English Language Learner Resources for General Educators

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get over the kinds preconceived notions about English language learners that were picked up from old stereotypes and outdated research.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.

English Grammar Checker 

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.

Resources for More Effective Collaboration and Co-teaching

Gone are the days when teachers spent the majority of their time alone in classrooms with students.  Collaboration has become an essential part of the teaching profession.  More and more we are required to work with other teachers and administrators to share ideas, make decisions, solve problems, and organize reforms. The chance to include a variety of perspectives in a decision making process is exactly why collaboration is so awesome, but it can also create challenges when people with different perspectives disagree.

(Images found here and here)                            

I encourage teachers struggling with collaboration to read Addressing Bumps in the Collaboration Road found on the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) website.  There you will learn how to watch for bumps and find useful tips for constructively traversing the occasionally rocky road of collaboration.

Co-teaching is another increasingly common way in which teachers collaborate.  What follows is a list of the six most common methods of co-teaching:

One Teach, One Observe:  In this method of co-teaching, one teacher leads instruction while the other observes and collects data on how certain students respond and behave.  It is important that both teachers take turns observing and leading instruction.  This way, both benefit from seeing the class in action.  Also, both teachers have the opportunity to earn credibility with students. 

Station Teaching:  In this method of co-teaching, the class is divided into three groups.  Two “stations” will have teachers helping students.  In the third station, students are working alone or with partners.  Students will move between stations throughout the class and benefit from instruction and independent work.                                                                                                                  

Parallel Teaching:  In this method of co-teaching, the class is divided into two.  Teachers will present the lesson to their half of the class.  This is advantageous for a few reasons.  First, students in these classes will have double the opportunity to comment and ask questions.   Second, teachers can focus on different learning styles and place students into groups that are most appropriate for their particular ways of learning. 

Alternative Teaching:  In this method of co-teaching, one teacher leads most of the class, while the second teacher instructs a smaller group.  Traditionally, the smaller group has focused on remediation.  However, other possibilities include focusing on pre-teaching with shy students, students learning to speak English, or students who just struggle—not only students with IEPs. 

Teaming:  In this method of co-teaching, teachers have an equal share of the leadership in the classroom.  The take turns teaching different concepts and cooperate through modeling, role-plays, dialogues, etc.  This method can be difficult if the two teachers have very different teaching styles. 

One Teach, One Assist:  In this method of co-teaching, one teacher leads the class while the other assists.  This method should only be used occasionally or the ‘assisting’ teacher ends up feeling like an ‘assistant’ teacher.  This probably isn’t the best use of two professionals in a classroom.  Also, students may become over reliant on help when completing tasks. 

Personally, I have found Teaming with occasional One Teach, One Assist to be most effective methods.  My work with a co-teacher in a Korean public school involved Teaming about 70% of the time.  My co-teacher and I were fortunate enough to have very compatible teaching styles.  This was especially effective with EFL because we were able to incorporate lots of role-plays into our instruction.  Also, my Korean speaking co-teacher could use the students’ native language to explain English language learning activities.  This allowed for far more productive English language activity time.  The only draw back to Teaming was that it required a lot of planning in order to determine who would lead which parts of the lesson.  I don’t think one method is better than the other.  I think effective co-teaching would involve all of these methods at different times depending on the needs of the students, the curriculum, and the teachers involved.

* For interesting data on how students react to co-teaching, read Patricia Dozier's article How Do Secondary Students Feel About Co-teaching?  also found on the CEC website.

* Interested in reading personal accounts and advice from other teachers about their co-teaching experiences?  Check out Co-teaching 101:  Lessons From the Trenches by Marie Huggins, Jennifer Huyghe, and Elizabeth Iljkoski.  As they mention in their article, "Teachers are the best resource for other teachers."

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is defined on About.com as "a law that provisions service and support to children with disabilities throughout the US. IDEA governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education and related services to US children. IDEA, ensures that children with disabilities receive a “free appropriate public education” (FAPE). This means that schools will provide Students who are eligible (have a disability) with specialize supports/instruction that will address their academic needs in the least restrictive environment."


 IDEA uses 9 basic steps to identify, evaluate, determine eligibility, create an Individual Education Plan (IEP), measure progress, and reevaluate the IEP of students with disabilities. It is important that all K-12 educators have some familiarity with IDEA. Please visit IDEA.ed.gov for more information.