By Jennifer Healey Portland, OR The notion that ALL students can be lifted up and freed from their circumstances, past language barriers, out of poverty and away from war and crime and drugs, upward and onward toward a glorious middle-class future, is absurd. If we insist on being a country with an elite high school […]
English Language Learners
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Interdisciplinary Approach for ELLs
The Common Core State Standards have demanded that we change the way we teach. With new standards and a new emphasis on college and career readiness that must be able to reach all students, as teachers we need to adapt. With so much to cover in one short (though it may not always feel like […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Opinion
Testing and Thinking
Now that testing mode is in full throttle, the stress levels around schools can be cut with a knife. Along with testing mode comes multiple meetings on administering, grading and packing the tests. During my latest meeting on grading the NYSESLAT (New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test), the moderator made an […]
Posted inElementary School, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Kindergarten, Literacy, Uncategorized
ESL Students in the General Education Classroom
Help! I have a new student in the middle of February who doesn’t speak any English! What should I do? Sound familiar? This often happens at my school. English Language Learners (ELL), or English as a Second Language (ESL) students, are part of a very transient population. Sometimes students will even leave mid-year for a month […]