy of these studies, with the most notable criticism being vague and often circular definitions of what constitutes formative assessment, poor research design of many studies and no agreed upon methods or terminology for formative assessment (Dunn & Mulvenon, 2009; Kingston & Nash, 2011). These are issues related to how people have studied formative assessment and not formative assessment itself.
CATs resources

FAQ on CATs (Johns Hopkins)
What are CATs, benefits (to student and faculty), when, how, and how often to use, 10 in-depth examples.

Example CATs for Large Classes (PSU)
15 CATs suitable for use with large, lecture-style classes.

50 CATs from Angelo & Cross (1993)
CATs to assess learners' knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, self-awareness, and reactions to instruction; List organized by level of Bloom's taxonomy that the set of CATs target.

A Conceptual Model for CATs in the Online Classroom (Bergquist & Holbeck, 2014)
Brief article establishing a conceptual model for the use of CATs in an online classroom.

CATs to get Feedback on Student Learning (Michigan)
1-page chart with selected CATs examples - names, descriptions, amount of time (prep & in-class) required for each.

Classroom Assessment Techniques (CAT) page (GWU)
What are CATs, why should you use them, examples.

"MudCard" CAT Example (MIT)
Sample CAT to quickly do with your students after lesson - assessing confusing "muddy" points, unanswered questions and helpful/not helpful techniques, examples, etc.

CATs examples (University of Texas, Austin) Description, impacts (students & instructors), 7 characteristics of CATs, examples.

Sample Exit Tickets (Iowa State University)
Example of a popular, broadly-applicable CAT - "exit tickets."

Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers. Second Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and Classroom Learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5(1), 7-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969595980050102

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2006). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. London, England: Granada Learning.

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2009). Developing the theory of formative assessment. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 21(1), 5-31.

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.). (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Dunn, K. E., & Mulvenon, S. W. (2009). A critical review of research on formative assessment: The limited scientific evidence of the impact of formative assessment in education. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 14(7), 1-11.

Fink, L. D. (2013). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses. John Wiley & Sons.

Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Karns, K., Hamlett, C. L., Katzaroff, M., & Dutka, S. (1997). Effects of task-focused goals on low-achieving students with and without learning disabilities. American Educational Research Journal, 34(3), 513-543.

Hattie, J. (2008). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. New York, NY: Routledge.

Kingston, N., & Nash, B. (2011). Formative assessment: A meta-analysis and a call for research. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 30(4), 28-37.

Moss, C. M., & Brookhart, S. M. (2010). Advancing Formative Assessment in Every Classroom: A Guide for Instructional Leaders. ASCD.

Suskie, L. (2009). Assessing student learning: A common sense guide. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Wiggins, G. (1998). Educative Assessment. Designing Assessments To Inform and Improve Student Performance. Jossey-Bass Publishers, 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco, CA 94104.

Wiliam, D., & Thompson, M. (2017). Integrating Assessment with Learning: What Will It Take to Make It Work? In C. A. Dwyer (Ed.), The Future of Assessment: Shaping Teaching and Learning (pp. 53-82). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

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Better ways to ask "Does that makes sense?" What is formative assessment? Formative assessment is assessment for learning as opposed to end of the unit assessment of learning (summative assessment). Assessment is formative when: Evidence is gathered about student achievement or understanding. This information allows the teacher or learner to alter future instructional steps.

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A few years ago, I came across "10 assessments you can perform in 90 seconds" by TeachThought and really enjoyed the formative assessment strategies they outlined. Using formative assessment strategies in class during instruction-or "simple assessments," as they call them-is easy and provides the instant feedback teachers need to identify which learners need more help and adjust their instruction and lesson plans accordingly. Visit the blog above to get more detail on the following techniques:

1. New Clothes

2. Dos and Don'ts

3. Three Common Misunderstandings

4. Yes/No Chart

5. Three Questions

6. Explain What Matters

7. Big Picture

8. Venn Diagram

9. Draw It

10. Self-Directed Response

Combining these 10 with 10 others we've blogged about in the past gives teachers 20 great formative assessment strategies for checking on student learning. Be sure to click through to learn more about these formative assessment strategies.

Want more? Here are seven more strategies you can use to elicit evidence of student learning.

1. Entrance Tickets. We've blogged about and explained the Exit Ticket, so why not have an Entrance Ticket? Here, the teacher asks a question at the start of a lesson, and students write their responses on index cards or strips of paper. Answers are used to assess initial understanding of something to be discussed in that day's lesson or as a short summary of understanding of the previous day's lesson. The teacher designs the lesson around the fact that information on student learning will be coming in at the start of the lesson and can be used to improve the teaching and learning in that lesson. Be sure to write the question so it is easily interpreted and analyzed, allows time for you and/or the students to analyze the responses, and leaves space for you to adjust the lesson, if needed.

2. Keep the Question Going. With this formative assessment strategy, you'll ask one student a question and then ask another student if that answer seems reasonable or correct. Then, ask a third student for an explanation of why there is an agreement or not. This helps keep all the students engaged because they must be prepared to either agree or disagree with the answers given and provide explanations.

3. 30-Second Share. With this strategy, students take a turn to report something learned in a lesson for up to 30 seconds each. Connections to the learning targets or success criteria are what you'll be looking for in the language used by the student. Make this a routine at the end of a lesson so all students have the opportunity to participate, share insights, and clarify what was learned.

4. Parking Lot. This is an underused strategy for students and one that can surface questions before learning, as well as during and after. This tool also offers an anonymous place for questions that may be directly related to the content or tangential to the current topic and provide insight into student thinking. Simply save a spot on your whiteboard to write down ideas or questions that aren't completely relevant in the moment but should be revisited later.

5. One-Minute Paper. This might be considered a type of exit ticket as it is typically done near the end of the day. Ask your students, either individually or with a partner, to respond in writing to a single prompt. Typical prompts include:

Most important learning from the day and why

Most surprising concept and why

Most confusing topic and why

Something I think might appear on a test or quiz and why

3-2-1. At the end of the learning, this strategy provides students a way to summarize or even question what they just learned. Three prompts are provided for students to respond to:

3 things you didn't know before

2 things that surprised you about the topic

1 thing you want to start doing with what you've learned

Assessment Reflection. This strategy is a post-assessment reflection completed individually first and then shared in a small group. After an assessment, the teacher provides a list of questions so learners can reflect on their assessment experience. During group discussion, ideas are collected as new information to support students to better prepare for and engage in future assessments. Consider the following or similar questions. You might also use strategies such as Plus, Minus, Interesting, or Plus/Delta.

How engaged were you with this assessment? Why?

What did you feel most confident about? Why?

What did you do that led to your success or confidence?

What was the most difficult part of this assessment? Why?

What would you do differently next time?

What was the most confusing? Why?

What do you know about the topic that the assessment didn't allow you to show?

Dig in

All 27 of these formative assessment strategies are simple to administer and free or inexpensive to use. They'll provide you with the evidence of student learning you need to make lesson plan adjustments and keep learning on target and moving forward. They'll also give your students valuable information so they can adjust their learning tactics and know where to focus their energies.

If you're not quite sure where to get started, the following discussion questions can help.

Questions for teachers

How do you use formative assessment data to inform instructional decisions?

How can formative assessment strategies foster a learning environment of collaboration and engagement?

How do formative assessment strategies elicit evidence of student learning?

What is one strategy you could try tomorrow and why?

How do you use formative assessment data to drive school-wide instructional academic decisions?

How can you model formative assessment strategies in staff meetings, PLCs, and meetings with teachers?

What are three formative assessment strategies you could bring to your teachers and staff? Why do you feel these would be most effective at your school?

To learn more, visit the Formative Assessment Archive for Teach. Learn. Grow., and get more formative assessment tips and tricks in our e-book "Making it work: How formative assessment can supercharge your practice."

