Teacher Resources for ELLs
Teachers Continued Learning to Reach English Language Learners
Learning how to provide the best possible instruction for students is the goal of all educators. As educators, we should aim to continuously learn how to effectively reach all the diverse students that come into the classroom. Utilizing resources such as books, webinars, websites, and podcasts, can ensure that teachers continuously grow their knowledge and understanding of learners. When considering English learners, educators have to understand the multiple aspects that can go into providing them with consistent interactions and quality instruction. The following ten resources below will help you reach the goal of providing a quality differentiated learning environment that will help students grow in the classroom. As well as provide additional locations to continue further research and learning experiences to grow as an educator. The best way to ensure that students continue to develop and succeed, is to acknowledge that as an education professional we must also increase our understanding of the students as learners and learn new ways to reach those students. Taking time to learn new instruction practices, reading articles related to English learners, and ways to better build a literacy environment, will benefit all the students in the classroom.
Articles/Blogs
Do’s & Don’ts for Teaching English-Language Learners
This blog (https://www.edutopia.org/blog/esl-ell-tips-ferlazzo-sypnieski) provides teachers with a great look at the do’s and don’ts of interacting with students. Covering topics from modeling what is expected from the students to how to interact with the students in a conversational manner. This information can be used as a useful tool when considering all the aspects that go into building a relationship with the students as well as creating a learning environment. The article also suggests great ways to encourage students to continue to develop their home language, which is essential to showing students you appreciate their diversity. This blog is a free source that can be used at any time to further the understanding of how to interact with English learning students.
Strengths:
Will not take a lot of additional time from teachers.
Relates to common and important topics.
Increases teacher awareness for interactions with students.
The cost is free.
Weakness:
Does not provide additional resources to further learning about additional instructional do’s and don'ts.
Additional link to other articles and blogs related to English learners.
Education Week (EdWeek)
Education Week is an online news journal that features investigative journalism about topics covering K-12 education. The general site provides many articles about all aspects of education, so one drawback is that it is not a site geared towards only ELL instruction. However, accessing pertinent material is easily done by searching “English language learners” in the search tab on the home page. This search will result in many articles and videos answering questions that many teachers have about their ELL students and providing information about the latest topics in education research that are publicly available (such as deficit perspective and support during remote learning). Below is a link to an article about strategies to teach English language learners. One strength of this website is that it provides teachers with easily accessible information that is often only briefly mentioned during professional development.
Books
EL Excellence Every Day: The Flip-to Guide for Differentiating Academic Literacy 1st Edition By Tonya W. Singer
This book can be used as a great resource to provide teachers with additional learning strategies and ways to engage English learners in the classroom. It provides directions and examples specifically related to positive and motivating interactions with students to enhance learning. Providing ways for teachers to learn to scaffold student learning experiences, skill building, and academic language. Contributing insights on how to support both the teacher and the student on continued growth in the classroom. With information on what are English learners, how to reach them, and certain goals that students may have at various levels. This book encourages educators to understand how unique ELLs are, but also referring to how the material in the text can help teachers reach all learners in the classroom.
Strengths:
Provides examples and directions teachers can use for instruction.
Provides information on how to interact with English learners.
Strategies and resources can be used to assist teachers with all types of learners.
Formulated in a teacher friendly format that is easy to navigate through.
Released within the last 10 years.
Weaknesses:
This book does not list how effective each strategy may be to students at different skill levels.
This book is not free with a cost of $25.98 on amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Excellence-Every-Day-Flip-Differentiating/dp/1506377874
Building Literacy with English Language Learners, Second Edition: Insights from Linguistics Second Edition
This book covers research and theories related to building literacy engagement and skills for English learners. Covering English learners listening comprehension, oral language development, and how they learn literacy skills. Including important information on building foundation skills for English learning involving key concepts in literacy like` vocabulary, word formation, processing information, and reading fluency. This book is a great way to learn ways to interact with students and instruct them in a way that helps them develop reading extensively and effectively.
Strengths:
Provides detailed information on the literacy needs of English learners.
Was released within the last 10 years.
Provides research information on English language learners.
Weakness:
This book is not free, with a cost of $32.00 on amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Building-Literacy-English-Language-Learners/dp/1462531598
Additional link to other book suggestions related to English learners.
The New Teacher Project (TNTP) is a non-profit organization founded in 1997. The organization provides the Teaching Fellows Program, which assigns teachers to high-needs schools in major urban districts across the United States. The TNTP website includes a blog, digital publications including essays written by teachers (found under the “resources” tab on the home page), and an instructional materials guide. In order to find resources specific to ELLs, I simply searched “English language learners” in the search bar on the home page, which filtered out articles and blog posts featured on the website. One blog post that features a good perspective is one entitled “Language Isn’t A Barrier- It’s An Opportunity”, which I will link here. A strength of the website is that it is a non-profit geared towards providing resources to poor and marginalized communities, so it features many articles and blog posts about community building and inclusivity. A drawback is that resources specific to ELL students need to be searched for, compared to other sites that are geared specifically toward ELL students, and though there did not seem to be any costs encountered, you need to enter an email to have full access to some articles. However, there is a lot of highly useful, quality, and free information on the site.
