We know that all students need access to grade level content area information, but how can we make this happen with students of so many varying reading levels? Some ways to support students in understanding difficult content area information are using engaging videos, photos, presentations, and giving clear oral descriptions. However, students ...
Differentiation
TEACHING ESL DISTANCE LEARNING: WAYS TO DIFFERENTIATE FOR YOUR ELLS VIRTUALLY
Whether you are virtually teaching, or teaching ESL in distance learning, it is important to differentiate for ELLs just as you would in the classroom setting. Without the face to face interaction of an ELL student, teacher, and their classmates, learning English in authentic ways can be much more challenging. It is important that we keep ...
5 Ways to Practice Nonfiction Text Features
As adult readers, we know the importance of using nonfiction text features in order to help us understand the main body of text. Headings help us to make predictions while reading, and then easily find information after reading. Captions explicitly tell us what we are looking at in a photograph or picture that aligns to the text. An index helps ...
3 Ways to Create a Welcoming Environment for Your Newcomer ELLs
Entering a brand-new classroom is nerve-wracking for most of our English speaking students. For our newcomer ELLs, it can be a very intense and scary experience. Providing them with a welcoming, thoughtful environment from the moment they enter your classroom is the key to breaking down their walls and making them feel comfortable exploring ...
5 Tips to Help Your ELLs Succeed in Your Content Area Class
Are you struggling to make content area instruction accessible to your ELLs? Here are five tips to help your ELLs be successful in your content area classroom. Any teacher that has had a beginning ELL student in front of them during a science, math, or social studies lesson, knows that it can be disheartening to see them stare at you during ...
How I teach Opinion Writing in the Primary Grades
With students in your classroom who may not have the basics of sentence writing completely down yet, it can be overwhelming to begin planning your opinion writing, or persuasive writing, unit. For young writers learning such a new, specific format of writing, it is really important to break it up into small, clear steps. As you can see in the ...