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27 Easy Formative Assessment Strategies for Gathering Evidence of Student Learning

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All 27 of these formative assessment strategies are simple to administer and free or inexpensive to use. They provide the teacher with the evidence of student learning needed to make lesson plan adjustments and keep learning on target and moving forward.

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Effective Instructional Strategies for ELLs with Special Needs

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Effective Instructional Strategies for ELLs with Special Needs

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English Language Learners with Special Needs: Effective Instructional Strategies

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Students fail in school for a variety of reasons. In some cases, their academic difficulties can be directly attributed to deficiencies in the teaching and learning environment. For example, students with limited English may fail because they do not have access to effective bilingual or English as a second language (ESL) instruction. Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may have difficulty if instruction presumes middle-class experiences. Other students may have learning difficulties stemming from linguistic or cultural differences. These difficulties may become more serious over time if instruction is not modified to address the students’ specific needs. Unless these students receive appropriate intervention, they will continue to struggle, and the gap between their achievement and that of their peers will widen over time.Still other students need specialized instruction because of specific learning disabilities. The over representation of English language learners in special education classes (Yates & Ortiz, 1998) suggests that educators have difficulty distinguishing students who truly have learning disabilities from students who are failing for other reasons, such as limited English. Students learning English are disadvantaged by a scarcity of appropriate assessment instruments and a lack of personnel trained to conduct linguistically and culturally relevant educational assessments (Valdes & Figueroa, 1996). English language learners who need special education services are further disadvantaged by the shortage of special educators who are trained to address their language- and disability-related needs simultaneously.Improving the academic performance of students from non-English backgrounds requires a focus on the prevention of failure and on early intervention for struggling learners. This digest presents a framework for meeting the needs of these students in general education and suggests ways to operationalize prevention and early intervention to ensure that students meet their academic potential.Prevention of school failurePrevention of failure among English language learners involves two critical elements: the creation of educational environments that are conducive to their academic success and the use of instructional strategies known to be effective with these students (Ortiz, 1997; Ortiz & Wilkinson, 1991). Preventing school failure begins with the creation of school climates that foster academic success and empower students (Cummins, 1989). Such environments reflect a philosophy that all students can learn and that educators are responsible for helping them learn. Positive school environments are characterized by strong administrative leadership; high expectations for student achievement; challenging, appropriate curricula and instruction; a safe and orderly environment; ongoing, systematic evaluation of student progress; and shared decision-making among ESL teachers, general education teachers, administrators, and parents. Several other factors are critical to the success of English language learners, including the following: (1) a shared knowledge base among educators about effective ways to work with students learning English, (2) recognition of the importance of the students’ native language, (3) collaborative school and community relationships, (4) academically rich programs that integrate basic skill instruction with the teaching of higher order skills in both the native language and in English, and (5) effective instruction.A shared knowledge baseTeachers must share a common philosophy and knowledge base relative to the education of students learning English. They should be knowledgeable about all of the following areas: second language acquisition; the relationship of native language proficiency to the development of English; assessment of proficiency in the native language and English; sociocultural influences on learning; effective first and second language instruction; informal assessment strategies that can be used to monitor progress, particularly in language and literacy development; and effective strategies for working with culturally and linguistically diverse families and communities.Recognition of the students’ native languageLanguage programs must have the support of principals, teachers, parents, and the community. School staff should understand that native language instruction provides the foundation for achieving high levels of English proficiency (Cummins, 1994; Krashen, 1991; Thomas & Collier, 1997). Language development should be the shared responsibility of all teachers, not only those in bilingual and ESL classes.Collaborative school-community relationshipsParents of students learning English must be viewed as capable advocates for their children and as valuable resources in school improvement efforts (Cummins, 1994). By being involved with the families and communities of English learners, educators come to understand the social, linguistic, and cultural contexts in which the children are being raised (Ortiz, 1997). Thus, educators learn to respect cultural differences in child-rearing practices and in how parents choose to be involved in their children’s education (Garcia & Dominguez, 1997).Academically rich programsStudents learning English must have opportunities to learn advanced skills in comprehension, reasoning, and composition and have access to curricula and instruction that integrate basic skill development with higher order thinking and problem solving (Ortiz, & Wilkinson, 1991).Effective instructionStudents must have access to high-quality instruction designed to help them meet high expectations. Teachers should employ strategies known to be effective with English learners, such as drawing on their prior knowledge; providing opportunities to review previously learned concepts and teaching them to employ those concepts; organizing themes or strands that connect the curriculum across subject areas; and providing individual guidance, assistance, and support to fill gaps in background knowledge.Early intervention for struggling learnersMost learning problems can be prevented if students are in positive school and classroom contexts that accommodate individual differences. However, even in the most positive environments, some students still experience difficulties. For these students, early intervention strategies must be implemented as soon as learning problems are noted. Early intervention means that “supplementary instructional services are provided early in students’ schooling, and that they are intense enough to bring at-risk students quickly to a level at which they can profit from high-quality classroom instruction” (Madden, Slavin, Karweit, Dolan, & Wasik, 1991, p. 594).The intent of early intervention is to create general education support systems for struggling learners as a way to improve academic performance and to reduce inappropriate special education referrals. Examples of early intervention include clinical teaching, peer and expert consultation, teacher assistance teams, and alternative programs such as those that offer tutorial or remedial instruction in the context of general education.Clinical teachingClinical teaching is carefully sequenced. First, teachers teach skills, subjects, or concepts; then they re-teach using different strategies or approaches for the benefit of students who fail to meet expected performance levels after initial instruction; finally, they use informal assessment strategies to identify the possible causes of failure (Ortiz, 1997; Ortiz & Wilkinson, 1991). Teachers conduct curriculum-based assessment to monitor student progress and use the data from these assessments to plan and modify instruction.Peer or expert consultationPeers or experts work collaboratively with general education teachers to address students’ learning problems and to implement recommendations for intervention (Fuchs, Fuchs, Bahr, Fernstrom, & Stecker, 1990). For example, teachers can share instructional resources, observe each other’s classrooms, and offer suggestions for improving instruction or managing behavior. ESL teachers can help general education teachers by demonstrating strategies to integrate English learners in mainstream classrooms. In schools with positive climates, faculty function as a community and share the goal of helping students and each other, regardless of the labels students have been given or the programs or classrooms to which teachers and students are assigned.Teacher assistance teams (TATs)TATs can help teachers resolve problems they routinely encounter in their classrooms (Chalfant & Pysh, 1981). These teams, comprised of four to six general education teachers and the teacher who requests assistance, design interventions to help struggling learners. Team members work to reach a consensus about the nature of a student’s problem; determine priorities for intervention; help the classroom teacher to select strategies or approaches to solve the problem; assign responsibility for carrying out the recommendations; and establish a follow-up plan to monitor progress. The classroom teacher then implements the plan, and follow-up meetings are held to review progress toward resolution of the problem.Alternative programs and servicesGeneral education, not special education, should be primarily responsible for the education of students with special learning needs that cannot be attributed to disabilities, such as migrant students who may miss critical instruction over the course of the year or immigrant children why may arrive in U.S. schools with limited prior education. General education alternatives may include one-on-one tutoring, family and support groups, family counseling, and the range of services supported by federal Title I funds. Such support should be supplemental to and not a replacement for general education instruction.Referral to special educationWhen prevention and early intervention strategies fail to resolve learning difficulties, referral to special education is warranted. The responsibilities of special education referral committees are similar to those of TATs. The primary difference is that referral committees include a variety of specialists, such as principals, special education teachers, and assessment personnel. These specialists bring their expertise to bear on the problem, especially in areas related to assessment, diagnosis, and specialized instruction.Decisions of the referral committee are formed by data gathered through the prevention, early intervention, and referral processes. The recommendation that a student receive a comprehensive individual assessment to determine whether special education services are needed indicates the following: (1) the child is in a positive school climate; (2) the teacher has used instructional strategies known to be effective for English learners; (3) neither clinical teaching nor interventions recommended by the TAT resolved the problem; and (4) other general education alternatives also proved unsuccessful. If students continue to struggle in spite of these efforts to individualize instruction and to accommodate their learning characteristics, they most likely have a learning disability (Ortiz, 1997).ConclusionEarly intervention for English learners who are having difficulty in school is first and foremost the responsibility of general education professionals. If school climates are not supportive and if instruction is not tailored to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students in general education, these students have little chance of succeeding. Interventions that focus solely on remediating students’ learning and behavior problems will yield limited results.The anticipated outcomes of problem-prevention strategies and early intervention include the following: a reduction in the number of students perceived to be at risk by general education teachers because of teachers’ increased ability to accommodate the naturally occurring diversity of skills and characteristics of students in their classes, reduction in the number of students inappropriately referred to remedial or special education programs, reduction in the number of students inaccurately identified as having a disability, and improved student outcomes in both general and special education.

