Teachers who work with English as a Second Language learners will find ESL/ESOL/ELL/EFL reading/writing skill-building children's books, stories, activities, ideas, strategies to help PreK-3, 4-8, and 9-12 students learn to read.
Parent Outreach
Parents of English language learners, like all parents, want the very best for their children, but they may feel apprehensive about getting involved at school because of limited English skills or lack of familiarity with American culture and the American public school system. The articles below provide information on how you can reach out to the parents of your ELLs and encourage them to become involved in their children's learning, both at school and at home. See Reaching Out to Hispanic Students and Families for more information.
This section contains 18 articles.
Display: | Summaries | Titles only |
Parent Tips: Help Your Child Have a Good School Year
Working with Community Organizations to Support ELL Students
When building a support network for English language learners, community organizations can play a valuable role and offer resources that schools may not have at their disposal. This article offers some ideas on ways that schools can partner with community groups to support ELLs.
Building Strong Parent-Educator Partnerships
In this section we offer numerous resources for educators and parents in order to strengthen the school-home partnership. From back-to-school night to parent-teacher conferences, we've got lots of ideas to get you started!
Parent Guide: Who's Who at Your Child's School
There are many people at your child's school who are there to help your child learn, grow socially and emotionally, and navigate the school environment. Here's a selected list of who's who at your school: the teaching and administrative staff as well as organizations at the district level. You might want to keep this list handy all year long.
Tips for Successful Parent-Teacher Conferences with Bilingual Families
As the time for parent-teacher conferences approaches, you may be wondering how to hold an effective conference with the parents of your English language learners if they can't communicate comfortably in English. In this month's Bright Ideas, we provide a number of tips that will help you bridge that language gap, take cultural expectations about education into account and provide your students' parents with the information they need about their children's progress in school.
How to Get Parents Involved: Bilingual Family Night
Establishing a strong partnership between parents and schools early in the school year is crucial to a student's success throughout the year. However, this may prove to be a challenge when working with English Language Learners (ELLs) if their parents do not speak English. One way to connect with parents of ELLs is to host a bilingual family night at the beginning of the school year. Here are some suggestions for planning a bilingual family event, as well as creative ways to bridge the language gap and a list of links to useful websites.
Helping Your Child Succeed: Helpful PreK-12 Tips
Some of the main academic subjects include reading, math, social studies, and science. Whether your child is struggling in a certain area, or you just want to help them get ahead, this article contains tips you can use to help them succeed in every subject, from preschool through high school. There are also suggestions for how to make sure your children are developing socially and staying healthy.
School Issues and Program Information
All schools are held to certain standards based on federal and state laws. This article discusses some of obligations stated in The No Child Left Behind Act, which includes mandatory testing. It also describes the different programs available to English Language Learners and students with disabilities, as well as vocational and college preparatory programs.
Besides your child's teacher, many other people are involved in your child's education, The more you know about what they do, the more you can help your child.
Pathways to Success:
An AFT Guide for Parents
As a parent, you want the best for your kids. The American Federation of Teachers shares your expectations and knows you can make a big difference in your child's education.
Empowering Hispanic Parents & Families at Home
All parents can help their children learn to read, regardless of their language, education, or literacy level. Through Spanish, kids can develop key language and literacy skills that will help them to become excellent readers in English.
Learning about Your Students' Backgrounds
English language learners represent a vastly diverse group. Learning more about the language, culture, values, family, and home environment of your ELL students will help you to better support your students in the classroom and receive more support from home.
How to Let the School Know About Your Concerns
Is your child doing well in school? Is he or she having trouble learning, behaving, or studying? Is there a problem with another student, teacher, or administrator? If you have a concern, here are some steps to take.
Talk with Your Child's Teacher
Parents may be reluctant to approach their child's teacher. Here are some steps parents can take to develop a strong partnership with their child's teachers.
Dads Who Are Making a Difference
In these selections from Dad's Playbook: Coaching Kids to Read, compiled by the National Institute for Literacy, a couple of dads share some of the ways that they are helping their kids become better readers.
Helping Parents Communicate Better With Schools
Good communication between parents and teachers has many benefits. When parents and teachers share information, children learn more and parents and teachers feel more supported. Good communication can help create positive feelings between teachers and parents.
Creating Programs for Language Minority Families
For language minority families, learning English is a key component of family literacy programs. This article describes questions to consider when establishing a program for language minority families.
Creating Programs for Language Minority Families
Learning English is often the reason that language minority families seek out community programs. This article describes questions to consider when establishing a family literacy program.
What tremendous help I have found in your articles! I hope you continue providing us with such valuable tools.
~ Eva M.
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Colorín Colorado is a free web-based, bilingual service that provides information, activities, and advice for educators and Spanish-speaking families of English language learners (ELLs, also known as students of English as a second language).
Colorín Colorado is produced by Reading Rockets — an educational service of WETA, the flagship public broadcasting station in the nation's capital. Original artwork by Caldecott Award-winning illustrator David Diaz is used with permission.
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© Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Colorín Colorado receives major funding from the American Federation of Teachers. Additional funding is provided by the National Institute for Literacy and the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.
¡Colorín Colorado! ® is a registered trademark of WETA.
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