During the summer, I am sharing thematic posts bringing together responses on similar topics from the past 10 years. You can see all those collections from the first nine years here.
Here are the ones I鈥檝e published so far:
The 11 Most Popular Classroom Q&A Posts of the Year
School Closures & the Coronavirus Crisis
Best Ways to Begin the School Year
Best Ways to End the School Year
Student Motivation & Social-Emotional Learning
Challenging Normative Gender Culture in Education
Cooperative & Collaborative Learning
Today鈥檚 theme is on teaching English-Language Learners. You can see the list of posts following this excerpt from one of them:
*Four Educator-Recommended Approaches for Teaching English-Language Learners
Five educators recommend classroom strategies for teaching ELLs, including translanguaging & consistency.
* The Six Most Effective Instructional Strategies for ELLs鈥擜ccording to Teachers
Teachers share their 鈥済o-to鈥� strategies for teaching English-language learners, including sentence starters and Total Physical Response.
* Assessment Strategies for English-Language Learners
Four educators share practical assessment strategies to support English-language learners.
* Thirteen Instructional Strategies for Supporting ELL Newcomers
Five educators share effective instructional strategies to use with English-language-learner newcomers, including using images and games.
* Author Interview: 鈥楻eading & Writing With English Learners鈥�
Authors Valentina Gonzalez & Melinda Miller answer questions about their book Reading & Writing with English Learners: A Framework for K-5.
* 12 Common Mistakes Made by Teachers of English-Language Learners
Don鈥檛 assume students who are paying attention understand what鈥檚 being taught and, especially for young children, support learning in their home language. Those are among the ideas six educators share for helping ELLs.
* Don鈥檛 Make Assumptions About Your ELL Students
Seven educators offer their nominations for the most common mistakes made by teachers of ELLs, including making background-knowledge assumptions and not providing enough scaffolding.
* Teachers Must Create Ways ELL 鈥楽tudents Can Show Us What They Know鈥�
Four educators share common mistakes made by teachers of English-language learners, including not being creative in how ELLs can show us what they know and by translating 鈥渆verything.鈥�
* Raising 鈥榯he Bar鈥� for ELL Instruction
Seven educators share what works and doesn鈥檛 work when teaching English-language learners, including the value of 鈥淟anguage Dives鈥� and having high expectations.
* Teachers With 鈥楧eficit Perspectives鈥� Do Not Help English-Language Learners
Four educators share what they think are mistakes often made by teachers of ELLs, including overusing technology and operating out of a deficit perspective.
* Nine Mistakes Educators Make When Teaching English-Language Learners
Confusing lack of English proficiency with lack of intelligence is among those mistakes five educators cite.
Five educators share suggestions for grading English-language learners in 鈥渕ainstream鈥� content classes, including emphasizing formative assessments and separating language proficiency from content knowledge.
I offer seven suggestions on how to help English-learners when doing remote teaching, including by providing graphic organizers and models.
Teacher Wendi Pillars shares a visual illustration of the points made in Larry Ferlazzo鈥檚 video 鈥淭ips for Remote Teaching With ELL Students.鈥�
Larry Ferlazzo continues with his video series offering advice on dealing with the school closure crisis. In this one, he provides suggestions to teachers of English-language learners, including developing a student-driven curriculum and creating opportunities for one-to-one conversations.
Teacher Sarah Said offers suggestions about how teachers can better communicate with English-language learners when teaching online, including by modeling and offering empathy.
Three educators of multilingual students share their strategies to manage the transition to online learning, including using translation apps to communicate with parents and maintaining a sense of community with their classes.
Four teachers offer specific suggestions for teaching English-language learners online, including by maintaining consistency and not overdoing it.
Four educators provide recommendations on how to support long-term English-learners, including providing more support to them earlier and identifying whether they have other special needs earlier, too!
Six educators share advice on how to support long-term English-language learners, including emphasizing vocabulary development and academic language.
Eight educators offer their recommendations about how schools and their teachers can best support long-term English-language learners, such as keeping expectations high for students.