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Education Week - Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo

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The new "question-of-the-week" is:
What are the best instructional strategies for working with ELLs who have special needs?
Adequately supporting English Language Learners is often a challenge for many schools, and accurately identifying and supporting ELLs with special needs can be an even greater challenge. When is it a language issue and when is it an issue related to special needs?Today, Maria Montalvo, Beverly Maxwell, Jennie Farnell, Ann Wilson, share their suggestions. You can listen to a ten-minute conversation the five of us had on my BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

You might also be interested in a previous post in this blog, Assisting Students With Special Needs.
Response From Maria Montalvo & Beverly Maxwell

Maria Montalvo is the ELL Director at the Metropolitan Regional Educational Service Agency (Metro RESA) in Georgia and a member of the ASCD Faculty, where she works with schools and districts to implement customized, research-based curricula and instructional strategies. Beverly Maxwell is a program specialist with Metro RESA, focusing on special education:
My first year of teaching pedagogical tool box was nowhere near full. As a special education teacher, I was curious about my student's brains, devoted to adapting my instruction to match their deficits and compassionate towards the cognitive load they were experiencing. These practices would have been enough, had I had a class of culturally and linguistically homogenous students--which I didn't. With school being close to the community where many refugees settled, I had the opportunity to serve students who qualified for both EL and IEP services. I struggled with understanding the difference between Language Acquisition and Cognitive Disabilities. I wasn't sure if there was an overlap in the specialized instruction techniques for dually certified students. Are there commonalities in the best practices for EL students with special needs? Absolutely. Before instructional planning begins, it is important to make sure the best practices in EL align to the processing disorder. For example, my former EL student was identified as having a Learning Disability. Visual Processing and Long-term Memory Storage were her deficits. Thinking her EL needs required the heavy use of visuals; I consistently used pictures to represent concepts. Catch my mistake? My instructional intervention targeted her cognitive deficit--adding to her already overloaded processing. Knowing your students level of language proficiency in both their native language, as well as the new language being learned, is the first step in understanding where to start with a child who has been identified with a special need. However, the same premise that applies to all students learning in a second language applies to students with special needs. All students must have opportunities to practice using the language in context with appropriate support in various modalities. Some key strategies might include:

video, digital books, audio, data displays, simulations and concept maps.

students with low vision: visual display options such as screen magnification, the ability to adjust font size and contrast values of text to background.

students with reading disabilities, including dyslexia, often experience difficulty reading large amounts of text. Supports such as: audio textbooks, video, text-to-speech technology and additional time to complete assignments.

linguistic and non-linguistic methods to represent key vocabulary, labels, symbols and icons to support comprehension of concepts.

identify key ideas and critical information with tools such as graphic organizers, outlines and concept maps.

Scaffolding: beginning instruction at a student's current level of understanding and providing teacher support to assist the student in reaching the next level of mastery.

Response From Jennie Farnell
Jennie Farnell is assistant director of The English Language Institute at the University of Bridgeport. She has been teaching ESL/EFL since 1998 to all levels and ages of students:
A few years ago, I found myself teaching English as a Foreign Language in a school where many students had undiagnosed learning disabilities (LDs). Even as an experienced ESL teacher, I was way out of my depth when it came to dealing with students with LDs. Having no choice, I soldiered on, made many mistakes, and learned an enormous amount. I can credit my LD students for teaching me how to be a much better teacher in general, regardless of subsequent student populations. There is extensive research available to both parents and teachers regarding effective coping / learning strategies for LD learners. I have chosen to focus on the LDs (or suspected LDs) that I have found most common or easiest to observe in my ESL students. These are: attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, and persuasive development disorders (PDD, of which autism is the most well-known condition). While LDs are far too complex and varied to be able to provide a one-size-fits- all approach, there are some general techniques which can support all students with LDs. These techniques fall into three general areas: classroom management, materials presentation, and assessment. Good classroom management is the foundation of any successful class. For LD students in particular, meeting classroom behavior expectations can be extremely challenging. Many of the standard behaviors we as teachers take for granted are uncomfortable, unfathomable, or illogical in LD learners' worldview. For example, ADHD students often learn better when in motion; sitting still actually distracts them from the content (Rapport et al., 2008). Many PDD students are very logical and find the emotions associated with peer engagement baffling and uncomfortable. PDD students can also be hypersensitive to background stimulation, such as florescent lights or electronic noise (Grandin, 2011). Research has found techniques that many teachers already employ in their instruction can be particularly useful for both ESL and LD learners. Scaffolding materials by using visuals such as graphic organizers, pictures, and diagrams can be very helpful to students with auditory processing problems or PDD. Think, pair, share and small group discussions work well for ADD/ADHD students as well as ESL learners (Carr & Bertrando, n.d.). Additionally, outside the context of a content-specific lesson, multiple methods of material presentation help all students meet broad Common Core standards. Adaptions in classroom management will set the stage for LD learners to more successfully master Common Core expectations. Using charts, graphs, and diagrams not only helps support LD learners but also meets Common Core Reading Anchor Standards. Readability software and leveled readings also support Reading Anchor standards for literature, drama, and poetry. Speaking and Listening Anchor Standards place a heavy emphasis on collaborative discussions and presentation of ideas through multiple media choices, including digital. What follows is not an exhaustive list of LD support suggestions, but rather some simple, easy to implement strategies. Many teachers are probably already using these approaches in some fashion. However, knowing that these can all be effective in supporting LD students may provide reassurance that, as teachers, you are doing well in supporting your LD learners or may encourage you to implement more of them in your classrooms.

Provide a stable routine. Regardless of the LD, having a classroom routine diminishes anxiety by providing a stable environment where LD students clearly know what's expected of them.

Use a bell ringer. It might sound antiquated, but it gives LD students in particular a chance to adjust to the changed expectations of your classroom from the last. They may not complete the task as fast as other students do, if at all. Make it low-risk but meaningful, with no penalties for non-completion.

Make sure you have all students' attention before transitioning between tasks. Task transition is one of the greatest challenges many LD learners face. For example, students who are PDD are often reluctant to end a task and begin a new one if they haven't finished their previous task to their satisfaction. It won't matter if you're satisfied, if they're not, you'll face considerable resistance to moving forward. ADD/ADHD students can be overwhelmed by what may seem like simple requests to you - put away this work, take out this work, look at this page. The very act of looking inside a backpack can bring all types of distractions! Make sure all students are prepared to start before moving forward.

Provide directions through multiple forms of input. If you have LD students in your classroom, you'll find you end up repeating the directions multiple times, driving yourself to distraction. The ADD student may have floated away halfway through your instructions. The PDD student might be overwhelmed by too much information. Students with audio processing problems will be puzzling out the first step when you're on your third. Give directions verbally, write them on the board or worksheet, and have students clarify them before you begin. Even better, break instructions down into step-by-step directions. If you're working in groups, have one group member summarize your directions back to you. Make it a point to walk around the classroom and check with each student or individual group to be sure they're all on-track.
Material presentation:

Use multiple modes of input. Don't rely solely on verbal input or written input. Use videos, manipulatives, and written and oral input to communicate your information. It's not as repetitive as it may seem to you.

