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.

What is the ELPS Flip Book?

The ELPS Flip Book is a user-friendly guide for building English learners’ listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. The guide helps educators identify accurate linguistic supports tailored to meet students’ proficiency levels in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The ELPS Flip Book includes the following:

• An overview of the ELPS
• Charts for recording levels of proficiency
• Accommodations based on language domains and proficiency levels
• Stems and activities that promote language development

How does the ELPS Flip Book support English learners?

The ELPS Flip Book is a resource that educators can dip in and out of while planning instruction for English learners. As you look at your list of English learners and their proficiency levels, you will be able to use the flip book as a guide to advance each EL to the next level of proficiency. The flip book has suggestions for accommodations, scaffolds, sentence stems, and activities that can easily be weaved into classroom instruction.

Who would benefit from having this resource?

ALL Teachers

If you have an English learner in your classroom, you will benefit from the ELPS Flip Book. Both elementary and secondary teachers alike can use this resource in all content areas to support instruction and language development. As a teacher, this resource will assist you in planning a path to language growth.

Instructional Coaches

As an academic coach (ELA, math, science, or social studies), teachers come to you with questions about how to differentiate, scaffold, and accommodate instruction to meet the needs of the learners in their classrooms. The ELPS Flip Book has suggestions at your fingertips! This resource is also excellent for grade-level planning sessions. Bring it to planning meetings with teachers to help them create lessons that are differentiated.

Professional Development Leaders

If you plan professional development around differentiation, accommodation, and planning for English learners, the ELPS Flip Book will be your best friend! When you hold workshops or planning sessions for teachers, the flip book is the perfect resource to have at your side or at each table. Model how to use it as an effective planning tool and provide teachers with time to try it out using their class list of English learners.  

When Should You Buy It? Buy it NOW because it’s on FLASH SALE until July 15, 2019!!

(Please note: “ELPS” refers to the English Language Proficiency Standards, which are the standards that Texas educators use to meet the needs of their ELs. Although the resource was originally designed using the standards specific to Texas,  it can easily be adapted to for EL instruction nationwide.)