Elizabeth Stein, Jenny Vo, Becky Corr, Andrea Honigsfeld, and Maria Dove share their commentaries on effective co-teaching arrangements.
Tan Huynh, Abby Shink, Gloria Lodato Wilson, Joan Blednick, Heather Stinson, Catherine Beck, and Heidi Pace talk about the 鈥渄o鈥檚 and don鈥檛s鈥� of co-teaching.
Amber Chandler, Margaret Searle, Bradley Witzel, and Wendy W. Murawski wrap up a three-part series on how to be successful co-teachers.
Valentina Gonzalez, Sarah Said, Mary Ann Zehr, Jeff Zwiers, and Maneka Deanna Brooks share strategies for encouraging English-language learners to practice speaking their new language.
Joyce Nutta, Carine Strebel, Jenny Vo, Catherine Beck, Heidi Pace, and Pamela Broussard share their ideas for teaching speaking to ELLs.
Sandra C. Figueroa, Cecilia Pattee, Barbara Gottschalk, Michael D. Toth, Becky Corr, and Susan Michalski suggest ways teachers can help ELLs develop their English-speaking abilities.
In Part Four of this series, Luis Javier Pent贸n Herrera, Jennifer Orr, Lindsey Moses, Nancy Callan, Kelly Wickham Hurst, Areli Schermerhorn, and Mary Amanda (Mandy) Stewart share instructional strategies to support ELLs speaking in class.
Sonia Soltero, Kevin Jepson, Susan Gaer, Michele L. Haiken, Sarah Thomas, and Gloria Pereyra-Robertson offer suggestions for teaching ELLs in this series鈥� final post.
Valentina Gonzalez, Jenny Vo, Tonya Ward Singer, Carol Ann Tomlinson, and N茅lida Rubio discuss ways to differentiate instruction for English-language learners.
Sandra C. Figueroa, Becky Corr, Sydney Snyder, Adria Klein, Michael D. Toth, and Barbara Gottschalk share their suggestions on differentiating instruction for ELLs.
Judie Haynes, Debbie Zacarian, Eugenia Mora-Flores, Melissa Jackson, Joyce Nutta, and Carine Strebel contribute their ideas on differentiated instruction for English-language learners.
Tan Huynh, Stephaney Jones-Vo, Shelley Fairbairn, Bret Gosselin, Mary Amanda (Mandy) Stewart, Emily Phillips Galloway, Nonie Lesaux, Stela Radovanovi膰, Pete Lawrence, and Betsy J. Tregar offer their responses to a question about ELLs and the Common Core State Standards.
Kevin Jepson, Elizabeth Iwaszewicz, Heidi Pace, Cathy Beck, Gayle Westerberg, and Julie Goldman contribute their thoughts on how English-language learners can meet the Common Core State Standards.
Elizabeth B. Beltran, Barbara Gottschalk, Conor P. Williams, Carol Salva, Margarita Calder贸n, Ph.D., Shawn Slakk, and Leslie Davison explain what 鈥渄ual immersion鈥� is in concept and in practice.
Margo Gottlieb, Sarah Said, Catherine Beck, Heidi Pace, Heather Wolpert-Gawron, Tabitha Dell鈥橝ngelo, and Lindsey Moses share their thoughts about how the Every Student Succeeds Act will affect English-language learners.
Tan Huynh, Vicky Giouroukakis, Maureen Connolly, Margo Gottlieb, and Ivannia Soto share suggestions on assisting English-language learners with academic writing skills.
Anna Bartosik, Nathan Hall, Chloe Smith, and Beth Konomoto wrap up this three-part series with their suggestions about the role of an ELL students鈥� home language in the classroom.
Rosa Isiah, Tan Huynh, Karen Nemeth, and Sarah Thomas contribute their ideas on the role of English-language learners鈥� home language in school.
Melissa Eddington, Wendi Pillars, Tracey Flores, Sandy Ruvalcaba Carrillo, and Mary Ann Zehr offer their thoughts on the role of an ELL student鈥檚 home language in the classroom.