Use sentence frames to scaffold writing or oral production. ELLs normally internalize the frames and cease to need them. ELLs with LDs may continue to need the frames as a way of organizing their thoughts.

Scaffold materials, taking into consideration factors other than difficulty levels. Dyslexic students may need a different font or contrasting colors. ADHD students may need their project broken down into clearly defined steps, each listed on a separate sheet of paper.

Allow students to use technology to supplement their areas of difficulties. Use readability websites or multi-level materials to provide accessibility for all students. Use audio books and videos for dyslexic students. Let students dictate their first draft or outline of a writing assignment. Typing is often much easier for dyslexic and dyspraxic students than handwriting.

Keep your goals in sight. Your priority as a teacher is that your students understand the materials, not that they master the input approach. Whatever adaptations students need to use to comprehend the concepts are probably ok to use.

Have multiple methods of assessment. For example, don't rely solely on a written essay or a spoken presentation to determine skill mastery.

Allow for choice in assessment. If you're doing a project, provide various options for demonstrating mastery. For example, students could write a paper, create a video, give a speech, etc.

Focus on the goals of the assignment, rather than the actual method of assessment. For example, if you're working on organizing information, keep in mind that the skills used for organizing a 5 paragraph essay resemble the skills used in organizing a well-prepared presentation.

Keep the end result in mind. It's not about how students get there (usually), it's that they get there. Your ADD student may flip his pencil through your entire lecture. If at the end he knows what you said, the flipping doesn't really matter.

Educate yourself. There's a plethora of information available online. You don't have to become an expert, but understanding some of the general traits of common LDs helps enormously, especially in maintaining patience.

Be flexible. If you have ADHD students, there will be times you turn around to find your students under the desk, across the room, etc. Before you lose it, ask yourself if it's really problematic or just annoying to you. Maybe all of your student would enjoy a lesson from underneath their desks here and there.

Maintain a sense of humor and enjoy the ride. Your LD students can provide you some of the richest experiences you ever have. If you let them, they will teach you entirely new ways of perceiving the world, and you'll be better for it.
Grandin, Temple. (2011) The Way I See It | A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger's. Retrieved January 03, 2015, from fhautism.com/the-way-i-see-it-dr-temple-grandin.html Rapport, Mark D., Bolden, Jennifer, Kofler, Michael J., Sarver, Dustin E., Raiker, Joseph S., Anderson, R. Matt. (2008) Hyperactivity in Boys with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A Ubiquitous Core Symptom or Manifestation of Working Memory Deficits? - Springer. Retrieved January 03, 2015, from link.springer.com.libproxy.bridgeport.edu/article/10.1007/s10802-008-9287-8/fulltext.html Carr, John & Bertrando, Sharen. (n.d.) Language Magazine " When English Doesn't Come Easy. Retrieved January 03, 2015, from languagemagazine.com/?page_id=5602 Additional resources: There are many excellent online resources for teachers. Below are suggestions for a place to start, but the list is by no means comprehensive. Additionally, I'd be remiss if I didn't include Temple Grandin's excellent book The Way I See It | A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger's. British Council: Creating an inclusive learning experience for English language learners with specific needs Colorado State University: Access Project Language Magazine: When Language and Learning Get Tough Learning Disabilities Association of America Response From Ann Wilson
Ann Wilson is a Special Education Coordinator/Teacher who has been teaching for 12 years in a variety of settings including Oyster-Adams Bilingual School and The Lab School in Washington DC. She currently teaches at Pine Spring Elementary, a Title 1 school in VA:
So there you are, a capable ELL teacher with a well-planned lesson and still, Jonny doesn't get it. In fact, he hardly seems to be listening. Your frustration rises as you wonder what to do next. While I am not an ELL teacher, I will share with you some of the strategies that have worked for me in teaching Special Education for the past twelve years. First, try to read the student's psycho-educational testing results. The report will tell you about the student's processing deficits (auditory, visual, etc.), and this will help you design great lesson plans. If you learn that the student is a strong visual learner, you may want to have them draw vocabulary words. If they struggle with auditory processing, do not rely on lecture style to get your point across. I always start with the assumption that a child is bringing the best they have got 'to the table.' If you start with this assumption, it will change the kinds of questions you ask. (For instance, instead of asking, "Why is he trying to drive me crazy?" you will find yourself asking, "What can't he control and how can I work around it?") Reward, reward, reward! Yelling simply does not work. I recommend a glass jar with glass pebbles as a group reward, and a small box or plastic cup for individual student tokens (positive and negative). I reward the group with extra break when they fill the jar, and the students trade in their tokens for prizes weekly. Kids with Learning Disabilities often struggle with abstract concepts so it helps to teach an abstract concept by starting with something concrete, or with the student's own experience. For instance, teach inference by describing a parent yelling the student's name in an angry voice and asking what that would mean. It helps the student realize that they already know something about inference. Give students with ADHD short breaks, especially movement breaks. In the classroom, place an extra desk facing the wall, and offer it as an 'office' --a place where students with ADHD can go to focus. This should not be a punishment, but a privilege. Build a student's vocabulary by reading aloud text that is on their grade level. Most students with Learning Disabilities are far behind in reading, so reading aloud is critical to build vocabulary. Games, songs, and passwords are helpful to review core concepts that you are teaching. For instance, my students say a password (with hand gestures) to get into my classroom. The current password for my 2nd graders is "Ice is a solid; water is a liquid; air is a gas." Finally, take good care of yourself. Sally Smith, Founder of The Lab School, used to say that you need to stay balanced so that you don't 'catch' the emotions of frustration and anger that often accompany Special Education students. Keep your balance so that you react in a level way. Sleep, exercise, have a life, enjoy!
Thanks to Maria, Beverly, Ann, and Jennie for their contributions!
Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at [email protected] .When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it's selected or if you'd prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo.

Anyone whose question is selected for weekly column can choose one free book from a number of education publishers.

Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog -- along with new material -- in an ebook form. It's titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching.
Just a reminder -- you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader... And,if you missed any of the highlights from the first four years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. They don't include ones from this current year, but you can find them by clicking on the "answers" category found in the sidebar.
Classroom Management Student Motivation Implementing The Common Core The Best Ways To Begin & End The School Year Teaching Social Studies Project-Based Learning Brain-Based Learning Using Tech In The Classroom Parent Engagement In Schools Teaching English Language Learners Student Assessment Teaching Reading & Writing Education Policy Issues Differentiating Instruction Author Interviews Teaching Math & Science Professional Development Teacher & Administrator Leadership Relationships In Schools Instructional Strategies This Year's Most Popular Q & A Posts!
Look for Part Two in a few days.....

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Response: Ways to Support ELLs With Special Needs

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The new "question-of-the-week" is: What are the best instructional strategies for working with ELLs who have special needs? Adequately supporting English Language Learners is often a challenge for many schools, and accurately identifying and supporting ELLs with special needs can be an even greater challenge.

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ELLs in the Gifted and Talented Programs

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ELLs in the Gifted and Talented Programs

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English language learners (ELLs) can often be overlooked when students are identified for gifted and talented programs, particularly if tests are verbal or depend on teacher recommendation. These resources and news stories offer ways that teachers and parents can increase ELL access to opportunities for gifted students.

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English language learners (ELLs) can often be overlooked when students are identified for gifted and talented programs, particularly if tests are verbal or depend on teacher recommendation. These resources and news stories offer ways that teachers and parents can increase ELL access to opportunities for gifted students.

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English language learners (ELLs) have historically been underrepresented and underserved in U.S. gifted and talented (GT) programs. To move the needle in a more promising direction, we can begin by asking ourselves how we can increase the visibility of diverse learners in GT screening. What does equity look like in identifying language learners for gifted services? And how can we actively improve culturally responsive supports for exceptional ELLs in our classrooms?

Traditional concepts of giftedness cast a narrow net-narrow enough, in fact, to silo giftedness into nearly homogeneous compartments. Outside of far-East Asian subsets, most of those boxes are reserved for white, English-speaking students.

