During the summer I will be sharing thematic posts bringing together responses on similar topics from the past seven years. You can see all those collections from the first six years here.
Here are the ones I’ve posted so far:
This Year’s Most Popular Q&A Posts
Best Ways To Begin The School Year
Best Ways To End The School Year
Student Motivation & Social Emotional Learning
Today’s theme is on Teaching English-Language Learners. You can see the list following this excerpt from one of them:
* ‘Every Teacher’ has to Help ELLs Meet Common Core Standards
Tan Huynh, Stephaney Jones-Vo, Shelley Fairbairn, Bret Gosselin, Mary Amanda (Mandy) Stewart, Emily Phillips Galloway, Nonie Lesaux, Stela Radovanović, Pete Lawrence and Betsy J. Tregar offer their responses to a question about ELLs and the Common Core.
* “Unlocking the Common Core” With English Language Learners
Kevin Jepson, Elizabeth Iwaszewicz, Dr. Heidi Pace, Cathy Beck, Gayle Westerberg and Julie Goldman contribute their thoughts on how English Language Learners can meet the Common Core Standards.
* Everything You Wanted to Know About Dual Immersion But Were Afraid to Ask
Elizabeth B. Beltran, Barbara Gottschalk, Dr. Conor P. Williams, Carol Salva, Margarita Calderón, Ph.D., Shawn Slakk and Leslie Davison explain what “dual immersion” is in concept and in practice.
* ESSA & English-Language Learners
Margo Gottlieb, Sarah Said, Catherine Beck, Heidi Pace, Heather Wolpert-Gawron, Tabitha Dell’Angelo, and Lindsey Moses share their thoughts about how The Every Student Succeeds Act will affect English Language Learners.
* Teaching ELLs to Write Academic Essays
Tan Huynh, Vicky Giouroukakis, Maureen Connolly, Margo Gottlieb, and Ivannia Soto share suggestions on assisting English-language learners with academic writing skills.
*Home Language Support ‘Helps Learners Navigate Both Worlds’
Anna Bartosik, Nathan Hall, Chloe Smith, and Beth Konomoto wrap this three-part series up with their suggestions about the role of an ELL student’s home language in the classroom.
* Understanding the Benefits of a Student’s Home Language
Rosa Isiah, Tan Huynh, Karen Nemeth, and Sarah Thomas contribute their ideas on the role of English-language learners’ home language in school.
* ELL Students’ Home Language Is an Asset, Not a ‘Barrier’
Melissa Eddington, Wendi Pillars, Tracey Flores, Sandy Ruvalcaba Carrillo, and Mary Ann Zehr offer their thoughts on the role of an ELL student’s home language in the classroom.
* Response: Ways to Help ELLs Learn Pronunciation
Wendi Pillars, Paul Boyd-Batstone, Ivannia Soto, Judie Haynes, Diane Mora, Eugenia Mora-Flores, and many readers offer suggestions on how to help English-language learners develop good pronunciation skills.
* Effective Strategies for ELL Error Correction
Anabel Gonzalez, Katie Brown, Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, David Freeman, and Yvonne Freeman, and readers, offer suggestions on how to handle error correction with English-language learners.
* Teaching English-Language Learners With Special Needs
Frank E. Vargo, Cindy Pirro Vargo, Donna DeTommaso-Kleinert, Susan Hillyard, and a reader contribute their thoughts on how to support ELLs with special needs.
* Ways to Support ELLs With Special Needs
Maria Montalvo, Beverly Maxwell, Ann Wilson, and Jennie Farnell share their suggestions on how to support English-language learners with special needs.
* Building Relationships With Families of ELLs
Rusul Alrubail, Anna Bartosik, Jordan Lanfair, Anabel Gonzalez, Karen Nemeth, and Judie Haynes offer suggestions on how to engage with parents of English-language learners.
* Teaching ELLs That ‘Science Is a Verb’
Maria Grant, Diana Lapp, Judy Reinhartz, Lori Fulton, Brian Campbell, and Laura Cabrera contribute their ideas on using the Next Generation of Science Standards with English-language learners.
