Teaching English Language Learners K–12


Book Description

Bring the English language to life with this valuable new resource! Some say that learning a second language is like drinking water from a fire hose. But teaching it does not have to be like standing under Niagara Falls. This is the fundamental message of Jerry Jesness’ new quick-start guide Teaching English Language Learners K-12. In our climate, ELL teachers face immense demands as educators because the ELL class is often the critical, transitional step into a student’s entire education. The author provides specific strategies to address the special challenges for instructors. This valuable resource offers a terrific framework to nurture that motivating spark in English Language learners. For ELL educators, it’s more than a job—it’s a mission! Teaching English Language Learners K-12 includes: • Customizing instructions to create developmentally and culturally appropriate lessons for all learners • Comprehensive vocabulary checklists for common English words and concepts • Practical methods for using the learner’s native language and culture in the classroom • Helpful strategies for teaching spoken English, reading, and writing • Encouraging tips to become a better ELL teacher This book delivers a concise array of teaching strategies, curriculum, and things ESL teachers need to know to become most confident in their work and most effective with their students.




Academic Success for English Language Learners


Book Description

Academic Success for English Language Learners: Strategies for K-12 Mainstream Teachers, edited by Patricia Richard-Amato and Marguerite Ann Snow, is dedicated to helping teachers meet the sociocultural, cognitive, and academic language needs of today's English Language Learners (ELLs). Designed for mainstream teachers, this anthology demonstrates how students can leverage their backgorund knowledge and skills to function successfully in content-area classes. Balancing conceptual foundations with practical strategies, the book's four-part format includes chapters written by some of the field's most respected researchers and teachers. It offers a solid reeprtoire of techniques for creating a positibve instructional environment. Part I: Theoretical Considerations -- Pesents a variety of ideas to stimulate thinking and help teachers develop their own theories of practice. Part II: Sociocultural Issues and Implications -- Focus on sociocultural concerns and their implications in the classroom. Part III: The Classroom: Instruction and Assessment Practices -- Presents a wide range of pedagogical and classroom management strategies. Part IV: Readings In Specific Content Area -- Relates many of the preceding strategies and issues to specific content areas across grade levels, including math, literature, social studies, science, physical education, music, and art. New! Also by Patricia A. Richard-Amato: Making It Happen, Fourth Edition: From Interactive to Participatory Language Teaching -- Evolving Theory and Practice







Preparing Teachers to Work with English Language Learners in Mainstream Classrooms


Book Description

Co-published with TESOL Press There is a growing need for knowledge and practical ideas about the preparation of teachers for English language learners (ELLs), a growing segment of the K-12 population in the United States. This book is for teachers, administrators, and teacher educators looking for innovative ways to prepare teachers for ELLs and will position teachers to empower these students. This volume will appeal mostly to those preparing teachers in contexts that have not have historically had large numbers of ELLs, but have had a high rate of recent growth (e.g., Midwestern U.S.). This work is the combination of teacher preparation and ELL issues. This volume is unique in tackling pre-service and inservice teacher preparation. Additionally, the chapters collectively aim to go beyond merely equipping teachers to meet the needs of ELLs, but to reach a level of effectiveness with the outcome of equity. The book highlights the knowledge, skills, and beliefs of teachers about ELLs. Part I addresses teacher perceptions of, and beliefs about, ELLs and teacher preparation specifically addressing what they should know in terms of students’ perspectives. Chapters attend to the experiences and beliefs of immigrant teachers about their roles, the role of service learning in teacher preparation, and the potential of understanding home literacy practices to change teacher beliefs about ELLs. Part II focuses on skills necessary to teach ELLs—writing skills teachers can draw on to inform their teaching practices, technological skills teachers need to develop, and skills related to focusing on the Common Core State Standards for English language arts and mathematics. Each chapter explicitly addresses implications for teacher education or professional development.