Gifted screening protocols can reinforce these perceptions. Conventional markers for giftedness are rooted in assessment data and previous high academic achievement. This can be especially inequitable for ELLs, whose language output and cultural orientation may mask exceptional promise.

Reframing Conceptions of Giftedness to Support Inclusivity

To change this, we've got to be uncomfortably honest about what our collective picture of giftedness looks like. What are our perceptions and expectations of exceptional students? Do we-as teachers and as schools-lean in to certain student types, ethnicities, or socioeconomic groups, or to one gender? How are we influenced by a child's parents or other educators?

At a minimum, a more inclusive framework should include three vital components:

A comprehensive definition of exceptional ability that encompasses a spectrum of cognitive, social and emotional, artistic, linguistic, and logical-reasoning capabilities,

Multiple avenues and entry points-such as student interviews, performance-based evaluations, or nonverbal instruments-that reach beyond standardized assessment data for GT identification, and

A system for mindfully growing the exceptional talents and gifts of all learners, including ELLs.

Now we can critically evaluate the degree to which our definition is also culturally responsive. Map a full learning day for a new-to-English student. Where can we find expressions of gifted characteristics? Language learners can-and do!-demonstrate exceptional content-specific talents. Additionally or alternatively, the promising gifted ELL may:

Acquire the new language at a faster than typical rate,

Demonstrate an ability to code switch or translate at an advanced level,

Show aptitude for negotiating between cultures,

Display inventive leadership and/or imaginative qualities,

Read significantly beyond grade level in the heritage language,

Effectively assume adult responsibilities at a young age,

Exhibit notable street smarts and/or rapid integration into American culture, or

Problem-solve in creative, nonconforming ways.

A Culturally Responsive Process of GT Identification

Even high-flying ELLs are not likely to be detected through traditional GT screening, as I mention above, because our screening protocols are not designed to detect them. Widening our net and moving toward a realistic representation of marginalized populations in gifted programming requires that we break with our dependence on convention.

One reasonable solution is to move beyond isolated quantitative data points and toward qualitative portfolios of potential. Inclusive GT portfolios of potential may include:

Nominations or referrals from parents and school staff,

Summative data, including English language evaluations and nonverbal GT assessments,

Formative data, such as student work samples and problem- or project-based portfolios, and

Anecdotal data, including behavior and acculturation scales, classroom observations, home visits, and interviews with parents, teachers, and peers.

Ensure that curriculum is culturally responsive: Culturally responsive practice seeks to recognize, value, and authentically represent students' heritage virtues in the school setting. Wondering how to connect this pedagogy to GT programming? Begin learning units with background knowledge surveys or embed multicultural connections and community engagement as a means of enrichment.

Provide opportunities for self-directed learning: Self-directed learning is an effective tool for student engagement that supports higher-level thinking. By introducing the element of choice, we draw out a learner's natural curiosity through creative problem solving and experiential learning.

Start slowly as you navigate this territory. Begin with a maximum of three choices. Hold students accountable for rotating through stations, centers, or learning tasks, but place the onus of control on the student to choose the order in which the learning goals are completed.

Capitalize on student interest surveys, flexible seating, and kinesthetic learning. These are all low-prep, low-cost, high-yield means of promoting self-directed, student-invested learning.

And consider exploring multiple pathways of discovery. Try embedding social and emotional learning skills practice into a social studies lesson, or incorporate STEAM learning into a literature experience. These types of activities foster low-risk opportunities for expression and encourage students to demonstrate abilities in innovative ways.

Use assessments that allow for diverse expressions of understanding: Offer choice in how students demonstrate knowledge, skills and understanding. Project-based learning (PBL) works exceptionally well in this context. PBL "is a dynamic classroom approach in which students actively explore real-world problems and challenges and acquire a deeper knowledge." This type of open-ended learning allows ELLs to show what they know in ways that are less language dependent, such as tactile design, sketching, computer programming, or art.

Consistently work toward the elimination of educator bias: Teachers and parents play a critical role in the gifted identification process-they are most likely to nominate students for consideration and are directly involved in a child's day-to-day endeavors. We can better prepare both groups to advocate for ELLs who demonstrate exceptional gifts and talents.

Parents are often the first to note a child's gifted potential, even if it has not presented at school. This may be especially true of students who have not yet gained linguistic confidence or students from collectivist cultures, who typically avoid standing out in the classroom. Caretakers-especially those whose cultural experience with school involvement differs from Western norms-can be explicitly encouraged to recommend their child for GT screening and review. Educators, meanwhile, can benefit from training to reduce bias and spot latent talents in underrepresented populations.

Like all successful school programming, achieving effective and equitable GT services is a collaborative effort.

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An inclusive framework for finding gifted and talented students can ensure that English language learners don't slip through the cracks.

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Literacy Daily is a space to connect educators, students, and leaders with the latest news, ideas, tools, strategies, and research in literacy instruction.

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How to Use Technology for Language Development

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How to Use Technology for Language Development

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English-language learners (ELLs) come into our classrooms with a wide variety of specific and unique needs for language acquisition. It's hard to talk about them all as one group -- ELLs represent a diverse range of students in every sense. It's needless to say: Working with ELLs is often challenging and also highly rewarding.

Because there are so many apps and edtech tools available today, you might expect to find lots of them made specifically for English language development (ELD), bilingual, or dual-immersion classrooms. Unfortunately, this isn't the case: Tools designed specifically for English-language learners are few and far between (though there are definitely some out there).

There are, nevertheless, a lot of great edtech tools and strategies you can use with your ELLs, even if the tools themselves aren't ELL-specific. Some might even be tools you've already heard of or used -- with an ELL-specific use case that's been hiding in plain sight.

So, what's the best way to find and use great digital tools with your ELLs? A lot will depend on your students' specific needs, but here are a few things to think about when finding the best tools for your classroom.

1. Look for ELL-friendly supports in the tools you're already using.

Lots of online tools have built-in features to support differentiated instruction for a variety of learners. Newsela offers texts at five variable Lexile levels, many in both English and Spanish. ThinkCERCA offers leveled texts with scaffolding for students reading at different levels, including audio versions of texts. Though ELA-focused tools are most likely to have the best English-learning supports, plenty of other tools support ELLs' learning in other subject areas. Khan Academy is one popular example; the site offers a translated version of its curriculum in 12 languages. As you search, keep in mind that these tools are usually aimed at a more general student audience, so they may be better suited to intermediate or advanced ELLs, and beginning-level ELLs may need more robust support.

2. Build basic online resources and productivity tools into daily routines.

From basic translation to productivity tools for consumers, a lot of everyday apps and websites can be great for supporting ELL-centered learning activities. A note-taking tool with recording features like Microsoft OneNote offers opportunities for speaking and listening practice. Simple English Wikipedia is just like it sounds: an adapted version of the standard Wikipedia site but for ELLs, younger students, or anyone else who might struggle with reading. A translation tool is an obvious choice, and Google Translate is generally thought to be the most accessible free option around.

3. Get creative and repurpose a digital-storytelling tool.

Storytelling is an excellent, interactive learning activity for ELLs and bilingual learners of all ages and language abilities. Even though these apps tend to be aimed at younger kids (and not specifically at ELLs), they still offer opportunities for kids to express themselves while they build new language skills. Don't be afraid to age these tools up; they're great even for older ELLs. And for beginning-level English-language learners, creative projects tend to offer opportunities for low-stakes (yet still high-concept) communication-based activities. Also, keep in mind that lots of other digital-creation mediums can offer fun language-building practice, from video production to podcasting and digital design. Find something that suits your students' ages, language abilities, and interests.

