Between teaching routines, testing, testing and more testing, it is also important to have fun and get to know your new students! Because I start the school year with students of all levels, including ELLs, I like to have no-stress, frustration-free activities ready for them on those first few days. It is a bonus if they can be used to decorate ...
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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 ...
New School Year, New Blog!
I have been meaning to start a blog for quite a while (like 2+ years a while!), but life is just so busy! With the new school year rolling around, I decided now is a good time to get a fresh start. I’m really excited to take the plunge into the teacher blogosphere! A little background on me and how I got to this point: I was an ELL Reading ...
Teaching Students to Visualize
Visualizing the text is such an important strategy used for building your students’ reading comprehension. It is very versatile as it can be used in different ways with students of all ages and reading levels. I follow the 7 Keys to Comprehension (Zimmerman and Hutchins, 2003) in my classroom. Of the seven reading strategies (Visualize, Use ...
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 ...
Five Tips for Building ELLs’ Academic Vocabulary
As you have probably noticed with your ELLs, there is quite a difference in an ELLs' conversational vocabulary compared to their academic vocabulary. According to Jim Cummins (1984), BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) refers to ELLs' conversational, or social vocabulary, whereas CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) ...
Teaching Students to Comprehend Nonfiction
Reading nonfiction texts can be overwhelming for students, especially when it comes to a topic they are unfamiliar with at a reading a level that is even slightly above theirs. With a push to read more and more nonfiction from lower grade levels, it is important that we set our students up for success with nonfiction reading. Below are 3 ...
Teaching Reading Genres: From Setting up a Classroom Library to Independent Genre Activities
As adults, we often walk into a bookstore with a certain genre we are ready to peruse the aisles for in order to find our next read. Would your students be able to do the same? Are they able to identify their favorite genre as historical fiction, fantasy, mysteries, etc? Students with strong genre knowledge are able to better comprehend books ...
How I Teach Explode the Moment Writing
So often, students just tell about the large picture of an experience. They get so caught up in listing all of the “moments” of the experience that they forget to really hone in on each part of it with vivid details for their readers. This is why one of my favorite writing strategies to teach is “explode the moment” writing. The first time I ...