The ESL / ELL Teacher's Survival Guide


Book Description

A much-needed resource for teaching English to all learners The number of English language learners in U.S. schools is projected to grow to twenty-five percent by 2025. Most teachers have English learners in their classrooms, from kindergarten through college. The ESL/ELL Teacher?s Survival Guide offers educators practical strategies for setting up an ESL-friendly classroom, motivating and interacting with students, communicating with parents of English learners, and navigating the challenges inherent in teaching ESL students. Provides research-based instructional techniques which have proven effective with English learners at all proficiency levels Offers thematic units complete with reproducible forms and worksheets, sample lesson plans, and sample student assignments The book?s ESL lessons connect to core standards and technology applications This hands-on resource will give all teachers at all levels the information they need to be effective ESL instructors.




Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners


Book Description

Presents teaching strategies and procedures to help English language students build vocabulary and fluency.




Teaching English Language Learners


Book Description

Grounded in research and practical expertise, this volume helps K?6 teachers skillfully support all of their English language learners (ELLs)?from a single student to an entire classroom. Ideas for teaching ELLs across different grade and proficiency levels include ways to link instruction to students? lived experiences, use a variety of motivating print and electronic texts and materials, engage families, and conduct effective assessments. Chapters are packed with tools and activities for promoting ELLs? development in oral language, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and grammar. Handy reproducibles and ?Voice from the Classroom? teacher vignettes enhance the utility of the book.




Teaching English Language Learners


Book Description

Teaching English Language Learners: A Differentiated Approach to Language Development, 1/e Doug Fisher and Carol Rothenberg Are you looking for a methods book to facilitate literacy and academic development in your K-12 classroom? Building on a solid foundation in language acquisition and learning theory, this text will show you how to examine your own practice and design lessons that consider the individual needs of English language learners and accelerate their achievement. This text is designed to help your students develop proficiency in both everyday and academic English while developing listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. It also serves as a great guide for promoting high-level, high-quality, and high-expectation instruction with respect to language, literacy development, and academic achievement for all of your students. Features of this text: Constructed from a strong research base, each chapter highlights specific research topics to provide you with practical ideas in applying this research to your own practices. Accessing Prior Knowledge Activities allow you to engage your own background knowledge in visualizing, brainstorming, previewing, reflecting, and observing to help you get the most from each chapter. Spotlight on Instruction features visit classrooms of effective teachers of English language learners providing an authentic context as you learn. Application to Practice case studies build upon one another from chapter to chapter illustrating how to apply this growing wealth of strategies in your own classroom. Teacher Tools in the back of this book provide a collection of reproducibles for use in your classroom, including planning tools, writing assignments, and self reflection tools. Related Books from Merrill Education: Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners, Second Edition, Adrienne L. Herrell and Michael L. Jordan, ISBN: 0-13-098462-0 102 Content Strategies for English Language Learners: Teaching for Academic Success in Grades 3-12, Jodi Reiss, ISBN: 0-13-221819-4 "




The Knowledge Gap


Book Description

The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.




A Book for Every Teacher


Book Description

A Book for Every Teacher: Teaching English Language Learners is a unique and compressive text written for mainstream classroom teachers. The passion for writing this book comes from our working experiences with the K-12 teachers in four school districts through our ELL Center professional development program. Through this program, we provide professional training through our federally funded research and service projects. The purpose of our professional training is to prepare general education teachers to work effectively with English language learners (ELLs). While working with the teachers on a daily basis, we know the immediate needs of the teachers. This motivated us to embark this book project. In recent years, the ELL school population has the highest increase among school populations. As the NEA data indicates, providing ELL students with high quality services and programs is an important investment in America's future (NEA, 2013). This book is our investment in helping teachers to meet their challenges and provide useful information and strategies for teaching ELLs. The book is designed with K-12 teachers in mind. It is best used by teachers who have or will have ELLs in their classrooms and who seek information and strategies to better work with and serve their ELLs to achieve academic success. With this design, teachers can use the book as a text or reference tool. This book can also be adopted as text materials for professional training. Teachers are the most important factor for ELLs' academic success.