4. Find tools that specifically address your ELLs' needs.

As mentioned earlier, tools designed only for ELLs are somewhat scarce, but there are definitely some options. These ELL-centric tools run the gamut. BrainPOP ELL offers a comprehensive online curriculum aimed at improving kids' language skills from beginning to advanced levels. Read&Write is a helpful text-to-speech app for students with a variety of literacy needs, including English-language learners. On the flip side, a platform like Ellevation is designed for teachers and uses robust data to track and monitor students' progress and language growth. As time goes on, we're bound to see more edtech solutions specifically for ELLs. It will be interesting to see what the future holds in this space.

5. Supplement instruction with an online language-learning tool.

Language-learning tools for travelers and consumers are everywhere and easy to find. Although these tools should never replace quality classroom instruction, for some students they could be a helpful option for extra practice or out-of-class enrichment. Because they're often aimed at a general -- mostly adult -- audience, these won't all be the best choice for kids' learning. Nevertheless, in certain situations, some language-learning apps could be appropriate depending on your students' needs. If you do go this route, look for free options that offer adaptive features that challenge students as their language skills grow. If recommending out-of-class use, keep your students' devices and level of network access in mind.

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How to Use Technology to Support ELLs in Your Classroom | Common Sense Education

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Quality edtech for ELLs isn't easy to find, but great options do exist.

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Toolkit of Resources for Family and Community Engagement for ELLs

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Toolkit of Resources for Family and Community Engagement for ELLs

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Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education Part 1: Building an understanding of family and community engagement

Region:

Description:

The Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and Community as Partners in Education provides resources for school staff to build relationships with families and community members and to support family well-being, strong parent-child relationships, and students' ongoing learning and development. Originally developed for the Guam Alliance for Family and Community Engagement in Education, the Toolkit is based on information from a variety of sources that address engagement in diverse communities. As a result, the Toolkit is applicable in a variety of contexts-and wherever school staff are interested in enhancing engagement of families and community members. The Toolkit is divided into four parts, and each includes a series of activities that can be used with family and community members, as well as other diverse cross-stakeholder groups. The Toolkit offers an integrated approach that helps school staff understand how their own cultural experiences and backgrounds influence their beliefs and assumptions about families and community members, and consequently influences their efforts to engage others in support of student learning. It also addresses how to build a cultural bridge through cross-cultural communication and how to use strategies that build trust between families, community members, and schools. In addition, the Toolkit helps school staff understand how to use two-way communication with families to gather and share data about student interests, progress, and outcomes.

The four parts of the Toolkit are:

Part 1: Building an understanding of family and community engagement
Part 2: Building a cultural bridge
Part 3: Building trusting relationships with families and community through effective communication
Part 4: Engaging families and community members in data conversations

Publication Type:

Tools

Online Availability:

Publication Date:

September 2016

Contact:

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educational improvement; excellence in education; educational research; statistics; statistical data; statistical surveys; regional educational laboratory program; rel; rigorous studies; fast response projects; no child left behind

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Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education Part 1: Building an understanding of family and community engagement

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The Regional Educational Laboratory Program (REL) consists of a network of ten laboratories that serve the educational needs of a designated region by providing access to high quality scientifically valid education research through applied research and development projects, studies, and other related technical assistance activities.

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Family and Community Engagement for ELLs

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Family and Community Engagement for ELLs

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Strong communication between school staff and families is important in any school and has special relevance for schools committed to anti-bias education.

Communication built on misinformation, assumptions or stereotypes can create distance between schools, families and students. If handled with respect and cultural sensitivity, however, school-family communication provides an opportunity to live out the values of inclusiveness and equity, which are at the heart of anti-bias education. The following guidelines can help schools avoid communication pitfalls and support teacher-family relationships built on respect:

Assume good intentions, and approach all families as partners who want the best for their children.

Invite parents or guardians to share knowledge about their students' lives, interests, hopes and struggles.

Invite parents or guardians to share information about family cultures and traditions.

Recognize and respect differences in family structures.

Recognize the role that identity and background may play in shaping relationships between teachers and families.

Bring a sense of self-reflectiveness and cultural humility to all conversations and interactions.

View linguistic, cultural and family diversity as strengths.

In addition to setting a tone of respect and inclusivity, strong communication with families also offers teachers an opportunity to invite family involvement and share curricular goals, materials and resources.

Connection to Anti-bias Education

Attending to culturally sensitive communication supports two of the four anti-bias domains: Identity and Diversity. Culturally relevant family engagement strategies communicate to students that their family identities are understood and valued. It also demonstrates respect for families with a diverse range of backgrounds and structures.

Strategies

Inclusive Terminology and Materials

Positive communication can be as simple as using inclusive language when writing and speaking to families. For example, instead of sending home a note that opens, "Dear Parents," use a greeting such as "Dear Families." All communication should be checked for assumptions about household resources, family traditions, cultural practices, political affiliations or other life circumstances. For instance, instead of asking for "mother's name" and "father's name" on a form, have a space for "names of parents/guardians."

Recognition of Key Relationships

Teachers should make a point of learning the central figures in each student's life-including those who may not be legal parents or guardians-and involving them as appropriate. This may include welcoming stepparents, parental partners (regardless of gender) or extended family members.

Use of Home Languages

Because language plays a crucial role in families' lives, teachers should communicate with parents in their home languages as much as possible. Whenever possible, family materials should be provided in students' home languages. When translation is needed, a school-provided translator should be employed, as asking students to translate can put them in an awkward position.

Beginning-of-the-Year Questionnaires or Conversations

Teachers can gather valuable information about students by connecting with parents and guardians early in the school year. Asking family members about students' strengths, challenges and lives outside of school-as well as about their own hopes and fears- provides important background, sets a collaborative tone and allows classroom practice to reflect student identities.

Incorporating family and community knowledge enhances student learning. Students possess tremendous experiential wisdom on issues related to identity, culture, history and justice. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, cousins, neighbors and community leaders frequently have stories to share about their lives and perspectives.

Family and community wisdom can put a personal face on historical or sociological material and help demystify unfamiliar topics, such as LGBT identity or living with a disability. Hearing from real people who have lived through eras of change or participated in social justice movements can provide inspiration as well as information.

Students also carry knowledge of their families and communities inside themselves. Making room to share this knowledge supports the development of student identities.

Family assignments must be envisioned and explained in a culturally sensitive manner. A seemingly harmless activity, such as creating a family tree, can marginalize students whose biological relations are distant or unknown. Such assignments can be modified to recognize the key relationships in students' lives. Other ways to incorporate family and community wisdom into the curriculum include community surveys, student conversations with family members, interviews, guest speakers, video projects, art projects, memoir or other family-based writing, oral histories, learning from family members' professional experiences, and incorporating family or cultural perspectives into the analysis of texts.

Connection to Anti-bias Education

Drawing on students' family and community wisdom supports two of the four anti-bias domains: Identity and Diversity. By listening to the stories of their own families and communities, students can deepen their sense of self and make personal connections with historical, literary and sociological material. Hearing about different classmates' families and communities can also foster new perspectives on their own experiences and expand their understanding of other groups, cultures and communities.

Strategies

Family Interviews

Students can interview family members on a variety of issues such as historical events or eras, family experiences of justice or injustice, evolving cultural norms, social movements and identity. Interview format, questions and reporting practices should be customized based on grade level and educational goals.

Guest Speakers

Family and community members can visit the class to speak about a range of topics. Their connections to these issues may be personal, professional or both.

Community Research

Conducting community-based research can deepen students' understanding of social justice issues. This research might include opinion surveys or needs assessments, community interviews, visits to local sites or Internet research about community history.

As students learn and grow together over the course of weeks, months and years, parents and guardians can learn along with them. Strong connections give families the opportunity to support one another in nurturing their children's identities and values, adding richness to the work of anti-bias and social justice education.

There are lots of ways to bring families together, including in-school or community-based events, group email lists and social media. Teachers, school administrators, students, or parents and guardians can coordinate appropriate family connections based on the students' age and the composition of the community. Elementary school students, for example, may be more likely than high school students to enjoy attending events with their families. A given activity may resonate with some cultural communities more than others (though it might be good to offer "stretch" events as well). And some communities will have access to the technology and skills needed to support online interaction, while others will not.

