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.
Teaching English Language Learners to Read
It is made possible by AFT Teachers, a division of the American Federation of Teachers, as part of a Colorín Colorado partnership between AFT and Reading Rockets.
Featuring Diane August, Margarita Calderón, and Fred Genesee discussing best practices for teaching English language learners.
Click below for the following:
Program description
In classrooms around the country, teachers need to teach reading to children who don't speak English, and they haven't been trained. Last year, the U.S. Department of Education convened a panel of scholars to determine the best research-based practices for teaching English language learners. The panel hopes to release its report in 2004. For this teleconference, we brought you three members of the panel who shared their expertise as independent researchers in the area of second language acquisition.
This teleconference was produced by Reading Rockets in partnership with the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), the National Education Association (NEA), the International Reading Association (IRA), and the National Association of Bilingual Education (NABE). Funding for this teleconference was provided by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education.
Teaching English Language Learners to Read is available for purchase at our online store, LearningStore.
Presenters
Diane August is a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Applied Linguistics.
Margarita Calderón is a Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins University, Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR).
Fred Genesee is a Professor in the Psychology Department at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Moderator
Delia Pompa is the moderator of this webcast. She is the Vice President of the Center for Community Educational Excellence, at the National Council of La Raza.
Recommended resources
- The difference between social and academic English
- Selecting vocabulary words to teach English language learners
- Reading comprehension strategies for content learning
- Using cognates to develop comprehension in English
- Cooperative learning strategies
- Identifying language and academic needs for program placement
Downloadable resources
If you currently teach English language learners (ELLs) you may find the following downloads useful:
- ELL Starter Kit for Educators — Tools for Monitoring Language Skills.
- Colorín Colorado — AFT Toolkit for Teachers — Reaching out to Hispanic parents of ELLs.)
- Multilingual reading tips for parents — Available in 12 languages!
Related products from LearningStore
English Language Learners in Your Classroom
An authoritative reference for teachers facing an increasingly diverse school population that provides pre-service and in-service teachers, curriculum specialists, teacher mentors, and administrators with the necessary tools to meet the educational needs of English language learners in an inclusive classroom.
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My Talking Dictionary (English/Spanish)
This unique bilingual picture dictionary introduces 750 widely used words, arranged thematically and enhanced with brilliant illustrations, language scripts, transliterations and a picture index.
learn more >>
Launching Young Readers: Becoming Bilingual
For a teacher who speaks only English, having students who speak another language can be a daunting prospect. How do teachers teach English language learners (ELLs) to read in a new language?
learn more >>
Please visit our English language learners/Bilingual section of LearningStore to discover the best research-based practices for teaching ELLs.
Discussion questions
- How does your school district assess language proficiency of incoming ELL students? Is social proficiency assessed differently from academic proficiency?
- In your own words, describe the difference between word-level skill and text-level skill attainment for ELL students. Then, describe specific things teachers can do to increase ELL students' text-level skills.
- Consider a read aloud you recently used. What vocabulary or concepts were presented in the book that could cause confusion for ELL learners? What could you do to scaffold the read aloud experience that would benefit ELL learners?
- Compare and contrast the teaching of comprehension strategies to ELL students and to native English speakers.
- Create a list of teaching behaviors that could promote comprehension skill development for ELL students.
Thanks for all you do. This should be an obligatory web site for teachers. Keep up the great
work.
~ Robert M.