Wendi Pillars, Paul Boyd-Batstone, Ivannia Soto, Judie Haynes, Diane Mora, Eugenia Mora-Flores, and many readers offer suggestions on how to help English-language learners develop good pronunciation skills.
Anabel Gonzalez, Katie Brown, Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, David Freeman, and Yvonne Freeman, and readers, offer suggestions on how to handle error correction with English-language learners.
Frank E. Vargo, Cindy Pirro Vargo, Donna DeTommaso-Kleinert, Susan Hillyard, and a reader contribute their thoughts on how to support ELLs with special needs.
Maria Montalvo, Beverly Maxwell, Ann Wilson, and Jennie Farnell share their suggestions on how to support English-language learners with special needs.
Rusul Alrubail, Anna Bartosik, Jordan Lanfair, Anabel Gonzalez, Karen Nemeth, and Judie Haynes offer suggestions on how to engage with parents of English-language learners.
Maria Grant, Diana Lapp, Judy Reinhartz, Lori Fulton, Brian Campbell, and Laura Cabrera contribute their ideas on using the Next Generation of Science Standards with English-language learners.
Alicia Johal, Maria Montalvo-Balbed, Donna Barrett-Williams, Caleb Cheung, Laura Prival, Claudio Vargas, and Ariane Huddleston share their suggestions on using the NGSS with English-language learners.
Mary Cappellini, Ekuwah Moses, Giselle Lundy-Ponce, Pamela Mesta, Olga Reber, and Heather Wolpert-Gawron contribute their suggestions about teaching ELLs.
Wendi Pillars, Annie Huynh, Regie Routman, William Himmele, and P茅rsida Himmele share their advice on teaching English-language learners.
Educators Sonia Nieto, Alicia L贸pez, Diane Staehr Fenner, Sydney Snyder, Katie Brown, Judie Haynes, and Virginia Rojas share their suggestions on how we can encourage our colleagues to face the challenge of teaching ELLs 鈥渇ace-on.鈥�
Diane Mora, John Wolfe, Toby Karten, Armine Spoelstra, Kirke H. Olson, and Rick Murry share their thoughts.
Educators Wendi Pillars, Virginia Rojas, Debbie Zacarian, and Maria Montalvo-Balbed contribute their responses.
Kathryn Haydon, Lindsey Moses, and Lori DiGisi contribute their thoughts. I鈥檝e also included comments from readers.
This post includes suggestions from Katie Brown, Jane Fung, Marilee Sprenger, and Karen Bromley.
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This column highlights commentaries from Camille Blachowicz, Charlene Cobb, Katherine S. McKnight, Nicole Zuerblis, and Susan Chenelle.
Laura Robb and Amy Benjamin share their thoughts, and I also include readers鈥� comments.
This post shares responses from four experienced educators: Judie Haynes, Mary Ann Zehr, B谩rbara C. Cruz, and Stephen J. Thornton.
Margo Gottlieb, Maria Montalvo-Balbed, and Tracey Takuhama-Espinosa contribute their ideas. In addition, I鈥檝e shared responses from readers.
Educators Bill Zahner, Ben Spielberg, Gladis Kersaint, Denisse R. Thompson, Maria Montalvo-Balbed, and Denise Huddlestun share their suggestions for how teachers can best handle this challenge.
Staff from Stanford鈥檚 鈥淯nderstanding Language,鈥� Mary Cappellini and Paul Boyd-Batstone, share their thoughts in this post. I also include comments from readers.
Four educators鈥擪aren Nemeth, Judie Haynes, David Deubelbeiss, and Julie Goldman鈥攑rovide guest responses here.
Several educator/authors鈥擬arilee Sprenger, Jane Hill, Kirsten Miller, and Maria Gonzalez鈥攑rovide guest responses.
Katie Hull Sypnieski, the best teacher I鈥檝e ever seen in the classroom, and staff from the American Federation of Teachers researching teacher evaluation contribute their responses.
Representatives from the two groups of states preparing the new assessments, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, or SBAC, and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers consortium, or PARCC, contribute responses.