Connection to Anti-bias Education

Building connections among families supports two of the four anti-bias domains: Identity and Diversity. This practice deepens students' awareness of the personal and cultural contexts that shape personal experience. It also provides a "learning lab" for introducing different family structures and traditions. Making the curriculum more visible to classroom families helps generate support for anti-bias education work and provides opportunities for families to work with their children on social justice issues. These connections can also foster diverse relationships that echo and strengthen key messages from the curriculum.

Strategies

Family Events

Events that bring students and families together include family potlucks or picnics; family affinity events (e.g., for families from a certain cultural or ethnic group, for LGBT families, for families of color, for adoptive families); showcases of student work; student or community performances; film nights; game nights; and cultural or multicultural events.

Parent/Guardian Education Programs

Educational programming supports community building and engages family members. Possible programs include films, speakers or discussions for parents and guardians on topics such as bullying prevention, identity development, racial experiences, gender expression, sexuality, learning differences and family diversity. Events may stand alone or be part of an ongoing series.

Family Service/Engagement Projects

Service projects can include family action days at the local food bank, working together on neighborhood political and social issues, attending community events such as Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations or LGBT Pride events, and fundraising projects for community causes.

Pooling Resources and Sharing Support

In addition to organizing or publicizing formal events, teachers can encourage families to connect informally to share information and resources and to support one another in times of need (e.g., the birth of a new baby or a death in the family). The school can foster this type of support by naming it as an explicit priority and creating a user-friendly contact list or online directory.

All local communities have valuable resources that can enhance teaching and learning on social justice topics, even if these resources are not always explicit or obvious. They include events, people, places and organizations.

Events. Cultural and community celebrations, commemorations, political actions, artistic events, performances, student conferences and community education events.

People. Elders, artists, musicians, researchers, community leaders, policymakers, journalists, advocates, local historians, cultural workers and everyday people who have experienced and worked on social justice issues.

Places. Museums, cultural centers, libraries, neighborhood landmarks, and sites of historical interest or struggle.

Organizations. Formal or informal groups engaged in relevant cultural, artistic, social or political projects.

Connection to Anti-bias Education

Drawing on local resources supports all four anti-bias domains: Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action. Witnessing marginalization, power dynamics and activism in their own communities strengthens personal connections with these curricular concepts. At a broader level, schools benefit from community connections and partnerships, and communities benefit when citizens are educated in matters of equity and justice.

Strategies

Classroom or School Presentations

Individuals or organizational representatives can be invited to speak about how their life or work experiences relate to social justice themes.

Neighborhood Explorations

Social-movement-based history and cultural knowledge often connect to specific cities and neighborhoods. For example, certain New York City neighborhoods offer windows into the lives of different immigrant groups during the 19th and 20th centuries. Montgomery, Ala., houses landmarks and monuments from the civil rights era. Visiting sites like these can add richness to students' curricular experiences. Neighborhood explorations can also be paired with classroom or school presentations.

Connecting with Community Organizations

Most cities and towns have local organizations that engage in cultural activities, community service efforts or social justice advocacy. Many of these organizations are happy to partner with schools, provide students with information and offer opportunities for students to participate in their projects.

A core component of anti-bias education is learning to take action against exclusion, prejudice and discrimination; it can be especially powerful for students to do this in their own schools and local communities.

Consider the following tips for ensuring that community engagement efforts reflect anti-bias values:

Create a community action project that addresses real needs. Community organizations can help articulate these needs and suggest ways to maximize students' time and talents.

Draw on students' knowledge of and personal connection to the issues involved. The more specific the project, the better.

Include a strong research component that ensures students' efforts to increase their knowledge and understanding are not simply based on what they already know.

Incorporate reflection about student attitudes to ensure the project doesn't reinforce assumptions or stereotypes about specific people or communities.

Provide writing prompts to help students consider personal changes they can make to challenge bias, exclusion and injustice.

Study the broader social context surrounding the community problem. Intervene if students "blame the victim" for challenges beyond individual control.

Use texts to spark student reflection about community challenges and issues.

Work "with," not "for," individuals or groups the class wants to support.

Connection to Anti-bias Education

Expecting students to engage directly with community issues and problems supports two of the four anti-bias domains: Justice and Action.

Strategies

Personal Action Plan

After reading about prejudice or discrimination, the Personal Action Plan assignment asks students to reflect on these issues in their own surroundings and explore how they might help make their school and community more welcoming, inclusive and equitable. The Personal Action Plan can focus on one particular topic (e.g., name-calling and bullying, peer culture, diversity of gender expression or LGBT issues), or it can be more general. Plans should focus on acts of personal change, and students should share their plans with classmates to build accountability for implementation.

"Fighting for Fairness" Letters

The Fairness Letter Project (Live Oak School, San Francisco, Calif.) asks students to identify an instance of unfairness in their school or community, research the issue and write an advocacy letter to a person or organization with power to change the situation. In addition to developing issue-based analysis and critical writing skills, this project requires students to evaluate how change happens and where they can best channel their efforts for maximum impact.

Student-Designed Community Projects

Any social justice issue could inspire an individual or group project designed to support local people. Possible projects include designing a public service announcement, conducting a survey or opinion poll, providing direct service through a community agency, creating a workshop or event or hosting a justice-themed art show.

Ongoing Partnerships with Community Organizations

Semester- or year-long community partnerships offer students a chance to establish continuity and deeper connections with particular issues, populations or projects. A partnership spanning multiple years gives each class a chance to build on previous classes' work, multiplying the impact.

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Strong communication between school staff and families is important in any school and has special relevance for schools committed to anti-bias education. Communication built on misinformation, assumptions or stereotypes can create distance between schools, families and students.

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Engaging Social Studies Lessons for ELLs

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Engaging Social Studies Lessons for ELLs

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Consider the following scenario:

A fifth-grade teacher was preparing her class to learn about the American Revolution. She enlisted the students' help in acting out the events that led to the Revolution with elaborate props and exercises. When the class ended, the students were told they would read more about the Revolution the following day. As they left the room, an ESL student stopped and asked urgently, "But who won?"

This situation highlights some of the challenges that teachers face when helping English language learners, or ELLs, master social studies content:

Background knowledge
ELLs may not have the same background knowledge that their peers have or that textbook authors take for granted, as explained in this video clip with ELL teacher Amber Prentice.

Different perspectives
ELLs bring their own valuable and important experiences to the classroom. Often those experiences can be connected to the content in meaningful ways; however, if different points of view or ideas aren't expressed or identified, students may miss key concepts and ideas in the lesson.

Academic language and vocabulary
ELLs must learn the academic language and vocabulary needed to comprehend and produce new content - all while learning the new content and concepts at the same time!

For content-area teachers with limited experience working with ELLs, planning a lesson that engages them and helps them learn new material may seem daunting. The good news is that there are a number of ways to engage ELLs with social studies content and draw on their own unique background knowledge and perspectives. This article will describe some strategies for planning social studies lessons with ELLs in mind.

In addition, I recommend taking a look at the following resources:

Note: Lesson Planning to Ensure Optimal Engagement of ELLs (Chapter 2 of Teaching English Language Learners Across the Content Areas), is available online and provides a number of helpful resources, including a checklist for modifying lesson plans for ELLs. In addition, Appendix Two of the book (not available online) provides a lesson modification worksheet.

Lesson Planning Strategies

Identify key concepts necessary for understanding the lesson

When choosing your key concepts, keep in mind the following:

Background knowledge
ELLs with limited or interrupted schooling may not have that same level of knowledge as their peers, especially when it comes to historical or cultural topics. When starting a new lesson, look for references or concepts that may need to be explicitly explained.

Language proficiency
Students may already possess content knowledge that they cannot yet demonstrate in English. Look for opportunities to make associations between students' experiences and new content.

Perspective
Students may have a different perspective on the content than their peers. These differences provide an important opportunity for class discussion and learning as long as they are handled in a sensitive and respectful ways.

