Larry Ferlazzo’s educational blog is packed full of goodies for teachers. This post of Larry’s is one of my favorites because it has multiple websites that offer engaging text at different levels. It can be tough to differentiate to meet multiple language levels within your classroom, while keeping all students on the same topic, but there are tons of FREE websites out there that do just that! Some of my favorites that he shares are: NEWSELA, CommonLit, and Breaking News English. One downfall to Breaking News English are the ads that pop up, but if you are willing to sift through the site, I recommend the 2-page mini lessons (they are printable) and the online activities.
Author: labirm2
ELL Program Planning
Knowing how to best place your ESL students and what programs are best for them can be challenging, but it is essential to consider many factors when determining what is best. This article from Colorin’ Colorado offers helpful tips and many videos, including the one below, that will point you in the right diction.
Strengthening Your ESL Program
This article offers 4 great tips for administrators and ESL teachers interested in Strengthening their ESL Program. This would be a great tool to use towards the end of the school year to reflect on the effectiveness of current programs and to make a plan for school improvement.
Instead of, “My EL students won’t be able to understand this lesson or participate in this activity”. Try, “What scaffolds can we put in place to make this lesson/activity more accessible?”.
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This article, “Challenging Deficit Perspectives of Multilingual Learners in Everyday Talk” offers an eye-opening look at the damage that deficit perspectives have on our students and offers ways to change the language we use about our EL students from problematic language to a more asset-oriented perspective.
Appalachian English and African American English
Consider the following: What’s wrong with “correcting” other’s English? Why is speaking their dialect important to people? How can these videos change the way you view language use in your classroom and in your everyday interactions?
Books to Teach Parts of Speech
Teaching parts of speech in the traditional way, in isolation or through sentence diagramming, isn’t the best approach. Check out this awesome list of books that can help you teach parts of speech in a way that will engage your students and make a lasting impression.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9503.Picture_Books_About_Parts_of_Speech
Tongue Twisters, Songs, and Poems–Authentic Ways to Teach Phonemic Awareness
Are you looking for a more beneficial, authentic approach to helping students learn the pronunciation and phonology of a new language? I have some great resources for you! Tongue twisters, songs, chants, and poems can help build this awareness in a meaningful way that is sure to excite your students.
https://www.songsforteaching.com/phonemicawareness.htm
Math word problems are challenging for all of our students, especially our ELLs. They require students to read and comprehend a problem, determine the essential versus non-essential information, figure out what the problem is asking you to solve for, and finally determine the operation(s) needed to get to the answer. Below are some helpful articles and a keywords graphic that can help make all of your students successful.
This Key Words Document could make a great anchor chart and/or reference page for your classroom. Of course, it is important to note that key words are only a hint to help you solve word problems, and they will not work in every word problem you will see. If students solely rely on key words, rather than trying to understand the problem, they will inadvertently make mistakes. That being said, they are a great way to build math academic language and are a great starting point for speaking and writing about mathematics. If you would like to tweak the document to make it more appropriate for your grade-level, just send me a request to edit.
This article, Reading and Understanding Written Math Problems does a great job of explaining suggested activities to help your students solve word problems and also has a video that explains how vocabulary can get in the way of solving a word problem.
This article, Translating Key Words also has lots of helpful hints about how to teach your students to solve word problems.
Rethinking our view of “normal”: language and dialectic prejudice
I acknowledge that all of us pass judgment on people based on the way they speak; our instinct to immediately judge is an ingrained instinct. I am not immune to this instinct. However, as teachers of young minds, I believe we should hear through the sound – the accent of students’ speech, the product of the speech they hear at home – to the content of their communication. Accent, dialect, the pronunciation of words should not limit the respect their thoughts deserve.
Linguistic differences between English and Japanese
Languages are complex and have different rules about grammar and syntax, as well as different phonemes that make them unique. As teachers, sometimes we feel the need to correct grammar and pronunciation, rather than focusing on what our students are trying to communicate. There is a study called the Wells’ Bristol Study which found that children whose parents/caregivers controlled and corrected them as they were developing English were actually inhibited in their language development and did not succeed academically to the same degree as children whose parents focused on understanding and extending the child’s meaning.
As a teachers of students who are learning English as a second or third language, it is important for us to remember that the goal of language is communication; therefore, we must attempt to understand what our students are trying to communicate instead of correcting their pronunciation and grammar.
This short video highlights some of the differences that can make the English language challenging for our native Japanese speakers.
Buchanan's Blog-Tips for Teachers of ESL Students 