Professional Development by Breanna Grady

Five Ways to Celebrate Your Students Cultures

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 18:49:18 UTC

This article written by Lorea Martínez gives educators five different ways to celebrate and incorporate students’ culture into the classroom.

Learning for Justice Lessons

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 18:49:51 UTC

These learning for justice lessons can be filtered by grade level, subject, social justice domain and topic. They are premade lessons that teachers can use to help teach difficult social and cultural topics.

Reading Instruction in Grades 4-12

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 18:50:18 UTC

This resource on Colorín Colorado has several links to different articles and resources educators can use to help with English instruction in their classroom for many grade levels.

WIDA ELD Standards Framework

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 18:51:24 UTC

The WIDA standards framework helps educators understand the language standards that students should be meeting at their grade level.

Content Strategies Colorín Colorado

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 18:51:57 UTC

This resource on Colorín Colorado has links to articles and resources that educators can use to help inform instruction of ELLs in content areas.

Resources for Multilingual Learners

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 18:52:26 UTC

This resource on the National Education Association website has many resources linked that can help educators make informed instructional strategies for multilingual students in their classroom.

Dictation (Speech-to-Text) Technology: What It Is and How It Works

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 18:53:15 UTC

This resource on Reading Rockets give several suggestions on how to access and use dictation technology.

Social and Emotional Support for Immigrant Students

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 18:53:30 UTC

This resource on Colorín Colorado has several links to different articles and resources for educators to use to understand the social and emotional needs immigrant students may need. These students may need more support or targeted support to work through their social and emotional needs, and there are resources on this page to help with that.

Translanguaging

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 19:00:48 UTC

This language acquisition practice uses all of a students' language repertoire to communicate and learn. This shows the student that you value both English and a their home language.

Affective Filter Hypothesis

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 19:05:38 UTC

This theory suggests that emotional responses have an effect on language acquisition. It is important to create a low anxiety environment that is welcoming to all students.

Teaching Philosophy and Language Acquisition Theories

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 19:07:37 UTC

These language acquisition theories can shape a teaching philosophy because educators are using certain methods for students to learn a new language.

Writing a Teaching Philosophy

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 19:11:37 UTC

When writing a teaching philosophy, it is important to remember what is important to you as an educator. You want to be clear about your instruction strategies, your values as a teacher, assessment strategies, and goals for yourself and students.

Cultural Resources for Educators

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 19:14:03 UTC

Dedicate Time to Reflection

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 19:16:50 UTC

Find a time during each day or week to reflect on your practice (Dené Poth, 2023)

Dené Poth, R. (2023). 6 tips for making reflection a consistent habit. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/consistent-teacher-reflection-tips/

Reflection Tools

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 19:17:01 UTC

Find a way to track your reflections that works for you. It is important to capture your thoughts throughout the day, so when you do reflect you remember (Dené Poth, 2023).

Dené Poth, R. (2023). 6 tips for making reflection a consistent habit. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/consistent-teacher-reflection-tips/

Class Closure Activities

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 19:18:23 UTC

Before letting students leave class, take time to reflect with your students on how the lesson or unit went (Dené Poth, 2023). These quick reflections with students can guide your personal reflection later.

Dené Poth, R. (2023). 6 tips for making reflection a consistent habit. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/consistent-teacher-reflection-tips/

Extended Time

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 19:21:20 UTC

Many students who are working in their second language need time to read questions, translate in their head, find the answer, and translate back to English. Giving ELL students more time allows them to comprehend the questions fully.

Visuals

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 19:21:33 UTC

Visuals give ELL students more information than just the words from the question. This can help them comprehend the question before answering it.

Simpler Word Problems

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 19:22:10 UTC

Giving word problems with information that is not important to solve the problem can be confusing for students. When there is extra information, students can get caught up in the wrong part of the problem. When ELL students have word problems with only the information they need, they will be more successful in showing their knowledge of the math skill.

Sentence Frames or Stems

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 19:22:26 UTC

Sentence frames and stems can help ELL students with grammar and comprehension during assessments.

WEAC Academy

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 19:31:54 UTC

There are many professional development opportunities through the Wisconsin Education Association Council that can educators learn more about supporting ELL students. There is a course on equity, restorative practices, learning Spanish, Affirming Asian American identities, and more.

WIDA

littlegrady5 — 2025-06-15 19:32:07 UTC

WIDA has many online professional developments that educators can take to become more informed on WIDA standards, multilingualism, family engagement, and more.