In addition, plan to find out what students know about the topic you are teaching before getting started. This will help you fill in gaps and build on prior knowledge. A great tool for this activity is a Circle Map, in which you place the main topic in a small circle and add student ideas in a bigger circle around the topic. You may wish to allow ELLs to use their native language with peers for a quick brainstorm before presenting their ideas to the whole class.

Identify content and language objectives

These objectives are a great way to focus on the most important information and language structures you want your students to master. Content objectives focus on the material while language objectives focus on vocabulary or language structures that students should be able to use throughout the lesson (Haynes and Zacarian, 28).

Think about how you are going to:

introduce these concepts using simple language,

break the concepts down into the most basic elements,

keep the objectives visible to students during the unit (i.e., post them on the board or provide a simple outline to keep in binders).

Identify key vocabulary and academic vocabulary

Identify key terms, words, idioms and phrases - TWIPS, according to Dr. Zacarian (19). Choose the vocabulary that your students need to know in order to support their reading development and content-area learning, in addition to key content vocabulary. Remember to prepare student-friendly definitions for TWIPS ahead of time. It may be helpful to look at other social studies vocabulary lists as well.

In addition:

Look for problem areas
Clarify potential areas of confusion, such as homonyms or words with more than one meaning.

Include signal and directional words
Remember that students may also need explicit instruction in signal or directional words ("because" and "explain"), especially those words that are likely to appear frequently in the content materials or activities.

Don't overlook the basic words
There may be many words used through a lesson that native English-speaking students will understand but that ELLs don't know. Keep an eye out for these words, no matter how basic, and make a list of words that your students have questions about so that you can refer back to it when teaching the lesson in the future.

Use visuals and manipulatives when possible
Having a visual reference for new words is particularly helpful for ELLs.

Keep words visible and accessible to students
Post words on a word wall, or try using a "portable word wall" chart that students can put in their binder. The chart might include categories such as new words, old words, people, everyday words, words to review, etc. (Haynes and Zacarian, 59-60).

Remember to include lots of student practice
For students to really know a word, they must use it - or they will lose it. Use new words in class discussions or outside of class in other contexts if appropriate, such as on field trips. Give the students as many opportunities to use and master the new vocabulary as possible, both in writing and speaking activities. You may find this six-step process for teaching academic vocabulary from Dr. Robert Marzano helpful.

Prepare to preview the text

One strategy is a "chapter walk", where students predict what the chapter will be about based on pictures and highlighted features of the textbook.

An activity like this may take some time at first because it's time-consuming to teach. If you use it with regularity, however, it will become easier and quicker, and students will be able to do this on their own at the beginning of a new chapter.

You can also use the "BIG FOX" strategy, published by McGraw-Hill. This graphic organizer helps students pick out important terms and pieces of information before reading. I recommend practicing this strategy with some simple readings about familiar topics before jumping in with the textbook. The students will understand the strategy better if they start out with concepts that they understand.

Prepare multimedia, visuals, and related readings

These resources can be used to build background knowledge and provide context for ELLs, especially when students are learning new concepts and words. Ideas include:

Using photos from books, magazines, or the Internet to supplement textbooks.

Showing brief, focused video clips of history or social studies programs.

Listening to a short podcast or radio clip of an interview or speech.

Discussing additional readings such as related articles, poems, letters, and graphic novels.

Enlist native language support when possible

These strategies can help students identify content they already know, or master new concepts before transferring those ideas and learning how to express them in English:

Collaborate with a bilingual paraprofessional and identify areas where bilingual language support will be most helpful.

Look for related content materials in the students' native language from publishers like Scholastic or National Geographic/Cengage.

Plan group work in which students can use their native language with peers to discuss main ideas or vocabulary words.

Plan to include group work throughout the unit

Peer learning activities such as Reciprocal Teaching and Think-Pair-Share can be powerful tools for engaging ELLs with content learning.

Use modeling and clear instructions to ensure students understand:

how the activity works

their role in group work

the objective of the activity

any key vocabulary or phrases they should be using.

Here are some other tips on group work for ELLs from Haynes and Zacarian:

Assign students group roles that match their language ability (37).

Promote students to new roles as their language skills improve (42).

Make sure that mainstream students understand that they will be working in diverse groups, and that everyone's contributions are important (41).

Keep an eye on the balance of student participation; if some students are speaking more than others, ask them to think of some ways to even participation out (42).

Ask students to reflect on their group work after they have finished an activity. Haynes and Zacarian include a chart in their book with some guiding statements for student reflection (48).

Plan plenty of opportunities for students to interact with the content

Give students lots of opportunities to engage with and review the material in different ways:

Graphic organizers
Use graphic organizers to review key concepts and vocabulary words.

Flash cards
Have students make their own flash cards with pictures, definitions, key facts, etc.

Working with the text
Teach students to underline, highlight, and make notes. You may also find that sticky notes, Wikki Stix, and highlighting tape are a big hit with students (68). According to Haynes, some school districts order extra textbooks for their ELL classes so that teachers can keep a highlighted copy on hand as a student reference.

Use acting
Have the students write skits about the material they are learning, or create an activity in which students provide a physical representation of a particular event or vocabulary word.

Be creative and flexible with writing assignments

Writing can be an important way for students to show what they've learned:

Be creative and flexible
When choosing writing activities for students, be creative and open to different ways for students to express their new knowledge. I have seen students successfully convey what they learned by writing letters, poems, news articles and mosaics with vocabulary key points. Writing an essay may be more difficult for ELLs, and although they need to learn how to write a good essay eventually, they should be allowed to demonstrate their learning through a variety of writing activities.

Look for writing exercises that relate to the topic at hand
This may include a biography or autobiography, a letter from the point of view of a historical figure, or a short news article about a famous event.

Provide models
Give ELLs explicit structures and sentence frames to follow. Frames may vary in complexity and specificity, but they will help students to model correct structures and usage from the beginning.

Plan to adapt homework and assessment as needed

While it's important to have high expectations of ELLs, it is also important to have realistic expectations of the amount of work they can do. Haynes and Zacarian note, "The teacher's goal should be to making learning accessible and meaningful for every student without lowering expectations or sacrificing rigor" (104-105).

They continue in Chapter 7 of their book to provide a number of helpful rubrics and step-by-step procedures for evaluating your homework and assessment activities with ELLs in mind. In Twenty-Five Quick Tips for Classroom Teachers, Haynes suggests that teachers "adjust homework assignment to your ELLs' English language proficiency (and) modify assessment so that your ELLs have an opportunity to show what they have learned."

As you look for ways to help your students learn this new content, remember that you aren't just teaching them required social studies standards - you are helping your students adjust to a new life and country. That preparation has a potentially significant ripple effect because your students may be helping their own parents navigate this new country as well, and they may need to prepare for a U.S. Citizenship exam one day in the future.

Through social studies lessons, you also can prepare your students to be engaged and well-informed participants in our society and democracy, an opportunity they might not have had in their own country due to their religion, gender, or ethnicity. When you think about it that way, teaching ELLs to master new social studies content is so much more than adapting a lesson plan - it's a chance to prepare a new generation of young people to lead us into the future.

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Preparing an Engaging Social Studies Lesson for English Language Learners

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Consider the following scenario: A fifth-grade teacher was preparing her class to learn about the American Revolution. She enlisted the students' help in acting out the events that led to the Revolution with elaborate props and exercises. When the class ended, the students were told they would read more about the Revolution the following day.

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This handout provides language objective frames which can be helpful when writing objectives. It also includes a bank of effective verbs to choose from when writing language objectives.

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Steps for Developing Language Objectives

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Steps for Developing Language Objectives

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This short video provides steps for writing language objectives. It also walks you through writing an example language objective.

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LO 1 Steps for Developing Language Objectives

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Proficiency Level Descriptors

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English Language Proficiency Standards

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All-inclusive policy guidelines.

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Federal Laws regarding ELLs

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What is needed in ELL programs.

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Explanations of programs.