strategies for success – Together4ELs

Using 7 Steps to a Language-Rich Interactive Classroom with ELs

Over the past few years, many ESL teachers have seen ACCESS speaking scores plummet, and we are looking for ways to increase confidence and proficiency with oral discourse. The book, 7 steps to a Language-Rich Interactive Classroom, by John Seidlitz and Bill Perryman, has classroom activities that promote productive academic language. The first part ofContinue reading “Using 7 Steps to a Language-Rich Interactive Classroom with ELs”

Helping EL Students Remember Vocab

Contributed by Vivian Simmons Enhancing vocabulary lessons by building all 4 language skills is indeed an essential part of students’ ESL growth. Yet, this should not be an overwhelming task for teachers to tackle. Margarita Calderon is the author of Teaching Reading and Comprehension to English Learners K-5. In this book, she introduces ExC-ELL: ExpeditingContinue reading “Helping EL Students Remember Vocab”

Organizational/Family Literacy Tool

Contributed by Joy Hamm Symbaloo-a free online resource that will take your list of websites and organize them into one space making your links easily accessible for you, your students, other teachers, and EL families. You can also link your symbaloo account to your Google classroom or teacher website for students to access helpful onlineContinue reading “Organizational/Family Literacy Tool”

Using Interactive Technologies for Equitable Access

Contributed by Tori Mazur For about a decade, SMART boards have been installed in classrooms and initially a burst of excitement about interacting with that large screen in front of the room. The promise has fallen short, however, as most never purchased anything beyond the 1 person touch board, thereby creating a stand-and-deliver model thatContinue reading “Using Interactive Technologies for Equitable Access”

How To Use Sentence Frames in ESL and Content Classrooms

Contributed by Lisa Sibaja When I first started teaching ESL in 2011, I knew giving sentence frames to students was important for the following reasons. Sentence frames help: build productive language skills in the domains of speaking and writing scaffold information in all content areas develop academic vocabulary support all students, especially struggling learners EvenContinue reading “How To Use Sentence Frames in ESL and Content Classrooms”