AFT & Colorín Colorado: Working Together To Help ELLs Succeed
Colorín Colorado is proud to collaborate with our founding partner, the American Federation of Teachers, in support of English language learners around the country. For more than a decade, AFT's support and guidance have been indispensable in enabling us to develop and grow this website.
In addition to its ongoing partnership with the AFT, Colorín Colorado regularly receives input from AFT educators around the country regarding content, best practices, and updates from the ELL field.
Keep in touch with the AFT!
Find out what’s happening at the AFT, including in their ELL outreach and professional development programs.
ELL Resources from the AFT
Some of the highlights of our partnership with the AFT include the following:
Keeping periodic track of the progress English language learners are making in their second language acquisition skills is essential. This starter kit provides helpful forms for PK-12 educators who work with ELLs to find out if they’re on track learning the important academic English skills they need to be successful.
Toolkit for Teachers: Reaching Out to Hispanic Parents of ELLs
TheToolkit for Teachers: Reaching Out to Hispanic Parents of English Language Learners includes background information on reaching out to Hispanic parents, four sample workshops, videos in Spanish and English, booklists, and bilingual handouts. Recent additions to the toolkit include a new parent workshop on helping children become successful readers and 200 children's book titles geared towards Latino families.
Reading Tip Sheets for Parents (in 11 languages!)
Our one-page Reading Tip Sheets are available in thirteen languages and offer easy ways for parents to help kids at different ages become successful readers.
Reading Tip Sheets for ELL Educators in Grades 4-12
These tip sheets focused on reading instruction for educators of English language learners in grades 4-12 include information on what to do first, vocabulary instruction, and age-appropriate reading strategies. They are available in English and Spanish.
This online professional development video series for educators of ELLs presents four video modules featuring strategies from secondary ELL classrooms and interviews with experts on ELL best practices. Additional classroom videos featuring this educators are also available in our classroom video library. Watch & Learn is a winner of the Telly Award for Online Educational Video.
Common Core and ELLs Series
These classroom video modules and lesson plan offer a model of Common Core-aligned instruction with English language learners in elementary, middle, and high school. Additional lesson plans and curriculum guidelines are included.
Our blog is focused on helping English language learners (ELLs) succeed in the classroom, with a special focus on strategies and tools that that support the use of college- and career-ready standards (such as the Common Core) with ELLs.
About the AFT
The American Federation of Teachers is a union of professionals that champions fairness; democracy; economic opportunity; and high-quality public education, healthcare and public services for our students, their families and our communities. The AFT is committed to advancing these principles through community engagement, organizing, collective bargaining and political activism, and especially through the work members do.