New York Core: A Guide For Educators of English Language Learners
*Specifically for general educators who will work with ELL students.
This PDF is from the New York Collective of Radical Educators. It includes information on how to identify English language learners and how to properly assess their levels of English proficiency. It also describes the three major ESL teaching models (pullout, push-in, self-contained) and includes a list of classroom and literacy strategies. It also has a section titled "ELL MYTHS" dedicated to helping general educators get over the kinds preconceived notions about English language learners that were picked up from old stereotypes and outdated research. I highly recommend this site.
Top 10 Tips for Teachers Working with ESL/ELL Students
*Specifically for general educators who will work with ELL students.
On the website, each of these 10 tips are discussed in more detail.
1. Don't assume that students know how the American educational system works.
2. Learn about gestures from other cultures.
3. Provide extra vocabulary help with every lesson.
4. Work on your language skills.
5. Give the students extra grammar practice.
6. Try and incorporate aspects of your students culture into your lesson plans.
7. Capitalize on holidays.
8. Check your own attitude.
9. Have realistic expectations of your ELL student.
10. Become familiar with ESL websites.
Adjusting Lessons for ESL/ELL Students
*Specifically for general educators who will work with ELL students.
This site includes a list of very practical strategies that general educators can employ in order to ensure that ELL students are successful. They suggest giving ELL students a copy of your teaching notes, giving them graphic organizers, giving them weekly quizzes in order to check comprehension, creating flashcards, selecting appropriate literature, and much more.
This site allows students to copy/paste text that they've written and receive a free grammar check. It's simple to use and does not require registration.
Purdue Owl ESL Resources
This site is fantastic for people who are interested in both theoretical and practical information as it relates to English language instruction. The site includes several links to organizations, journals, and language policy developers, as well as online teaching and reference materials.
Boggles World ESL
This is a really useful site for elementary school ESL teachers looking for songs, worksheets, phonics activities, and complete lesson plans. If you need some ideas for a lesson and get stuck, a visit to Boggles World should get things moving. Also, many of the worksheets are themed around various holidays and seasons and tend to be quite fun.
Waygook.org
This site is an online community of EFL teachers in Korea who work together to develop and share instructional materials. I used it constantly while I was teaching English in Korea. There are literally thousands of lesson plans available on this site for all ages and ability levels from elementary to university. Moreover, there is a forum devoted to Theory & Practice, where teachers share challenges and offer experience and instructional strategies.
Dave's ESL Cafe
Dave's ESL Cafe is a similar to Wagook.org, in that it's a community of English language teachers who share ideas, challenges, resources, and instructional strategies. On their homepage you will see a section titled "Stuff for Teachers." In it you will find forums dedicated to assessments, bilingual education, elementary education, secondary education, teaching students who are deaf, ESL management, etc.
General ESL Resources
This site includes links to 52 other sites covering a wide range of activities, grammar lessons, flashcards, worksheets, listening exercises, quizzes, and more. I'm sure this site will be useful for both teachers and ELL students alike.
Building Systems of Support for Classroom Teachers Working with English Language Learners
This is an 80 page report from the University of Washington's Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy. The report discusses the increasing responsibility that general education teachers have as the United States becomes even more linguistically diverse. The focus of the paper is on creating "systems of support" meant to help general educators as they work to serve English Language Learners in their classrooms. I've included the abstract below.
ABSTRACT
Recent immigration is dramatically altering the context of public schooling in the United States and in Washington state. Nationally, one in seven students speaks a language other than English at home. How states, districts and schools respond to this growing cultural and linguistic diversity continues to be a question of central importance for the future of education. As the numbers of English language learners (ELLs) increase, general education teachers are expected to assume greater responsibility for their learning and educational progress. As such, teachers must learn to adjust and adapt their instruction to address special learning needs and to work collaboratively with other educators, parents, and community members toward the goal of helping all second language learners succeed in school.
This report examines the assistance and support classroom teachers receive to work effectively with linguistically diverse students. In particular, we address the ways these efforts can form a “system of supports” for classroom teachers. In order to research these issues, we undertook a study of four districts in Washington state that serve different populations and proportions of English language learners. Through interviews, classroom observations and document analyses, we examined how these districts were addressing pressing questions about the education of ELL students and how to support the classroom teachers who work with them.
