teachingenglishlearners

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UPDATE: EL/EB/MLL Collegial Community Monthly Meeting

English Learner/Emergent Bilingual/Multilingual Learner Collegial Community meeting. Our monthly come-as-you-can meetings welcome all participants who are interested in discussing multilingual literacy research and practice. Sponsored by The Reading League and facilitated by Kari Kurto, Claude Goldenberg, and myself (Jana Echevarria), we meet on the first Friday of each month (Please note the…

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10 Back-to-School Tips for Teachers

For many educators, it is the beginning of a new school year – or will be very soon. For both students and teachers, it is an exciting time of preparation, new beginnings, and anticipation. Whether you’re a veteran educator or just starting out, the beginning of the school year can feel both exciting and daunting. For students, especially multilingual learners, there may be a level of anxiety…

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Spanish and English Literacy Resources for Educators and Families

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the plethora of resources available to teachers of multilingual learners, administrators, policy makers, and multilingual families. However, there is often a gap between the resources themselves and their dissemination. In this post I will share some valuable sources that offer information, materials, webinars, and the like. As you can see, several are available…

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Evidence-based Instruction for Multilingual Learners

We have ar monthly come-as-you-can collegial community meeting hosted by Kari Kurto from The Reading League, Claude Goldenberg and Jana Echevarria facilitate discussions. Last month, the group engaged in a lively discussion of research shared by Elsa Carenas-Hagan and Sylvia Linan Thompson. There was so much to discuss that we are thrilled to say that we will be welcoming them back March 29th at…

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Helping Multilingual Learners Access Grade-level Content

 With more than 5 million multilingual learners in our schools, many teachers wonder how these students can be taught grade-level content in a way that makes the content understandable for them. Yes, teachers want to provide effective instruction for multilingual learners, but some teachers may not be aware that multilingual learners are legally entitled to the same educational opportunities as…

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Are You Interested in Literacy and Multilingual Learners?

The debate about how to best teach reading is not new but it has gained steam in recent years when journalists and parents entered the discussion which caught the attention of the public, policy makers, and other interested groups.  Regarding literacy and multilingual students, there are at least two issues that merit attention. One is that these students, although the fastest-growing population…

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How the Reading Wars Affect Teachers

The “Reading Wars” have been around for decades – the debate about how best to teach kids to read. If you’re not quite sure what all the current fuss is about, essentially the two sides are: 1) those who say we should focus on foundational reading skills (we’ll call them the Science of Reading or SOR folks) and 2) those who subscribe to the whole language or balanced literacy approach.…

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The Language Continuum: What Students Need to Know

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Five Ways to Help Multilingual Learners Improve Speaking Skills

Oral language — the processes involved in speaking, listening, and understanding spoken language — serves as the basis for the development of literacy, which in turn paves the way for academic achievement. Teachers often overlook the need for multilingual learners to practice speaking and to enhance their oral language abilities. Students acquire basic social language skills through classroom…

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Making An Impact On Multilingual Learners' Education

A colleague who is presenting a session at our upcoming SIOP Virtual Conference requested that I take an opportunity on this blog to publicize the conference and the other resources available to educators of multilingual learners. Great idea! “Teachers of multilingual learners” means essentially every educator in America since multilingual learners are the fastest growing student population…

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Supporting Long-Term English Learners

Multilingual students who have been in U.S. schools for 6 or more years and have not yet been reclassified as fluent English proficient are referred to as long-term English learners, or LTELs. There are significant numbers of these students in American schools, and we need to take a serious look at how to best support their academic and linguistic growth.    Too often multilingual learners are…

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4 Ways to Integrate Language and Content

It has become popular – and accurate – to say that every teacher is a language teacher. Each content area has its own topic-specific terminology such as parameter in math, photosynthesis in science, coup in social studies and character traits in English language arts. In addition, language is used in ways that may be unfamiliar to multilingual learners. The use of various English sentence…

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10 Evidence-Based Practices for Teaching Multilingual Learners

Using evidence-based teaching practices is important for all learners, including multilingual learners, because it ensures that the instructional strategies and techniques used in the classroom are effective. We use the term evidence-based because these teaching practices are supported by empirical evidence and have been shown to improve learning outcomes for students. Some strategies and…

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New Trends in Teaching Multilingual Learners

New Trends in Teaching Multilingual Learners

We’re delighted to announce that a new edition of Making Content Comprehensible for Multilingual Learners: The SIOP Model is hot off the presses. Why a new edition? What educators know about effective instruction continues to evolve as we learn more from research and practice. Over the past decade, understanding of effective sheltered instruction and the needs of multilingual learners has grown…

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Translanguaging Is More Than A Good Idea

Translanguaging Is More Than A Good Idea

If you haven’t yet heard educators use the term, translanguaging, you will soon. Although the term is not new in linguistics, there is growing awareness about what it is and its relevance to education and practices in the classroom. Translanguaging, put simply, is when bilingual or multilingual individuals use a combination of two languages to communicate. We sometimes think of the brain as…

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Advancing Academic Language Through Language Objectives

Advancing Academic Language Through Language Objectives

With rigorous state standards, there has been greater attention to teaching academic language to multilingual learners. However, the reality is that academic language is a new language for all learners. It differs from the type of language used in everyday settings and most students have had little exposure to the type of language used in school. For example, all students need to learn…

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Five Steps to Family Literacy for Multilingual Learner Families

Five Steps to Family Literacy for Multilingual Learner Families

Now that a new school year is upon us and we are generally able to gather together again safely, it seems timely to repost about family-school partnerships. First posted in August 2020, the pandemic delayed in-person meetings which meant that readers couldn’t begin taking steps to start a similar literacy program. The program featured here has benefits for students, families, and schools. I hope…