by Elise White Diaz

The classroom was buzzing with excitement. Students who had never spoken up before were suddenly engaged in deep conversations, using academic vocabulary with confidence. This transformation didn’t happen overnight—it happened with QSSSA. I am privileged to support districts across the country in their implementation of this powerful strategy. We all know students need structured discourse—the key to helping them process their learning and internalize academic vocabulary. And QSSSA does exactly that.

Continue reading “QSSSA Anywhere and Everywhere” →

by Dr. Michelle Yzquierdo

As educators, we recognize that effective teaching transcends the mere transmission of information. Integrating visuals into your classroom presents a powerful strategy for enhancing comprehension and engagement, particularly in the context of academic content. Visuals are not just supplemental tools. They are integral components that facilitate deeper learning experiences for all students.

Continue reading “Visual Vibes: Because Who Doesn’t Love a Good View?” →

by Isaac Márquez

“Plenty of opportunities for low-stress output…”

I mention this as the second part of what students need to be successful in learning language in the classroom:

1. Comprehensible input
2. Opportunities for low-stress output.

This combination is what gives students the best chance to grow as English learners and learners of academic vocabulary.

Of course, comprehensible input is essential and often requires significant effort. Every teacher I’ve known employs visual aids, gestures, repetition, and language-rich anchor charts to make input comprehensible for their learners.

However, providing abundant opportunities for output is sometimes neglected. As educators across the country become more aware of the needs of emergent bilinguals, the practice of giving students more time to use language in the context of the lesson is gaining traction. Teachers are also employing strategies like providing ample processing time, allowing students to share with a peer, and offering sentence stems to help make these opportunities for output as low-stress as possible.

Continue reading “Finding the Rightness in Our Students’ Answers” →

by Sally Barnes

• “Stay in the target language 90% of the time.”
• “Take attendance every day.”
• “Refer back to your daily objective throughout the lesson.” 
• “Conduct formative assessments throughout the day to check for student understanding.”

There are so many expectations that we have of ourselves and that others hold us to daily in our professional lives. How can we set ourselves up for success without becoming overwhelmed? The planning begins now, before the students walk into the classroom, in order to start the year strong. Here are some ideas to prepare for the upcoming school year! 

Continue reading “Start The Year Strong: Procedures and Expectations for World Language Classrooms” →

Sin querer queriendo…El Chavo del Ocho

Aloise Miller

Siempre he sido multilingüe. Me es realmente imposible contestar, “¿cuál es tu primer idioma?” Con mi mamá, hasta la fecha, me comunico en español y con mi papá, en inglés. Durante los primeros siete años de mi vida viví en CINCO países y estuve expuesta a más de cuatro idiomas aparte del inglés y español, y desde el segundo grado de primaria, toda mi educación fue bilingüe. Sólo sé lo que es ser multilingüe y agradezco la fortuna de la vida por haberme dado la oportunidad de crecer hablando más de un idioma y de ser educada en dos idiomas.

Continue reading “Conexiones metalingüísticas: A propósito—no de chiripa” →

by Dr. Stephen Fleenor

When I became an educator ten years ago, it was in the wake of a concerted push within the education community to shift away from deficit-minded language toward more asset-based language, particularly in the service of students acquiring English proficiency. I felt a sense of pride and optimism that we had almost completely shifted away from the deficit-based label, “Limited English Proficiency” (LEP), toward the more asset-based label, “English Language Learner” (ELL). 

Continue reading “ELL? EL? EB? MLL? CLD? How Labels Help — and Hurt — Students” →

by Diane Kue

When I was an elementary classroom teacher, I was often told that my students needed to read in every subject because “there is reading in every content area.” I could see how reading research could have a place in instruction when my students navigated scientific practices, but what about when the class period was looking at data instead of reading an article? Furthermore, the “there is reading in every content area” statement was especially hard to wrap my head around in my math class. Why did I have to give literacy so much clout in my instruction when my objective was teaching equivalent fractions? 

Continue reading “Finding Literacy in Math” →