By the time I attended the first class for my alternative certification program, I had already been teaching (poorly) for two weeks. I was an emergency bilingual hire who’d been plucked from the masses the previous spring at a job fair for a district near where I was relocating after college. (I was so young and sheltered that my mom drove me to the job fair…and waited outside the room. I cringe to this day when I think of it, but in my defense I was from a very small town, Dallas is huge, and overpasses can be terrifying.) Continue reading “The Best Advice I Didn’t Take”
Growing Language & Literacy: An Interview with Author Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld
by Valentina Gonzalez
Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld is a leader in the field of English as a Second Language. She has authored over 20 books and offers professional development primarily focusing on effective differentiated strategies and collaborative practices. Dr. Honigsfeld is also associate dean and director of the Educational Leadership for Diverse Learning Communities Doctoral program at Molloy College.
I recently had the honor of interviewing this kind-hearted and passionate educator about her latest book, Growing Language & Literacy: Strategies for English Learners (GLL). The book is tailored for educators in grades K-8 and is published by Heinemann.
Continue reading “Growing Language & Literacy: An Interview with Author Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld”
Purpose
by Marcy Voss
It was Christmas Eve at the airport. As the barista prepared his coffee, she smiled broadly and asked him a series of questions so she could get his coffee just right. She then asked where he was going, about his family, about his family’s traditions. When she gave him the coffee, she told him to have a safe flight and to go create some extraordinary memories with his family—and, when he came back to the airport, to tell her all about it. The man walked off, but after a moment came back, intrigued about the woman’s secret to making such meaningful connections while serving coffee. The barista replied, “I’m not serving coffee. I’m pouring happiness into people’s lives.” Continue reading “Purpose”
Primary Language Support in General Education Classrooms
by Valentina Gonzalez
What is Primary Language Support?
Primary language support (PLS) is the use of students’ first languages to build on the development of their target language. For example, if a child first learned Italian at home and then begins school in America, the primary language of Italian would be used as a leverage to build the English language. Continue reading “Primary Language Support in General Education Classrooms”
Remember, You Worked Miracles This Year
by Tina Beene
Have you ever noticed that the way we talk to teachers at the end of the year sounds a lot like advice you’d give someone who just survived significant emotional trauma? Continue reading “Remember, You Worked Miracles This Year”
Differentiating Instruction for English Learners: ELPS Flip Book
by Valentina Gonzalez
As an ESL teacher, one of my go-to resources for planning instruction was the ELPS Flip Book by John Seidlitz. The flip book helped me to personalize instruction and differentiate learning for each of my English learners. I took it with me as I planned collaboratively with grade-level teams. I loved the instructional guidance it provided as we planned for ELs at various levels of proficiency. And when co-teachers asked me what types of accommodations certain students needed, I could easily flip through the tabs in the guide to find the supports we needed. Continue reading “Differentiating Instruction for English Learners: ELPS Flip Book”
Mantras and Metaphors for Collaboration
A guest post by Tan Huynh
I often hear EL teachers painfully retell their experiences with co-teachers using phrases like these:
- “My teacher doesn’t want to collaborate.”
- “They don’t give me time to teach the class.”
- “My teaching partner says there’s no time to plan.”
When I hear complaints like these, I gently and subtly reframe the discussion by suggesting, “When teachers are not yet comfortable with collaboration, you can…” and then continue the conversation. Working with teachers can sometimes be sensitive and require advanced emotional intelligence, so I would like to offer a few metaphors and mantras for effective collaborative relationship building. Continue reading “Mantras and Metaphors for Collaboration”
Using Sheltered Instruction to Drive AP/Advanced Classes
As a former AP teacher and AP testing coordinator, my experience has been that the role of sheltered practices in advanced classes is often underemphasized. This seems strange considering that sheltered instruction is designed to enhance language development in content-area classes, and the reading and writing demands (and for foreign languages, speaking and listening as well) of AP classes are greater than most students have ever experienced. For example, the free-response section of most AP exams is weighted at approximately 50 percent of the test, and the fast-paced timing of the multiple-choice sections means that students’ reading fluency and comprehension has to be tack-sharp for them to be successful on the exam. The notion that advanced learners do not need support in mastering advanced curriculum is simply untrue. Continue reading “Using Sheltered Instruction to Drive AP/Advanced Classes”
The Unspoken Communication of Body Language
“What seems logical, sensible, important, and reasonable to a person in one culture may seem irrational, silly, unimportant, and just plain ridiculous to an outsider.”
Verbal communication holds value, but what we communicate with our body language also reveals the feelings and emotions behind our words. The tricky part is that the meaning of body language differs around the world. When we work with students and families from around the globe, being conscience of what we “say” nonverbally becomes particularly important. Continue reading “The Unspoken Communication of Body Language”
What Do We Do if We Suspect That Our English Learners May Not Pass Standardized Assessments?
by Carol Salva
“It’s easy to say ‘Don’t give up.’ But you don’t know how the person feels when the failure happens to them.”
– Emily Francis
Some of your English learners will not pass their standardized assessments this year. How are you supporting them for this reality? Here are my top tips for helping these students keep moving toward their goals. Continue reading “What Do We Do if We Suspect That Our English Learners May Not Pass Standardized Assessments?”