* Teaching Science to English-Language Learners
Alicia Johal, Maria Montalvo-Balbed, Donna Barrett-Williams, Caleb Cheung, Laura Prival, Claudio Vargas, and Ariane Huddleston share their suggestions on using the NGSS with English-language learners.
* Helping English-Language Learners to ‘Survive & Thrive’
Mary Cappellini, Ekuwah Moses, Giselle Lundy-Ponce, Pamela Mesta, Olga Reber, and Heather Wolpert-Gawron contribute their suggestions about teaching ELLs.
* Teach English-Language Learners by Meeting Them ‘Where They Are’
Wendi Pillars, Annie Huynh, Regie Routman, William Himmele, and Pérsida Himmele share their advice on teaching English-language learners.
* Don’t Leave English-Language Learners ‘In The Cold’
Educators Sonia Nieto, Alicia López, Diane Staehr Fenner, Sydney Snyder, Katie Brown, Judie Haynes, and Virginia Rojas share their suggestions on how we can encourage our colleagues to face the challenge of teaching ELLs “face-on.”
* Ways to Encourage Support for English-Language Learners
Diane Mora, John Wolfe, Toby Karten, Armine Spoelstra, Kirke H. Olson, and Rick Murry share there thoughts.
* ELLs & The Common Core--Part One
Educators Wendi Pillars, Virginia Rojas, Debbie Zacarian, and Maria Montalvo-Balbed contribute their responses.
* Supporting ELLs in The Common Core Era
Kathryn Haydon, Dr. Lindsey Moses, and Lori DiGisi contribute their thoughts. I’ve also included comments from readers.
* Strategies For Vocabulary Instruction--Part One
This post includes suggestions from Katie Brown, Jane Fung, Marilee Sprenger, and Karen Bromley.
* Vocabulary Instruction Is More Than Giving ‘A List of Words’
This column highlights commentaries from Camille Blachowicz, Charlene Cobb, Katherine S. McKnight, Nicole Zuerblis, and Susan Chenelle.
* Ten Principles for Vocabulary Instruction
Laura Robb and Amy Benjamin share their thoughts, and I also include readers’ comments.
* Teaching Strategies for ELLs in Content Classes--Part One
This post shares responses from four experienced educators: Judie Haynes, Mary Ann Zehr, Bárbara C. Cruz, and Stephen J. Thornton.
* ‘Every Teacher Is a Language Teacher’
Margo Gottlieb, Maria Montalvo-Balbed, and Tracey Takuhama-Espinosa contribute their ideas. In addition, I’ve shared responses from readers.
* Ways to Teach Common-Core Math to ELLs
Educators Bill Zahner, Ben Spielberg, Gladis Kersaint, Denisse R. Thompson, Maria Montalvo-Balbed, and Denise Huddlestun share their suggestions for how teachers can best handle this challenge.
* To Help ELLs, We Need to Understand ‘How Language Learning Works’
Staff from Stanford’s “Understanding Language,” Mary Cappellini and Paul Boyd-Batstone share their thoughts in this post. I also include comments from readers.
* ‘Respecting Assets That ELLs Bring to a School Community’
Four educators--Karen Nemeth, Judie Haynes, David Deubelbeiss and Julie Goldman--provide guest responses here.
* Many Ways to Help Students Develop Academic Vocabulary
Several educator/authors--Marilee Sprenger; Jane Hill and Kirsten Miller; and Maria Gonzalez--provide guest responses.
* Helping Long-Term ELL’s & Evaluating ELL Teachers Fairly
Katie Hull Sypnieski, the best teacher I’ve ever seen in the classroom, and staff from the American Federation of Teachers researching teacher evaluation contribute their responses.
* Ways the “Next Generation” of Standardized Tests Should Treat ELL’s
Representatives from the two groups of states preparing the new assessments, the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium, or SBAC, and The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers Consortium, or PARCC, contribute responses.
I hope you’ve found this summary useful and, again, keep those questions coming!