There seems to be a great lack of training for content teachers in regards to CLD students and their needs. One of the first challenges that these teachers face is how to welcome them into their classrooms by creating a welcoming environment for all students. Continue reading
A great video on how to handle racist jokes.
Being a US-born citizen who was raised in one school district without ever moving as a child, few things within the school system were a shock to me. Immigrant students and their families do not always have this luxury. These families face many changes when they arrive in the US, not the least of which is the American school system. Continue reading
A question was posed to my class this week: in what ways can ESL specialists collaborate with administration and how can they be beneficial to ELLs?
In searching for resources to help me answer this question I came across the article linked below. The role of administration in supporting the ESL specialist, and all teachers for that matter, cannot be underestimated—without it the job becomes more difficult, the resources more scarce, and the help needed less obtainable.
Six Things Principals Can Do To Support Their English Language Learners
What does a culturally responsive school look like? What changes can we implement to ensure we are a welcoming community? Check out the resource shared here for some practical ways to improve your school’s inclusiveness.
How could we achieve a more culturally responsive approach in K-12 education? Find some thoughts at https://www.participate.com/blog/advocating-for-english-language-learners-through-culturally-responsive-approaches
One challenge teachers of ELLs face is that of learning about their students’ cultures and backgrounds. The article linked below from Colorín Colorado describes ways in which teachers can become educated. While it focuses solely on hispanic or latino students, it can be applied to students of any cultural background. Continue reading
The link below will take you to an article by Matthew Lynch, Ed.D written for the Huffington Post. In the article he describes ways in which teachers can make their classrooms more culturally responsive and welcoming. He has wonderful ideas and shares some great points about how and why this should be a goal for all educators.
As part of a recent activity for a course I am taking we were given the prompt to “discuss why collaboration between the ESL teacher and ALL members of the school community is important.” Continue reading
Morphology, the study of words, is a complicated topic that can cause confusion, especially for emergent bilinguals. The following article gives a brief overview of English morphology and word structure and then offers some great advice for teaching morphology to emergent bilinguals.
Check it out here.
Ms. Mann's ESL Classroom 