Posts by Mary Purcell

Estimated Reading Time: 5 mins, 40 seconds In an ideal world, English learners would receive hours of focused language instruction daily. The reality is starkly different. In fact, these students in the secondary grades often receive less than 90 minutes weekly for language development. EL teachers and specialists might see them for just one period…

Estimated Reading Time: 6 mins, 50 seconds Welcoming newcomer English learners into a middle or high school setting is about more than just teaching language—it’s about helping them navigate a new cultural landscape while ensuring they feel valued for who they are. Acculturation doesn’t mean abandoning one’s home culture but rather learning to balance and…

Estimated Reading Time: 7 mins, 53 seconds In today’s climate of uncertainty and heightened fear around immigration enforcement, many English learners carry the weight of anxiety that reaches far beyond academic challenges. For students whose families may be at risk due to new strict immigration policies, the classroom can become one of the few places…

Estimated Reading Time: 4 mins, 50 seconds One can argue that enabling English learners to unpack academic content and apply academic language are critical objectives for ELD educators. That’s because a student’s continued academic progress and ultimately, his or her ability to graduate, hinges on having these skills. However, as a former secondary-level educator of…

Estimated Reading Time: 4 mins, 46 seconds When I first entered the classroom almost 20 years ago, I taught English Language Arts (ELA) to a group of middle school students who, by today’s standards, would have been formally classified as Long-Term English Learners (LTELs). This was during the height of the No Child Left Behind…