Videos/Webinars
English Language Learners (ELL) Webinar Series – Part 1 Welcoming: The ELL Arrives
This webinar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPfugDpIXEw) provides great information about supporting English language learners in the classroom. This free resource requires educators take at least an hour of their personal time to receive the information. During that time the webinar covers topics related to the development of the student’s academic language, ESL and ELD programs, as well as what goes into the placing students in English language learning services in schools. This resource was considered to be interactive at the time of the webinar, but still provides great information that can be utilized to grow in understanding the English learning students that are in the classroom. For instance, this webinar reviews creating a welcoming and learning environment that images students in the classroom. As well as providing additional webinars that can be watched that go along with the five part series.
Strengths:
Online webinar that educators can return to and complete on their own time.
Provides additional information defining what English learns are and how to help them in the classroom.
Covers what qualifies students to be considered English learners.
Free resource.
Weaknesses:
Does not cover all topics related to supporting ELLs.
Interactive components of the webinar may not provide any substance.
Websites
Colorin Colorado
Colorin Colorado is a Spanish-English website with a mass of resources for both teachers and parents. It includes sections for teachers, families, articles, and a resource library, as well as videos from the Colorin Colorado YouTube channel. The user can view the site in Spanish or English by clicking a blue link at the very top of the page. Upon entering the home page, teachers will find a tab at the top that says “teaching ELLs”. Many options appear under this tab, including strategies and best practices, content instruction, literacy instruction, language and vocabulary instruction, and also tips for distance learning (which means the site is updated appropriately). Videos for this site are short, and there are quite a few to choose from. Strengths of this site include easy searching due to well-organized and specific categories of what teachers of ELLs are looking for. It is also an excellent feature to have the website available in both Spanish and English. One drawback, of course, is if you are not teaching Spanish-speaking ELL students, this website may not be helpful. Below are links to the website and a short video featuring a fourth-grade teacher helping a student find an appropriate book to read based on her interests.
https://www.colorincolorado.org/
Ellevationeducation.com
This website is a new site that has been newly released across the nation to educators and schools. It provides teachers with access to ways to help monitor the progress of English language learners and share that data with administration and other professionals in the school building. This platform also provides additional ways for teachers to learn with access to articles, chatrooms, and webinars specifically related to helping English learners in the classrooms. Featuring parent connection tools and a way to keep track of the students data as they move through grade levels. Currently this website is being piloted in schools and has not released a specific price for release. Teachers and administrators are able to request to use this site as a DEMO and interact with other professionals dedicated to learn more about English learning and help them become successful in the classroom. This site also has a youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/Ellevationeducation/videos) that provides a few quick videos to help learn more about having an impact in the classroom.
Strengths:
Quick access to articles and webinars related to enhancing instruction and interactions with English learners.
Ways to keep track of student history.
Ability to share progress with other teachers, specialists, administrators, and parents.
Ability to ask direct questions to other professionals in the education field about English learners.
Weaknesses:
Currently still in the DEMO stage.
Requires teachers to maintain using a separate program in order to monitor the progress of only the English language learners in their classroom. This may cause teachers to spend additional time of progress monitoring and communication with parents/other professionals.
Teaching Channel
Teaching Channel is a website that offers an email subscription for teachers that includes videos, articles, and other resources. It is a website that is not specific to ELL teaching tips and strategies, but lots of information is available through an email subscription. There are other resources on the site that require payment, but the second link below brings the user to a page where there is a list of articles that are free, including topics such as teaching strategies, building community, and collaboration. A drawback to this site is the option to pay, but like many other sites it also offers free information that can be helpful. It appears to only include articles to read if the user does not have an email subscription or payment plan, but like Education Week, the free articles contain pertinent and useful information.
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets is a
sister website of Colorin Colorado, geared towards reading resources for ELLs
and struggling readers. At the top of the home page is a tab called “helping struggling
readers”, under which the reader can select “target the problem”, “reading
interventions”, and “getting your child evaluated”, which can serve as help for
both teachers and parents. The photo below is an excerpt from the “target the
problem” section, where the user can download a list of issues their child may
be having in reading in a chart form. A strength of this website is that it
contains many different resources for ELL students and is focused on reading
struggles. However, Colorin Colorado may contain more resources for teachers.
The site contains lots of free information, and there do not appear to be any
costs.
https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-topics/english-language-learners
Comments
Post a Comment